Last year, I wrote a series of posts going through the years and looking at the big announcement, and you can check them out again by clicking through the links below.

1995: The inaugural Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) took place a few months before the original PlayStation launched in Europe and America. It gave Western gamers their first glimpse at the console that set us on the road to where we are today.

1996: Two characters that epitomise the original PlayStation were both first seen in ’96. Crash Bandicoot and Lara Croft don’t have a lot in common, but they ushered in a bold new era in gaming.

1997: Not for the last time, Snake was the word hissing around everyone’s lips in 1997. The Metal Gear Solid trailer set a precedent for announcing your game with lavish, cinematic trailers.

1998: The Real Driving Simulator debuted in 1998, redefining how a driving game can look and feel. ’98 was a vintage year that also brought us the brilliant Silent Hill.

1999: Despite appearances from David Bowie and Aerosmith, PlayStation 2 was the star of E3 ’99. At the time, it was a breathtaking display of power from a console demonstrated with a real-time demo of Final Fantasy VIII.

2000: Once again, Solid Snake stole the show with the first reveal of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. Such was the impact of that nine minute trailer, each screening drew huge queues as attendees returned for repeat viewings.

2001: For sheer breadth of quality games, 2001 is hard to top. Any show boasting Final Fantasy X, Devil May Cry, Silent Hill 2, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 and Grand Theft Auto III is bound to be remembered.

2002: The Getaway was debuted at E3 2002 and here’s a little known fact: there’s a pub on the corner of Great Marlborough Street, not far from the SCEE offices, called the Coach & Horses; one of The Getaway’s interiors is based on that very hostelry.

2003: You’d think that the unveiling of Gran Turismo 4 would have been enough to send everyone home excited, when Ken Kutaragi stepped on-stage holding the first PSP, all headlines were rewritten in a flash.

2004-05: E3 2004 was all about pocket-sized fun on PSP and grand brutality as God of War was revealed. In 2005, we were back with new hardware as PlayStation 3 was revealed and footage from Metal Gear Solid IV: Guns of the Patriots and Killzone 2 set mouths to drool mode.

2006-07: Naughty Dog has been creating PlayStation stars since 1996 and in 2007 they revealed their latest: Nathan Drake.

2008-09: A plethora of games announced for PS3, including LittleBigPlanet and God of War III, before PlayStation Move starred in 2010.

Which are your favourite E3 moments and what would you like to see announced a week from now?

There were also on-stage presentations of Resistance 2, Killzone 2, MotorStorm Pacific Rift and inFamous, and teaser trailers for God of War III and MAG. By this stage more and more people were interested in downloading their games from PlayStation Store and titles like Fat Princess and Flower made this even more attractive.

With the PlayStation 3 firmly established more third parties were releasing games, resulting in the strongest line-up to date. Standout examples include Mirror’s Edge, Dead Space, Street Fighter IV and Fallout 3.

And then we get to 2009: the last in this series, my first visit and a return to the old format as Los Angeles Convention Centre welcomed tens of thousands of eager gamers.

The SCEA press conference had a bit of everything including new hardware in the unveiling of PSPgo; epic gameplay demonstrations, featuring God of War III and Uncharted 2: Among Thieves; and the shock revelation that Final Fantasy XIV was coming exclusively to PS3.

We also saw ModNation Racers, The Last Guardian, Assassin’s Creed 2 and Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker for the first time.

And that brings us rather neatly to E3 2010 which is about to unfold before your eyes and ears right here on the PlayStation Blog. Thanks to everyone that has commented on this nostalgic odyssey; keep smashing the refresh button into oblivion over the next few days as we bring you latest news from the City of Angels.

Playable games included Heavenly Sword, MotorStorm and Resistance: Fall of Man and Hideo Kojima provided yet another show-stopping moment by showing a trailer for Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots in which Solid Snake appeared to kill himself.

Another sneaky operative, Altair, impressed at E3 2006 as Ubisoft unveiled Assassin’s Creed and we caught a glimpse of the future as The Casting, a technical demo, showed off the uncanny facial animations that would later be used in Heavy Rain.

Meanwhile, there was an impressive line-up of titles for PSP, which had been out for less than a year. Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, Ratchet & Clank: Size Matters, LocoRoco and more ensured the handheld was a popular attraction on the show floor.

