No, Sony only dropped the price because retailers demanded them to do so. Sony had set an open price and that made it ridiculously expensive in Japan compared to other regions. So they got a ~$90 price drop on both models and HDMI is present on both the core and premium.

Unfortunately, this not only looks extremely desperate for Sony it also doesn't look like it'll happen in NA or Europe.

Extremely hi-res videos found in, of all places, an X-Box forum.

http://forum.teamxbox.com/showthread.php?t=471563

White Knight Story

http://www.level5.co.jp/products/shi...mage/ph001.jpg

http://www.level5.co.jp/products/shi...mage/ph002.jpg

http://www.level5.co.jp/products/shi...mage/ph003.jpg

http://www.level5.co.jp/products/shi...mage/ph004.jpg

http://www.level5.co.jp/products/shi...mage/ph005.jpg

http://www.level5.co.jp/products/shi...mage/ph006.jpg

Wow.

The Motorstorm pic with the water under the bridge....I didn't know that was in-game. Holy fuck. Glad to see Ninja Gaiden coming over to the PS3 and more importantly, it's nice to know that Team Ninja and Tecmo still have love left for Sony.

So then, the once $500 20GB PS3 will now be lowered to approximately $410 and include HDMI ports. Of course, this is only confirmed in Japan for the moment. That cover the jist of the PS3 keynote?

The keynote was the worst conference yet this year. Basically GAF summed it best as KK "daydreaming." Sure, it all sounds neat, but until any of it gets implemented into actual games, it's just daydreaming, as mentioned before.

However, as if in retaliation to Sprout's impending entry on how "Sony is doomed!", all these nifty trailers and hi res pics started emerging. AND, it sounds like Sony is having another conference in less than an hour.

Shane and Che of EGM/1up told GAF that there were some megaton announcements coming. Let's see if their claims prove true after all.

Things must be looking up. For one thing, the newest Sonic game actually looks GOOD.

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?...31403669774265

EDIT: Actually, it seems what played earlier wasn't even the conference, but a simple keynote. The conference, in which more than a couple of insiders promise "surprise announcements" will start in a couple of hours.

I hate how they've dragged the awesome Sonic 2 credits song into the trailer of the new game. That's rape right there! And that bloody BLAZE from Sonic Rush is in there now. WHERE IS TAILS? ;_; They'll probably have him as the final boss, and he'll be a chainsaw or something.

White Knight Story looks simply fantastic, and I have faith in Level 5 to turn out what will be a great experience. They've already shown themselves to have remarkable range in talent, and the improvements between their games are surprising to say the least.

SOLDIER, you have more info on that conference? What news could possibly brighten was one of the worst keynotes around? All the great footage was shown after, he babbled for an entire hour, and many of the games took a nosedive in quality. The ones that got better saw a jaw dropping improvement, however.

A very good piece of news is that the $600 is largely, pointless. The 20GB model has HDMI outputs now, so it's capable of playing HD movies without worrying about ICT issues. That and all the pork (cheesy chrome trim, wi-fi, storage card readers, etc) has been cut, so you're left with the PS3 proper.

Maybe the inclusion of Dreams Come True's ending theme is a sign that Sega is finally returning Sonic to his original form; the non-sucking kind.

Someone make a gif of Sonic breaking the building windows as he runs. That was sweet.

And it's stated but not exactly confirmed that Yoichi Wada of SE will be attending Sony's conference. If this proves true, than there's a 100% chance we'll be getting something good.

Actual news, that's what.

Well, don't get your hopes up. Wada may simply be attending, that all. Now, if we get word that he's announcing something, then it'll get interesting.

But really, what kind of news?

Exclusivity?
Controller details?
Online network?

WHITE KNIGHT STORY TRAILER GAIS

(The screens don't do it justice)Right Click Here

Screenshots (Way to go Level 5):

http://www.jp.playstation.com/scej/t...irokishi03.jpg

http://www.jp.playstation.com/scej/t...irokishi01.jpg

http://www.jp.playstation.com/scej/t...irokishi02.jpg

http://www.jp.playstation.com/scej/t...irokishi04.jpg


I fucking hate Sony. I swear, this lineup stretches well into 2008.

Can someone tell me why the Warhawk trailer is almost selling me on the entire concept of this 600 dollar box all by itself?

And I don't know why anyone is holding their breath for Sonic games in this day and age. Come on boys. You can't STILL think that Sonic Team can pull something good out of their ass these days, can you?

DAMN I just watched that gameplay video of White Knight Story and I was blown away, I don't care how bad Sony's confrence was. DMC4, MGS4, Motorstorm, and White Knight gameplay videos all gave me one big ass smile. This is how E3 should have been.

Same way I feel. This has literally blown all of that out of my mind. Like Skills said, it's genuinely got me considering a PS3.

I agree wholeheartedly with that. If the E3 vids were this interesting, I might have cared enough to put aside some serious scratch for a PS3 at launch too. But now it is too late!. ;____;

White Knight is downloading now with 35 minutes left, but the game looks absolutely astounding based on those screens alone.

