2007 - The best gaming year ever

It’s an attitude which is leaking through a lot of the PlayStation 3’s output already and showing some excellent results. After taking an initial approach of “Look at our horsepower!”, Sony is now using new-gen tech in some far more interesting ways to create some genuinely intriguing and unique experiences. LittleBigPlanet is by far the most obvious example. Blending modern online networking with some slick, pacey, and jubilantly fun-looking gameplay, LBP seems to be a fantastic distillation of what technology and community can do together in the modern gaming era.

Sony seems to finally have its innovation hat pulled squarely down to its eyebrows with a few other ideas too. The PlayStation Eye camera is already seeing some worthwhile and varied use, going beyond the level of gimmick peripheral and actually being used to make some worthwhile games unlike anything else out there. The Eye Of Judgement was a very cool idea and a great example of what the technology is capable of, while Trial Of Topoq looks like it could be a great casual blend of novelty control and ‘real’ game. And Afrika too looks like it might see Sony putting monster processing power behind the kind of ‘experience’ game that Nintendo has proved can work with Endless Ocean. It’ll be a triply exciting prospect if the rumours of using full body motion control to stalk around the savannah turn out to be true.

The PSN’s downloadable game selection is also seeing Sony embrace a pleasing number of titles of an innovative and artistic nature. The gentle abstract ambience of flOw is a shining example of this kind of thing, as are Everyday Shooter and the upcoming Echochrome. The PS3’s got the idea of casual gaming, but it’s doing it from a pleasingly left-field and creative way.