Playstation Beta Rooms Round Up
by Rob Vicars | Thursday 5th August 2010
So, after receiving a phone call from a very sweet sounding lady, and in a desperate attempt to pretend I'm a real journalist, I was, indeed,
invited to central Birmingham. Not usually an invitation to shout about, or even accept at anything other than gun point, however on this
occasion I'd be saddling into Brummy land to go visit the Playstation Beta Rooms. Fancy eh?
So here's a breakdown and impressions of EVERYTHING we managed to play, and all the extra little bits we managed to find out by bothering all the reps to the point of physical violence. They might not be asking us back.
Motorstorm Apocalypse
Previously, the Motorstorm games have all been about tearing through aesthetically pleasing, sand-orientated landscapes on bikes, buggys, ATVs, trucks, trees, clouds, bits of scenery, hopes and dreams. Apart from maybe that last few. This time it's similar, but everything has exploded. Or is exploding, as the real-time events make a return, but in a much larger way. Sky scrapers collapse as you fly past them, entire city blocks come crumbling into your path as you blinkingly wonder if you'll ever have a road to race on again, bits of bridges fall away and subways cave in to make ramps that send you soaring through the dust-filled, post-apocalyptic air. Though for all its recurring intensity, the demo did little to set itself apart in the bigger picture. The general driving mechanics, the boost system and even the dynamic large-scale set pieces (mostly thanks to Split/Second) all felt a little familiar. I also only got to try the sports car, rather than the lavish array of vehicular arrangements available in the final game, and let's be honest, who wants to drive a car when you can drive a massive truck? Or a thing with wheels larger than your house. First impressions outline a welcome return for a popular arcade racer that may need a little more variety under the hood if it's to make it around the debris-strewn track a third time.
Lastly, of the games we tried on the day, and as a 3D sceptic, it had one of the better working 3D versions. The camera angle helped exemplify the depth and the litter and debris looked solid floating around as we dissected our way through it. The innocents that foolishly populated the road during the race also became slightly more fun to bounce of the bonnet, for unknown reasons. For all that though, it suffered greatly from the darkening the glasses added, making it distinctly difficult, sometimes impossible to see what was actually going on ahead of you. So I crashed. Alot.
Little Big Planet 2
The surprise guest of the show. Neither me, nor my accomplice were aware that the follow up to the world's most adorable platformer would be making an appearance. So pleased were we that we frolicked excitedly around the giant Sackboy statue until we were kindly told to stop it, or we'd be violently escorted off the premises. We managed to play a co-op level of the game, which largely involved me continually falling behind, and desperately grappling at anything the new grapple hook would stick to, and a trio of the new mini-games that apparently appear sporadically about the main game.
From the level we played, things are very similar to LBP. The style and charm all make an obvious return, as well as the innovative level design and the fancy touches with physics based puzzles. The new grapple hook opens up some opportunities for yet more varied acrobatics, even more so, in co-op you can grapple the other player's Sackboy, which on our play through, inevitably led to me repeatedly dragging my partner down as I began a 30ft drop to the beginning of the stage. People don't like playing games with me.
The mini-games involved three diverse affairs that, more than anything, gave us an idea of the kind of reaches the creation tools would now be capable of. The developers at Media Molecule managed to create a truly uniquely customizable canvas with the first LittleBig and as such a huge element of the game was based around the community. That established community is going to be treated to a set of tools that stretch way beyond the extent of the first game. Allegedly you'll be able to make 3D shooters, side scrolling games and even real time strategies using the toy box LBP2 will bestow upon the budding game developer in you. The mini games we played involved a top-down game of sumo, in which one player tried to shove the other into the outer circle causing them to explode, a reflex game in which players pushed a corresponding button as fast as they could, with penalties for getting it wrong, allowing opponents to take the lead, and laugh at you, and finally an almost Mario-Brothers-esque game that had each Sackboy equipped with a rocket launcher, chasing each other around the screen attempting to blow the other up. All were fun, and all certainly shouted party game, but the differing mechanics between each showed us that with the time and effort and imagination, the community behemoth is going to come up with some monstrous user-created incarnations come LBP2's November release.
