Thoughts on the Motion Control Battle
As expected, Nintendo showed WiiMotion Plus, which upgrades Wii’s motion control functionality to include 1:1 control. Sony offered something very similar, while Microsoft showed a controller-less full-body motion control system. Here are my thoughts on all three:
WiiMotionPlus is essentially delivering the PlayStation Motion Control tech right now, as opposed to a year from now. It can deliver true one-to-one replication, as shown in the Wii Sports Resort swordfighting trailer. Whether Red Steel 2’s canned animations are a result of Wii’s limited processing power or a style choice remains to be seen but I think the potential is there because the Wii can deliver fairly solid graphics (See Conduit, ect) just not HD-quality.
I’m fairly excited for Sony’s tech because it seems to finally live up to the promise of Sixaxis: motion control + HD graphics. They seem intent on delivering what the “hardcore” Wii games have failed to do for one reason or another. However, I wonder how many people are going to pick up the peripheral and how they’re going to convince developers that it’;s worth the extra time/money to include real motion control functionality.
I’m very excited about Microsoft’s plans after hearing from some people that the core technology is fairly solid, even if Milo was mostly staged. If it’s cheap enough, being able to use a Minority Report style system for moving around the menu and voice activating things (especially for media playback) could be interesting.
I do think that controllers that provide resistance are necessary. The Tony Hawk RIDE guys said that they couldn’t replicate the game on Natal because there’d be nothing to kick or grab.
Nonetheless, I think that Nintendo’s approach will be the most successful because motion control is (imo) best suited for short burts gameplay. Trying to get through a 8-10 hour FPS that required 1:1 motion (like Wii+ or Sony) will be strenuous, doing the same with Microsoft’s full body solution will probably wear out all the but most hardcore.
