Pointing, gestures, and the light-up bauble have all been integrated in Ubisoft's World War II strategy game.

While we've already seen what Ubisoft's upcoming WWII-themed strategy game R.U.S.E. looks like when played on a $20,000 touch-screen table, the setup is far beyond the monetary reach of mere mortals. The cheaper alternative is to use Sony's motion controller Move, which Sony announced would be supported at this year's Electronic Entertainment Expo. We sat down with the game's senior producer, Mathieu Girard, for a look at how the controller handles.

What's New: Though Move support was added to R.U.S.E. long after development was under way, it has been tightly integrated into the game's mechanics. The Move controller acts as a pointer, allowing you to highlight a group of troops, issue commands to them, or navigate menus in much the same way a mouse is used in PC real-time strategy games. Gestures have also been implemented; a swift swipe to right of the screen brings up the menu where you can select your troops with the pointer or via the analogue stick on the navigation controller. Zooming also gets the gesture treatment, where pushing toward the screen zooms into the map, while pulling backward zooms out. The light-up ball doesn't get left out of the action either; it turns red when you're hovering over enemy troops and green when selecting your own. Most commands can be performed using just the main controller, though Girard informed us that the navigation controller makes some commands easier to access, giving you quick shortcuts to the most frequently used ones.

What's the Same: R.U.S.E. still looks as great as ever, allowing you to sweep effortlessly from high-level battle-top views to detailed animations of your troops in the heat of battle. There's also a lot of game on offer, with a 15-hour single-player campaign, 20 maps, online play, and a vast array of unit types from which to choose. Though controls have been simplified and tweaked for the console versions, Girard assured us that R.U.S.E will still be a fully featured RTS, complete with a level of depth on par with the best on the PC.

What Impression the Game Made This Time: Though we weren't able to get hands-on time with the Move, from what we saw, it has been well integrated into the game. The gesture and pointer controls seem like a natural fit for an RTS, adding a level of fluidity that sometimes is lacking when using a standard pad. Zooming, menu, and swiping gestures all appeared to work accurately, without having to repeat motions to get commands to register. It remains to be seen how well the controls will work over long periods of play, particularly given the lengthy campaign matches that can take hours to complete. We asked Girard if Kinect support would be coming to the game, but sadly, it looks like Xbox 360 users will have to make do with the standard pad. He told us that it had been looked into, but given the issues Kinect has with players sitting down, it would be too tiring for them to stand up for the long periods of time matches can take.

http://www.gamespot.com/ps3/strategy/ruse/news.html?sid=6268880&part=rss&tag=gs_previews&subj=6268880&mode=previews

What is this game kinda like End war?

damn, i was hoping for a hands on impressions. 

i'm caustiously optomistic about a move based RTS...i really hope it live up to my hopes.

Hmm.  That sounds better than I would have thought.  I like RTS but just not on console - however if the pointer is fast and accurate coupled with easy button use then this might actually help an RTS play better on a console.

that table is only made for the game?

I hope Shogun: Total War comes to PS3 =/ I hope Empire Napoleon come too.

that's my take on it also, the people who have tested it sofar see that the Move is pretty good for RTS game's which is a big bonus because that's one area game console's alway's lacked a good way to play RTS's, with this setup that may be one of the best functionality of the Move..with the ability to use it like you do a mouse from what i have seen sofar, it will give it one of the best overall RTS experience's on a game console.due to the way you can control an RTS by the Move, that's just my opinion though.

so am i but already for launch:

RUSE (Ubisoft) (Sept. 2010)

Under Siege (Seed Studios) (2010)

here is a very bold statement:

Sony Says PlayStation Move Precise Enough To Play StarCraft

There's been a flood of information coming from Sony about the new PlayStation Move controller for the PS3, but Sony's technically inclined folks showed off some of the more technically capable members of GDC, getting down to the finer details.

PlayStation researcher Anton Mikhailov, platform research manager David Coombes and developer support engineer Kirk Bender ran through a handful of demos for GDC attendees, some fun, others a low level technical peek behind the curtain of PlayStation Move. Some of the more interesting things Mikhailov and crew talked about were related to the motion controller's level of precision.

Mikahilov said the PlayStation Eye is capable of tracking the Move's movement to a precision of about one millimeter in the X and Y-planes. He showed this onscreen, zoomed down to the pixel level. On the Z-plane, Move's depth perception level of precision is about a centimeter. As he twisted the Move controller in front of the camera, Mikahilov noted that the PlayStation Eye was capable of detecting rotation to the degree level. All this needs to be done within 10 feet of the PlayStation Eye, Move's current range of detection.

He further illustrated the Move's level of accuracy by mounting the controller on a tripod, eliminating the jitter we were seeing during on simple tech demo, which was actually coming from Mikhailov's hand.

Some of the Move's other neat technical tricks came in the form of combining face tracking with glowing orb tracking, the ability to detect facial features like glasses and a very rough estimate of a user's age. The most potentially interesting uses of Move's capabilities came in some very smooth, very accurate looking painting programs, the kind of thing that would be great for a graffiti themed video game.

But putting the Move controller's level of precision in terms most of the room could understand, Mikhailov said that they've been able to use the PlayStation 3 add-on as a device to control the PC version of StarCraft. While the company already has Move support working in the equally precision demanding SOCOM 4: U.S. Navy SEALs, if it works well as a mouse replacement, it might be worth picking one up.

http://kotaku.com/5491493/sony-says-playstation-move-precise-enough-to-play-starcraft

of course that does not elaborate if it can do it well, but after more impression's about the Move for RTS's that i have seen sofar, it think it's pretty safe to say it's better than a control pad to control a RTS which is pretty good, in my opinion that's a very good thing.

@ joeorc

There is what companies say/promise and then there is what they actually deliver.  i felt let down with what the wii-mote was capable of compared to what i was promised.  let down yet again after motion plus was release.  kinect had tons of promises and it would appear to be falling short on many of them.

move looks to be a very good piece of tech but i'm preparing myself for another let down.

while true, I am not going to say it's not going to have it's problem's like any mouse or any other device, but I have seen the demo's in action to atleast judge how it will perform in a certain way in it's control of certain class of game, and RTS is in my opinion is where the Playstation Move will excell at. in capability like the Mouse already does.

the Move is like a laser pointer in that its pin point capability it pretty d@rn good from what i have seen,

the fact that they were able to control Starcraft with the Move bodes well for RTS control's for using the Move.