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E3 Previews — Lego Star Wars Complete Saga and LittleBigPlanet
Nintendo's success has marked a refocus on games for the sake of fun, and nothing exemplifies this trend better than the Lego Star Wars series. Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga will be the first game to offer the functionality gamers have wanted since they first saw a wiimote: motion-controlled lightsaber battles. It's not dueling, but it is a lot of fun. In the same vein, with even more creativity added in, is Sony's imaginative LittleBigPlanet . With Media Molecule finally opening up a bit of the user based content-creation process to journalists, 1up offers one of the first hands-on with the game's core mechanic: "Fusing various pieces together can forge entirely new objects. Place hinges and wheels on a pile of wooden blocks and suddenly you have a makeshift jalopy rolling through the stage. With a tad more work, you can transform that car into a massive (yet ridiculous) rolling wooden dragon. We didn't have quite enough time (or experience) to bust out a run-and-jump rally to put Super Mario Bros. World 8-2 to shame, but we can't wait to get our hands on the open beta due out later this year."
I can see why, if watch one of the few games that actually tries to follow the remote, like the baseball bat in Wii Sports, the remote is terribly inaccurate and loses track of where it actually is unless it's pointed at the IR bar. It can only reliably sense broad gestures. I really think a lot of Wii sales are based on the promise of a lightsaber onscreen doing exactly what you do, and being able to get into real sword fights... it's why I wanted a Wii until I actually played one. But if they can actually deliver on that promise, I'll be thrilled to buy a Wii.
The same kind of adjustment/penalty will have to apply for inertia effects of weapons for how strong your character is, & then you can use all kinds of weapons.
Get on this developers! Millions of people have the hardware, you just have to code it now!
who really gives a crap?
Does "LittleBigPlanet" = "Viva Pinata"?
Isn't this terribly similar to the "Little Big Adventure"-series?
My 5 year old daughter loves the GC version of the Lego Star Wars games. Actually, we bought these games, she became obsessed with them, and because of them decided to watch the movies. Unfortunately, she watched Episode I over and over again because she loved Jar Jar Binks (I guess she's his target demographic), but eventually graduated to the original trilogy. Now, she'll tend to watch Episode IV more than the others, but she's seen them all several times. Strangely, she was not impressed with the Ewoks at all.
This release will get hours of gameplay at my house, and I'm excited to see what sort of new things they have to offer, especially with the Wiimote. I would also like to see them change some of the cut scenes. Some of those had some great humor, and if they can put some different humorous ones in there as well, it would go a long way toward keeping the experience fresh.
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Keep getting free advertisement here.
The problem really isn't mapping where the sword should be or how it should move. Eventually someone will figure out a good way to make this possible and you'll be able to wave your Wiimote around and have the coresponding on-screen sword follow its motions very carefully. The real problem comes into play when you have another sword, or anything to deflect its blows added into the mix.
For example, I'm fighting an enemy with my sword and swing at him. He counters, meeting his blade with mine, causing both to bounce back from the force slightly or to slide against each other. However, my actual hand has met with no such resistance and has followed through as though my blade sliced through his sword, body, or anything else in the way as though it were nothing. On screen I'm locked sword to sword with my foe, but my hands suggest that I slashed through him. How is the mapping handled from here? Should the position that my hand ends up in be the new centered location for determining the swords next move, which would make further attacks awkward and unrealistic, or should the blade on the screen magically move to the position my hand suggests it's in, which doesn't make for a very realistic game.
The best idea I've ever heard for this solution is to have the controller respond with some type of feedback, a rumble, a sound, or something else, to notify the user that their blow was deflected. The user would then be unable to attack further until they managed to sync the remote position with their hand with what is displayed on the screen. Assuming the feedback is powerful enough and the player manages to learn to anticipate the deflection enough, eventually they will serve as their own feedback, stopping their swing as soon as they feel it has been deflected. To use the above example again, as soon as I were to feel a rumble from the Wiimote or hear two swords clashing, I would halt my downward motion and position the controller as though my blow had been met, allowing me to once again regrain control and continue with the battle.
While there are a lot of programing difficulties to be worked out, it still requires a lot of time for the player to become accustomed to the system and actually care to become familiar enough with it to enjoy playing the game. I don't forsee this as being something that casual players would be interested in taking the time to accomplish, and I'm not entirely sure if the hardware available now can offer all of the necessities in order for this to succeed.
But I don't have to be a pilot to play Heroes of the Pacific, a skilled sharpshooter to play Rainbow Six, or a pro racer to play Gran Turismo - yet the games seem to be just following my own movements. Games are designed to let you perform relatively amateur tasks and make you believe that you are actually a professional. There's no reason a swordfighting game would be any different; it would translate the relatively wild swinging of the player into more skilled movements by the onscreen character, subtly enough to not break the illusion of control.
How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
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What I think pushing-robot was saying that having the game just perform two or three basic/static swings, while you are wildly swinging the controller would not feel very good. Also the impression I got from your first post was that that should be how the games handle, i.e. only a few moves. Sure there are the limitations that only using some accelerometers has is that the game wouldn't probably be able to interpret them to make the game character hold the sword in exactly the same place you do.. So realistic looks may be impossible anyway. :( But still we should "aim higher".. If only for more advanced players.
Store with salt