Killzone 3
Excited to get my hands on the third iteration of Sony's flagship-shooter, Killzone's latest effort is somehow more intense than the last one. Its immersive set pieces and full-throttle action are back to complement the shooting mechanics that make the series so much fun to play. Like Call of Duty, Killzone is successful because it is fun just to shoot people. The Helgan are an irritating bunch, but their character models are solid and weapons give a weighted, satisfying feel when they're emptied of their ammunition into the enemy. Building the game on such solid foundations means that the third time around, Guerilla have had chance to play around with flight mechanics and some truly awesome visual impact scenarios.
Jetpacks make a note worthy appearance, as apparently they're fashionable at this end of the gaming season, along with hurling yourself around like a salmon, and the third dimension. It feels intuitive and fun to fly, much like the jetpacks we've experimented with in Reach, and depending on how often they crop up in the game, they could be a significant, dynamic-altering addition. For that we can only wait and see. I played one level easily recognizable from the E3 trailer, as you're flown in to a surprise assault on a Helghan oil rig, manning a minigun as you blast away at the legs and foundations of the base and watch the buildings come crashing down with thunderous, raucous devastation. The next thing you know you've crash landed in a base surrounded by heaps of Helghast, and have to fight your way through the level, with the computer AI at your side. The melee combat has been reworked and drags that mesmeric, brutal first person perspective of punching an enemy in the face into the whole new idea of having to do it several times. It looks painful. Deliciously painful.
Killzone was a joy to play with, and was probably the game we spent most time with at the show, its battles seem severe enough to warrant playing it through the Dolby Surround at full blast, an experience that will be unique, I'm sure. That said the previous effort's faults still stand, a hard obstacle to really overcome in that, Killzone is essentially just a decent, solid shooter. It does nothing new or different, and doesn't stray far from the mark of its predecessors. It's likely to be a must-purchase for console owners, but a reason to buy a new machine? Probably not.
I also got to try Killzone 3 in 3D aswell, and whilst I've read reports of it adding a depth that immerses you, and adds levels upon which it's easier to distinguish enemies in the distance from say, an empty box, however my experience was quite opposite. I felt the 3D to be more of a distraction from what was actually going on, making the screen look cluttered and scattered, rather than simply deep. It didn't add anything to my ability to depict distant enemies and suffered largely from the darkening problem I mentioned earlier, which meant when I wasn't trying to make the large clunky Sony 3D glasses fit comfortably, I was straining to see what exactly was happening. I'd been using 3D frequently through-out the day, and although never encountering any problems watching 3D in the past, Killzone eventually gave me a headache, and only really reinforced my opinion that 3D as it is, is merely a novelty. Shame eh.
Gran Turismo 5 3D
I put 3D in the heading this time, as the game was only available in 3D at the event. To be less than cautious though, I was quite surprised Polyphonic Digital had actually made enough game to show off about. The infinite number of release dates GT5 has failed to meet has left me constantly conjuring up ideas of PD sat around in an office one afternoon, one coder sits up slightly, and murmurs lazily, hey guys, shall we start work on that GT5 code today? To which the muffled reply from a nearby work colleague is, nah Frank... maybe tomorrow. And they all go back to sleep. Little insight into the workings of an inept writer's insane mental state there.
Whilst waiting to get my go on history's most delayed game, I stood admiring the visuals. Bearing in mind here, what I was looking at was a 3D image, with no 3D glasses. So a blur, essentially. However even with the hazy-drunkenness stylistic, it was possible to look at the game and marvel at its eventual beauty. Gran Turismo, in 4 of its previous incarnations, has never looked like those pre-release promotional videos that are always jammed ostentatiously in your face whilst a tiny man in a suit exclaims LOOK HOW REAL IT LOOKS. GO ON. LOOK. Thing is this time, it actually does look like that. I think. Regrettably, Gran Turismo's 3D was another that came off rather disappointing. Rather than add a feeling of immersion, it simply desaturated the rich and exact colour, and made everything look a little less sharp. A large distraction in the visual department, and whilst the map and HUD being pressed slightly closer to you was nice, it wasn't quite worth the sacrifices. The physics felt excellent during my time with it, perhaps just different to Forza's current exquisite physics model that I'm so used to, as my first race felt surprisingly sluggish. Other than the adaptation-process from one simulator to the other, and the drawbacks of 3D, GT5 is still looking to be the only racer PS3 owners are ever going to need, and the only game that's ever made you masturbate over a digital render of a car. I mean. What?
Playstation Move
Wagglers worldwide rejoice! I've tried the Playstation Move. And it's about what you'd expect.
