Playstation Move Lays The Groundwork For Virtual Reality

Apparantly, 2010 is not only the year for the 3-D movie, which nearly every theatrical release at least offering its visual delights in three dimensions, but it is also the year of the motion sensing gaming technology, bringing us one step closer to the much coveted virtual reality set-up drooled about and coveted by geeks and non-geeks alike. Sony has just released the Move, a new gaming system that actually puts the Wii to shame, with near perfect accuracy in motion sensing technology which means that the application may be expanded to more than playing tennis and baseball.

Although not many games are yet available for the Move, the ones that do exist are pretty awesome. The PlayStation Move comes with two main components, the remote, which is quite similar to the Wii remote, and an infrared eye, that also resembles the sensor bar on the Wii. However, as I mentioned, the accuracy is much better on the move. If you move the ball out of the view of the eye, then it requires that you recalibrate the Move by pointing your ball at the sensor. This doesn’t happen often enough to make a huge difference in game play however.

What hardcore gamers are wondering though – is whether the PlayStation Move will allow them to play more complicated and immersible than tennis, bowling, baseball, boxing or Yoga. For instance, gamers are looking to play strategy games in real time, or incredibly realistic and accurate first-person shooters. As it stands right now, the Move does have some features that may work with strategy games in real time, such as 3D maps, as proved by Sony Manager of Special Projects Richard Marks, in a demonstration of the move in August.

Games like these are already being developed for this Playstation product, including a FPS called Killzone 3 and SOCOM 4, as well as a RPG known as Sorcery that will turn your controller into a wand and allow you to blast your enemies with magic. If these games live up to the hype, then this may be the beginning of virtual reality gaming, with only one additional step to overcome, allowing the player to be visually immersed in their virtual environment without having to use a television screen to do so.

One of the best features of the Move is the feedback that the controller offers, giving you vibration feedback when you perform an action, and also alerting you visually by changing the color of the ball that sits atop of your controller wand. Also, the controller doesn’t need batteries as it is recharged with a USB cable when you are done playing. The Move features a nunchuk as well, just like the Wii, but also there is an optional controller for navigation that is wireless and includes a joystick and pad for holding in one hand. The Move starts at $49 for the controller only, and $99 for the controller, sensor eye and one game.