CULVER CITY, Calif. — Sony is desperate, and the once-proud console giant showed it at today’s press conference, spending an alarming amount of time describing some new color schemes for the PlayStation Portable. The low-selling portable game system will soon be available in Ice Silver, as well as a Star Wars-themed white with Darth Vader’s face in one corner. A guy in a Chewbacca suit came out to help introduce that color scheme. Sony also showed off more of its upcoming PlayStation Home feature (currently in beta), where players create avatars and incredibly detailed hangouts, so they can meet up with other Home users, and organize multiplayer games. Home’s graphics are a quantum leap ahead of the late-90’s look of online games like Second Life, especially when it comes to large, open environments. But when it came to the PlayStation 3 as a whole, Sony was backpedaling.

Having dominated the last console war with its PlayStation 2—which sold more units than Microsoft’s Xbox and Nintendo’s Gamecube combined, and hasn’t stopped selling—Sony was confident that it would be vindicated for sticking to its guns, and pricing the PlayStation 3 at $500 for the version without a hard drive, and $600 for the 60GB model. But earlier this week, Sony effectively admitted that the PS3 is too expensive, dropping the current 60GB version to $500, and adding a new 80GB model, supposedly targeting download-heavy hardcore gamers, for $600. And at E3, Sony made this week’s maneuver sound like progress, with a new pricepoint to convince PlayStation 2 owners to make the switch to the beefier system. Let’s face it—this is an admission of failure, and a perfect opportunity to segue into a lineup of incredible new games, blockbuster hits with enough traction to pull the PS3 out of its sales slump.

Unfortunately, only two of the titles showcased at the conference have a real shot at console-rescue. Legendary game designer Hideo Kojima made an appearance to introduce a new trailer for Metal Gear Solid 4, the latest and, according to Kojima, last in the popular series. The graphics were astonishing, but the hilariously convoluted storyline only makes sense to the most hardcore Metal Gear fans. Still, considering how fanatic those fans are, and how many of them are in Japan, this game could sell a lot of PS3s.

The other glimmer of hope came at the very end of the conference, with Sony Worldwide Studios President Phil Harrison adding that everything we’re about to see is in “real-time,” before darting offstage. Sneaky game publishers, Sony included, have been known to slip bumped-up graphics and video into trailers. So to prove the point, a guy with a controller appeared onstage during the extended scene that followed. The game was Killzone 2, a first-person shooter that looks better than anything we’ve seen here so far (pictured above). The setting was slightly futuristic, but closer to the Tom Clancy modern-day shooters than the Xbox 360 hit Gears of War. It was just one scene, but it looked like the PS3’s Cell processor architecture was finally being used to its fullest, with flawless particle effects during explosions, beautifully layered dynamic lighting, and an overall polish that only massive hardware can pull off. Harrison came back to introduce the guy playing the game as its director, but no further info or release date was offered. A bad sign in the midst of a promising one. And great as Metal Gear Solid looked, it’s not due till early 2008. Which means Sony is probably going to stay desperate for the rest of the year, while the Wii continues to glide into every living room on the planet. —Erik Sofge