Playstation Move Games

[patsu]

My gaming $$$ is spread more evenly. 1-2 games for me, 1 game for wife and kid. Bought Vanquish for myself, and now SingStar Dance for them. They seem to like Hoard too.

Btw, Sony only sells SingStar Dance with the mics (for $40). I went to 2 Gamestops. There is no standalone SingStar Dance title.

I will decide between Ruse and Lights out next, leaning towards Ruse now.
[size=-2]… and GT5 + Majin ![/size]

 

[Arwin]

RUSE is 30 euro here now, but I don't see myself play it on the short term - it seems to require a fair bit of investment that I can't afford in the living room and my YLOD PS3 went back to YLOD a while ago. Will have to see what I do now when GT5 comes out. Will be tempted to buy another bundle so I do have a second PS3 in the living room, otherwise playing GT5 online may prove tricky.

 

[patsu]

Yes, Ruse, IMHO, is best played if you have a desktop PS3. ^_^
Needs focus.

 

[patsu]

So... I played SingStar Dance this morning with my son. It's a mixed feeling.

I think the dance moves are too sophisticated for us. On SingStar Online, I can see a gamer execute her moves almost perfectly. Not this one.

We couldn't dance to save ourselves ! We ended up surfing SingStar Online to watch others' performance. It's a pity the videos were so short, thanks to the music studios' restrictions. After fooling around for a long time, we went back to our own song and dance.

I think Sony may want to reinvent the formula after they have released Qriocity. The more flexible DRM scheme should open up the possibilities considerably. Hopefully, Sony can put the 2 concepts together, and create a new experience !

For now, I'm on the hook to dance for my wife when she gets back... >_<

EDIT: Other than Blu-ray and perhaps Qriocity, I haven't seen a Sony exec achieve any multiplier effect for their products yet. So far, it's always a singular, hard fought effort. They should be able to combine existing concepts together to achieve something far greater. Those 2 efforts are Sony group-wide. I would love to see SCE focused initiatives.

 

[Arwin]

Some songs are really hard, but there are also some really easy songs, like Hey Ya ... With a bit of practice you can go a long way.

But definitely Dance Central did a great job including different routines for the different difficulty levels.

By the way, it looks like we'll be able to get the dance and guitar modules also as an Extra from the Extras in-game section that also has the voice control somewhere this month. I'm happy with that, so that I can at least try one or two guitar songs without having to put in anything other than my Dance disc.

 

[patsu]

Yeah, Hey Ya is one of my son's favorites too.

I feel that for SingStar, they should have gone a different route. Karaoke is about self expression. I feel that the dance module in SS should have been for self expression instead of following a fixed pattern (for scoring or education). The SS Online videos will be a hell lot more entertaining if they allow people to dance freely.

I want to see real people dancing in SingStar, so avatar dancing is out of the question.

They only need to add a good variety of supporting dance cast to guide us. They can also do 2D image processing to blur our faces (or replace our faces with cartoons) if people are shy.

There is a black family imitating the Jacksons 5 in SingStar Online (4-5 dancing kids and 2 adult guitarist behind). I think something like that would be the right mood. They should not get carried away by technology for technology sake. Should be more like LBP than an inhibiting dancing game. ^_^


EDIT: Just want to update our experience. Amazing how it changed when my wife came back from her business trip. The game is a lot more fun when there's a woman in the house. ^_^

She cracked up when she saw the father and son dance in her living room. In the end, all 3 of us ignored the scoring and danced to our hearts' content. We followed the dance steps but improvized them. We found the "Full Video Playback" option, and made a few videos, but there's no way to send them to our friends directly from the PS3. They should let us upload to Facebook or regular email.

We find that the easiest song to start is: "I Like to Move it". The game should be renamed to "SingStar Performance". We switched to karaoke when tired, and then back again, and also compare with other players' performances online. It's a pity those videos can only be viewed by SingStar gamers.


Yeah so, I still think they should not use the Move controller in this game. Include the dance moves but let us perform at will. Use the community to judge our performance. Use technology to hide our identity but let everyone see the live performance (Not avatar performance).

 

[Arwin]

Yes, the game is no-fail, so you can do what you want. When I am learning a song I am sometimes a move behind for a while, but it doesn't matter when you're just looking back your own performance.

You can already share your videos with all other PS3 users - there is a Singstar Viewer app available on the Store for free with which you can check out all of the community content. Also, when you are sharing your video performances you can already just share them with a group, like the Gaf one I think you are also in. You can use all of these features from the Viewer without needing to have the actual game.

