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The Sony Playstation Move is finally here and promises to usher in a new era of high definition precision to casual and hardcore gamers alike.

Our Playstation Move Demo kit arrived this week, and after we were done ogling the very pretty box that it arrived in, we decided to break out the goods and find out what we were in for.

We have taken care of a virtual pet, we have played many strange sports, we have ridden an office chair down a hill, and we have done our best to not break everything in the gaming room to bring you this definite Playstation Move review.

My arm really hurts, review after the jump.

The toys

Upon opening the demo box, we were greeted with a Playstation Move controller and the PS-Eye camera.

The setup is pretty simple. You plug the camera into an available USB slot on the Playstation 3 and then mount it either on top of, or in front of, your television (I had to move this other flat sensor bar thingy to make space for it first). Once the camera was set up, I plugged the Move controller into the PS3 using a mini-to-normal USB cable to synchronise it with the Playstation, and I was pretty much done.

Do however, be prepared to calibrate the Move controller multiple times over multiple games as some of them have different methods, and most require you to do it before every gaming session.

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The Move controller itself has a really snug feel in your hand and its overall quality feels extremely solid. The controller has a large “Move” button in the center of it and it is surrounded by the four trademark Playstation face buttons (╳, â–µ, â—», O), although instead of their usual layout of bottom, top, left and right (respectively) they are in a square formation as seen in the images.

The left and right sides of the controller have the select and start buttons, which sit almost flush with controller itself and do a good job of being practically unnoticeable to your hand while you use the controller. The back of the controller then has the very important trigger, one that you are going to wish was built into the PS3 controller, as it has good range and nice soft feel to it when pressed.

On the tip of the controller, you will notice that there is a big ball, often referred to as the “ping pong” ball, when in fact, it feels more like a really soft squash ball more than anything. Besides also being able to change color, the ball is used to track your motions, and thanks to its soft rubbery feel, doubles quite nicely as a safety measure should the controller go flying (always wear your wrist-strap kids).

As for one last mention, I would have liked the controller to have a d-pad or even a small analogue stick on it. It doesn’t stand out as a big problem to not have one, but it could be Nintendo’s fault for making me expect to have some sort of basic navigation tool available without having to use another hand.

The PS-Eye has the option to be set to a normal and a widescreen mode (the widescreen mode is used for pretty much all gaming purposes). The modes are changed by rotating the lens either left or right, and let you know when they are in place with a “click”. While the camera is sturdy overall, the lens component itself is very flimsy and rattle-ey and feels like it doesn’t match up to the same quality as the rest of the bundle. The base is mostly made up of a lightly grippy rubber, but I didn’t feel comfortable with it sitting on the television by itself at all and had to resort to some good ol’ Prestik to make sure that it didn’t go toppling over for no good reason.

When gaming doesn’t apply

The Playstation XMB cross media bar can now be controlled with the use of the Move controller. The buttons on the controller are always active, but in order to avoid crazy mix-ups, the motion control is activated by holding down the trigger. Once the trigger is down, the XMB can be navigated by pointing the controller at the screen and simply motioning left, right, up or down to get to where you want to go.

Rather than go for a “pointer” interface, Sony have kept it simple by still restricting the movements to the usual horizontal and vertical way that the XMB works and the good news is that it works solidly and avoids you having to carefully aim at an icon just to get to where you want to go.

Last Updated: September 10, 2010

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31 Comments

  1. Damn you lazygamer! Now I want Move. :getlost:

    Reply

  2. easy

    September 10, 2010 at 09:44

    umm so whats the verdict? a must buy or worthy of 30 mins play to never be touched again?

    Reply

  3. Gavin Mannion

    September 10, 2010 at 10:00

    My take from that review is that if like me you are interested in the casual and family games then Move is awesome.. however if you want core titles then you may want to wait and see those reviews

    Reply

  4. Fred

    September 10, 2010 at 10:08

    Yeah , a release like Sorcery would have made the launch more solid , but I’m getting two Moves next week. I like table tennis so hope that is worthwhile. My daughter should like it too and we don’t have a Wii.

    Reply

  5. easy

    September 10, 2010 at 10:09

    right… i’ll save the money for the pub then.

    Reply

  6. Gavin Mannion

    September 10, 2010 at 10:25

    For me that’s the important thing about the Move.. I love the Wii but I will seriously struggle to recommend it to anyone now that the Move is out… You can get a full HD console with Wii capabilities if you get the PS3.

