PS3 Fanboy hands-on: dress

You might think that something called dress is all about frills, plunging necklines and eating disorders, but that's really only half the story. There's more to the modestly named paid service from Japan, including some rather odd yet somehow relevant mini-game tie-ins (you know, stuff that actual gamers care about). And from the looks of things, there's only going to be more coming.

So, dress in a nutshell is part fashion sim, part clothing ad and part mini-game collection. It's an interesting mix to say the least; however, after having "played" with it for awhile, it's a combination that just doesn't seem to work. In retrospect, it's still very much a young service which will be expanding with new content as time goes by, though there are still so many missing elements to this service that could've made it a great addition to something like Home. All in all, it's one great experiment and we're interested in the concept of this unique collaborative effort. Hopefully you're still with us on this and reading on to find out more as we go inside dress. That ... that doesn't sound right.

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One of the very first options you'll be greeted with when you open up the service is to choose whether you want to have a white studio or a black studio. It's really just a simple palette swap on the lower part of the studio walls and some furniture colors, while everything else stays the same. Other items in the studio can also have their colors changed later on, though this sort of environmental customization is minimalist at best seeing as nothing else can be altered. Anyway, the focus of the game is on clothing, so these tweaks are just bonuses.

Moving on, the next option is to choose your model. You can choose your current avatar from five preset male and five preset female models. It's possible to switch between any of them throughout the entire service and you won't be limited to just one. When you finally choose your model, you'll be brought to the studio room which you can explore. There are books and designs on the shelves; you can even look at info on chairs, tables and lamps -- all of which are real-world designs, though honestly not too exciting. Press L1 to drop the visible menu HUD on the bottom of the screen and explore the room freely.

Speaking of menus, the service comes off rather Western-friendly as a majority of these menus are in English. However, the full brunt of informative text is still in Japanese, so a huge chunk of the experience is lost if you want to read up on a particular product like a design or apparel piece. To get those articles of clothing and new designs, you're going to have to earn them ... especially since your wardrobe at the start is empty save for the clothes on your character's back. One way to do that is to collect them in mini-games. There are two thus far: one that nets you stuff from PUMA's Mihara Yasuhiro high-concept line, and the other gets you tees from Beams T.

In the "PUMA by Mihara Yasuhiro" mini-game, you can collect up to 86 different items including sneakers, jackets and shirts. It's a bike-riding game which feels like a throwback to Paperboy. In this, you must ride a bike through the most random street dodging cats, dogs, cars and ... sharks, all while grabbing some floating clothes items. Controls are simple: x is to pump, square is to stop, and you use the Sixaxis to steer. It's a rather simple yet fun game with some really funny consequences.

The second game belongs to BEAMS T x Art for Everyday. It has over 150 t-shirts to collect. This one isn't as much fun nor is it anywhere as inspired as the first game but it'll do in wasting some time. This mini-game is basically a platformer with moving platforms. You've got to jump to new platforms and grab the clothes items. There's not much else to be said about this one. Once you've finished playing any of the mini-games, you'll notice that your wardrobe will now be filled with the items you've collected.

Aside from grabbing clothes from the mini-games, you can also make new clothes with design logos which are either stock or need to be bought at the Graphic Store with money from your PSN wallet. In this, we have one major gripe: why is it necessary to charge ¥2,000 ($22.50) for the service and then still charge ¥50 ($0.56) per logo design? It may not be a large sum but it does seem to be asking too much of potential patrons who probably are going to overlook this service. Quite frankly, the service isn't worth $20; it should be free if dress expects a sizable portion of its content to be paid for separately. Anyway, the Graphic Store contains logos and designs for current PS3 and PSP titles such as LocoRoco, Siren and The Last Guy.

To actually make clothes, you'll have to enter the T-Lab. So far, it seems "making clothes" is limited to only choosing from a set number of tops (meaning long-sleeved and short-sleeved shirts, hoodies and singlets), editing color and adding a logo on it. The logo, however, can be manipulated in numerous ways such as change the size, flip it, rotate it, etc . After creating a tee, the game will bring you to a website sign-up sheet for something called Upsold so you can order real life versions of the clothes you've made. This is an interesting aspect. One we're quite thrilled to hear, though, as one can imagine, dress is shaping up to be a real pain to the wallet.

Another slightly disappointing aspect of dress is the "Show" portion. Here you can make the avatar dance in either "Hip Hop," "Break Dance" or "Burlesk" styles. There's also a fashion catwalk portion here as well. Overall, this section is disappointing because you're left only watching what's going on and not in control of any aspect of it. Let's put it this way, the experience of dress feels like it's always meeting the interactive portions halfway and doesn't fully offer something that feels complete. Fashion shows are hardly "shows," they're merely one-off runs; you can't create a show with multiple models and multiple clothes. Also, if you're going to hold a fashion show, it would be nice if you could invite buddies on your friend's list to see it ... adding a bit of sociability into something as social as fashion makes sense does it not?

Lastly, we have the dress Channel. It's basically exclusive HD video content, somewhat similar to what Gran Turismo 5 Prologue has done in the past. Video content includes interviews with the designers and artists who've helped get dress started. There's probably going to be updates in the future just like GT5P. It's rather annoying to note that you have to exit the program and install the video, then pop back into dress before you can watch it. It's a small gripe but one worth mentioning.

In closing, we want to reiterate that dress could benefit from some much needed improvement. We're sure it would improve in some aspects as the service grows or by the time it reaches (if it reaches) Western shores, but we recommend you leave this one alone for now. If some form of social interactivity could be integrated into this -- and it doesn't have to be on the scale of Home -- we could have a winner here with all the content that is expected to appear later on. Fashion is such a social industry and hobby, it's rather strange that such an important aspect of it has been stripped away here. People dress up because they want to show themselves off, but dress denies that pinnacle gratification. Perhaps the service was released too early and promised PSN integration just isn't ready yet? In any case, it's currently confusing to think about what dress is trying to achieve and who it's trying to reach. Gamers, Fashionistas? We think neither would be satisfied at this point.