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.
Quinlank
The games you preview aren’t really my thing at all. If I was to judge this controller on the Move only games at launch it would look exceedingly dire, but I’m quite interested in hearing if Resi 5 works as well as it pretty much should given how well Resi 4 translated to Wii controls. I’d say Dead Space Extraction as well, but I only just found out Dead Space 2 is next year now. Booooo.
No chance I’d be buying this thing any time soon if at all, but I’m willing to see how things turn out for it before I definitively say yay or nay on the matter. No point looking at it until next year far as I can tell at this point though.
UsernameHere
There is a small spelling mistake on the second page nofi with the word quality you’ve typed the y before the t lol.
“in terms of ->qualityt<-" opps!
UsernameHere
Ah ha! it’s fixed!
aphex187
Got mine on pre-order from PLAY, can’t bloody wait!! woohoo!
PlayStation Move: Start The Party!
PlayStation Move: Sports Champions
PlayStation Move: Navigation Controller
PlayStation Move: Motion Controller x2
JaffaMan24
Does it have any haptic feedback? rumble?
JoshHood
It does indeed. Works very nicely.
dirtyhabit
Nice Scoop Nofi/TSA!
Damn you….. A 5 page article I was just about to go to the pub!
TSBonyman
Top article nofi, i’ve read plenty of hands-on at demo booths but i was interested to hear how a lengthier session in your own environment would work out.It’s reassuring to know that no major issues cropped up and that it performs as advertised, heck even more than advertised if it also does XMB navigation! (Although it would have been class if it just used PS3Eye :) )
I expect that packaging you will reveal 2moro is exclusive to people like yourself who received the media kit and won’t be generally available but i’ll check back tomorrow anyway.
The cost of adding this to my PS3 is almost negligible so it’s a done deal for me.
seedaripper1973
Great write up nofemiester…just a quicky?? did you guys get 2 move controlers and a nav controller too(or 2) ?? or is this gonna be explained in the unboxing tomorrow?
p.s when is the official UK launch date as well? ta!
nofi
No, no Nav controllers sadly, although there isn’t a game available to us that requires one yet.
Rob92
Wow really nice to hear TSA opinions on Move and a good reaction to it! I quite trust TSA so its good to hear!
Defo a day one buy for me. Cant wait to get some motion control back and it’ll be Sports Champion for me I think. I miss the Wii but knowing with Move I’ll get some decent games too, well that just makes me happy :D
skibadee
good read nofi have already pre ordered it.
Juelz345
I plan on getting 2 Move controllers and 1 navigation controller at launch and another navigation controler when the need arises ( I already have the camera). Heavy Rain, echochrome 2 & Flight Control HD should hold me over until the core games start releasing next year.