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Archery On The Playstation Motion Controller Looked Breathtaking.

You’ve been waiting to hear what I thought about E3 2009 and here it is: everyone did great; except Ubisoft. Seriously though, I thoroughly enjoyed Microsoft, Nintendo and, of course, Sony’s press conferences. They all had a little something to offer to whet the appetite. The Beatles: Rock Band was a perfect opener for Microsoft, which actually blew away any scepticism I had for that game. I think Metroid: Other M looks absolutely phenomenal. And as for Sony, well, I think their motion controller was the best example of a motion controller I’ve seen — including Project Natal and Wii Motion Plus.

Watching Nintendo’s conference I couldn’t help but get excited over their demonstration of Archery with the Wii Motion Plus. I remember chatting to a friend regarding the demo at the time. “This looks amazing,” I exclaimed, “Give me Wii Sports Resort now… I need to play some archery!”

A couple of hours later I was sitting watching Sony’s engineers talk about the Playstation Motion Controller. Funnily enough they had an archery demo that totally blew away my excitement for Wii Sports Resort. “Forget the Wii archery game,” I exclaimed even louder, bordering on a shriek, “Give me the Sony Wand and archery now please!”

Initially I was a little embarrassed by the Sony Motion Controller. Two kooky engineers took to the stage to talk about their project, both of which were visibly nervous and the controller looked aesthetically far from finished. But perseverance was the key, as Sony showed how the controller could be used in conjunction with the Playstation Eye to swap polygonal objects into the players hand. Pretty impressive. Then there was the hand-writing demo, and I was coming around. The accuracy is unparalleled. When compared to Microsoft’s laggy Natal “Painting” demonstration this thing demoed in real time every bit as accurate as the engineers touted.

But then they moved onto, what I like to call, the Zelda demo. The final showing of Sony’s Motion Controller was the one that “won me over”. It showed a simple sword and shield set-up, where the player literally tickled the neck of an enemy with his sword, such was the accuracy. And finally, the archery I talked about earlier, where the player could pull arrows from the bag on the character’s back, all represented in real-time with real life accuracy. It was amazing.

But why have I gone into such detail recapping the motion controller? Because I have a sneaky feeling both Microsoft and Nintendo were sitting watching Sony expecting them to falter with their motion controller. Yet essentially, they blew them both out of the water. Natal clearly showed potential, but all looked very much like a space-age pipedream. The actual demos shown were laggy and no more of a stepforward than the Eye Toy. The Wii MotionPlus looked fine, but the technology supporting it continued to be limited. Which I guess is a criticism you could aim at Sony seeing as they only had tech-demos, but my point is this: no other controller managed to prove to me that their peripheral could be used and would be used in a real game concept to such precision and detail as Sony’s Motion Controller.

I know the Nintendo fans will be reading asking about Red Steel 2 and Wii Sports Resort – and my answer is: they looked fine. But what was demonstrated did not seem to offer the same pin-point precision as Sony’s controller. I’m sure Reggie would love to prove me wrong and show me that the Wii Motion Plus is just as accurate — but watching the clunky Red Steel 2 in action, I’m not convinced.

Regardless Sony’s sword & shield demo proved to me that in the right hands, their motion controller could come out on top this generation.

The YouTube demo for those who want to see visually what I am talking about:

“Twiggy” is an anonymous PushSquare columnist who has been spotted in three major cities across the globe. It’s rumoured he’s on the run from the British monarchy who accused him of treason.

Previous entries in the “Twiggy” range:

• Sony’s First, Second & Third Party Alliances Will Ensure A Thrilling E3 2009 Showcase
• Playstation 3 Is Platformed Out With Bionic Commando & inFamous This Week, And It Reminds Me How Much I Love Super Mario 64
• In A Year Dominated By Blockbuster Sequels, Quantic Dream’s Heavy Rain Vision Could Be The Diamond In The Rough
• Here’s What I’d Request In The PSP Go! If I Had A Job At Sony & A Say In Such Things
• Does The Playstation 3 Need Motion-Control & How Will Sony Apply It?
• Why Did Guerilla’s Killzone 2 Force Me To Kill The More Interesting Good Guys? I Hate The ISA!
• Sony’s E3 2009 Press Conference Could Be The Biggest In History & A Turning Point In Software Perception
• A Playstation 3 Pricecut Could Cripple Sony So Stop Asking For It