    Reply

  7. RSA-Ace

    September 10, 2010 at 10:25

    Here’s a nice way to place the camera on top of your tv http://kotaku.com/5626933/how-to-mount-that-playstation-eye-camera-with-minimal-fuss

    Reply

  8. Ringo

    September 10, 2010 at 10:34

    Played Tiger Woods 11 demo with move and it was awesome. Disk golf and Table Tennis are also great.

    Reply

  9. Alki

    September 10, 2010 at 10:34

    whoho….cant wait!!!dont know if its just me but here’s alot of potential.just a shame sony has to leave it up to devs to detrmine wot it can and cant do.same thing happend with ps3!DEVS…… take your finger out of your arsinhole and make some awome games!

    Reply

  10. Gavin Mannion

    September 10, 2010 at 10:38

    The first 15 seconds of that video are awesome.. the rest if for people who don’t understand how the magic works

    Reply

  11. casual gamer

    September 10, 2010 at 10:51

    – RUSE is coming out soon and that is not casual, also RE5:Gold and HR have move support as well, so complaint 1 debunked
    – watch this to see how much it takes to throw the move off, and yes it takes alot http://www.psu.com/forums/s… complaint 2 debunked
    – space requirements are optional yes 8ft distance is the optimal but move works if you are far away or really close, complaint 3 debunked

    as for the rest of your complaints, they are very silly

    Reply

  12. riezo

    September 10, 2010 at 10:53

    The draw for the Wii to me are the titles it has. Yes now you will have a better motion gaming experience on another console, but you wont have titles likee Metroid, Mario, Kirby and others.

    That said Im sold on the Move, but I am delaying my purchase until Q1 next year, Im pretty sure they will have better bundles by then. Plus KZ3 will be out with Move support.

    Reply

  13. al360

    September 10, 2010 at 10:59

    cooool can you tell me if the demo disk or sports champs allows 2 players to play against each other if u get 2 “moves”

    Reply

  14. al360

    September 10, 2010 at 11:04

    awesome tip i always wondered y it had a flat back and no clip came with it
    still 1 problem i agree with is the grainy pic
    i tried those tricks on u tube to reset it but alas my 1 is not the same model and i still have a grainy pic 🙁

    Reply

  15. Gavin Mannion

    September 10, 2010 at 11:06

    True but only 12 months ago I couldn’t in good conscience recommend a friend with young children fork out for a PS3. However now that’s all changed and a casual gamer now has a much better choice..

    Reply

  16. Axe99

    September 10, 2010 at 11:25

    I’d say RUSE is a launch title for Move, and I wouldn’t call it overly casual. From my angle (core gamer, love all sorts of genres), Move’s application to strategy games is the most appealing, at least at this stage, and the PS3 already has a game out which uses it 🙂 (RUSE is out with Move support now – just need the Move now, goddamit :lol:)

    Reply

  17. Charlie

    September 10, 2010 at 11:29

    Most of the games on the demo disc is for one player only – but there are a couple of games on Sports Champions (actually all of them) that can be played by two (or more) people with two (or more) controllers.

    There are also a couple of games (like Disc Golf and Bocce) that can be played by two people with one controller.

    Reply

  18. Charlie

    September 10, 2010 at 11:35

    Look – the Move is fun and all but until we start seeing AAA titles for the Move we will never be able to see it’s full potential.

    The initial games are fun, but can become a bit stale after awhile. Lazygamer probably got Kung Fu Rider as well, and although it’s rather interesting, it becomes very monotonous after about 30min.

    At this point there is nothing (besides the highly-detailed graphics *cough* Giselle *cough*) that makes it stand out from the Wii (other than better games). So I think it’s still a bit too early to get really excited about it.

    We’ll have to see where this yellow-brick road takes us…

    Reply

  19. AC!D

    September 10, 2010 at 12:09

    Well for once i agree with 90% of of Nick’s review but…… Yes their is always a but:

    – It does have core launch titles in R.U.S.E, Resident Evil 5 ( Trust me you wont believe how much better the Move controls VS Dualshock are for this game + The Move edition has all the extra single player DLC episodes + the multiplayer modes ), Heavy Rain, NBA2K11 and Tiger Woods Golf. I think their is another pro golfer game also but i forget the name.

    – Oh and i see someone already posted the trick to setting up the camera without anything sticky.

    Other than that the review seems spot on despite the authors previous negative comments.

    By the way Nick how was the Augmented reality in EYE Pet and Start the Party? Do you see it being big in more core title like Silent hill where you physically reach into a scary hole and pull something out as a basic example?

