Ready For Motion Controls on PC? Valve & Razer thinks so!

[Thund3rball]

Razer, Sixense, and Valve Bringing Motion-Controls and Gesture-Recognition Hardware to PC Games - Shacknews - PC Games, PlayStation, Xbox 360 and Wii video game news, previews and downloads

Gaming hardware developer Razer has announced a new multi-year partnership with Sixense Entertainment and Valve Software to deliver a, "...revolutionary true-to-life, next-generation motion sensing and gesture recognition controller for PC gaming."

I have a feeling all this Natal/motion control etc... nonsense is going to go the way of VRML and Robbie the NES robot pretty darn fast.

One of the reasons for my PS3 purchase was so I could play a game on the couch without having to flail my arms around like an espresso filled Italian arguing politics, while playing Wii. I am not sure I want to stand around in front of my laptop or desktop and pretend I am Gordon Freeman and trying to line up headshots with my arms and yet to be seen controller. :\

Maybe I am wrong but to me it's all so gimmicky. There are few titles on Wii that really make sense of it all and good use of it. Just my 2 cents?

[muse108dc]

this and 3D TV/movies/games must die soon. They are both annoying and just plain bad for the most part

[YukonTrooper]

Originally Posted by muse108dc

this and 3D TV/movies/games must die soon. They are both annoying and just plain bad for the most part

Wait until you're sitting at home with your friends watching an awesome 3D movie or playing 3D games on your Xbox 1080 or Playstation 5 without the need for the glasses and all the 3D specific hardware. You'll realize all these steps in technology were worth it.

[Zero82z]

Useless gimmick. I'll stick with my mouse and keyboard, thank you very much.

[Thund3rball]

I am more than open to new ways to make games more immersive and above all fun, but I don't think this generation of motion controls is going to be it. Maybe something down the road will change my mind but this Wii bandwagon everyone is on right now is yet to impress me.

What it really comes down to are the games. Are they fun to play like this? Up until now I have only played some Wii games and seen Natal demos. Some Wii games do make decent use of motion controls. But that doesn't mean every game needs them. And the Natal demos look lamer than most of the shovelware you actually find on Wii so I am supremely skeptical there.

As for 3D... I have yet to play a game in 3D so I can't comment. But the investment required at this time is more than I am wiling to spend for the experience. Hell I haven't even seen Avatar in 3D yet, lol (going this Saturday!). $17/ticket for IMAX 3D!?! Better be worth it.

[muse108dc]

Originally Posted by YukonTrooper

Wait until you're sitting at home with your friends watching an awesome 3D movie or playing 3D games on your Xbox 1080 or Playstation 5 without the need for the glasses and all the 3D specific hardware. You'll realize all these steps in technology were worth it.

I actually highly doubt that, 3D was a fad a while back, say 10 or so years, it looks bad plain and simple. I can get enough depth from my flat monitor that its also completely unnecessary.

While my experience with 3D is limited I'll admit my opinion is not unfounded. Have seen several movies in 3D now and have played one game in 3D. And admittedly it is all with glasses but that glasses arent that huge an issue for me.

The movies I've seen do not benefit from 3D, you actually have to watch for the 3D before it makes any difference. There was one movie that I watched that it was absolutely no different at all until the end and that was them throwing something at the audience.

The games I've played actually gave me a disconnect from the game ontop of giving me a headache. Yes there was a little more depth perception, yes things looked a little more 3D but all it did was detract from the experience for me personally. It felt awkward and clunky, and playing it for a minute gave me a headache.

I fully believe that this is just a return of the fad, that it will die out within 5 years as it just wont be worth the effort or money. And until I'm proven otherwise, by glassesless 3D or by something else this is just a money grab by companies to get you to go out and buy anouther new TV that supports 3D. I believe this so much that I do believe that they will wait a few years before actually brining out glassesless 3D just so they can get more money, the same with 3D Bluray. There is a TV older than me in the house, a good TV that still supports 90% of things out there and the tech in that TV took 20 years to evolve, now we are getting it every year basically, the change is not the tech as much as the thinking of the companies that make the TVs. I will be watch the FIFA 2010 World Cup in 2.5D not in 3D

[Ritz]

Originally Posted by muse108dc

I actually highly doubt that, 3D was a fad a while back, say 10 or so years, it looks bad plain and simple.

