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E3 Controller Previews
spides writes: "If you thought the original X-Box controller was huge, you're in for a rude awakening. At E3 this past week, Microsoft and Capcom unveiled their 40 button control station for the X-Box's 'realistic' mech simulator Steel Battalion. On the same day, Nintendo and Sega unveiled the new keyboard peripheral for use with the Gamecube version of Phantasy Star Online, which can only be described as the world's largest conventional controller with a keyboard stuck between the directional pad and the usual buttons."
except in the case of xbox controllers. i guess those developers must be giants over at redmond..
Me email iz skyewalkerluke at microsoft's free email service.
"We have historically seen the game industry pave the trail for the military. Doom. Quake. Combat. The list goes on."
Does it? I thought the idea of using rockets and machine guns and assault rifles came during the Second World War, silly me, it came from id software.
"I think that the next thing we can expect is military vehicles with this kind of high-tech controller. Imagine a tank or helicopter with 40 buttons."
From the fighters, cargo planes and helicopters I've seen, there are more than 40 buttons in the cockpit.
"but names like Sony and Linux are going to be very important to security and stability in this new world we are forging."
Names like Colt, Armalite, Boeing, BAe, Airbus, General Dynamics Land Systems and FLIR are going to be much more important.
I'm pretty sure Capcom realizes that this isn't going to sell a million copies, it's not like they're trying to compete with Mario here. This controller is meant for one game and one game only, and it's supposed to simulate a mech. I'd say that this custom controller is probably better than immersing you in that experience than a keyboard and mouse would be. Give them some credit for having the balls to put money into the development of something completely different (that probably won't sell) while most other devs are just trying to copy the hot title of the month.
I wonder how long it will be before the console game world realizes that a good solid keyboard and a small, comfortable mouse are the best controllers available.
Ask anyone who's really good at Q3 or any other FPS what they'd rather use, a kb/mouse combo or a gamepad, and I'm pretty sure the answer is kb/mouse.
I think it's only a matter of time before we see game consoles come standard with keyboards and perhaps mice as well. A nice optical mouse preferrably to avoid the nasty mouse pad problem in the living room.
But then if game consoles came with keyboards and mice, wouldn't they just be PCs with S-Video or Composite video outputs? Well, for all intenseive purposes they are for the most part. Look at Linux for Sony PS/2 and Sega Genesis and wonder how long it will be before someone cracks the X-box and ports Linux to it also.
Me personally, I guess I'll just keep my trusty PC with a GeForce3 w/ s-video output hooked up to my TV so that I can play PC games like NFS5 and Quake3 on the big screen, and remember the old days when games were good because of the game play, not the graphics with my MAME and NES emulators.
Duris MUD - The best pkill MUD. Ever.
mmm, this Score:5 Funny post is gonna be even funnier once lowtax changes that linked pic to something [b]awful[/b]! har har... yarr.
It's amazing how Nintendo put enough thought into the development of the GameCube to make it keyboard ready.
All they need now is the ability to plug a tape drive into the keyboard, and they'll catch back up to where they were back in the early 1980's with the Famicom.
Who know, maybe even NS-HUBASIC (Nintendo, Sharp, Hudson) will be updated for the GameCube one of these days.... Okay, so probably not. The point stands, Nintendo tried the console-computer-entertainment-center thing way before PS2 or X-Box. This time around, don't count on seeing Gamecube try to pretend it's anything besides a game console.
Is it just me, or does anyone else want to avoid paying $30+ for a controller you can only use for one game, on top of the $50+ price tag for the game itself?
There have been several games in the past where the price of the controller is more than the game itself, but the controller literally makes the game. I can think of two examples right now: Dance Dance Revolution (or any bemani game) and Samba de Amigo. Both of these games are fun in and of themselves with the standard controller, but throw in the peripherals, and stand back!
I, for one, spent $50 on Samba then $100 on two sets of maracas. (You heard me correctly. Maracas.) It's an instant party, and a unique game experience you really can't duplicate any other way. Sometimes it's worth it to spend.
