Hands On: PlayStation Move

The hardware

New hardware is always exciting, whether it’s a brand new console or a bit of plastic you stick on your analog triggers to make them a little less slippy. However, when the postman dropped off our PlayStation Move last week excitement levels were at an all-time high: this is, along with 3D and whatever magic Dylan Cuthbert’s brewing up next, is the future of PlayStation and regardless of your thoughts on motion control it’s clear Sony is putting everything behind it.

We can’t show you the media kit, yet (so we’ll save our own hardware shots for later too) but the packaging is to die for and once inside, getting our sweaty mitts on the finished Move hardware is a treat that only happens once or twice a console generation. It feels great – it’s weighted nicely and balanced just right, the size is perfect and you immediately grip it with confidence. The difference in form and function from the Dual Shock is distinct – it has to be – but it’s absolutely a PlayStation product.

The controller itself is populated with more buttons than you might at first realise – alongside the main Move button on the top (and the four surrounding face buttons) there’s a spongy trigger (with a fair amount of motion in its arc) and there are start and select buttons on the side of the unit. Tricky to get to, those, but purposefully out of the way so they’re not pushed by accident during a game. The striking thing, of course, is the white ball on the top of the controller, which, as you’ll find out when you first start a game, is quite happy to illuminate with all kinds of hues depending on what’s going on.

Set up and calibration is a doddle – the PlayStation Eye (nothing has changed with this piece of the hardware) needs flicking to the wide-angle mode, and placing directly in the centre of your TV, either above or below. Plug it in, wire up the Move controller via USB (so it syncs to your PS3) and you’re good to go. Dropping in a Move game presents you with a simple one-time set-up (although you’ll need to do it each time you play a new game) which involves pointing the Move controller at the Eye and pressing the Move button – once that’s done you’re all set.

It’s worth mentioning that the Move controller quite happily navigates the PS3’s XMB – something we’ve not seen documented before. It uses the internal motion control tech rather than the Eye, mind, you just simply pull the trigger and ‘move’ the controller to browse the rows and columns of the media bar. We’ll have more on this in a future article, though – this one’s all about the hardware and the games and we’re happy to say that the Move controller itself is lovely, feels nicely built and is a reasonably attractive piece of gaming equipment that compliments the PS3 nicely. Now, about those games.

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60 Comments

  1. I’m gonna buy move one day, just you wait and see!

  2. Can I ask who ‘we’ is? Obviously its nofi, just wondering which other staff members have tried it. The jurys still out for me. Looking forward to a few tsa reviews to see if you can persuade me to part with my cash. Informative write up! Thanks!

    • It’s the royal “we”. Standard practice when talking about an entity such as a website. That said, expect to hear more MOVEments in this area from us (or, you know, me) before the week is out.

      • Did everyone at TSA Towers have a sex change ? :S
        That picture says so, also explains why it’s so tidy now as well….

      • I thought everyone knew TSA was staffed by a bunch of hot women? Isn’t that the reason why we’re so popular? ;)
        *flutters eye-lashes*

      • I can assure you I am NOT a woman.

      • Circus much ?
        “Bearded, dancing, female bear-cub spotted in grungy council estate flat.”

      • I can assure you that I don’t think I’m a woman.

      • Yeah, I have to say Nofi’s looking pretty hot.

  3. Very neat article, resembles how i wanted to learn about move: glad the tech works well, but don’t really care about really minute details that only fanboys bicker over. Getting this day 1 with resi 5 (was this available for you to play too?)

    • oooh, I forgot Resi 5 Gold was going to be Move compatible. I’ll have to dig out my disc!

      • Only the Gold (or what ever it’s called) Edition will have move support.

      • Yeah ive pre-ordered the gold 1 on shopto for £15, bargain!

      • @ Juelz345

        He did say Gold dude :)

    • *slams head on desk*

  4. This sounded like the hardware acts as advertised but that the software is more or less average. Could this be true of all the games designed move?

    • These are more the casual games though, it will probably work better in games like Killzone 3, Sorcery, Resident Evil 5 etc. which is more based on accuracy and precision then waving your hands around

      • Yeah exactly, the first wave of games is pretty much guaranteed to be sub-par, but later on, I’m sure we’ll see some pretty epic implementations of the Move.

      • Should the first wave of games really be sub-par? When new tech comes out, shouldn’t the first wave be good a least. Take the dualshock for example. Vibration worked pretty well in Gran Turismo and motion control worked quite well is motorstorm.

      • Simple rumble is VERY different from implementing a whole new control machanic. And just how well motion worked in Motor Storm with Dual Shock 3 is subjective, and still very differnt (which is what you’re talking about right, the original dual shock didn’t have motion controls.

        I fully expect that the majority of games that launch for Move and Kinect will be average at best, hopefully with a few shiners. Just like launch games for any console don’t show you what the console is really capable of and fail in comparison to the games that are released in the coming years.

      • Weren’t the first couple of games for the PS3 ok too? I mean they weren’t bad, but they weren’t great! With time they’ll make better games for the Move…I’m sure of it.

  5. Does it come with the girls?

  6. Nice article, seems like it all works as it should. Don’t think I’ll be getting it but good to see it’s alright. I like that you can control the xmb with it that’s pretty cool you don’t have to switch between controllers then.

    I need to stop looking at the move logo and seeing it as an upside down Voi Jeans logo lol.

  7. The only good games worth getting in first week imo are r.u.s.e, echochrome 2, sports champion ( which americans get free rather then a disc version of demos ( which will be on the psn store for free.. ) ) and then of course there are those games that will be recieving a free patch i.e lbp, heavy rain and flower :D

    • Yeah. Here in America, We are not getting the demo disc replaced by Sports Champions! The Bundle comes with both Sports Champions and the demo disc :D

  8. I still probably get the starter kit, but getting the full games will depend on my own experience with Move itself.

  9. Brilliant little article, looking forward to future Move coverage from TSA :)

    Glad to hear that the Move “feels” right, can’t wait to actually get my hands on one. For me, Sports Champions is the only “new” disk based game that appears worth getting. Resi 5 and Heavy Rain should get some extended play time in my house because of Move too, but I think the real winners at launch are going to be PSN titles like Echochrome 2 and Flight Control HD.

    Looking forward to it regardless :)

  10. The games are fine, don’t worry. We’ll have full reviews of them all on the 1st of September.

    • Realy enjoyed your in-depth preview of your thoughts Nofi. I’m definitely going to get the motion controller on day one and then if I enjoy it the sub-controller at some stage in the future . £29 quid isn’t too much of a risk to try it out even on my crap income !

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