Top 100 Single Player PS3 Games: Part 9 (20-11)

Well it’s Top 20 time – not long to go now until we finally hit the top spot.

If you’ve missed the previous installments, catch up here!

Part One (100-91)

Part Two (90-81)

Part Three (80-71)

Part Four (70-61)

Part Five (60-51)

Part Six (50-41)

Part Seven (40-31)

Part Eight (30-21)

Please bear in mind this list doesn’t take into account multiplayer aspects of games, it’s based solely on single player experience.

Strap yourself in – here we go…

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20. Dead Space 2

Continuing the story of Isaac Clarke, Dead Space 2 picks up three years after the first game was set, with Clarke now finding himself as a citizen on the Sprawl – a huge space station development on one of Saturn’s moons.

Sadly for Clarke he has no knowledge of the last three years and discovers a situation has arisen that only someone with his expertise can deal with.

Visceral continue their great job of creeping you out by NOT throwing stuff at you. I would’ve liked to have seen slightly more of the insanity that featured in NPC’s during the original game but on the whole the Sprawl is definitely somewhere you wouldn’t want to find yourself and this is a game well worth playing through.

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19. Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception

It has to be said that a lot of people were wondering whether Naughty Dog would be able to improve on the superb ‘Among Thieves,’ a game that walked away with awards for ‘Best Voice Acting,’ ‘Best Graphics,’ ‘Single Player Game Of The Year’ and the biggie – ‘Game Of The Year’ in my end of year round up for 2009.

Where both ‘Drake’s Fortune’ and ‘Among Thieves’ concentrated more on the relationship between Nathan Drake and Elena Fisher, this installment focuses on Nathan and Victor ‘Sully’ Sullivan. As a big fan of Sully that’s a plus in my book.

The plot is great and throws up a few curveballs but nothing like the backstabbing double-crossing of the last game. ‘Drake’s Deception’ is the story of Nate and Sully and it was great to find out more about their relationship.

The gameplay itself isn’t anything new, a mixture of climbing, shooting and solving puzzles but after the success of ‘Among Thieves’ refining, rather than changing, was probably the best route Naughty Dog could’ve taken.

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18. Infamous

So good it’s the only game this generation I’ve played through twice (seeing it’s rating bumped from 8/10 to 9/10), Infamous is a great game.

You control Cole McGrath, a courier who just happens to be carrying a package containing an electronic bomb when it goes off, devasting the city. Somehow Cole survives and, after coming out of a coma, realises the explosion has given him electrical superpowers.

From there on out the city is your oyster and there is plenty to do as you try to track down the people behind the explosion.

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17. Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood

Brotherhood continues the Assassin’s Creed story with Ezio Auditore in 1499 and Desmond Miles in 2012, picking up exactly where the second game left off.

The changes Ubisoft have made to the game feel subtle but really they have honed this title so much it really doesn’t do much wrong.

There are lots more side mission types and your map will be chock full of things to do if you fancy a change of pace away from the main missions. This is a monster of a game that will keep you entertained for ages.

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16. L.A Noire

L.A Noire takes place in 1940′s L.A, with you taking on the role of Cole Phelps – recently returned from the war and starting out as a cop on the beat.

While a lot of people felt that this would be a 1940′s GTA (much like Red Dead Redemption was a Western version of GTA in many people’s eyes) Team Bondi have crafted a much more linear experience than expected.

The game this most reminds me of is Heavy Rain, stunning captures of the actors and an interesting, if flawed, story. Unfortunately it doesn’t feature the numerous different endings that Heavy Rain does so you don’t ever feel the story is in your hands.

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15. GTA IV

One the biggest selling games of this generation GTA IV features the fortunes (and lack therof) of Niko Bellic – an immigrant arriving in the US at Liberty City to find empty promises and broken dreams from his cousin Roman.

As you work your way up the criminal ladder you’ll encounter all sort of dodgy characters and befriend even more.