The main thing about the Move Controller itself is it's satisfyingly ergonomic. The moment it's curvaceous handle snuggles your hand and you stop making eerily sexual references, it feels like you've been holding a concrete slab anytime you've previously picked up a Wiimote. It's light, and perhaps for all the talk of physical feedback, could have done with being slightly weightier, but in this it adds to the idea of it being comfortable in your hand.
The Navigation Controller is a weird little thing, from my experience at the show, it served little more use than its analogue stick and the L1 and L2 buttons , therein, little more use than a nunchuck. It worked though. It worked just fine.
The Move Controller was responsive, I found selecting things on menus to be genuinely far more intuitive than the Wii's fiddly sensor doing the same thing. It had a relatively decent grasp of the angle of the controller too, though often had a bit of trouble directing you in doing exactly what it wanted, essentially making baffling nondescript icons at you for reasons unfathomable to everyone involved.
I played several games with them, which I'll go through separately now. In each case, the results were conclusive in, aside from tweaking the cameras ability to recognize more precise movements, the main thing to consider is the hardware is functioning. The software is the element that needs to catch up.
Kung Fu Rider
The first game I tried using the move was Kung Fu Rider, the game that gives you the illustrious opportunity to ride extremely fast down a big hill on an office chair kicking things. My first few runs were appalling, and once I'd acclimatized myself to Move's digits, I was still appalling. My brother in arms took over so I could take some notes and not play anymore. The game was fun, if a little hit and miss with its array of moves and actions. Jumping requires you to thrust your arm up in the air, whilst kicking in a certain direction has you holding down the Square or Triangle button and flicking the controller in the appropriate direction, leaning back to fit under signs and trucks is a quick pull of the trigger, a spinning action is the large, central Move button... there's a lot of options there considering the game format, that concluded in me wildly windmilling the controller about mashing buttons and generating concerned looks from the Sony reps. This range of moves was largely a good thing though, as it pulls out the longevity of likely short title, getting the player used to all the advanced moves after they get passed the initial, how-to-get-down-the-hill-phase.
Essentially, it's little more than a party game. Its Crazy-Taxi style presentation and quirky sound effects make it enjoyable to watch someone play, and then jump on and be terrible at. Was I utterly blown away by the Playstation Move with this, my first go with the hardware? No, not really.
Sports Champions - Table Tennis
Naturally the Sports-Compilation that spearheads all motion-sensing gaming ever made itself known. This, the first of two games playable on the day from the disc that will come in the basic pack, with a Move Controller and a camera. Table Tennis, for me, was more of a demonstration of the extent to which Move is actually 1 to 1 accurate. After you've set up and calibrated and got into your game, your character disappears, leaving just a mysterious, ghostly hovering bat. This allowed for swaying and moving and swirling, actions the likes of which a real table tennis player would look a bit stupid doing, but I don't mind taking that bullet, it's all in a day's work. Certainly from this position, the bat appeared to move identically to how the controller was moving in my hand. Weirdly, the bat held sideways, in a natural table tennis position, equated to the controller held buttons -upwards, which confused me a little as it felt like the buttons should have been a flat side of the bat, where you'd have your thumb on the real thing. But that may have just been my incorrectly wired brain malfunctioning impressively. A learning curve that you can easily get used to, let's say.
When a short shot was played to me, Move had a hard time showing me what depth I needed to get to to accurately connect with the shot. This led to me trying to fudge all the shots by blindly swinging the bat in the general direction, removing this whole '1 to 1' novelty, and lowe and behold I was playing a Wii. Whilst this could have been put down to several excuses, my position infront of the camera, the way I held the Move controller etc, my opponent (whom I actually managed to BEAT several times, bewilderingly) also had the same issue. Considering we're little more than a month away from the release now, this felt like the kind of thing Move should have been able to do well.
Sports Champions - Disc Golf
A sport I've never heard of. And I've thought of a million games to play with blank CDs. The How Many Pieces Can I Break This Into game is a favourite, however Disc Golf never entered my clearly haywire imagination*. So what is it? Disc golf is Frisbee. With Golf's rules. And instead of a hole, the goal is a weird cage thing.
To start with I lazily flicked my Move controller, with little conviction or direction, entirely expecting it to do the job. It didn't. My Frisbee caught a tiny gust of wind and landed about three feet in front of me. How embarrassing. Interested, my second turn I assumed the pro-frisbee thrower stance, and actioned my throw with the force and movement I would have done throwing a real plastic disc, which worked wonderfully. So Move definitely has a knowledge of power and speed in regards to the controller. The game was enjoyable, mainly because I won. It naturally echoed the easily and quickly thinning appeal of all similar motion sports games. But I won.