At the time, E3 2006 felt like the end of an era and 2007’s event was dramatically downsized, restricted to 10,000 select games industry professions and moved to Santa Monica’s Barker Hangar.

Still, E3 2007 was a strong event for PlayStation as SCEA presented a stellar range of games and services. PlayStation Home was one of the biggest talking points but the darling of the show was an adorable glimpse at LittleBigPlanet. We also saw Ratchet & Clank Future: Tools of Destruction and Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune from local development teams Insomniac Games and Naughty Dog.

The show closed with a teaser trailer for inFAMOUS.

E3 2010 is only a few days away, can you taste it yet? Tomorrow we conclude the PlayStation at E3 series before writing the future of gaming on 15 June.

 
E3 2005 belonged to PlayStation 3, albeit with a different controller to the one we all hold today. The High Definition graphics of MotorStorm, Warhawk, Heavenly Sword, Metal Gear Solid IV: Guns of the Patriots and Killzone 2 left everyone at the show dribbling and generated the kind of buzz that only an E3 with new hardware can.
 
However, as is the case when a new console is announced, it can be easy to forget that E3 2005 presented some of the best PS2 games to date. These included Killer7, Okami, Black and Shadow of the Colossus.
 
Also, tucked away in a corner of the show floor was a sensation in waiting: Guitar Hero.

PlayStation had never released a portable system and the PSP boasted a standard of visuals on a par with what people were playing at home, a brand new media format in the UMD (Universal Media Disc) and the ability to play movies and music on the move.

That’s not to say that the PlayStation 2 was forgotten: after GT4 there were two more big hitters making waves – Metal Gear Solid 3 and my favourite game of all time, Resident Evil 4.

We were screeching into the present day and within winking distance of a new generation of home consoles. High speed Internet was whipping into more and more homes and the industry was moving towards its networked future.

By this time, E3 was firmly installed as the highlight of the games industry calendar and websites and magazines starting to issue awards for the best titles of the show. Look up the awards for E3 2002 and on most lists you’ll find Ratchet and Clank, Sly Raccoon (or Sly Cooper and the Thievius Raccoonus, as it was known in the US), Kingdom Hearts and The Getaway.

The Getaway TV ad:

Here’s a little known fact: there’s a pub on the corner of Great Marlborough Street, not far from the SCEE offices, called the Coach & Horses; many of The Getaway’s scenes are based on that very hostelry.

EyeToy also made its first appearance introducing people to camera-based gameplay and getting them off their sofas at the same time.

With the PS2 already installed in 30 million homes and yet another strong line-up of games in waiting for it, the crowd would have to wait until 2003 for a truly show-stopping announcement, when Ken Kutaragi took to the stage and had the audience eating out of the palm of his hand.

However, for sheer breadth of PlayStation games, E3 2001 is hard to top; the SCEA stand was burgeoning with titles that would go on to earn classic status.

From first party studios we had Naughty Dog’s latest project, Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy; SOCOM: Navy Seals, which was one of the first online enabled PS2 games; and a stylish little action adventure known as ICO.

Third party publishers brought Final Fantasy X, Devil May Cry, Silent Hill 2, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 and Grand Theft Auto III.

It’s this incredible line-up of exclusives still early in the console’s life and its multimedia functionality that helped take the games system out of the bedroom and put so many PS2 systems in lounges worldwide.

It was the most impressive demo of PS2 graphics to date, especially as it was revealed to have been created in real time using the game’s engine, with the exception of the weather effects at the start.

Metal Gear Solid 2 headed up a visually striking selection of games that also included Tekken Tag Tournament and Onimusha: Warlords. It was already becoming clear that, like its predecessor, PS2 would have no shortage of both first and third party games.

In a trend that has been constant since E3 began in 1995, booths grew in size and budget as game companies fought to attract the eyes of visitors and the Internet opened the show floor to billions of eyes and ears.

However, PlayStation 2 was the real star of the show. To prove its power, the famous ballroom scene from Final Fantasy VIII was presented in real time (originally it had been a cut-scene) and attendees could get their hands on a stunning playable demo of Gran Turismo 2000.

It was a glimpse at the future of gaming.

