written by Blain Newport on Sunday, 12 June, 2011
Even with one concrete hardware announcement, I didn't feel much got said at E3 this year.
Wii U
Nintendo announced their new console. Basically it's a Wii HD, and it has a controller with a big touchscreen in it. All we've seen so far are basic tech demos. And while there are theoretically a lot of cool things that could be done with the tech, there were a lot of cool things that could have been done with Wii tech.
The industry is focused on cross platform blockbusters which tack on support for special controllers, if they support them at all. And indies seem to move on after putting a few proof of concept videos online. There's a lack of commitment. Microsoft says they're trying to do better with Kinect, making sure it's being used in all games they publish. So maybe we'll eventually see some face tracking or other useful features come out of that commitment. But I'll believe it when I play it.
Games
There are so many games that it all seems like a blur. A lot of the sequels (Batman, BioShock, Elder Scrolls: Skyrim, Mass Effect; Uncharted) sounded solid. A few sequels (Brothers in Arms: Furious 4, Prey 2) sounded vastly different from their predecessors, but that might be a good thing. The revivals / reboots (Deus Ex, Devil May Cry, XCOM) sounded like they could go either way.
It's really hard to tell. E3 is mostly trailers and rehearsed playthroughs, so what we see may be very removed from the final experience. It's probably too much to hope for, but I'd like to see more games ready for hands-on demos by the time PAX rolls around. Again, I'll believe it when I play it.
Showing posts with label motion control. Show all posts
Showing posts with label motion control. Show all posts
12 June, 2011
19 February, 2011
Biometrics
written by Blain Newport on Wednesday, 16 February, 2011
I saw a mention on Blues News about an interview with Valve Software head honcho Gabe Newell (Part 1, Part 2).
I had heard about Valve working with psychologists in some of the coverage surrounding Half-Life 2. I thought they'd worked on the facial animation system and gone back to their old jobs. It turns out there's a lot I didn't know.
Here's the first question of the interview.
Huh? Seriously? That's your first question?
Gabe spent over eight minutes responding. I had no idea Valve was so far down this road. Heck, I didn't even know this was a road.
Galvanic Skin Response - by measuring how much a person is sweating, you can tell how excited he or she is. You can't tell if it's fear or anger or lust. But you know they're worked up about something. Valve's put this tech into mice (the mouse and keyboard kind, not the medical experiment kind), so they can measure player responses.
If you've played Left 4 Dead, you probably already know where this is going. Left 4 Dead is a cooperative game where AI opponents are set loose on the players by an algorithm called The Director. When the players are healthy and well armed, The Director sends more monsters. When they're beaten and running on empty, The Director may space the enemies out more, or spawn more helpful items for players to find. It's a good system. But now, it knows when they're afraid. That allows them to adjust The Director in very effective ways.
Gabe said he "would be surprised" if next gen controllers didn't have this tech integrated.
Eye tracking - While current console cameras and most webcams don't have the resolution, we may eventually get to the point where tracking eye movement and pupil dilation (which can indicate interest in what the viewer is looking at) becomes feasible. Advertisers have long used eye tracking to test that their ads draw viewers to their logo or product. But it's also very important to games where designers want to be sure players see cool scripted events, find clues to solve puzzles, and can see an enemy telegraphing an attack to react accordingly. As a side benefit, this might allow users to navigate menus and target by simply glancing around the screen.
No estimate of when this might be practical for mainstream use was given.
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation - Outside of having EEG equipment implanted in your head, this was the freakiest thing discussed in the interview. Apparently researches have made significant progress in remotely stimulating specific parts of the brain with magnets. If you want the player to feel something, you directly stimulate the relevant portions of his or her brain. The long term effects on humans aren't known. But people are already willing to risk severe illness and death for the way alcohol and nicotine (not to mention illegal drugs) make them feel, so who knows?
Gabe thinks we may see this tech make it into some kind of game controller ten years from now. Although he might have been talking about a crazy expensive PC peripheral, and not any kind of mainstream application.
Before the Wii came out, most of this would have sounded like crazy talk. But from the Wii's success, the responses from the other console makers, and the push for 3D, it's obvious that the industry has a keen interest in any new differentiator.
I saw a mention on Blues News about an interview with Valve Software head honcho Gabe Newell (Part 1, Part 2).
I had heard about Valve working with psychologists in some of the coverage surrounding Half-Life 2. I thought they'd worked on the facial animation system and gone back to their old jobs. It turns out there's a lot I didn't know.
Here's the first question of the interview.
In the past you spoke about using biometrics to measure players physical and emotional response to a game. Would this technology only apply to play-testing in order to add better design the games or would it be something that all players would be able to use? If it became an option for all players, how do you see this technology being integrated in a non-intrusive piece of hardware.
Huh? Seriously? That's your first question?
Gabe spent over eight minutes responding. I had no idea Valve was so far down this road. Heck, I didn't even know this was a road.
Galvanic Skin Response - by measuring how much a person is sweating, you can tell how excited he or she is. You can't tell if it's fear or anger or lust. But you know they're worked up about something. Valve's put this tech into mice (the mouse and keyboard kind, not the medical experiment kind), so they can measure player responses.
If you've played Left 4 Dead, you probably already know where this is going. Left 4 Dead is a cooperative game where AI opponents are set loose on the players by an algorithm called The Director. When the players are healthy and well armed, The Director sends more monsters. When they're beaten and running on empty, The Director may space the enemies out more, or spawn more helpful items for players to find. It's a good system. But now, it knows when they're afraid. That allows them to adjust The Director in very effective ways.
Gabe said he "would be surprised" if next gen controllers didn't have this tech integrated.
Eye tracking - While current console cameras and most webcams don't have the resolution, we may eventually get to the point where tracking eye movement and pupil dilation (which can indicate interest in what the viewer is looking at) becomes feasible. Advertisers have long used eye tracking to test that their ads draw viewers to their logo or product. But it's also very important to games where designers want to be sure players see cool scripted events, find clues to solve puzzles, and can see an enemy telegraphing an attack to react accordingly. As a side benefit, this might allow users to navigate menus and target by simply glancing around the screen.
No estimate of when this might be practical for mainstream use was given.
