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This Year's Top Game Design Innovations

Posted by Zonk on from the eye-of-the-beholder dept.

Next Generation has one of those end of the year 'top 10' lists we all love so much, with plenty of room for discussion on this one. They claim to have picked out the top 10 game design innovations of 2007. It's hard to argue with elements like Portal's portals or Mass Effect's conversation wheel, but was Metroid Prime 3 on the Wii really as good as a mouse-and-keyboard PC FPS? "When people ask 'How do we make a good shooter on a console' what they really mean is 'how do we make a shooter that feels as quick and responsive as a PC shooter on the console?' Apparently the answer is the Wii mote. I was blown away by this fact. Nintendo had always been the 'family friendly' console to me so I didn't consider the FPS ramifications of the Wiimote but clearly it's the best tool for the job. With some tweaking and some refinement down the line I could see the Wii (or a console with Wii like controls) becoming the platform of choice for hardcore FPSers, even over the PC. If this does become the case it will owe it all to Metroid Prime 3."

6 of 169 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Wii FPS controls by Gravatron · · Score: 3, Informative

    Controlling with the analog sticks in indeed something of an annoyance, but its not a game ender if done right. Autoaim can be just as bad at time. A happy medium between the two often works well though.

    Of course, you could also pull a Sony and just let the developers code for keyboard/mouse support, like they allowed with the ps2 and ps3. It seems alot of developers aren't making use of that functionality for some reason, beyond UT3's use of it. Why? No idea.

  2. Re:Wii FPS controls by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Pointing the Wii Remote isn't supposed to be light-gun style aiming, and I think that you'll find if you really pay attention that it isn't. That's why every Wii shooter has a reticule...

  3. Re:Wuh? by rkanodia · · Score: 2, Informative

    Ignore 'off by an inch' comments. These are people trying to sight down the 'barrel' of the wiimote as though it were a light gun.

  4. Re:Super Mario Galaxy - Individual planetary gravi by oneplus999 · · Score: 2, Informative

    i had the same idea, but only found 1 decent place for it: go to the 'Deep Dark Galaxy' in the garden. in the middle of the starting beach there is a cannon that shoots you to a planet with a firepower flower. instead of shooting there, aim at the green planet on the right. there is a screw that you unspin, and the planet will begin to shrink. if you do a few long jumps, eventually the planet will shrink enough that it sends you into orbit! that is until the planet disappears, and there is no more gravity - then you get sucked over to the brown planet that you were supposed to go to in the first place.

  5. Re:Wii Sensor Bar tips. by trdrstv · · Score: 3, Informative

    Thanks for the advice. The coffee table is a possibility since it has a shiny finish (it's not glass or mirrored though).
    Make sure where ever you have the sensor bar it is at the very edge of whatever it sits. Set it flush with the face of the TV (if on top) or the front of the entertainment center (if on bottom). I had instances where the sensor bar would be obscured by the angle of the entertainment center (If I rested the controller in my lap), and the pointer went crazy until I brought the Wiimote higher so it could get a clean view of it.

    Any infrared light source near the TV (or IRsensor on the Wiimote) could be disruptive. Lamps, Candles, and especially the Sun. The WiiMote uses the the sensor bar to triangulate position based on 2 steady points (provided by the sensor bar). If multiple sources are competing with the signal then it will confuse the Wiimote causing jitter. The Sun is the worse as it can blanket the Wiimote sensor with IR light making it impossible to detect the 2 points of the sensor bar among all the noise. So as an experiment you may want to close the curtains, blow out the candles, and turn off any lamps that may be near the TV to see if they are adding interference.

    Another issue is distance, if you have a rectangular living room you may have issues with the Nintendo Stock sensor bar after 10 feet or so. (or if you are too close IE: less than 3 feet from it will cause issues)

    I hope that helps.

  6. Re:What I really wonder by hidannik · · Score: 2, Informative

    I think this is what you're thinking of:

    http://www.bodielobus.com/

    Hans