PlayStation Move
We only played everything.
SOCOM 4
You can't say the same of SOCOM 4, the most complete and most traditional game on display and the latest entry in Sony's evergreen tactical shooter series. SOCOM 4 has been in development for three years, although developer Zipper Interactive has only been working on the (optional) motion controls for the last six months. You wouldn't know it - they're a completely natural fit.
This is our only chance to try out the sub-controller, Sony's nunchuck. It's slightly larger and less curvaceous than Nintendo's add-on. Like the nunchuck, it has an analogue stick, a trigger and a bumper; unlike it, it has a couple of face buttons by the stick, and is - joy of joys - wireless. Once more, it's a nicely made piece of kit, and comfortable to use.
This is another pointer-aiming game, which means the control experience is identical to what you'd expect from a Wii FPS or third-person shooter. Using Move as a pointer guides your sights around the screen, while pushing them towards the edges turns your character or moves the view up and down, which works fine in this third-person perspective. Running and strafing is handled by the sub-controller's analogue stick, the Move trigger fires, and the sub-controller trigger tucks you into cover. You can also throw grenades (no gesture required, thankfully), and for the first time in the SOCOM series, call in air strikes.
The pointer feels a little slow at times, but I suspect this is down to the choppy frame rate of this early version of SOCOM 4 rather than the Move hardware. Otherwise, SOCOM is a breeze to control using the new controller duo, and my Zipper guide admits that, although the developer's still tuning, it's been relatively easy getting the basic interactions to feel right. This is an established control scheme, well implemented in a solidly enjoyable shooter. It proves that Move will be a very viable alternative in this mainstream genre, and it will be out this year.
Sports Champions
At the end of the day, it's the unprepossessing mini-game package of Sports Champions that really shows us what Move can do. At first glance, it's easily dismissed as a Wii Sports wannabe, albeit with a rather odd selection of sports (table tennis, gladiator duels, disc golf, archery, bocce and beach volleyball) and bland graphics that are faintly reminiscent of PlayStation Home. But Sports Champions is by far the most impressive demonstration of the capabilities of Sony's device.
I get to try table tennis and the gladiatorial game. The first uses a single controller to mimic a table tennis bat and I'm immediately struck by how amazingly smoothly and accurately Move tracks my movements. It's a step up from Wii MotionPlus, no doubt.
Table tennis plays a fair bit slower than the real-life game, which is probably just as well. It doesn't use the buttons whatsoever; you apply spin by angling the bat and direct shots by angling your body and by your follow-through when you strike the ball, just as you would in real life. Your avatar fades away, just showing your bat floating in mid-air, while useful on-screen guides show you where incoming balls are going to land and give your a target to aim for. The game also helpfully tells you what you're doing wrong when you miss. It's all 100 per cent convincing.
Meanwhile, gladiator duel is a best-of-three bout of sword-and-shield (or in my case, hammer-and-shield) combat where victory is earned by knocking your AI opponent out of the ring or depleting their health bar. It can also be played with a single Move controller, buttons operating the shield, but it's much more fun with two, standing side-on to the screen, holding your "shield" in front of you and batting away the AI opponent's attacks.
Once again, your avatar fades out, leaving just the weapon and shield in view, and giving you an almost first-person perspective on the action. It's fast-paced, satisfying and extremely responsive, especially after Motion Fighter. There are some neat combos, blocking with the shield powers up a super-move, and you can even jump attack by, well, jumping.
But it's all about how instinctive and accurate wielding the weapon and shield feels. With no sensation of lag at all and proper three-dimensional tracking in full song, Sports Champions shows Sony's motion controller at its best. It may be too early to say whether "it only does everything", but in this game at least, it only does exactly what it says.