Will PS Move change the way we play games?

The video below shows the possible future games we could be seeing with the all  new PS move due released on the 15th of September in Singapore!

I like the chameleon demo (3:05) where the person ‘moves’ around the tree branches as a chameleon. The movement looks intuitive to me and is definitely novel. The other demo at 4:47 is the ability of PS Move to create the skeleton for the upper body movement. However, how far would game developers be able to make full use of this technology is still pretty much unknown. A point to note too is that  in some of the demo, there is a need for two PS Move controllers. This mean that Sony may have a problem with pricing for the upcoming war with Microsoft Kinect which needs only a single Kinect Sensor Device.

Also few game titles have been announced so far that make use of the PS Move interface such as Little Big Planet 2 and Sorcery. However, not all of these games required PS Move. Some of which is PS Move Featured meaning having the PS Move controller is optional.

With all the marketing hype about the PS Move, (Sony even engaged some kawaii girls to promote PS Move, see video below), I was contemplating whether to get one myself so I went online to look at the games offered for PS Move. Sadly, none of them prove to be promising enough and I began to wonder whether PS Move is really going to change the way we play games.

I was at Comex today and chanced upon a demo of PS Move! Although I didn’t get to play it, the demo was not really inspiring and did not entice me to pre-order from the booth.

 

The reason is that the two games I saw were unimpressive and looked like a Wii game to me. The first game was “Start The Party!” where I saw a kid swiping flies with the PS Move controller. The game seems so Wii-like and uninteresting. Perhaps it can keep your kids entertain for a while. Sony’s attempt at entering the market cannot depend on game like this and they would have to find game developers who can make use of PS Move to make novel family-oriented games.

The other game I saw was called “Kung Fu Rider”. Basically it is a game where you control a guy on an office chair cruising  down the street of perhaps HongKong (judging from the background). The player has to keep shaking the controller up and down for the person to move. Other than the wacky expressive character in the game, I feel that this game is again too Wii-like for my taste.

Anyway the pre-order was sold out! Wow…Singaporean sure have the money!

To sum it up, PS Move needs a breakthrough game that can utilize the new controller in a way we’ve never seen before. It should be able to change the way we perceive game playing and truly bring a new experience to the gamers. I would patiently await the day for this game before jumping onto the bandwagon!

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