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation - Outside of having EEG equipment implanted in your head, this was the freakiest thing discussed in the interview. Apparently researches have made significant progress in remotely stimulating specific parts of the brain with magnets. If you want the player to feel something, you directly stimulate the relevant portions of his or her brain. The long term effects on humans aren't known. But people are already willing to risk severe illness and death for the way alcohol and nicotine (not to mention illegal drugs) make them feel, so who knows?
Gabe thinks we may see this tech make it into some kind of game controller ten years from now. Although he might have been talking about a crazy expensive PC peripheral, and not any kind of mainstream application.
Before the Wii came out, most of this would have sounded like crazy talk. But from the Wii's success, the responses from the other console makers, and the push for 3D, it's obvious that the industry has a keen interest in any new differentiator.
18 December, 2010
Motion Control Prediction Revisited
written by Blain Newport on Saturday, 18 December, 2010
Over a year ago I wrote a post on motion control going nowhere. I left myself a reminder to review those predictions.
Kinect (previously Natal)
"I'm guessing the best uses of Natal will be gimmicks, small things that make playing standard games just a little more physical."
I was wrong. There are no best uses of Natal for standard games. It's not in any standard games. Natal is a purely casual business.
That seems to be working out okay for Microsoft. After Black Friday they'd sold 2.5 million units. They spent half a billion in marketing, but if the sales keep up I suspect they'll break even. It just has nothing to do with me. But the same could be said of Facebook games, iPhone games and many other areas as gaming expands.
Move (a.k.a. the wand)
"The wand is good for aiming and manipulating objects in arm's reach. It'll be used for some shooter games and some puzzles in adventure games. It'll also be used in some strategy games, possibly to good effect, but I won't care because I don't like strategy games."
There are a couple shooters using the wand for shooting. But to my knowledge that's it. I liked the shooting in Metroid Prime 3, so I may someday enjoy PS3 Move shooting. But I think the overarching theme is that motion control is not being aimed (har har) at my demographic, by and large.
The End
Originally traditional gamers were the means to get Sony and Microsoft's proprietary internet content boxes into living rooms. But since Nintendo showed them another way, they're happy to try it.
In Microsoft's case, they launched it as what feels like a separate business which doesn't affect me one way or the other.
Sony, on the other hand, didn't have any exclusives worth a darn this holiday season. They may have actually hurt their core business by shifting resources to motion control.
Regardless, I think this post marks the end of my hopes that motion control would contribute significantly to experiences I care about.
Over a year ago I wrote a post on motion control going nowhere. I left myself a reminder to review those predictions.
Kinect (previously Natal)
"I'm guessing the best uses of Natal will be gimmicks, small things that make playing standard games just a little more physical."
I was wrong. There are no best uses of Natal for standard games. It's not in any standard games. Natal is a purely casual business.
That seems to be working out okay for Microsoft. After Black Friday they'd sold 2.5 million units. They spent half a billion in marketing, but if the sales keep up I suspect they'll break even. It just has nothing to do with me. But the same could be said of Facebook games, iPhone games and many other areas as gaming expands.
Move (a.k.a. the wand)
"The wand is good for aiming and manipulating objects in arm's reach. It'll be used for some shooter games and some puzzles in adventure games. It'll also be used in some strategy games, possibly to good effect, but I won't care because I don't like strategy games."
There are a couple shooters using the wand for shooting. But to my knowledge that's it. I liked the shooting in Metroid Prime 3, so I may someday enjoy PS3 Move shooting. But I think the overarching theme is that motion control is not being aimed (har har) at my demographic, by and large.
The End
Originally traditional gamers were the means to get Sony and Microsoft's proprietary internet content boxes into living rooms. But since Nintendo showed them another way, they're happy to try it.
In Microsoft's case, they launched it as what feels like a separate business which doesn't affect me one way or the other.
Sony, on the other hand, didn't have any exclusives worth a darn this holiday season. They may have actually hurt their core business by shifting resources to motion control.
Regardless, I think this post marks the end of my hopes that motion control would contribute significantly to experiences I care about.
25 October, 2009
Motion Control: Going Nowhere
written by Blain Newport on Thursday, October 22, 2009
After writing how all my hopes for the Wii didn't work out, my hopes for Sony and Microsoft's motion controllers are pretty restrained. This article was supposed to be a wish list, but instead became a list of modest hopes and complaints. Perhaps I should have written these last two articles in the opposite order. :\
Natal
From the demos I've seen, Microsoft's tech can do broad gestures. The enthusiast press suggested things like throwing grenades with a throwing motion. I think that's feasible.
I also heard someone float the idea of controlling an AI squad with hand gestures, which seems unlikely. If you limit the vocabulary dramatically (maybe two or three easily distinguished gestures) it might work. But that's not much better than pressing a button to bring up a radial menu, plus you've got to take a hand off the controller to do it.
I'm guessing the best uses of Natal will be gimmicks, small things that make playing standard games just a little more physical. Jab forward with your controller to make Master Chief smack a guy with the side of his gun. Kick out with your leg to make your character in Crackdown kick a guy off a rooftop. Make a throwing motion to deploy a ghost trap and raise and lower your foot to open it in a Ghostbusters game.
"But wait", you say. "If you can throw a trap, why can't you throw a pass or a pitch?" Those motions need to be very quick and precise to feel like you're actually doing them.
The Uncanny Motion
A robot builder (Masahiro Mori) discovered a phenomenon he called The Uncanny Valley. He found that robots that look mostly human but not quite are more disturbing than robots that are human-like but still clearly robots.
Motion control is the same way. Either it should be obvious that the computer is simply using your gesture to trigger a canned animation, or it should mimic your motion perfectly, so that you actually feel like what you're doing is happening in the game. Anything in between feels like you're not really in control. The mind picks out the subtle difference, and the experience feels crummy.
I believe the best uses of Natal will stick to simple, broad strokes. It won't change core gaming much at all, just give it a little oomph (and make gamers look a little more silly).
Sony Motion Controller
(which I call a wand)
Sony's solution is far more accurate, but because it relies on the camera being able to see the ball on the end of the wand, can't do something like a pass or a pitch or swinging a bat. You'd have to start the motion where the camera couldn't see.
