Moore: Microsoft, Sony looking to improve motion control

LOL @ "single-handedly"

**rimshot**

yea - gamers from here on out are going to have it somewhat shoved down their throat. i hope more companies include it as optional or don't feel they have to use it. part of it will probably be based on how the controller looks/feels and if motion is essential to its use

here comes "Super Halo Tennis Xtreme" sigh, at least it might be kinda cool...right???

Hopefully this whole "motion gimmick" thing will be enough to drive kids like you away from gaming altogether. Yes??? Sweet!!

If it's along the lines of what the wii is doing then you'll see tons of people leave gaming, because motion controls don't work with the majority of games out there. Even nintendo knows this, as their top "core" games either don't use it at all or use it as little as possible.


(Also people, this is what I was referring to earlier with him following people around trolling them instead of ever saying anything productive or meaningful.)

The only style of game i've found to not work with motion controls is fighting games, and they always support Gamecube and Classic controllers, which is exactly WHY Nintendo released the Classic Controller. I've never once with any other Wii game i own wonder 'geez this would have been better with traditional controls'. I do often say 'geez this would suck with traditional controls' tho.

An answer I would expect from a known nintendo fanboy. Can we have a response from someone else?

Wii motion plus will hopefully rectify the problems that the wiimote has and perfect motion controls.
Until then, I have no problems with the way motion controls are used in *some* games.

motion controls shouldn't be used when they don't feel natural. in a tennis game or even an FPS, i wouldn't mind. in a game like valkyria chronicles? yeah, why not? in a game like littlebigplanet? hell to the freakin naw!!!

Please Tmac, my response wasn't fanboyish at all. I simply find that the controls i have used for every Wii game works perfectly with the controls at hand and i've never once wish for normal controls. Unless it's a fighting game, in which case the classic controller will suffice. I don't know what kind of half-baked experiance you've had with the Wii, but i've been thoroughly impressed every step of the way with every game that uses motion controls. I am of course talking about real games here, not mini-game compilations or other casual titles. I guess maybe the only time i was dissapointed was with Red Steel, mainly because of the graphics being pre-ps2 which is inexcusable since devs have had Wii hardware for years (same as GC hardware, just faster), and of course the Red Steel controls were thoroughly botched. The new FFCC: The Crystal Bearers trailer on the Japanese website shows the controls being put to great use and again, impressed.

Between waggle and IR, they do cover most of the genres. Fighting is pretty much the only one, but core fighting gamers aren't really in touch with current gaming trends much anyway, right?

"I simply find that the controls i have used for every Wii game works perfectly with the controls at hand and i've never once wish for normal controls."

How many Wii games have you played? Like 4?

I gamefly'd for about four months a while back, and while a small few games on the Wii did motion control right, most did not.

Well i own 15 Wii games and have played probably another 12 that i don't currently own, so of the 27 games i've played, the only one to let me down was Red Steel. I can count another 10 games i would walk out and buy right now if i suddenly won like an $800 EB Games gift voucher or something.

For what it's worth tmac, I agree.

I will admit that my experience with motion controls is limited to two first-party "games" and maybe a demo or two at gamestop.

Wii Music seemed too confusing. It tells you to do something, which you do, and it then spits back random noise. I tried it for five minutes and seemed to lack enough "skill" to make proper music with it. I quickly gave up as flailing my arms around imitating a cheap on-screen character was not really all that fun.

My next major outing with the Wii controls was with Mario Kart Wii. The entire time I tried to steer, I kept thinking, "Man, this would be so much easier if I could just use a Joystiq..." Apparently you can, but my friend didn't own the GC controller, so I was stuck twisting and turning the Wii Wheel only to have my kart veer sideways and off the mountain. It was either too twitchy or not twitchy enough, perform the same turn over and over never felt the same, each time it seemed to differ drastically.

Motion controls may work amazingly well for some games, but I will never know since my experience with them has created a never-ending fondness of dual analog. I just prefer dual analog to motion controls.

Wow. You played 2 games that fail big at motion controls, and base your opinions on that? Are you Tmacs little brother? It's not even funny how well the Wii controls work for Zelda, Prime 3, Re4, Mad World, TH:DJ, Trauma Center, etc etc. You need to play the right games.

