Playstation 3 Eye Review
What is the Playstation 3 Eye All About!?
To be honest, I probably would have never even considered buying a Playstation 3 Eye if it weren’t for Little Big Planet. I have never been big on gaming accessories, but I was really left with no choice on the purchase. I bought game, and in order to retrieve certain items in the game I had to have this device called the Playstation 3 Eye. I took my search for this oddly-named device online to get a better understanding of what the Eye did, and tried to figure out if it would be worth purchasing or not. Seeing that the device was so new, I could not find a single review and all I found were previews which, truthfully, were not helpful to me when it came to making a purchasing decision.
I found the Playstation 3 Eye at my local Target, and with a price tag of $34.99 I went ahead and made the purchase, glad that it wasn’t more expensive. The device looked like a plain standard video surveillance camera. It had a wire that would be plugged into an available USB port, and a lens situated right on top of a slim and sleek speaker.
I have an HDTV and I figured this cool device would look sweet sitting perched on the top of it. I prayed to the heavens above that using this device would be simple. I knew that the Eye would offer me a way to talk with other online players without having to wear any headset but I worried that the voice clarity would be bad, and that I would have trouble setting the Eye up to the PlayStation 3.
The plus side about the Eye though is that it can be used to work with certain downloaded games made especially for the Eye. I downloaded a live aquarium type game, and was a little disappointed with my $3 purchase. With the Eye, my hand gestures were seen and flakes would dump into the fish tank, thus feeding the fish.The aquarium looked sweet and all as far as graphics go, but the mechanisms just seemed to lack, and were sluggish when it came to feeding my fish.
Set up
Once home, I plugged it in, and perched it on top of my tube. I was hoping for some sort of miraculous plug and play feature, where I wouldn’t have to mess with the settings or anything. Unfortunately though, I ran into some issues while attempting to get it to work.
After some trial and error I finally got the thing going. After the PS3 recognized the Eye I was now free to test it out. First though, I had to go into the Playstation network/shopping area to download the free Playstation Eye software. Once the software was downloaded I was finally able to see what this $35 device could really do.
I was pretty impressed at first. I was able to take snapshots of my rump sitting on the edge of my bed, however, you are really limited to as far as the USB chord can stretch, which is not far at all. I really liked being able to take pictures of myself, and of my room, but the features cool factor got old really fast.
Playstation 3 Eye, Uses
Now, it’s not a total dud, not by a long shot, because if you have a video game that incorporates use of the Eye, it can be a blessing to have. With Little Big Planet I was able to retrieve certain objects that others lacking the device could not. I could also use the eye to slap photo stickers of myself on any object in the game I wanted. I enjoyed this thoroughly because I like making my own playable boards for other online players. Slapping a sticker of my face into my world allowed players to see me. It satisfies the narcissist in me, and is cool nonetheless.
Games are being released on a steady constant that call for use with the PS3 Eye. EyePet for instance is one that you will want to pick the Playstation Eye up for.
What especially makes the PlayStation 3 Eye so useful though is the fact that it allows you to speak to other online players without having to wear a headset. Basically you just talk, and the other players hear you. They will also hear any other noises in the room, so if you feel like being a big annoying jerk you can blast some old Elton John tunes in the background to really make some fast enemies! Haha!
Photo Clarity (2 out of 5)
The one thing I have to mention when it comes to the Playstation 3 Eye is it’s camera quality and clarity; I was less than impressed. Colors in snapshots are very, very dull with a near grayish tint to them. Some brighter colors do shine through, but they still have a very obvious grainy lackluster quality to them. I have $15 old school webcams deliver better picture clarity than the Playstation 3 Eye does!
Sound Clarity (5 out of 5)
Although the Playstation 3 Eye lacks in the picture quality department, it makes up for it big time in the sounds department. I was able to speak very lightly in the room (about 5 feet away from the Eye) and other players were able to hear me loudly, and clearly. I am also able to hear them through the Playstation 3 Eye’s small speaker. I was pretty surprised at how well it worked, and loved the fact that I no longer had to subject my poor lobes to the annoying headset anymore.
Overall (4 out of 5)
The Playstation 3 Eye is a device that I am actually very glad I picked up. I initially thought I would only use it for Little Big Planet, but I find I use it every single time I go online to play with other gamers. There are times when the odd camera lens makes me uncomfortable (like someone is watching me! Haha), but the Eye is definitely a device that I think all PS3 gamers should pick up. You can find the Playstation 3 Eye on Amazon for as little as $26.00.
