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PS3 Controller Flimsy, Wii Controller Fun

With the advent of new input styles in the PS3 and Wii, many gamers are wondering what it will be like to actually play with the new controllers. Via Aeropause, an article on IGN says that the SIXAXIS controller is flimsy and poorly designed. Meanwhile, via Joystiq, an article on British site Entertainmentwise reports that the Wii isn't physically exhausting at all, as some people feared. After two hours of playtime, in fact, they loved the experience. From the article: "Some gamers have shown concern that the activity level required to play Wii games, especially the sporty titles, may be too high. There are concerns that you have to stand for long periods of time and use body actions such as swinging your arm above your head or at the side of your body. After playing non stop for two hours, did this happen to me? No. I'm not exactly Wonder woman in terms of fitness and I can assure you, as a regular player there was enough action to warrant perhaps making sure one has access to a tap before playing (you're going to want a drink if you play for as long as we did!) and possibly ensuring plenty of moving around space in your living room. The key to the Wii control is that even the most active title on the launch line up, Wii Sports, doesn't require you to make large body motions unless you want to."

12 of 222 comments (clear)

  1. Great News by kmhebert · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Everyone I have talked to about Wii was concerned about the need to constantly move around in order to interact with the system. Frankly people seemed concerned that they would look "stupid". I can't wait to try these games, I believe that the Wii Remote and Nunchuck controllers will allow real 3D control over 3D environments for the very first time, it seems like it's going to be nonstop fun.

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    1. Re:Great News by AKAImBatman · · Score: 5, Insightful
      Frankly people seemed concerned that they would look "stupid"...
      ...all while bouncing around on a Dance Dance Revolution machine.

      The double-standard of this "I'll look stupid" and "it's too much exercise" argument kills me. DDR was one of the most popular games in history (greatly improving PS2 & Dancepad sales), yet people worry about holding a remote control? The way I figure it, most couch warriors are used to holding remotes. There's not much on TV, so it's *flip* *flip* *flip*. Plenty of exercise for warming up to the Wii. ;)

      The one part of the article that really stuck out at me, though, was the comment that "large motions is how you have fun". I don't know how many people here have played Laser Tag-type games, but the sweeps and motions you make with your weapon are quite different when you're relaxed and when you're pumped. When you're relaxed, your reaction time is extremely slow. You tend to use extremely fine movements in attempts to aim, and may even tilt your wrist quite a bit. Yet when you're pumped, you work the floor, dodging, sweeping, and rolling. Your arm is primarily used for targetting, and you gain quite a bit of precision because of it.

      It's just a lot more fun to get up and exercise. It releases a lot of good hormones that make you enjoy yourself. Besides, there's nothing quite like professionally strapping on your gear, just to have the guy next to you asking, "Have you ever played this before?" Oh yeah, bring it on. :D
  2. So this isn't a direct comparison? by hal2814 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This post is grabbing one review for one piece of hardware and comaring it to a completely different review of another piece of hardware? That's just silly. Somebody let me know when there are some side-by-side comparisons of both controllers actually comparing the featuresets and performance of each.

    1. Re:So this isn't a direct comparison? by hal2814 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      But we're not looking at apples and oranges. They're both gaming controllers. They have an awful lot in common. A single review (or even two reviews that review the same metrics) would be a much better defense of the headline than the rather disjointed reviews they've used up here.

    2. Re:So this isn't a direct comparison? by i+kan+reed · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I started to agree with you. Then I realized that these are games we're talking about. They should be fun. Well constructed controllers are great, but if it feels or seems wrong, then, in terms of what a game system needs, it is wrong. A feature for feature comparison will never tell you that.

    3. Re:So this isn't a direct comparison? by hal2814 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      "So if you wanted to get a reveiw of cars, would you completely ignore any review by a site that only did a review of one of the cars you wanted?"

