A New Way to Play (Part 4)

My preferred system of today is the Playstation 3. I'm not an irrational fanboy about it either, as I have all of the current gen consoles. I've dabbled in all of them, but at the end of the day, the PS3 has spoken directly to me the most. Don't take that previous statement the wrong way though, as I won't defend everything they do.

Chapter 4: ...I can do better.

This is the Playstation Move. If it looks familiar, it is essentially very similar to the Nintendo Wii's control scheme. The difference is that the Move is accurate and works well. When this was announced, I was a little bit excited by the prospect of being able to play a Wii game with the slightest semblance of accuracy. I bought it upon release used it just enough to be able to say it works very well, but I don't use it at all. Why is this? As it turns out, in my not so humble opinion, the fact that the Wii doesn't control well, isn't even the biggest part of why the Wii is a failure. As it turns out, no matter how accurate you make it, swinging your arms around to play a game gets old.

The difference here, is that the Move has been attached to various games of actual substance for the PS3. Resistance 3 and Killzone 3 are done well, and the Sly Collection is pretty fun too. These games are for actual gamers and offset the hand full of crappy party games that also came out for it. Still, while this all sounds like a massive success story, these great games can be played better with a plain old controller. This is a wonderful thing, because no matter how well your motion controller works, the last thing that should be on your mind is how you're controlling the game. With a game, you are a part of the game with a controller, because your hands get comfortable and obtain a memory, so that you are just moving a character on the screen with your mind and you forget that your hands are involved. Try to forget that you are playing a game while swinging your arms at a TV screen.

I guess that is what this all comes down to. My personal preference of gaming, is to experience adventures and stories as a diversion for every day life. I'm sorry, but I don't find slapping a virtual beach ball back at my screen to be all that mentally engaging. I personally don't want to shut my mind off with a video game, so much as take my mind away. For shutting your mind off it's all about movies, where you can just sit back and let it happen in front of you.

The Move did well, for what it is, but it won't replace anything, and I hope that Sony will move forward staying focussed on the core gamers. I hope they can see Nintendo's success with motion control is fleeting and was only a temporary thing, and that copying them is not a good idea. 

Next time, I look at the other knee jerk reaction to the Wii.