Sony at E3 2011: beyond PlayStation Vita

E3 2011: Kobe Bryant (right) plays the NBA 2K11 game with a Sony PlayStation Move controller. Photograph: Chris Pizzello/AP

It was surely the right decision. Sony opened its E3 press conference with an apology for the recent PSN outage, delivered by Jack Tretton, head honcho at Sony Computer Entertainment America. He told a packed audience at the Memorial Sports Stadium, "My friends in the media tell me that nothing makes their editors more happy than controversy and bad news. So to all our esteemed members of the press I say, you're welcome." He went on to specifically thank third-party publishers for their support, before telling PlayStation fans, "You are the lifeblood of the company. Without you, there is no PlayStation. I want to apologise both personally and on behalf of the company […] We have been humbled and amazed by the amount of dedication and support you continue to give. Network activity is currently at over 90% of the original level before the Network outage. That is something we do not take lightly."

It was frank and funny, and it meant that the company would then have a gargantuan two hours to seduce us into forgetting the whole sorry business with a mass of demos and announcements.

And while Microsoft's event seemed like one long drawn-out advert for Kinect, Sony's was an assault on many fronts, taking in 3D, the PlayStation Move controller and of course, PlayStation Vita, the new name for the Sony NGP. The key theme was connectivity. "PS3 is the most connected digital device available today," said Tretton before announcing a string of cross-platform titles, such as futuristic racer Wipeout 2048, which will allow Vita owners to compete against PS3 players, and the fascinating action RPG, Ruin, which comes on both Vita and PS3 and features cloud-based game saves, allowing purchasers to play on the move, then take up their game at exactly the same point when they arrive at home and boot up their PlayStation console.

Equally intriguing was Dust 514, a persistent online first-person shooter from CCP, the creator of the space-based massively multiplayer PC game, Eve Online. It seems that somehow, Dust 514, which involves planetary combat against a range sci-fi enemies and craft, will inhabit the Eve universe, with the actions of Dust players having a direct bearing on the wider PC title. It's not yet clear precisely how this will work in practice, but you can read CCP's developer blog about the game here and you'll find a good description at the Official PlayStation Blog. Dust 514 is due out next spring.

Naturally, Uncharted was a vital element of the show, with the third title in the PlayStation 3 series as well as the wonderfully promising Uncharted: Golden Abyss on Vita. Developer Naughty Dog showed off a new level of Uncharted 3 set aboard an abandoned ocean liner. Nathan is seen running along decks, swaying and staggering as gigantic waves lash the vessel. He ventures inside and quietly takes out several bad guys in an opulent ballroom, before venturing into a lower deck car park, where he finishes off one enemy, by punching him a couple of times, then pulling the pin from one of his grenades, blowing him sky high. At the same time, gallons of visually impressive seawater is bursting in through lower levels, prompting a couple of swimming sequences. It's exciting and graphically lush, with moments of genuine tension, as Drake gets caught underwater lodged beneath heavy objects. A multiplayer beta will apparently begin on 28 June, with the game arriving on 11 November. We also saw a new story trailer.

There was new footage, too, of Resistance 3, the latest title in the historically-set sci-fi FPS series in which Earth is invaded by parasitic aliens known as Chimera. The action is set in August 1957, four years after Resistance 2. Earth has fallen to the invaders, and the player must now travel across the country from Oklahoma, gathering ragtag groups of survivors into one last resistance force. The level we see takes place in a battered St Louis, where a group known as the Remnants has attempted an ambush of a Chimera convoy. There's a pitched battle amid the burnt-out buses and cars littering the shelled streets, with an enormous skyscraper-sized Chimera beast wandering about, stabbing at the player with its insect-like limbs. The game is set to support both PlayStation Move and 3D, and it will launch with a special 'Doomsday' edition including the new gun-like 'Sharpshooter' peripheral, a Move controller and a PlayStation Camera, all for $150. No word on a European release for that package though. Resistance 3 is out on 6 September.

On the subject of Move, there were a couple of announcements for Sony's motion controller. Forthcoming basketball sim NBA 2K12 is set to feature a special Move-powered mode which lets gamers use an onscreen cursor to point and click on players as well as using simple pass and shoot buttons to direct the action. The idea is to create an intuitive version of the sim for non-gamers. The company also revealed a Move-powered action RPG titled Medieval Moves: Deadmund's Quest, which employs Move inputs for all of the weapons (including a sword, throwing stars and a long bow). Looking like a sort of first-person version of Zelda, the game also features environmental puzzles, and a nice, cartoon-esque visual style. It's due out in the autumn.

The other big story was 3D. As well as showing several 3D-enhanced titles, Sony revealed that it will be launching a budget-friendly PlayStation-branded 3D monitor and a pair of cheap active 3D glasses in September. The 24-inch display seems to be aimed at students and teenagers, and together with the glasses offers an absolutely inspired feature: it allows two-players to view different images on the same screen, effectively creating a new form of 'splitscreen' multiplayer, in which both participants get a fullscreen version of the game action. The gadgets can be bought together in a bundle for $499, which will probably translate to about £499. They're both arriving later this year.

Elsewhere, Sony revealed Starhawk, a multiplayer combat game from the makers of early PlayStation Network hit, Warhawk. The action appears to revolve around interstellar colonists fighting it out for territory on an alien planet. There are cyborg cowboys, robots that transform into jet planes and dune buggies.

There were also a few retro announcements, including God of War Origins, which combines the PSP games, Chains of Olympus and Ghost of Sparta, into one PS3 package and remasters both in high definition and 3D. Also ready to be covered in HD and 3D magic dust are the long-awaited remakes of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus. All are due in September.

On the subject of Team Ico, the biggest disappointment was the lack of a Last Guardian announcement. The hugely anticipated adventure is almost certain to be a no-show at E3 this year, despite appearing on almost every list of most-anticipated titles.

But this was a busy, breathless and very long event, with some interesting new concepts and fresh attempts to interest the world in Move and in 3D. A major irony was the emphasis on community, especially in relation to Vita and its many social gaming features. Having just tested the loyalty of its PlayStation Network users to the limits, the company now wants us to spend more time in its virtual realm. It has a lot of confidence-building to do, before beginning to seed this experience later in the year. Tretton joked about the PSN controversy, but unless the company's digital infrastructure is completely secure, hackers will no doubt have the last laugh.

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Mobile gaming's rise is a headache for Sony and Nintendo

The iPhone 5s is Apple's most powerful gaming device yet, and games revenues on iOS and Android are soaring. How will 3DS and PS Vita respond?

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MWC 2011: LG unveils new Optimus 3D handset

LG's Optimus 3D handset which does not require special glasses to see the stereoscopic effect. Photograph: LG

LG has unveiled its Optimus 3D handset at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. The smartphone features a 4.3-inch 3D-capable touchscreen that uses parallax barrier technology, which means that, like Nintendo's forthcoming 3DS console, it does not require the user to wear special glasses to see the stereoscopic effect. Also like the 3DS, the device has a slider which turns the 3D effect down – or off completely.

The addition of two 5mp cameras will allow owners to record video footage in 3D. According to CNET, the device can record 3D video at a resolution of 720p, while standard 2D films output at 1080p. An HDMI connection means users can view their footage on a TV – 3D films can also be uploaded directly to a dedicated 3D YouTube channel. The mind, quite frankly, boggles.

Powering the Google Android device is a dual-core Omap4430 chipset, by Texas Instruments, based around the latest ARM Cortex A9 instruction set and a PowerVR SGX540 graphics accelerator – the same technology that is driving Sony's NGP games console.

Early responses from the MWC showfloor have been favourable but there have been some reservations. Tech Radar stated:

There was a real depth to the images, to which the size of the screen also lent itself. We can't imagine 3D content on a smaller screen would be worth using. The background may have been spectacular, but the foreground was a little bit trickier. There's a definite sweet spot directly in front the face and if you mediate from here you end up with quite a bit of fuzz and loss of the 3D effect.

In terms of game support, the Optimus 3D will ship with three pre-installed titles from Gameloft: Let's Golf 2, Asphalt Origins and Near Orbit Vanguard Alliance.