      No, but automobile reviews contain actual measurable data more often than not. I can get actual metrics from one vehicle and compare it to the same metrics gathered elsewhere for another vehicle. I sure wouldn't go take one person's personal impressions of the car and put them up against one other person's personal impressions of another car, especially if one of the cars in question wasn't even the focal point of one of the reviews but merely a side commentary.

      For the Slashdot editors to trot this crap out as some sort of legitimate comparison is deplorable.

  3. Yeah, and... by ivan256 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ...PSP UMDs come flying out like throwing stars during normal gameplay all the time...

    Forgive me if I'm a bit skeptical of a negative review of a Sony product before it is even released. I'll wait until I see a demo unit and judge for myself.

    1. Re:Yeah, and... by ciw42 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      They may not be available to the general public yet, but these guys have actually played with the respective controllers, so it's hardly speculation, and with production lead times being what they are, they'll have been playing with actual release revisions of the hardware and not just protoypes as those who made pretty much the same comments months ago were.

      Granted, if it were your mate from down the pub telling you the same thing then you'd be quite right being sceptical, but I don't think so in this case.

  4. Lazy Gamers by pembo13 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Of all the things to be worried about in a console, getting some physical activity in (for the average person) should be the _least_ of ones concerns, and should instead be welcomed. Most should be able to come to grips with the fact that they likely don't get enough physical exercise as it is. I'm more worried about what the multiple purchases will do to my account than my arms. In the worst case scenario, think of it as a thermostat of sorts: when you spend too much time playing, you have feedback in the form of pain so you know its time to do something else.

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  5. Re:Zonk Articles Flimsy, Actual Journalism Fun by k_187 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    if you're still working with early controller prototypes a month before launch, you've got problems.

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  6. Re:Good Title by RoffleTheWaffle · · Score: 5, Insightful

    My guess is that the Slashdot smear campaign against Sony is about a 50-50 mix of Zonk's blatant Nintendo fanboyism and Sony's string of recent and highly publicized failures and oversights, starting with or perhaps preceding the XCP rootkit scandal last year. At this point in time, Sony isn't being viewed by many people in an especially positive light, and with good reason. Frankly, I'm not especially confident in Sony's offerings either, especially after that whole flaming battery thing, but I digress...

    Even if from time to time it looks like the PS3 will barely make it out of the gate, it's impossible to judge a product that hasn't yet been released. (It could wind up either kicking or sucking huge amounts of ass, or some bizarre combination of ass kick-suckery in between.) Yet, it would seem that this post was crafted specifically to make the PS3 look bad by comparing it's controller - which was mentioned in TFA-1 as being awkward and uncomfortable, though still usable - to the Wii's controller, described in TFA-2 as being comfortable easy to use, even though the remainder of TFA-1 showed that not only did the writer approve of the PS3, he fucking loved it. (On a slightly unrelated note, why the fuck would I want to take any site devoted to gaming journalism seriously anyway, when it's been proven time and again that gaming journalism might as well be considered freelance fiction work?) In spite of all this, it'd seem that whoever posted this stuff almost hoped we'd just take their word for it instead of R'ing either TFA, and just take their own 'flimsy' inference as gospel. None of it makes sense, until you look at who posted it.

    I'm in the same boat as you, though I have much fonder memories of Sega. I love Nintendo as much as the next guy, and they haven't pissed me off nearly as much as Sony has over the past year, but come the fuck on. This is like Anti-Sony propaganda now, and almost all of it is spouted from the pen - or should I say keyboard - of Zonk. It would've been fine enough to post the articles individually. A mostly glowing review of the PS3, and a nice piece on the Wii's controller, but no. He just had to roll them all into one speculative clusterfuck of bullshit and fail in a thinly veiled fit of fanboyism disguised as reporting. It's this kind of shit that makes Slashdot look less like a news site and more like a retarded fanclub.

    Seeing as he can't do it himself, I think someone needs to put a cap on Zonk's shit, or at least give him a stern talking to about the virtues of shutting the fuck up until he has something intelligent to say.

  7. Re:Wow, you're not kidding by heinousjay · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I can tell you've stopped. Your post proves it beautifully.

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