Rory Cellan-Jones from BBC.co.uk recently had the opportunity to go hands-on with the latest builds of not only the PlayStation Move, but also Microsoft’s newly renamed, Kinect. What did this technology guru think about the two latest steps into motion gaming? Well, Cellan-Jones felt that Kinect may fall short in delivering precision gaming to hardcore gamers while Sony’s PlayStation Move would do just the opposite.
This is what Jones had to say about Kinect: “It was an enjoyable, if sweaty, half-hour, and I could certainly see the attractions of throwing away the control and just flinging yourself at the game.
“But I was not quite convinced that Microsoft’s technology would deliver for hard-core gamers. It seemed to work well on fun Wii-like games where you didn’t need too much precision – I’m not so sure how whether it would deliver on a first-person shooter.”
From his playing experience, it sounds a lot like what we have come to expect from motion gaming since the debut of the Nintendo Wii. While some hardcore Nintendo fanboys will claim the Wii is a console capable of appealing to the hardcore, the game library just doesn’t reflect that on a majority level.
Here is what Jones said about Move: “I’ve also had a go on Sony’s Move motion control system, which is unveiled on Tuesday. Sony’s solution is much less radical. It has retained the controller, now adorned with glowing spheres which interact with a sensor unit on the television.
“This makes the whole experience less physical than with Kinect, but it also delivers a lot more precision. Sony showed us a table tennis game which seemed to mimic the real thing much more closely than I have seen elsewhere.”
Apparently, the gyroscope that comes within the controllers for the Move are a huge help in retaining nearly 1:1 movement while gaming. This inclusion allows for the device to be even more accurate than the Wii’s Wiimote for “sports” like Ping Pong.
To be honest, I’m not sold on this motion fad of gaming and I will probably not get too into either format of technology, but I’m guessing a lot of you with families will be rocking this stuff like it’s the next big thing…hopefully for you guys, it delivers as promised.
