I have so much to say on this and I probably won’t be able to say everything. First off, Move is legit. I walked away this weekend absolutely loving the Ping Pong game in the Sports Champion demo. Unlike Wii Tennis, you actually have to hold the controller/paddle straight and can put top spin, back spin, slice, actually lob shots and downward shots. It’s awesome. There are also demos like Tumble which break the 4th wall and I imagine with a 3DTV, the depth comes into play. Because this game has you reaching into the TV with the Move controller, etc it’s pretty funky. The game still sucks though, lol. You’re stacking blocks!
I played the Killzone 3 single player demo SO many times this weekend. So much that I found out that there is a glitch in the Jet Pack sequence where the turn speed is accelerated and shouldn’t be like that. I also watched a 30 min Youtube playthrough of how to improve Move gameplay with Killzone 3 to study up on it some more. There was a moment on Friday and finally Saturday night where I had to make a decision how I was going to play Killzone 3 when I pick it up on Tuesday. I have the regular dualshock3, the Move setup or the Move setup with the Sharpshooter gun. Let’s start with the Sharpshooter gun, this isn’t an ordinary piece of plastic, it is a legitimate add on to actually improve gameplay. It is immersive and when it works, it is awesome. The gun has it’s own on board processor and mini-port to connect to the Move controller which subsequently allows it to remap the buttons and configurations. To reload you hit the bottom of the pseudo magazine on the bottom of the gun. You can pump the barrel of the gun to simulate shooting, works imaginatively when you have a shotgun. There is a craddle of the Move controller and then the analog controller.
The biggest problem with this controller is a player’s natural tendencies. It depends where you are coming from. Are you a PC gamer, how trained are you in respect to that. How do you play in general, do you run and gun, do you move quickly through a level and flank enemies? Do you hug walls and sneak in, infiltrate? Do you shoot from a distance and then suddenly close the gap to run in for the quick melee kill? You literally have to relearn how to play with this peripheral.
On top of it, the setup you have at home is very important. After playing through the demo several times, in the end I realized you have to play standing up. Holding the gun up high at your shoulder or hip firing. It is slightly cumbersome but also immersive when the game works. One of the conflicting things when holding a gun and the attempt that you feel like you’re in the game is exactly what it presents. You are in the game. The Move controller isn’t just a cursor, however that is how it is represented on screen and you have to realize this. You don’t just follow the cursor on screen, the Move controller also controls the camera. If you can’t make this disconnect, you won’t have success playing with the Move + Sharpshooter combination. If you get frustrated easily you’ll want to not play with it. I pride myself on a quick learning curve, but I knew after several playthroughs and adjustments to the calibration of the controller, this was going to be work. It was no simple task, you have to be mindful of your tendencies, how you play the game and how do you want to play the game. Will you change because of the controller scheme or will you adapt?
The mimmickry of what the gun does is fun. Pretend reloading and shoving the gun forward to engage a melee attack. However I will say, if you like to run in and melee, you will not find the same success as you would with a dualshock controller. It is difficult. The reason being is the camera and how it is controlled with Move. While the cursor will highlight enemies on screen and turn red when you need to kill that object, the turn speed, the crosshair speed, the deadzone, all have to be adjusted accordingly. Strafing and general movement is done with the navigation controller and the sole analog stick there, but when you are moving the entire gun to the right to adjust the camera, your left or right hand on the analog stick is carrying with you. You don’t just end up moving the gun, you move your body. This is where I realized when I was trying to run around corners as quick as I wanted to, I simply couldn’t. I couldn’t come into a room and quickly execute a bunch of enemies. Because of my quick turning movements, the camera wouldn’t stop or my natural tendency to hold the gun lower for a rest would suddenly adjust my camera angle lower, or I’m fighting with the camera and I’m looking at the ceiling. In the meanwhile my screen is turning red because I’m getting shot from multiple directions. I’m trying to find out where the bullets are coming from but I’m not quick enough and it’s because of the camera.
If you think another analog stick would work, it doesn’t. I know this because of Time Crisis 3 and the guncon that came out with that, I owned 2 of these guns. In theory it’s basically just a dualshock in the shape of a gun. But you soon realize that you’re just following a cursor on screen and moving two analog sticks while moving a gun around, pointing at the screen becomes difficult as well. The Sharpshooter actually does a much better job, it has been meticulously designed. Like I said, when it works it works awesome. There is less involvement with what you need to do with the gun, because it mimics an actual gun better than say the guncon did. Here again lies the problem.
