PlayStation Eye Roundup Review

By Dan Whitehead Published 30 October, 2007

Eye's open.

Version tested: PlayStation 3

The success of EyeToy was undeniably one of the factors that kept the PS2 ticking long after its peers had slunk away to the hardware graveyard, so you can hardly blame Sony for introducing the next generation PlayStation camera package early in the PS3 life-cycle. Launching it with a collectible card game, however, seems like an odd option, such things not being famous for their cross-generational appeal, and the first two downloadable PlayStation Eye offerings don't exactly scream mainstream either.

Now, neither Mesmerize or Tori Emaki are really games in any meaningful sense of the word, so there won't be a score to pick apart at the end. Rather, this is a look at how Sony are supporting the Eye and what you can expect to be able to do with it over the next month or so.

Mesmerize

This chilled-out collection of interactive visual effects is a fun way to show off the PlayStation Eye, although the only people likely to gain long-term amusement from it are those glued to the sofa at 3am, spannered off their gourd on drug flutes.

'PlayStation Eye Roundup' Screenshot 1

Darth Vader's toaster, meet Darth Vader's hair-dryer.

You'll be able to download new effect suites, and add or delete them from the front menu according to taste. According to the disc, I've been playing with the Distort and Trace packs, which between them offer ten different effects. Once an effect has been chosen, your movements are translated on screen accordingly. You can opt for a black background, or a live camera feed so you can see yourself gurning behind the swirling shapes and colours.

Urban, for instance, gives you wireframe skyscrapers and roads that spring to life in the wake of your movements. Wave your hand over objects that have already been created and they'll become brighter and more active - a feature that is common to many of the effects. Twister has you swirling both hands to create twin neon trails, which you can bring together by making a loud noise. Again, several other effects use this "loud noise" notion, presumably to remind people that the PlayStation Eye features a microphone as well as a camera. In practice, it feels a bit random, while the concept of making people shout rather contradicts the ambient mood being created.

It's all achingly stylish, and more than a little pretentious (you don't Quit, you Exit The Experience), but it's hard to imagine many families gathering around the telly to play at being hopeless acid casualties, while adults will soon grow tired of the repetitive "make glowy shapes" formula. The fact that you can't combine the visuals with your own music collection also seems like an opportunity missed, especially if Sony wants to keep pushing the PS3 as an all-round media hub.

Tori Emaki

'PlayStation Eye Roundup' Screenshot 2

Flocking pretty.

This offering is much more beautiful than Mesmerize, co-opting the Japanese art style of Okami, though its longevity is even more open to question. Basically, you guide a flock of birds through a painted landscape by making them follow a floating globe, which mirrors your hand movements. Guiding them past certain elemental scenery items - such as a volcano - triggers appropriate visual accompaniment. And when I say "basically", I really mean it, since that's all you do. If you stop moving, the birds land and have a rest.

It's all very lovely, billed as an "Interactive Art Experience" no less, and will no doubt look simply super if you want to impress visitors to your loft apartment with your bold lifestyle fusion of high technology and ethnic arts, but it's hard to see what purpose it serves beyond giving you something to do with the camera.

As demonstrations of the EyeToy technology, both Mesmerize and Tori Emaki are successful enough, even though they don't really do anything that wasn't possible on the PS2 and certainly don't showcase much in the way of the new camera's gameplay potential. At just GBP 1.99 (EUR 2.99), they're certainly worth a try if you're so inclined - after all, people spend more than that to download tiny photos for their phone screen, and these will at least keep you entertained should you drink too much cough syrup.

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Picture of Dan.

About Dan Whitehead

Dan has been writing for Eurogamer since 2006 and specialises in RPGs, shooters and games for children. His bestest game ever is Julian Gollop's Chaos.

Read more articles from Dan by visiting the Dan Whitehead archive page.

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Comments (24) Latest comment 4 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • attep #1 4 years ago

    What about Aqua Vista - Or whatever it's called..........

  • DonnieDarko333 #2 4 years ago

    mmmm, it's £1.99 whats not bad, it looks lovely as a screen-saver, but nothing more.

    When's that 'Okami-looking' Eye game out exactly?

  • Blerk #3 4 years ago

    Mmm! Cough syrup!

    /swigs Benylin

  • TheDudesRug #4 4 years ago

    Could be fun but I suspect the 'novelty' would wear off pretty quickly.

  • JYM60 #5 4 years ago

    Thats what they said about the wii.

    Oh wait.

  • Steroyd #6 4 years ago

    lolz I saw "review" and automatically skipped to the end for the score, old habbits die hard. :o)

    I'm debating wether to buy this seperate or with Eye of Judgement not getting a PS Eye for a while anyway so hopefully EOJ is cheaper when I break down.

  • NoCodeNed2 #7 4 years ago

    erm...is this a round up of Playstation Eye that doesn't include the three games launched for it? Less of a round up more of a lazy look over the shoulder, no?

