Fate/Extra is an RPG much in the vein of the later entries in the Persona series. You assume control of a blank-slate protagonist who finds himself involved in a single-elimination tournament for the Holy Grail for reasons he cannot remember. Gameplay breaks down between information-gathering in the school-themed central hub and commanding a Servant, a supernatural being, to fight for you in the tournament. F/E follows passage of time mechanics similar to Persona, assigning you time-sensitive tasks to do before progressing to the next elimination round. Now, I happen to love the Persona games, so I’m painfully aware of every moment F/E doesn’t meet the standards set by the game it emulates.

To start with, the environments (the school and the arena) aren’t all that interesting, and you’ll stare at them for hours as you run through the game. The arena is simply a collection of sparse corridors that don’t serve much purpose other than to hold an enemy encounter, treasure, or scripted event. The school is equally lifeless, especially once the number of NPC combatants is reduced by the end of the tournament. While the level design is lazy, it has nothing on the Extreme Rock-Paper-Scissors battle system. It’s a major letdown to learn that the Servant fights that awed me in the original visual novel have been reduced to a guessing game wherein you input six commands each turn (attack, break, guard, or a selection from a list of skills) and hope for the best. You can easily throw away an hours worth of playtime by not playing like a coward. After a while, Servants will familiarize themselves with enemies and telepathically figure out the enemy’s command order, at which point you can turn off all thinking processes and grind until the enemies stop dropping worthwhile XP.

So the gameplay isn’t all that great, but at least the story and writing should be good, right? Nasu’s name is prominently featured on the back of the box underneath a screen shot, which is more credit than what most writers involved in games can hope for. Unfortunately, Nasu takes it easy with this one. The only characters that are remotely interesting are the three playable Servants and characters with existing ties to the Nasuverse. The F/E originals are surprisingly clichéd and difficult to sympathize with in their dying moments after having remorselessly delivered a beating on them.The principle antagonist for most of the game is a snotty kid who happens to be the king of the world and spends most of his appearances giving condescending advice to your character, who takes it like a punk. Really, that’s the extent of the relationship with what you’re led to believe is your greatest foe for over 25 hours of gameplay. Everything is scripted so that you’re never at a loss of where to go, who to talk to, or what item you need to overcome any obstacle that comes up, and everyone is more than glad to help your amnesiac protagonist against his incompetent and stagey opponents. It’s so straightforward that it prevents interesting developments in the story. I never really felt like my choices had any impact on my character’s development, and forging a bond with your Servant essentially comes down to “Did you talk to your Servant today?” This is essentially the opposite of my experiences with the visual novel, so I wonder how much involvement Nasu actually had in writing the scenario for the game.

There are choice moments where the Fate spirit shines in the game, though. Saber Extra’s dialogue and vocal performance is excellent throughout, pretty much single-handedly justifying F/E’s inclusion in the Fate canon. Caster is worth a playthrough for seiyuu fanatics interested in having voice actress Chiwa Saito refer to them as “master,” even if she’s the weakest servant and requires hours of tender, loving grinding to compete in boss fights. I haven’t yet steeled myself for a third run of F/E, but I imagine Archer is just as wonderfully a jerk as he was in F/SN. Though I wish the game would make a proper name for itself, all of the call-backs to other Type-Moon properties are amusing. The Noble Phantasms are as flashy as the PSP can hope to muster, and the remixed F/SN music tracks let you know that its about to go down right now.

Aksys Games did see fit to give this game a proper showing here in America with its own limited edition release in a big cardboard box that seems to be the fashion with PSP RPGs lately. The extras are typical fare for a release like this: a small art book and an incomplete soundtrack CD. It’s a really nice art book, though; the hardcover binding and paper stock are above what’s usually done for bonuses like this. I’m only a little (very) upset that the Saber Extra figma from the Japanese release isn’t included, but I suppose licensing deals and price and all those other bothersome factors came up.

I’ll keep my berating of Aksys Games' F/E localization to a minimum if I ever hope to see them publish the sequel, which sounds infinitely more interesting. I’ll just say that the localization is kind of weird from time to time. There are a few embarrassing typos in the script, and even more embarrassing are the occasional fansub-isms that pop up in dialogue, a thing people complain about in, you know, actual fansubs and not a product released by professionals. I’m sure no one at mirror moon got paid to translate the F/SN visual novel, but I’m also sure they would have had the integrity to never have Caster say “OMG.”