Sharing beyond the PS3 is currently not possible I think due to the licencing agreement. I have one song for which licencing deal changed one or two years ago and I could no longer even share performances online with other PS3 owners for that song (a Sade song), so it is clear that just for the online video sharing alone there is already a licencing agreement in effect.

But yeah, being able to switch from the real video to feed of yourselve(s) dancing is great, and from there on it is definitely optional to follow the dance routines as the game has no 'fail' mode, just getting less or more points. I saved the full performance video of all my first attempts at songs, for future reference.

 

[patsu]

Sharing beyond the PS3 is currently not possible I think due to the licencing agreement. I have one song for which licencing deal changed one or two years ago and I could no longer even share performances online with other PS3 owners for that song (a Sade song), so it is clear that just for the online video sharing alone there is already a licencing agreement in effect.

Yes, this is what I want to do, like sending an eGreeting card. ^_^

Besides the rights, I remember it was (is ?) ok to share 10 seconds of media ("freely") for advertising purposes. For pure songs, Apple is able to negotiate for 90 seconds of preview: http://ipod.eequalsmcsquare.com/apple-extend-itunes-song-previews-90-seconds-0

My PS3 friends also won't know where to find the SingStar viewer. It's one of those things that is deeply buried inside PS3 navigation jungle.

 

[patsu]

Move and 3D support in de Blob 2:
http://www.iwaggle3d.com/2010/11/move-and-3d-support-in-de-blob-2.html

Multiplaform sequel to Wii 2009 exclusive de Blob will support stereoscopic 3D mode across all HD platforms, PlayStation 3 being the only one also getting optional motion controls support via PlayStation Move.

The game will be released on February 22 in North America, 2 days later in Australia and at the end of March in Europe.

...

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Move really does equal WiiHD!

 

[Arwin]

Move really does cover WiiHD!

Fixed.

EDIT: The Fight Lights out is getting a transparancy patch. I hope this makes the game more universally accepted.

http://www.iwaggle3d.com/2010/11/fight-lights-out-transparency-patch.html

 

[patsu]

Move really does equal WiiHD!

Move really does cover WiiHD!

It WILL become WiiHD if Sony doesn't intervene or value add. ^_^
[strike]Sony[/strike] iWaggle should at least tell consumers whether the Wii ports are any good.
[size=-2]Konami ported Metal Gears to Nintendo platform, and that's good for 3DS and GameCube owners.[/size]

EDIT: The Fight Lights out is getting a transparancy patch. I hope this makes the game more universally accepted.

http://www.iwaggle3d.com/2010/11/fight-lights-out-transparency-patch.html

Interesting... May be I'll give it a closer look.

Some of these Move games are really tiring after my full day work. -_-

 

[Nesh]

Move and 3D support in de Blob 2:
http://www.iwaggle3d.com/2010/11/move-and-3d-support-in-de-blob-2.html

Stereoscopic 3d across all platforms? what kind of 3D technique are they using exactly? The traditional red/blue kind of stereoscopic 3d?

 

[patsu]

Stereoscopic 3d across all platforms? what kind of 3D technique are they using exactly? The traditional red/blue kind of stereoscopic 3d?

According to wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Blob:_The_Underground#cite_note-7

de Blob: The Underground was announced on May 29th 2010, a couple of weeks before E3 2010. The game had a demo at the conventions, though only the Nintendo Wii and DS versions were playable. It was later revealed to be coming to Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's Playstation 3, under the shortened title of de Blob 2. At the same time as this, Blue Tongue unveiled their new high definition game engine, Prime, and announced that the HD editions of de Blob: The Underground would be the first game to run on this engine. These versions will both have stereoscopic 3D graphics, and the PS3 version will support Move as a control option.[8]

The 360 and PS3 versions will have stereoscopic 3D support. I suspect it requires 3DTV.

 

[patsu]

Destructoid has a good De Blob 2 preview:
http://www.destructoid.com/preview-de-blob-2-186999.phtml

It sounds rad:

You might not have heard of de Blob. It's one of those secretly successful Wii third-party games that a lot of people overlooked.

Based on a project by college students studying game design, de Blob pretty much came out of nowhere. The game combines traditional 3D platforming with the "roll over everything in sight" mentality of the Katamari series, and the "graffiti as an act of adventure and expression" philosophy of the Jet Grind Radio series. Despite a minimal marketing budget, the game went on to sell over 900,000 copies, which is pretty fantastic for a new IP that was produced for a fraction of the cost of most million-selling titles.

