Leveled Up 11.04.09: Motion Sickness
Posted by Joshua Richey on 11.04.2009
Is motion control here to stay or a gimmick that'll fade away? We'll find out this time next year.
Fall is finally here. That means that the leaves are falling, the Browns are already out of playoff contention, and the gaming industry is getting amped for the releases of their biggest titles. Over the next few weeks we're going to see games like Modern Warfare 2, Assassin's Creed 2, Left 4 Dead, and about thirteen more Rock Band and Guitar Hero games hit store shelves. Not a bad year in the slightest, but 2009 is nothing compared to the craziness that will be ensuing this time next year. In this week's edition of Leveled Up, we're going to look at the insanity that will be fall, 2010.
Whether we like it or not, 2010 is going to bring in a lot of changes for us as gamers. Microsoft will be launching Project Natal; Sony will be releasing their motion controller; and Nintendo is rumored to have an upgraded Nintendo Wii planned for a fall 2010 launch as well. All three companies are fully backing motion control gameplay as the future, but am I the only one that doesn't like where things are headed?
I give all the kudos in the world to Nintendo for coming up with the concept behind the Wii. I loved their "let Microsoft and Sony battle it out, we're going to go do our own thing" attitude about it all. That took balls. The risk to launch a console that was more about gameplay and innovation over style and appearance paid off big time. The novelty of the Nintendo Wii made it a must have. Everyone wanted one. Heck, my old-as-fuck neighbor, the guy that drives a Roadster and spends his entire paycheck at the titty bar down in the ghetto every Friday night, he had one. I doubt that guy even had a TV. With all of that success, it was only a matter of time before Nintendo's competitors followed suit.
Enter Project Natal.
Ever since Project Natal and Sony's "wand-thingie" were shown at E3, my stance on them both has been an effortless, "ugh". Sure, the demo for Ricochet on the Natal looked fun, but how quickly is that going to get old? And don't get me started on the Milo demo. I love Peter Molyneux as much as the next guy, but there's no fucking way that game works the way that it did in that controlled environment. So aside from those, what else did the Natal try to sell us on? You can navigate through your dashboard by waving your hands in the air? That's neat, I guess. Or, you know, I could just push over on the D-Pad. No biggie. They also try to glorify the idea of playing games where you drive racecars and battle monsters with no controllers. Umm, excuse me, but what the hell is wrong with controllers all of a sudden? I don't want to stomp around my living room like that little kid does. Look at it again; he looks like a complete ‘tard while playing that.
I completely understand that motion controlled games were created to get a more casual audience to embrace their product, but I just had this feeling that companies like Microsoft were going to try to force that new technology onto developers. That bad feeling was confirmed this last week when Peter Molyneux said that Fable 3 would incorporate Project Natal. That didn't please me one bit.
This time next year we'll have the Wii, the Wii Fit, Project Natal, the PS3 wand, and even more guitar playing games. Can anyone tell me what's so wrong with just wanting to sit on my ass and play video games?
I'm working on a better name, but I needed a little something to make my column look bigger. Size does matter after all.
MY BLOG: So I have this blog thing that I update several times a day. You know you want to read it. Well click here to read the Totally Fappable blog. I apologize for its suckiness ahead of time.
TWITTER: Have you noticed that when you try to explain what Twitter is to someone, it always ends up sounding like the dumbest and most pointless thing ever? That aside, I have a Twitter. You can add me.
OMG! WE'LL BE FRIENDS!
LEFT 4 DEAD DEMO: I've been addicted to the Left 4 Dead 2 demo. It's amazing. They took a game that I absolutely loved from last year and enhanced every single aspect of it. Can't wait to pick up my copy.
PRINCE OF PERSIA TRAILER: Have you checked out the trailer for Prince of Persia yet? If not, click here and give it a looksie. I'll be honest, I wrote this thing off back when Jake Gyllenhaal was hired. But the trailer looks really good.
CARPAL TUNNEL: I've only been back here at 411Mania for a week, but holy shit did I do a lot of writing! I did Fact or Fiction last Monday; I did my first Leveled Up on Wednesday; I did Top 5 on Thursday; I reviewed Groovin' Blocks for the iPhone on Sunday; and I reviewed Word Spin for the iPhone on Monday. All this writing is really cutting into my porn alone time.
ASSASSIN'S CREED: Assassin's Creed is one of those games that I just failed to play. I'm pretty sure that it came out around the time of Bioshock and a lot of other "must play" games, and I just never got around to it. However, I did hear good things. With the release of Assassin's Creed II upon us, I figured now was the best time to check it out. I nabbed it from Best Buy a few weeks ago for $29.99. I've been playing it here and there ever since, but I think I've come to the conclusion that I don't like it.
What am I missing, people? The combat is annoying as hell, the dialogue scenes that you're forced to sit through are torturous, and the parkour-inspired gameplay isn't as fun as I thought it would be. Plus the missions are repetitious and, ugh, I just don't like it. But they were smart to put Kristen Bell in it. OMG! I love that girl.
And on that note, you'll have to excuse me as I go take some...alone time. Appreciate you reading. Check back next week.
