russtophiles

The fact that Bulletstorm is considered 'mature' by any measurement is a pretty sad reflection of the state of the modern action game.

New voice acting? Interesting. That was one of the weakest links of the Team Silent SH games, 2 especially with the exception of James' wife (who has one of the most agonizing and emotional monologues I've ever heard in a game). I thought the female characters in 3 were done well, but the men were terrible.

@GB330033 I do appreciate their out of the box thinking, but from my perspective they seem to have created a lot of answers for questions no-one was asking. The controller is an obvious attempt to compete with the iPad and looks to be a cumbersome, expensive approach to a game interface that is as redundant to the DS as the iPad is to the iPhone. It is nice that they included full physical buttons, though.

Aside from some cute 'window' applications like the sharpshooter segment of the demo reel, the screen feels like a massively unnecessary component to the controller. Do you really need to see a golf ball sitting in the dirt when playing Wii Golf? Do you really need to have a dedicated monitor for your inventory in Zelda? Is this really going to making gaming better than, well, original imaginative games?

Looking back at the last 5 years of the Wii, how many games with any appreciable level of depth and craft were made justifiably better with the wii's controller? Sure, games like Metroid Prime did a good job with it, but they were mostly just analog to a mouse input anyway. The most widely praised Wii games were the ones that used the controller's abilities the least in most cases. Should we be excited about buying more proprietary gadgets (formerly known as controllers) so that we can sing the praises of the games that use their features the least?

There was a lot of negative buzz about the Wii when it was unveiled too, but the general public didn't hear any of it because they were overjoyed with the novelty of the interface. I wouldn't be surprised if it happened with this as well, as the tablet could probably function as an e-reader or other non-game related applications.

I think the problem is with the Wii-U it looks like Nintendo wants to throw every technology everywhere and compete with every popular gadget at once instead of focusing on a smaller set of thoughtful features that could have more genuine potential. I'm not crazy about what the competition is doing either, but gaming has become such a sprawling industry that making good games is no longer enough to ensure commercial success. We all apparently need tablets because this is what the commercial electronics industry tells us we need.

I'm okay with the Wii-U existing as is, but I certainly wouldn't get it as it no longer appeals to me as a gamer. I believe there is infinite potential left for progressive gameplay, rich storytelling, beautiful art, and unique experiences within traditional interfaces that don't consume more space, resources, energy, money, etc. like the increasingly peripheral reliant console industry is becoming.

Some of those gestures are a bit ill conceived from a practicality standpoint, especially the head twitch turning and the neck crane zoom. Head tracking will only be an interesting feature if:

A) The game has you on your feet moving around, like with a motion controller or eyetoy/natal type game. The whole 'looking into a window' thing is only practical when you'll naturally be moving away from the center of the screen (i.e. not in a computer chair)

B.) The monitor stays in front of your head so that you can effectively 'look around' the environment.

Of course he's just messing around with Source so you can't expect a revolutionary leap in progress but I think that's why this stuff hasn't gained much traction yet.

Cannot unsee her facial expression.

Seriously! I remember wanting one of those kits so bad but they were so prohibitively expensive (for a teenager) and I had absolutely no concept of game development at the time. All I ever saw from the project aside from Devil Dice was the little demo games that would come on those quarterly Playstation Underground discs.

Since before the 'fanboy' sites were merged into Joystiq, probably sometime around May 2007?

It sounds nice for an initial impression, but where I suspect control schemes like this falter is when you're actually trying to succeed at challenging goals and missions that reach far beyond a brief demo play session. When you're really into a game and have progressed far enough to where it starts to get pretty tough, many people tend to tense up and lose dexterity. I can only imagine how much this scenario would be magnified if you were holding your hands up on an air steering wheel for 1+ hours at a time.

It reminds me of the scenario with the Sixaxis controller, where you think turning the controller to steer instead of using the sticks will be really cool, but after a few minutes of flailing around and getting irritated at how inaccurate it feels, you go back to the sticks to play seriously.

Maybe it's just that racing games seem to be the closest thing to a 'real' game they've shown so far for it, and it isn't the best example of the possibilities of the technology. I do applaud them going in the direction of LESS stupid plastic crap unlike the trends lately seem to indicate. Lets see a super accurate version of Fight Night or some kind of (rail?) shooter or something to show how it can add immersion and value to the kind of games that would benefit from it most.

This emerging trend of trying to make games like TV needs to stop. Not only does it destroy immersion and constantly break the 4th wall by reminding you 'Hey, you're playing a video game!' in games that need it the least (horror), but it's trying to make games into something they're not. I can't wait until they start showing obnoxious, unskippable interstitial ads in games, to give it that 'authentic' TV watching experience!

Hang in there lil' mama ~~~