Blue Tongue, the developers of de Blob and de Blob 2, reminded me a lot of the developers of The Conduit. Both teams seemed to be really overcritical of their first games, and hyper-vigilant about making sure their sequels are superior in every way. With de Blob 2, the developers seem most determined to add more variety and surprises to the game. This is a team that made their first game on the Wii for a reason.

Nintendo has had a major influence on their design philosophy. According to de Blob 2 designer Nick Hagger: "Nintendo is the best at creating games that teach new lessons by rewarding the player for exploring and trying new things. We're working under that mindset to make de Blob 2 a game that sucks players in and keeps them entranced."

Feeling hopeful now. Don't know whether the game will betray my feelings yet.

EDIT: Yap, sounds like 3DTV support:

That said, I was told the most eye-popping way to play de Blob was stil yet to be shown. The game will be compatible with 3D TVs, which got the developers so excited that they started shouting at me.

 

[rabidrabbit]

Bought The Shoot and that gun accessory.
The game is good, very addictive and the Move controls work great.
The gun accessory feels well suited for this kind of game, tried playing it without but my scores dropped dramatically at first, but after getting used to the plain Move controller, I was able to do as well again but the game just didn't feel as good.
The Shoot seems to be the better of the current 'light gun' type games available for Move, granted, I tried only the demo of Time Crisis, but it just seemed to lack the polish and fun of The Shoot.
The game is also surprisingly challenging. The first two stages are a walk in the park, but after that you really need to start racking up those multiplier bonuses if you want to open new stages!

I'm still on the fence with the Fight game, I'd like to buy it but the reviews are so conflicting. Some say the fighting is not at all 1:1, other say it's quite 1:1, what is teh truth!?!

 

[patsu]

Gameplay-wise, I would like to see how different it is compared to SC Gladiator melee.

Theme-wise, I prefer something less edgy.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Fixed.

! My point is, those wanting Wii games in HD will find them on Move. There's quite an influx of ports, which in some ways is a good thing as it's adding variety to the library and showing support for Move. And we know from other titles that move isn't limited to Wii ports but is also getting tailored games. So basically, PS3 can almost offer the same appeal to Wii buyers, except it lacks Nintendo's library which is probably the main reason for ownership.

 

[Arwin]

I'm still on the fence with the Fight game, I'd like to buy it but the reviews are so conflicting. Some say the fighting is not at all 1:1, other say it's quite 1:1, what is teh truth!?!

The fighting is 1:1. The only non-1:1 stuff is the dirty moves, which are optional (you can be a clean or a dirty fighter, there's a badge you have showing how dirty a fighter you are that fills up/clears depending on how often you fight dirty). I managed to solve the two remaining problems I've had with the games yesterday: 1) I just needed a tad more distance to stay in view of the camera more comfortably, which I managed to find by tilting the TV and standing next to the couch. My other problem was that one of my arms would sometimes go off-calibration a little after too wild/wide movements. Didn't happen often, but when it did, it was annoying and I would go pause the game and recalibrate. Turns out that much like in Tumble, I can press circle to realign everything to my current position. So now each time I recover I just press circle, and this means it also doesn't matter much anymore if I've moved forward or backward a little.

I thought Joshua's description on how he wanted the boxing in Kinect Sports to be was amusing, in that The Fight is exactly what he wants or at least thinks he wants from a boxing game (once he plays this, I suspect he may think of new stuff):

Back to boxing. The core is fun, really fun! My big gripe it is rewards spamming. A punch-stamina/strength meter that the more/faster you box the less damage a punch does would be good. Reward a 1-2, etc but not the 10 punch flurry of 3 inch punches. Likewise those rabbit punches should be detected and not hurt much. That said we are enjoying it a lot. If they can get it to pick up more punch types, build on the stun mechanics (a lot of subtle stuff here), and add in the feet for movements and bob/weaving I think they could do a full game and is EXCEPTIONAL. Steal the Joy Ride austhetics, cherry pick the Punch Out gameplay concepts (each figher having a weakness), have training modes, workout modes, online, etc and I would pay $60 for that and play it endlessly. Yeah, I am digging the boxing.

 

[rabidrabbit]

Sounds good then
Still, I'm not that keen on the game's style, as I too would prefer something more colourful and less gritty.
As I've realised I'm more interested in the game from technical standpoint and how it's utilising Move, than actually being interested in boxing gameplay (never really been into boxing games), I think I'll wait for other Move fighting games and pick one when there's more choice.