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."

Comments

new game cube controller

[jeffehobbs]

courtesy of Something Awful:

http://www.somethingawful.com/news/8-28-2000/ninte ndo/controller.jpg

~jeff

Cost issues?

[Geeyzus]

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?

I could see it if they had a "generic" keyboard controller you could use for any games with a keyboard... but having to purchase a new game (no doubt bundled with the new controller) over and over will become tedious, if it is the route consoles are taking.

I would like to see an alternative to these... button/direction combos, or on-screen keyboards, however tedious they may be, simply so there is a lower-cost option.

Then again these are the types of things you can always pick up at a super cheap price from used games stores like FunCoLand a year or so later, so maybe it's not all bad...

Mark

Another review not slashdotted.

[t0qer]

Here
is another review if the /. effect is preventing you from seeing the other one.

Since everybody just wants to look at the pictures

[torinth]

Found this elsewhere:

The 40-button behemoth

-Andrew