Sony E3 conference thread...

[ViRGE]

You played it? Didn't think so.

Er, they're press conference demos. Of course they're scripted. And the guy with the controller: fake. It's a video reel.

These conferences need to go off without a hitch; nothing gets played live if it can be avoided. I'm sure they would have done the Harry Potter thing as a video too if they could have gotten away with it.

 

[purbeast0]

Er, they're press conference demos. Of course they're scripted. And the guy with the controller: fake. It's a video reel.

These conferences need to go off without a hitch; nothing gets played live if it can be avoided. I'm sure they would have done the Harry Potter thing as a video too if they could have gotten away with it.

you must not have watched the conference if you think this.

the wonderbook girl w/the magic wand failed like 3-4 times, and the people playing far cry 3 were obviously actually playing, because they were terrible.

 

[astrosfan315]

I was about to say the same thing...look at the wonderfail demo.

 

[Todd33]

Er, they're press conference demos. Of course they're scripted. And the guy with the controller: fake. It's a video reel.

These conferences need to go off without a hitch; nothing gets played live if it can be avoided. I'm sure they would have done the Harry Potter thing as a video too if they could have gotten away with it.

LOL, he means scripted like the actions of the NPCs and the camera angles. The demos are not faked, very few E3 live demos are faked and they are easy to tell.

 

[ViRGE]

I was about to say the same thing...look at the wonderfail demo.

That's my point though. If they could have faked it they would; that's the one thing they couldn't fake and it turned out to be a near disaster. With the camera aspect there's no way they could have done a convincing fake. Whereas with typical games the dingus on the stage can twiddle with buttons and no one is the wiser.

When half a million people are watching live, you don't leave this stuff to chance if you can avoid it.

 

[purbeast0]

That's my point though. If they could have faked it they would; that's the one thing they couldn't fake and it turned out to be a near disaster. With the camera aspect there's no way they could have done a convincing fake. Whereas with typical games the dingus on the stage can twiddle with buttons and no one is the wiser.

When half a million people are watching live, you don't leave this stuff to chance if you can avoid it.

apparently you have never played uncharted, because many parts of that game are scripted in a very similar fashion as the gameplay was on this, and it's user controlled.

 

[ViRGE]

apparently you have never played uncharted, because many parts of that game are scripted in a very similar fashion as the gameplay was on this, and it's user controlled.

Apparently you've never seen an E3 demo where the actor screws up but somehow the demo magically keeps going.

I get what you're saying, but these guys are the master of deception. Even motion control games are faked. It looks really, really bad for them to have something unscripted (in the "this wasn't in yesterday's practice session" sense) happen.

 

[destrekor]

Apparently you've never seen an E3 demo where the actor screws up but somehow the demo magically keeps going.

I get what you're saying, but these guys are the master of deception. Even motion control games are faked. It looks really, really bad for them to have something unscripted (in the "this wasn't in yesterday's practice session" sense) happen.

But it does happen, and has happened often.

Not everyone will actually attempt to dupe the audience. Rather, they'll actually put time and effort into preparing for the demo - often someone playing is someone who has worked in depth with the title, and likely coached for or practiced enough to know the best "tricks" to showcase things with the right timing to not make any particular "issue" stand out.

It could be faked, but nothing about it screamed "this just isn't right."

It really stands up to the Naughty Dog style thus far too - you walk into "scenes" ... certain things are going to happen, but individual characters may behavior different on each play-through. If you've played enough Uncharted, you can see how that demo very much plays out like a live event.
Just watch the character movement and reactions - the player wasn't even sure where certain enemies would be.

Sony has had enough "oops" moments during conferences that I'm pretty sure they just expect a damned good effort for live presentations, but have accepted the occasional issue.

Again, it could very well be entirely scripted and just well-acted on stage... but imho, if so, they went out of their way, way out, just to make it appear live.
Not that I care because the game will play just like that in reality. ND has shown themselves to be entirely capable of such a product.

 

[destrekor]

Apparently you've never seen an E3 demo where the actor screws up but somehow the demo magically keeps going.

I get what you're saying, but these guys are the master of deception. Even motion control games are faked. It looks really, really bad for them to have something unscripted (in the "this wasn't in yesterday's practice session" sense) happen.

But do you honestly think major conferences with these kinds of titles will gamble on that kind of issue more often than not? Presenting something as a live demo, and having the on-stage actor screw up and make an obvious disconnect [between player and game] appear before everyone, makes for negative press coverage and works against the mission. These demos, well ahead of release, are something we have all come to expect as having an occasional issue. Being lied to, we'll never appreciate.
Do they sometimes falsely present something as live but it's just a video? Sure. I saw a racing game video once where, somehow, they ended up showing everyone the VLC Player's OSD on screen at one point after a false-start of some sort. Comical as hell, but that looked real bad for them.

They either risk the player screwing up and showcasing an error in an obviously early build, or they risk a screw up that demonstrates the supposedly live gameplay is actually pre-recorded or entirely scripted. Neither is great, but one is more acceptable than the other... this is all about press coverage, and they want the attention (likely not the negative kind).

 

[ViRGE]

But do you honestly think major conferences with these kinds of titles will gamble on that kind of issue more often than not? Presenting something as a live demo, and having the on-stage actor screw up and make an obvious disconnect [between player and game] appear before everyone, makes for negative press coverage and works against the mission. These demos, well ahead of release, are something we have all come to expect as having an occasional issue. Being lied to, we'll never appreciate.

The on stage actor is less likely to screw up than the alpha quality software is to crash or exhibit some other kind of buggy behavior. Even MS's Kinect actors manage to do their job well, and they have to move their whole bodies in sync to the video. Whereas on the software side of things a lot of this software is still a year out so it's not in great shape.

Anyhow, I don't mean to drag this out in this thread. I'm just saying that just because it looks like someone is playing a live game doesn't mean that they are. Rather than a live scripted game it's also possible for the whole thing to be a fake.

 

[purbeast0]

Apparently you've never seen an E3 demo where the actor screws up but somehow the demo magically keeps going.

I get what you're saying, but these guys are the master of deception. Even motion control games are faked. It looks really, really bad for them to have something unscripted (in the "this wasn't in yesterday's practice session" sense) happen.

we'll agree to disagree then - absolutely nothing about that demo looked fake.

 

[I4AT]

Am I the only one that's surprised by the lack of a price drop? Pretty much all the retailers were having sales that seemed to indicate the 160GB PS3 was about to get cut to $199. Are there are any other major conferences coming up where one might be announced instead?

 

[ViRGE]

Gamescom is in August. Tokyo Game Show in late September.

 

[zerocool84]

The Verge had another article about The Last of Us and they said that things like what happened in the E3 demo are things that can happen normally while playing the game.

http://www.theverge.com/2012/6/7/3071389/the-last-of-us-isnt-about-monsters-but-humanity

 

[purbeast0]

The Verge had another article about The Last of Us and they said that things like what happened in the E3 demo are things that can happen normally while playing the game.

http://www.theverge.com/2012/6/7/3071389/the-last-of-us-isnt-about-monsters-but-humanity

cool article and read, thanks for it.