But LG did not have the 3D scene to itself today. Qualcomm has also announced its new quad-core Snapdragon APQ8064 chipset, "for next generation tablets and computing devices". The technology is designed to achieve speeds of up to 2.5GHz per core, while minimising power consumption. It will also support HD gaming and stereoscopic 3D photo and video capture, and will output in full HD to 1080P displays via HDMI.

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Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D – review

Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D ... it's a kind of magic

Ocarina of Time is a game about curiosity and the joy of discovery. It's not simply a role-playing game that includes a bit of exploration, it is a game that asks you to remember – as Miyamoto famously does – what it was like when you were a kid and your neighbourhood was a place of wonder and mystery, and there was something interesting around every corner. The land of Hyrule can still take you back there if you let it.

But you could, of course say, well, this is Ocarina of Time – again. Another nostalgic re-release for an industry suffocating under the weight of technical demands and budgetary heft. But it is also the perfect reminder, in an era of relentlessly governed, ruthlessly prescriptive corridor shooters that there is something profoundly right about giving players a world to explore, a few hints and tips on its rules and the freedom to go out there and get hopelessly lost.

The story, of course, is still the guiding line – with young hero Link charged by Princess Zelda to see off the threat of the evil Ganondorf. But there are multiple side-quests, some that you just discover, others handed to you by the cast of idiosyncratic characters (I think these challenges represent a child's view of adult-imposed chores – at once filled with import but also mystifying and irrelevant). Everything has to be discovered, everything spins out from the hub world that is Hyrule field, a vast meadow that represents the game's and the player's imagination.

And the sense of exploration is layered in on itself. It matters what time you get somewhere (thanks to a simple but vital day and night system), and there are the masks that can be loaned from a shop in the market and worn to elicit new responses from characters. How these systems sit on top of each other without becoming unfathomably complex and repetitive only Nintendo knows.

The controls, once so carefully mapped to the N64's unique controller, have been expertly converted to the handheld console. Players are still able to assign items and weapons to any button they like, but it's also possible to access your entire inventory – as well as the camera controls – from the touchscreen, so there are multiple set-ups available. Aiming the bow or catapult is achieved with the left trigger, though you can also opt to use the motion controls, moving the 3DS itself to aim, which is remarkably intuitive.

In the midst of combat, I sometimes found it difficult using the small 3DS analogue controller to leap and strafe, while aiming and intermittently protecting myself with the shield (using the right trigger) – everything's so bunched up on the device, as opposed to the comparatively enormous N64 pad. But, of course, another beauty of Zelda is its generosity; for the first few hours enemies are pretty soft and there are always plentiful heart symbols to replenish your health. This is not Demon's Souls.

Visually, Nintendo has pulled off a clever trick here – the game resembles your memory of Zelda on the N64, but it has been enhanced to match modern standards of clarity and resolution. It retains the cartoonish impressionism and the slightly drained patina, but the textures are more complex and many subtle effects have been tweaked. It does not look as good as, say, Kid Icarus promises too, but that is part of its charm: playing Ocarina of Time feels like nostalgic reverie, and the iconic visuals play into that.

The 3D capabilities of the device don't add much of practical use to the game, though they do help to enrich the sense of immersion in certain locations. Hyrule field, for example, becomes a much more impressive expanse, while set-piece locations like the Spirit Temple are lent an architectural grandeur that the small screen would normal detract from. The animated sections, though, benefit most obviously – the lovely legend sequence, which shows the three goddesses leaving the Triforce behind, is a sumptuous, almost psychedelic, firework display of falling comets and expanding star fields that comes alive again in three dimensions.

The thing is, and this is way off-message as far as Nintendo is concerned, it doesn't matter. Zelda is Zelda. The important element, alongside the textural updates, is the transportation to a handheld console. The pleasure is the same as the original handheld Zelda: Link's Awakening way back on the Game Boy. It means the vast game can go everywhere with you; it means you can curl up with it in some shabby old armchair, preferably in front of an open fire.

There's something to be said about experiencing a game on its original platform, with its original interface – but Ocarina of Time on the 3DS is exactly the right way to update a treasured game, and it makes one of the fundamental achievements of this industry available to millions of people who never saw the original and aren't prepared to hit eBay for an N64.

Because be in no doubt, Ocarina of Time is one of those rare works of art that transcends taste and simply is great. It should be a set text on every game design course on the planet. It should be shown to every studio that thinks the term "cinematic" is somehow exactly synonymous with "linear" – indeed, it should be shown to every studio that thinks "cinematic" is the loftiest aim of interactive entertainment.

It isn't. The aim is to construct a world – however mannered, however repetitive and surreal – and make it worth exploring. All games should be about curiosity and surprise; it's not just violence and lulz that make Rockstar's titles so successful. The likes of Red Dead and GTA (alongside the works of Valve, I think) are the true western heirs to the Zelda hegemony. I wonder how Skyward Sword will fair in this context? I wonder how anything will ever better Ocarina of Time in its small but vital corner of this bloated industry.

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EA's Frank Gibeau: PS4 and Xbox One will revitalise console gaming

EA Labels president talks about next-gen consoles, the rise of the smart TV and six unannounced new games being worked on

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Sony PlayStation phone to launch in March

The Xperia PLAY handset: 3D gaming, PlayStation controller, 50 titles from launch. Photograph: Manu Fernandez/AP

Sony Ericsson has announced that its PlayStation-branded Xperia PLAY handset will be launched worldwide in March. As expected, the Google Android device features a four-inch multitouch screen and a slide out PlayStation-style controller which boasts a d-pad, two analogue touch pads, two shoulder buttons and the iconic PlayStation circle, cross, square and triangle buttons.

According to Sony Ericsson's 'gaming ambassador', Jonas Berg, the controller is designed to free up the display for game viewing, so that players don't need to use an onscreen 'virtual joypad'. "When playing games on a smartphone device, you're actually covering up part of the experience... we've added the next layer of gaming," he explained. A built-in accelerometer also allows for motion controls.

The Xperia PLAY uses the Gingerbread (version 2.3) of Android. The 1Ghz CPU architecture is based around Qualcomm's high-end Snapdragon chipset, together with an embedded Adreno GPU graphics processor. In a press release sent out tonight, Sony claimed the device would be capable of, "silky smooth 60fps 3D mobile gaming". It will be the first Google Android handset to comply with Sony's PlayStation certification scheme, which means it will have access to a range of classic PlayStation titles. The PlayStation Suite programme, will launch later this year.

The phone and its game development environment are apparently the result of close collaboration between Sony Ericsson, Sony Computer Entertainment and several of the games industry's leading publishers. Electronic Arts has Xperia PLAY-enhanced versions of Sims 3, Need for Speed and FIFA 10 on the way, the latter with online multiplayer – a first for the mobile version of the series. Elsewhere, Ubisoft will be bringing Assassin's Creed and Splinter Cell, while Namco Bandai apparently has Tekken ready and Activision ironically opens its PLAY account with the recently axed Guitar Hero. Mobile gaming specialists Digital Chocolate, Gameloft, Glu and Fishlabs are also onboard. It is reported that 50 titles will be available for the release of the phone – they will be downloadable from the Android Market. Several games will also be embedded on the device at launch.

The handset will also support the widely-used Unity games development platform, which has been heavily used by iOS developers to bring fast 3D visuals to handheld platforms.

Importantly, the battery will allow for up to five hours and 35 minutes of 3D gaming time, according to Sony's own calculations – a better figure than some pundits expected and comparable with the iPhone 4 (though that has recorded up to six and a half hours on minimum settings). The Snapdragon processor uses ARM's v7 instruction set, used throughout the mobile sector and designed for high performance at low power consumption. ARM technology is also used in Sony's recently announced NGP handheld games console.

As for networks, all five of the majors – Orange, T-Mobile, O2, 3 and Vodafone – will carry the handset in the UK.

Sony Ericsson has produced a range of videos to support the launch. They can be found on the manufacturer's YouTube channel.

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Press Start: Press Start: Rockstar talks of Bully sequel, Nvidia dismisses consoles, and more

Dan Houser would like to make a sequel, but not set in the GTA universe

A selection of links, hand-picked by the Guardian games writers.