(*There's a high chance my far-reaching sports knowledge has simply failed me here, and everyone's actually heard of the media-emblazoned sporting giant that is the Disc Golf industry. If this is in fact the case, sorry for not knowing your stupid sport.)
The Fight: Lights Out
The least inventive name since John Romero's unreleased 'In This Game You Shoot Things' (and also I'm better than you), The Fight puts you; you guessed it, in a fight. With TWO motion controllers. The pros? Again, the weight and power of the punches you threw were significant, and as such the game calculated the amount of calories burnt after each fight, in a grittier, testosterone-fuelled version of Wii Fit. Plus, punching things in anything is fun. Anyone remember that original EyeToy: Play game, in which you could punch a robot? Hours of fun. Obviously not being very good at punching anything, I ended up gently uppercut-bopping my bemused AI opponent repeatedly under the chin, which looked hilarious.
The cons? It was the most sluggish and least lithely of all the Move games, leaving you feeling quite distant from the presumably intended 'complete engagement' with your in game fighting ability. My character bizarrely ended up almost cowering around my opponent, or so it seemed due to some odd camera angles, swinging punches that didn't quite become accurately replicated on screen left you more than a little detached. Fighting in games will always be fun, but from what I played of this, it does nothing impressive or fresh in terms of motion fighting. Looks like for the definitive 'men rolling around in each other's arms' experience, you'll have to wait for UFC: Move.
Heavy Rain Move
Heavy Rain is an interesting game. Its particular emphasis on cinematics and QTE's however, lend itself almost ideally to the differing flexibilities of the Playstation Move. This is the only game I got to use the Navigation controller with and was only really used for camera and player control. It was good to finally have both bits of gear in my hand though. As mentioned, the whole idea fits Heavy Rain well, instead of flicking an analogue stick or merely pushing buttons, Heavy Rain's frequent quick time events are completed via large swishy movements with the Move controller, that generally do their best to stick closely to what's happening on screen. When Norman Jayden reaches down for his inhaler, the game requires you to move the controller down to your side, when he knocks on a door, it wants you to thrust it forward. This works best in the fight scenes. Or rather scene, as that was all I got to play. Not knowing what was coming next, and which action would be required gave the fighting that more intense, high-pressure moment feel, perfectly aligned with the action on screen, dodging and throwing punches and diving across the room, picking up nearby objects, all translated into icons that tell you what movement it wants to be performed at exactly the right time. It's exciting and fun.
My main gripe here was the icons didn't generally make it really clear exactly what the game wanted you to do. Is it a forward thrust, or a downward swipe? Do I hold the controller up in the air, or am I supposed to just flick it upwards? Even when you knew what you were doing, it often had a hard time recognizing you were doing it. And repeating the action tweaking your movements to make the game understand what you've done, sort of makes you feel a little like you've lost control of your limbs and none of them work properly anymore. It's peculiar. The aforementioned inhaler scene, Norman is leaning up against a wall, both hands pressed against it, gasping for air. Reaching down to get the inhaler is down with a downward motion of the controller in real time. The camera continually stopped recognizing what I was doing half way through, so Norman just put his hand back on the wall, looking like he was very gently pawing the wallpaper, whilst breathing heavily.
If they can sort these recognition issues out, they could be on to a potential winner with Heavy Rain Move. Only time will tell. Time, and lots of money.
--
So that just about wraps up our day at the Playstation Beta Rooms. It was certainly interesting to get to grips with these new fangled ideas. This year hasn't been the eventual bursting blaze of victorious glory Sony told us it would be for the PS3, but it's certainly not over yet, and although there's arguably slim pickings in this line up, the culmination of the year is promising to be an interesting one, as we all open wide and ungraciously accept motion gaming on the remaining major platforms. I certainly enjoyed my short time with Move, in various different ways, although my 3D gaming experience has only cemented my already sceptical outlook on Sony's new venture. LittleBigPlanet 2 and Killzone 3 are looking like the core gaming ace in the hole, something one scarcely needs to be Sherlock Holmes to deduct. Essentially, Move hardware is working, and good. The software is a learning curve which will undoubtedly improve over time, as with the positive effect of 3D in games. Probably. Putting the inevitable drawbacks of these new gaming devices down to time however, is about as convincing an excuse as Wayne Rooney's entire academic career. And similarly, it won't last long. Here's hoping Sony pull it out of the bag and make the close of 2010 as exciting as the prospect of James Corden's untimely death.
