(And is that a good thing?)
With the release of the Playstation Move and Project Natal just over the ever-more imminent horizon, many gamers are beginning to act as if their consoles have recently developed a highly fatal and resistantly virulent strain of cancer. Is this recent and inescapable motion-fad going to deal the predicted and heavy blow to hardcore gaming, though? Well, if you were to take a look at Nintendo - currently drowning beneath the weight of it’s own shovel-ware - then you would be excused for thinking so. But hold on: as always, there’s another, more rational side to this argument if you’re willing to look below the miserable, pessimistic surface. Here are three reasons to remain bright and cheery this holiday season when the much-touted add-ons hit the Xbox 360 and PS3 come Christmas time.
1: Firstly, let’s take a look at what’s coming up on both platforms; believe it or not, but if you break through the cringingly false Colgate grins of strained, cheesy advertisement to glance at the upcoming release schedule then you’ll find a huge range of titles that are much, much more than the ‘casual’ fodder we’ve been led to expect up until this point. So far I can count a new Socom title for Move, LittleBig Planet interactivity as well, a nifty little game called Motion Fighter on the Playstation, confirmed Fable 3 compatibility for Natal (not to mention the hugely intelligent and fascinating Tamagotchi-style Milo and Kate project headed by Lionhead), Killzone 3 possibilities, rumours of a motion-sensing Joyride (the Xbox 360’s take on Mario Kart) and a huge selection of positively impressive third party developers cracking on with some very big projects of their own behind the scenes, too. Bethesda, Rare, Activision, Lucasarts - they’re all here, and if their impressive pedigree is anything to go by then it’s perfectly reasonable for you to get excited about the treats they may soon be throwing our way. Naturally there are going to be some duds here and there - Move Sports or a Natal 'fitness' rip-off, no doubt - but they certainly won’t be alone in the battle for your hard-earned cash. Conveniently, this brings me rather neatly onto my next point.
2: Next, let’s remember audiences: everyone knows about the Wii’s stunted, barren and limping hardcore/online library, right? Bearing this in mind, you could bet your bottom dollar that neither Microsoft nor Sony will want to miss out on such a blatant opportunity to plug a potentially profitable gap in the market. After all, isn’t the whole point of this exercise (and therein the appeal, no less) to mix the phenomenally social - and accessibly blasé - nature of Nintendo’s little white box with an undeniably great hardcore line up, serious and dependable internet play and a succulent layer of glorious HD? It’s also fairly safe to assume that both the Xbox and Playstation brands would be highly unwilling to loosen their chokeholds on (or to, indeed, alienate) the markets that respectively earn them millions, so don’t worry about a death of the more ‘traditional’ and orthodox titles either (look at the upcoming Gears of War 3, Infamous 2 and Halo Reach if you want any proof).
3: Finally, just think about it; with technology like full-facial, gesture and voice recognition, three-dimensional tracking, highly intelligent programming that can follow individual finger movements and ‘feature extraction’ of 20 joints per player, it’s fairly clear that we’re moving fast toward a dazzling future wh
ere creative, design and directive possibilities are becoming nigh-on endless. With this sort of technology in the hands of the industry’s best and brightest, doesn’t the mind boggle to imagine the sort of games that we can expect to enjoy over the coming years? If opening the doors to Natal and Move will lead to better, bigger and more impressive titles where the shackles are unlocked and the walls are truly being blown open to give gaming some much needed breathing space, surely it’s worth it? Yes, you’d be perfectly right to say that this is almost definitely the end of gaming as we know it, but does it mark the start of something better? Almost certainly.
With the release of the Playstation Move and Project Natal just over the ever-more imminent horizon, many gamers are beginning to act as if their consoles have recently developed a highly fatal and resistantly virulent strain of cancer. Is this recent and inescapable motion-fad going to deal the predicted and heavy blow to hardcore gaming, though? Well, if you were to take a look at Nintendo - currently drowning beneath the weight of it’s own shovel-ware - then you would be excused for thinking so. But hold on: as always, there’s another, more rational side to this argument if you’re willing to look below the miserable, pessimistic surface. Here are three reasons to remain bright and cheery this holiday season when the much-touted add-ons hit the Xbox 360 and PS3 come Christmas time.
1: Firstly, let’s take a look at what’s coming up on both platforms; believe it or not, but if you break through the cringingly false Colgate grins of strained, cheesy advertisement to glance at the upcoming release schedule then you’ll find a huge range of titles that are much, much more than the ‘casual’ fodder we’ve been led to expect up until this point. So far I can count a new Socom title for Move, LittleBig Planet interactivity as well, a nifty little game called Motion Fighter on the Playstation, confirmed Fable 3 compatibility for Natal (not to mention the hugely intelligent and fascinating Tamagotchi-style Milo and Kate project headed by Lionhead), Killzone 3 possibilities, rumours of a motion-sensing Joyride (the Xbox 360’s take on Mario Kart) and a huge selection of positively impressive third party developers cracking on with some very big projects of their own behind the scenes, too. Bethesda, Rare, Activision, Lucasarts - they’re all here, and if their impressive pedigree is anything to go by then it’s perfectly reasonable for you to get excited about the treats they may soon be throwing our way. Naturally there are going to be some duds here and there - Move Sports or a Natal 'fitness' rip-off, no doubt - but they certainly won’t be alone in the battle for your hard-earned cash. Conveniently, this brings me rather neatly onto my next point.
2: Next, let’s remember audiences: everyone knows about the Wii’s stunted, barren and limping hardcore/online library, right? Bearing this in mind, you could bet your bottom dollar that neither Microsoft nor Sony will want to miss out on such a blatant opportunity to plug a potentially profitable gap in the market. After all, isn’t the whole point of this exercise (and therein the appeal, no less) to mix the phenomenally social - and accessibly blasé - nature of Nintendo’s little white box with an undeniably great hardcore line up, serious and dependable internet play and a succulent layer of glorious HD? It’s also fairly safe to assume that both the Xbox and Playstation brands would be highly unwilling to loosen their chokeholds on (or to, indeed, alienate) the markets that respectively earn them millions, so don’t worry about a death of the more ‘traditional’ and orthodox titles either (look at the upcoming Gears of War 3, Infamous 2 and Halo Reach if you want any proof).
3: Finally, just think about it; with technology like full-facial, gesture and voice recognition, three-dimensional tracking, highly intelligent programming that can follow individual finger movements and ‘feature extraction’ of 20 joints per player, it’s fairly clear that we’re moving fast toward a dazzling future wh
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