CNN Hands-On With The Revolution

The Game Over column over at CNN has a hands-on look look at the Nintendo Revolution and its unique little controller. From the article: "By adding an auxiliary thumbstick controller, I was able to play through a level of a retrofitted 'Metroid Prime 2' (a GameCube game). Confession time: When it comes to console shooters, I'm terrible. I can finish them, but I'm nowhere near as competent as I am with my mouse/keyboard setup for the PC. In the early stages of the 'Metroid' demo, it looked like this trend would continue, as I was all over the screen. By mid-way, though, I was better able to move and aim - and enjoyed the game far more than I did with the GameCube controller. ('Metroid' fans... well, you're probably already pretty excited.)"

Comments

First-Person Shooters?

[VickiM]

Seems like someone finally let the reviewer play the demos that came out a long while back.

"I was a developer for many years before my current role, but I've never been a very good gamer," Nintendo president Satoru Iwata told me. "I've never been able to control a first-person shooter, but as soon as I used the Revolution controller, I found it very easy to control the game. So, I think that's a genre that's particularly well suited for the controller."

I'm not sure first-person shooters would be the way to go, given comments in other threads about the 360. People who play FPS seem to want HD. I personally can't wait to try out the new controller and console, though. I'm hoping the controller inspires more creativity in game developers.

Re:First-Person Shooters?

[Ark42]

480p is a big deal vs 480i, especially for first person shooters. First off, interlacing is really annoying to look at if you move around really fast, but more importantly, 480i is more-or-less 240 lines. 480p is twice the vertical resolution, at 60 frames per second. 480i is only 30 frames per second, with 2 half-height interlaced fields per frame. Plus, many old regular TVs are lucky if that can achieve 400x300 pixels realistically, so you might be looking at near 3x the detail level simply by playing at 480p on an HDTV. Thats about the same different from going to 720p from 480p. Also, I would consider 1080i to be a step down from 480p, since interlacing is that annoying.

You know

[Shad_the_protector]

When I first heared of that controller, I just laugh, and couldn't stop. I was thinking Nintendo was doing another big mistake. But the more I check, and the more I inform myself on "Next-Gen" console, Nintendo is the only one I see making a actually "Next-Gen" imporvement. For now X-Box360 is only very upgraded version of a X-Box. As for what we know of Sony right now, well, it is not much of a different case. Nintendo are trying something new. And actually they are doing better than I expected from the information we actually got, and lately my GC entertained me better than my ps2. I'm seriously considering to switch from Sony to Nintendo for my next primary console....

Revolution Controller Rumble

[funny-jack]

I seem to recall that there has been some debate as to whether the Revolution controller will contain rumble. From the article:

...and try some fishing by 'feeling' fish nibble on the line (via a rumble effect)...

Just thought I would point that out.