That’s not to say that the original PlayStation was absent: Ridge Racer games had always pushed the potential of the system and the fourth in the series, Ridge Racer Type 4, had some people mistakenly thinking it was a PS2 game. We also saw Ape Escape, a key title in the history of PlayStation as it was the first to actually require the DUALSHOCK controller that had been released the year before.

Everyone left wondering about the possibilities of the PS2; little did they know that a familiar Snake would be sneaking into E3 2000.

Not only was E3 1998 the last time the event would be held in Atlanta, it was the last time the original PlayStation console would take centre stage. It was supported by a strong cast of highly anticipated sequels like Crash Bandicoot 3, Twisted Metal 3, as well as new titles such as Syphon Filter and Silent Hill.

Squaresoft followed up on the popularity of Final Fantasy VII with Final Fantasy VIII and backed that up with an impressing range of titles including Parasite Eve.

It was a lavish show closed in suitable style when Foo Fighters played at the PlayStation end of show party. However, not even they could upstage the star of E3 1999…

Konami revealed a non-playable version of their tactical espionage classic and left the crowd craving more. The idea of not killing everything in sight and sneaking around in the shadows was a true innovation in those days and Metal Gear Solid’s lavish style offered that cinematic experience that people were by now demanding from their games.

There was also a strong line-up of sequels to popular PlayStation games. There was Crash Bandicoot 2, Tomb Raider 2, Resident Evil 2 and Cool Boarders 2, not to mention an introduction to a new PlayStation hero: PaRappa the Rapper.

E3 1997 had the strongest line-up of PlayStation games to date but it was Solid Snake who stole the show, and not for the last time…

On the game front, we were introduced to Crash Bandicoot, who would go on to become a PlayStation mascot and Lara Croft, whose appearance in Tomb Raider was the first step towards becoming a cultural icon.

Psygnosis announced sequels to WipEout and Destruction Derby, Namco brought the second instalments of Ridge Racer and Tekken, and a company then known as Squaresoft offered a glimpse of Final Fantasy VII.

We were entering the age of the videogame blockbuster, where crowds erupt for a 30 second clip of FMV footage and press conferences are as spectacular as they are informative. E3 1996 was a huge show; so huge, in fact, that the following year the organisers decided to move to a bigger venue in Atlanta.

Previously, games companies had appeared at the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) but, as the medium grew in scale and popularity, the Digital Software Association, which became the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), decided it needed its own flagship event.

As the original PlayStation had launched in Japan the previous year, this was a time for the Western audience to get its hands on such games as Battle Arena Toshinden, Warhawk and Ridge Racer.

One of the enduring memories of 1995’s E3 is the appearance of Michael Jackson at the PlayStation party; one of many celebrities that would attend over the years, either for business or pleasure, as the games industry grew rapidly.

What are your fondest E3 memories?

In this latest interview Jeff speaks to the head of Polyphony, Kazunori Yamauchi, about how he at the team managed to squeeze the full GT experience onto PSP and, amongst other things, the famous Top Gear GT-R vs Bullet Train race.

3-and-a-half Minutes with Polyphony Digital’s Kazunori Yamauchi

Posted by Jeff Rubenstein // Social Media Manager

Towards the end of E3, at the end of the next-to-last day, I got a call from SCEA San Diego colleague Scott Goryl. “Wanna talk to Kazunori?”; he asked. Chris and I ran from the LA Convention Center to the hotel suite, where I was able to jump in at the end of a long day of interviews with the producer of the Gran Turismo series. How much time did I get? Enough to ask 4 questions.

If you have any questions about Gran Turismo PSP, post them into the comments below and we’ll bring you more information in a future post.

Still very early in its development, we only showed one of Hustle Kings’ environments and let people play two of the game modes: US 8 ball and 9 ball. Most people chose to play the classic 8 ball game, and almost everyone commented on how beautiful the game was (particularly the lighting and the detail of the reflections in the balls). The part that impressed people the most, however, was how realistically the game plays. We were showing off some of the more advanced shots and techniques – screwing, bending, spinning and chipping the ball – and people were literally staring in amazement, astounded by the realism and eager to have a go and see if they could pull off those shots themselves!

We were really pleased and excited by how positive people’s reaction to the game was, especially as we only showed a very small portion of the game at E3. Much more content, including more game types (Killer, Cutthroat and 14.1 continuous, to name just 3), game modes (Hustle mode and a rather large career mode), other environments, customisation features, a rewards system and plenty more besides will be included in Hustle Kings when it’s released later in the year. Yet, even without all of this content, many people were really getting into it.

