Eckyman.com

Microsoft confirmed a growing suspicion I’ve had for a while with their E3 presentation.

They are slowly losing touch with gamers.

At least 70% of the Microsoft presentation was fluff. They have an amazing piece of technology in Kinnect and the highlight of the show was voice recognition? Couldn’t we have done that with the existing Xbox headset already?

It seems to me as though they are trying to make the Xbox the ‘everyman’ console and focusing on the media aspects a little too much. Gamers, and their Live subs put the Xbox where it is. Invest that money in gaming. Not bringing UFC pay-per-view to the Xbox for smegs sake!

Last year it was motion control dashboards, this year it’s voice control. Neither of which were shown to push gaming forward at all in my opinion.

The Sims Social presentation made me want to puke in my mouth, then spit that out into a pint glass and swill it back down. That’s no exaggeration.

The staged conversation between the two morally bankrupt mid-20′s facebook tossers was bad enough… but to then see it acted out by Sims? Yet spoken as though it was real events?

That was some creepy stuff!

No thanks.

Each year control schemes on games get more complicated, and more and more combinations of buttons are being used simply because we are running out of space on the controllers as it is.

The Wii works (well, I use that term loosely) as a result of a few factors.

1. The controller still has buttons and an analogue nub
2. It has rumble
3. Nintendo has been aiming at casual motion games specifically

The inclusion of an analogue nub, and buttons help with the games not entirely suited to motion control, and add to the ones that are. The force feedback, although weak, is at least there. Fall a large distance on Monster Hunter.. Wiimote shakes. Slam a hammer into an Urugaan’s chin and you feel it.

Sony Move seems to have at least grasped the concept and adapted it to suit them. Their controller still has buttons and can attach to a nunchuck type device with… an analogue nub! I’m not sure on the details but I’d bet it has rumble too.

Then we have Natal, sorry, Kinnect (urgh! Bad name, bad name!).

Great piece of tech on paper. No buttons, no vibration, no analogue nub, not even a physical thing to hold… I see a problem here.

Firstly, at this point, anyone who actually wanted motion controls has probably gone out and bought a Wii by now. Secondly, if Natal, sorry, Kinnect (urgh! Bad name, bad name!) is going to cost the rumoured $150 as everyone suspects, you can get a Wii for that price! Just those two factors alone are a big enough problem without considering that this thing wont even apply to 90% of the games I play! How exactly will FPS games work under this? Well I’ll tell you how, on rails. Which is BS. How will platformers work with this? How will anything other than a clusterfeck of a party game that already exists on the Wii work with this thing?

So far, Wii Fit, Wii Sports, Wii Dance, Mario Kart Nintendogs have been shown… oh wait, sorry.. Kinnect Fit, Kinnect Sports, Just Dance, Joy Ride, and Kinnectimals. Looks/Sounds familiar right? Yeah…

When I get home from a long day at work, I like to relax on my couch with a game. I sometimes play for extended periods of time. The last thing I want is a BS control scheme that forces me to either be standing, or moving around to control something.