The wand is good for aiming and manipulating objects in arm's reach. It'll be used for some shooter games and some puzzles in adventure games. It'll also be used in some strategy games, possibly to good effect, but I won't care because I don't like strategy games. :)
The Future
We're looking at first generation devices here. The technology will get better. But the technology isn't really the problem.
The problem is that we're using motion control to play games designed for gamepads. And just as gamepad games ported to the PC don't feel right, so games "ported" to motion controls don't feel right.
The indie space, where design is more fluid, would be the logical place to watch. But the tech's been out for years and to my knowledge we've got virtually nothing of note from the entire indie community. Just tech demos, clones of existing games, and videos of people controlling existing PC games / software with the wiimote.
Am I just a crackpot, or is nobody really trying to do anything novel with this tech? The former seems more likely, I'm afraid.
Too bad I don't believe it.
After writing how all my hopes for the Wii didn't work out, my hopes for Sony and Microsoft's motion controllers are pretty restrained. This article was supposed to be a wish list, but instead became a list of modest hopes and complaints. Perhaps I should have written these last two articles in the opposite order. :\
Natal
From the demos I've seen, Microsoft's tech can do broad gestures. The enthusiast press suggested things like throwing grenades with a throwing motion. I think that's feasible.
I also heard someone float the idea of controlling an AI squad with hand gestures, which seems unlikely. If you limit the vocabulary dramatically (maybe two or three easily distinguished gestures) it might work. But that's not much better than pressing a button to bring up a radial menu, plus you've got to take a hand off the controller to do it.
I'm guessing the best uses of Natal will be gimmicks, small things that make playing standard games just a little more physical. Jab forward with your controller to make Master Chief smack a guy with the side of his gun. Kick out with your leg to make your character in Crackdown kick a guy off a rooftop. Make a throwing motion to deploy a ghost trap and raise and lower your foot to open it in a Ghostbusters game.
"But wait", you say. "If you can throw a trap, why can't you throw a pass or a pitch?" Those motions need to be very quick and precise to feel like you're actually doing them.
The Uncanny Motion
A robot builder (Masahiro Mori) discovered a phenomenon he called The Uncanny Valley. He found that robots that look mostly human but not quite are more disturbing than robots that are human-like but still clearly robots.
Motion control is the same way. Either it should be obvious that the computer is simply using your gesture to trigger a canned animation, or it should mimic your motion perfectly, so that you actually feel like what you're doing is happening in the game. Anything in between feels like you're not really in control. The mind picks out the subtle difference, and the experience feels crummy.
I believe the best uses of Natal will stick to simple, broad strokes. It won't change core gaming much at all, just give it a little oomph (and make gamers look a little more silly).
Sony Motion Controller
(which I call a wand)
Sony's solution is far more accurate, but because it relies on the camera being able to see the ball on the end of the wand, can't do something like a pass or a pitch or swinging a bat. You'd have to start the motion where the camera couldn't see.
The wand is good for aiming and manipulating objects in arm's reach. It'll be used for some shooter games and some puzzles in adventure games. It'll also be used in some strategy games, possibly to good effect, but I won't care because I don't like strategy games. :)
The Future
We're looking at first generation devices here. The technology will get better. But the technology isn't really the problem.
The problem is that we're using motion control to play games designed for gamepads. And just as gamepad games ported to the PC don't feel right, so games "ported" to motion controls don't feel right.
The indie space, where design is more fluid, would be the logical place to watch. But the tech's been out for years and to my knowledge we've got virtually nothing of note from the entire indie community. Just tech demos, clones of existing games, and videos of people controlling existing PC games / software with the wiimote.
Am I just a crackpot, or is nobody really trying to do anything novel with this tech? The former seems more likely, I'm afraid.
Too bad I don't believe it.
23 October, 2009
Wii Fail
written by Blain Newport on Wednesday, October 21, 2009
Writing about the new motion controllers got me thinking about how they might be used to make gaming more awesome. But any conjecture and wishful thinking should be tempered by the fact that my hopes for the Wiimote in 2006 went pretty much nowhere.
How My Hopes Turned Out
Swordplay
The Wiimote wasn't accurate enough to support this until the Motion Plus came about (roughly three years later). Wii Sports Resort has a sword mini-game that is reported to be fun, but I'm waiting for Red Steel 2. There may still be hope for Swordplay.
Swinging Soldier (Bionic Commando)
Capcom was already working on a third person Bionic Commando game for HD consoles. To my knowledge, nobody else tried anything similar.
Magic / Psychic Soldier (Psi-Ops)
To my knowledge, nobody tried it.
God Games (Populus)
To my knowledge, nobody tried it.
Rhythm Games (Samba de Amigo)
There are plenty of them on the system (including Sambe de Amigo), and some are even pretty good. If I wasn't tired of the genre, I'd be a happy gamer. This is the one category where things seem to have worked out.
Boxing (Fight Night)
Boxing had the same problem as Swordplay (lack of precision). But with the added problem that there's no Motion Plus for the nunchuck, so it won't get better. The best boxing game for the Wii (Punch Out) was impossibly difficult with motion controls.
Robot Monster Rampage (Giants: Citizen Kabuto)
To my knowledge, nobody tried it.
Drive and Shoot (Lucky & Wild)
Okay, I didn't mention this on the blog, only in conversations, but Lucky & Wild was a silly game from 1992 where you steered and shot at the same time. It could have been done on the Wii since launch. To my knowledge, nobody tried it. Well there was a Starsky & Hutch game based on loosely the same principle, but it predates the Wii. And sucks.
What Happened?
Between the Wiimote's limitations, publishers' risk aversion, and a possible lack of imagination on the part of developers, motion control hasn't made much progress at all from my vantage.
Seriously, how do you have motion controls and not make a giant monster game? Why haven't any of the Wii games I've played put enough feedback on the screen that I feel I really understand how the sensors are translating my movement and can adjust accordingly?
But when early efforts like Zack & Wiki didn't move any units, it's not surprising that publishers and devs decided to spend their efforts elsewhere. The Wiimote was a missed opportunity.
Next Time: I imagine a brighter future (that probably also won't happen).
Writing about the new motion controllers got me thinking about how they might be used to make gaming more awesome. But any conjecture and wishful thinking should be tempered by the fact that my hopes for the Wiimote in 2006 went pretty much nowhere.
