PopSci Impressed by PlayStation Move, Jabs at Wii,Kinect
PlayStation Move
Popular Science (PopSci) released their 23rd annual Best of What’s New awards. Awards of interest were given to the OnLive service and PlayStation Move while trolling the Wii and Xbox 360 motion controlled attempts.
The awards are given to the 100 innovations that PopSci considers is the direction that technology is headed in the future.
The Home Entertainment category features two gaming related rewards that are probably of little surprise. The cloud-computing On-Demand game service, OnLive, and the Sony PlayStation Move.
OnLive gets the award due to the fact that it can allow a low end computer to play high-end content via cloud computing. There have been a couple of other attempts at a service like this and they have all failed. OnLive is the one standing, shining, example of how well cloud-computing can work out. As their motto says, one can “Just play.”
The PlayStation Move is considered, by PopSci, to be the first motion-capture game system accurate enough to attract the hardcore gamers who consider the Wii and Microsoft Kinect to be lower end childish stuff. While this may sound like a jab at the two competitors, is it wrong?
Many gamers will be quick to say that the PlayStation Move is not innovative; it’s merely doing better what the Wii attempted to do years ago. The thing is: The Wii failed at it. The Wii motion controller does not successfully, or even remotely (bad pun), offer a 1:1 controller that can truly immerse one in a video game. Whether you flick your wrist lightly or make broad swings with your arm, the general motion is the same and it does nothing to help you in-game. Much of the Wii’s market is in the family genre or mini-games genre. Nothing hardcore.
The Microsoft Kinect is a hands-off approach and motion controlled gaming. The PlayStation has done this, and is doing this currently, with the EyeToy. There is pretty much nothing that Microsoft is doing that can warrant the purchase of this product, save family games. It is an impractical device that requires proper lighting conditions, proper space in your living room, etc just for it to operate properly. Then one would have to imagine how such a motion controller can even be applied to a hardcore game like Gears of War 3 or Call of Duty.
The PlayStation Move successfully does what both of those attempts fail to do: attract the hardcore gaming crowd. The PlayStation Move is accurate enough to provide 1:1 movement which is already a feat in and of its own since no other console offers it in a practical fashion. It is basically what the Wii-mote wishes it could be. While Kinect can only be applied to family gaming, the PlayStation Move is versatile enough to work with both family games and hardcore shooting games. The aiming is spot on and the lag is minimal. It is perfect for an all around solution to the motion-controller battle.
Best of What’s New 2010 [PopSci]