Liberty City is a wonderful, if run down, place and Niko Bellic’s story is one you will enjoy playing through so make sure you pick this game up as soon as possible.

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14. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

I’m not sure if I’ll *ever* finish playing Skyrim. Not because the game is bad – quite the opposite – but because, well… to be honest… I’ve never played anything like it.

The content itself isn’t unique. It’s a first person, middle earth type, Elves and Orcs affair in which you pick from a selection of races and build your character to take into the World.

What Bethesda have done an amazing job on is making Skyrim feel like a blank canvas for your character. It’s this aspect of the game that is like nothing else I’ve ever played. You could have a thrilling, intense gaming experience for tens of, possibly hundreds of, hours without even doing much in the way of the ‘main storyline.’

If you’re looking for a game to sink hours and hours into then Skyrim is perfect for you. The sense that you can go anywhere and do anything is unlike anything else out there. This isn’t a game to play for a quick blast but if you can invest the time you won’t regret it.

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13. Metal Gear Solid 4

Hideo Kojima’s tale of Solid Snake’s final mission is a brilliant showcase of the Playstation 3′s power.

This is a game that often gives you three or four different ways of approaching things – whether you realise it or not.

Metal Gear Solid 4 rewards those patient enough to stick with it by giving them a great gaming experience, with some memorable boss battles, that they won’t forget.

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12. Killzone 2

Killzone 2′s biggest achievement is, possibly because of the brilliant graphics, sound and AI, that you feel involved and become embedded in the Killzone universal whenever you pick up the pad.

It’s not perfect by any means but at the time it was easily the best first person shooter I’d played and I recommend anyone with a remote interest in this genre to check this out immediately!

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11. Bioshock

Bioshock has a great story to tell and it does it well with some interesting objectives and brilliantly designed levels.

There are several twists and turns in the plot, most of which are not obvious and it’s no surprise to me that a film version is in the works (although I believe currently suspended due to budget concerns).

Dark worlds like Rapture aren’t to everyone’s tastes but you really would be missing out on an awesome story if you decided not to book a trip to the underwater city.

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So, it’s time for the top 10 – any guesses on what’ll be in there? Any games we’ve already had that would’ve made your own top 10?

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Eurogamer Expo 2012

So Friday saw the Eurogamer Expo hit Earls Court in London again. I went along to check out some of the titles we can look forward to playing in the next 6 months or so.

Unfortunately I have to begin by saying, as always, there were a few queues that were just too large to wait in. The biggest were Assassin’s Creed III, Hitman Absolution, Resident Evil 6 and Call Of Duty: Black Ops II.

I guess when time is limited it boiled down to one simple fact; I know I will be playing all of those games. For me they are all titles I am sure to pick up, so queuing for an hour to play them seems like madness!

Anyway, there was plenty of other stuff to play at the Expo, so here we go:

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TOMB RAIDER

Eidos have been doing a lot of work pushing this game recently and highlighting how it’s a reboot of the series in the same vein as the recent Batman films. I know I joked about it previously but if you only have an XBox 360 and haven’t played the Uncharted games then you’ll love this. Sadly for me, while it plays well, Tomb Raider is just a clone of Uncharted. Hopefully the story will lift this above that status.

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DISHONORED

Dishonored is one of those games that is very difficult to judge from playing at an event like this. Set in a steampunk world you play as a wronged man who uses his various skills (possession/slowing down time etc) to get his own back. Unfortunately being dropped into the game at a random point and without much guidance, I promptly forgot all about the powers and just used the crossbow and knife. I enjoyed playing it though and it should be a great game when you get it on your PS3 in the comfort of your own home.

