All Topics Gaming older than one year ago

It's like EyeToy 2.0. But that's a good thing!

Does your dead-eyed Home avatar lack a bit of that buccaneering spirit? LucasArts has a sure-fire way to fix your lack of nautical flair: During its pirate-themed party at GDC, the company announced that Monkey Island costumes (pictured above) would soon make their way to PlayStation Home.

Now, we rarely get excited over virtual duds for our virtual manifestations -- but Stan's coat could really add a certain savoir-faire to our terrifying craft.

#hollywood This is it, here we go. From "Courage" to Russia, there have been a couple of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time movie posters. You are looking at the final one. More »

Click to MOVE into the gallery
Professionally taken publicity shots of new hardware are nice, sure, but nothing really compares to seeing what the thing actually looks like in the real world. It's with that in mind that we grabbed a PlayStation Move and snapped the photos you can browse in the gallery below. In them, you'll see such noteworthy features as the USB syncing / charging port; what appear to be notches for some addition doodad to lock onto at the bottom of the Move; and the select and start buttons tucked away on either side of the "wand" itself.

Looks like Nintendo does actually have plans of continuing the Everyone’s Recommendation Selection in Japan. Two more titles are going to be added on April 22nd, and of course, they come with the budget price as well.

Even the not-so-keen-eyed observer has probably noticed by now that the PlayStation Move's logo doesn't really look like a letter "M." That's because it's a letter "A," as in "Arc," the name which, according to multiple Sony sources who wished to remain anonymous, is what the peripheral was to be called at retail until the company was refused a trademark on the Arc name. In fact, we've been told that the change to "Move" was made quite recently, which further explains the incongruous logo.

If you think "Move" is an odd name for Sony's motion controller, these same sources assured us that we got lucky - many of the other proposed names following the trademark denial were ranged from silly to awful, they said. When we suggested that "PlayStation Boogie" was about as bad as we could imagine, we were told, "Actually, that's an improvement over a lot of them."

Keep an eye on the Move logo -- we wouldn't be surprised if Sony's marketing department adds a little extra blue ink before E3, making it a true (stylized) letter "M."

#gdc10 With the PlayStation Move looking, well, similar to Nintendo's Wii Remote, you may have wondered how long it would take until it was announced a Wii game was being ported to the PS3. The answer? How about, oh, a few hours. More »

Yet another amazing Cave Story tribute, this one from artist Katy Coope.

Well…can you tell the difference? GamesRadar has put together a bunch of pictures with the controllers blocked out, and it’s up to you to guess if the images are Playstation Move related, or Wii originals. Unfortunately GamesRadar doesn’t tell us which is which, because they thought it would be ‘funny’. I think [...]

Straight from Sony's GDC 2010 press conference, developers demonstrate Move Party.

Click to enlarge
The PlayStation Move-equivalent of the minigame compilations released for PS2's EyeToy, Move Party is an excuse to use Sony's motion controller to look like a fool in front of your family and friends. (As if holding a glowing wand and pantomiming playing a sport isn't already silly enough.)

Ludwig and I took turns looking utterly ridiculous while playing the title earlier today, trying to best one another in a series of minigames which ranged from swatting bugs with tennis rackets to painting shapes in the air - things that would have been entirely possible with Sony's older tech. We got a brief taste of the Move's potential when we needed to stab a spear at jellyfish floating up the screen - I really had to stab toward the screen pretty strongly to pop them. The precision possible with the Move was best demonstrated by the haircut minigame, where it was possible to finely cut along the scalp line to remove the comical characters' locks.

The most impressive element of Move Party, though, is by far the precision with which the various tools - paintbrushes, shears, rackets - that all mimicked how I was holding the controller exactly in the on-screen "augmented reality" video. It was ... kind of spooky. Though it wasn't announced as such, this has to be the software title Sony intends to pack in with the hardware. I can't imagine it debuting as a full-priced retail title. Maybe at $20, or, better yet, a PSN release.

Ghost Trick has finally been given an official release date. The title is due to hit Japan on June 24th. We know it’s coming stateside, but no word on an official date just yet.

#gdc10 Just like we told you, there will be a Monkey Island 2: Special Edition. Here are your first screenshots! More »

I can’t wait to see how well games like ‘Sports Champion’ do at retail, compared to Wii Sports and Wii Sports Resort. I honestly have no idea if people are going to buy into this ‘new platform’ or not. One thing’s for sure, though. It’s going to be very hard to catch [...]

What game is CyberConnect2 teasing? We don’t really know, but we hear it might be a DS game. All we can do is keep tabs on this teaser site, and check back in about a week’s time. I sure hope the wait is worth it! Site here

Click for the gallery of Champions
You might think it derisive to call Sports Champions (working title) the Wii Sports of PlayStation Move, but it's really intended as a compliment. Although the collection of sports-themed games are relatively simple, they adequately highlight the Move's motion-sensing capabilities and, most importantly, how they're distinguished from those offered by the Wii (something that another Move game, The Shoot, did not do). Like Wii Sports, Sports Champions seems good at selling you on the hardware's abilities -- and what they might mean in more elaborate games.

The Gladiator game is a simple affair of blocking and attacking (your character moves towards the opponent automatically), but the Move will take into account the height of your swings and the positioning of your shield (generated by a second Move controller). It'll also sense distance -- if you don't hold your weapon arm back, it'll swing into your own shield to deleterious effect. Aside from swinging and blocking, you can also move both arms upwards to activate a jumping attack, or shuffle the controllers to the side in order to roll out of the way from an incoming strike. Basic stuff, but natural enough to not come across as a tacked-on gesture.

The Table Tennis game was even more promising, and easily bested the Wii's equivalent. Your paddle's angle and area of exposure is almost instantly determined by how you're holding the controller. The Move's weight, coupled with the game's quick response and predictable physics, made every swing feel ... just right. It'll be a shame if a table tennis game turns out to be one of the best launch games for Move, but at least it'll stand out as one of the best of its ilk. That's a win, right?

All of the announcement's biggest news and impressions in one easy place.

“You have not yet heard the last of Dark Void Zero, but I dunno what the plans might be for Wii/X360/PS3. None as yet, but it does seem like a natural fit. OG fun is OG fun.” – Senior Manager of Community Seth Killian I’m very glad to hear that Capcom has more plans for the [...]

It's the special edition!

We're received a handful of tips, and Massively confirms it: beta invites for the surprisingly hype-worthy Lego Universe beta have started to roll out. It's something we entirely want in on.

But, alas, no invite for us. Our tips box is only a repository for our own sadness, as others regale us with tales of their conquests; their own acquired beta invites. No, it's fine -- don't worry about us. We're just going to sit in the corner, with our real-life Legos, pretending there are actual people behind those hopelessly optimistic smiles, willing to interact with us in a virtual world.

Guybrush Threepwood makes his return this summer.

We go beyond the waggle with Sony's motion controller.

#gdc10 Zipper Interactive's recently revealed SOCOM 4: U.S. Navy SEALs is one of the games we were least expecting to be fully playable with the PlayStation Move controller. Can a hardcore online shooter stay competitive with a motion control scheme ? More »