How My Hopes Turned Out
Swordplay
The Wiimote wasn't accurate enough to support this until the Motion Plus came about (roughly three years later). Wii Sports Resort has a sword mini-game that is reported to be fun, but I'm waiting for Red Steel 2. There may still be hope for Swordplay.
Swinging Soldier (Bionic Commando)
Capcom was already working on a third person Bionic Commando game for HD consoles. To my knowledge, nobody else tried anything similar.
Magic / Psychic Soldier (Psi-Ops)
To my knowledge, nobody tried it.
God Games (Populus)
To my knowledge, nobody tried it.
Rhythm Games (Samba de Amigo)
There are plenty of them on the system (including Sambe de Amigo), and some are even pretty good. If I wasn't tired of the genre, I'd be a happy gamer. This is the one category where things seem to have worked out.
Boxing (Fight Night)
Boxing had the same problem as Swordplay (lack of precision). But with the added problem that there's no Motion Plus for the nunchuck, so it won't get better. The best boxing game for the Wii (Punch Out) was impossibly difficult with motion controls.
Robot Monster Rampage (Giants: Citizen Kabuto)
To my knowledge, nobody tried it.
Drive and Shoot (Lucky & Wild)
Okay, I didn't mention this on the blog, only in conversations, but Lucky & Wild was a silly game from 1992 where you steered and shot at the same time. It could have been done on the Wii since launch. To my knowledge, nobody tried it. Well there was a Starsky & Hutch game based on loosely the same principle, but it predates the Wii. And sucks.
What Happened?
Between the Wiimote's limitations, publishers' risk aversion, and a possible lack of imagination on the part of developers, motion control hasn't made much progress at all from my vantage.
Seriously, how do you have motion controls and not make a giant monster game? Why haven't any of the Wii games I've played put enough feedback on the screen that I feel I really understand how the sensors are translating my movement and can adjust accordingly?
But when early efforts like Zack & Wiki didn't move any units, it's not surprising that publishers and devs decided to spend their efforts elsewhere. The Wiimote was a missed opportunity.
Next Time: I imagine a brighter future (that probably also won't happen).
21 October, 2009
State of Motion Controls
written by Blain Newport on Monday, October 19, 2009
Preface: Kris Graft wrote this piece on motion controllers that took 1700 words to say stuff that most gamers had hashed out by the end of E3 (over four months ago). It's probably supposed to be introductory level material for a broad audience. It wasn't written for me. But I didn't know that at the time, so to me it felt like the piece beat around the bush and missed important information / didn't go deep enough. So I decided to write the piece I wanted to read.
The Basics
Since E3, we've known about Sony and Microsoft's motion controllers.
Microsoft will have a camera + microphone + infrared depth sensor.
Sony will have a camera + microphone + glowing Wiimotes.
Why?
The Wii proved that novel, simple controls could help broaden the audience for gaming. Sony and Microsoft want to control the living room, so they need to appeal to that wider audience.
The Wii also proved the wider audience didn't care about bleeding edge hardware. Considering Sony lost over three billion on the PS3, and Microsoft lost over a billion on faulty hardware, both would probably prefer to extend the current generation a year or two with new controls than go through another launch.
Sticklers' Note: Yes, the PS3 helped Sony "win the war" with HD-DVD, and they are making their 3+ billion back in licensing fees. But at $10 a player and 11 cents a disc, that will take a while.
Why do I care?
You don't, yet.
If you're not into gaming, it's going to take some really impressive software / marketing to even put these on your radar. The Wii is already the system you're probably most interested in, and with the price drop to $199, it's the cheapest. This is even worse if you already own a Wii. Nothing's been shown that's worth buying a second system for.
Sony and Microsoft are going to be three and a half years late and are charging more. If their software and marketing aren't phenomenal, I don't think adding motion control to NetFlix / Blu-Ray / Facebook will be enough to take ground from the Wii.
If you are into gaming, you're going to buy these. As much as gamers like to deride motion controls, gaming hasn't changed much in a very long time. Hunger for novelty is probably enough to sell hardware, as long as there are decent games involved, but both solutions have additional cards to play.
For Natal, I suspect that will be face tracking. (If you don't have time to watch the video / are at work, it allows for 3D perspective shifts like Johnny Lee's old videos and adds head gesture controls.) As any gamer knows, more controls mean more tactical options. Microsoft knows how competitive gamers are and will use that to sell them Natal in mass quantities.
Sony's wands have their own advantages. For one thing, they become the path of least resistance for developers who have to design for gamepads and Wii controls already. Now Sony gets both versions while Natal support becomes the "if we have time" requirement. Additionally, the wands give the player pointing devices which they can use without taking their hands off the controller, good for shooting. Shooting with thumbsticks will never feel as good as pointing and pulling a trigger. And when gamers gets their first taste of dual wielding with independent aim, I think the sense of power and control they'll get will be hard to give up.
But these are minor advantages. The big win will be if it turns out it's possible to pull off solid face tracking with the PlayStation Eye. If it works close to as well as Natal's face tracking, Sony's solution will thoroughly outclass Microsoft's.
Sticklers' Note: Yes, PC gamers have had access to basic face tracking functionality in the form of TrackIR for eight years now and it never made much headway in the market. But only flight and military sims supported it, it was expensive, you had to wear silly glasses, and PC gaming was already ceding primacy to consoles by that point. With Microsoft (and possibly Sony) trying to make it mainstream, it will get in front of millions more people, giving developers a reason to put it in more games.
Wait. What?
Shut up about your core gamer fantasies! I thought you said this tech was supposed to be for the casual audience?
Yep.
But you said it will only sell to core gamers.
Yep.
That makes no sense.
You are not wrong. These new motion control offerings are going to do well, but not in the market segment Microsoft and Sony specifically developed them to capture.
Then again, maybe I'm wrong. After all, I'm just some gamer. I've marked my Google calendar to revisit this subject in one year, so we can see if I know better than the biggest players in the industry.
References
Wired's Game|Life blog article claims to have gotten the PS3 losing over three billion info from Forbes.