Oh shut up, you don't really like him.
So here's a breakdown and impressions of EVERYTHING we managed to play, and all the extra little bits we managed to find out by bothering all the reps to the point of physical violence. They might not be asking us back.
Motorstorm Apocalypse
Previously, the Motorstorm games have all been about tearing through aesthetically pleasing, sand-orientated landscapes on bikes, buggys, ATVs, trucks, trees, clouds, bits of scenery, hopes and dreams. Apart from maybe that last few. This time it's similar, but everything has exploded. Or is exploding, as the real-time events make a return, but in a much larger way. Sky scrapers collapse as you fly past them, entire city blocks come crumbling into your path as you blinkingly wonder if you'll ever have a road to race on again, bits of bridges fall away and subways cave in to make ramps that send you soaring through the dust-filled, post-apocalyptic air. Though for all its recurring intensity, the demo did little to set itself apart in the bigger picture. The general driving mechanics, the boost system and even the dynamic large-scale set pieces (mostly thanks to Split/Second) all felt a little familiar. I also only got to try the sports car, rather than the lavish array of vehicular arrangements available in the final game, and let's be honest, who wants to drive a car when you can drive a massive truck? Or a thing with wheels larger than your house. First impressions outline a welcome return for a popular arcade racer that may need a little more variety under the hood if it's to make it around the debris-strewn track a third time.
Lastly, of the games we tried on the day, and as a 3D sceptic, it had one of the better working 3D versions. The camera angle helped exemplify the depth and the litter and debris looked solid floating around as we dissected our way through it. The innocents that foolishly populated the road during the race also became slightly more fun to bounce of the bonnet, for unknown reasons. For all that though, it suffered greatly from the darkening the glasses added, making it distinctly difficult, sometimes impossible to see what was actually going on ahead of you. So I crashed. Alot.
Little Big Planet 2
The surprise guest of the show. Neither me, nor my accomplice were aware that the follow up to the world's most adorable platformer would be making an appearance. So pleased were we that we frolicked excitedly around the giant Sackboy statue until we were kindly told to stop it, or we'd be violently escorted off the premises. We managed to play a co-op level of the game, which largely involved me continually falling behind, and desperately grappling at anything the new grapple hook would stick to, and a trio of the new mini-games that apparently appear sporadically about the main game.
From the level we played, things are very similar to LBP. The style and charm all make an obvious return, as well as the innovative level design and the fancy touches with physics based puzzles. The new grapple hook opens up some opportunities for yet more varied acrobatics, even more so, in co-op you can grapple the other player's Sackboy, which on our play through, inevitably led to me repeatedly dragging my partner down as I began a 30ft drop to the beginning of the stage. People don't like playing games with me.
The mini-games involved three diverse affairs that, more than anything, gave us an idea of the kind of reaches the creation tools would now be capable of. The developers at Media Molecule managed to create a truly uniquely customizable canvas with the first LittleBig and as such a huge element of the game was based around the community. That established community is going to be treated to a set of tools that stretch way beyond the extent of the first game. Allegedly you'll be able to make 3D shooters, side scrolling games and even real time strategies using the toy box LBP2 will bestow upon the budding game developer in you. The mini games we played involved a top-down game of sumo, in which one player tried to shove the other into the outer circle causing them to explode, a reflex game in which players pushed a corresponding button as fast as they could, with penalties for getting it wrong, allowing opponents to take the lead, and laugh at you, and finally an almost Mario-Brothers-esque game that had each Sackboy equipped with a rocket launcher, chasing each other around the screen attempting to blow the other up. All were fun, and all certainly shouted party game, but the differing mechanics between each showed us that with the time and effort and imagination, the community behemoth is going to come up with some monstrous user-created incarnations come LBP2's November release.
Killzone 3
Excited to get my hands on the third iteration of Sony's flagship-shooter, Killzone's latest effort is somehow more intense than the last one. Its immersive set pieces and full-throttle action are back to complement the shooting mechanics that make the series so much fun to play. Like Call of Duty, Killzone is successful because it is fun just to shoot people. The Helgan are an irritating bunch, but their character models are solid and weapons give a weighted, satisfying feel when they're emptied of their ammunition into the enemy. Building the game on such solid foundations means that the third time around, Guerilla have had chance to play around with flight mechanics and some truly awesome visual impact scenarios.