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ALIENS: COLONIAL MARINES

While I’m more interested in the story of this game, it was the multiplayer that was hands on today. Setting Marines against Aliens isn’t the most original premise but it was well handled and the one button press to bring up your motion tracker was slick and effective. I did find it a bit tough at times but I think that might also have been down to the fact it was Sega staff controlling the Aliens! 😆

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GOD OF WAR: ASCENSION

In a neat reverse of Colonial Marines I bypassed the single player demo for this (I’ve enjoyed bashing square and triangle for all the previous games so I don’t need to go through that at an Expo) and headed straight for multiplayer. Having little to no interest in this I wasn’t expecting much. What I found however was a fun, engrossing brawler-type of affair. Still not sure how much I’d play this long term but I will certainly dip in after finishing the campaign.

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NEED FOR SPEED: MOST WANTED

I’ve been looking forward to this game (and the accompanying Vita version – absent today) for months. The switch to a more Burnout style open world driving game is welcome and it looks like it’ll be insane fun online. The steering was a bit loose but once you got used to that it was a blast.

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MEDAL OF HONOR: WARFIGHTER

Again, another game I’m more interested in the single player of but we battened down the hatches and got some multiplayer on. This was mostly enjoyable, certainly miles better than the last Medal Of Honor’s terrible online. Warfighter straddles the online gap between Call Of Duty and Battlefield. Perfect for it’s target audience but not one for me. I am looking forward to the campaign though as I thought the last one was pretty good.

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GRID 2

Ah GRID. If you follow me on Twitter you might have seen me squeeing with excitement when they announced this was coming out next year. The original GRID was one of my favourite driving games ever and GRID 2 didn’t disappoint. It looked gorgeous and handled like a dream. Everything I hoped it would be. And certainly the most impressive game I played today.

* ‘GRID 2′ : GREGHORRORSHOW’S BEST IN SHOW – Eurogamer Expo 2012*

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METAL GEAR RISING: REVENGEANCE

As disappointed as I am that Bayonetta 2 isn’t coming to PS3, this game (from the same developer) looks set to more than fill the gap. A mix of Bayonetta and Vanquish, Revengeance is NOT the Metal Gear you know and love. Raiden is the main character rather than Snake and he is a frantic cyborg killing machine. Revengeance has no need for stealth, you just kill everything 🙂 A lack of direction stifled things somewhat but overall most enjoyable.

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FIFA 13 (Vita)

I was hoping to see some pretty big changes in FIFA this year on the Vita. The game available at release was a (good) port of the PS3 FIFA 11 engine. It didn’t feature some of the new AI stuff from FIFA 12 and so I hoped some of those features might make their way into FIFA 13. Sadly from what I could gather in the time I played it seems to be almost the exact same game barring some cosmetic changes. 😦 Still the best football game around for a handheld device but if you already have FIFA for Vita you might be better off sticking with that.

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ASSASSIN’S CREED: LIBERATION (Vita)

I finally got my hands on the forthcoming Vita Assassin’s Creed game and I have to say I was mightily impressed. Graphically the game looks great, although the main character Aveline does have a touch of the ‘crazy eyes’ if you get in too close 🙂 Overall I’m impressed – the animation looked smooth and there was a solid fidelity to the graphics of the environment and a decent draw distance as well. Can’t wait for this now.

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FAR CRY 3

Far Cry 3 had a pretty substantial queue to play it but fortunately when you sat down with the game you were given 10/15 mins to just get on with it. I really enjoyed this and thought it could be a game I’d plough a decent amount of time into. The demo dropped you in the middle of the island and allowed you a fair amount of freedom. I didn’t do a great deal of story stuff – but had an action packed playthrough in which I began crafting my own mini story within the fiction. That’s always a good sign. Did see a few crazy glitches (characters suddenly zooming across the screen/flying etc) but this is early code so hopefully they will be ironed out before release.

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PLAYSTATION ALL STARS: BATTLE ROYALE

I’ve never played Super Smash Brothers, the Nintendo game All Stars (apparently) borrows heavily from. I’d read quite a bit about All Stars and seen some character reveals/trailers but nothing had really interested me that much. I’m not big into fighting games and this looked like it might be too complex for me. However I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed the round we played. There is a real depth to the game in terms of moves/control that is there if you want it but alternatively you can just use the face buttons and directions to pull off whatever moves take your fancy. I was almost reluctant to pick up the pad and play it but I walked away impressed & with a smile on my face.

