Playstation Move Controller – First Impressions

Wow ! What a busy, and expensive week, only 2 days ago the Halo Reach XBOX 360S turned up (and I’m blogging instead of completing that fantastic game).

So what do I think of the Playstation Move, will it replace my Wii ? Well let me tell you.

First of all, the controller feels pretty solid. I’ve always found the Wii controller and Nunchuk to feel like toys in my hands instead of controllers. Now don’t get me wrong, I still use the Wii , probably a lot to do with the face that it runs a lot of the games from the external hard drive (You can find that post here)

The buttons on the Playstation Move Controller seem to be well placed, on the main controller you have all the 4 usual buttons, a select and start, a playstation button and a trigger on the back. There is also a “move” button in the middle, this seems to get used as the “Select” button

The Navigation Controller is simplified, and reminds me a lot of the Nunchuk. It has a D-Pad, Anagolue stick, the X and O buttons and the playstation button. There are 2 trigger buttons on the rear, very similar to the Nunchuk. Both devices feel solid in the hand, and benefit from the curved shape (instead of the squared off WiiMote).

I did notice one slight annoyance, there were no USB cables in either of the boxes, it’s a good job I bought the charger, otherwise I’d have been unplugged other USB devices to charge these.

So how do they work ?….Well, very well to be honest, the tracking is spot on ! I realised today, that the Playstation Move didn’t come with any demo games, so had to buy something on next day delivery just to try it out. I then decided to check out Playstation Store, only to find there’s a handful of demos on there.

So far I’ve only played the demo of Sports Champions, and it’s really good. it works very much like the Wii with the motion plus attached, however a lot better graphics. It did however want me to calibrate the controller every time I started a new game, however this could just be because it’s a demo. I played table tennis, and Frisbee, both of which were ultra realistic, (each of my frisbee’s would end up in the trees )

You can also control the XMB with the Playstation Move, simply hold down the trigger on the back, and move up, down, left and right.

All in all, a good purchase, and look forward to more games to come out, and think that this could be the end of my Wii usage.

As always, unboxing photos below.

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Xbox 360 Halo Reach Edition

Now anybody that knows me, will know I’m a sucker for shiny things, and nothing comes more shiny that this limited edition Xbox 360s.

I’ve been toying with the idea of getting a 2nd xbox for a while now, and when I found out that the Kinect device required a special port, (or an adapter), I thought I’d hang fire until this bad boy was release.

Currently I have the Xbox 360 Elite, and to be honest I’m very happy with it, I’ve rarely had a problem, and defiantly not had any red rings of death.

So, today’s the day, and I’ve finally got it (Thank you to C for the early birthday present). I was actually shocked how much smaller this is than the Xbox Elite, it’s casing is noticeably  smaller, and hell of a lot quieter.

The Xbox itself is one of the new Xb0x 360S models with a 250Gb Hard drive. It comes with 2 limited edition controllers, and a headset.

Now granted, this this looks cool, but nowhere near as cool as the noises it makes when you power on, and open the DVD drive…these are actual Halo sound effects

Obviously you get a copy of Halo Reach, a token for Limited Edition Elite armour and an episode of Halo Legends.

The console was pretty cheap from Game.co.uk, especially as it’s the new model, with 2 controllers and a brand new game.

As always, the unboxing images are below.

If you want to know how Halo Reach is, keep an eye on my Game review site D5120.com, I’ll post a review once I’ve competed it.

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Halo Wars

Last weekend I noticed that Halo Wars demo was available on the Microsoft Marketplace, and though, it’s an RTS on a console, it’s going to be terrible, but I downloaded, and really enjoyed. I’ve tried other RTS’s on the console, eg C&C, but felt that they don’t work as well as on mouse and keyboard. I’m the kind of person who has groups of units mapped to my 1-9 key for quick select, and like to attack multiple enemies at one..this isn’t possible on the console, or should I say, not as easy as hitting a number key.

So anyway back to Halo Wars, I’m quite a fan of the Halo series, they are probably not the best FPS’s on the planet, however the storyline is pretty good, the characters, weapons and vehicles are memorable, and these are all present in this RTS.

First of all, Graphics, to be honest, the graphics aren’t any better that you would find in other recent RTS’s, they are good and clear, but I can’t say anything wow’d me. However, the cut scenes are fantastic ! I mean really fantastic, think the likes or the final fantasy films, or Flight of the Osiris from the Matrix (Animatrix). Between each level, there was a couple of minutes of cut scene, it was so good, I thought to myself, why oh why don’t they make an animated film, it would be brilliant ! The game I believe is set 10 years before Halo one, so no Master Chief, however there were many Spartans in the game.

Next, Sound, Gorgous, Gorgous sound, the music, was very simular the the Halo series, so as you can imaging when the game got going, so did the music. The sound effects, voices where everything you’d come to expect from the series, and utterly brilliant.

Next Gameplay, this was the most important for me, as I was pretty sure it would suck, hard to control, no where near as good as a mouse and keyboard, however I was wrong ! You can tell this game was designed for the 360, the buttons and control system worked seamlessly, and at no point through the 15 levels did I ever get stuck on which button to press.

All in all, a very enjoyable experience, and can’t wait to get on line and kick some ass. The game has taken me 10hours and 16 mins to beat, however some of that time, I was pretty drunk. The game is only 15 levels long, however there is the online play as well as the skirmish still to do.

1o/1o

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