You know what's funny? When we look back on technology from previous decades. It's funny when we look back on the 80's and 70's and see how primitive their technology in today's world is when in reality, it was revolutionary in their time. But I also find how ironic it is when something that was said to close the gap between games and their gamers happen to be a quick novelty. I'm talking of course, about Motion control.
It's been what? 2 something years from the Wii's release in North America, and while it may be the best selling console out of the big three, (nintendo, MS, and Sony) it happens to be the worst console when it comes to hardcore/Actual gaming content. Not shovelware, which seems to be polluting the Wii's Software line up.
What was once a breakthrough in innovation and interactivity has become a very short-lived novelty that, as we look back on it two years from its launch, we see a small remote control with some rather limited motion control and a shitty speaker that belongs to a console that mainly belongs to the casual soccer-mom crowd, with very little games worth playing where the majority of controls is tacked onto waggling the remote like you've got Parkinson's.
This brings me to Project Natal.
I guess it would be stupid to say we never saw it coming, but yes, Microsoft has unveiled Project Natal, which was a long rumored motion control project MS was working on. It's been reported a thousand times, and now it's official. Project Natal, for the uninitiated is a motion control project that is said to change the way we play games. Sound familiar? You may remember Nintendo touting that when the Wii was unveiled. There's a difference though. Natal uses NO CONTROLLERS. Just your bare hands and a camera underneath (or on top) of your television set. This, I think is doomed to fail.
Before you scroll down to reply against my opinions, take a while to think this out. When was the last time motion control of any kind on ANY console actually worked? The Wii worked to some extent. Games like No More Heroes and Mario Galaxy showed that motion controls work if they are applied right. And that's the problem my friend. Applying them.
Face it, most developers can't apply motion controls worth a shit, and sadly, that's just something we have to accept for a while. Motion Control is a fairly new technology, and the sad thing is that we have to wait a bit for the motion control to be used in such a way that they might actually be deemed innovative, rather than tacky. This process is going to take a while. The developers of today are too used to the controllers of today rather than the controllers of tomorrow. There's also the questions of budget. How much will it cost to develop games that use Natal's control scheme. How hard is it going to be to program the game to work with the controls? And how are those controls going to be used? As a gimmick, or as a major gameplay element, Or as an alternate control scheme?
You might tell me, OH what about the reel for Natal then? A number of games like Skate and Forza (I think it was Forza) to name a few were shown using the Natal interface. It seemed to work rather well! Alright, I'll admit, Natal's got some great ideas going for it, and the Hands-on previews for it are glowing, but why do I remain so skeptical about all of this?
The sudden change from controller to motion controls with no controls seems like a great idea on paper, but at this stage, Motion Controls are still fairly new, and trying to re-invent that wheel is going to take some time. The reel for Natal is the exact same one we saw from Nintendo to promote the Wii, and when it released, we found out that the motion controls were extremely limited.
How much will Natal cost? The Wii Remote itself costs a hefty 40 dollars. Add the classic controllers and the Nunchuck controllers, the balance board, the Zapper, the Motion Plus, the Wii Speak, and the combined cost is more than the Wii itself. The Xbox 360 controller costs 50 dollars. Will Natal cost 20 dollars more than that? Or fifty dollars more than that? It's too early to predict price, at this point, but it's important when you're talking about the causal audience who want a price point not too steep, and not too cheap. Just right.
Also, how will the most popular genre of this generation, The FPS/Third Person shooter cope with Natal? It's going to undergo a lot of growing pains to shift to Project Natal, and even so, the end result won't be as good.
Project Natal is going to have to compete with the already phenomenal Wii Console and it's upcoming MotionPlus, along with the upcoming PS Wand. And all of this in the arms race that's the war between Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony.
Are Motion Controls a great idea? Yes.
Is Project Natal a great idea? Fuck Yes. The amount of ideas Natal show cases is unlike anything we've seen before on the other two consoles, we'll give them that. But how long until we are ready to release it with the functionality it was supposed to have?
Is it a good idea to introduce it right now? No. No. Not at all. Give Motion Controls time to grow into something much better. Where developers can use motion controls to a great advantage for shooters, fighting games, driving games, RPG titles, Horror titles, and action titles, rather than something reserved for gimmicky shovelware. I believe that when motion controls materialize into something greater, that is when Project Natal should hit the spotlight.