I wish I could get the exact time one when the "real" conference is starting. I can stay up an extra hour, but no more.

My hopes were dashed with that keynote, but they're quickly rising up again. If Wada at least delivers during the conference, then there will be no more doubts left in my mind that the PS3 will have a bright future ahead.

Way too late. The PS3's going to be sold out until March, I can feel it in my bones. I'm probably going to go for the $500 model now that it's literally the definitive version (the $600 is now the "tard pack").

BTW, this looked like moving art.

Edit: SOLDIER, take what I put near the trailer to heart. The screens don't do it justice.

Well, up here in Canadaland it's a slightly different story. Many places are not taking preorders at all, so it would become a camping game if I managed to get a bit of scratch saved up. But as far as places that take preorders go, this shit is LONG gone.

Since the $500 dollar model makes sense now that it's not a compeltely crippled unit, I'll agree that it sounds like the model to get. The lack of HDMI was really the only issue that it had anyway, and that's fixed.

Saying that isn't going to make the download run any faster. :(

I'm willing to settle for the $500 model myself, but one question would clinch it for me; will you be able to attach any HD you want? If that was the case, then I could easily wait until Office Max runs one of their usual specials and purchase a 100GB Maxtor for just 20 bucks. And I have an ethernet adaptor for my PS2, so I don't require the built-in wifi either.

Also, I checked with my Gamestop yesterday, and they claim that PS3/Wii preorders should start in early October, as Southjag mentioned before.

If it helps any, I'm going to be posting more screenshots at the tail end of this post.

Yes, both models have HDD bays on the bottom for removable HDDs.

Heh, gonna spring on that real nice... Well, here's the screenshots!


http://studentweb.uwstout.edu/kapszu...45.08%20AM.jpg

http://studentweb.uwstout.edu/kapszu...47.19%20AM.jpg

http://studentweb.uwstout.edu/kapszu...47.35%20AM.jpg

http://studentweb.uwstout.edu/kapszu...48.01%20AM.jpg

Resplendant. $100 saved then, good towards launch games and/or the Wii.

It's very clear at this point that the console war between Nintendo and Sony is going to be one of Form vs Function. Nintendo will delight with quirky games that will make use of the remote, while Sony will astonish with visuals that truly replicate the kind of CG imagery commonplace in movies.

It's a good thing we can enjoy the best of both worlds. It's the dawning of a brave new world.

Well, let's keep on eys on the prize, shall we? I don't this to turn into a PS3 vs Wii brawl when the best solution is to have both.

Anyways, for those of you worrying about an HDMI cable for the $500 model (or $600 model), just go to Monoprice.com and you can get loads of Home Theater stuff there for cheap. They sell in individual pieces (cheap) or in bulk (cheaper) and the quality of their products is top-notch.

Oh and Congratulations PS3 thread for reaching 50 pages.

It's great to see Level-5 moving in a 3D direction, but still I wonder what effects PS3 hardware would have on cel-shading, Level-5's thus far preferred graphical method. Those screens are amazing though -- I can't believe how far they're already gotten.

I'm gonna have to check out the new Warhawk trailer. If it's making Skills consider a PS3, it's gotta be worth seeing. :D

Just finished watching the trailer, and boy did it live up to the hype. I like how it lets you know from the start that everything is in-game footage, without any camera editing or other manipulations (sorry, Kojima). Well, the last scene with the hero transforming was likely manipulated to give the trailer a dramatic ending, but I digress.

The only thing I wish for in the final version is blood and scratch details when characters get hit. Then it will truly be impossible to tell the difference between this and pre-rendered CG.

Square no longer has the best looking RPG for PS3 at the moment. Of course I'll be happy to have them prove me wrong with a new FFXIII trailer.

Sony just sold me a PS3 with White Knight Story. Level 5 has easily become my most watched game developer and they just get better with every game they make.

You bastards are robbing my post ideas. One thing that they may want to fix is the attacks in battle. They looked like they lacked any sort of power or force behind them. TTP nails it with Link's slashes. It's not really a critique, just make the attacks a tad bit more violent. BTW, Lost Odyssey is unbelievably close to being CG, yet it's realtime.

Hopefully this lights a fire under SE's ass to make FFXIII exceptional.

You mean they looked like normal, human battles (minus the airborne special attack and the henshin Knight), which is a good thing. Not every RPG hero can fly a thousand feet in the air while slicing entire buildings in half.

And Lost Odyssey was decent, but didn't carry over the transition from FMV to realtime very well. The worst part was watching the ingame battles, where the main guy slashes at thin air instead of the enemy, followed by numbers indicating damage. Going for that classic RPG feel? Nope, just laziness.

Well I'm out for the night. Keep the thread updated, guys, I hope to wake up to even more good news.

I don't think SE has anything to worry about cause these 2 pics look better then LO and White Knight: http://ps3media.ign.com/ps3/image/ar...2015413287.jpg
http://ps3media.ign.com/ps3/image/ar...1093409583.jpg
and it still has over a year left of development.