The Move

I couldn’t explain to you why, but I felt compelled this weekend to pick up the Playstation Move. I was pretty content to just wait for the software to come out that makes this a must have accessory. I think I tricked myself by saying “I’m going to want them for Little Big Planet 2 anyway, no reason to wait until then to pick it up”. I have to say though, the precision and it’s application in the titles I’ve tried thus far is really impressive. The comparison to the Wii is inevitable, but I can tell you as a Wii owner, and someone who thinks the Wii had all kinds potential and has fallen victim to it’s on self imposed short comings, this isn’t even close, not even with Wii Motion Plus.

The first and most important difference I’ve noticed between the Wii and Sony’s Move, is that unlike Wii, Move doesn’t rely entirely on gesture controls. Gesture controls for the move do exist when it makes sense, for example, flicking your wrist to toss the ball up in volleyball or table tennis, but when it comes to hitting the ball your position when you are performing the actions are very important. Compared to Wii where you can stand completely still and just time the flick of your wrist, Move had me scampering all over my living room trying to get good angles for my returns.

Also, the form factor on these controls is infinitely better than the virtual brick that is a wiimote, wielding 2 Move controllers, or a Move controller and a navigator, felt good, no risk of soreness from serious sessions which is good! because with the gaming that could conceivably be backed by the power of a PS3 there are going to be experiences that you WANT to play for hours (Red Steel 2 port please, remove doors thank you), including perhaps Heavy Rain which has added move support. I started my second play through of that and the controls were fairly intuitive, though very much a gesture control system. I’m not sure I’ll have the stick-to-it-ness that would be required to get through the game again, as much as I did like, and appreciate it the first time around, there are an awful lot of slow moments, but I’d still highly recommend it to anyone who considers themselves a gamer, as it is truly a unique experience, and even more-so now that it supports move controls. Or perhaps a couple rounds of golf with Tiger Woods PGA Tour 11 which has also added Move support post release and does a very good job at illustrating my hook.

Getting into the software, I’ll just sort of touch on what I’ve tried here, and focus on the move implementation. I’ll save the more in depth review of the games I’ve purchased for their own posts. Luckily the Move came with a demo disc with pretty much every move title available now.

Start the Party

As you might guess by the title, this is a mini-game collection, the hook here is augmented reality. For those not certain of what I mean by this, Start the Party uses the PlayStation Eye to project the player on the screen, the augmented reality bit is how the game will put some sort of ‘end’ on the Move controller, which you use to play the minigames. For example, there is a mini game where you have to paint templated shapes on the screen, and the move controller effectively turns into a paintbrush on the screen. Similarly, there is a game where you have to swat flies, and the controller is projected on the screen as a swatter. I don’t think there are enough variety in the games to make this game something that you need to have, but it is silly and fun in small doses when people are over, and probably more fun that for or with a younger crowd.

Sports Champion

I struggle to not call this “Wii Sports Champion” often, but I’m having a lot of fun with it. Specifically with the Table Tennis and Archery games. This game really demonstrates the precision of the Move controller. As I mentioned above, when I’m playing table tennis I often have to move around my living room to keep the ball on my forehand so I can better manage the center of the table. The way you hold the controller effects the way the paddle is held, putting authentic spin on the ball. It’s not perfect, there are often places on the table where I don’t feel I have a legitimate chance to return it, but it is very rare that I feel I had been cheated by it. The percision carries through all of the games here, and they are all fairly fun, even bocce… One short coming here, and I’m not certain whether or not this a function of the size of my livingroom, which I believe may be a little small for the Move experience, but I find when we’re playing mulitplayer sports games, the system wants us to be standing fairly close to each other and people have been whacked as a result.

Heavy Rain

They added move support in a post release patch, I played the first chapter again just to get a sense of how they implemented Move, and it’s pretty much as you would expect, you use the navigator control to move the character, and instead of button presses, you use gesture controls to perform your actions. I don’t think this makes Heavy Rain a better game since for the most part, the problems lay in the slow story telling segments as opposed to the controls, but it does make it a little more immersive from what I can tell in my short re-sampling.

I have also tried, Eyepet, Tiger Woods 11, and Tumble, but I’ll save those for a subsequent post.

I have been away for the last few days, so I didn’t get much gaming done apart from maybe 30-40 minutes of Bowser’s Inside Story while I was on the plane.. before I left, I had got to spend 2-3 hours with Heavy Rain, just enough to get to the point where the pacing of the story really starts to pick up.

Since getting back, I’m 6 or 7 hours in, and I think I’m very close to the end… all I can say is wow, what an experience so far. I’ve seen all sorts of shady things… It feels like choose your own adventure book, in movie format, that just so happens to be interactive. The result is something that hits a lot of emotions, and through the intertwining story of these 4 characters, you come to some very difficult and emotional crossroads, and tough decisions. I said the same thing about Indigo Prophecy that I’m going to say now… This game isn’t for everyone, but, if you consider yourself a fan of video games, you absolutely should not miss this. I can’t wait to see how my adventure ends.

After the first DLC for Borderlands I’ve been weary, it was clear the second one wasn’t for me, but I also wasn’t really interested in General Knoxx, until I caught the quick look on GiantBomb. This looks like the DLC I wanted Zombie Island to be… we’ll have to see how final fantasy 13 smooths over before I jump on that.

I also think that FF1&2 are over priced for iPhone, as tempted as I am, $8.99 for a game that’s that old is just too much. I’d have no qualms about paying $5 though…not that taking a stand over $4 is going to prove much of anything…