Why Move Is Going to be a Winner

nofi 63 Comments

I’ve had the PlayStation Move hardware and a smattering of games in my grubby mitts for a few weeks now, and whilst my previous hands on only had good things to say about the actual controller, I perhaps wasn’t quite so complimentary about the games.  There was, I summised, plenty of potential with Move but some of the titles that will be available mid September seemed to misfire a little, missing the mark that you’d normally associated with software releasing at what is essentially the PS3’s midpoint.

I was, however, wrong.  Over the weekend I got the chance to demo PlayStation Move to some friends.  Sorry Sony, couldn’t resist.  These are friends that are aware of games, play them now and again but aren’t what you’d call hardcore (and probably far better off for it) – the speed at which they grasped the concept of Move and the ease at which they dived into the games was incredible, and the slight disappointment my jaded self had with (for example) Start The Party dissolved immediately – in the right hands, so to speak, it’s brilliant.

Probably a consequence of both having seen what the Eyetoy had tried do in the past, and writing about what Super Generic Shooter 2010 can do over its rival on another console has tainted my view of what games should be about: fun.  Start The Party is absolutely that – it’s pitched perfectly towards gamers that aren’t asked to digest 720p screenshots all day and don’t care whether something’s running at 30fps or 60 – and it works so well that having seen my mates hogging all the action I felt compelled to let our readers know that I’d made a mistake.

It’s not that I’d written off the Move, of course, I love the thing and I think it’s going to be a huge success.  But whilst games like Sports Champions seemed fully rounded and more consistent, I’d doubted the potential of Sony’s party title without giving it a proper playtest with its target audience.  It’s so refreshing to just pass over the Move Controller and say “the trigger’s to shoot” rather than having to explain dozens of buttons, and because Start The Party plays off well known actions (like whacking moles or cutting hair) even the minigames explain themselves.

Naturally, putting the player in the game itself helps too – when you can see yourself on screen, the Move Controller whatever device the game wants it to be in front of you (don’t underestimate the immediate, wholly immersive sensation of seeing your hand holding a massive sword on screen) you have scale, scope and purpose, and it’s obvious what you’re meant to do.  Thus, when the game starts firing off 5 second blasts of microgame there’s no ambiguity, no doubt – the players are always in control without ever really thinking about it.

This isn’t to say that Start The Party is for everyone, of course – but if Sony pitch all this correctly and get the adverts and the demo pods out there in time for launch (nudge the Wii out of the way a bit, would you?) then I’m confident in Sony’s abilities to get the right message across.  And in the grand scale of things, when us so-called hardcore gamers are back to worrying about pixelcounting and Trophies, we can rest easy in the knowledge that there’ll be thousands more happy PS3 owners out there swatting at flies and making pizza.

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63 Comments

  1. Great stuff but I think start the party will be a game I’ll get when its discounted later.

    I recently took the plunge and ordered 2 x move controllers from shopto the nav from play and resi 5 gold from thehut. I have a few questions I’d like answered if poss:-

    1. Will eyepet be patched to support move or do we need to buy a whole new version.

    2. Will the demo games that come on the starter pack be on PSN as I already own the ps3eye

    3. How far do you need to stand from the TV (Whats the minimum distance) I’ve heard 1.5m mentioned I think is this correct.

    Thanks

    DR-DAVROS

    • 1) I have heard from several sources that Eyepet will be patched in the UK/EU… It hasn’t been released in the US to my understanding – so a Move powered Eyepet is their first taste of it
      2) I have conflicting reports, if I find out for certain I will do a post later
      3) Dunno

      • 2) Yes, the PS Move Demo disc (included in the starter pack) will be appearing separately on the PSN Store
        Source: Nick Robinson, SCEE Product Manager

        As a side note, how does this make anyone feel who’s ordered the starter pack, seeing as the demo disc was included at the expense of Sports champions which the US is getting included instead.

        I’m glad they’re gonna be on the store as I bought a cam years ago

      • Thanks for answering nearly all my questions. Its a shame the game isn’t included in the starter pack like the US. Is there any price difference between UK and US starter packs actually I’ll look this up myself. Good to know the MOVE demo’s will be on PSN. Thanks DR-DAVROS

      • Looking at the 2 amazon sites .com and .co.uk to compare prices and if my calculations are correct then the US starter pack is nearly £20 more than the UK’s.

        Thats based on $99.96 – £44.91

        If thats correct then if I were buying the starter pack in the UK I would not have to much to complain about.

        DR-DAVROS

      • Good to hear… the game is only £24.91 on Amazon anyway, so when you take into account our much higher levels of tax, we’re not getting the worse deal for a change

      • Can I slip in a question 4) Is sports champions an online multiplayer experience aswell as a local multiplayer experience? I know for a fact friends and family will get this for their systems and knowing I can challenge them online to pinball or gladiator or any of the game for that matter would be great.