* ‘PLAYSTATION ALL STARS: BATTLE ROYALE’ : GREGHORRORSHOW’S MOST PLEASANT SURPRISE – Eurogamer Expo 2012 *

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LOST PLANET 3

After waiting for what seemed to be an eternity for the guy on the console in front of me to stop playing (seriously – how long can one man die against the same enemy before letting someone else have a go?) I sat down and got some time with Lost Planet 3. Coming across to me as Dead Space in the snow (and without the horror) it certainly wasn’t a bad game. Some of the aesthetic seemed to ripped straight from EA’s game (unless EA stole it from an earlier Lost Planet game?) but I’m still not sure how much fun it was to just hold the trigger and pump the bigger creatures with bullets. Having said that my time was slightly hampered by the fact there was no option to invert the Y Axis on my demo pod :angry:

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So that’s the games and after all that I would like comment on how well run the whole thing was. Having people walk through the crowd while we were queuing to scan our tickets and give out the relevant wristbands was a stroke of genius and genuinely saved about 15 minutes of queuing time compared to last year. When the doors opened at 10am we went straight in. Great stuff.

Overall Eurogamer Expo 2012 was a little muted for me personally. There wasn’t one particular game I was desperate to play – perhaps that is tied to the fact we’re nearing the end of the console cycle? However I enjoyed everything I played and even liked a few titles I might not have otherwise bothered playing.

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Back To The Future (Episode 1) – Review (PS3)

When I first heard a new Back To The Future game was on the way I was overjoyed as I love the film series. That joy was tempered when I discovered it was to be a ‘point and click’ adventure game.

I’m just not a fan of the genre. It has pretty much passed me by for the most part and what I did play wasn’t great.

However I found myself pleasantly surprised.

Firstly I think a big part of my enjoyment was tied directly to the films so if you don’t have that frame of reference I’m not sure I’d recommend this game to you,

Taking place in an alternate timeline to the first film, we find the test run of the DeLorean doesn’t go as expected. Six months later it’s 1986 and we take control of Marty, who is trying to come to terms with the fact that Doc is still lost in time somewhere.

This is a traditional point and click adventure in which you interact with your environment to solve puzzles and uncover the story by talking to other characters.

Telltale Games are well known for the quality of their titles in this genre and the production values here are pretty high. Christopher Lloyd is on board to voice Doc Brown and A.J Loscasio does a great job as Marty McFly in the absence of Michael J. Fox.

While I haven’t gotten much enjoyment out of these types of games in the past, I thoroughly enjoyed Back To The Future. This is part 1 of 5 and clocks in at around the 2 hour mark.

If you like point and click games or Back To The Future then I’d strongly recommend picking this up – if you’re unsure I believe there is a demo up on the PSN, give it a try.

Rating: 7/10

Just Cause 2 – Review (PS3)

As someone who didn’t play the original Just Cause this game wasn’t really on my radar until a Gametrailers special featuring it. Once I got my hands on the demo and experienced it for myself, I knew I’d end up getting a copy.

The game takes place a few years after the first game with agency operative Rico Rodriguez taking a trip to the (fictional) island of Panau in Asia. His mission is to assassinate Panau’s repressive leader ‘Baby’ Panay and track down Tom Sheldon, a rogue operative who has defected away from the agency.

The big draw here is the gameplay itself, which consists of causing as much chaos as possible. And that’s literally ‘chaos’ – it’s the game’s version of XP and you’ll need a set amount to unlock the agency missions as you go along.

Which brings me to my one major complaint with Just Cause 2… it’s too long. I know that might sound crazy, when people complain games are so short these days but this game took me 23 hours to play through. That in itself wouldn’t be a problem if they’d added in some extra agency missions.