Jetpacks make a note worthy appearance, as apparently they're fashionable at this end of the gaming season, along with hurling yourself around like a salmon, and the third dimension. It feels intuitive and fun to fly, much like the jetpacks we've experimented with in Reach, and depending on how often they crop up in the game, they could be a significant, dynamic-altering addition. For that we can only wait and see. I played one level easily recognizable from the E3 trailer, as you're flown in to a surprise assault on a Helghan oil rig, manning a minigun as you blast away at the legs and foundations of the base and watch the buildings come crashing down with thunderous, raucous devastation. The next thing you know you've crash landed in a base surrounded by heaps of Helghast, and have to fight your way through the level, with the computer AI at your side. The melee combat has been reworked and drags that mesmeric, brutal first person perspective of punching an enemy in the face into the whole new idea of having to do it several times. It looks painful. Deliciously painful.
Killzone was a joy to play with, and was probably the game we spent most time with at the show, its battles seem severe enough to warrant playing it through the Dolby Surround at full blast, an experience that will be unique, I'm sure. That said the previous effort's faults still stand, a hard obstacle to really overcome in that, Killzone is essentially just a decent, solid shooter. It does nothing new or different, and doesn't stray far from the mark of its predecessors. It's likely to be a must-purchase for console owners, but a reason to buy a new machine? Probably not.
I also got to try Killzone 3 in 3D aswell, and whilst I've read reports of it adding a depth that immerses you, and adds levels upon which it's easier to distinguish enemies in the distance from say, an empty box, however my experience was quite opposite. I felt the 3D to be more of a distraction from what was actually going on, making the screen look cluttered and scattered, rather than simply deep. It didn't add anything to my ability to depict distant enemies and suffered largely from the darkening problem I mentioned earlier, which meant when I wasn't trying to make the large clunky Sony 3D glasses fit comfortably, I was straining to see what exactly was happening. I'd been using 3D frequently through-out the day, and although never encountering any problems watching 3D in the past, Killzone eventually gave me a headache, and only really reinforced my opinion that 3D as it is, is merely a novelty. Shame eh.
Gran Turismo 5 3D
I put 3D in the heading this time, as the game was only available in 3D at the event. To be less than cautious though, I was quite surprised Polyphonic Digital had actually made enough game to show off about. The infinite number of release dates GT5 has failed to meet has left me constantly conjuring up ideas of PD sat around in an office one afternoon, one coder sits up slightly, and murmurs lazily, hey guys, shall we start work on that GT5 code today? To which the muffled reply from a nearby work colleague is, nah Frank... maybe tomorrow. And they all go back to sleep. Little insight into the workings of an inept writer's insane mental state there.
Whilst waiting to get my go on history's most delayed game, I stood admiring the visuals. Bearing in mind here, what I was looking at was a 3D image, with no 3D glasses. So a blur, essentially. However even with the hazy-drunkenness stylistic, it was possible to look at the game and marvel at its eventual beauty. Gran Turismo, in 4 of its previous incarnations, has never looked like those pre-release promotional videos that are always jammed ostentatiously in your face whilst a tiny man in a suit exclaims LOOK HOW REAL IT LOOKS. GO ON. LOOK. Thing is this time, it actually does look like that. I think. Regrettably, Gran Turismo's 3D was another that came off rather disappointing. Rather than add a feeling of immersion, it simply desaturated the rich and exact colour, and made everything look a little less sharp. A large distraction in the visual department, and whilst the map and HUD being pressed slightly closer to you was nice, it wasn't quite worth the sacrifices. The physics felt excellent during my time with it, perhaps just different to Forza's current exquisite physics model that I'm so used to, as my first race felt surprisingly sluggish. Other than the adaptation-process from one simulator to the other, and the drawbacks of 3D, GT5 is still looking to be the only racer PS3 owners are ever going to need, and the only game that's ever made you masturbate over a digital render of a car. I mean. What?
Playstation Move
Wagglers worldwide rejoice! I've tried the Playstation Move. And it's about what you'd expect.
The main thing about the Move Controller itself is it's satisfyingly ergonomic. The moment it's curvaceous handle snuggles your hand and you stop making eerily sexual references, it feels like you've been holding a concrete slab anytime you've previously picked up a Wiimote. It's light, and perhaps for all the talk of physical feedback, could have done with being slightly weightier, but in this it adds to the idea of it being comfortable in your hand.