  • NoCodeNed2 #8 4 years ago

    Ah, thought so, just seemed a slightly strange 'round-up'.

  • huxathon #9 4 years ago

    'will no doubt look simply super if you want to impress visitors to your loft apartment with your bold lifestyle fusion of high technology and ethnic arts,'

    very funny.

  • Arwin #10 4 years ago

    Yes, but how about EyeCreate? That seems to have a surprising amount of neat effects, and actually seems more useful too, not to mention free, so that would be a nice start to review the Eye with?

    And if you give Aqua Vita a proper bit of attention, I think you'll be the first on the whole interwebs. Lol. These things are out there available for purchase right now, and I can't find anything decent on them anywhere, which is just ... surprising.

    Hopefully I can find a PS Eye myself somewhere soon and make up my own mind! If anything, it'd be interesting to see how my cats react to a virtual aquarium. ;)

    Edit: http://ww w.ps3scene.com/news/static/Play...
    Edited by 1 at 30/10/07 @ 10:18

  • miiiguel #11 4 years ago

    360 camera looks cheap, this one looks ugly.
    Nintendo knows gimicks better.

  • ElasticTangent #12 4 years ago

    Will the Playstation Eye actaully have some useful features like being able to use the mic in games instead of a headset and how about video calling a buddy?

    I can all that picture effects stuff on my MacBook so it doesn't really appeal.

  • Skooch #13 4 years ago

    That is the ugliest camera I have ever seen, who designed that, Quasimoto?

  • ElasticTangent #14 4 years ago

    Or Quasimodo even ;-)

  • miiiguel #15 4 years ago

    " Will the Playstation Eye actaully have some useful features like being able to use the mic in games"

    Don't do it, it's very annoying to the ones on the other end, a mic which is not near your mouth will capture any ambient noise, and it sounds like a ZX Spectrum loading a game to the other guys.

  • Chaote-Imagicka #16 4 years ago

    They really have lost the plot with limiting the initial purchase of the Eye to the Eye of Judgement bundle. I'm a "ooh, shiny, pretty, new, must have!" magpie. Seeing these shiny pretty new ambient interactive thingies made me want to get them and the Eye. But I don't want a boring old battle card game. By the time they release the standalone eye I'll undoubtedly have forgotten about it or no longer regard it as being all that shiny or new and therefore not care very much.

  • Skooch #17 4 years ago

    @ ElasticTangent - no, Quasimoto is the ugly dude who rides that really small motorbike. ;-)

  • ElasticTangent #18 4 years ago

    @ miiiguel - "Don't do it, it's very annoying to the ones on the other end, a mic which is not near your mouth will capture any ambient noise, and it sounds like a ZX Spectrum loading a game to the other guys"

    I now what you mean but this is taken from the PS3 website so I was hoping for better:

    "An all-new four microphone array, incorporating multidirectional voice location tracking, enhanced echo cancelling and background noise suppression allows for clear audio chat in even the most noisy of environments, without the need to hold or wear a headset.

    @ Skooch - I think it's Quasimoto that drives up and down my road at night. The little b**tard!!

  • Arwin #19 4 years ago

    Q: Will the Playstation Eye actaully have some useful features like being able to use the mic in games instead of a headset and how about video calling a buddy?

    A: Yes to both. In fact, the latter is already possible with other webcams on the PS3 as well, including the original EyeToy. In fact, you can do a six-way video chat with buddies from the XMB right now.

  • Big-Swiss #20 4 years ago

    blablabla

    I looks real nice in real, maybe it looks weird on the foto, but its a very neat thing that fits perfectly in everyones livingroom. Its exactly how it should be! if you expected a porsch, mabe you shouldn't be interested in a video games camera!

    But keep on trying you jalous cunts!

  • darc #21 4 years ago

    "The success of EyeToy was undeniably one of the factors that kept the PS2 ticking..."

    This is news to me. So for those of use still using a PS2, are "EyeToy" and corresponding games worth hunting down and purchasing? Can anyone clue me in?

  • kangarootoo #22 4 years ago

    @ElasticTangent

    "Will the Playstation Eye actaully have some useful features like being able to use the mic in games instead of a headset and how about video calling a buddy?"

    Yes to both, but an old PS2 eyetoy camera already does both of these when plugged into a PS3.

    Edit: and what Arwin said (which was of course, the same thing, only sooner).
    Edited by 1 at 30/10/07 @ 15:01

  • Big-Swiss #23 4 years ago

    so much bullshit on two lines

    I'm missing the times when we argued about fucking software it was logical and better arguments than this fucking hardware war, and the hardware-bullshit-talk which noone can acctually refer too exept for the ones who bought it, and noone of these guys are complaining, are they???
    Edited by 1 at 30/10/07 @ 15:21

  • NewYork #24 4 years ago

    Wow, that's it?

    I thought this Eyetoy was better than the old one. Why are we still seeing lightweight gimmicky games?

    Heck, they managed Eyetoy Anti-Grav with the old Eyetoy, but here we're back to shallow stuff.