In fact it’s more of a pacing issue than the length of the game. With only 6 agency missions (the last one kicks straight in after mission 6) that is a lot of time (almost 4 hours to unlock each mission if you split it equally) to be messing around and causing chaos.

It is super fun to cause chaos and the takeover/faction missions are mainly interesting but I felt a few of the bigger side missions could’ve been incorporated as full agency missions. It felt like I was really grinding towards the last mission by the time I got anywhere near it.

I always think the best games find a way of making sure you don’t feel bored on the route to unlocking missions, sadly for me I found it a bit of a struggle towards the end of the game.

But overall that’s an issue that won’t bother some people and it certainly doesn’t hurt the gameplay or any of the mechanics at play here.

Just Cause 2 is a great game. It builds on the framework of the original game and titles like Mercenaries 2 to provide one of the best open world experiences out there. I wish I had got around to playing this last year as it would certainly have got a nod for Single Player Game Of The Year.

While the game is based around the spy/thriller genre it has such a sense of fun that you can’t help but laugh at most of it. With the ability to tie an enemy to a gas canister, shoot it and send him whizzing into the air you get the feeling the developers had a blast making it.

Speaking of blasts Just Cause 2 has some great looking explosions and with the amount of them happening it can make for some pretty spectacular gameplay.

When you find yourself chasing and shooting down a recently launched space rocket with a fighter jet, you know you’re onto a winner. 😆

With a whole heap of content (I think my 23 hours equates to about 20% of the game) and the fact the game is so much fun, I would definitely recommend giving Just Cause 2 a chance. This is the perfect title to get stuck into over these barren game release summer months.

Rating: 9/10

Motorstorm Apocalypse – Review (PS3)

As a fan of the first two Motorstorm titles I was really excited when Apocalypse was announced.

My excitement was tempered when I heard it was set in a city – I’d preferred the stunning vistas of the original and the colourful foliage of the sequel.

The more I saw of the game the more that excitement came back and Apocalypse did start to look like it really had that ‘Motorstorm’ spirit that encapsulated the other games in the series.

Then came the demo which I found to be disappointing, the handling felt off and I didn’t really enjoy it much. At the time I attributed that to Gran Turismo 5 having been the only driving game I’d played in the previous 6 months.

So I was hopeful upon picking it up that I could adjust myself to the handling of Motorstorm again and get stuck in to some great racing.

Thankfully this was the case.

The racing was just as madcap as I remembered and the destruction of the city around you is simply spectacular.

Whilst the graphics have taken a more cartoonish twist Motorstorm Apocalypse is a great looking game

For the story mode you play through the festival three times with different characters and each character finds the city progressively worse than the last character did.

The story mode, while not actually featuring much in the way of story, is a great way to learn the tracks and prepare yourself for online carnage.

Sadly I only managed about three sessions online before the PSN outage but I played enough to know that this will be a title I’ll revisit regularly.

Evolution Studios have brought the customisation, rank and perk systems familiar from titles like Call Of Duty and Uncharted 2 to the driving genre which should also increase longevity.

Overall then it’s not quite as stunning visually as the previous games but when you find yourself boosting through a building as it collapses around you, you’ll be having so much fun you won’t care.

Rating 8/10

Vanquish – Demo Impressions (PS3)

 

I’ve seen various trailers and bits ‘n pieces on Vanquish over the last few months but it never really grabbed hold of me.

For a start it looked far too crazy with so much happening onscreen I was concerned I’d struggle to play it.

Then I found out it’s made by Platinum Games who made Bayonetta, which caught my attention. So I downloaded the demo not really knowing what to expect.

And what I got was a pretty hardcore third person shooter. My concern about too much onscreen at once was dismissed within the first five minutes – when you’re playing the game you just deal with whatever’s thrown at you and it was no trouble.

The game looks great, although the voice acting is cheesy as hell. I enjoyed the combat and the ability to momentarily slow down time is great and helps to make sure you aren’t too overwhelmed by enemies.