The Navigation Controller is a weird little thing, from my experience at the show, it served little more use than its analogue stick and the L1 and L2 buttons , therein, little more use than a nunchuck. It worked though. It worked just fine.
The Move Controller was responsive, I found selecting things on menus to be genuinely far more intuitive than the Wii's fiddly sensor doing the same thing. It had a relatively decent grasp of the angle of the controller too, though often had a bit of trouble directing you in doing exactly what it wanted, essentially making baffling nondescript icons at you for reasons unfathomable to everyone involved.
I played several games with them, which I'll go through separately now. In each case, the results were conclusive in, aside from tweaking the cameras ability to recognize more precise movements, the main thing to consider is the hardware is functioning. The software is the element that needs to catch up.
Kung Fu Rider
The first game I tried using the move was Kung Fu Rider, the game that gives you the illustrious opportunity to ride extremely fast down a big hill on an office chair kicking things. My first few runs were appalling, and once I'd acclimatized myself to Move's digits, I was still appalling. My brother in arms took over so I could take some notes and not play anymore. The game was fun, if a little hit and miss with its array of moves and actions. Jumping requires you to thrust your arm up in the air, whilst kicking in a certain direction has you holding down the Square or Triangle button and flicking the controller in the appropriate direction, leaning back to fit under signs and trucks is a quick pull of the trigger, a spinning action is the large, central Move button... there's a lot of options there considering the game format, that concluded in me wildly windmilling the controller about mashing buttons and generating concerned looks from the Sony reps. This range of moves was largely a good thing though, as it pulls out the longevity of likely short title, getting the player used to all the advanced moves after they get passed the initial, how-to-get-down-the-hill-phase.
Essentially, it's little more than a party game. Its Crazy-Taxi style presentation and quirky sound effects make it enjoyable to watch someone play, and then jump on and be terrible at. Was I utterly blown away by the Playstation Move with this, my first go with the hardware? No, not really.
Sports Champions - Table Tennis
Naturally the Sports-Compilation that spearheads all motion-sensing gaming ever made itself known. This, the first of two games playable on the day from the disc that will come in the basic pack, with a Move Controller and a camera. Table Tennis, for me, was more of a demonstration of the extent to which Move is actually 1 to 1 accurate. After you've set up and calibrated and got into your game, your character disappears, leaving just a mysterious, ghostly hovering bat. This allowed for swaying and moving and swirling, actions the likes of which a real table tennis player would look a bit stupid doing, but I don't mind taking that bullet, it's all in a day's work. Certainly from this position, the bat appeared to move identically to how the controller was moving in my hand. Weirdly, the bat held sideways, in a natural table tennis position, equated to the controller held buttons -upwards, which confused me a little as it felt like the buttons should have been a flat side of the bat, where you'd have your thumb on the real thing. But that may have just been my incorrectly wired brain malfunctioning impressively. A learning curve that you can easily get used to, let's say.
When a short shot was played to me, Move had a hard time showing me what depth I needed to get to to accurately connect with the shot. This led to me trying to fudge all the shots by blindly swinging the bat in the general direction, removing this whole '1 to 1' novelty, and lowe and behold I was playing a Wii. Whilst this could have been put down to several excuses, my position infront of the camera, the way I held the Move controller etc, my opponent (whom I actually managed to BEAT several times, bewilderingly) also had the same issue. Considering we're little more than a month away from the release now, this felt like the kind of thing Move should have been able to do well.
Sports Champions - Disc Golf
A sport I've never heard of. And I've thought of a million games to play with blank CDs. The How Many Pieces Can I Break This Into game is a favourite, however Disc Golf never entered my clearly haywire imagination*. So what is it? Disc golf is Frisbee. With Golf's rules. And instead of a hole, the goal is a weird cage thing.
To start with I lazily flicked my Move controller, with little conviction or direction, entirely expecting it to do the job. It didn't. My Frisbee caught a tiny gust of wind and landed about three feet in front of me. How embarrassing. Interested, my second turn I assumed the pro-frisbee thrower stance, and actioned my throw with the force and movement I would have done throwing a real plastic disc, which worked wonderfully. So Move definitely has a knowledge of power and speed in regards to the controller. The game was enjoyable, mainly because I won. It naturally echoed the easily and quickly thinning appeal of all similar motion sports games. But I won.
