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E3 09: Whatever this thing is, it’s the best thing I’ve seen today.

June 2nd, 2009 at 3:01 pm · 17 Comments

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playstationmotion
In the interest of full disclosure, we started watching Sony’s motion control presentation and laughed, we’d watched Project Natal in awe, we’d looked at Wii Motion Plus and sighed. We thought we knew better than to expect greatness.

Who’d think that when a two guys walked out with a stick that looked like a vibrator, our entire staff would call this the announcement of the E3.

The controllers, that haven’t yet been named (beyond PlayStation Motion Controller) or had their design finalised, allow for the PlayStation Eye to pick up your movement in real-time. Onscreen a video of you can have the strange ball controller replaced with anything in realtime, Sony showed (among others) a bat, a golf club, a stop sign and a golden desert eagle, all of which had effect on the surrounding objects in real-space.

We were also shown a simple “block stacking” exercise, but the user was able to move in three dimensions with their controller, moving inward to pick up blocks in the back of the screen and foward to place them on a construction area. It was awesome.

Greatest of all, the demo showed us a knight attacking a skeleton with his sword, movement entirely controlled by two of the light-sticks and accuracy was dependant on how much movement he put into the sticks, he also showed off an archery sim that blew Wii Sports Resort out of the water.

This single tech demo did everything the Wii was supposed to, better. Someone at Nintendo is commiting Seppuku.




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Tags: · · ·
Categories: News · PlayStation 3

  • http://waisybabu.wordpress.com/ Awais Imran

    I can’t understand a thing about this new motion control because A. I can’t watch video on dial-up B. The banner you put up here is confusing.

  • dick Fitswell

    i watched the stream of the conference and this looks so much better that what the wii and 360 showed and this is still very much in development. looks awesome Sony is finally on the ball.

  • slik1000

    You called THIS the announcement of E3? It’s impressive, but nothing compared to Natal. Given that both systems are looking at a similar release date Sony has a lot of work to do if it’s to rival Microsoft’s entry into motion control.

  • Diortem

    meh…. took them long enough…

  • Pillowfort

    No we’re pretty sure this is better.

  • http://www.sarcasticgamer.com Krelith

    This beats NATAL hands down.

  • slik1000

    Actually, now that I’ve thought about it, both companies have incomplete products. Both are good, Microsoft seemed to focus on the casual aspects and user UI, Sony seemed to have taken a more hardcore route, in terms of games, and kept a controller. I kind of hope that they both steal the other companies ideas and make a controller-less system that has hardcore and casual uses across both systems.

  • Farko

    so this is the long rumored sony wii-like motion controller, with the 360 motion controller on its way and the wii motion plus out, i would say that the motion control wars are soon to be up and running soon

  • Strandli

    I will say PS3 Motion Controllers > NATAL.
    What Sony showed us was a working prototype, it works perfect.
    Microsoft showed us eyetoy with voice recognition. The impressive parts of NATAL was only video footage, and then we have no clue about whats real or not. Sony actually showed us the hardware and no video, and it all worked like a charm,

    I also thing Sony’s controllers can be applied to both casual and hardcore games, which I really can’t see Natal do. The FPS, flashlight and swordfight can be applied to gameplay.
    This is what I think though, I understand people who are more impressed over NATAL, but I am not impressed over videos, and that just looks like advanced eyetoy to me.

  • http://sarcasticgamer.com/wp/index.php/author/yousty/ Yousty

    Wow, looks like I should have joined the staff for the conference chat.

    You do realize that this is nothing but Wii Motion Plus right? They both have the exact same 1:1 tracking, They even had the exact same shooting a bow and arrow demo for pete’s sake. The only difference is Nintendo is way ahead of Sony because Wii Motion Plus comes out in a month compared to Sony’s copy that doesn’t come out for another year and will require you to buy 2 joysticks and EyeToy compared to just the addon for the Wii controller.

    I’m very disappointed in you writers for not being able to see through all this and for calling this the announcement of E3?! Are you freakin kidding me?

  • Pillowfort

    There’s a disparity between the words “best announcement” and “best thing shown”.

  • http://sarcasticgamer.com/wp/index.php/author/yousty/ Yousty

    FTA: “Who?d think that when a two guys walked out with a stick that looked like a vibrator, our entire staff would call this the announcement of the E3.”

  • ResidentnEvil

    Yousty: This blows MotionPlus out of the way for several reasons.

    First, the overlaying of in-game objects over real time camera footage (which was the majority of the demo, so I don’t know what video you were watching).

    Second, the PS Eye can recognize where you are IN THE ROOM. MotionPlus can detect how you’re holding the controller, but not where YOU are in relation to the screen. Which makes it possible for the FPS demo where he was walking around a room.

    Some of the other demonstrations would most definitely be possible with MotionPlus (block stacking, sword/shield, etc), but there’s no doubt this has more potential.

    If it ever comes out.

  • Pillowfort

    @Yousty: I’m not sure what you’re trying to prove with that quote, my earlier point still stands.

  • Diortem

    @ResidentEvil: Isn’t the eye already out? So you will need two separate add-ons to make this work? And one of them wasn’t the most popular device to begin with?

    My friends, this is not the beginning of the motion wars… this is only a declaration of it. The REAL war will begin next generation.

  • Timewarp

    wow….arguing already are we? Either way this is sure to thrash the wii but only if we don’t have to download more just to use these.

    The PS3′s problem is that most of the time it’s good but microsoft are waiting for them to go first just so they can bring out something better or secure DLC for the better titles. The future of gaming is obviously motion controllers and DLC as a lot of people went mad over the wii and DLC helps reduce the amount of plastic that companies need to waste on boxes and manuals for games plus they can send it directly to your console.

    There is no gaming war, the only gaming war is us idiots whinging over what games and consoles we like and don’t like, sacastic gamer are right in saying that even if EVERY game and DLC was multiformat we would still complain not as much but we would still have an argument about something.

    As i own both a PS3 and wii i’m both confused and happy at the idea of playstation motion controllers.

  • Farko

    the problem with wii motion plus is that it is an add on, built to do what the wii was always suppose to do