Warner Bros.’ family-friendly take on storied fantasy series will now support motion control on Sony’s console; previously only for Wii, PS2, PSP, and DS.
Though the PlayStation Move was only unveiled hours ago, companies are already beginning to pile onto the PlayStation motion-control bandwagon. The first publisher to jump aboard post-briefing was Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, which announced Lord of the Rings: Aragorn’s Quest would support the LED controller- and camera-based system when it launches in the fall. The game was previously announced for the Wii, PlayStation 2, PSP, and DS.
Though it is based on director Peter Jackson’s 2001-2003 live-action Lord of the Rings film trilogy, Aragorn’s Quest is closer in spirit to the 1977 Rankin-Bass animated version of The Hobbit. According to WBIE, the title will be “the first Lord of the Rings game created specifically for kids and their families.”
The game sees players taking control of the titular hero during his journeys to protect the Hobbit ringbearers on their quest to destroy the soul-corrupting One Ring and vanquish the evil Dark Lord Sauron. The cheerfully hued game will feature “a friendly, colorful rendition of Middle-Earth” and see players engaging in sword fights, lancing, and archery.
For more on Lord of the Rings: Aragorn’s Quest, check out GameSpot’s hands-on preview from E3 2009.
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Robots (and some civilians) get shot as we try the movie-themed PlayStation Move shooter.
It’s not too surprising that one of the first games Sony is showing off for the PlayStation Move is a rail shooter. But if visions of a run-of-the-mill forced march through a set path with enemies popping up at random times bore you to tears, you should know The Shoot is actually pretty clever. The game takes the standard rail shooter archetype and dresses it up with a bit of story and interesting game play.
The game’s premise is a play on its title as you’ll be sent through different themed movie shoots. While the demo we played sent us through robot-infested subways and city streets, reps on hand noted that later levels would feature different locations and game play that would include some hand to hand combat. The two levels we played had us moving through a subway as well as a city street crawling with robots who need to be shot, and assorted civilians who you should avoid plugging full of holes.
The subway portion of the game felt like an old school shooting gallery, with enemies and civilians popping out at you as you moved through the level. While this was pretty basic at the start of the level, as you get further in, enemies become more sophisticated and split into smaller foes when shot, or have shields you’ll need to get around in order to take them out. Peppered throughout all the cannon fodder are civilians who you’ll need to avoid blasting–which is easier said than done once you get the robot shooting fever–but casualties are to be expected in this type of game.
The city street area mixed things up quite a bit more with a fight against a large robot with weak spots that had to be targeted as it hopped around and threw debris at you. As the large ’bot takes more and more damage, you’ll have to contend with more enemies that pop up to prevent you from targeting the weak points.
The Shoot’s game play is in the vein of a lightgun shooter, with the Move controller serving as your gun. You’ll fire your weapon by hitting the trigger on the underside of the controller and, from the look of things, don’t have to worry about reloading. There’s some variety added to these core mechanics by a modest degree of motion that reflects where you’re pointing, while there isn’t free movement you can lean a bit to the left or right. In addition, you can collect different power ups that you can trigger by aiming the controller at the top or bottom of the screen (or by physically moving). Overall, the Move controller worked fine, although it wasn’t quite as responsive as we would have liked it to be (but it did feature some solid rumble effects). Reps on hand noted that what was on display was a work in progress and that there would likely be options to calibrate your reticule’s movement to some degree in the final game.
The Shoot’s visuals were clean and had a decent amount of detail and effects. Given the game’s borderline campy theme, we didn’t expect to see any photorealism on display and were satisfied by the art style. The environment featured a good amount of detail and a good helping of destructible objects. The game moved along at a steady clip and featured a good amount of screen effects to help underscore the mayhem. Given the press event’s noisy setting we couldn’t make out much of the game’s audio.
While a railshooter isn’t a stunning display of the PlayStation Move’s capabilities, it’s certainly a solid one. There’s already some fun to be had in the single player mode so we expect the two player mode will be as well. The Shoot is being developed by UK-based Cohort Studios, most recently known for Buzz Junior: Monster Rumble, and is due for release during the PlayStation Move’s launch window. Look for more on the game in the coming months.
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We grab the PlayStation Move and its sub-controller to shoot down soldiers in the slums level of Zipper Interactive’s upcoming action game.
Sony’s PlayStation Move launch at GDC 2010 wasn’t all about family fun and mini-game compilations, with the surprise announcement that core gamers wouldn’t be ignored thanks to the inclusion of Move support to the recently announced SOCOM 4. We grabbed our Move and hunkered down behind enemy lines to see just how motion controls would be incorporated into this upcoming first person shooter.
First up, you’ll not only need a Move to play SOCOM 4, but you’ll also need the sub-controller accessory Sony unveiled at its press event today. The sub-controller’which looks like the Move but without the glowing ball on top’features an analog stick, d-pad, four face buttons, and two other buttons on its underside. To play SOCOM 4, you’ll hold the Move in your right hand and the sub-controller in your left. Pointing the Move at your screen will shift the camera and targeting reticule, while pointing at the edges of your screen will turn your character around. Movement is done via the sub-controller’s analog stick (forwards, backwards, and strafing). If this control scheme sounds familiar, it’s because it is: many Wii first person shooters feature a similar control setup with the Remote and Nunchuk.
There are, of course, many more controls in SOCOM 4 than just movement. You shoot by pressing the Trigger button on the Move, while going into cover is done by pressing the equivalent trigger on the sub-controller. Targeting is done via pressing the Action button located on the top side of the Move, while throwing grenades is mapped to the Circle button. As SOCOM vets will know, you’ll also have a squad to control in 4, and these commands have also been handily mapped to the sub-controller. Pressing the sub-controller’s bumper button will put the game in a pseudo-slow-motion mode, where you’ll then be able to assign squad commands such as waypoints and targets via the sub-controller’s d-pad.
The level being showcased on Sony’s press event was set in a slums area, which a representative from developer Zipper Interactive told us would appear roughly halfway through the game. The level featured many crudely built houses made of wood and corrugated iron, and were set on several different levels. This proved to be a good showcase for the fine targeting the Move allowed, as enemies would descend from all directions. Gunning them down was a simple matter of point-and-shoot, and taking cover behind low walls and buildings was quite easy to do. Movement seemed smooth as well, although we didn’t get too much of a chance to try out various squad commands to see how seamlessly they would blend into the shooting experience.
The game is looking solid, but since it’s still early in its development stage, we’re expecting significant improvements in its looks in the months to come. As for the motion controls, our brief hands-on simply made us think how similar it was to first-person shooters on the Wii, although with an obvious visual upgrade. We’ll need to get more time with SOCOM 4 on a normal DualShock to see which control scheme is preferable, but there looks to be ample opportunity to do that with the game not expected to be released until the latter half of 2010.
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