So Fate/Extra didn’t manage to become my favorite game despite being a Persona clone with Servants in it. The game is a "fans only" experience that often feels like a chore. Even so, I will probably buy the sequel from Aksys or whoever publishes it in America, regardless of all the bad things I’ve said about the first game. I feel responsible to let publishers know there is a market for Fate in America, so I am compelled to vote with my dollars (though Aniplex won’t see a dime of that, let alone $700 to own the complete Fate/Zero collection). I optimistically await to have nothing but good things to say about the sequel.

As Nintendo wisely did with their press conference, Sony left one main presenter in charge of the proceedings, which was Jack Tretton, President of Sony Computer Entertainment America, in their case. Early on in the conference, Tretton discussed Sony's dedication to 3-D gaming, showcasing gameplay footage (and a Feburary 2011 release date) from Killzone 3. Most importantly, though, the PlayStation 3's 3-D capabilities will only work if you a) buy a 3-D television and b) buy 3-D glasses. With the unveiling of Nintendo's 3DS less than three hours prior, it was pretty difficult to take any claims of traditional 3-D seriously.

Speaking of major changes to the PS3, Sony simply wouldn't stop talking about PlayStation Move, the new motion control device that uses a glowing ball at the end of what is essentially a Wiimote to track movement in 3-D space. The Move wand itself will hit stores in the fall of this year: September 15 in North America, September 19 in Europe, and October 21 in Japan. In terms of pricing, I was surprised to see fully fleshed-out details from Sony, including prices for the wand ($49.99), the suspiciously-similar-to-the-Wii-Nunchuck "navigation controller" ($29.99), a bundle with the Eye camera, Move controller, and Sports Champions game ($99.99), and finally a bundle containing the contents of that bundle with a PS3 ($499.99).

Yes, that's right, you have to purchase three accessories the wand, navigation controller, and Eye camera to play a first-person shooter like, say, Killzone 3, with the Move. And as luck would have it, Killzone 3, Ruse, NBA 2K11, Time Crisis, and Echochrome will all have Move functionality on launch day, while games like Resident Evil 5 will receive software updates patching in the optional Move controls.

Sony is also now poised to offer a premium subscription service on the PlayStation Network (PSN) called "PlayStation Plus" that will provide "exclusive digital content" such as preferred early demos, discounts on products in the PSN store, early access to betas, and even some free game downloads. The service will cost $49.99 for a year and $17.99 for three months, very much like Microsoft's Xbox Live Gold service, but PSN gamers can still play online without subscribing to PlayStation Plus. PlayStation Plus will be available "later this month."

To promote their slate of third-party titles, Sony brought in EA Chief Operating Officer John Schappert, who announced "unprecedented support" for the PlayStation 3, including, um, "exclusive, limited-edition, PS3-only" versions of Dead Space 2 and the Medal of Honor reboot? That sounds pretty precedented if you ask me. After a few more trailers from EA, we were left with release dates for Dead Space 2 (January 25, 2011) and Medal of Honor (October 12, 2010) as well as confirmation of "unlockable beards" in the latter. Yes, my friends. He said UNLOCKABLE BEARDS.

Finally, the most important announcement of all to many gamers, even those who don't own PS3s: Gabe Newell of Valve stepped onto the stage and put down many of his gripes with the PS3 (while, I can only assume, simultaneously picking up a large bag of money) in order to announce that PC/Mac digital download system Steam will be launching on the PlayStation 3. We don't quite know how it's going to work, or even if your games purchased on PC will carry over to PS3, but we do know that Portal 2 will be coming out on it! The trailer shows some serious promise, but I'm going to need to see more before I'm sure if I'm interested or not.

In the balance of the conference, Sony managed to announce "PS3-exclusive day-one content for Mafia 2," a PS3-exclusive pack of missions and a November 16, 2010 release date for Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, a November 2, 2010 release date for Gran Turismo 5, and finally ... a new game in the Twisted Metal franchise on the PlayStation 3. Phew! Overall, the press conference felt much more disjointed than Nintendo's, since most of the announcements were cut up among multiple speakers and trailers, but it contained enough information to keep hardcore and casual audiences interested (at least until they fell into a coma from sitting way too long at one conference).

For more news and commentary out of E3 2010, check out our E3 2010 label page.

