And finally the last Story about my Travel to London last week to the PlayStation Day is done. This time you can read all about what 3rd-Party Publishers had to show there!

This third section of my story is about SONY’s premiere 3rd Party studios, producers and publishers invited to show-off and "strut their playstation stuff" at the PLAYSTATION DAY in London. Thumbs up guys (and ladies…), good job on complimenting (and slightly, but politely upstaging…) the products that SCEE had to offer.

The guest-list of third party exhibitors consisted of heavy hitters such as; UBI-SOFT, showing off HAZE, yet another shooter to our over-saturated market of shooters (but a good one might I mention). The sci-fi shooter in which the soldiers, as well as the main character’s visions and perception is influenced by their flow and intake of "Nectar".

SEGA joined the fun with a game to compliment the Olympic fever going on this summer, thus the introduction of their BEIJING OLYMPICS title for PS3 (think of Track and Field…only much better and 38 events instead of only 5 events). This is one of the few titles that I saw as a breath of fresh air in our world of games which is overdosed with sci-fi, arsenals of weaponry, massive multi-player madness and ultimately just random violence (I am a HUGE fan of shooters but every now and then you have to put the guns down and relax a bit). Yes, this sport simulator was a bit more on the toned-down side (NOT BORING) when compared to my personal library of games but at the same time it had a good-sized fun-factor to it. You get to virtually represent your country in a multitude of Olympic events such as; gymnastics, aquatic events like diving/swimming, cycling, Judo (a little violence…ok!), table tennis (that’s a sport?), track/field and even Kayaking (I’ve always wanted to do that in real life.). You can even get online with 7 other friends to “go for gold” against each other while representing your favourite country with no worries of being tested by the I.O.C. for doping on the off season. BEIJING OLYMPICS is a good one to have to add to the diversity of your games library. Grab it.

Of course, no party can be a real party without the big boys showin’ up…Yes EA does it again with the intro of TWO new titles, UEFA Euro 2008 (to be released this summer) and MIRRORS EDGE (to be released in the fall). Now I’m not going to even bother to talk to you about a football game because an American explaining football to a European is like anyone explaining to George W. Bush how to be an idiot. It doesn’t take much there. However, what I do want to talk about is MIRRORS EDGE, which is a very new twist to an action-adventure game. It introduces you to the world of “parkour”, also known as “free-running” or “urban free-running”. An extreme-sport rumoured to be started by inner-city French adolescents which couldn’t afford (or chose not to get into) roller-blades, skateboards and bikes in which you give new meaning to the words “jump-and-run” by using your urban environment as your personal stunt area; leaping high fences, other urban objects, staircases, balconies, walls (whatever you may encounter in any town or city) as well as jumping from rooftop-to-rooftop with leaps, bounds, acrobatics and flips using only your body momentum, speed and agility. In MIRRORS EDGE you are a Faith, a specially trained messenger called a “Runner” in a sort of “BIG BROTHER” (not that stupid show…read the book 1984 by George Orwell) type of world in which your job is to transport sensitive data through the city using your highly trained free-running skills to escape an alleged crime that you’ve somehow committed. You better run…and learn to use those free-running skills well, because now you’re being hunted. I can’t wait to see this one come out. It looked great to me.

With all this being said about what I saw at PLAYSTATION DAY when it came to 3rd parties, it seemed to me like they were the ones crashing the party, but in a positive complimentary way. It’s sort of similar to the guys that get invited to the house party, bring the good drinks and music with them to get everyone going. With the addition of these games to their already beefed-up set of titles and features that SONY has up for this year, I can definitely say that PS3 owners have a lot to look forward to.