Rockstar's Dan Houser would still love to make another Bully game

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Nintendogs + Cats – review

Nintendogs + Cats ... leading the field on 3DS

It would have been surprising if there hadn't been a Nintendogs game ready for the 3DS's launch, since the man behind Nintendo's new handheld, Hideki Konno, is also the producer of the unfeasibly cute puppy sim. And sure enough, we have Nintendogs + Cats, with kittens added as a sop to the feline-friendly percentage of the population. Having interviewed Konno and acquired his Mii via Street Pass, I know that he is a dog-lover, though, and that shows in Nintendogs + Cats, since if you acquire a kitten from the kennels, there isn't much you can do with it beyond wait for it to return from an adventure in the garden bearing a present for you.

DSNintendogs + Cats French Bulldog 3DNintendo 3DS

Which, at least, is authentic in behavioural terms, and that is one area in which Nintendogs + Cats impresses in comparison with the original Nintendogs. I own a real-life French bulldog, so was naturally excited to get the French bulldog version of Nintendogs + Cats (golden retriever and toy poodle versions are also available, although each lets you pick from nine breeds), especially when it became obvious how uncannily the virtual puppies are endowed with the distinctive mannerisms of their real-life counterparts. They also look amazingly realistic (again much more so than in the DS original), with meticulously modelled fur and facial expressions designed to melt the hardest of hearts.

Nintendogs + Cats' core gameplay is more or less identical to that of the original game, though – thus you must feed, walk, groom and play with your puppy, furnish your house and clean the sidewalk up behind it. There is a massive list of tricks you can train it, and three competitions you can enter – frisbee catching, obstacle-course racing and obedience. Gameplay isn't exactly as before, though, since Nintendogs + Cats makes use of the 3DS's unique abilities. Especially the Augmented Reality cards. These are central to the obedience mini-game, and you can also use them to insert your virtual puppy into real-world tableaux. Simply select the AR card option from the store, and you can photograph your surroundings with your puppy apparently frolicking atop the AR card.

Konno admits the 3DS's Street Pass evolved from the original Nintendogs' Bark Mode, and it brings plenty to Nintendogs + Cats. It lets you swap presents, photos or even virtual puppies with fellow owners, and you can meet up in a virtual park with your puppy to play with the Miis and puppies of other owners – a process that opens up new breeds to your kennel.

Nintendogs + Cats isn't massively different from its predecessor, but its subtle enhancements mean it will prove even more irresistible to dog and now cat lovers, and that it towers in an even more colossal manner over other pet sims, no matter what their platform. If you yearn for a dog or cat, but can't have one for whatever reason, it will make you very happy indeed.

• Game reviewed on a Nintendo 3DS

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Lego Harry Potter: Years 5-7 – review

Lego Harry Potter: Years 5-7 ... Ron never, ever got the joke

Looking back to the Lego Harry Potter: Years 1-4 review, I was already concerned that reviews of Travellers Tales' Lego games were getting predictable.

I'm over that concern now and, instead, am wondering how to score this (predictably) charming sequel. It's every bit as good as the first instalment, so does that warrant another five stars? Or should I fly in the face of the "if it ain't broke ..." philosophy and question the lack of advances?

Actually, that suggests the team at TT are treading water, and they're not. Years 5-7 is a marked improvement in many ways, with more variety to the gameplay and richer visuals.

There is the occasional sense that the onscreen prompts are spoonfeeding you solutions, but that soon passes when you're roaming around a level and utterly clueless (literally) how to progress. That, of course, just makes it all the more satisfying (or head slapping) when you finally work it out.

As the name suggests, this collection of games covers the final three books/four films of the series, where the story took a darker turn. That's certainly reflected here although treated with the same irreverence you'd expect of TT.

It's also hard to shake the feeling that the standard Lego MO – no dialogue, just squeaks and grunts and murmurs – is a marked improvement on some of the "acting" in the films … and some might argue the same of Lego's efficient abridging of JK Rowling's weighty tomes.

Regardless, the chapters here are affectionate and faithful while sprinkling everything with a nice line in humour. Even several hours in, the boos of Slytherin pupils every time they run into Harry makes me smile.

While the core of the game – solve puzzles (often through cooperation, if you're taking or encouraging offspring to go the two player route), collect studs, rebuild things, etc – remains the same as ever, there are some advances.

The most notable of these is probably the Sonic-like stud-collecting broomstick flight across London, which takes several attempts to master in Free Play mode.

As before, however, you won't mind revisiting and replaying , whether it's to hit the "True Wizard" level of stud collection or to go back and explore the areas that were previously locked.

In addition to the previous restrictions – locks and chains that can only be destroyed by experienced wizards, things that can only be opened by masters of the Dark Arts, etc – this time round there are some new unlocakables, such as areas that require Weasley Sticky Trainers to explore, or Muggle equipment that only Arthur Weasley can fix.

All told, there's weeks of fun in this package. As you'd expect. It's fun and funny. As you'd expect. I'm utterly hooked. As you'd expect. Can we have Lego Matrix next? Please?

• Game reviewed on Xbox 360

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Call of Duty Ghosts: hands-on and new details

Activision and developer Infinity Ward have revealed a host of key new aspects of the latest instalment of the CoD franchise

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Top 20 games of 2011: 10-6

Santa couldn't believe that Modern Warfare 3 only made it to No 10 – it looks like Keef's now on his 'naughty' list. Photograph: Martti Kainulainen/Rex Feature

Tuesday's countdown from 15-11 prompted an interesting debate on the relative merits of Battlefield 3 and Modern Warfare 3, as well as lots of other juicy issues. What will today's five titles inspire?

One thing you won't find is smartphone titles – we'll be running a separate list for those. But what of your favourite console titles – will they be adequately represented? Judging by some of the excellent games talked about in the comments section for the previous instalment, the answer is a resounding ... maybe. Some of them.

Well, what are you waiting for? Let's continue with our arbitary and highly subjective Top 20!

Oh lord, here we go. Modern Warfare 3 – a glorified map pack, a sullen, cynical insult to gamers, a shameless exercise in pro-imperialist messaging. Or wait, maybe it's more of what Infinity Ward has been doing really quite brilliantly for the past decade. Super smooth, turbo-charged military mayhem, wrapped around a loopy plot that stretches the game's naturalistic framework to breaking point. And the multiplayer, with a group of friends and a few hours to kill, is still some of the best fun you can have with virtual firearms and close-proximity combat. Modern Warfare 3 is meaningless, it's silly, and it has certainly been the most divisive game of the year – we all understand what some people hate about it. But crafted with great care to do exactly what the series always has done and always will, MW3 isn't part of the problem or the solution, and it certainly isn't going to destroy the industry – or, indeed, humanity. It's a game where you shoot baddies, and shoot 'em good. Frankly, we've giving up feeling guilty about enjoying it.

Minecraft isn't so much a game as an unstoppable indie phenomenon, a sort of reality TV documentary about design, a meta-game, a way of life. There was a time when its creator Notch wasn't an internet celebrity – how weird is that? But now, with this creative, procedural role-playing build-'em-up, he and is team have not only invented a new sub-genre, they have instigated a movement in which games aren't simply released, they're sort of evolved and mutated over months of beta-testing and semi-availability. If Minecraft were an X Factor contestant we'd all be marveling over its "journey" as emotionally manipulative music played in the background and chunkily pixelated figures congratulated each other in slow motion on the screen. Minecraft is quite probably the greatest story indie gaming has ever told.

Could it be that the world was ready to love 3DS all along – we just, you know, needed the right games? Well, Super Mario 3D Land is the right game. Taking elements of the original Super Mario Land and combining them with a twist of Super Mario Galaxy, this is a platformer in the traditional Nintendo mould – and by that I don't mean unchanging and stifled, I mean traditional in the sense that it's filled with magic, innovation and joy. Whereas in other 3DS titles, the stereoscopic effect has been little more than an annoying parlour trick, here it enforces the beautiful level designs, the sense of space and of Mario's place in the world. Not the most far-reaching or ambitious Mario title, but as a standard-bearer for this maligned platform, it could turn out to be one of the more important.