Which would be why I said "I will admit that my experience with motion controls is limited to two first-party "games" and maybe a demo or two at gamestop."

I stated right from the start that I haven't played tons of Wii motion-controlled games. The few that I have played were mostly made by Nintendo, so my experience with the Wii so far has been a small sample of what Nintendo deemed "quality". It's kind of sad if Nintendo's own games fail to utilize motion controls in a fun way, especially Wii Music which is built around them.

analogue sticks didn't work that well at first either. and we've all had to suffer bad d-pads at some time.

Look back at some of the early console FPS reviews, they always criticised the controls. Goldeneye kind of cracked it, but it wasn't really until halo that it was nailed.
Analogue sticks also work incredibly badly for things like RTS games and adventure games. Many of which get criticised for bad controls.

Heck, I read a review for Duke Nukem 3D in which the (professional) reviewer liked the game, but found controling the view with the mouse to be too confusing and sickness inducing.

Endwar was only so-so, but i still think in 5 years we'll find many RTS are voice controlled.

All I'm saying is that it takes a while for developers to learn how to use new control systems well. FPS controls on the Wii have improved dramatically since Red Steel. Some games like sports games work great. Others not so well. Many may be less accurate, but more intuitive.

Though i think we'll still be playing fighting games with buttons for a long while...

Honestly we would be still playing pong if no one would use others ideas.

read the article dumbass, is says innovation. Macs are same as pc's...but are innovated. (and way better)

Zune had wireless in their players before ipod did

Innovated??? well first off Macs came before PCs ever did so they didnt even innovate from PCs, read your history...

Come on Pickleboy, Sony have been doing this for years. The original Ps1 controller was a SNES controller with 2 more shoulder buttons. When Nintendo dropped the N64 into retail, Sony had to copy (and go 1 step further) by adding 2 analog sticks and built-in rumble. Then when the Wii news dropped, Sony very quickly tacked on a totally gimped tilt control. It's so obviously they'll copy again, but at least we will be no-longer stuck with gimped dual-analog FPS controls.

what are you people talking about sony is being having the sixaxis since the original PS1 for warhawk they just brought it back and made it wireless.

Juan, the Sixaxis is the name of the original PS3 controller. The controller used for the PS1 was called the DualShock.

The PS3 now comes with the DualShock 3, which features the same motion controls included in the Sixaxis and the rumble feature of previous DualShock controllers.

Sixaxis = rumble-less PS3 controller with motion controls.
DualShock = dual analog PS1 controller with rumble.
DualShock2 = dual analog PS2 controller with rumble.
DualShock3 = dual analog PS3 controller with rumble and motion controls.

Aside from the addition of motion controls to the Sixaxis/DS3, the only other major change would probably be the PS Home button, and, of course, it's now wireless by default.

the original playstation controller is like the snes controller because sony was making the CD add on for nintendo. sony didn't let their work go to waste when nintendo went elsewhere.

I'm just happy i won't have to put up with gimped dual-analog controls anymore for FPS games.

Yeah, because you won't be getting any FPS games on the wii...except for the Conduit which is just....yeah *snickers*

why does everyone hate on dual analog? it feels natural to me. the only places FPSes don't belong on are the DS and PSP. the controls are a pain in the ass.

I agree for the most part, Sly, FPS are games I want to play on a console, not a handheld. The FPS controls they came up with for Metroid on the DS actually worked exceedingly well. Although I ended up getting rid of it because playing it for extended amounts of time cramped the absolute hell out of my hand. Dunno if that was an issue for others or not...

Actually Tmac i mainly use the PC for FPS games. In fact the only FPS game i own for the Wii is Prime 3, with The Conduit being the 2nd i will buy. I've heard great things about the controls for MOH:Heroes 2 being very close to keyboard/mouse, even closer than Prime 3 which i will have to try for myself, tho for some unknown reason, multiplayer was dropped from the aussie release of MOH:Heroes 2 which is the only reason i refuse to buy it.

Six axis is such a joke.