Yea, with the red and blue filter glasses? That was terrible. But this is new technology. Full colour and much fewer headaches.

I can get enough depth from my flat monitor that its also completely unnecessary.

"I can get enough information from my black and white television. Colour is completely unnecessary." Come on now.

While my experience with 3D is limited I'll admit my opinion is not unfounded. Have seen several movies in 3D now and have played one game in 3D. And admittedly it is all with glasses but that glasses arent that huge an issue for me.

New movies using the RealD tech? If so, fine, but again, if we are talking about the red and blue filters, it's not like that anymore.

The movies I've seen do not benefit from 3D, you actually have to watch for the 3D before it makes any difference. There was one movie that I watched that it was absolutely no different at all until the end and that was them throwing something at the audience.

I saw Avatar in 2D first and really liked it. I then saw it in 3D and liked it more.

The games I've played actually gave me a disconnect from the game ontop of giving me a headache. Yes there was a little more depth perception, yes things looked a little more 3D but all it did was detract from the experience for me personally. It felt awkward and clunky, and playing it for a minute gave me a headache.

To be fair, I do not like the small experience I have had with NVIDIA's 3D game tech yet.

I fully believe that this is just a return of the fad, that it will die out within 5 years as it just wont be worth the effort or money. And until I'm proven otherwise, by glassesless 3D or by something else this is just a money grab by companies to get you to go out and buy anouther new TV that supports 3D. I believe this so much that I do believe that they will wait a few years before actually brining out glassesless 3D just so they can get more money, the same with 3D Bluray. There is a TV older than me in the house, a good TV that still supports 90% of things out there and the tech in that TV took 20 years to evolve, now we are getting it every year basically, the change is not the tech as much as the thinking of the companies that make the TVs. I will be watch the FIFA 2010 World Cup in 2.5D not in 3D

The graphics and printing industry stayed the same way for 500 years and then surprise! desktop publishing computers go mainstream and the industry changes about as quickly as the next version of Photoshop. Just because it's taken a while for tech to evolve in the past doesn't mean it will or should slow down despite massive improvements. Also, for reference, here is glassless 3D tech already being demoed: Intel shows off glasses-free 3D demo -- now this is more like it -- Engadget

And about motion control? It's evolving, it's going to get better. It won't replace the keyboard and mouse, but no need to wish death upon it.

[muse108dc]

Books have been good for thousands of years, and ebooks are not gaining any ground, the print industry has not changed that much. Theres an old saying, if it aint broke dont fix it. I get more pleasure from reading a good book than I do from watching 90% of movies made. Your argument is mute. And ontop of that there are many many movies that actually benefit from being in good old black and white, color detracts from them, not all, but quite a number.

The glassesless 3D still needs you to be basically strait dead and center on the TV, and as long as glasses are involved it will never work for medium to large groups.

The movie I saw was the Real3D and it made very little difference apart from the fact that the glasses barely fit my face which detracted from the experience. But I am glad that we can agree that the nVidia 3D gaming was just bad.

As for motion control, meh, you sacrifice too much but for say phones or casual games I have nothing against it, its just gimmicky. Course I'm biased, I dont even like the gamepad controllers for

[belgolas]

Well ebook readers are on the rise and selling like hotcakes. I would rather have an e-book reader with a thousand books than carrying a few books around.

3D is going to be very popular and now it seems like everything is now gonna have it. I really enjoyed Avatar in 3D and it made it look a lot better than the 2D version. Same with toy story 1 and 2 were made better with 3D. As far as gaming I own nvidia 3D Vision so I can actually make some claims about it. It is freaking amazing in some games while other games not so much. Some games it really improves the gameplay like for batman AA and Empire Total War. But there are a lot of games that don't use it very well. Some games give me headaches though so I don't like that. It is maturing but I don't think fully ready for the mass market. Once I can get a 30" 2560 x 1600 3D monitor than I will get back into 3D but for now it isn't that great of an overall experience. But some games look dam good with it.