Now back with an extended trip report.
Went back to Time Crisis first. Having played TC4, I have something to compare to and it does not compare, at all. The real thing is superior to the point of making move obsolete. There is a very good reason why the gun shell has no sights and is as thick as a baseball bat. Line of sight shooting to broken, forget it, it DOESN'T FUCKING WORK. So you have to use the pointer and this sucker shakes more than Heroin addict in withdraw.
Using the cover/reload system is awkward. Since it isn't assigned to a dipping motion like another game which I will get to, you have to hit X. It means you have to hold the gun in an unnatural fashion, not that it matters anymore. Given that it bitches about calibration if you look at it funny, let alone snap shooting, the decision to use the X to cover/reload is putting a band aid on a head wound.
**** like this will KILL the light gun genre for good. Way to go Namco.
The game next to it is called Shoot. It is based on you staring in an action movie basically by shooting animation wooden cutouts. It gives new meaning to expendable henchmen and wooden acting. Once again, no line of sight shooting. The sight will happily wander around so any attempt to calibrate is an exercise in insanity. There appears to be some pointer smoothing going on, so the cursor isn't spastic like TC. Not that it makes it better since it just makes it a "Pointer" game, not a light gun game. The game is a lot more forgiving than TC , taking into account that it isn't a hardcore game and that the controls are just not good enough. There also isn't any reloading and there is a a rudimentary cover systemthat is functional if not as slow as everything else.
During the second stage there is some really pointless waggle work to move the game along. The difficulty goes up a fair bit during this second and last stage of the demo. The controller just isn't up to it. There is also some non-pointer action where you lean left or right to dodge bullets during a quick draw shootout, and as effective as trying to dodge real bullets after the fact.
These two games had the shortest lines for a bloody good reason, these are **** games. Shoot! is better than TC:RS, but it's a choice between choosing between a **** sandwich and piss shake. You can only win if you do not play.
The last "Pointer" game I played was SOCOM. I will say "Pointer" again as this game isn't really a "Pointer" game. It turns the Move into a giant analogue stick with a big dead zone. The buttons aren't as well placed as the Wii equivalent, so performing actions is slow and painful.
SOCOM itself has some strange gameplay design decisions. The character will happily fire into the very cover he is behind even if you have line of sight. When hiding behind cover, you can't pop out and just aim, to pop out, you have to shoot. This is a real issue as half the time the cursor disappears while behind cover, so you blow half the clip just to see where your shooting at. Zooming is a little weird where holding one button is to focus slightly, then to pull up the sight you have to hold that and the nade button.
I never thought I see that day where I would say that dual analogue is superior control method for a first/third person shooter.
To sum up the pointer portion of this trip, I have this to say. "THIS **** DOESN'T WORK".
We now move on to the Move portion of this trip proper.
I tried out Fight! It felt about the same as WiiBoxing. For the life of me, I couldn't get a jab or a gut shot in. The boxer would refuse to do them, resulting in him twitching his arm a little. It was like watch the David Tua VS Hollyfield fight. Some of the saddest display of boxing ever to be seen internationally. I finally got tired of trying to finesse the game, so I started to basically do swimming strokes. It resulted in an amazingly brutal and quick beat down of my opponent it was K.O before I could try anything else.
Yes, I effectively gave my computer opponent a concussion by windmilling him. Pitiful.
Lastly I played that gladiator game some of you have mentioned here. I didn't have a partner to play with me, so I had to play the attendant. Given the amount of extra time she had to play the game, the skill difference was pretty clear. I got some good hits in, but I was quickly dispatched. I had very little time to figure out whether move works, but if I was to base it on it his game, I would have to reserve my judgement, I just didn't have enough time to figure things out.
The one thing that didn't work at all was the jump attacks. I am not that tall, but every time I tried to execute one, nothing would happen.
However there was one thing I was surprised by, was that it measured the force of an attack pretty well. Soon a well placed, forceful attack did a lot of damage, compared to other players I saw who waggled and get hits worth 15 points compared to my 200+ points of damage.
Before I left for good, I noticed a kids game that had you paint inside the line. This was the only thing that worked 100% of the time. Considering it was a glorified eye toy game, I am not surprised.
Given how terrible Sony's gear is compared to Nintendo's, I can only imagine how horrifying Microsoft's controller-less efforts are. If the future of gaming on consoles are with Sony, I am out, done with console gaming for good. May heavens luck continue to bless the Nintendo handhelds and long live the Nintendo Handhelds.
Topic: Sony's Motion in the Blue Ocean (Read 175332 times)