Speaking of usurping key products, Microsoft announced their own motion control technology the day before Sony's conference, meaning that the functionality is now present in two of the three major consoles. Sony's answer? A modified version of the Playstation Eye camera, paired with a "wand" of sorts with a glowing tip that changes colors based on context. The motion detection in the Eye senses the wand's tip, creating one-to-one movement. Even more than Project Natal, this new "wand" seems to be a direct stab at Nintendo. The idea of a "magic wand" is sure to resonate with casual players, but I think that it has neither the originality of the Wii nor the technical evolution of Natal. Still, the technology looks like it works pretty well, if the tech demos are to be believed. And Anton, the rep demoing the wand, voiced one of my concerns with Natal when he took a small stab at Microsoft's product: "There's really no way to do this without a trigger. It just wouldn't feel right." A valid argument for the wand, which seems at first glance might seem like a step back from Natal.

If there are three franchises that can maintain the Playstation 3, they are undoubtedly Final Fantasy, Metal Gear Solid, and ICO. Sony already showed off Final Fantasy XIV, and the Metal Gear news is mentioned below, but they also trotted out some new footage from The Last Guardian, the latest game out of "Team ICO." The in-house studio behind ICO and Shadow of the Colossus unveiled their newest game, which fans called "Trico," a few weeks ago, but Sony didn't hesitate to bring out new footage at E3, and make it clear that the Playstation 3 is the only place to experience the game.

Kaz Hirai called it "the worst-kept secret of E3," which is quite honestly not something to brag about, but that's beside the point. The PSP Go is... well, go! The second redesign of the console will differ from the PSP 3000 just as everybody thought it would – it has no UMD port. The console will run only downloadable games, meaning that Sony is now planning on offering all of its games through digital distribution. (Not exclusively, though. They promise to promote PSP Go and PSP 3000 as equals, just like Nintendo did with the DS and... Gameboy. Oh. Right.) Other major features include 16 gigabytes of memory, slide-out controls, and a price tag of $249.99. The new portable will be out on October 1 in North America, and November 1 in Japan.

Hideo Kojima had another new Metal Gear game to announce, after having teased 360 players with the new Raiden game Metal Gear Solid: Rising just a day before. This time he was announcing a PSP game, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, the account of Big Boss's creation of "Outer Heaven." The somewhat tongue-in-cheek trailer shows four Snakes, leading me to believe that the game might contain four-player co-op (or just a crazy, clone-ridden plotline). And to satisfy Final Fantasy fans on the PSP, Sony finally announced that FFVII would be available for download, starting at the moment of the announcement.

In terms of other games, Sam Houser from Rockstar Games got up on stage during the presentation to announce what he calls "the ultimate action game," an action-adventure set in the 1970's called Agent. The game is exclusive to the PS3, but no other information was given. Sony also announced Gran Turismo Mobile will hit stores on October 1 to tie in with the PSP Go launch, and Gran Turismo 5 was announced but not dated. Finally, Mod Nation Racers, a LittleBigPlanet-esque customizable racing game, was announced alongside its less casual racing brother.

Second is the announcement of the wireless PS3 keypad, which will connect to the top of your SIXAXIS or Dualshock 3 controller. This new device will be Bluetooth compatible and will feature hotkeys which will take you to the XrossMediaBar. Expect to see the keypad hit retail this November along such community focused titles as LittleBigPlanet and Playstation’s Home. A price has not yet been announced.

Last but not least is the announcement of the new 160GB SKU of the Playstation 3. The new console will be available as a limited-edition bundle package with Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, a Duelshock 3 controller, and a voucher for a copy of Pain on PSN. All of this will be made available in North America this November and will retail for $499.99

In Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, we’re plopped into the wide eyed and enthusiastic shoes of Zach Fair, an up-and-coming SOLIDER member with big dreams about the future (and a whole lot of honor). To say any more concerning the plot would be almost speculation on my part since nothing anyone says makes a lick of sense. I don’t know what crack-shot B-team Square Enix farmed the localization work out to, but needless to say, cringe-moments abound.

Outside of hearing people ramble on and on about poetry quotes or what honor means, you’re mostly just hacking and slashing your way through one enemy after another. Playing out in a very Kingdom Hearts fashion, the combat here is simplistic and easy to learn. You can attack, dodge, cast magic - you know the drill. Also at your disposal is the ability to switch up the move set by equipping different "materia" which will level up and get stronger as you play.