Where the wind blows, the tumbleweed goes.
There's a thing to be said about blanket statements like that...
FPS games work best with a keyboard mouse, but how about a fighting game? And then there's other options, like a trackball for marble madness or the many other alternatives mentioned in the comments.
It depends on the game, and it just happens that PC games are developed with the KB and mouse in mind and console games are developed with controllers in mind. When Morrowind comes out for XBOX, it will be interesting to see how much it changes simply to accomodate the controller.
Robots are everywhere, and they eat old people's medicine for fuel.
Damnit, it is right between just right and a tad wee bit to small.
:)
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:) )
Since when the heck did midgets become the number one player of console games? Yeesh.
Now the one fault that I _DO_ have with the X-Box controller (and all of the other next gen console system controllers for that matter) is how few buttons the player can access at once.
I remember on the SNES controller that you could push any of 4 out of 6 buttons, not half bad. On the N64 controller it was (uh, 1,2,3,4,5,6) out of 8 buttons at once. Kick ass.
On the X-Box it is like 3 or 4 out of how ever many. Yah I know the main analog joystick also presses down, but it is SOO awful that you likely change the joysticks heading at the same time. NOT a good thing, sorry, doesn't count. Not to mention how fricking dinky some of those buttons are, yeesh. Talk about all pad and no buttons!
The PS2 has the same problem that the PS1 did, dinky ass controller, makes me feel like I am using a Pocket Gameboy to control my Console with. Ick. Cramped as hell.
The original N64 controller SEEMED like it was a pain in the ass, and indeed I got an alternate controller and used it for quite some time, but after awhile I was forced to go back to the original pack-in controller and I then realized how kick-ass it was. Yah!
The GameCube has a similar problem to the X-Box, not nearly enough buttons can be pushed at once. But then again Lord Miyamoto says that he plans on designing games that require less buttons to play, so I am not going to complain too much about that one. If the entire console is designed for fewer buttons then OK, but the other consoles out there seem dedicated to using all of the buttons on the control pad but just bunching them up in remote clusters around a pad and making the whole entire thing horribly unergonomic. Yuck.
On the plus side, 40 key gamepads will be quite nice. When I was well into playing Half-Life (since given it up, CS is so painfully slow compared to the frantic strategic action of HLDM) I had at least 20 keys bound on my keyboard and a nine button mouse. . .
;D
(I still have my two original NES advantage joysticks, yes, two of them. Now THOSE where some well built controllers!
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You cheap bastard.
Just what I needed, a controller that requires 6 additional hands to operate.
Even though I'm pretty much with you on this one; I think it's going to be cool to see gaming controllers that don't require 6 extra fingers and 36 extra key combinations to play.
I played hours of Soldier Of Fortune on the Dreamcast with the standard controller... god I wish I had a keyboard. I died every five minutes the first few times because the button config was horrible.
I mean... if you've played any FPS after Team Fortress Quake (#1) on up you know how many 'bindings' you must make and how the games are more like Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing.
Get your Unix fortune now!
The cool thing about Atari's pad was that it was designed to take different overlay templates for the buttons. Thus, once you had the pad the games only needed to bundle an appropriate template you could overlay on the pad.
This has the obvious advantage of making on controller re-useable, but it also meant buttons were correctly labled for the game - rather than having buttons AA through ZZ Alpha Plural Beta Z.
"They do not preach that their god will rouse them, a little before the Nuts work loose." Kipling, 'The Sons of Martha'
$150 for the package is sort of the high end...
Otherwise, you'll be paying more for this one game than you will for the XBox itself.
Heck, that might be a great promo: Buy Steel Battalion and get XBox for free!
I don't see why the xbox and game cube can't just work with regular old usb mice and keyboards. Xbox does use usb for its controllers. Playstation2 has a couple usb ports on it which enable some games to use the keyboard.
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