Warhawk and The Dualshake Controller 72
You may recall Warhawk from the Sony conference demo, their flagship 'dualshake' controller product. A few of the news sites have gotten their hands on the game, and have impressions of what it's like to use the PS3 controller with the game. From the Gamespy article: "I was initially very skeptical of how this feature (which looked hastily tacked on to a regular joypad without a rumble) would work, but after a lengthy playtest of WarHawk's 30 percent complete single demo stage, I can safely attest to the excellent maneuverable quality possible from the very first moment you pick up and play. The slight delay at the Sony press conference between Phil Harrison's pivoting, and the on-screen tilting of his rendered joypad meant I was expecting the same problems during my WarHawk piloting. Not so. This works flawlessly, and immediately, and allayed any fears I had that this was a last-minute gimmick designed to tear interest away from the Wii."
It IS a last-minute gimmick... (Score:5, Insightful)
In other words, the gimic worked... (Score:5, Insightful)
So, in other words, the Sony gimic worked to tear your interest away from the Wii. Sony must be ecstatic.
Anyone remember the pressure-sensitive buttons on the PS2 controller? Anyone remember any game that used them? The only one I recall was Metal Gear Solid 2, and with that game, I only succeeded in screwing up the amount of pressure required, accidently shooting guards I only wanted to hold up. Supposedly some driving games used it, but I don't play driving games, so I can't verify that. Bottom line is that I really didn't notice any games using the pressure sensitive buttons - and even if they did, I wasn't actively using them, instead just pressing the button like I always did.
I can't help but feel that this new "motion sensitive" feature will go the way of the "pressure sensitive" buttons - very few games will bother using them, since they're not really a core feature of the controller. Try as I might, I cannot imagine twisting a PS2 controller around for any length of time. It's just too heavy and too unweildy to continuely wave around. Imagine having to hold your PS2 controller steady, because accidently tipping it might do something unintended. (To be fair, I can't imagine twisting the Wii remote around for any length of time either, but not having held that, I'm willing to give Nintendo the benefit of the doubt.)
Just like the pressure sensetive buttons, this whole motion sensitive thing on the PS3 controller feels like a pointless gimic. Apparently they're also trying to use that to distract from the fact that they've removed force feedback from their controllers in response to a patent lawsuit. I dunno about anyone else, but I like having force feedback.
The whole PS3 "DualShake" thing still sounds like a gimic to me, just like the PS2 "DualShock" was essentially a gimic. I'd much rather have force feedback than be required to wave a DualShock controller around in the air. (And, yes, it's been confirmed that the final PS3 controller looks exactly like the PS2 controller - except it's wireless. It's not that boomerang thing.)
Litigation still pending (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:In other words, the gimic worked... (Score:5, Insightful)
Whether the motion detection in the Dual Shake is implemented well or not is irrelevant -- it's still a two-handed controller. When I imagine playing a game with one, I think of simple tilting motions to steer or control an airplane, and that's about it.
On the other hand, when I imagine playing a game with the Wiimote, I can see myself cutting people open in Trauma Center, or swinging a sword around, or learning the proper gestures to cast spells in some spiffy new Harry Potter game. The gesturing power of my right hand alone simply dwarfs that of both hands tied together.
A gimmick's a gimmick. (Score:5, Insightful)
Another interesting thing to note is that if games come out for the Playstation 3 that revolve around the motion-sensing control feature, it's likely that they will also be ported to the Wii - or from it, which ever way it works out. This means increased availability of games, which works out for us gamers, though it's hard to tell which company would come out on top of that one. (Something tells me Nintendo would get the long end of the stick on that one, considering the console is already predicted to be much cheaper, and therefore more available to consumers in terms of cost.) This also means that developers wishing to take advantage of motion-sensing controllers won't be isolated to just one console, should they choose to develop for the Wii and the Playstation 3 at the same time. (And eventually the 360, since there's no way in hell Microsoft would ignore a feature like this considering all of the attention it's getting.) After seeing what the 'Wii-mote' can do, it's easy to see that Nintendo's driving a motion-sensing bandwagon right through the industry. Their console may yet be a revolution - in control schemes, if nothing else.
Ergo... (Score:2, Insightful)
If Sony's done stole a little bit off Wii for itself, that doesn't suddenly mean Sony > Wii. It just means that Sony will have to work hard to encourage USE of that feature, whereas for Nintendo, it's kind of implied from the start that anyone designing games for the system is free to make use of the motion capabilities.
Perhaps I'm not explaining myself well, but I'm just seeing this as another challenge for Sony. They have to prove that this isn't just an E3 gimmick, and that it somehow makes their games more fun to play than Nintendos.
Re:It IS a VERY last-minute gimmick... (Score:2, Insightful)
Okay wait a second. Let's take a step back and re-read the quote before jumping to conclusions. First, note the word "officially" in the beginning of the sentence. That means that Sony might have come up with this more than a week and a half ago, which is pretty likely. Second, note the use of the word "final" in the last half of the sentence. There is quite a bit you can read into that sentence. Did they start the tuning when they heard about it a week and a half ago? Maybe they unofficially got word 10 months ago and started development then, with final tuning finishing up a few days ago. The point is, the quote says nothing about when Sony decided to do the Dual Shake thing. The rest is just guesses.
Not to mention that most people don't finish fine-tuning features until even hours before something goes live at those conferences. Fine-tuning is possible up until the minute the public is to see it. So let's hold back the accusations that Sony literally woke up out of their bed 2 weeks ago and said, let's add this to our controller! If it really works as well as TFA says, then anyone with any sense of how product development works knows it had to be at least 6 months ago that they dreamed this up.
Re:A gimmick's a gimmick. (Score:3, Insightful)
Just saying "motion sensing" is selling the Wii short. No matter how well Sony pulls off their own motion sensing, if that's all it is, its potential falls well below what Nintendo's offering us.
Diverting our attention from what, exactly? (Score:1, Insightful)