I’m 6’0 feet tall and standing in front of my TV, which is not at eye level, is difficult. When your back starts to get sore after 10 minutes, you know something is wrong. It’s not so much the space, but how the game works, the camera works and where you are positioned. How you are interacting with everything as a whole.
What I’m aiming for is complete immersion of a video game. We aren’t there yet. While Wiimotes brought us there first, Move copied and Kinect offers something new, it is not enough to break that uncanny valley yet. To me how this gun will work well, is if I was surround in a 360 manner with TVs, having to watch my back and being able to see my entire environment around me. That’s a crazy idea, it’s basically virtual reality gaming. So instead the best I would recommend is buying the biggest TV you can get, I’d say a minimum of 55″ and it would have to be a 3DTV as well, then put that TV on a wall mount and then play Killzone 3 with the Move and Sharpshooter.
This gun is simply going to want you to want more. It’s here I realized my setup was not enough and I was not going to invest anymore money into a single game. Literally to give you an idea of how awesome playing Killzone 3 could be. You turn off the crosshair in the game, adjust your calibration and have at it. It is pretty damn cool. The one thing missing for me was a 3DTV. When you start playing with a controller that you hold as a gun, you need to start breaking those uncanny valleys even more. Then depth of field that 3D would offer would help with this. I’m being assumptive, but when it comes to realizing your environment more and making broad movements with your body to control the camera, it’s pretty fair to think it would work.
Now Move with the analog controller without the gun, it works bloody well awesome. Sit down in a natural gaming position. Do not point at the screen, just sit comfortably and the controllers sitting on your lap and you’ll feel like you’re cheating. It is SO easy to get kills and the responsiveness of the camera is better because you are now just relying on the Move controller in one hand. You gesturing quickly left or right with the Move controller with one hand and the camera moves. But here you aren’t battling your entire body, standing up holding a gun. There is a big difference. For long periods of gaming, it ends up being what do you want to use? If you’re tired after 30 minutes playing with a Sharpshooter, that’s another thing to consider. Move is incredibly precise and in a FPS setup it is pretty deadly. It’s not without it’s faults though, while camera movement becomes easier again you won’t be able to melee as well versus the dualshock. Is the accuracy better and quicker than the dualschock? Absolutely. Do I have a better chance at running in and quickly killing you, while adjusting my strafe and movement, while moving and rotating the camera to center it fasting in the meanwhile hitting the melee button to kill you with a dualshock? Absolutely.
In the end it depends on your game style and I think this is the major factor of these peripherals. It also led to my final decision of returning the Sharpshooter and getting my money back while I still could on it. While some might argue I didn’t give it enough of a chance because I didn’t play the final product of the game. I knew enough that I did not want to play for extended hours with it for the game. I rely on precise camera movement, but more than that “quick” camera movement that I can control. Video games is about what you can do, not what you can’t do. The moment you can’t do something you want to do in a video game, that’s a flag that the video game might not work for you. If you can kind of do it, it just means you’ll be fighting with it all game. The Sharpshooter is a fantastic attempt at trying to marry the accuracy of Move with the subtle dualshock gameplay. However it’s the camera and how Move doesn’t merely work as a simple cursor which changes how these motion controllers interact with the game itself. It’s not to say that they don’t work, maybe a developer will figure it out. These controllers are adaptive and YES, buttons are absolutely necessary.
I have much more to say, but I’m going to leave it at that. My investment with Move wasn’t a waste, I actually want to pick up another Move controller and Sports Champions. I’m going probably hunt down the latter used and if the price is right, keep playing more. I still have a few more demos to try out. It’s a definite shame the Wii never will get this type of support, like a Killzone 3-esque game. But it also shows that in the FPS genre, 1:1 motion controllers is the new jack city.
Also, the Killzone 3 demo was great. Looking forward to the game itself. I had hoped to train myself to use the gun but when I realized that it’s just too much work. I did give up. I don’t know which my first playthrough of Killzone 3 will be with, Move or dualshock. My personal playstyle is taking corners hard, running in for a melee kill, shooting from a distance, taking cover and just being thoughtful of the level design and what I can and can’t do within it. Here lies the past 25 yrs of my gaming of handling a traditional controller. It is hard to break that habit. I will give Move a sincere playthrough, because accuracy is just so damn easy with it.
I diasagree.a bit on how much work it is to get use to the sharp shooter. Ben playing the killzone 3 demo on a 32 2d tv, sitting in a comfy gun position(ie a lil cockeyed but still comfy) and I found it a breeze to pick up the controls. The only advice I could give first timers would be to set the dead zones to zero, likewise with the sensitvity, but leave the turning speed at 30. Just like with a fighting game, its better to start on an easier to control and more forgiving setting when first playing a brand new game.