    Reply

  20. Charlie

    September 10, 2010 at 12:18

    The camera is incredibly grainy (even in decent lighting), so for something like EyePet it looks like its being played on a static TV. The Move version of EyePet seems to work best with the controller as the inout device(as opposed to using your hand for gestures), so I’m not sure how they will work that into SH… But maybe Nick has a different take on it :ninja:

    Reply

  21. Charlie

    September 10, 2010 at 12:18

    *input*

    Reply

  22. AC!D

    September 10, 2010 at 12:42

    Yeah seriously give Gavin hell till he gives us a edit button 😆 Check my there vs their up top :silly:

    Reply

  23. Gavin Mannion

    September 10, 2010 at 12:47

    Sorry I really am trying to get that sorted out,.. it’s amazing how difficult the simplest requests can be

    Reply

  24. Nick de Bruyne

    September 10, 2010 at 14:02

    I did actually mention Kung-Fu Rider in the review, so yes we did have it. And let me just say that when you say *cough* Giselle *cough* … I COMPLETELY understand 😀

    Reply

  25. Nick de Bruyne

    September 10, 2010 at 19:46

    @ AC!D – I can’t honestly say that I see it working out very well for something like that. EyePet requires that you move the camera to a very low position and you have to sit on the ground, even then, it has quite a lot of issues getting the perspective and depth right.

    What I could see working for something like Silent Hill is using the camera thats looking back at you to generate a flashing image of you on the couch, with some weird creepy shit in the room with you. It would be enough to freak you the hell out, but would only really work well once. So if the guys can get creative they could do some cool shit with it.

    It could be used to handle some very cool puzzles in something like Silent Hill though, as the precision is good enough for you to work with little mechanical objects or puzzles pieces etc.

    Then again, developers always surprise us, so who knows what cool stuff they will come up with. The Move controller will definitely be great for a flashlight for something like Silent Hill ala Alan Wake style.

    Reply

  26. Geoffrey Tim

    September 10, 2010 at 20:42

    You need to play the Wii version of Silent Hill : Shattered memories. Very, very clever use of the Wiimote.

    Reply

  27. AC!D

    September 10, 2010 at 21:39

    Thanks for the reply! I guess maybe they should have upgraded the camera because the grainy thing doesnt sound very nice either but then users already owning one like myself probably would have complained. At least you can still reach in with the Move controller i guess.

    @Geoff: I played Shattered Memories and yeah they used the Wii Mote very well. Searching for a phone number in a room to listen to a message on your Wii mote speaker was brilliant. Then solving the riddle on the phone message to ultimately solve your bigger puzzle added massive depth. I also like the way the Wii mote was used as a torch. I imagine an Alan Wake like game with the camera pulled closer in like shattered memories would be awesome. Anyway my one massive criticism of the Move controller is that they didnt copy and add the speaker from the Wii mote. I love that about my Wii Mote.

    Reply

  28. Geoffrey Tim

    September 10, 2010 at 21:42

    @AC!D Yeah..the Wiimote speaker was/is heavily underutilised – but when it’s used well – as it was in Shattered Memories – the effect can be quite awesome.

    Reply

  29. Nick de Bruyne

    September 10, 2010 at 22:11

    @Geoff and AC!D

    Yeah I haven’t played that Silent Hill, sounds like it was already doing some neat ideas. I wouldn’t say that leaving a speaker out was a big loss, its an interesting addition to the Wii, and one that the devlopers found some good uses for. I think that with the Move, the developers will be working hard now to use the precision of the controller to its full capacity. Slicing open dead bodies for clues, sounds nasty, and awesome.

    Reply

  30. Nick de Bruyne

    September 13, 2010 at 12:46

    @casual gamer

    – Still, those are hardly launch titles that will get people to run out and buy it, so its a legitimate point.

    – I said the tech is really solid, but the camera itself has issues with lighting. The controller still gets picked up with no issues, but for games that show video of the player, it needs a lot of light to look decent.

    – For certain games like Table Tennis, if you are close to the TV it thinks you are standing over the table, you need to actually move back quite a lot to be in position for wide shots that go further, so again, its a legitimate issue. Space will definitely be a problem.

    My cons are there for a reason, they are real issues, not ones I made up for fun.

    Reply

  31. Marc

    September 22, 2010 at 15:11

    I bought Move yesterday, very cool, but mostly kiddies games for now, however, Killzone 3 will be Move compatable, so Move will get better games going forward

    Reply

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