Everyone knows the PlayStation Move plays games – we told you that in our hands on with the final hardware (and near final copies of the games themselves) – of course it does, that’s really the whole point of Sony’s new flashy bit of hardware. What most don’t know, however, is what else it does. You’re intrigued, right? You’re desperate to know what else – we can tell.
Well, away from swatting flies or steering a besuited man down the hilly streets of Japan, the PlayStation Move can act as something of a replacement for a Dual Shock in normal, day to day use of your PlayStation 3. I say something of a replacement, because there’s things it can’t do, and whilst you shouldn’t be surprised that you can use it to control the basic XMB (as we’ve already told you this) you might be surprised at some of its other uses.
That’s the screen that greets you when you first try to access the XMB with a Move attached. Not the chaps in brollies, mind, they’re part of an advert from PlayTV. The screen explains that to navigate the XMB, you simply hold in the trigger and move the Move up, down, left or right . Except you don’t, really, I found it’s much more responsive if you angle the controller rather than move it.
Still, whichever way, it works, and it’s great. You can move around the PS3’s XMB with no fuss at all, and the four face buttons (and the central Move button) are used exactly as you’d expect. As for PlayTV, well, no, it doesn’t really work with it – although you can press the Square button to bring up the guide you can’t scroll around it – yet. An update will fix all that in a jiffy though, we’re sure, but that said the actual Bluetooth remote does that job well enough anyway.
A quick tour of the XMB reveals some pretty neat features. There’s a calibration screen (below) that lets you reset the Move’s sensors via a bizarre twisting ritual that works much better without a wire charging the Move – we didn’t actually need to calibrate the Move at all, mind, but it’s nice to know the option, which is under the Settings column on the XMB, is there in case we need it.
Music wise, you can obviously select an audio track with the Move from the XMB and it’ll play no bother, but fast forwarding and rewinding doesn’t work, although it does try. What does work, mind, is the same action on Blu-ray movies – you can hold the trigger and swing the Move to control the playback speed (and direction) of a film without any fuss, and whilst some menus were a bit of a problem, basic Blu-ray control with the Move is already in there.
Image browsing is nice, too, especially if you’ve got loads to scroll through, the Move able to flick the thumbnails around with abandon. You can’t skip between your photos without tapping Triangle first and selecting ‘next’ mind, but again, perhaps a firmware update before Move releases will iron out any such issues. For something that was never really pushed as a replacement for a Dual Shock, the Move does go some way to trying.
It’s all rather fun, trying out new gadgets like this (and all this is without an Eye attached, by the way). We’ll have more on Move soon, so stay locked to TSA.
Update: a few people were asking about the web browser, so I had a quick look: it works much like the rest of the XMB at present, with the trigger and the angle of the Move flicking the on-screen cursor between links. Currently, and again this is a trial without the PlayStation Eye, the Move’s interaction with the browser mirrors that of the Dual Shock’s d-pad: you don’t move the cursor like you do with a mouse, but that could (and probably will) change with a firmware update.
FireasBall
Where’s Kevin Buttler? Now i’m dissapointed. We Want Kevin Buttler!!! :D
UsernameHere
I was hoping to use the device as a mouse pointer for navigating the web. I hope they add that in at some point.
spek
I do too. That would be cool beans. I use my PS3 internet browser quite a lot. Infact im using it now :)
nofi
Just tested the Move with the web browser, see last paragraph.
AJ
So, everything here was done solely with the internal gyroscope? The way you added it at the end confused me.
Sounds fantastic though! I do wish we could navigate the XMB with sixaxis…
Biopulse
you didn’t have a navigation controller to test the xmb right? i think that would be a more traditional way of navigating the xmb since it has the basic d pad, two triggers, X and O buttons
MXZ
The move can be used without the eye? thats interesting
Biopulse
no it can’t … who said so?
CrawFail
It can. PS3 picks up info from the gyro inside the Move. Cant use it for games and such but can use it to navigate the XMB and simpler stuff like that.
Erroneus
Well it doesn’t do a EU Stater Pack with Sports Champions included. Why are Sony making these differences, why do the US get’s the Move controllers for a lower price, the Starter pack for a lower price and a free game included, when we get a stupid demo disc, which can be downloaded from the store.
FU Sony, FU!
hazelam
sure you could use move or kinect to control the dashboard or xmb, but in reality it’s much simpler to just use the pad.
which is what i expect most people will return to once the novelty of using these for the system menus has worn off.
shields_t
I didn’t know Move even worked without the eye.
Kamokazi-UK
Well its kind of using the same stuff as the DS3/sixaxis… just they didnt implment that option with them?
DJ-Katy
So you guys can’t wait for a remote control? I have a PS3 Bluray remote which does all of the above without the need to waggle a thing with a blue ball on the end about.
cc_star
The Blu-ray remote is brilliant and much better than using the joypad. One day it will be redundant though because if I ever have enough money to buy a new Bravia, the TV remote is capable of operating the PS3 via Bravia Sync
TSBonyman
I got the Bluray remote (it’s not just for Blurays!) along with my launch PS3. The only thing i felt was missing from it was a Zoom function. I like the idea of finishing a Move game and then playing a movie without having to reach for another remote. If full Move functionality is incorporated it could be pretty cool.. ie.. pause the movie and Zoom in and pan the image using Move.
Kamokazi-UK
Well whatever its like, ive pre-ordered 2 Moves and a Navi. just waiting on the launch titles