This is a really tricky subject to talk about, as the only concrete evidence of motion controller superiority is the Nintendo Wii and let’s be honest, the novelty has worn off.

A few years back, Nintendo promised something great – Games with motion control, letting the player BE the game. Letting the player navigate great, epic worlds by merely using their hands and bodies… Wonderful, is it not?

Then reality came crashing down and countless of worthless gimmicky games later, here we are.

The Wii Motion Plus. (Yeah, Mario and Zelda were brilliant. I thought that Metroid Prime 3 was somewhat overhyped but, then again I never was a fan of the series)

What pisses me off about the Wii Motion Plus is that it’s three years fucking LATE. That’s what Nintendo promised in the first case, seamless 1-to-1 controllers with enough precision to make a fruit fly ejaculate.

And now what? Now the Wii Motion Plus has arrived in all of its overpriced glory and for what? Which brings me to the next contestant!

Sony’s Magic Wand… thingy.

Originally, I had nothing but good things to say about this. Even though I haven’t tried it in any way, it’s still a pretty interesting concept, if not a very new one at that.

Basically, it’s a Wii-mote BUT – it’s got teh CELL proces0rz… In all honesty, though, I believe that Sony’s Magic Wand will be big. (teehee!)

Why, you ask?

Well imagine it. We get true 1-to-1 controlling AND amazing graphics to boot. Haven’t you always secretly despised the Wii graphics? Sure, the controllers are great in many cases, but the graphics are out-dated. I’m not a graphics whore by any means, I happen to believe that story-driven gameplay goes before everything, but when you know that you can have something much better, why stay with Nintendo? I just hope that Sony realise the potential of their invention and don’t make the same mistake they did with the deceased EyeToy…

What they need to do? Get third party support! Capcom are already making Resident Evil 5 with the new motion control, getting more support would make many people seriously consider for which platform they decide to purchase a game. Just incorporating small things using the motion controller in a game could be well-worth the purchase. It could be something major like aiming, like RE5 and Dead Space or perhaps building entire games around it? According to sources, there will be an invasion of Wii titles on the PS3 coming along as soon as the Magic Wand ‘drops’ Spring 2010…

Speaking of third party support, I believe that I have forgotten someone…

Project Natal…

Oh dear… Okay, let’s tally up some facts?

I’m not going to go very in-depth into this, but here’s what I know and believe.

1. Microsoft does not have as many first-party developers as Sony.
2. Microsoft has interesting technology, but how much will it cost?
3. Project Natal is basically a glorified version of the EyeToy, in many ways. There’s no real link between the Player and the game.

I’ll explain it abit, I suppose.

Microsoft have shown that their Project Natal uses 3D tracking in order to send information to the 360 where it gets calculated etc… But my question is: How the hell is this going to work in gameplay?

As far as I know, Microsoft have shown only a handful of games for Natal, one of them being some sort of mini-game where you try to ricochet balls through a corridor and make them hit boxes in order to score. Fine, that could be fun when you’re drunk or if you’re eight. The other real GAME that I saw was not actually a full game, a copy of Burnout Paradise that had been altered to work using Natal.*

Which is awesome – sort of.

You see, you sit in your chair and keep your arms out like you’re holding a steering wheel and it looked to be very accurate, which is good! And then they showed how you accelerate – by pushing your foot slightly forward. OK…

My only question would be – Is this how every Natal game is going to work? Are they going to try to make hardcore FPS games with this control scheme? Running forward by pushing your foot forward and holding your arms up at all times, as if you’re holding a gun? Are you supposed to run in place to make Marcus Fenix move his overcompensating arse to that chest-high wall that just magically appeared between him and a slew of aliens? They can’t make us hold the 360 controller while running in place and acting like an idiot, that’s for sure.

I’m not saying that Natal will fail, but I am saying that it will take more than a little bit of thinking in order to get that idea to work properly. I don’t see Modern Warfare 3 being made for Natal, do you?

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