If all this sounds very familiar it’s because Vanquish is basically the exact same game as Bayonetta – except they’ve changed the environment and concentrated more on gunplay. And that isn’t a bad thing.

Obviously this impression is based on the demo so it may be slightly different and varied in the final game but the demo has hooked me in. While Vanquish isn’t a day one purchase for me, it’s certainly a title I’ll be looking to get hold of at some stage.

Scott Pilgrim vs The World – Demo Impressions (PS3)

 

I’m still yet to see the film or read the comics (I’m waiting for an omnibus :smile:) but I was most definitely interested in this PSN title. So when the demo popped up I grabbed it straight away.

Essentially an old skool 8 bit brawler, Scott Pilgrim looks and plays great. You make your way through various levels from left to right in the tradition of great games like Double Dragon or Street Of Rage.

You have various special moves as well as your regular kick and punch attacks to take down the bad guys. The demo takes place in the streets of Canada but there are plenty of places to work your way through in the full game.

You can have up to 4 players locally but sadly there are no plans to incorporate any form of online play. I think that’s a real shame as this probably would’ve been a must buy for me if it had featured that.

If you remember older titles, such as Final Fight or Golden Axe, and like the way they played then Scott Pilgrim looks like a nice update on that type of game.

As I said I’d have picked this up if it had online co-op but as it stands I may buy this if it gets a price drop on PSN. It’s worth checking out.

Kane And Lynch 2 – Demo Impressions (PS3)

 

I seem to be in the minority in considering Kane & Lynch: Dead Men a thoroughly enjoyable game. Sure the controls were dodgy but the story and characterisation held my attention right through the game.

So it was with general excitement that I fired up the demo. In fact I hadn’t been this excited for a demo since Battlefield: Bad Company 2 last year.

As you may or may not know, Kane & Lynch 2: Dog Days has been made to look like you’re watching the entire thing online. It’s like playing through a documentary that someone is making on a handheld camera.

This gives the game a very interesting feel compared to everything else out there at the moment.

So, let’s start with the single player portion of the demo. You are straight into the action, controlling Lynch and shooting your way out of a restaurant in Shanghai alongside Kane.

The controls felt quite loose but the shooting seemed to be fairly accurate, at least at close range. There is certainly a satisfying thud as your bullets hit their target, especially with the shotgun.

Once you get out of the restaurant it’s into the alleyways and out onto the street as the battle spills all over the place.

Kane & Lynch 2 seems to favour a mixture of run ‘n gun and tactical play. If you continually rush out into the open you’ll be taken down and I suspect your AI (or human controlled) partner will need to cover you at times ala Army Of Two: 40th Day.

The demo isn’t long – around 15 minutes – but it certainly gives you a taste of the game. Kane & Lynch 2 is set to be a Marmite type of affair… you’ll either love it or hate it.

As for multiplayer, the wonderful Fragile Alliance mode is back and they have fixed the problem of people just shooting you from the off by not starting the round proper until 5/10 seconds in.

Essentially a heist mode, the idea is you get in somewhere, each pick up as much money as possible then battle past the police to the getaway van. After that all the money is totted up and split between the 8 of you. If you all survive…

And it’s not just the police you’ll need to worry about – your own team can turn on you in an attempt to get a bigger share of the cash. They will then be marked as a ‘traitor’ to the rest of the team and they have to decide whether to let them live or kill them.

If you want revenge you respawn as a cop trying to stop the escape so you’ll have your chance 😎

Makes for some tense matches as you just don’t know who to trust.

Kane and Lynch 2: Dog Days is a definite buy for me. I can’t wait for both the single player and multiplayer. It’ll certainly be something fresh to get our teeth into over the summer.

Split/Second – Demo Impressions (PS3)

 

We appear to have another ‘Infamous/Prototype’ style battle on the horizon – this time in the driving genre as Disney’s ‘Split/Second’ takes on Bizarre’s ‘Blur.’

Both games feature over the top arcade racing action with a power up system but the main difference appears to be that Blur uses car power ups (ala Modnation Racers/Mario Kart etc), whereas Split/Second uses the course to give players the chance to take each other out.

