Everyone wants to be the Wii, apparently. One of the big things that was shown off at E3 this week by both Microsoft and Sony were new motion controllers for their Xbox and PS3 systems. It looks like the Wii's massive success has made the other two systems green with envy and now it's beginning to look like motion controlled gaming could very well be the future of gaming.
Let's start by taking a look at the Xbox's new motion controlled system, which they're calling Natal.
Ok, first thoughts . . . it looks really cool. But then after a few seconds reality sets in and I remember that this is a very nicely produced promotional video starring annoyingly attractive and fake family members in their annoyingly attractive and fake home. Also, the video comes complete with pretty special effects like when the kid scans his skateboard, so the accuracy of the device and how the graphics of the games would look on a real screen are questionable at best.
Still though, some of the concepts shown here look really cool. The idea of a fighting game where you're actually fighting and kicking and punching and your movements are being captured in real-time and are translated into movement in the game is pretty awesome. For things like fighting games and sports games, that's an amazing concept. However, I'd be worried about things like shooter games or things that require you to hold a prop like a gun or a sword or something. Not everything is great when you are miming it out. Take that game show thing they showed in the clip for example. Personally, I'd much rather have an actual buzzer in my hand that I got to press. But maybe that's just me.
As a last thought though, being able to navigate through the Xbox live dashboard using only hand movements is a thing of pure beauty. When they showed the clip of the girl scrolling through her netflix queue with a wave of her hand, I think my heart skipped a beat. I can't wait to do that.
Ok, now for the PS3's new motion control stuff.
Ok, this one has some positives and some negatives too. Let's start with the positives. As opposed to Microsoft's overly produced and super slick looking promo video, this was actually two normal looking guys testing out their software and hardware in front of a live audience. Instantly this gets more credibility in my book because this hasn't had post production work done to it to make it look pretty. This was more real. Secondly, they pointed out that this thing does motion capture of the controller, not you. As if they had read my mind, they point out that for things like shooter games and things like that, you really do need a controller in your hand. You need a trigger to pull and buttons to push sometimes to make things seem more real.
On the downsides here, this is just a tech demo so we have no idea how closely this will resemble the finished product in comparison. Also, there's no actual games to play that can show what the system can do. It's just tech demo game stuffs too. And as opposed to the Xbox's system, there's no mention of this being able to help you navigate the PS Network or doing any of the cool menu browsing we saw in Microsoft's video.
However, the creativity with the types of weapons they used in the demo really has me excited. A nerf dart gun? A real gun? Swords and shields? Spinning maces? Whips? Soooooooo awesome! And the ability to actually draw an arrow from a quiver, nock it, draw it back and then fire it is absolutely amazing. I would kill for a fantasy archer game where I got to shoot orcs doing that. And let's be honest here folks, what's the one thing we were all thinking of as we saw him demoing that force whip? That's right, a lightsaber!!! If Lucasarts were to make a lightsaber game where you got to run around and cut Stormtroopers up in real time with full motion capture accuracy, I think I'd play that game until my heart exploded from sheer unadulterated joy!
This is the future of gaming people, and it's looking pretty damned awesome. Let's just hope that when these things come out, they'll live up to all this hype.
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