        Thanks again

        DR-DAVROS

      • PINBALL what the…. Im sure I typed table tennis. Brain and hands were not synced :)

    • One Thing. The Starter Bundle for the US is getting Sports Champions as well as the Demo Disc.

  2. Nice little write up nofmeister, i was already sold on Move when i heard about it originally, as cc mentions uptop the ‘frizbee’ game could get me an my mates hooked. Day one for mr See :)

  3. Thanks for the update Nofi. I actually ordered Start the Party over Sports Champions as i felt i would get more fun with friends and family from this title then the others.

    I have a young family and have ordered the Move so we can all play together and have fun. I am that pixel counting trophy worrying gamer you describe, however i like nothing better then playing games with the family and having fun together. I think the Move will go some way to justifying the huge amount of time, and money i have sunk into the PS3 to the misses, well i hope it does!

  4. Reminds me of eye toy, whacking ninjas and dragons with my hands and saving a lot of goals, that was great fun. i have just preordered a new 320gb ps3 with move bundled (also includes sports champons) so im looking forward to move but as ill only be sticking with the one controller games like the shoot and the fight are better for me, as i have a wii for the party stuff which tbh move can neevr out do wii sports or mario kart wii.

    • can start the party use one controller for multiply players, like handing them over and a go???

      • Yes, its not actually a two player game, one person has the controller has a go at the mini game, and then the next person has a go and tries to beat it, you don’t actually play at the same time or need two controllers to play the game, a bit like you can play Wii bowling with one controller or four.

  5. They need to get demos out to stop Microsoft from hogging the limelight with Kinect. If they let people realise that Kinect is a broken mess with no good games then Move will fly off the shelves.

  6. Sony really need to get more adverts on TV for this, they need to show the Casual’s what it’s like to play with Next Gen HD graphics instead of what the Wii has given them.

  7. Cool nofi, this is just the least i was expecting to use Move for so i’m delighted to hear it succeeds.

  8. Im not gonna get Start the party at first.
    Im going for R.U.S.E. and Sports Champions after playing them at Gamescom. Well, I played Tabletennis and loved it instantly.

  9. So we are discovering wii now?

    Now all hardcore PS3 gamers love Move, after critizising wii for years, when its acctually (no matter what sony says) the same thing, aimed at the same target and will have the same kind of games developed for it.

    Its not meant to Nofi or anybody here in particular, its just what im seeing lately!

    • The precision allows for the games to be tailored better to the core although as an FPS The Conduit has reportedly the best controls of the whole genre, but anyone who’s seen any of my comments will know I agree 100% with that sentiment, that most people seem to be hypocritical when it comes to decrying one company for doing something until Sony start doing it themselves.

    • So you actually played with Move?
      I did and things like R.U.S.E. are definatly not the same as wii, also the fact that “Start the Party” puts YOU in the game is not like wii, the technology used is not the same….

      • oh, ok, they are totally diferent, in “Start the party” you dont see an avatar like in wii.
        That changes everything…..any hardcore gamer should be thrilled!

        R.U.S.E.? you can use Move, ill take the keyboard and mouse, thanks.

        Now, its obviously not EXACTLY the same, a bit more precise (or not, probably depending on the game) and the z axis thing which is important, but, it is, at the end, the same product. Move is better, yes, but youll end up doing the same things.

        And most casual players dont give a damn about HD or 3D, so i dont expext Move to do that well with the wii users.

    • I’ve always wanted the accessibility of the Wii for when friends visit etc but couldn’t justify buying one just for those occasions.
      What i like about the Wii is that anyone can join in, i liked that about Eyetoy too and now i can have that with my PS3 at relatively little extra cost. If the patches being released for my existing games are free then i might not even have to buy another Move game for a fair while too. And of course i’m interested in seeing what else Move will enable and Tumble has actually impressed me a lot , as simplistic as it is.

    • I think you’re missing the point. I don’t like the wii because it’s ONLY a motion control console, we had one and got rid of it because that’s all it does, it becomes stale after a while. As we all know, the ps3 does everything, so to keep it’s current functionality, and have the option of motion controlled games, is a good option. I’m excited about the prospect of move getting my mrs into games, the wii did that for a short while, hopefully move can maintain it. If i get bored of motion control, i can carry on playing normal ps3 games, an option not available on wii.

  10. Although technically the move controller is better than the wii+ the main thing nintendo has over Sony for the casual Party Market are the mii’s. Each person having their own avatar that they can take from game to game is a big thing. Everyone I know who owns a wii and are only casual gamers loves these things.

    • I’m sure Sony could do something to combat this if it does become a problem though, as it stands, the home feature is like a bigger version of the Mii Nintendo has, but maybe they could introduce an avatar from ‘PS Home’ that you play as during some games. They could call it a ‘PSm3’ (pronounced P.S.Me)!

      • Wouldn’t a PS3 Home avatar be called a Homii ? ;)

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