Oh Nathan, there really is something about that boy. Whether he's leaping across rooftops as a teenage rapscallion, floundering in the desert or navigating through a seemingly endless boat graveyard, he has so much charm he virtually seduces us through the game. Other titles aspire to be cinematic and think it means epic set-pieces and orchestral music; Naughty Dog knows that cinema is as much about relationships. The surrogate father/son interplay with Sully, the touching rapport with Elena – these are human interactions we can really invest in, so much so that they become genuine rewards for our perseverance. But, yeah, the epic set-pieces are astonishing too.

The concept of "player skill" has been largely abandoned by mainstream developers keen to just nudge us gently through their narrative adventures, like kindly care home workers on a seaside day out. Not Dark Souls. Namco Bandai's dungeon romp is a twisted, pitiless exercise in providing a system and then bashing the gamer over the skull with it until they can do it properly. So many disturbing enemies, so many customisation and progression decisions – all housed within a towering gothic world that combines the nightmarish vision of a Piranesi prison etching, with the intricate workings of a Swiss-made watch. We should all get down on our pathetic knees right now and thank the black empty universe that games like this still exist.

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GTA 5 and the inevitable future of micro-transactions

"The upcoming multiplayer mode for Grand Theft Auto V will feature micro-transactions – to the dismay of some gamers. Photograph: Dan Talson/Rex Features"/

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Tech Weekly podcast: 3D gaming, Carol Bartz leaves Yahoo

On this week's programme, Guardian games correspondent Keith Stuart leads pod regulars Aleks Krotoski and Jemima Kiss through the crystal clear – and occasionally terrifying – world of 3D gaming. At the Develop confernce in Brighton this summer, Keith met Ian Bickerstaff, head of Sony's 3D research and development group, who divulged the future of interactivity with and without the 3D specs.

Before she departs for a spot of maternity leave, Jemima's potty mouth punctuates the rest of the podcast, with news that mobile handset manufacturer HTC is considering a move into the operating system space, the business sense behind ousted Yahoo! CEO Carol Bartz's latest outbursts against the management of her former employers, the search/content/advertising company's alleged in-bed relationship with industry stalwart AOL, and Amazon's intentions to become the world's biggest ebook library.

All this and more from Tech Weekly from the Guardian.

Don't forget to...

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3DS to get new controller add-on?

3DS slide pad controller – as seen in a scan from Japanese magazine, Famitsu.

Just in case you haven't seen all this yet, Japanese games magazine Famitsu has revealed photos of a new controller add-on for the Nintendo 3DS. The device slides on to the side of the console, providing a second analogue control stick and another set of shoulder buttons. It seems the first title to benefit from the curious pad will be a 3DS version of Capcom's hit Monster Hunter. According to Japan-watching blog, Andriasang, the game will be an updated version of Monster Hunter 3 on the Nintendo Wii.

The news follows rumours that Nintendo is set to launch a revision of the 3DS console next year. French news site, 01net, recently claimed that the manufacturer was preparing an announcement about the refreshed console, which could well de-emphasise the glasses-free 3D feature that was intended as the device's key selling point, but which caused controversy immediately after its launch for allegedly making a number of users feel ill.

Edge magazine has received confirmation from Nintendo that the controller device – known as the slide pad – is genuine, but the company has yet to comment on speculation about a full 3DS re-design. With the Tokyo Game Show kicking off next week, it could be that an official reveal is pending. Also, Nintendo is holding a 3DS-themed press conference in Tokyo on 13 September.

In July, Nintendo announced that it was dropping the price of the console by almost a third to boost interest.

So, the 'slide pad'... it's erm, it's not very pretty is it?

More scans can be found here, courtesy of Develop.

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Chatterbox: Blood Bowl Season 11 Live Draw Day

Some Blood Bowl players yesterday

It's Friday. But not just any Friday. It is Blood Bowl Season 11 Live Draw Day. As the internationally distributed press release explains:

This is the 11th Season of the Blog's longest running mass participation competition. 28 teams, ranging from seven-season veterans to box fresh new outfits have been split into seven pots based on their playing style and races (punchy Orcs, slippery goblins, agile elves etc.). We will draw a team from each pot at random to make up four divisions of seven teams. The draw will be made by cunningstunt, with a copy of the master list lodged with new ombudsman GeorgeShapiro,.

Once these teams have been picked you can expect nine weeks of match reports featuring the usual ultra-violence, despicable fouls, Hollywood plays and most of all bad puns, before the winner is crowned and normal blog service is resumed as we return to listing cheeses and swapping GTA 5 stories.

I'm putting a fiver on the agile elves...

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Rayman 3D – review

Rayman 3D ... the old boy's been dusted off and given a 3D makeover

Rayman fans have been waiting an awfully long time for a new Rayman game. Aside from his frolics with the Rabbids and numerous handheld spin-offs, the last time Rayman starred in a title in the franchise's core series was in Rayman 3 back in 2003. In the meantime, Ubisoft has churned out numerous iterations of the series' second installment.

Since its release in 1999, Rayman 2: The Great Escape has been renamed and re-released over a variety of platforms including the Game Boy Color, the PS2, the original DS, PSN, the iPhone and the iPad. Now it's shown up on the Nintendo 3DS as Rayman 3D.

But it's worth pointing out that, however old it may be, Rayman 3D is still a very good platforming adventure. Set in a charmingly whimsical cartoon world, the game follows the adventures of the titular character as he tries to free a magical kingdom from a crew of one-eyed, gun-toting robot pirates, by collecting glowing lights called "lums".

The controls are fairly smooth; the circle pad manoeuvres Rayman around the environments, the shoulder buttons switch the camera from third to first-person view and the face-buttons prompt Rayman to jump and hurl energy balls. The camera can be a bit problematic at times, but for the most part it doesn't actively ruin the experience.

The best thing about the game is the way the beautiful environments complement the level design. The world of Rayman 3D is a lush, if slightly spooky Disney-esque place and platforming and exploring is broken up by puzzle solving and combat. There are also a lot of collectibles to gather and the lovely environments and cute characters that inhabit them make it a pleasure to go hunting for them.

Rayman 3D is also the best-looking port of the game and the console's 3D visuals have added some nice touches here and there. The graphics have been given a good polish, and when the game's camera pulls back for a long shot, the 3D looks very impressive indeed.

However, there are quite a few sections where the game looks like the player is handling a 3D character on a 2D background, and in some situations, the 3D can be a hindrance. This usually occurs when the player has to switch to the first-person view to work out the dynamics of their environment. In such instances, players can find their view completely obscured by objects jutting into the shot or the camera slamming into a wall. When this happens, I recommend turning the 3D effects off.

If you like platform adventures and you've never played any of the many iterations of this game before, you'll most likely find it a charming, if slightly dated, experience. If, on the other hand, you remember playing Rayman 3D back when it was called Rayman 2: The Great Escape, then you'll have seen everything this game has to offer already, just not in 3D.

You also may be somewhat irked that one of the launch titles for the brand new Nintendo console you just spent about £200 on is a port of a game which was released more than a decade ago.

• Game reviewed on Nintendo 3DS

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Fifa 14 – review

Fifa 14’s new feature, Precision Movement, is a technical triumph, but doesn't work too well in practice.

"Come quick!" the PES fan shouts, as if peering from his bedroom window and seeing fresh snow. "It's back!" It happens every year

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3DS gets 3D video recording in latest system update to console

The Xbox 360 isn't the only console getting an interface makeover this week. Nintendo 3DS owners who hit the system update button today will find they have a modest array of new features to play with, including the ability to make 10-minute 3D videos, using the handheld console's built-in camera.

The new option is also accompanied by a couple of neat little filming modes. Interval Shot allows you to record sequences of images in short timed intervals, creating your own time-lapse photography. Meanwhile, the Frame Pick feature puts your still images together to create stop-go animations.

The StreetPass mode is also getting some new functionality. There are fresh Puzzle Swap pieces to exchange with other players, and a new quest to take part in. Plus, the StreetPass Mii Plaza can now use SpotPass to download new content, while a globe icon at the bottom of the screen shows the home location of any Miis you've met on your travels. As you make new connections, fresh countries are coloured in on the map – a good motivation for booking that tour of Europe you've always planned...

