Sony Pre E3 2008: Linger In-Shadow Impressions

Wow. So Sony had this little head trip tucked away in a corner of the hotel suite where it had all the games playable at today's event. I had no idea what the heck it was when I walked over, I just saw a bunch of cool and random images on the TV every time I looked over. Dogs, cats, pandas, flying squid creatures, floating platforms- all pretty random stuff. My curiosity eventually got the best of me and well, wow. The title is a piece of interactive developed by a core group of folk from the European demoscene movement, all of about five people to be exact. So basically demoscene is a collective of artists from different mediums who work together to produce demos on PC that show off coding proficiency as well as visuals and music. It's a bit abstract and has really been more of a thing outside the US although it sounds as though folks are trying to get organized and give it a go in the states.

Why the Cliff Notes info on the whole movement? Well, mostly because it's at the heart of Linger In-Shadow. Sony approached some of folks involved in the scene and got them some PS3 dev kits and let them go to town. The result is Linger In-Shadow, a unique and stunning piece of PSN content that you'll be able to watch and have some limited interactivity by exploring the virtual environment that's been created. At first blush it just looks like a really cool tech demo but, we came to find that you'll be able to explore the crazy visuals you see and even interact with them. You'll see button prompts and even have to shake the controller to uncover new bits to see. Sound bizarre? I suppose it would in writing. So here, just have a look. As you can see: dogs, cats, pandas, flying squid creatures, floating platforms. Why not right? While this isn't a game, I'm pretty excited to see where Sony goes with this. Creative folks need outlets and this could be a cool one. The title is set to his this summer on PSN, no word on pricing.