I've been able to put in quite a bit of time with the Move this evening. I purchased the Sports Champions bundle and an extra Move controller. I had higher than normal expectations after reading this thread all day and waiting to get off work so I could give it a try myself. I can honestly say that after about 3 hours playing, it has exceeded ALL of my expectations. I am thoroughly impressed with the Move tech, this thing can very much go places if the software is there to back it up.
In my playtime, I never had too many issues with calibration. I actually played with my back to two large windows earlier this afternoon in daylight. While it wasn't particularly bright since the blinds are the large faux wood blinds, the camera would very much overblow the white due to how it was exposing my room. When calibrating in Sports Champions, I couldn't see the colored ball on the controller when I brought it up to my shoulder (it was slightly above my shoulder and blended in with the light behind me), but it still didn't have any problems calibrating. It never complained once. The only time I had issues with calibration was on Time Crisis and The Shoot, but even then, the cursor was just slightly off to the left and can probably be fixed once I learn how to calibrate better.
Sports Champions - Simply a fantastic showpiece for the Move hardware. I can't honestly say how it compares to Wii Sports Resort, but it blows the original Wii Sports out of the water. Anybody who says Wii Sports is better than SC is out of their mind. If you don't buy it in the bundle, it's honestly worth the $40 price.
Table tennis is the star IMO. It showcases the 1:1 control and allows you to manipulate every single axis available. You have to move left to right, forward and back, and twisting the paddle in order to succeed on the higher difficulty. When I first started playing it, I wasn't doing so hot, so I tried to figure out what I was doing wrong. Eventually, I came to the conclusion to just try to imagine I was actually at a ping pong table with a paddle instead of thinking about the Move controller in my hand. That's when I started doing great. It feels like sometimes the ball doesn't go where I'm intending it to go, but I could never figure out if it was my technique or a game limitation. Two-player worked great (uses split-screen), my wife and I battled it out for two matches and she absolutely whipped my ass. She NEVER plays video games, but this intrigued her. I didn't let her win, it's just so intuitive that she picked it up very easily.
Bocce is actually quite awesome. I had no idea what the game was, but it's insanely easy to learn and fun to play with a partner. The wife beat me at this, too. Volleyball was merely OK for me, it felt like it had the less depth out of everything. While you're playing, you feel like you're just going through the motions until you can finally quit. I didn't play much of Archery yet, but I thought the use of two Move controllers when pulling an arrow out of your quiver was not very well done. It was kind of a hit-or-miss affair for me and I spent too much time trying to grab an arrow.
Gladiator was OK for me, I don't find it to be amazing like some others do. I did play it with two Move controllers. While the shield and weapon do match up great with your own movements, it still felt a bit clunky to me. It feels that even though you can move your weapon anywhere you want, you can still only hit them high or low, there's no in between. If you want to hit them low, just swing low, doesn't really matter where. Same with hitting high. For me, it doesn't feel like there's much precision to it, but I probably need to put more time into it other than just a couple of matches.
Disc golf was fantastic but hard to get a handle on. I'm not that great at throwing a frisbee anyway, which I think translated into the game very well.
Overall, the graphics aren't anything to write home about, but it's really nice to finally have a game with the spirit of Wii Sports but with infinitely tighter control, movement through 3D space, and next-gen graphics power. I'd take Move and SC over the Wii and Wii Sports any day of the week.
Start the Party - Demo. I came away impressed with this one. The wife played this one, too, and she absolutely loved it. She even asked how much it was. The ability of the game to superimpose a virtual item over top your Move controller on-screen was absolutely amazing. It was rock solid, too. No matter how fast you moved your controller across the screen or how much you turned, twisted, and otherwise flung your controller about, the virtual graphic stays right with your controller, moving in, out, and around. I think it was insanely impressive as a tech demo and I still don't think I'm doing it enough justice. It's unfortunate the camera quality is awful.
The two mini-games were fun. Swatting insects was entertaining at first but not lasting, but the the painting was a lot of fun. I wonder how many different paintings there are, since doing the same few over and over would suck ass. I'm not sure this would be a purchase for me at $40 since it is just mini-games, but who knows.
Eyepet - Demo. I was a lot more impressed with this one than I thought I'd be. It's definitely geared towards the kiddies and I can't see myself ever buying this, but the demo was great. I set up the floor as instructed and it really did look like the little guy was running around on my floor. It's unfortunate that the pet is rendered in great 3D but the camera is showing very poor grainy VGA quality video. At first it was very distracting, but after a while I was able to forget about the video quality and focus on my pet.
I thought it's responses were great, but I got stuck for about 5 minutes when he tells you to wiggle your fingers so he'll pounce. I just about gave up and quit the demo before it finally worked. I don't know what I did, but I think it had something to do with taking the Move controller off-screen so the pet would focus better. The interactive sequences worked fine and showcased more great virtual items being placed on your Move controller on-screen.
My wife was pretty enamored with the little guy and she was actually disappointed when the demo ended. This definitely isn't a game for us though, but if you have kids, it doesn't appear that you can go wrong with this one.
Time Crisis - Demo. I was really looking forward to this one, but came away a bit unimpressed. First, the graphics appears to be PS2 quality and are very, very poor. Second, my calibration was a bit off but I'm thinking that maybe I can just compensate next time (if there is one). There wasn't really any depth to this demo, you just fly on trails through a level and shoot, typically Time Crisis fare. I'm curious if the Sony gun peripheral would make this more fun. I went from definite purchase to not looking forward to it after playing the demo.
The Shoot - Demo. This was definitely fun, I like the premise. The controls worked great, but like Time Crisis above, I think it might be more fun with the gun peripheral if it is made well. I'm looking forward to this game now after not knowing anything about it beforehand.
Racquet Sports - Demo. After playing table tennis in Sports Champions, this game just sucks. I can say that Racquet Sports feels very much like a Wii game that is trying to make up for crappy inaccurate controls. I honestly wouldn't take this one if somebody tried to give it to me.
Tumble - Demo. I didn't play too much (just the tutorial and first level), but I thought it was a great demo for the Move. I will definitely drop the $10 on this in the near future. I wasn't too good at the controls but I think it requires a bit of finese and touch that you only gain from playing. I can only imagine some of the crazy stuff you have to try in the full game.
move is exactly what i expected!!
