It was a bright sunny day driving up I-95 on March 25th 2010 until I hit traffic approaching the George Washington Bridge in everyone’s favorite city, New York. If this were a normal day I would probably be ok with sitting in traffic and smelling the lovely water below me but, this wasn’t any normal day. I was currently on my way to PAX East and more importantly, the Playstation Blog Meet Up. At this meet up we were going to be one of the first sets of gamers to test out the Playstation Move (PS Move for short). After five hours driving up to the east coast and dealing with a lovely parking attendent, I made it. If you haven’t seen a PS Blog event before, they fill up fast and as soon as they posted on twitter the line had started, people came pouring in.
Now onto the move and let me get this out of the way. Is it similar the Wii motes? Yes. Did Playstation just copy the Wii controllers? No. Is there a difference between the Wii and PS Move? Yes, a big difference. I was one of the first people to enter the event and to get the move in my hands. It felt ergonomically correct compared to the square like controllers of the Wii. All the buttons on the controller felt natural and had less weight to it than a DualShock 3. The orb on the top of the controller is actually rubber and can withstand the jamming into the hand of the developer. The colors in the orb change depending on the programing of the game play on screen and also can gradually change depending of the location of the pointer on screen.
The PS Move is very precise and the one to one ration is pretty much exact. Visually it looks like there is lag but its much different when you have it in your hands. This isnt a remote that you are going to be able to sit on your couch and just “waggle” with and expect to accomplish anyting. I played the “gladiator” type game first and it was a lot of fun. (you can see it in the video above) The gamer actually has to rid their training of what a motion controller can do. I say this because when I started playing, I controlled it like a Wii controller. I only took short swings and didnt take advantage of the full range of motion. After adjusting, I felt like I was in the battle. I took advantage of using the two remotes and they were both following the counterpart elements on the screen. I had to swing with effort in order to gain a heavy attack on the enemy and had to make sure the shield was in the right location to avoid getting hit by the sword. It was refreshing to have this experience and in my mind helps create a “serious” casual gamer. The gamer has to pay attention to what is going on the screen and make sure they are actually playing the game, rather than sitting on the couch and getting by.
As the night went on, I was able to play Move Party and Sliders (which was surprisingly fun). Overall, all the demos were great to play and very familiar to what we have seen before. Also, I got to check out “the minority report type” augmented reality tech demo. I suggest checking out the Engadget show for a review of this tech, if you haven’t seen it yet. Describing the technology doesn’t give it justice but I can say it was pretty amazing to see in person and actually test out. Overall, the PS Move has great potential and to be honest with you, it will come down to the developers to make this tech amazing. Lets put it this way, the augmented reality tech demo was created the night before “The Engadget Show” in about an hour or so. Can you imagine a development studio pulling something together over several years? Im excited for the move as it adds competition to the casual gaming marking and that can only help advance the technology.
As it turns out, I was sitting next to one of the contestants of the “The Tester” while in line. I had no idea until people started taking pictures with him, which for some reason I thought was humorous. We all spent a good amount of time talking about games and for some of us, getting excited for PAX East. This had been my second Playstation Blog meet up event, the first being one held in Orlando and if you couldn’t tell by the posts on the PS Blog, sony takes care of you at these events. The event was filled with free drinks, food, and everyone who entered got The Art of God of War 3! The event was packed throughout the night and filled with people talking about the PS Move. I highly suggest you check out our PAX East podcast and hear some great discussion about the PS Move and also learn more about the event.