Yeah, I really don't have any playtime in on a game that uses it on the PS3, but conceptually it seems to make good sense to me for driving games or something like that. Seems awkward for bowling.

"as it'd probably just end up making people buy two controllers"

Kind of like Nintendo with the wii-mote, nunchuck and classic controller?

"Seems awkward for bowling."

Actually that high velocity bowling is the best implementation of the six axis controller. It's really the one game on the PS3 (using six-axis) that felt like a seamless experience that was somewhat true to the actual "sport" of bowling.

Contrary to popular belief I also thought Lair implemented Six-Axis beautifully. Now, they should have given gamers the option to use an analogue control setup instead of forcing them to use six-axis before eventually releasing a patch because of the outrage.

Six Axis can work as long as it's implemented to make the experience more immersive. It shouldn't be used as the main source of input for any game. For example, Killzone 2 did a good thing where you have to plant charges and use the six-axis to rotate and lock them in place, Uncharted used it as a balancing mechanice for certain sections etc etc. It should always be optional because some users prefer to use a non six-axis gamepad.

Much like motion controls on the Wii it's all about implementation and not something inherently wrong with the device. Obviously without motion plus the wii mote does suffer but it's still something that can be used creatively to enhance the experience. The problem with the wii-mote & six-axis is that most developers don't know how to implement them correctly. It's not that I do know how or anything like that but those type of precise gestural controls probably take alot of time to test and get done correctly.

I would settle for a camera that used head tracking to give the illusion of depth and 3-D over gimmicky motion controls. However, I can see how much casuals like using motion controls because it makes them feel like they are playing the actual activity. It could be a great avenue to bring new consumers into the fold.

I would say six-axis is the classic case of a good idea but bad implementation. I would say the wii mote is also a good idea with better implementation but not good enough. Hopefully motion plus will make it a more seamless 1:1 experience. As much as I loathe Wii Sports the tennis & bowling are still the best implementations of motion controls. My daughter has the cheerleading game and those gestural controls are spot on. It's a shame ...

I think moreso with Sony and Microsoft their customers are tied to the traditional controller. When I think of the Wii controller I think of it as the Wiimote + Nunchuk as being a single controller, although obviously I realize there's many games that don't use the Nunchuk.

I don't think Sony or Microsoft would ever be able to 'take away' the traditional controller in the way that Nintendo has. If they really want to do something with motion control outside of the existing controller scheme they'll have to provide another controller in addition to the traditional one which is what I meant with the 2 controllers bit. I definitely see what you're saying, though.

The Killzone 2 and Uncharted examples for the six-axis sound pretty cool.

Im not saying the developers cant find an interesting use for the six axis, or that it doesnt work properly. I more just feel like sony added it last minute as a way of trying to take away a bullet point from the Wii.

The six-axis for Motorstorm 2 is pretty awesome too. You tilt the controller to level your car out. So, let's say you're up on two wheels, you tilt the controller the other way quickly to get the car back on all 4. It's a very simple implementation but those tend to be the best ones.

Markez:

Really I hope they don't end up with two separate controllers, though I fear this will end up being the case as well. If they create a "standard" controller and a "motion" controller, chances are one is going to get used more than the other, and the lesser-used of the two will probably get terrible support from third-parties.

The Sixaxis/DS3 motion controls work great... as a subtle add on to the existing controls. Folklore is a good game that shows how they almost got it right, but just missed the bar. The yanking action is mostly fine, but the side-to-side "smashing" seems to vary greatly with each use.

Flower is an amazing game, and the motion controls in it work really well in most spots. Sure there are a few times where I'm holding it back to make my petal go as high as it can, and suddenly it does a fatal downward swoop right into a nasty object, but other than that it's kind of nice and requires little effort to enjoy.

Just a little addition to the games Kenny Powers mentioned.

Oversized novelty pipe? Check.

http://www.foureyesjokeshop.com/ProductImages/hats/sherlock%20hat%20and%20accessories.jpg

Is that the dude from the black eyed peas?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Taboocrop.jpg

That you don't want motion controls?

I can has teh cookeez?

That you're going to become a bitter PC gamer next generation as Sony and Microsoft get corrupted by Nintendo's evil?