Gaming in motion.

I was really excited about the Wii before its release.  Its potential for shooters and applications as a media device were boggling my mind; I was so excited.  Then I found out it had about the same power as a PS2 stuck to an Xbox with no DVD playback capabilities and my dreams were crushed.  It was to be my console of choice for this generation but I caved.  My friend got one and I tried Red Steel on it, that killed the ideal for me and I lost faith in motion control.

I realised that motion controls are not immersive, not without the visual stimuli of the more powerful consoles, anyway.  Far from feeling like I was sword fighting in Red Steel, I felt like exactly what I was - a young man waving a white remote control around in his mates house, to little effect in-game.

Nintendo have released the motion plus now, of course, but from what I hear that's not revolutionary either.

When Microsoft announced 'Project Natal' I was ashen faced.  All my faith in them was questioned in the face of this attempt to attract the casual gamers.  Now I've no problem with casual gamers, it's great that more people are getting in to this wonderful hobby.  I just see how Nintendo abandoned the core market in its entirety and I feared M$ would do the same.  In truth it's probably my least favourite of the now announced motion sensing devices.  The abandonment of buttons is the abandonment of me.  Vocal cues in games using the mic could be interesting, but I'm not interested in acting out one of my war games.  I like my war games to suck me in, not make it apparent to me that I'm fannying around in my front room as opposed to holding off an enemy army.

It was after thinking this that I realised that the most immersive that games have been is with the combination of high quality visuals and high quality sound.  When I play Battlefield and there's mortars landing all around me, enemy tanks driving up a path towards my position and troops following closely behind it is when I feel truly IN the game.  The pounding explosions, the distant echo of gunfire in my deafened ears and the screams and shouts of my allies and enemies alike.  These draw me in.  The dust kicked up around a tank when it fires, the shattered particles of brick and mortar and the chunks of scrap metal kicked up from a crashing helicopter.  These draw me in!

I recently took a sharp dip in the sea, and it was bone freezingly cold.  My muscles seized up from the sudden chill and my breathing grew sharp.  Bioshock 1 and 2 do a great job of simulating this, the sudden attack of cold water on your person.  The sharp sounds and detailed visual bring similar experiences back and set us on edge.

If the idea of modern gaming is to provide an experience that is akin to what the game is conveying then why are we trying to make people run around a living room while doing it?  Considering the irritating, imprecise and unimmersive experiences I've had with the Wii, in contrast to the bone crushing, shocking, breathtaking and immersive experiences I've had with my XBOX.  I don't think motion control is going anywhere.

I wait eagerly to be proven wrong!