PlayStation Move: hands on

Last week Microsoft showed off the Kinect; last night, Sony threw a party to welcome its newest peripheral, the PlayStation Move motion controller.

The battle of kinetics is truly on now, with the Move due to hit our shelves next week, on Thursday 16 September. Like the Wii, it uses a motion sensor that tracks the movement of special controllers as the player gesticulates madly to direct the on-screen action.

We took to the party hall to grip the new controllers in our hot little fists and tried out some of the games in conjunction with 3D (as well as a couple that don't have Move compatibility). Check out our photo gallery below to see what Sony has in store...

The PlayStation Move Starter Pack will include a Move controller, the PlayStation Eye camera and a Blu-ray disc with nine playable demos and retails for AU$99.95. Additional controllers will retail for AU$69.95, while the Navigation Controller will go for AU$49.95. The Eye camera, available now, retails for AU$59.95 on its own.

Everything you need to get started: the Move controller, the Eye camera ... and of course, the PlayStation 3 console.

A representative from Sony demonstrates how to beat up a dude using the Move controllers. Apparently socking the guy next to you on the chin with a controller in your fist is not an acceptable play.

A nifty gun accessory is used for games such as The Shoot (on sale in October, AU$59.95), wherein the player aims at the screen and kills baddies dead (but tries hard to avoid goodies). Here, the baddies are some sort of Wild West brigand; other scenes include a haunted house, robots, the deep sea and a Mafia setting.

Tiger Woods PGA TOUR 11 (release date TBC) will see you use the Move like a golf club to control Tiger Woods.

Flight Control, which really "took off" (har har) on iOS, is a simulation in which the player lands planes. Developer Firemint has adapted it for PS3 with Move compatibility (available next week, AU$8.45).

If you have two Move controllers, you can use them as a sword and shield in the gladiatorial ring featured in Sports Champions.

The gun peripheral also turns out to be quite useful in Time Crisis: Razing Storm (available November, price to be confirmed), where you shoot up pretty much everything. This will also be the first Time Crisis title that allows up to eight players to duke it out online via the PSN.

Gran Turismo 5, which launches 4 November (AU$119.95), is not compatible with the Move but is playable in 3D. The GT world is pretty damned immersive as it is; add 3D and you might just get sucked in there forever. Or not.

Shiny.

Gamespot AU's James Kozanecki is PlayStation Jesus. Trufax.

In Kung Fu Rider (available next week, AU$59.95), you play Ace Private Detective Tobio on a high-speed chase riding an office chair. You can, as the title indicates, use kung fu to beat down your opponents.

Sackboy is back in November in LittleBigPlanet 2, the continuation of his adventures ... and he's got a Move or two up his sleeve (why do we say these things?).

The Move controller does interesting and intuitive things to shooters if, like the author, you are particularly uncoordinated when it comes to prowling about like an army man. SOCOM: Special Forces will be out sometime next year.

At the end of the night, guests received a shiny blue box with "PlayStation Move" written all over it. Whatever could it be?

Golly!

And there you have it, folks: the PlayStation Move controller, fresh out of the box, with accompanying Eye camera.

The retail packaging looks a little different, but the contents are more or less the same, with the inclusion of a disc containing nine playable demos.

Games are playable with one controller, but for a few — such as The Fight, which is a boxing sim — two is really the ideal number. For multiplayer fun, you'll need more.

The Navigation controller is shaped like a Move with all the functions of the DualShock, for a more intuitive two-handed gaming experience.

The PlayStation Move Shooting Attachment (AU$29.95), up close and personal. It looks a lot like something out of a 1960s sci-fi film. We're OK with that.

If you want to compare the two, check out our hands on with Microsoft's Xbox 360 Kinect.