MoistJohn

Syndicate is pretty fun. Tight controls and great look. Would have liked more variety with the powers. #LATETOTHEPARTYREVIEW

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Innovative control and the death of the gamepad

By MoistJohn 5 Comments

Hurray !
now all three systems have some sort of motion control. Xbox has it's magic camera with full body sensoring and voice commands, Wii has it's MotionPlus and Sony came out with it's... i'm not sure what it is, just that is motion control with a stick that might have buttons on it (maybe. sadly i can't get audio right now so i watched the sony thing video without it).
they all look great, no doubt about it. sitting here and watching those systems in action seems awesome and too good to be true. (although the Milo thing from Lionhead seemed a bit.... premade to me). but what will we actually get ?

I can't help but think back to 2006 (i might be off with the date here) when i saw the Wii and thought this has so much potential to create amazing new controls. instead, we got waggling instead of button presses and a shitload of "_______ Party !" for the Wii. So sure, we'll get some nifty game packs for the acquired motion system full of bow and arrow shooting, dog petting and kite flying and maybe even a boxing game worth playing (I hate the Wii Boxing.) But let's think of what games we (or rather I) am playing, as "hardcore" gamers. FPS's like Bioshock, Modern Warfare (holy shit, MW2 looks SWEET!), Halo and Killzone. I can't think of a way i'll enjoy playing any of those on a motion control because you'd want somehow to move your character (walk around the room ?... no thanks) while aiming (preferably without making a gun out of my fingers) and being precise enough.
Platformers ? Ratchet, Mario or... does MS even have a platformer ? (don't start yelling, i just can't remember right now if they do). How do you play any of those on anything but a gamepad ? or how about we go a little deeper and take on AC2, Uncharted 2 (drool....) or prototype. what control scheme do you plan so the player could run, jump, roll, hang, shoot, duck, sword fight, etc. without making resorting to "waggling" ?
maybe some real time strategy ? control the troops with a wave of the hand ? ok... that could be cool.

the only type of game i can think of right now that could really blend well with these things are slow, paced, adventure games. i think the silent hill that's in the works has a feature where you don't need to hit the action button to look/read/.. just aim the flashlight at it, and BAM. so that kind of full body, thing sounds pretty cool, but i doubt we'll see anything like that, purely because these are not the big blockbuster games.

i can't see a gaming world without a gamepad, (or a mouse for that matter. i can't get the hang of FPSing with analog sticks...) yet i know that for the next few weeks, all i'll hear about from game journalists is how NATAL could change the face of gaming.

In the meanwhile, i'm preparing my "family friendly game experience" bomb-shelter.
oh, and please.... if i'll want to befriend a young child to play with and talk to, i'll go to the park.

5 Comments
6 Comments
Posted by MoistJohn

Hurray !
now all three systems have some sort of motion control. Xbox has it's magic camera with full body sensoring and voice commands, Wii has it's MotionPlus and Sony came out with it's... i'm not sure what it is, just that is motion control with a stick that might have buttons on it (maybe. sadly i can't get audio right now so i watched the sony thing video without it).
they all look great, no doubt about it. sitting here and watching those systems in action seems awesome and too good to be true. (although the Milo thing from Lionhead seemed a bit.... premade to me). but what will we actually get ?

I can't help but think back to 2006 (i might be off with the date here) when i saw the Wii and thought this has so much potential to create amazing new controls. instead, we got waggling instead of button presses and a shitload of "_______ Party !" for the Wii. So sure, we'll get some nifty game packs for the acquired motion system full of bow and arrow shooting, dog petting and kite flying and maybe even a boxing game worth playing (I hate the Wii Boxing.) But let's think of what games we (or rather I) am playing, as "hardcore" gamers. FPS's like Bioshock, Modern Warfare (holy shit, MW2 looks SWEET!), Halo and Killzone. I can't think of a way i'll enjoy playing any of those on a motion control because you'd want somehow to move your character (walk around the room ?... no thanks) while aiming (preferably without making a gun out of my fingers) and being precise enough.
Platformers ? Ratchet, Mario or... does MS even have a platformer ? (don't start yelling, i just can't remember right now if they do). How do you play any of those on anything but a gamepad ? or how about we go a little deeper and take on AC2, Uncharted 2 (drool....) or prototype. what control scheme do you plan so the player could run, jump, roll, hang, shoot, duck, sword fight, etc. without making resorting to "waggling" ?
maybe some real time strategy ? control the troops with a wave of the hand ? ok... that could be cool.

the only type of game i can think of right now that could really blend well with these things are slow, paced, adventure games. i think the silent hill that's in the works has a feature where you don't need to hit the action button to look/read/.. just aim the flashlight at it, and BAM. so that kind of full body, thing sounds pretty cool, but i doubt we'll see anything like that, purely because these are not the big blockbuster games.

i can't see a gaming world without a gamepad, (or a mouse for that matter. i can't get the hang of FPSing with analog sticks...) yet i know that for the next few weeks, all i'll hear about from game journalists is how NATAL could change the face of gaming.

In the meanwhile, i'm preparing my "family friendly game experience" bomb-shelter.
oh, and please.... if i'll want to befriend a young child to play with and talk to, i'll go to the park.

Posted by AgentJ

Dont worry. Conventonal controls arent dying any time soon

Posted by The_A_Drain

The day conventional controls die is the day I hang myself with a NES pad.

Posted by Malchom

Perhaps we invented all this motion control mambo jambo correctly now, but it is very clear that we still have no idea how to make it work well in "none casual" games. Nintendo had a nice 3 year so far to make something cool... all we have is the Conduit and it looks "meh"

The issue lies with precision, as long as motion sensing does reproduced extremely faithfully our moves, nothing will beat the precision of analog sticks and buttons.

It's easy to realize, when you play rhythm games like Rock Band and Guitar Hero, if the controller start failing on you (drums), it is extremely frustrating since you expect it to work as long as you can do it right.

Posted by TobyD81
@Marshmellow_Peep said:
" ...i can't see a gaming world without a gamepad, (or a mouse for that matter. i can't get the hang of FPSing with analog sticks...) yet i know that for the next few weeks, all i'll hear about from game journalists is how NATAL could change the face of gaming... "
Neither does anyone else. I can't think of a single control scheme presented in the history of gaming that has completely gone away. Joysticks are still here, so are pads, keyboards and mice, and now various types of motion control, plus specialized guitar and drum controllers. There was even a paddle add-on released for Arkanoid DS in Japan because that's the best way to play that game. Madcatz made new joysticks and six-button pads for Street Fighter 4 because that's the best way to play that game. And now we have camera controllers because that's the best way to play games that use your whole body. Natal does have a chance to change how we play games, just like the first joypad did, and the first pad with analog sticks, and rumble, and so on. This is an evolution of game design, but in this process, all of the old stuff has remained relevant to smart designers who know how to make these controls work.
Posted by TooWalrus

I'm pretty sure that there are enough customers that don't want to leap around their living rooms like jack-asses when playing adventure games... I know I'll be using a controller for Assassins Creed III.

Use your keyboard!

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