EyeToy team questions format rivals Comments by Robert Purchese

I want an eyetoy, but not for £25

I bet, should You're In the Movies work, he shall still refuse his Humble Pie.

It's not like there's lots of software to the Playstation Eye either.

Doesn't anyone realise that the Eyetoy was a PS2 novelty that nobody cares about anymore? I haven't touched a camera-based game since the first one.

"Good luck to them," he added.

"Good luck to them," he fucking lied.

I've got a Live Vision camera. The only use I've had of it is to make my head in RS:Vegas and RS:Vegas 2. I was hoping more games would use it (Oblivion, Fallout 3, Mass Effect, GRAW) but oh no. And now it's even pointless in the few arcade games which use it as they'll all support avatars instead.

You're in the movies isn't doing well:
http://www.metacritic.com/games/platform...

Its all great tech, but who really wants to support it? Its so gimmicky. The best use of any camera has to be the face mapper in R6V, I've not used it for anything else.

There's a Wii camera?

@systems

i couldn't get my face on RS:Vegas1 for some reason. couldn't see the option anywhere. :S

It's not like there's lots of software to the Playstation Eye either.

eyetoy has quite a few games to be honest... they're all on the PSN Store (including a free application for making your own videos with effects and stuff).

And the Eye of Judgement is pretty cool... Eye Pet next year... doesn't LBP make use of it quite a bit too and singstar... you can even use it as a microphone for in game chat etc. (a bit like the Wii microphone thing)

I'd say Sony have that all in order... the MS version is very 'Me too'... same goes for Avatars and Lips.

On that note, Microsoft's efforts in this casual arena are a bit like those old Top of the Pops albums; not bad, slighly naff... good enough for some... but not the real deal.

360's strengths definitely lie elsewhere and I bet MS drop support for all that like a stone once Christmas is out of the way.

lol if it works half as well as M$ other rip off lips, then you might as well dance in-front of the mirror, for more enjoyment.

Seriously though, ive found the eye toy games a fun party distraction when drunk, and had excellent fun on Singstar, Burnout Paradise and Buzz when using the camera, far more than i thought i actually would.

The camera functionality on Burnout Paradise is always good for a giggle - on BOTH formats!

"The best use of any camera has to be the face mapper in R6V"

"I've not used it for anything else."

So on the basis of your own personal use, you are defining the limits of potential for an entire control system?


"The most unimaginative use of any camera has to be the face mapper in R6V"

Fixed.

The best use must still the be the light sabre game some chap wrote in his puter a good few years before the eyetoy was released.

For those lucky enough to have a backward compatible PS3 to PS2, I recommend you buy all the EyeToy Play games at bargain prices - the only thing though and this is inexplicably stupid, you have to buy the PS2 EyeToy camera for them to work as the PS3 camera wont work with the PS2 EyeToy games! but still worth it as the library is extensive and very fun especially EyeToy Groove!

"I'd say Sony have that all in order... the MS version is very 'Me too'... same goes for Avatars and Lips."

Oh Lordy - another person who thinks Sony or Nintendo invented everything. Check out the history of avatars and karaoke games and I think you'll find they predate anything Sony or Nintendo has used them for.

Oh Lordy - another person who thinks Sony (?) or Nintendo invented everything.

Sony? To be honest, quite a lot of people seem to think Nintendo invented the wheel or something, but Sony?

Sony for Singstar, Ninty for avatars.

i think the eye is a great piece of kit. video chat over PSN is in almost flawless quality!
the games for it are a bit naff tho. as someone else mentioned... you have morefun with them when your drunk!
as soon as someone does a driver for PC - i.e. webcam. then the eye will get a lot more use for me.

Wait ... "You're In the Movies" won't work? But it's being developed by Zoe Mode (a Kuju subsiduary) .. you know, the one that did Eye Toy: 3, Eye Toy: Play Sports, Eye Create and Eye Toy: Astro Zoo.

So they can't do Eye Toy games eh? So why did they do four of them already?