Okay, it's a modest selection of additions, but the StreetPass needed a few new novelties to refresh the concept, and the new filming option should prove fun over Christmas – although there should be a warning that the combination of festive office parties and 3D video cameras can lead to extreme embarrassment and/or loss of employment.

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3D: a gamers' guide

3D TVs are slowly working their way into the nation's living rooms. But what's the best way to experience games on them?

The arrival of 3D technology into cinemas and now our homes is one of the most controversial aspects of popular entertainment. Some see it as a massive creative leap forward, the equivalent of Renaissance painters discovering perspective; others dismiss it as a gimmick, a means of selling ever more expensive movie tickets and TVs to gullible thrill-seekers. And now, at the heart of this whole debate, is the games industry.

All three of the major console manufacturers are backing 3D as a concept (some more than others, but we'll get on to that in a bit) and most game publishers, too, are supporting 3D with their main titles. There's now an interesting range of games available, showcasing the potential for 3D in the interactive sphere, and several massive examples are due out later in 2011.

Arguably, it is in games where the tech could really make a difference. While seeing stuff flying out of the screen can certainly enliven films, the ability to perceive depth might actually make a palpable impact on the very nature of game design, leading to environments of greater immersion and a more intuitive navigation experience. Anyone who's ever tried to leap from one platform to another in a polygonal world, like Assassin's Creed or Super Mario 64, will know what I mean.

So what do you need to play 3D games at home, and what titles should you try first? With the significant help of James Rivington from TechRadar, here's our quick guide to 3D entertainment for the interested console owner…

A 3D capable television
There are basically two types of 3D technology for the home: passive and active. The former requires those cheap plastic glasses you get in the cinema, and the latter uses battery-powered LCD specs. "The advantage of active 3D is that it supports full 1080-line high resolution," says James. "Passive only supports 540-line half-resolution 3D; so active is obviously the better option in most cases." However, if you're also planning on watching a lot of 3D TV and movies with your whole family, then a TV that employs passive 3D tech might work out cheaper.

But should you go for an LCD TV or plasma screen? "Plasma is popular with home cinema buffs, because the contrast ratio you can achieve on a high-end plasma is still beyond even the best LCD TVs with LED backlighting," says James. "But LCD TVs have always been very popular amongst gamers because of the added brightness you get from an LCD panel. Plasmas have traditionally had the advantage when it came to smooth motion but LCDs produce a hell of a lot more light, which can make for a more clear and vivid picture with brighter colours – and that in turn can give you the edge as a gamer.

"However, 3D plasmas do still have a few ninja skills in their 3D closet. 3D TVs suffer from a phenomenon called crosstalk where the left and right images bleed into each other, creating a sort of ghosting effect. The cheaper 3D TVs tend to exhibit this behaviour a bit more than the high end ones but as a rule, plasma TVs have so far been more successful at keeping crosstalk to a minimum."

If you've just started saving up for a new TV, keep an eye on the latest models as new features are being added regularly. LG is making grand claims for its "flicker-free" CinemaTV displays, which use cheaper passive glasses. "It's worth looking at Samsung's new 3D TVs, which feature improved lightweight active glasses using a version of Bluetooth rather than infrared for signal synchronisation," says James. "And of course we can expect to see more glasses-free 3D TVs this year and next – so far, models have been small, expensive and ineffective, but that's bound to change in time."

LG, Sony and Toshiba all showed off glasses-free models at this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and Toshiba claims it'll launch a range in the UK next year; with the first batch of prototypes the viewing angle is very narrow (you've tried the Nintendo 3DS, right? Same thing) but then that was also the case with the first generation of 2D LCD televisions. We might have to wait five years before displays are big, affordable and viewable from all around the living room.

For now, here are three of our favourite models:

Sony KDL-40NX713 (£1,000): Converts 2D to 3D, and can be upgraded to full 3D with a TMR-BR100 emitter and TDG-BR100 glasses.

Philips 46PFL9705H (£2,500): Does a good job of overcoming the "ghosting" typical of LCD/LED 3D TVs.

Samsung UE65C8000 (£5,000): The world's largest 3D LED TV, with a stunning, thin, 29mm titanium-finish frame.

Some sets also "upscale" 2D footage to 3D via a process I'm not even going to pretend to understand. Of course, it's more subtle than "proper" 3D, but it works reasonably well on my Sony HX8.

If you're not sure, go to a decent electronics shop and try all of this out before you buy.

An HDMI 1.4 cable
"HDMI 1.4 supports various types of signal switching data which allow 3D Blu-ray players, multi-channel amplifiers and TVs to talk to each other and select the correct modes automatically," says James. "You will probably be able to get a system working with HDMI 1.3 cables, but you may have to do some manual switching – not a major issue really."

You can pick up basic cables for less than a tenner, and these will usually do the trick (ThatCable has an award-winning HDMI 1.3 option for a fiver). For high-end 1.4 cabling you might want to opt for the WireWorld Chroma 6 or a Chord Active (both about £50).

But is it worth spending extra on a fancy product, with hi-tech insulation and super-shielding? "A home cinema expert will tell you that it's always worth investing money in quality cables," says James. "Not only is it possible that a cheap cable may degrade general video and audio performance, it may also fail to carry the system data which is needed to keep HDMI-based equipment and 3D systems running smoothly. That said, the majority of casual gamers could pick up a cheap cable and not encounter any problems at all."

A surround sound set-up
Sure, you can play a 3D game without a big home theatre set-up, but you're losing some of the immersive nature of the medium. There are dozens of sound systems on the market, which offer seven channels plus a bass subwoofer. For standards, look out for products that support Dolby Digital Plus or better yet, Dolby TrueHD (7.1). Alternatively, there's DTS-ES (6.1) and DTS-HD Master Audio (DTS-HD MA).

"Many manufacturers are also working on adding an extra dimension of movement to the front-channel speakers," adds James. "So sound could move up and down, as well as left and right. There are two ways to do this; by adding two more actual speakers, or by using psycho-acoustic processing. Samsung, for instance, will offer both techniques in their forthcoming range of home theatre systems..."

PC gamers can also listen out for the Dolby Axon technology, which offers spatial 3D to in-game voice chatting. This makes other players sound like they're really in the environment, shouting from a distance, rather than sitting right in your head.

Here are your 3D options on different gaming platforms.

The PlayStation 3
If you want to experience 3D games on a big TV in your living room, right now, PS3 is certainly the way to go. Sony is heavily backing the technology (see its dedicated 3D website here), which is unsurprising considering it manufactures hardware all the way down the 3D pipeline, from filmmaking equipment, to displays, to consoles. The company has an expert team in the UK dedicated to evangalising 3D to developers; one member of that team, senior engineer Ian Bickerstaff, gave a fascinating lecture at last year's Bradford Animation festival explaining the art and science of 3D entertainment and how Sony is helping studios to exploit the technology.

Setting up the machine for 3D is simple. Just head to the Settings section of the XMB, select Video Output Settings, then HDMI and finally Automatic – the system will now check your TV and ensure the 3D signal is compatible. Make sure you've also selected the 3D option on your TV, and that your TV is connected to your PS3 via an HDMI cable. Most 3D compatible PS3 titles have a 3D option on the menu – hit that, and you're away.

There is already a reasonable selection of games to try. Here is pretty much everything that's been released so far:

• Auditorium (PSN)
• Call of Duty: Black Ops
• Crysis 2
• de Blob 2: Underground
• Dungeon Defenders (PSN)
• Enslaved: Odyssey to the West
• EyePet
• The Fight: Lights Out
• Ghost Recon: Future Soldier
• Gran Turismo 5
• High Velocity Bowling
• Hustle Kings (PSN)
• James Cameron's Avatar: The Game
• Killzone 3
• MLB 11: The Show
• MotorStorm Apocalypse
• MotorStorm: 3D Rift (PSN)
• NBA 2K11
• PAIN (PSN)
• Prince of Persia Trilogy (PSN)
• The Sly Collection
• SOCOM 4: U.S. Navy SEALs
• Super Stardust HD (PSN)
• Swords and Soldiers
• Top Spin 4
• TRON: Evolution
• Tumble (PSN)
• WipEout HD (PSN)

Coming soon...

