Old Discussion Thread for all 3 motion controllers

[AzBat]

Out of curiosity, can you give some examples of titles and how Natal will work with them?

The Johnny Chung Lee tech(leans, etc) would be nice in a 1st-person shooters like Halo or MW1/2. Melee & energy sword in Halo would interesting. Not sure if it work though. Hand signals & props would be cool in Splinter Cell Coop. I'd like to be able to throw batarangs or grapples in Batman: Arkham Asylum. I could see developers thinking outside the box. Will be neat to see what they come up with.

Tommy McClain

 

[obonicus]

Not to harp on you, but do you find say, the batarang thing a problem using the existing interface in Batman:AA? Would you really prefer to use motion controls over a few button presses?

 

[AzBat]

Not to harp on you, but do you find say, the batarang thing a problem using the existing interface in Batman:AA? Would you really prefer to use motion controls over a few button presses?

Man, pick on Tommy tonight. LOL First of all, will everybody prefer motion controls over simple buttons pressing in all instances, no. Same will be said for Natal as well. But in your example, no, I didn't have a problem with the existing interface in BAA other than chaining combos together. Would I prefer motion controls over button pressing buttons in that example, maybe not all the time, but it would be really neat to feel just like Batman for a few moments.

Tommy McClain

 

[obonicus]

Man, pick on Tommy tonight. LOL First of all, will everybody prefer motion controls over simple buttons pressing in all instances, no. Same will be said for Natal as well. But in your example, no, I didn't have a problem with the existing interface in BAA other than chaining combos together. Would I prefer motion controls over button pressing buttons in that example, maybe not all the time, but it would be really neat to feel just like Batman for a few moments.

Fair enough. I was just curious because you mentioned a specific game.

 

[patsu]

Well put, does anyone remember the sixaxis controlled dragons in Lair?

I have mixed feelings about Lair's control scheme. If we look at a more refined form: Flower, I think it controls very well.

The controller free scheme is a different animal altogether. It may be suitable for a different profile of games.

 

[semitope]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5W7Eu36JYs

Leaked XBox 360 Footage of Half-Life 2 on Project Natal

 

[Iron Tiger]

I have mixed feelings about Lair's control scheme. If we look at a more refined form: Flower, I think it controls very well.

The controller free scheme is a different animal altogether. It may be suitable for a different profile of games.

My feeling is that Lair could have easily been made to work well with the SIXAXIS, but F5 simply tacked motion controls onto the stiff control scheme from Rogue Squadron and called it a day.

 

[patsu]

My feeling is that Lair could have easily been made to work well with the SIXAXIS, but F5 simply tacked motion controls onto the stiff control scheme from Rogue Squadron and called it a day.

Yes, it depends on the particular implementation. We may not want to use one negative example to wipe the whole family out.

 

[patsu]

If Sony wants to, the new controller can be a totally separate platform (e.g., games/applications can run on the stick alone without the TV using the right h/w plugin). Because of the plugin patent, it can also be seen as a h/w, s/w, protocol standards for interfacing with existing digital equipments (Lego MindStorm, electronic stuffed toys, musical instruments, ...) and sensors (Vitality sensors and trackers for babies and pets). Or just a video game controller.

I really like Nintendo because they see things in crystal clear simplicity (and cheap to make too !):

I remember the young demo Padawan (beside Dr. Marks) mentioned that his favorite Gem control scheme is to use it to play a toy snake.

 

[Rom]

It seems that the focus is more on what you can do to existing games i.e FPS, and not what new things can be brought to the table.

Personally I think think a Volleyball game would show off the strengths of Natal. It's doesn't require button mashing just arm movements. If done in the same style as Wii tennis, where the system controls the players position to a degree - not fully but enough so you're not running around the room (or maybe have a setting to how much movment based on your area of play) but maybe having to step forward and back, left and right could be quite fun.

One thing I enjoyed with Wii was watching little kids play it and how they would use their whole body when not neccesary. A good example of this was Rayman - there was one mini game where you had to move the two remotes up and down fast to make the character run. One friends daughter would get carried away with this that she would actually run on the spot. Was funny to watch.

