QJ.NET review: Plugging the PlayStation 3 into Headplay

Growing up cuddling NES and SNES consoles instead of teddy bears meant that becoming a video game journalist was a must for us. Besides, writing for established video game news sources has its own fringe benefits: you get paid to play the latest video games, you get first dibs on the latest technologies related to the industry, and you get the opportunity to rub elbows with the industry geniuses.

The only downside to this setup is you sometimes forget you have a life outside work. Here at QJ.NET for example, it’s normal for guys not on duty to linger around and toy with the video games and other related gadgets we have lying around the game room. Take this weekend for instance, a couple of editors with nothing to do decided to just hang around and tinker with the gadgets within reach, which happens to be the PlayStation 3 and the Headplay Personal Cinema System.

The full review awaits after the jump!

Growing up cuddling NES and SNES consoles instead of teddy bears meant that becoming a video game journalist was a must for us. Besides, writing for established video game news sources has its own fringe benefits: you get paid to play the latest video games, you get first dibs on the latest technologies related to the industry, and you get the opportunity to rub elbows with the industry geniuses.

The only downside to this setup is you sometimes forget you have a life outside work. Here at QJ.NET for example, it’s normal for guys not on duty to linger around and toy with the video games and other related gadgets we have lying around the game room. Take this weekend for instance, a couple of editors with nothing to do decided to just hang around and tinker with the gadgets within reach, which happens to be the PlayStation 3 and the Headplay Personal Cinema System.

The Headplay-PS3 setup

The other team provided us with a very in-depth Headplay review where they covered pretty much everything related to it. For the uninitiated though, the review described Headplay best in this quote:

Headplay is probably every couch potato’s dream. Imagine a TV. Now imagine being able to take it anywhere and everywhere you go (except perhaps in the shower), and being able to watch movies or play games on it anytime you want. That’s the concept for the new “Personal Cinema System” device, Headplay. It is a head-mounted device; a TV you wear on your head.

But we’re not here to kiss butts, we’re here to play around! So like any real men, we set aside the instructions and tried to figure things out on our own.

Headplay is very user-friendly and the PS3 to Headplay installation was pretty quick. All you have to remember is that everything plugs into The Liberator, which we’ve come to call “The Box” for simplicity’s sake. The Liberator is the Headplay system’s nerve center. It’s where all the wires are plugged in and also houses the system’s optional battery.

After plugging in the AV/RCA adaptor (which in turn is where the video cables of the PS3 are plugged in), the A/C adaptor, the USB key and the visor itself into the Box and turning it on, we configured the video source to point to the PS3. This was also pretty easy. Using the Navigator, a mini remote control that plugs into the visor, all we had to do was go past a couple of menus and select “Composite” as the source.

With installation over and done with, we were ready for some ass-kicking.

Headplay-PS3 gaming experience

The QJ.NET Xbox 360 division have tried the Headplay out using Halo 3 and have given the device a thumbs up. That’s not surprising. With the video output being transmitted directly to your eyes, playing First Person Shooters will immerse you to the game in a way no high-definition TV ever could.

We dabbled on the idea of playing Insomniac Games Resistance: Fall of Man with it, but decided on loading Heavenly Sword instead. We just thought that Headplay plus an FPS video game with next-gen graphics is an automatic winning formula, so for the spirit of fairness we tried a game with an entirely different genre, of course there’s also the thought of seeing Nariko’s curves waaayyy up close…

When we had our quick impressions article of the Heavenly Sword demo back in July, we arrived at a consensus that the free 10 minutes worth of Nariko being offered by Sony and Ninja Theory did what it was supposed to do – get players pumped up long enough to make them more excited but not too long so as to give away everything the game has to offer. This demo gives us the perfect sweet and short setup for this type of gadget review.

Like what we said in our initial salvo with this piece of equipment, using Headplay for the first time needs some adjusting and getting used to. And so we wore the gadget and tinker with the visor’s side switches until we can see the XMB clearly first. We boot up Heavenly Sword and waited for the Menu screen to pop up.

At this point, with the headphones plug snugly into our ears, we felt like we were indeed taken to the land of King Bohan. The sound was excellent and the graphics looked fine as well. Ninja Theory’s graphical innovations coupled with the Headplay’s enhanced video output immersed us deeply into the game.

The only downside is it gets very disorienting at first. This is probably because Heavenly Sword is an action-adventure game with a lot of hacking and slashing involved. It also doesn’t help that Nariko is swarmed by hundreds of enemies wielding glinting weapons. And with the image so close to the eyes it sometimes feel that all these details are clumped into one abstract image. It gets better the longer we play though.

Once our eyes get accustomed to the close-up action, the appreciation for Headplay rushes in. After learning how to focus our vision to the minute details, it became very easy to predict the actions of the enemy AI. After a few hours, we don’t button mash that much anymore. We learned when to use the right combo depending on the initial movements of the enemies and the environment.

We’ve played through God of War 1 and God of War 2 and the Prince of Persia series – video games having very similar feel and handle with Heavenly Sword – and we must say we’ve never have as much control as this time. It’s arguable that Ninja Theory did a better job than the mentioned video game’s creators, but it’s easier to pin it on the display enhancement Headplay provided.

The QJ.NET Verdict

Headplay is indeed ahead of its time, this very same fact though could work against it. While we enjoyed the whole experience, it took us quite some time before we could reap its benefits. It gave satisfactory results but it might not find too many people ready to embrace its innovation, at least not yet.

Much like drinking beer, using Headplay to enjoy the best video output technology currently has to offer is an acquired taste. It’s hard to swallow at first but once the alcohol – or in Headplay’s case the graphical improvement – kicks in, it’s hard to break away from the habit.

All in all, Headplay is a good add-on to the PlayStation 3 and is capable of enhancing gameplay experience. The public may not be ready for it yet, but somehow we’re confident it’ll gather ample interest from the gaming community, enough to keep the project going. It’s hard not to support innovative projects like this, as stated above we were in the scene during the early days of video gaming. It’s ballsy moves like this that brings us from 16-bit gaming all the way to the next-gen powerhouse PS3.

Oh, by the way. We did get to see Nariko waaayyy up close…