Mega motion-gaming match-up

21.02.2011

I had some problems setting up the Move. The hardware is straightforward to set up, because you just have to plug things in, but the camera doesn't work very well unless you sit it on top of your TV (and preferably at a height of eight feet). I have an LCD TV, as I imagine many people do these days, and it's not very thick, which means balancing the camera on top of it was precarious at best. A clamp or something similar would be nice.

The real annoyance, though, is the fact that you have to calibrate all of the Move's games every time you play. And I mean every time -- if you play one mini-game, then step out and let someone else play in your place, they have to calibrate. If you step in again, you have to calibrate. If you play two different mini-games, you have to calibrate for each one. Each time you calibrate you have to stand in a particular spot and move the controller to different places on your body. It's a whole lot of time wasted.

The Move is also almost too sensitive. It becomes really difficult to move the controller to different menu buttons when moving your hand a centimetre sends the cursor on screen flying. At times I had to hold my arm still with my other hand to steady it.

The Move's sports game is Sports Champions, which does a good job of distinguishing itself from the Wii's sports title, and of showing off the capabilities of the hardware. You can do things that the Wii can't do -- for example, you can play a realistic archery mini-game, which you could never do on the Wii because it just wouldn't be accurate enough.

The PlayStation Move is a cool device, but I can't shake the feeling that this isn't the 'revolution' Sony touted it to be, just an evolution of a failed product, EyeToy. It's a better choice than the Wii, and if you don't own a PS3 already, you have an excuse to buy one and play a hoard of other, non-motion-controlled games. If you already own a PS3, the Move is a much cheaper choice than buying a new console. Just don't forget that if you want to play with a friend, you're actually going to have to buy two Move devices because the controller essentially is the device -- something you don't have to worry about with Kinect -- and to be honest, the motion consoles are boring without a friend to play with.