Last Friday I spent a good part of the day playing with the new motion controllers for the PS3, the Playstation Move.
The Move marks Sony's take on the motion controlled madness that is starting to play a very important part on today's gaming consoles. Nintendo successfully bought motion remotes to the market with the Wii, and although it's sales have started to dry up a bit it continues to appeal to families.
The Playstation Move, in essence, is much like the Wiimotes. The Move Remote itself has a 'squashy' ball on the top that changes colour depending on what your playing and how brightly coloured your room is. Unlike the Wii, you require another accessory to play, the Playstation Eye. Although the Eye camera has been available on the PS3 since the release of Eye Of Judgement (which is quite some time ago now) it's only now getting the treatment in deserves. The camera picks up the motion controller (more so the coloured ball on top of the remote) to track and relay your movements into the game. While the Wiimote can also track basic movements, the Move also incorporates a '3D depth perception', which basically means if you move the remote closer to the camera, the object your using in the game will come closer to the screen (and obviously vice-versa if you move the remote away from the camera).
The main title I played was Sports Champions, which on reflection really requires two of the Move remotes to get the most out of the game as although you can play the games within with just the one, your losing out on some of the fun.
Take for example Gladiator Duel. One remote means your using it as a sword and as a shield, controlling the movements of both by pressing the trigger on the back to switch to your shield. If you however have 2 Move remotes, the second becomes your shield. You still need to hold the trigger to actively use your shield, but it allows you to move your shield separate to your main weapon.
As well as purchasing a remote, I also purchased a Navigator, which you may imagine has a similar use to that of the Wii's Nunchuck. The Navigator doesn't have any motion tech however, and is purely used to provide an analouge stick (for situations such as moving your an on-screen character). It also features an X and O buttons. Sadly, out of all the games played on Friday only the one title, Resident Evil 5 Gold Edition, required the Navigator. Instead of purchasing a Navigator you can choose to use a standard Playstation 3 controller in your other hand, but I can see this being a little uncomfortable, so would recomend buying a Navigator if your going to be playing a number of games that require it.
I had a feeling that Sony weren't going to get the free demos of upcoming Move titles on the Playstation Network in time, but they did! Launch day titles such as Start The Party and Sports Champions were ready for new Move gamers to download (although those gamers who purchased the Starter Pack with the camera didn't need too, as all the demos were bundled on a disc in the box). Heavy Rain and Tiger Woods also got updates to allow you to play with the Move remotes on day one.
My Move game of the day? That award goes to a game you can't buy off the shelves. Tumble, a Playstation Network title, works in a similar way to the board game Jenga...pitting players to build up oddly shaped blocks to score points while avoiding knocking any blocks out of bounds. Simple in design and concept, but a brilliant game that really makes the most out of the Move's accuracy.
Sony's attempt to tap into Nintendo's casual market is a great move (pardon the pun). It's a great new peripheral and one I hope gets the support from developers that it deserves (Just...go easy on the 'party games' guys!).
Myself, Tom and Mike recorded are first play with the new Playstation Move, and I'll provide a link to the videos once they appear on BlastProcess.com.
