Impressions after Sony's conference last night

Man, there was a lot to take in in that just over 2 hours that passed during Sony's conference. All kinds of stuff, ranging from technical specs, to game trailers and demos, to hearing from developers who are ready to really back this system up - there was a lot to take in.

I suspect we will be seeing a lot of this game in the future

The hardware certainly sounds beefy enough. I suspect we will not be making the kinds of technical gains going from PS3 to PS4 as in the past when we iterated from PS1 to PS2 or PS2 to PS3. However, the show fellt like Sony was focused more on what you could do with the system, than just how fast or pretty the system could make things look. Don't get me wrong, there was a lot pretty to look at - check out these videos on IGN if you haven't yet.

The controller also looks good - I have found several sites now comparing the old PlayStation 3 controller to the new one proposed for the PlayStation 4, and this new model looks sturdier - which is a good thing. I have always preferred the comfort of the Xbox 360 controller to the DualShock. Obviously it is not for everyone - gamers with smaller hands, like my wife - prefer the DualShock to the Xbox one.

Also, the list of games talked about was pretty impressive. DriveClub will get lots of attention based on the buzz I've read already, and Killzone 4 looked like a perfectly good shooter and inFAMOUS is always a welcome sight. It was also interesting to see Bungie and Blizzard on the stage, though I guess I find Blizzard's offering of Diablo III a bit underwhelming. I loved the game, but it will feel quite old by the time it comes out. CD Projekt Red revealed The Witcher 3 since the presentation, which is big. I enjoyed the first, and was thinking about picking up the second one this weekend actually.

Square Enix let me down a bit as they showed the same tech demo they did at last year's E3, and their announcement that there would be more information on a Final Fantasy game in the near future was nothing more than a fairly weak tease.

While some things are still a mystery like price points and just what the online model will be - and if you will have to pay for parts of it - other questions did get answered, such as Eurogamer having an interview with a Sony executive who says that the PlayStation 4 will allow people to play used games on the console.

So, did anyone else happen to catch the conference, and if so what did you think of it? I came away generally impressed overall and think Microsoft has their work cut out for them at E3.