PlayStation banks on 3D and motion control for the holidays

We just came from the PlayStation Holiday Preview event held in downtown Toronto. Sony showcased some of the upcoming titles and technology that will be getting gamers excited this holiday season. Standouts included a new Tron game, a lot of 3D, the ever elusive Gran Turismo 5 as well as updates to RockBand, Guitar Hero and of course Sony's new Move motion controller.

Call of Duty: Black OPS 3D demo

We got to see a demo by Activision featuring Call of Duty: Black Ops  in 3D. It might have been the coffee or the sudden immersion into a dark room with 3D glasses over our regular glasses but the experience was far from a great one for me.

Don't get me wrong,  Call of Duty: Black Ops is a fantastic game, possibly one of this year's best. The variety of locales and the thorough first-person shooter dynamics are second to none. The 3D implementation however, (which may or may not make it to the final shipping version next month) left us with a serious headache.  For some people, watching a first-person game in full swing is already visually taxing. Add the iffy and constant adjustments your eyes have to make with the 3D glasses and things become really hard to follow. 3D may be the cool new feature that Sony is banking on this year, but it really isn't for everyone.

PlayStation Move

Sony's Move motion controllers have already hit the stores and a number of demos at the Holiday. Most interesting was the Virtua Tennis demo in 3D that allowed players to unleash their inner Federer in a realistic tennis match. Move also featured in a number of multiplayer demos as well as some fighting games. How different is this from Nintendo's Wiimote? Well, aside from the red and blue glowing orbs at the end of the controllers, the Move controllers have rechargeable batteries and boast higher precision as well. Not to mention that the PlayStation3's graphics are way, way better than what you see in the Wii. 

Sony's Matt Levitan said the Move has an advantage over Nintendo and the XBox's camera-controlled Kinects system because it incorporates the handheld controller of the Wii with the motion-sensing cameras of the Kinect.

"It's the best of both worlds," he said. "It can do more specific actions that the other two can't, which will allow us to do games in other genres such as fighting games [and role-playing games] that we're not seeing across other devices."

Tron Evolution

Just in time for Tron: Legacy's turn in theatres, the Tron Evolution game will ship in December (the $130 special edition of the game will include a scale model of the light cycle). The action and adventure plus racing elements of the game look great and from our demo we saw that it was a well-put together adjunct to the Tron franchise which takes the look and feel of this movie to another level.

Gran Turismo 5

Petrolheads and race fanatics have been waiting 5 years for Gran Turismo 5 to finally make it to the PS3 and now that we are one month away (GT5 ships November 2) the excitement can hardly be contained. During the holiday preview event we saw 3D versions of the game running. There's a lot to be excited about - new damage models, weather simulations, over 1,000 cars including some previously unseen exotics and 70 different tracks to race your cars on just for starters. This is one racing sim that seems to really be worth the wait.