I don't remember where I first heard about Microsoft expecting to pay over a billion by extending the Red Ring of Death warranty, but I was reading Kotaku back then, so this article seems as good a source as any.
The Blu-Ray licensing fee info came from this CNet article. It's worth noting that I only cited the price for players and BD-ROMs. Recorders and writable media cost more to license. But since it's a joint license with Phillips and Panasonic, I don't expect Sony gets all the money anyway.
MTV Multiplayer turned me on to Torben Sko's work.
Preface: Kris Graft wrote this piece on motion controllers that took 1700 words to say stuff that most gamers had hashed out by the end of E3 (over four months ago). It's probably supposed to be introductory level material for a broad audience. It wasn't written for me. But I didn't know that at the time, so to me it felt like the piece beat around the bush and missed important information / didn't go deep enough. So I decided to write the piece I wanted to read.
The Basics
Since E3, we've known about Sony and Microsoft's motion controllers.
Microsoft will have a camera + microphone + infrared depth sensor.
Sony will have a camera + microphone + glowing Wiimotes.
Why?
The Wii proved that novel, simple controls could help broaden the audience for gaming. Sony and Microsoft want to control the living room, so they need to appeal to that wider audience.
The Wii also proved the wider audience didn't care about bleeding edge hardware. Considering Sony lost over three billion on the PS3, and Microsoft lost over a billion on faulty hardware, both would probably prefer to extend the current generation a year or two with new controls than go through another launch.
Sticklers' Note: Yes, the PS3 helped Sony "win the war" with HD-DVD, and they are making their 3+ billion back in licensing fees. But at $10 a player and 11 cents a disc, that will take a while.
Why do I care?
You don't, yet.
If you're not into gaming, it's going to take some really impressive software / marketing to even put these on your radar. The Wii is already the system you're probably most interested in, and with the price drop to $199, it's the cheapest. This is even worse if you already own a Wii. Nothing's been shown that's worth buying a second system for.
Sony and Microsoft are going to be three and a half years late and are charging more. If their software and marketing aren't phenomenal, I don't think adding motion control to NetFlix / Blu-Ray / Facebook will be enough to take ground from the Wii.
If you are into gaming, you're going to buy these. As much as gamers like to deride motion controls, gaming hasn't changed much in a very long time. Hunger for novelty is probably enough to sell hardware, as long as there are decent games involved, but both solutions have additional cards to play.
For Natal, I suspect that will be face tracking. (If you don't have time to watch the video / are at work, it allows for 3D perspective shifts like Johnny Lee's old videos and adds head gesture controls.) As any gamer knows, more controls mean more tactical options. Microsoft knows how competitive gamers are and will use that to sell them Natal in mass quantities.
Sony's wands have their own advantages. For one thing, they become the path of least resistance for developers who have to design for gamepads and Wii controls already. Now Sony gets both versions while Natal support becomes the "if we have time" requirement. Additionally, the wands give the player pointing devices which they can use without taking their hands off the controller, good for shooting. Shooting with thumbsticks will never feel as good as pointing and pulling a trigger. And when gamers gets their first taste of dual wielding with independent aim, I think the sense of power and control they'll get will be hard to give up.
But these are minor advantages. The big win will be if it turns out it's possible to pull off solid face tracking with the PlayStation Eye. If it works close to as well as Natal's face tracking, Sony's solution will thoroughly outclass Microsoft's.
Sticklers' Note: Yes, PC gamers have had access to basic face tracking functionality in the form of TrackIR for eight years now and it never made much headway in the market. But only flight and military sims supported it, it was expensive, you had to wear silly glasses, and PC gaming was already ceding primacy to consoles by that point. With Microsoft (and possibly Sony) trying to make it mainstream, it will get in front of millions more people, giving developers a reason to put it in more games.
Wait. What?
Shut up about your core gamer fantasies! I thought you said this tech was supposed to be for the casual audience?
Yep.
But you said it will only sell to core gamers.
Yep.
That makes no sense.
You are not wrong. These new motion control offerings are going to do well, but not in the market segment Microsoft and Sony specifically developed them to capture.
Then again, maybe I'm wrong. After all, I'm just some gamer. I've marked my Google calendar to revisit this subject in one year, so we can see if I know better than the biggest players in the industry.
References
Wired's Game|Life blog article claims to have gotten the PS3 losing over three billion info from Forbes.
I don't remember where I first heard about Microsoft expecting to pay over a billion by extending the Red Ring of Death warranty, but I was reading Kotaku back then, so this article seems as good a source as any.
The Blu-Ray licensing fee info came from this CNet article. It's worth noting that I only cited the price for players and BD-ROMs. Recorders and writable media cost more to license. But since it's a joint license with Phillips and Panasonic, I don't expect Sony gets all the money anyway.
MTV Multiplayer turned me on to Torben Sko's work.
02 August, 2008
Wii Motion Plus Skepticism
There's a YouTube video of a Wii Motion Plus demo on Kotaku. I'll still reserve judgment until I get my hands on it at PAX, but I'm currently of the mindset that this peripheral will still only be for casual games.
Watch the bit where he's swinging the sword (about two minutes in). Look at the picture in picture which shows the user and the screen at the same time. Notice the lag? Sure, it's fine for swiping at slow moving beach balls, but I like my games with some actual speed. Even worse is the motion recognition segment (about four minutes in). He has to fully complete the motion before the Wii recognizes it, which means your character won't start to do the move until you've completely finished it.
I need to cut a swath as a blur of steel and fury. I need to parry madly to hold off attacks from two or three opponents at once. I need to reflect blaster fire. A good design around the lag could compensate. Maybe the player is a slightly ponderous giant. (I'm still waiting for my first person giant monster with eye lasers game.) Maybe the player's character has a heavy sword. Maybe the game takes place under water. But good design teams aren't working on the Wii, for the most part. But now I'm drifting off topic. Let's get back to the point.
In a demo with no AI and paltry amounts of sound, physics, and graphics processing to do, the controller lags. I still want to futz with it at PAX, but I'm expecting to be able to tell in the first ten seconds that it won't really change anything for the Wii.
