Sorcery Impressions

The PlayStation Move is set to be one of the big stories of this year's E3, so it was no surprise to see the new controller as the focus of Sony's press conference. One of the first games demoed on stage was Sorcery, where you'll play as a young wizard who must stop a great evil, using the Move controller as your wand.

As the sorcerer's apprentice, you can call up a wheel to select spells and then wave the wand to cast them. You can control the power and direction of the spell by the way you move your arm, doing different things depending on how you shake the Move controller. You can flick it to fire at enemies or move it across your body to draw a wall of fire, for example. We saw a selection of spells, such as fire, ice, and whirlwind. You can even mix spells to create a whirlwind of fire, which you can then steer using the remote.

You can also drink potions to turn yourself into other creatures, such as a rat. We watched as the Sony demonstrator shook the remote to mix the potion and then made a drinking motion to drink it down. As a rat, you can then get into smaller areas, and there will be other forms you can take in the finished game to reach other places. There are also more utilitarian spells, such as the mending spell that will help you fix broken bridges.

Sorcery looks like it takes place in a Fable-esque world, as the demo ended as a huge ogre stormed through a corridor, knocking down pillars as it charged toward you. The demo ended before we got to see an epic fight, but it was still a tantalizing glimpse at one of the games Sony is clearly hoping will sell Move to family gamers. We'll bring you more information on the game when we have it, and you can catch it in stores in the second quarter of 2011.