That's just my two cents anyway.
It's been what? 2 something years from the Wii's release in North America, and while it may be the best selling console out of the big three, (nintendo, MS, and Sony) it happens to be the worst console when it comes to hardcore/Actual gaming content. Not shovelware, which seems to be polluting the Wii's Software line up.
What was once a breakthrough in innovation and interactivity has become a very short-lived novelty that, as we look back on it two years from its launch, we see a small remote control with some rather limited motion control and a shitty speaker that belongs to a console that mainly belongs to the casual soccer-mom crowd, with very little games worth playing where the majority of controls is tacked onto waggling the remote like you've got Parkinson's.
This brings me to Project Natal.
I guess it would be stupid to say we never saw it coming, but yes, Microsoft has unveiled Project Natal, which was a long rumored motion control project MS was working on. It's been reported a thousand times, and now it's official. Project Natal, for the uninitiated is a motion control project that is said to change the way we play games. Sound familiar? You may remember Nintendo touting that when the Wii was unveiled. There's a difference though. Natal uses NO CONTROLLERS. Just your bare hands and a camera underneath (or on top) of your television set. This, I think is doomed to fail.
Before you scroll down to reply against my opinions, take a while to think this out. When was the last time motion control of any kind on ANY console actually worked? The Wii worked to some extent. Games like No More Heroes and Mario Galaxy showed that motion controls work if they are applied right. And that's the problem my friend. Applying them.
Face it, most developers can't apply motion controls worth a shit, and sadly, that's just something we have to accept for a while. Motion Control is a fairly new technology, and the sad thing is that we have to wait a bit for the motion control to be used in such a way that they might actually be deemed innovative, rather than tacky. This process is going to take a while. The developers of today are too used to the controllers of today rather than the controllers of tomorrow. There's also the questions of budget. How much will it cost to develop games that use Natal's control scheme. How hard is it going to be to program the game to work with the controls? And how are those controls going to be used? As a gimmick, or as a major gameplay element, Or as an alternate control scheme?
You might tell me, OH what about the reel for Natal then? A number of games like Skate and Forza (I think it was Forza) to name a few were shown using the Natal interface. It seemed to work rather well! Alright, I'll admit, Natal's got some great ideas going for it, and the Hands-on previews for it are glowing, but why do I remain so skeptical about all of this?
The sudden change from controller to motion controls with no controls seems like a great idea on paper, but at this stage, Motion Controls are still fairly new, and trying to re-invent that wheel is going to take some time. The reel for Natal is the exact same one we saw from Nintendo to promote the Wii, and when it released, we found out that the motion controls were extremely limited.
How much will Natal cost? The Wii Remote itself costs a hefty 40 dollars. Add the classic controllers and the Nunchuck controllers, the balance board, the Zapper, the Motion Plus, the Wii Speak, and the combined cost is more than the Wii itself. The Xbox 360 controller costs 50 dollars. Will Natal cost 20 dollars more than that? Or fifty dollars more than that? It's too early to predict price, at this point, but it's important when you're talking about the causal audience who want a price point not too steep, and not too cheap. Just right.
Also, how will the most popular genre of this generation, The FPS/Third Person shooter cope with Natal? It's going to undergo a lot of growing pains to shift to Project Natal, and even so, the end result won't be as good.
Project Natal is going to have to compete with the already phenomenal Wii Console and it's upcoming MotionPlus, along with the upcoming PS Wand. And all of this in the arms race that's the war between Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony.
Are Motion Controls a great idea? Yes.
Is Project Natal a great idea? Fuck Yes. The amount of ideas Natal show cases is unlike anything we've seen before on the other two consoles, we'll give them that. But how long until we are ready to release it with the functionality it was supposed to have?
Is it a good idea to introduce it right now? No. No. Not at all. Give Motion Controls time to grow into something much better. Where developers can use motion controls to a great advantage for shooters, fighting games, driving games, RPG titles, Horror titles, and action titles, rather than something reserved for gimmicky shovelware. I believe that when motion controls materialize into something greater, that is when Project Natal should hit the spotlight.
That's just my two cents anyway.
