I'm just gonna be upfront with you guys and say that I think that Microsoft's Project Natal and Sony's Magic Wand are the dumbest things that have come out of the gaming industry in a while. With that out of the way, lets start off by tearing a new one out of Ninetendo.
A few years back when Nintendo first introduced the Wii we all went "oo" and "ahh" about it all because we haven't seen anything like it. But as time passed the novelty of the Wii's motion controls have begun to wear off and it was evident with all of the party games it's been getting lately. And judging by the Wii's '08 and '09 E3 runs, I have a feeling the Wii is going downhill. Sure it's not a console that's solely directed at hardcore gamers, but c'mon even casual gamers deserve good games. Wii Music seemed to be a huge failure (seeing as though Red Octane and Harmonix seemed to have the rhythm based game industry down to a science), the Wii Motion Plus (which helps improve the motion controls of the Wiimote) isn't going to be a success if it isn't supported by good games, and can someone honestly tell me what the fuck is up with that new Wii Vitality Sensor?(For fucks sakes Nintendo, people everywhere have been waiting for you guys to come out with a new Zelda title or something to make up for a shitty press conference last year, but no you guys bust open the doors at this years E3 to fuck us over with a vitality sensor. Tell me, what is the purpose of this peripheral?? You couldn't even answer that question at YOUR OWN PRESS CONFERENCE. Gah you know you really screwed the pooch when you don't even know what your own piece of hardware is for. *sigh*)
You're probably asking yourself, "Why are you hating on the Wii, Natal, and the Sony wand thing?" Well because I have a feeling that motion controls are gonna kill the gaming industry. Lets be honest people, Microsoft and Sony are coming out with new motion control peripherals because they finally discovered how much cash is in motion controls, I mean just look at the Wii. So all in all, they're just in it for the money. So let me move onto Sony for a bit...
When Sony introduced it's sixaxis controller, some of thought immediately thought that Sony was just trying to compete with the Wii. And after a few failed attempts at motion controlled game (I'm looking at your Lair, ugh what a cluster fuck of a game) I think Sony kinda realized what a shitty job the motion controls for the sixaxis has been doing, so developers have begun to utilize the motion controls for tiny mini-games (a good example of this is in Killzone 2 where you actually have to turn your controller to set C4 and stuff like that). Then out of nowhere during the Sony press conference, they revive the Eyetoy of all things and slap on a Wiimote clone (Seriously guys it looks just like the Wiimote, except it's bigger, it's back, and has a stupid ball at the end to make yourself look like a complete ass when you wave it around). Really Sony? Man compared to this, I would rather have you revive the boomerang-controller thing you guys trashed before your came up with the sixaxis controller.
Oh and Microsoft don't think I haven't forgotten about you...
I'll admit I was kinda intrigued when you first showed us Project Natal, thinking that it had "Minority Report" feel to it. But looking at it now, I feel angry. Like honestly, you got Peter Molyneux to help you hype this thing up (Strike one Microsoft) and we all know everything Petey hypes turns out to be a total disappointment (Just look at the Fable series). Just when you thought you looked retarded playing certain games on the Wii, Project Natal will make you look like a total twat seeing as though they give you the luxury of controlling a game with your body and you'll still be flailing your limbs everywhere.
But you're probably wondering, "Mike, what the hell are you getting at?" Well what I was trying get at is this whole idea of motion control that is flooding the gaming industry. All of the big named console industries are trying to develop new ways to get our bodies into motion, adding this whole level of interactivity for our games. But the thing is, I've always thought video games were a thing where we could just sit back on our asses and play games with a controller in hand? Sure, making us move our bodies would make us more active, but seriously, making us move when we play would become such a chore after a while. And the great thing about hand held controllers is that we could do so many things with the push of a button and still have a ton of fun.
I just fear with all of this hype over motion controls and the quality of games will decrease, screwing over gamers such as myself. But even I'm against the idea of Project Natal and what not, I hope that I'm proven wrong, these innovations truly have huge potential, and all I ask is that they don't fuck up.
Cheers
Mike