When the doors closed after the first day at E3, I challenged Simon Livesey, producer on Gravity Crash, to a game of US 8 ball. I expected to win easily, so I was going for the difficult shots and showing off. Before I knew it, I was a long way behind and I stepped up my game and began to take it seriously. Immersed in the game, falling further behind and trying to mount a pride-saving comeback, I hadn’t realised that a large group of producers and developers had gathered behind us… watching me get trounced! On the second day, I was shocked to see that an underground movement of after hours Hustling was developing. Everybody wanted to be in on the action, and I was being approached left, right and centre by people asking for hints and tips, and to practise playing, ahead of a ‘big game’ they had planned for that night!

It really kicked off on the last day, when Heavy Rain producer Scott Johnson and Invizimals producer John McLaughlin went head to head in a high-stakes, big-money match… unfortunately I can’t reveal who won – I’ve been sworn to secrecy; “what happens at E3 stays at E3!” – but I will tell you that, after an intense and closely fought match, it rained pretty heavily for one of them, that night. The Hustle Kings offering at E3 was only a taster of what is still to come. There’s plenty more in store for Hustle Kings, and in the next blog post (and the next trailer) you will get to see the Hustle King Credit reward system and the Hustle online mode. Make sure to stay up to date with the PlayStation.Blog so that you don’t miss anything. Until the next time, I’ll be playing Hustle mode with the guys at VooFoo, fluttering away my hard earned credits.

Kazunori Yamauchi the father of Gran Turismo

“I think that GT PSP is an entry point into the series,” he said. “It can introduce people to Gran Turismo 5 where they can learn the skills needed to be a racing driver. It’s a similar flow to what you would see if you played the original Gran Turismo on PSone and worked your way up to GT5.”

Gran Turismo PSP was first announced at E3 in 2005, and Kazunori was happy to explain why there has been so long a wait.

“We’ve talked to lots of journalists on this subject,” he told me, “and the truth is that we announced GT PSP too early. Since then we’ve released Gran Turismo 4,Tourist Trophy, HD Concept and Gran Turismo 5 Prologue. We can only apologise for keeping people waiting.”

Having played GT PSP, I’m impressed by how Polyphony Digital has managed to condense the Gran Turismo experience onto a handheld without compromise; I asked whether any of the game’s modes had been designed with portable play in mind.

“The entire game is designed for a portable device,” he replied. “But to go into more detail, goals will be completed in 15 and 30 minute increments, so you won’t be endurance racing like in previous games.”

I then asked what the name of the song is in the trailer, after Silent_Gig enquired in a previous post; he said he couldn’t remember but emailed me shortly after, telling me that the song in question is Fist of God by MSTRKRFT.

Moving on, I wanted to know how he managed to maintain his enthusiasm for increasing the level of realism of the Gran Turismo series. He told me that the expectations of his fans kept him going, as well as the visions that he wanted to present to them.

Our short interview ended there, and after a gruelling day of interviews, the father of Gran Turismo headed back to his hotel, as I did to mine. I wonder what he was driving…

If there’s anything you’d like to know about the PSPgo, post your questions as Comments below and they’ll answer as many as they can on Friday.

E3 Game Trailers

(To see more video, check out our Viddler page)

EyePet

Fat Princess

Gran Turismo PSP (mmMMMmm… shiny…)

Heavy Rain

MotorStorm Arctic Edge

Ratchet & Clank – A Crack In Time

Uncharted 2: Among Thieves

James’ E3 Pictures

(To see more pictures, check out our Flickr stream)

David Cage, writer of Heavy Rain

“I had quite a classical upbringing,” he said, “and I read Shakespeare, a lot of French writers from the middle ages and the Greek classics, as well as quite a lot of sci-fi. I’m quite eclectic in my tastes. One of the things that makes Heavy Rain’s storytelling unique is that it’s the first thing I’ve written that relates to my personal life; I don’t know any serial killers, of course, but the real topic of the game is how far you’re prepared to go to save someone you love and that’s something I really wanted to talk about.”

“Each time you start a project you want it to be the best thing you’ve done, but as Heavy Rain is the beginning of a new genre – we’re calling it interactive drama – and we’re the only team doing anything like this, there’s a lot of expectation around the story, so we’ve given it more attention than we would have if we were developing a more traditional shooter.”