Oh Lordy - another person who thinks Sony or Nintendo invented everything. Check out the history of avatars and karaoke games and I think you'll find they predate anything Sony or Nintendo has used them for.

Eh?

I think you might have miss understood me. I don't think Nintendo and Sony invented everything... I just think that if Nintendo had never put Mii's into the Wii experience I'd bet money on MS would not have Avatars, and if Sony hadn't had success with Singstar then MS would not have done Lips... and just to balance things out... I don't think Sony would have Trophies without MS doing Accheiments.

This IMO qualifies calling 'Lips' a me too version of Singstar, I mean it's a direct rippof... presentation 'n everything. Same goes for Avatars... I mean c'mon the Avatars even run onto the screen and you get all that Nintendo type jingle when you save your Avatar.

:-D

@ onybox

But you can say "if x never did y then z never would have happened" regarding just about any situation. I'm sure Singstar was a ripoff from somewhere else, along with Mii's, etc., etc., etc. I'm not saying MS is authentic in any way, but neither are Sony or Nintendo.

I get your point, though. :)

Well Wiimote does at least appear to be entirely ripped off from EyeToy right.

Playing Wii Sports for the first time did feel remarkably like playing EyeToy Play 4 years earlier...

MS's attempts so far at appealing to a Singstar/Eyetoy/Buzz market have been pretty shoddy. You'd think they'd get some decent QA/cash behind it.

Personally, I think that the Playstation Eye is the peripheral that offers the MOST opportunities for new interesting input methods in gaming right now. Perhaps not the current commercial technology but potential future Eye-Toy style devices, with head and limb tracking software built in. Imagine a camera operated Wii Sports type game or some kind of Minority Report type input in strategy gaming or menu control. It's not too harsh a criticism to suggest that Nintendo have become aware of their own technology's shortcomings in terms of 1 to 1 input (look at the development of the Wii Motion Plus for evidence), but what they have shown is the ability (perhaps a necessity after the comercial shortcomings of the Gamecube, but nonetheless a huge achievement) to forge a new audience and really provide an intuitive casual experience (let's not mention the brand-weakening horrors of Wii Music!). What strikes me as odd is how Sony and Microsoft, in their infinite wisdom have thus far failed to capitalise on these areas. Sony Europe in particular have been notable in their recent absence from the market. The casual market lives on new IP, interesting new toy-like experiences that anyone can pick up and play. Sony did a great job on the PS2 bringing Buzz, Singstar and EyeToy to market, and certainly in the case of Singstar and Buzz have continued to lengthen the appeal of those brands on the PS3... but where's EyeToy? The PSEye has so far only had a fairly niche Japanese title developed for it, with NOTHING, not even Wii-ported shovelware adapted for the system. I am of course discounting PSN content, as however valid these efforts have been thus far, they just don't (yet) have any real appeal to the casual customer who's decisions are usually made by word-of-mouth advertising, and (sad as it is) box art! Considering the controllers for every PS3 have an albeit basic motion control ability built in, the combination of this plus camera SHOULD make for some truly unique games with broad appeal. And when it works it really works - compare Samba De Amigo on the Wii to the far more precise minigame version on the Sega EyeToy collection - approached right, in certain genres, this input CAN be superior to Wiimote input. We won't mention Microsoft's laughably low-key attack on the market with their vision camera as that has yet to amount to anything or prove itself technically, but Sony really do seem to be missing an opportunity. We approach 2009 with only EyePet officially announced for the camera - where are all the games that will bring a new audience to HD gaming? What is Sony europe doing? Was Phil Harrison right to step down over his Japanese colleagues inability to see the potential in casual gaming?

@rounds

But you can say "if x never did y then z never would have happened" regarding just about any situation.

yeah, I appreciate that... and I did feel a bit uncomfortable about putting that argument forward but at the same time needed a way to get across that these apps look a teeny bit too similar to be just inspired by the predecessor.

:-)

I get your point, though. :)

cheers.

2/10 for Burt - Good call EyeToy team - now lets have some more eye toy play and groove!