At last, we've felt Sony's long awaited motion controller, now at last officially known as "PlayStation Move," in our unworthy, sweaty hands. We have a bunch of videos on the way, but for now you can revel in our first close-ups of the controllers in the gallery below. Here are some of our initial thoughts:

• The controllers are light. Much more akin to the DualShock3 than the Wiimote in heft, and we're guessing that's due to Sony's continued love of rechargeable batteries.
  
• The main controller does have some subtle vibration (not DualShock or Wiimote level, but present), but we're not sure yet about the subcontroller.
  
• We hate to say this about "pre-alpha" software, but we're feeling lag. An on-rails shooter we tried out, dubbed The Shoot, was discernibly inferior to shooting experiences we've had on the Wii, both in precision and refresh rate of the aiming cursor.
  
• The gladiator game is about as fun as it looks, we'll have video after the break momentarily. Unfortunately, while it's less of a defined experience than something like the sword game on Wii Sports Resort, you're still working through a library of sensed, pre-defined actions instead of a true 1:1 fighting game with simulated physics. Not that it isn't possible with PlayStation Move, just that it's not this.
  
• The lightness of the controllers means we might be feeling less of that Wiimote fatigue, always a good thing! There's an aspect of the controller that feels a little cheap, but at the same time we wouldn't call it fragile.
  
• As far as we can tell, the control scheme for Socom 4 is quite similar to dual-controller shooter setups on the Wii, with the camera moving based on your aiming cursor hitting the edge. It's hard to see this as the preferred hardcore setup, but we're told it's configurable, so we'll try and see what else is on offer.
  
• The system seemed to have a bit of trouble understanding the configuration of our body in a swordfighting stance: even though we selected "left handed," it was putting our sword arm forward instead of our shield. Right-handers didn't seem to have similar problems, and we're sure this will be ironed out in time, but it certainly shows that the controllers aren't magical in their space-detection prowess.
  
• As would be expected, you're supposed to stand relatively center on the TV, and at a certain optimal distance. The system is forgiving, but there's a sweet spot that users will undoubtedly have to learn.
  
• Lag is less prominent on Socom 4, and we'd say we're pretty accurate with the controller already, though the framerate choppiness of this pre-alpha build obviously hampers that a bit. We did get a slight feel of being in "scene to scene" shootouts instead of a free-roaming FPS, perhaps a design choice to mitigate the limited camera movement offered by the controller, but we'll have to see more levels to know for sure.

Officially released details on Valve's sequel to Portal were scant. Fortunately, retailer GameStop comes through with some major details, including the addition of a two-player cooperative campaign mode and all-new characters.GameStop's description of the PC and Xbox 360 game indicates that Portal 2 is due later this year—the online retailer lists an October 26 release date—bringing with a cast of "dynamic new characters" and "never-before-seen areas of the Aperture Science Labs." And yes, as hinted at earlier, players will be reunited with GLaDOS.

The only details on Portal 2's multiplayer mode from GameStop are that it will feature its own unique story-driven campaign. The "new mode forces players to reconsider everything they thought they knew about portals," requiring players "to not just act cooperatively, but to think cooperatively."

Here's the full product description.

Triumphant.

<H1 sizset="75" sizcache="4">Tecmo Super Bowl Remake Coming To Xbox 360, PS3</H1>Tecmo, the company that was once a giant in video game football, is continuing its slow return to the virtual gridiron. Today we have word of Tecmo Bowl Throwback.

The new game is another remake of Tecmo Super Bowl, the early 90s 16-bit classic. The first remake, Tecmo Bowl Kickoff, was released for the Nintendo DS in 2008. Coming very soon — spring 2010 — is Throwback.

Here's an old-school look at the game, for comparison.



Tecmo provided the bullet points:

The game is being developed by Swedish development studio Southend Interactive. And while at least one screenshot released today may serve as ample reminder that this game is being published by Tecmo....



... the company affirms that the game will be rated E for everyone.

Tecmo Bowl Throwback is just the latest of the arcade-style football games released for PlayStation Network and Xbox Live Arcade. Late last year, EA released Madden NFL Arcade, a downloadable version of the company's Madden NFL 10 for the Wii. There may only be one football video game released on disc these days, but for download, you're getting choices.