• Cars 2
• Ico and Shadow of the Colossus Collection
• Mortal Kombat
• Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One
• Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception
• Virtua Tennis 4

We'll follow this feature with a list of the best titles, but for now I'd recommend Killzone 3, the gritty sci-fi shooter that makes effective use of 3D technology – there are times it genuinely helps with the experience, especially in sections where you're sniping distant enemies; the extra depth information really helps to pick them out from the scenery.

I'm also enjoying the insane futuristic offroad racer Motorstorm: Apocalypse, which regularly splatters your screen with muddy water and sends buildings crashing to the ground around you. There are some marvellous effects and the game's frantic, explosion-filled gameplay provides a better showcase for the tech than the more austere Gran Turismo 5.

And, of course, the PS3 features a Blu-ray player that can play a whole range of 3D movie titles.

Xbox 360
Although technically 3D capable, Microsoft is holding off on supporting the technology for now. In a statement last year, the company noted: "It's projected that less than one half of 1% of all TVs in the US this year will be 3DTVs. And 3DTVs will make up only 5% of the TV installed base three years from now."

There are, however, a few third-party titles that let Xbox owners experience stereoscopic visuals: Call of Duty: Black Ops; Enslaved: Odyssey to the West; Crysis 2; and the XBLA title Invincible Tiger.

Nintendo 3DS
Nintendo's dual-screen console is currently the only gaming system to offer glasses-free 3D. It uses "parallax barrier" technology to send a different version of the image to each eye, creating a stereoscopic effect. The device also features a 3D camera, and comes with several fascinating augmented reality demos that overlay computer graphics on to the real world as viewed through the LCD screen.

It's easy to set up and use (you charge it up, switch it on and, hey presto, autostereoscopic fun!), but the console has to be held in a steady position directly in front of the player; the effect is easily lost if you move just centimeters from the hotspot. Also, some purchasers have complained of dizziness and headaches when playing for too long, but most people won't have a problem. The 3D effect can be turned down, and even off, using a slider control on the side.

The launch line-up wasn't great, with Super Street Fighter IV, Nintendogs + Cats, Pilotwings: Resort, Ridge Racer, Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars and Pro Evolution Soccer proving the best of a distinctly half-hearted bunch.

There are some promising titles on the way though – even if most of them are based on very familiar brands. Nintendo has the submarine sim Steel Diver in May (much better than it sounds) and then The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D the month after. Animal Crossing 3DS, Kid Icarus, Paper Mario 3D, Super Mario, Mario Kart and Star Fox are also on the way this year. From third-party developers we can expect Resident Evil: Revelations, Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater, Pacman & Galaga Dimensions and Harvest Moon: The Tale of Two Towns. Still no absolute killer apps in there, but a crowd-pleasing bunch.

PC
3D gaming has been a reality on PC for a couple of years. The most popular solution is Nvidia's 3D Vision, which provides a pair of 3D glasses and all the drivers you need to get the system working on your PC, which has to be running Vista or Windows 7. You'll also need a 3D monitor and a compatible Nvidia graphics card – most of the GeForce products are fine. The company reckons that more than 500 titles are compatible with its technology, including Call of Duty: Black Ops, Starcraft 2, Left 4 Dead and Far Cry 2. Bigpoint, a publisher of free-to-play online games, is also set to support 3D, with two titles, ToonRacer and Ruined Online, arriving this spring.

We can also expect a range of glasses-free PC laptops, with Dell, Asus and Toshiba all unveiling models this year.

Smartphone
Over the past few years, Japan has seen several mobile phones using the same glasses-free 3D technology as the 3DS, but these haven't made it over to the West. That's all about to change. Two major new Android handsets will feature autostereoscopic displays: the LG Optimus 3D and the HTC Evo 3D. Even more intriguing though are the glasses-free 3D tablet PCs that manufacturers are developing. Toshiba has been showing off a 12.1-inch model, complete with an accelerometer that works in conjunction with the stereoscopic display, allowing users to manipulate and effectively peer around the objects on screen.

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Press Start: US shoppers prefer PS4, Nintendo seeks to save Wii U, and more

US shoppers prefer PS4 according to a Reuters poll. Photograph: Ina Fassbender/Reuters

A selection of links, hand-picked by the Guardian games writers.

Sony's PS4 tops Xbox One as gamers' holiday choice: Reuters/Ipsos poll

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How should Nintendo sell the 3DS?

Nintendo 3DS – do people understand what they're supposed to be doing? Photograph: Yoshikazu Suno/AFP

We've got used to Nintendo surprising us. No one gave the Wii a chance in hell before it was released – then one look at those controllers and suddenly everyone and their gran wanted one. Meanwhile, the Nintendo DS has steadily become the biggest selling console of all time, mostly thanks to brain training, virtual dogs and adventure games filled with logic puzzles.

So when the company announced the 3DS – a neat evolution of its smash hit handheld device, complete with glasses-free 3D – it looked like another Nintendo must-have. But earlier this week, the company's president Satoru Iwata was forced to admit that the contraption hasn't sold as well as the company had hoped, shifting 3.61m units in the first month on sale, and not the 4m that it had modestly predicted.

In an investor call, Iwata intriguingly stated:

The value of 3D images without the need for special glasses is hard to be understood through the existing media. However, we have found that people cannot feel it just by trying out a device, rather, some might even mis-estimate it when experiencing the images in an improper fashion.

"We think it is very important to provide people with contents in which they can easily experience glasses-less 3D images. In particular, we need to enhance the contents which can be enjoyed passively by non-active users, like a 3D video distribution service. We will promptly work on this after the currently planned hardware update.

That's a rather shocking admission – that consumers don't understand the appeal of 3D games, so they need to be provided with linear 3D content to make sense of the console's USP. Nintendo doesn't usually need a Trojan horse to get people to click with its products – the products just speak for themselves. Sure, the Wii remote mimicked a TV remote controller, but players didn't have to actually watch a few minutes of TV to understand it.

More telling though, was Iwata's admission that a lot of consumers seem to be waiting for better titles: "There aren't yet so many people who are absolutely sure that now is the time to buy it," he said. And certainly, the lacklustre launch line-up drew criticism from many industry news sources – compounded by the fact that a lot of the online and DLC services are only switching on in May. He also states that the company hasn't managed to communicate the other features of the device – ie, augmented reality and StreetPass. Ironically, these are the elements that many in the industry believe will emerge as the true selling points of the technology.

This is probably just a blip, but what should Nintendo do now? Is it about cranking out another ad with the Redknapps (perhaps featuring Jamie swapping Streetpass data as he delivers his monotone pundity in the Sky Sports studio)? Is it about hurrying up and getting a bunch of Mario titles out on shop shelves? Or must we simply accept that, after the failure of Virtual Boy in 1996, 3D is to be the nausea-inducing albatross around Nintendo's otherwise blameless neck?

Come on, help Iwata out here!

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Five promising new indie games from the Eurogamer Expo

From offbeat platformers to surreal sci-fi horror, here are some of the fascinating projects exhibited in the Eurogamer Expo indie arcade

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Nintendo 3DS hands-on: it's an astonishingly seductive box of tricks

Game on ... Nintendo 3DS preview host Jonathan Ross. Photograph: Rozendaal

Nintendo possesses an endearingly old-school quality, which clearly manifested itself in the press conference kicking off its big 3DS unveiling in Amsterdam, whose general shambolicness was summed up when compere Jonathan Ross read a chunk of autocue text earmarked for delivery by Nintendo Europe general manager Satoru Shibata.

Because of the need for widespread Japanese-English translation, many of the 3DS's most interesting aspects barely had their surfaces scratched and, shamefully, Shibata-san completely copped out of delivering the one piece of information that everyone wanted to know: the machine's price (saying, to audible groans, that we'd have to ask the retailers). But none of that mattered a jot.

The price issue was easily resolved once I'd caught up with Nintendo UK's managing director, David Yarnton – a thoroughly engaging, plain-speaking Aussie who never has any truck with sophistry (for the record, it will be either £219.99 or £229.99 – essentially, the supermarkets will be the retailers lopping off an extra tenner).