The problem here is that, while it all sounds great, after a few brief hours with this system you’re left wanting more – a desire which goes unfulfilled. Crisis Core feels as if it has somehow has gotten lost in the transition from straight RPG to action title. It thereby looses the deep, tactical aspect of the former, while not completely picking up on the complex combat of the latter. Instead, Crisis Core startles a weak middle ground whose feature set runs out of luster far too soon.

I really wanted to like this game. We all heard Jeremy Parish from 1UP talk about how he thought the game was going to be another horrible FFVII flop, and "then it got good!" The problem is, yeah it does get good - and then it just levels off. For example, besides block, dodge, and the almost useless "dash" ability, I never had anything else to do in combat besides click on which materia to use next. Then there’s the materia fusion system – wherein you refine new materia from old ones – which really felt limited in its overall selection.

Outside of the main story line you have the option of tackling some extra missions for the various parties you encounter throughout the game. However, they’re essentially all the same mission – they each just look a little different. Basically, any given mission is a collection of rooms, each with an encounter, leading up to a boss fight. All of them play out this way with one exception: some just have you fight the boss encounter. (Those were my favorites.)

If you’re really looking for some more FFVII action then go ahead and add it to your queue on GameFly, you’ll love it. Otherwise, there are a slew of other RPG or action titles for handhelds that you could check out.

Graphics/Sound:		4.0		Average: (2.7 stars)
Gameplay:		2.5
Design/Story:		2.0
Lasting Appeal:		2.5
Overall:		2.5

God of War III (PS3): a brief trailer was shown, no gameplay footage however. Release date set for sometime next year.

Infamous (PS3): this dark superhero title is set for a Spring 2009 release date.

MAG (Massive Action Game) (PS3): the last game shown at the Sony event, MAG is an online FPS which supports a whopping 256 players divided up into 8 teams. Skill trees for individual characters were mentioned, as well as a progressive campaign mode. Release information was missing.

PS3 Game Montage: Quantum of Solace, MGS4, Socom: Confrontation, Ghostbusters, SCIV, The Agency, Naruto: Storm, Mirror’s Edge, Resident Evil 5, SingStar, Guitar Hero: World Tour, NBA08: The Inside, Killzone 2. These titles are all said to be coming later this year.

Resistance Retribution (PSP): a brief trailer was shown which had you controlling your hero in a third-person perspective. The game was dated for Spring 2009.

PSP Game Montage: Patapon 2, LocoRoco 2, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Madden 09, NBA09: The Inside, Super Stardust Portable, Lego Batman, Buzz: Master Quiz, and Valkaria Chronicles. These titles are coming between this and next year.

Ratchet and Clank Future: Quest for Booty (PSN): this expansion for the original R&C Future will be available for download from the PSN store this summer for $14.99.

PSN Game Montage: Crash Commandos, Fat Princess, Pixeljunk: Eden, Pain: Amusement Park, Flower, Siren: Blood Curse, Ragdoll Kung Fu: Fists of Plastic. No general release information given.

PS2 Game Montage: Madden 09, Tiger Woods 09, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed, Warriors Orochi, SingStar: Pop Star 2, Yakuza 2, Madden XX, Mercenaries 2. These games, Tretton said 130 PS2 games total, will be release in 2008.

Also announced during the conference was the formation of the PS3 Greatest Hits series. Greatest Hits titles will retail for $29.99.

Tretton also spoke at length about the streamlining process Sony has been doing with their PSN network. Now you will have only a single PSN log-in account to take you anywhere in the service whether you’re on your PC, PS3, or PSP.

Also unveiled for the PSN was a new video distribution service. This service will allow PS3 owners to rent or buy movies or TV shows on their PS3 in either HD or stand definition. Content that you’ve purchased can also be viewed on the PSP. (Ed: America's largest anime distributor, FUNimation, is listed as one of the partners bringing videos to the service)

A new pay-per-view automotive enthusiast channel was also announced as part of Gran Turismo V: Prologue. The service starts August 1st and will available within PSN, presumably, for the owners of GTV: Prologue.

The $399.99 80GB PS3 was also officially announced and is coming later this year.

Phew, that was a lot to cover, but now the big three are finished. It’s been an interesting E3 to follow thus far, with more to come both today and tomorrow. Personally, I’m going to go enjoy a little break from all the news and go play some games!