(*There's a high chance my far-reaching sports knowledge has simply failed me here, and everyone's actually heard of the media-emblazoned sporting giant that is the Disc Golf industry. If this is in fact the case, sorry for not knowing your stupid sport.)
The Fight: Lights Out
The least inventive name since John Romero's unreleased 'In This Game You Shoot Things' (and also I'm better than you), The Fight puts you; you guessed it, in a fight. With TWO motion controllers. The pros? Again, the weight and power of the punches you threw were significant, and as such the game calculated the amount of calories burnt after each fight, in a grittier, testosterone-fuelled version of Wii Fit. Plus, punching things in anything is fun. Anyone remember that original EyeToy: Play game, in which you could punch a robot? Hours of fun. Obviously not being very good at punching anything, I ended up gently uppercut-bopping my bemused AI opponent repeatedly under the chin, which looked hilarious.
The cons? It was the most sluggish and least lithely of all the Move games, leaving you feeling quite distant from the presumably intended 'complete engagement' with your in game fighting ability. My character bizarrely ended up almost cowering around my opponent, or so it seemed due to some odd camera angles, swinging punches that didn't quite become accurately replicated on screen left you more than a little detached. Fighting in games will always be fun, but from what I played of this, it does nothing impressive or fresh in terms of motion fighting. Looks like for the definitive 'men rolling around in each other's arms' experience, you'll have to wait for UFC: Move.
Heavy Rain Move
Heavy Rain is an interesting game. Its particular emphasis on cinematics and QTE's however, lend itself almost ideally to the differing flexibilities of the Playstation Move. This is the only game I got to use the Navigation controller with and was only really used for camera and player control. It was good to finally have both bits of gear in my hand though. As mentioned, the whole idea fits Heavy Rain well, instead of flicking an analogue stick or merely pushing buttons, Heavy Rain's frequent quick time events are completed via large swishy movements with the Move controller, that generally do their best to stick closely to what's happening on screen. When Norman Jayden reaches down for his inhaler, the game requires you to move the controller down to your side, when he knocks on a door, it wants you to thrust it forward. This works best in the fight scenes. Or rather scene, as that was all I got to play. Not knowing what was coming next, and which action would be required gave the fighting that more intense, high-pressure moment feel, perfectly aligned with the action on screen, dodging and throwing punches and diving across the room, picking up nearby objects, all translated into icons that tell you what movement it wants to be performed at exactly the right time. It's exciting and fun.
My main gripe here was the icons didn't generally make it really clear exactly what the game wanted you to do. Is it a forward thrust, or a downward swipe? Do I hold the controller up in the air, or am I supposed to just flick it upwards? Even when you knew what you were doing, it often had a hard time recognizing you were doing it. And repeating the action tweaking your movements to make the game understand what you've done, sort of makes you feel a little like you've lost control of your limbs and none of them work properly anymore. It's peculiar. The aforementioned inhaler scene, Norman is leaning up against a wall, both hands pressed against it, gasping for air. Reaching down to get the inhaler is down with a downward motion of the controller in real time. The camera continually stopped recognizing what I was doing half way through, so Norman just put his hand back on the wall, looking like he was very gently pawing the wallpaper, whilst breathing heavily.
If they can sort these recognition issues out, they could be on to a potential winner with Heavy Rain Move. Only time will tell. Time, and lots of money.
--
So that just about wraps up our day at the Playstation Beta Rooms. It was certainly interesting to get to grips with these new fangled ideas. This year hasn't been the eventual bursting blaze of victorious glory Sony told us it would be for the PS3, but it's certainly not over yet, and although there's arguably slim pickings in this line up, the culmination of the year is promising to be an interesting one, as we all open wide and ungraciously accept motion gaming on the remaining major platforms. I certainly enjoyed my short time with Move, in various different ways, although my 3D gaming experience has only cemented my already sceptical outlook on Sony's new venture. LittleBigPlanet 2 and Killzone 3 are looking like the core gaming ace in the hole, something one scarcely needs to be Sherlock Holmes to deduct. Essentially, Move hardware is working, and good. The software is a learning curve which will undoubtedly improve over time, as with the positive effect of 3D in games. Probably. Putting the inevitable drawbacks of these new gaming devices down to time however, is about as convincing an excuse as Wayne Rooney's entire academic career. And similarly, it won't last long. Here's hoping Sony pull it out of the bag and make the close of 2010 as exciting as the prospect of James Corden's untimely death.
Oh shut up, you don't really like him.