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The Future of My Gaming? on Game and Player

The Future of My Gaming?

Jessica Johnson  //  July 3, 2010


Sure, I'll try it at E3, but would I keep it in my house?

W

e live in a time where companies are constantly searching for the next fad to outdo their competitors. Three such examples present were at E3 this year: Microsoft's Kinect, Nintendo's 3DS and the PlayStation Move. After the noise and hoopla died down, I thought good and hard about my firsthand experiences with each product. My bottom line: Sure, I'll try it at E3, but would I keep it in my house?


Kinect

Did anyone else notice that Kinectimals is the real world product from the Milo demonstration at last year's Microsoft conference? It was also the most underwhelming game in the entire lineup for Kinect. I circled the several casual games that were available to play at the Microsoft compound, but none of them struck my fancy.

During our walk-about through the main all we happened upon a stand-alone booth for Party In Motion where I flapped my hands wildly and stepped on imaginary skulls in a wack-a-mole type game. No configuring was involved — the Kinect camera immediately knew where my hands and feet were. As amazing as it was, the accuracy on the screen was comparable to that of the standard Wiimote.

The only basis on which Chris Reay and I were actually impressed was the fact that the placeholder price tag of $150 is actually a steal compared to what one might end up spending on Wiimote or Move accessories. On top of that, Kinect will allow you to control your Xbox 360 with your voice. With your voice! All in all, Kinect will have a lot to prove this November.


3DS

According to Chris, "Nintendo has finally given me a reason to give them my money." Oh, how this brilliant piece of technology dazzled us all. Where do I even begin?
The device itself looks just like a DS or DSi with the exception of an analog joystick, two extra cameras on the back side and a switch that lets you change from 3D to 2D at will. Intrigued yet?

The first demonstration I watched was Super Paper Mario. As an intro to the 3DS it was pretty unremarkable. The third dimension involved a simple shadow below the main panel of interaction.

But then I saw Metal Gear Solid: Snake Eater. Wow! This demo was utterly amazing. Not only did it look like a full 3D movie playing on a tiny screen, but I started to get a headache as I normally do from this sort of thing. Yeah, it's 3D, alright. It was as if I were this floating camera following Snake around the jungle. He dodged arrows that flew into my face, crawled along the dirt between giant plants, but neither compared to the moment when he was running from the most dastardly thing anyone could imagine — bees.

The best part was when the entire swarm flew from behind your point of view and then through you as if you weren't even there. It was definitely a life-changing experience, as you may have asserted from Chris' reaction, however I will not be spending a dime on the 3DS. Why? It makes me cross-eyed and gives me a headache, it only works at a particular angle and distance from your face, and if you like to spectate — like I do — it will not be 3D but a garbled mess. For now I will stick to my tried and true enormous red DS.


Move

Sure it seems Sony is a bit late in the game, but thanks to some undercover espionage Chris was able to get a chance to play SOCOM 4 with a PlayStation Move controller. Is it any different from the Wiimote? Chris says that it feels more accurate and has less "wiggle" when aiming at something on the screen. That's probably a good thing since he was playing a game where you must accurately shoot at people. But would he trade a controller for the glowing ice cream cone? No way.

The only other interesting thing of note is the fact that motion controller and the navigation controller (akin to the Wii nunchuck) are treated as the left and right side of a regular PS3 controller, yet they connect as separate devices to the console. This means that you may only use four motion controllers alone, or two with their paired navigation controller. Also, why does the navigation controller have another X and O button? Is there some strange universe where PS3 games need more than one X button?




James Day // July 6, 2010 // 5:11 PM

Sounds like a "meh" on all fronts.

For me, Kinect and Move lacked titles to pique my interest save for maybe Dance Central should I pluck up the courage for it.

I'm still on the fence with 3D gaming and movies in general but with substantial horsepower and huge developer support it seems inevitable that the 3DS will take the world by storm.


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