SOCOM 4 with PS Move

Part of Eurogamer Expo 2010

 

So I plain forgot to get pictures of this, which is probably a blessing considering my camera skills.

SOCOM 4 seems like a fairly decent and involved third person shooter (Thirps?). You’re some kind of guy and you are required to shoot people and blow things up and so on. In a demo hall all that stuff is kind of by the by.

This was present on regular controlled PS3s but half of those were crashed out all day so I only got to play this on Move. It was both good and bad in this respect.

My only motion control shooter experience is Metroid Prime 3: Corruption and that was a damn fine experience. Pin-point accuracy the whole time, fluid and intuitive movements. It played exactly how you would want. PS Move has sub-millimeter accuracy so should be a blast too right? If I had ten minutes to dick around with the settings then yes, conceivably. I would eliminate the bounding box, the free movement zone your reticule has before it moves the viewable screen around, straight away. It moved too slowly horizontally compared to how it moved vertically so when you had to engage combatants on your plane and then shift to those above or below you, it was disorienting.

The targeting was very nice, it pointed exactly where I wanted and you can’t ask more than that. It’s better than auto-aim. The Move controller worked just fine and when a decent enough game can utilise it well I will be happy to buy one.

Make no mistake, I probably will not buy SOCOM 4 because I have better things to be getting on with than another shooter, but if I was given it I wouldn’t be sad about it.

Video from E3 of the section I demoed.

The Fight Lights Out with PS Move

Part of Eurogamer Expo 2010

I’ll come right out with it; The Fight is shit.

The above calibration screen pops up for each new user so it was set up for my height and reach. I figured that the Move controllers should be able to excel where the Wiimotes so spectacularly failed to capture my exact intended punches.

I know how to throw a decent variety of punches and with good form but The Fight did not know how to translate them. It reacted very slowly and because the virtual hands could not snap forward any punches landed felt more like fist pushes.So when you are trying in earnest to muller your quarry into mush and fine powder he thinks that you are modestly encouraging him with shy machismo by gently placing your clenched mitt on his jaw and shoving slightly.

So you try some slowed down, deliberate moves and the thing just does not get it. It could not read a hook, uppercuts seemed only to go for the body unless the opponent was right in your grill and intended body shots just fell short.

This appeared to be a short sweet tech demo almost, showing just how far motion control has come. A little game which played perfectly and whet your appetite for what could be done.

In the cold light of day though, it is oh so disappointing. Bitterly so.

"I will fist push you into unconsciousness" The red neon reflection is the most exciting thing happening on this screen

 

Playstation Move

On wednesday Sony named their motion control device as the PlayStation Move. Because I’m such an ace reporter and am totally at GDC I would’ve been right there asking the tough questions but…..

What hotel am I staying at? Weeeeellll, you wouldn’t know it, it’s kinda out of the way. Whichever hotel you don’t know in San Francisco, that’s the one I’m at.

Anyway I didn’t cover it because I was too busy partying and generally being a stand up guy.