He then introduces me to the stage he’s allowing people to play here at E3, called Mad Jack, where a detective must examine a car wrecking yard for clues leading to a murder.

“Norman Jayden is an FBI agent who has arrived in the city to help the local police force,” he told me. “He has a special piece of equipment called ARI – Artificial Reality Interface – consisting of glasses and a glove allowing him to scan his surroundings for clues such as fingerprints and pheromone samples in the air, and transmit them for analysis later on. His weakness is his addiction to a drug called Triptocaine and the player will have to deal with this because if he goes too long without a dose he will get sick and his vision will blur, and if he takes too much he risks dying from an overdose.”

Someone back at SCEE HQ once told me, having seen an early demo of Heavy Rain last year, that they thought it would be the first game to make people cry. David laughed when I told him this and explained that he wants this game to be a more emotional experience than any other.

“I think it will be one of the first games to bring out a full palette of emotions; we want people to feel empathy, happiness, sadness, rather than just excite or scare them. I don’t know if people are going to cry but there are a few scenes that are very impressive on a psychological level.”

Another unique aspect of the title is that there is no such thing as game over, and David was keen to elaborate on this.

“We felt that ‘game over’ was a very frustrating thing from a narrative point of view because all it means is that you didn’t play the game how the developer wanted you to play it. We got rid of that so if your character dies then you lose them and the story continues accordingly.”

“This game isn’t about challenges or counting points; it’s really about the journey, so the idea is that you shape the story as it unfolds.”

It’s great to see such mature storytelling in a PS3 game and every time I see more of Heavy Rain, some aspect of it gets me thinking in ways I never have before in my 20+ years of gaming. I can’t wait to spend a weekend with it once it comes out, how about you?

Adam Puhl, staff designer of God of War III

“We’re finally getting the chance to show a playable version of God of War III at E3,” he told me, “which includes new weapons and abilities in a war between the Gods, the Titans and Kratos. We’re proud to be showcasing the new level of visceral combat in the game as well as the fantastic visuals.”

“We’re now able to show details such as Kratos’ muscles flexing in battle, his veins popping out and blood spraying across the battlefield and landing on his body, which really helps you feel more immersed in this world.”

When a lot of people saw the very first gameplay footage from the game, some claimed that it looked merely like ‘God of War II but with more pixels’; I asked Puhl how he would counter this argument.

“Well, there are a hell of a lot more pixels, that’s for sure,” he said, “but there’s a lot more than that. We’re revaluating the series and putting in a lot of the things that we have wanted since the first game. The Titan gameplay, for example, is incredible this time. In previous games you had glimpses of these enormous creatures that you were on top of, but this time it’s for real. You’re running on a living, moving creature and you have to react to that dynamic, and while people might say the gameplay feels the same, we wouldn’t want to reinvent the series and alienate people – you have to keep the essence of Kratos.”

God of War III isn’t the only game Kratos is appearing in at E3; he is also a playable character in Soulcalibur PSP, so I asked Puhl how involved he has been in this cameo.

“Myself and the guys from Santa Monica Studios worked with the Soul Calibur team and we found them to be fantastic – they had looked at Kratos’ character closely and he feels just right on Soulcalibur PSP. They even introduced some moves that even we hadn’t thought of, but suit him perfectly.”

God of War III is a single-player game, but I wondered if the team had ever considered experimenting with multiplayer.

“Personally, sure,” said Puhl. “I love multiplayer games and that stuff really excites me, but God of War is all about Kratos and if we threw another character in there it could become a distraction.”

It will also be the first time the series has featured Trophies, so I asked what Puhl thinks makes a good Trophy list.

“I like Trophies a lot, but they should feel right,” he replied. “It shouldn’t be like ‘you finished level one, here you go’. The play experience should be rewarding in itself, and Trophies should be another layer of reward for a particularly tricky task, such as ripping 20 civilians apart in a row. They should be a reason to go back and experiment with the game.”

So there you have it, I hope this gives you some indication of how the game is coming along and gets you excited about its March 2010 release. I know you guys love Trophies and I thought Puhl’s views on them were really interesting. Which Trophies would you like to see in God of War III? The development team may even be reading this…