To actually be able to take that movement and make it applicable is where I see this system shining.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

It seems that the focus is more on what you can do to existing games i.e FPS, and not what new things can be brought to the table...

The problem I have with this is that it's already been done with Eyetoy to good effect. You volleyball example, a very simplified form, isn't going to be able to recreate the accuracy of the sport, so it'll be dumbed down to just moving your arms in time to hit the ball. This is gret for casual players, but if this is all Natal is managing, it's complete overkill!

We've already had 'minigames' for years, and Wii caters to that market. Where we can expand things is better interfaces for more traditional games (like shooters, although again we've had lightguns for years, or Warhawk's flight controls) and new games only possible through 3D positioning including accurate sports games but also hopefully things more novel.

As for involuntary motions, from what I've seen of most gamers this happens all the time. My brother in law was moving around a lot playing U2. In that respect reading the player's body motions to determine intentions simultaneously with the controller input could result in more accurate controls.

 

[patsu]

It seems that the focus is more on what you can do to existing games i.e FPS, and not what new things can be brought to the table.

Whose focus ? ^_^ I think they are all spread across existing game mechanics and new game mechanics. The Volley ball example is not new compared to WiiSports or WiiFit either.

One thing I enjoyed with Wii was watching little kids play it and how they would use their whole body when not neccesary. A good example of this was Rayman - there was one mini game where you had to move the two remotes up and down fast to make the character run. One friends daughter would get carried away with this that she would actually run on the spot. Was funny to watch.

To actually be able to take that movement and make it applicable is where I see this system shining.

I think more playtesting is required. If tracking body movement made the game more challenging, it may not be a good idea to incorporate it for the little girl. She moves her body because it's more natural for her to relate to the game, not because she wants her body to be tracked. OTOH, if it's some sort of body training, measurement or placement, then it may be worthwhile to do so. Then again, the 2D imaging version may be able to approximate the same thing.

I see camera schemes as something quick-n-easy (i.e., EyeToy like, tiring in 3D), posture-sensitive (body and face tracking, measurements), or landscape-sensitive (Imaging the environment or customize an object like QTVR), or all of the above. Natal should be able to do 2D tracking on a 3D surface better than PSEye.

I will not preclude Microsoft or the developers adding a secondary h/w to augment Natal.

 

[Nesh]

I really like Nintendo because they see things in crystal clear simplicity (and cheap to make too !):

I remember the young demo Padawan (beside Dr. Marks) mentioned that his favorite Gem control scheme is to use it to play a toy snake.

Thats so fucking original

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I really like Nintendo because they see things in crystal clear simplicity (and cheap to make too !):

That is brilliant! Absolutely perfectly targeted towards the intended audience. And it doesn't need serious tech. Sony could have probably managed this with a Sixaxis, but they wouldn't think to try. Nintendo desrve their success because they are bigger picture thinkers, thinking about implementation as well as tech. Same as Apple.

 

[scently]

That is brilliant! Absolutely perfectly targeted towards the intended audience. And it doesn't need serious tech. Sony could have probably managed this with a Sixaxis, but they wouldn't think to try. Nintendo desrve their success because they are bigger picture thinkers, thinking about implementation as well as tech. Same as Apple.

The big N think on a very different wavelength than other, it's incredible, what they can conjure out of nothing. Absolutely brilliant.

 

[obonicus]

It's not a Nintendo product, but rather 3rd party ingenuity. I saw a video of that thing earlier this year, and in that version the Wiimote went up the other end.

 

[wco81]

If they really come out with these new controllers this year, that means they will push the next-gen until at least 2012.

I'd rather see the next-gen sooner than these things.

 

[fehu]

what happened to natal?
all the recent demo are terrible, and latency looks unbearable :S

 

[Arwin]

It's not a Nintendo product, but rather 3rd party ingenuity. I saw a video of that thing earlier this year, and in that version the Wiimote went up the other end.

Hahaha, hilarious - I can't imagine why they'd want to change that, lol!

I really hope that we'll get PC drivers for the PS Motion Controller, so we can fool around with it ourselves, abuse it for 3D art sculpting applications, etc.

 

[obonicus]

The original video was on the wiiwaa site, I guess they realized what a source of hilarity it was. Thankfully, someone on GAF took a screen-cap: