Geek: PS3 Motions, 360 Gestures, and Wii Demos ...

We love video games. In fact, at the Drafting Dojo we own several consoles and gaming computers. From Pac Man to Resident Evil 5 we love all kinds of video games. MMO’s, FPS’s and RPG’s are all candidates for our entertainment dollars and wasted hours. And best of all, videogames combine our love of toys and gadgets! So, needless to say, we like to keep a watchful eye on the gaming industry news. And what bigger news was there lately than E3.

Par for course there was plenty of news to come out of the 2009 E3. Whether you reading about the PSP Go or watching the trailer for Super Mario Galaxy 2, there was something to interest just about every kind of gaming fan. While we love software announcements (we’ll save that for another post) we especially love to read and hear about new hardware. And this year’s E3 was not short on the hardware.

Especially interesting to us is the state of the human interface model in this, the seventh generation of gaming consoles. From the beginning the gaming industry’s main shortcoming has always been the controller. The art of mapping a game character’s full range of animation to a handful of buttons on a plastic controller is a dark one indeed. No matter how hard a developer tries, the act of initiating a jump or punch by pressing a button is a serious detriment to a player’s suspension of disbelief.

Now that the seventh generation of gaming consoles has hit its full stride (depending on who you speak to) we are beginning to see a true evolution of game interface devices. We are seeing hardware manufacturers trying to integrate human movements directly into the human interface system.

In the early 1990’s the idea of allowing players to control games through hand motions went to retail shelves in the form of Nintendo’s Power Glove. It was less than successful, to be polite. However the potential was undeniable and it seeded an entire grove of ideas that are ripening today in the form of motion control. The most common of which today is also a Nintendo product. Unlike the Power Glove, the Nintendo Wii’s marketing has made the concept of motion control an easily accepted and somewhat demanded concept among gamers.

So it is no surprise that game controllers were a mainstay of hardware manufacturer press conferences at this year’s E3. Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo all came out with new approaches to controlling games.

Sony is hoping that the addition of a motion control scheme will help its ailing consoles sales. While the technical demo was ... ok, it really lacked any kind of real zing. In short, we were bored. Of course Sony made certain to point out that the unit being displayed was a “prototype”. The controller unit had a giant translucent ball on top that lit up with different colors. Representatives explain that the globe was necessary for recognition by Sony’s EyeToy, which by all accounts did not work well on its own.

Microsoft’s presentation was far more interesting. Not only because their implantation is more interesting but because they had a cool code name: Project Natal. Taking the concept of integrated cameras to a new level Microsoft has created a TV top bar that has two cameras, a microphone and an infrared system to recognize motion, images and sounds. It is a very intricate system that allows players to interact with the Xbox 360 without that aid of any controller at all. Even though this system lacked a game play demo and a release date, there is no doubt that this is exciting technology.

That is until Lionhead Studios' Peter Molyneux introduced Lionhead’s proof of concept project: Milo. Essentially Milo is a young virtual boy who lives in a digital world players interact with through the Project Natal interface. Milo's facial recognition goes beyond identification to recognizing expressions. And Milo’s reactions are weighted with their own set of expressions, vocal inflections and actions. The player interacts with Milo on levels initiated by the player and also by Milo himself. The concept is fascinating but entirely too creepy for us. Frankly if we had to live with Milo we’d give up gaming.

Lastly, Nintendo weighs in with an entirely obvious concept in gaming that may change the idea of what should be standard playing options in every game. Nintendo calls it “Demo Mode”. The idea is so simple that every player in the world is saying “Why didn’t I think of that”. As a player progresses through any game there are bound to be portions which prove difficult and require repeated attempts to proceed past. Nintendo has developed a system where a player who has decided that this frustration has begun to detract from the pleasure of game play may activate a mode where the game will “play itself”. The game will autonomously continue until the difficult portion of the game has been completed. At that point the player can disengage the Demo Mode and continue playing the game. While Nintendo’s interface option may not be an actual interface model at all it does have one thing the other two do not. It is actually has a release title. The upcoming “New Super Mario Bros. Wii” will feature Demo Mode.

All of these innovations should prove to provide some interesting times for console gaming in years to come. Whether Sony’s prototype motion controller or Microsoft’s Project Natal actually make it to market or not they have already peaked the curiosity of an entire industry as to the possibilities. And only time will tell if Nintendo’s Demo Mode does anything other than promote the image of the Wii being for casual players only or not. However you look at it E3 2009 was where Sony added motion to controllers, Microsoft removed controllers and Nintendo told players they don't have to control. All in all. it was an exciting one ...

- KFD -