Tilt-a-Whirl

It’s E3 time and my interest in video games has begun to creep, ever so slowly, back into the realm of significance. You might have noticed, but I’m just making it easy on you by saying it outright. Anyway the point is that with all the news related to gaming flying around the Webs for the next week or so don’t be surpised to hear me yammering on about it for some time.

No, that’s not a threat. A warning, maybe? I’m not sure where you stand on the topic. Wherever it is, you might want to sit instead. Your comfort does concern me, regardless of how my writing skills may make that seem.

Anyway so Sony announced that they were ripping off taking a page from Nintendo and doing the motion-sensitive thing with their new controllers. Also, or perhaps as a result of, they have removed the “Shock” portion from their Dual Shock moniker and cut out the vibration feature.

This is a disturbing development to me. I admit that when the “Rumble Pak” feature for the N64 first appeared, I was unimpressed. It seemed excessively gimmicky at the time and I didn’t understand what the point was. Since then it has become fairly standard and I have to admit that it’s become a pretty integral part of most modern gaming experiences. Sure I can live without it: The Gamecube doesn’t have such a feature by default (at all? I never bothered to find out; I’m certainly not married enough to rumblin’ to go out and purchase something to give me the capability) but it has been done extremely well in some cases.

I remember the first time I played Silent Hill and your life gauge was given a tactile sense by putting a heartbeat-style thump in the feedback when you were low on health. Of course, it has been done poorly: I hate to keep harping on Indigo Prophecy but buzzing the vibration when your character picks up a bottle from a table? Huh? Lame. Still, well-designed force feedback can add to a game’s atmosphere, offer game status info without HUD elements and improve a game’s immersive qualities. So I’m not too happy to see it disappear from these newer controllers.

I’m also unhappy about this new directional sensor approach to games. I’m not discounting it outright because it’s something I’d need to try (recall that I more or less discounted the DS’ touchscreen thing but I’ve obviously changed my tune in that regard) but I find it hard to believe that this is something that’s going to really make gaming more fun. It’s interesting, sure, but do we really want to be standing in front of the TV waving our arms around and gesticulating wildly trying to rescue the princess or whatever? Because I’m kind of thinking no, not really. I’m sure things like EyeToy and other physically interactive control mechanisms have a certain novelty appeal, but I think it’s pretty obvious that it is just a novelty or else we’d be seeing the next Metal Gear Solid use the EyeToy or tilt controls and I really don’t see that happening. I’m kind of with Microsoft on this one in thinking that it’s interesting, but not really the way to go.

Especially for Sony. I can see Nintendo pulling it off because they’ve always been about making things that are just fun regardless of how hard core they may be. But Sony really only excels when it comes to catering to the baseline gamer crowd and I’m guessing this isn’t part of why that demographic is looking forward to the PS3.

Also, pricing the PS3 at $599 for the decent configuration… ouch. Especially since fairly logical rumors abound that around the time the PS3 is hitting shelves the XBox 360 will dip down to around $399 or $450 for the non-Core (ie non-nerfed) system, that means consumers will be presented with gift giving options of either the “good” PS3 for six bills or the “good” 360 for $150-200 less. Oh and don’t forget the PS2 rarity fiasco which we all should fully expect to be par for the console-launch course which means you’ll probably actually be able to find 360s. And one more thing: Launch titles are generally bootypants so the 360 should be sitting pretty come November.

Brief Hockey Interlude

I want to take a quick second to say that I’m tired of the officiating in the playoffs this year. They’ve gotten so much back-patting from the media and I honestly can’t tell if these pundits are watching the same games I am. They were supposed to call the games the same way they did all year, right? Ha. They have swallowed their whistles and are letting things go right and left; the difference is that they’re letting them go disproportionately.

Edmonton is a bunch of dirty cheaters. I said it. Those guys hook and paw and act like whiney babies all night long. They get a handful of penalties called and the announcers are like “those officials sure are taking care of business this year!” Sure. The Sharks are getting away with a few as well but we’re talking about the difference between getting away with a minor holding the stick call versus getting away with attempted murder on Milan Michalek (which should have been a five-minute major if not an ejection).

I mean come on, Ekman gets a 2-minute sit for not hearing a whistle and as a response he gets a pile driver from a tag team and they only get a two-minute roughing call? What? Unreal.

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