Watch the bit where he's swinging the sword (about two minutes in). Look at the picture in picture which shows the user and the screen at the same time. Notice the lag? Sure, it's fine for swiping at slow moving beach balls, but I like my games with some actual speed. Even worse is the motion recognition segment (about four minutes in). He has to fully complete the motion before the Wii recognizes it, which means your character won't start to do the move until you've completely finished it.
I need to cut a swath as a blur of steel and fury. I need to parry madly to hold off attacks from two or three opponents at once. I need to reflect blaster fire. A good design around the lag could compensate. Maybe the player is a slightly ponderous giant. (I'm still waiting for my first person giant monster with eye lasers game.) Maybe the player's character has a heavy sword. Maybe the game takes place under water. But good design teams aren't working on the Wii, for the most part. But now I'm drifting off topic. Let's get back to the point.
In a demo with no AI and paltry amounts of sound, physics, and graphics processing to do, the controller lags. I still want to futz with it at PAX, but I'm expecting to be able to tell in the first ten seconds that it won't really change anything for the Wii.
14 July, 2008
E3 2008: Microsoft Motion Controller Superiority Disconfirmed
Wow. Is my face red. Not only did Microsoft not announce any new motion controller, Nintendo did.
What the #%&*?
Seriously!
It tracks arm position? What does that even mean?
We won't find out until Nintendo's press conference tomorrow.
After last year's E3, when nothing I cared about happened, it's nice to see it as a venue for big announcements again.
What the #%&*?
Seriously!
It tracks arm position? What does that even mean?
We won't find out until Nintendo's press conference tomorrow.
After last year's E3, when nothing I cared about happened, it's nice to see it as a venue for big announcements again.
11 July, 2008
Microsoft Motion Controller Superiority Confirmed
by this Wired Game|Life article. Basically, Johnny Lee, the mad genius who released YouTube videos on how to use the Wii Remote for crazy stuff like Minority Report style interfaces and 3D displays is now working at Microsoft. I'm actually not certain they have anything ready to show at E3, based on Lee's comments, but between Patrick Klepek's initial story on MTV News and the recent Banjo Kazooie promo video that shows Ken Lobb saying you twist the controller to use a wrench, it's looking like it's only a matter of time.
At the end of the day, all I'm saying in this article is that I have tremendous faith in Johnny Lee and dearly hope that a quality motion controller on one of the more powerful consoles will finally get some developer love.
And speaking of people I have tremendous faith in, Joss Whedon's Dr. Horrible will be coming out in three installments on July 15, 17, and 19. It will be awesome. And it will be taken down on July 20th! If you miss it, you suck. But be honest, secretly, we already knew you suck, right?
(Yes. I am baiting you. Just watch the damn thing when I tell you to.)
At the end of the day, all I'm saying in this article is that I have tremendous faith in Johnny Lee and dearly hope that a quality motion controller on one of the more powerful consoles will finally get some developer love.
And speaking of people I have tremendous faith in, Joss Whedon's Dr. Horrible will be coming out in three installments on July 15, 17, and 19. It will be awesome. And it will be taken down on July 20th! If you miss it, you suck. But be honest, secretly, we already knew you suck, right?
(Yes. I am baiting you. Just watch the damn thing when I tell you to.)
23 April, 2008
Review: Metroid Prime 3
Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (Nintendo, 2007) is an FPS following the interminable sci-fi adventures of the bounty hunter Samus Aran.
Wow. I actually finished a Metroid game. I don't much care for Metroid games. The idea is cool. The music and production design are always right up there. But the core gameplay is collecting stuff and going back over the same territory way too many times, trying to find that one place to bomb I overlooked while putting up with enemies who are just annoyances added to increase play time. I barely got anywhere in the original Metroid. I did better in Super Metroid, but I don't think I made it half way. I got most of the way through Metroid Prime 1 and just got sick of it. So what made Metroid Prime 3 better?
Motion controls. The Wii controls helped the game immensely. Once advanced controls were turned on and auto lock was turned off, console FPS combat was fun again. If Microsoft is serious about motion controls, they should try to do more than just a remote. If they do, developers won't look twice at it. But if they give people like Bungie and Infinity Ward the opportunity to put full fledged motion controls into their games, it'll change the way people play them.
The motion controls helped more than just combat. Pulling plating off walls with the grapple, detaching energy cannisters with a twist and a pull, working consoles with a touch of Samus' hand, and using the pointer to switch visor modes were some of the many little touches that all added to the texture of the experience. Some of them were clunkier than others, but the effort was appreciated. Of course, almost no amount of "texturing" would make the game fun if it was just running through the same areas repeatedly.
While some backtracking is essential the the Metroid series, MP3 minimized it and made it less painful by allowing me to get all the collectibles in most places I'd previously visited marked on the map. It made it so I could actually look at the map and plan a route to pick up everything I needed. That simple element made the collecting straightforward enough that I finished the game with 100%. For someone who never even finished a Metroid game before, that's really saying something.
Plot and story have been emphasized at least since Metroid Prime and MP3 is no exception. There's a plot that runs through multiple Metroid games about Samus being infected with some weird bio energy. Sometimes you can see her face reflected in her faceplate and see the disease progressing. That was powerful. The infection gives her some special abilities, which were generally good for gameplay as well. That said, Samus is an empty vessel, like so many game protagonists, so it's hard to care too much. And the other characters in the game (many of whom I was really looking forward to seeing more of) effectively disappear after the first act.
Final Score
4 of 5
GameFaqs usage:
**SPOILERS** (highlight to read)
1) couldn't see a small morph ball passage
2) forgot about the command mode of the visor (which is understandable considering you get introduced to it, then have no need of it for over two hours)
3) can only bomb a certain boss' foot with morph ball bombs
4) first time the objective system pointed me in the wrong direction
5) another easy to miss morph ball passage
6) bogus invisible wall keeping me from an energy cell
7) just didn't notice the grab ledge in the acid rain walkway area
8) to remind myself to go back to the observatory to find the last few items
9) didn't realize I could use the command visor to have my ship pick up a generator
**SPOILERS**
Wow. I actually finished a Metroid game. I don't much care for Metroid games. The idea is cool. The music and production design are always right up there. But the core gameplay is collecting stuff and going back over the same territory way too many times, trying to find that one place to bomb I overlooked while putting up with enemies who are just annoyances added to increase play time. I barely got anywhere in the original Metroid. I did better in Super Metroid, but I don't think I made it half way. I got most of the way through Metroid Prime 1 and just got sick of it. So what made Metroid Prime 3 better?