And more importantly, there were plenty of hands-on opportunities on offer after the press conference – more than sufficient to confirm that the 3DS is such an astonishingly seductive box of tricks that it may well be Nintendo's best piece of hardware ever. No Virtual Boy, this.

The roster of games on offer during the 3DS's launch window is pretty impressive, and third-party developers and publishers have obviously embraced it with enthusiasm. If you were in the mood to carp, you might argue that it seems to be long on rehashes of familiar franchises. But that is to be expected in the early stages of a new console – development is much quicker when it makes use of existing assets and big franchises are more or less guaranteed to sell well.

And even those rehashed, familiar classics were impressive to behold on the 3DS – not just because they popped out of the screen thanks to the stereoscopic 3D, but also because of the console's 3D graphics accelerator chip, which is way more powerful than anything Nintendo has previously put into a handheld and for the first time, naturally, can display proper 3D (as distinct from stereoscopic 3D) graphics.

Graphically, it's at least on a par with the Wii. So all those franchises that, even on the DSi, had to make do with 2D graphics made to look three-dimensional, or top-down perspectives, now operate in their full glory. Super Street Fighter IV, Pro Evolution Soccer, The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time, Driver, Super Monkey Ball and Resident Evil Mercenaries were all impressive to behold for a handheld, even if you turned off the stereoscopic 3D.

You could see the first stirrings of how the stereoscopic 3D could be used to enhance gameplay: its added perspective really helps you aim over long distances (which would be handy, for instance, in games involving sniping). Some of the games on show experimented with unusual camera-angles in an attempt to capitalise on that. Super Street fighter IV lets you switch on an over-the-shoulder view (which we were a bit equivocal about, although that could be due to sheer familiarity with the original perspective), and Pro Evolution Soccer boasts a player's perspective view which worked well.

Super Monkey Ball 3D is one of the 3DS launch games

Resident Evil Mercenaries – a sort of compilation of the best bits of Resident Evil 4 and 5, although an original take on the franchise, Resident Evil Revelations, is in the pipeline – broke with tradition by dropping into a first-person view when you aimed your gun (aiming, as any Ressie fan knows, removes your ability to walk around).

Super Monkey Ball really made sense on the 3DS, with the added perspective enabling you to manipulate your ball with extra precision (plus, it made use of the 3DS's orientation-sensing gyroscope). The stereoscopic 3D also added new atmosphere to familiar scenes – running through a 3D forest in Ocarina of Time, for example, felt twice as immersive as the original.

At this stage of the 3DS's development, one thing that remains unclear is how developers will employ its unique abilities to bring about new forms of gameplay, although there were plenty of indicators towards an innovative future. The machine's twin cameras, which let it shoot video in 3D, generate some genuinely exciting possibilities as far as Augmented Reality (AR) games are concerned – AR has long been more of a buzz-phrase than anything tangible but the 3DS, you sense, has the power finally to redress that balance.

Its best manifestation came in the form of a mini-game called Face Raiders, which will be pre-loaded on the 3DS. Although a mere mini-game, it's an act of genius, which clearly deserves to be expanded into a full game.

You begin by carefully positioning yourself so it can scan your face, which it then morphs in a variety of grotesque manners, before inserting it in yellow balls which you have to shoot. Meanwhile, aiming is taken care of by the gyroscope so, with a sight in the middle of the screen, you physical move the 3DS left, right, up and down, before firing with the A button. All the while, the 3D cameras are operational, so the background to the proceedings (which is progressively shattered by your bullets) is provided by whatever is around you. And eventually, it transforms your face into a boss, who must be knocked out of invulnerability by timing your shots so that they knock purple balls into him.

The fact that the 3DS can display 3D TV, somewhat glossed over during the press conference, is hugely significant, given its up-to-the-minute Wi-Fi capabilities. Yarnton confirmed that Nintendo has already struck deals with Eurosport and Sky, which will deliver short-form, compilation-type programmes in stereoscopic 3D for download.

We can safely assume this will include things such as Premier League goals and truncated sporting highlights programmes, and probably cartoons and episodes of short TV programmes. Ironically, Sony must be rubbing its hands in glee at this, hoping that it drives consumer enthusiasm for 3D TV. Although whether they will settle for viewing 3D TV via glasses is a moot point.

If the 3DS is a massive hit, it will undoubtedly accelerate the process of driving down the cost of bigger glasses-free 3D screens via economies of scale. Given Sony's evangelistic approach to 3D TV, it will be interesting to see what sort of 3D screen the PSP2 has.

The location-based Street Pass system, which lets 3DS owners exchange gaming information and the like when they walk past each other, is also intriguing, although we didn't manage to avail ourselves of any sort of demo.

The 3DS Street Pass lets 3DS owners exchange gaming information

Ubisoft president Yves Guillemot made an interesting point, though, asserting that it will support Facebook-style games in which you spend time at home building up the abilities of characters, and can then take them out into the wild to fight random people, or a group of similarly inclined friends at a specific location.

Street pass seems to offer an opportunity for accessory manufacturers, since the only built-in way in which it alerts you of the proximity of another DS owner is by changing the colour of a flashing LED, and you wouldn't imagine 3DS owners would want to wander around everywhere clutching their precious machines.

The 3DS may look like any other handheld console, but it has an unbelievable technological depth to it which throws up an almost bewildering welter of possibilities. Some, undoubtedly, will prove more seductive than others, but if you thought the original DS, with its touchscreen, was revolutionary, prepare to be absolutely blown away on 25 March. We certainly can't wait to get our hands on one.

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Hideo Kojima: video game drop-out – interview part 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Solid Snake ... Kojima named his lead character after Snake Plissken, who was played by Kurt Russell in the John Carpenter film Escape From New York

Despite finding like-minded individuals at Konami, Kojima's first couple of years at the studio were far from easy. For one, his directorial ambition was fiercely at odds with its orthodox Japanese institutional hierarchy.

"Lost World was the first project I was assigned to and the game was cancelled after six months," he says. "It was a serious blow to all of us on the team. I couldn't believe it. After that I began to work on Metal Gear. Konami wanted a war game, because they were incredibly popular at that time. But I didn't want to make the same as everyone else so I started thinking of ways in which I could subvert the genre."

It was at this point that Kojima's love for film came into play. "I remembered the film The Great Escape and thought this would be a good approach for something distinct. My first concept was for a game in which you were a prisoner of war and simply had to escape. If you were caught you'd be brought back to the prison. The idea was for a non-combat game.

"But I had such a hard time convincing people. I had so many things going against me at that time. For one, my first game had been cancelled, so I hadn't released anything yet. Then I was working in quite a large creative group, and I was the youngest. Finally, the type of game I wanted to make didn't exist at that time. The odds were stacked against me and it was very hard to earn the trust of the team."

After a few months of failing to make his voice heard, Kojima managed to convince the most senior member of the team to meet with him. "He listened to my frustrations," Kojima says, "and then approached one of the higher-ups in the company who must have seen something in me as he invited me to pitch my ideas for Metal Gear in front of everyone. Everyone in the team saw that it was a revolutionary idea, I think, and from then on, I had their support."

The first Metal Gear was developed for the MSX, a home computer format that enjoyed a fraction of the market share of Nintendo's inaugural games console, the Famicom. While many would have seen being told to make a game for underdog technology as a drawback, Kojima turned it to his advantage. "The MSX audience was more technologically savvy than the Famicom audience and as such the game had a much wider influence than it perhaps might have if it had just released on Nintendo's hardware.

"We spent a long time working on animations that wouldn't have been possible on the Famicom. I would go so far to say that, had I been working in the Famicom department from the beginning I probably wouldn't have come up with the idea for Metal Gear. The features of the systems are so different. And the game concept wouldn't have passed Konami's internal processing, which required more mainstream, family-friendly titles for the Famicom."

Following the success of the game Konami commissioned a sequel, this time for the Nintendo hardware. As Kojima had been hired to work in the MSX division, he was kept separate from the Famicom team, only hearing about the project second hand. "I heard about Snake's Revenge through rumours, initially," he says. "I was quite new at the company and had no influence on the other departments.