I haven’t had a chance to try out Blur but having played through the Split/Second demo I have to say I’m more impressed than I thought I would be.

Although it is only one car/track to play with there are plenty of options once you fill your power bar.

The best way to fill the bar is essentially to drive well – it will fill as you slipstream the car in front (‘drafting’), drift around corners or overtake other cars.

The bar has three sections and you can then trigger events such as explosions or shortcuts. Smaller events such as an exploding barrel or activating a shortcut usually require 1 section of your bar.

Bigger events, ranging from causing a landslide onto the track to actually blowing the course away to ‘switch routes’ take up 2 sections.

This really does lead to some tactical racing as you decide whether to use the 1 bit of bar you have or hold off and wait for a more race changing event.

One thing I found really cool was ‘switching routes’ by blowing the road away so we jumped down off and into the underground car park below. On the next lap I switched routes again at the same point and another explosion saw the route change again. So effectively you may be able to change the layout of the track twice at the various route changing parts.

It’s been fun trying to clock up fast times and generally having a laugh with the demo. One of the few complaints I had was that your own car doesn’t seem as vulnerable to attacks as everyone else – hopefully that is just to ease people into the demo.

I’m still not 100% sold on the game despite it’s appeal – I already have Dirt2 and Motorstorm Pacific Rift for my online driving needs – with Modnation Racers also arriving soon will there be room for Split/Second? I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Motion Control Spreads To HD

Well GDC (Game Developer Conference) always throws up a few interesting announcements and tech demos – the latest of which was Sony’s “Move.”

Essentially a more precise and HD supported Wii remote, “Move” is Sony’s attempt to muscle in on the ground that Nintendo have been occupying for the last few years.

Have a look at the video below to see it in action:

Personally this will be a novelty item for me. Like the EyeToy and EyePet – not something I’ll play often but when friends are over or my daughter wants to play something I’ll stick them on.

I’m not a fan of motion control being the sole means of control in a game and I’m glad to hear that Sony said in a lot of cases the controller will still be an option instead of motion.

That being said if a studio can find a great way to implement it I’m all for it. Killzone 2’s setting charges with the SixAxis was weak but didn’t take you out of the experience too much and Heavenly Sword’s arrow/cannonball system was clever but too frustrating. More positively, Heavy Rain recently included some great motion control stuff so all is not lost.

Heavy Rain’s use of motion control was a big part of the gameplay

I think being able to use controller and motion is a good solution for gamers like me that don’t want to jump wholesale into motion.

Take Natal on XBox for example, in which there is no controller and your hand motions etc are used to select stuff. Now I don’t doubt it’ll sell well and seems to be an impressive piece of tech but I don’t want to play like that.

The idea of having to physically carry out the actions I want to do in real life so that Natal can register them in game isn’t my idea of fun. Actually scratch that, it would be fun but at a party or with friends. The majority of my gaming time is spent alone (in terms of my actual location) and I just don’t see myself playing that way.

So we have the usual array of sports games and motion stuff – I particularly liked ‘Shoot’ (see below video) which is a ‘House Of The Dead’ style romp through various themed levels and looks like it could be a real giggle.

Sadly from my perspective that was the only title that looked like I might play it.

Support from existing titles such as LittleBigPlanet and SOCOM was good to see, although the latter appeared to confirm my fears on motion in ‘hardcore’ games.

SOCOM is a tactical army based shooter – why would you need to control it with motion? Fair play to Zipper for getting it done and it’s not terrible by any means (see below video) but I just can’t take it seriously.

I guess it all just feels superfluous. Like the Wii, Natal and Move are all bringing a little something extra to the table but nothing groundbreaking.

Where is motion control’s ‘killer app’?

It’s a big question and maybe with the release of Natal and Move bringing some much needed competition to Nintendo we’ll get to see some innovative motion titles forcing their way through in the next few years.