Motion controls. The Wii controls helped the game immensely. Once advanced controls were turned on and auto lock was turned off, console FPS combat was fun again. If Microsoft is serious about motion controls, they should try to do more than just a remote. If they do, developers won't look twice at it. But if they give people like Bungie and Infinity Ward the opportunity to put full fledged motion controls into their games, it'll change the way people play them.
The motion controls helped more than just combat. Pulling plating off walls with the grapple, detaching energy cannisters with a twist and a pull, working consoles with a touch of Samus' hand, and using the pointer to switch visor modes were some of the many little touches that all added to the texture of the experience. Some of them were clunkier than others, but the effort was appreciated. Of course, almost no amount of "texturing" would make the game fun if it was just running through the same areas repeatedly.
While some backtracking is essential the the Metroid series, MP3 minimized it and made it less painful by allowing me to get all the collectibles in most places I'd previously visited marked on the map. It made it so I could actually look at the map and plan a route to pick up everything I needed. That simple element made the collecting straightforward enough that I finished the game with 100%. For someone who never even finished a Metroid game before, that's really saying something.
Plot and story have been emphasized at least since Metroid Prime and MP3 is no exception. There's a plot that runs through multiple Metroid games about Samus being infected with some weird bio energy. Sometimes you can see her face reflected in her faceplate and see the disease progressing. That was powerful. The infection gives her some special abilities, which were generally good for gameplay as well. That said, Samus is an empty vessel, like so many game protagonists, so it's hard to care too much. And the other characters in the game (many of whom I was really looking forward to seeing more of) effectively disappear after the first act.
Final Score
4 of 5
GameFaqs usage:
**SPOILERS** (highlight to read)
1) couldn't see a small morph ball passage
2) forgot about the command mode of the visor (which is understandable considering you get introduced to it, then have no need of it for over two hours)
3) can only bomb a certain boss' foot with morph ball bombs
4) first time the objective system pointed me in the wrong direction
5) another easy to miss morph ball passage
6) bogus invisible wall keeping me from an energy cell
7) just didn't notice the grab ledge in the acid rain walkway area
8) to remind myself to go back to the observatory to find the last few items
9) didn't realize I could use the command visor to have my ship pick up a generator
**SPOILERS**
23 May, 2006
Wii Wish List
Type of Game: Swordplay
Examples: Jedi Knight, Pirates!, playing Zorro with a yardstick
Why Wii: Umm. If you need this explained to you, you are dumb. IGN editor dumb. Please kill yourself and any poor genetic horrors of children you may have perpetrated upon the earth as you are a giant floating turd in the gene pool. Either that or you've never played Zorro with a yardstick, in which case, I pity you.
Type of Game: Swinging Soldier
Examples: Bionic Commando
Why Wii: In Metroid 3, you can flick the nunchuck to fire Samus' grapple beam. You can use the grapple to pull doors off their hinges, rip shields away from enemies, and I assume, swing through the air and pull yourself up to high places. If Capcom doesn't take advantage of this kind of control scheme to do a Bionic Commando sequel, they should (in a fair world) be forced to hand over the license to someone who will.
Type of Game: Magic Soldier
Examples: Psi-Ops; Star Wars; Fable; Oblivion
Why Wii: Doing silly gestures to cast spells, telekinetically throw stuff (and people) around, and just generally feeling like a god among men has an undeniable appeal.
Type of Game: God Games
Examples: Black and White; Populous
Why Wii: See above, but scratch the "among men" part. Just imagine raising and lowering terrain by making gestures like Mickey Mouse in The Sorceror's Apprentice. Part the Red Sea with your hands mutha#&*$a! :O
Type of Game: Rythm Games
Examples: Samba de Amigo
Why Wii: It's got two motion sensitive controllers built in. Admittedly, they're connected by a pretty short cord, but they'll do. And if you enable the option of simply using two Wiimotes at a time, it's perfect. There was a drum kit demo at E3 that could easily be made into a game. Heck, with the nunchuck in your right hand and the wiimote in your left, you might even be able to pull off something like Guitar Hero.
Type of Game: Boxing
Examples: Fight Night, Punchout
Why Wii: Two motion sensors. Two fists. Let's get it on.
Type of Game: Robot Monster Rampage
Examples: Rampage, King Kong
Why Wii: The second I heard Super Monkey Ball for the Wii had whack-a-mole as a mini game, I had fantasies of smushing little screaming people with my giant ape feet and swinging at biplanes with my giant ape fists. I don't really know what this game would look like, but I still want to squish people, dammit! And Eye Lasers! I must use the wiimote to control my eye lasers!
Heheh. Okay, enough rambling and ranting. If you have any brilliant use of the Wii controller that you want to see, please post it.
Examples: Jedi Knight, Pirates!, playing Zorro with a yardstick
Why Wii: Umm. If you need this explained to you, you are dumb. IGN editor dumb. Please kill yourself and any poor genetic horrors of children you may have perpetrated upon the earth as you are a giant floating turd in the gene pool. Either that or you've never played Zorro with a yardstick, in which case, I pity you.
Type of Game: Swinging Soldier
Examples: Bionic Commando
Why Wii: In Metroid 3, you can flick the nunchuck to fire Samus' grapple beam. You can use the grapple to pull doors off their hinges, rip shields away from enemies, and I assume, swing through the air and pull yourself up to high places. If Capcom doesn't take advantage of this kind of control scheme to do a Bionic Commando sequel, they should (in a fair world) be forced to hand over the license to someone who will.
Type of Game: Magic Soldier
Examples: Psi-Ops; Star Wars; Fable; Oblivion
Why Wii: Doing silly gestures to cast spells, telekinetically throw stuff (and people) around, and just generally feeling like a god among men has an undeniable appeal.
