There is no doubt that there are games that deserve a place at the top for being fun titles, such as Wii Sports and Mario Galaxy, but, at the end of the day, they stopped at being fun titles to play. There are other serious titles that did not meet expectations as the motion sensing failed to deliver complete control. An example of this was Red Steel, where the point and shoot method grew old and was fairly slow and inaccurate. If there really is a place for motion sensing in console gaming, there will have to be massive improvements made to current implementations for it to wipe off the stigma of being a novelty, and MS looks to be on the right track. The idea of having a 3D camera sense body movement for video games is one where many may confuse some at first, but actually is very simple and extremely promising. Player movements will simply be detected taking into account certain aspects such as distance and position, similar to that of Microsoft’s existing Xbox Live Vision Camera or Sony’s Eye Toy. The difference here though is that there is now a perception of distance. There is no need for players to hold anything while playing games with a camera, which should save a few TV sets.
Demonstrations of various games have been shown so far, such as flying a plane where the player can simulate a steering wheel with their hands. The camera picks up the intended direction down to the smallest detail, such as finger movements used to fire guns, etc. Another demo involved a boxing game where the response speed compared to Wii Sports Boxing is much improved. Players can duck, move to the side and bob and weave in real-time making a more real experience that looks very impressive. The possibilities for this technology are practically endless. Actions like shooting a gun or throwing a grenade by simply imitating those real actions is possible with this new technology, which could make for much more immersive experiences. This is certainly a step in the right direction, but as far as we can see, there will always be a need for an old-fashioned analogue controller in console gaming. However, we suppose many said the same about the joystick a long time ago. The fact is, technology is changing everyday and the general public does not notice, mainly because we are stuck with our familiar console from the past, leaving curious gamers having to wait and see how we will play the next generation of games. Stay tuned for more on the motion-sensing controller, and other rumors as PlanetXbox360.com covers the 2009 E3 Expo next week, directly from Los Angeles, CA.