"Then one day I met someone on the train who worked in the Famicom department. He used to work for me and was now working on the sequel. He said: 'I don't think this is a true sequel. I think you should make the true sequel.' So on my way home I began to think about what that might look like. Without that encounter I probably wouldn't have pursued a proper sequel, and there might never have been a Metal Gear Solid."

Kojima was merely a game designer at that time, and had no detailed knowledge of the budgets involved, but the trust he had gained from the first game caused Konami to pour more money into his sequel. "Because we were making a war game, Konami wanted the experience to be authentic, so every week they paid for us to visit a forest in the mountains nearby. We would dress up in military uniform and play games there. It was a good time."

Even at this early point in his career, Kojima's directorial flair was irrepressible, and, without programming knowledge, he found himself frustrated by having to rely on programmers to bring his vision to life. "I would tell the programmers what I wanted to show on screen, when I wanted the dialogue to display, or a music cue to sound," he says. "But they wouldn't do it how I wanted. They would change it slightly to what they thought was best.

"It was hugely frustrating making games at that time for me. I wanted to control everything. So, after the second Metal Gear launched, I developed my own scripting engine and decided to work on adventure games so that I could have complete control over when the animation played or when the music triggered. That's when I developed Snatcher and Policenauts. It was a way to take creative control back from the programmers."

But by 1998, Kojima had been promoted to a managerial role at Konami, and enjoyed autonomy to choose the people he wanted on the team – staff who would complement his vision. One such hire was Yoji Shinkawa, an artist that Kojima hired straight out of college in 1994. "Shinkawa was born to be a video game artist," says Kojima. "As soon as I knew I was to be making Metal Gear Solid, I asked Shinkawa to join the team and his work, as much as anything, defined the series from there on."

Metal Gear Solid's development coincided with a technological shift in the medium, that brought with it creative challenges: the move from 2D graphics (and the accompanying gameplay) to the third dimension. Kojima's team developed a 3D engine from scratch for the game and Shinkawa would work from home for months at a time creating the 3D models that would populate the game.

"Yoji created real life 3D plastic models of all of the game's vehicles and as he used so many chemicals, he had to work from home as the fumes were harmful to the rest of the team," Kojima says. "I would visit his apartment every day to check that he was OK. The first time I went there the floor was covered in plastic parts."

The game launched to critical acclaim and commercial success. Its brilliance was in the packaging of the idea, couching the hide-and-seek act of creeping through the shadows in a tight, carefully orchestrated scenario in which one man must infiltrate a radioactive waste facility armed with little more than a radio, a bandana and a packet of cigarettes.

Despite the one-man army set-up, Metal Gear Solid's narrative offers more layers of complexity than a Rambo or a Bond movie, Kojima shying away from a chance for a character to soliloquise on the nature of warfare, or the role of solider pawn, those very same figures controlled by the player, on the battlefield.

I ask whether the reaction to the game surprised him, or whether he knew he had created something special.

"We worked so hard on that game that there wasn't even time to think about how it might be received," he says. "We were just making the game that we wanted to play and I don't think I had any expectations that it was going to be a big game. So when I heard it was selling well in America it didn't feel real.

"I think the first time the game's success struck me was when I came to London in 1999. We visited Forbidden Planet to promote the game. I walked in and the shopkeepers knew about me. I couldn't believe it. It was the most surprising moment in my life."

Despite this success, Kojima was most interested in impressing the woman who had supported him from the very beginning: his mother. "About that time I heard that my mother had stopped telling her friends what I did for a living," he tells me. "She was hugely supportive in the beginning. But after a decade or so her friends' sons and daughters all had high positions in big companies. I think she felt a little awkward about what I did by this point."

But Metal Gear Solid's success convinced Konami to plough a huge amount of money into its sequel, developed for Sony's PlayStation 2. "We had so much more budget so we were able to go to Hollywood and hire a composer [Harry Gregson-Williams]," he says. "That was a huge moment for me, made all the better because Harry had heard of my games."

Following Metal Gear Solid 2's release, Kojima was listed by Newsweek as one of the 'Top 10 People To Watch In 2003'. "After that, my mother began to tell all of her friends about what I did," says Kojima, laughing. "It was sweet. By that time she was 70 years old. But she decided that she was going to play through my games.

"It took her an entire year to complete Metal Gear Solid 3. She would get her friends to help her. When she defeated The End [a character the player faces off against in one of the game's final missions] she called me up and said: 'It is finished'."

Today, there is little that Kojima would change about his career, and he has no regrets: "Looking back, I am thankful that I didn't go into the film industry," he says. "If I had joined that industry I wouldn't have been able to make the kind of films I wanted to, and I really enjoy the games I make now."

Indeed, Kojima has lost none of his infectious energy and drive to create. He arrives to work at 6.30am each day, and spends an hour meditating on his life before heading into the business of the day, which is split equally between managerial responsibilities and creative ones. "I wouldn't have taken the managerial role if I wasn't heavily involved in the creative process too," he says. "I have to have a creative role otherwise I simply wouldn't come into work. I try to always have a game design role as part of my responsibilities at any one time. If I didn't have this, I wouldn't be able to do what I do."

One part of his daily ritual stems from even earlier than his formative days working as a game designer for the MSX. Now 48, Kojima's father's influence on him is still very apparent in his routine. Every day, no matter how busy his schedule, the designer takes 90-odd minutes to watch a film at his desk. "It's part of my ritual to watch a new film every day, no matter what," he says. "It's important to me."

Sensing that the habit is as much a tribute to his father's demand that the family watch a film a day as it is a way to draw creative inspiration from another medium, I venture the question: "Do you think your father would have been proud of what you do?"

"I don't think..." he says, quietly. "I mean. If he was still alive… Well, I don't think he would be unhappy about my choice."

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Press Start: GTA Online begins, Kinect can hear two voices at once, and more

Plus, Killzone devs start new IP, a defining moment in one man's Football Manager career, and Ian Livingstone says goodbye to Eidos

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Press Start: Press Start: Half-Life 3 rumours fuelled, Destiny beta details, and more

Could Gordon and Alyx be about to return?

A selection of links, hand-picked by the Guardian games writers.

Valve files Half-Life 3 trademark

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F1 2013 – review

but strangely, that is due more to Codemasters' skill at negotiating political minefields, rather than its programming prowess. That's because the latest iteration of its expensively licensed game charting the pinnacle of motorsport contains something that motorsport enthusiasts have wanted for years: retro cars, drivers and tracks.

The corporate nature of the F1 world dictates that, in any game depicting it, every sponsor's logo, advertising hoarding and so on has to be authentic, which is why it's physically impossible for developers to get their games out before a chunk of each season has passed. So adding cars of yore to the equation adds another level of licensing complexity, but with consummate skill (and, one suspects, infinite patience), Codemasters has somehow managed to pull off that juggling act. Boot up F1 2013, negotiate the Young Driver Test (which dictates the car you will be allowed to pilot in Career mode), and you will find a new menu item entitled F1 Classics.

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Tom Clancy – a video game maker too

The hugely successful author, who died on Tuesday, is being remembered for his blockbusting military novels, but one key element of his career is being overlooked: video games

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BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea episode one – preview

BioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea takes you back to Rapture before the city’s fall

(WARNING CONTAINS BIOSHOCK AND BIOSHOCK INFINITE SPOILERS)

I'm Sorry. Really, I'm very sorry about the above admission. I've been trying to come up with a way to talk about BioShock Infinite's story-based DLC without giving away significant plot points in it and Irrational's 2007 masterpiece. Lord alone knows that the less players know about the stories contained in the cities of Rapture and Colombia, the more they're likely to be blown away by their first encounters with them. But there simply is no way to discuss Burial at Sea without offering up some details about the sunken dystopia of Rapture and the twisted denizens that inhabit it.

Still, is this such a bad thing? Burial at Sea is the very definition of fan service.

Not only does it offer an intriguing glimpse into the barmy universe of BioShock Infinite, where neither the motives of the characters nor the very fabric of reality can be trusted, but it satiates a couple of desires many fans of the original BioShock have had since the credits rolled on that game back in 2007. (Oh, and if you're not a fan, and you've yet to play either of the aforementioned games, I strongly urge to you stop reading now.)

You see, not only does Burial at Sea mark Irrational's return to the sunken city of Rapture

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