Microsoft, Sony, Nintendo: The Battle of the Stands

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How the big three shape up on the Leipzig showfloor

Sony

The vibe
English pub meets contemporary chillout meets a whole bunch of other stuff. Although the mix of styles sounds about as appealing as the traditional European fashion favourite of the sock and sandal combo, it actually creates a surprisingly warm, welcomingatmosphere. If the Sony stand could order drinks it would probably start off with a pint of working man's ale, before switching to some awfully sophisticated and very bloody expensive cocktail. An honest grafter and loathsome ponce all at the same time.

The furnishings
Hefty fireside leather chairs, mock brick pillars, tacky carpets and table lamps clash with Sony's much used red and black circular sofa. The clash of styles is equally skewiff when looking upwards, with antique-styled chandeliers hanging next to the painfully funky 'This is Living' banners and oh-so-cool images of SingStar hipsters. Throwing another theme into the mix is a kind of island shipwreck area, with monitors housed inside wooden crates. Chipboard is favoured over real sand, however. Maybe the sand was delayed. Bizarrely, a section is also decked out like a toilet, with people able to sit on the shitter while playing, or having to pluck a controller from a urinal. Finally, a dune buggy plastered with MotorStorm decals is also squeezed in, which is nice, although we're sure a 12ft inflatable teddy from LittleBigPlanet would have been more warmly received.

Gaming highlights
Unchartered: Drake's Territory, Ratchet & Clank Tools of Destruction, Heavenly Sword and Time Crisis 4 will undoubtedly get plenty of attention, although the most popular attraction seems to be SingStar Deutsch Rock-Pop Vol 2, which has been given a generous portion of space.

The ladies
Sony has given its hostesses an undercover look, issuing them with either a black or white PlayStation t-shirt, which is worn with plain old jeans. As a result, they blend in a little too well with all the punters and they can only be spotted by first checking two tick boxes - if they are female and reasonably easy on the eye, then chances are that they're employed by Sony to be there.

Overall
An incredibly diverse range of themes that, amazingly, works really well together. Throw in some EyeToy arm-waving tomfoolery and a load of Germans singing along to Run DMC's 'It's Tricky' in the SingStar area - which was almost good enough to make us pull the laces out of our Adidas - and it all combined in a beautiful, slightly surreal, mish-mash that helped make the Sony stand our most loved hangout.

Matt Cundy
Matt Cundy
I don't have the energy to really hate anything properly. Most things I think are OK or inoffensively average. I do love quite a lot of stuff as well, though.