Type of Game: God Games
Examples: Black and White; Populous
Why Wii: See above, but scratch the "among men" part. Just imagine raising and lowering terrain by making gestures like Mickey Mouse in The Sorceror's Apprentice. Part the Red Sea with your hands mutha#&*$a! :O
Type of Game: Rythm Games
Examples: Samba de Amigo
Why Wii: It's got two motion sensitive controllers built in. Admittedly, they're connected by a pretty short cord, but they'll do. And if you enable the option of simply using two Wiimotes at a time, it's perfect. There was a drum kit demo at E3 that could easily be made into a game. Heck, with the nunchuck in your right hand and the wiimote in your left, you might even be able to pull off something like Guitar Hero.
Type of Game: Boxing
Examples: Fight Night, Punchout
Why Wii: Two motion sensors. Two fists. Let's get it on.
Type of Game: Robot Monster Rampage
Examples: Rampage, King Kong
Why Wii: The second I heard Super Monkey Ball for the Wii had whack-a-mole as a mini game, I had fantasies of smushing little screaming people with my giant ape feet and swinging at biplanes with my giant ape fists. I don't really know what this game would look like, but I still want to squish people, dammit! And Eye Lasers! I must use the wiimote to control my eye lasers!
Heheh. Okay, enough rambling and ranting. If you have any brilliant use of the Wii controller that you want to see, please post it.
Wii Problems
Last time I talked about what a big deal I think the motion sensor in the Wii controller is. Now it's time to talk about obstacles.
- The tech: Some folks at E3 said the Wii controller lost its cursor or seemed to stop responding intermittently. Whether this is because there were dozens of them all competing for the same bandwidth or not is unknown, but if the tech isn't spot on, the controller will never feel right to demanding gamers such as myself.
- Gesture based control: Thus far, most Wii games are gesture based. This sucks. Flick this way to shoot a grapple beam. Flick this way to cock your shotgun. These all sound good on paper, but if I don't get that "analog feel", the feeling that I can touch what my avatar is touching, the controller will be nothing but a gimmick.
- Driving games: I gotta give it up to the Dreamcast team, they were the first to put triggers on a controller that could act as proper throttles for driving games. The Wii controller looks fine for fairly simplistic driving games, but I just don't see how you'd do a proper throttle for something like Project Gotham.
- Gun games: The light gun is built in. Everyone and their mother will do a crappy light gun game, largely squandering the Wii's potential. Please, let Duck Hunt and Resident Evil 5 handle that. They'll do it better than you could anyway. Sega's House of the Dead compilation is probably clawing through the lid of its coffin even as I write this. :P
All that said, the second I can feel like I'm cocking a shotgun and kicking in doors, the second I feel like I'm really blocking blaster fire with my light saber while force pushing a guy through a window with my free hand, the days of the dual analog are over. Come on game devs. Make us proud. :)
Wii
I mean, what else is there to talk about, really?
You want to talk about PS3? Why? It's the same games with prettier graphics.
You want to talk about the 360? Ditto.
The Wii is just the same games with different controls?
Hmmm.
You've got a point, but you're missing the bigger one.
No matter what the hardware is you'll end up with the same games. There'll still be shooters, fighting games, sports games, driving games, etc. Going fast, kicking ass, and blowing stuff up are far more American than mom and apple pie. :)
I hate to say it because the word is so completely overused in the gaming press, but what motion sensitive control gives you is immersion. The feeling you are actually touching the game world, even if it can't really touch you back, is huge.
The example I always give for this is a really terrible game, so humor me here. I occasionally like to play games that have been universally panned to see if they could possibly be as bad as everyone said. One of those games was Jurassic Park: Trespasser. It was $2, so how bad could it be? It lived up to the hype. The pop-in on the terrain was attrocious. The AI was a joke. And the amazing sound engine meant that if you smacked a board with another board, you got to hear three different samples instead of one. w00t.
What Trespasser did have was physics, and a hand. The physics were pretty unstable, but a good enough aproximation. And the you had the hand. It was a pain to control, with separate keys needing to be pressed to wave the arm and rotate and bend the wrist. But the feeling that you could pick up, throw about, and drop objects in the game world was primal. Just being able to pick something up and turn it over in your hand using the mouse added a whole other level of reality to the game.
It was a pain in the ass, of course. Aiming a gun was a huge chore, and the 2D plane of mouse control made throwing stuff with any precision an exercise in frustration. But the hand stuck with me. Every shooter I picked up for months afterward felt terrible. "That isn't my hand! That's just an icon representing a gun! I can't touch anything!" I got over it. They were much better games, after all. But Trespasser taught me the power of touch, and if developers do right by the Wii controller, everyone will know, and they won't want to go back.
You want to talk about PS3? Why? It's the same games with prettier graphics.
You want to talk about the 360? Ditto.
The Wii is just the same games with different controls?
Hmmm.
You've got a point, but you're missing the bigger one.
No matter what the hardware is you'll end up with the same games. There'll still be shooters, fighting games, sports games, driving games, etc. Going fast, kicking ass, and blowing stuff up are far more American than mom and apple pie. :)
I hate to say it because the word is so completely overused in the gaming press, but what motion sensitive control gives you is immersion. The feeling you are actually touching the game world, even if it can't really touch you back, is huge.
The example I always give for this is a really terrible game, so humor me here. I occasionally like to play games that have been universally panned to see if they could possibly be as bad as everyone said. One of those games was Jurassic Park: Trespasser. It was $2, so how bad could it be? It lived up to the hype. The pop-in on the terrain was attrocious. The AI was a joke. And the amazing sound engine meant that if you smacked a board with another board, you got to hear three different samples instead of one. w00t.
What Trespasser did have was physics, and a hand. The physics were pretty unstable, but a good enough aproximation. And the you had the hand. It was a pain to control, with separate keys needing to be pressed to wave the arm and rotate and bend the wrist. But the feeling that you could pick up, throw about, and drop objects in the game world was primal. Just being able to pick something up and turn it over in your hand using the mouse added a whole other level of reality to the game.
It was a pain in the ass, of course. Aiming a gun was a huge chore, and the 2D plane of mouse control made throwing stuff with any precision an exercise in frustration. But the hand stuck with me. Every shooter I picked up for months afterward felt terrible. "That isn't my hand! That's just an icon representing a gun! I can't touch anything!" I got over it. They were much better games, after all. But Trespasser taught me the power of touch, and if developers do right by the Wii controller, everyone will know, and they won't want to go back.
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