This Year's Top Game Design Innovations

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."

Comments

Why does the gaming press hate the mouse?

[Alexpkeaton1010]

It seems every time a console FPS does a good job on the controls the gaming press immediately suggests how we are one more step closer to replacing the mouse. Why? The mouse is already the perfect FPS controller, can these people not figure out how to use it?

(Enter asinine subject you think is witty here.)

[Impy the Impiuos Imp]

> 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.

What part of "turn off head bobbing, set up a Thresh layout with one finger/thumb for each of the four directions, and grab the mouse with the other hand" doesn't he understand?

"Force feedback" on joysticks is a nice "wow factor", for that matter, but to even remotely compete with a "mouser", you have to turn it off.

Oh, sure, there's some mild competition from no-mouse keyboarders who have the turn rate and tilt set to astronomical, but that's a tough mistress to master just to come close.

Nah, "hardcore" = PvP = as few gimmicks as possible or you're on the ashheap. Waving a wand around just so you can point and shoot, well, hell, I'd bet a properly configured Dance Dance Revolution pad could outdo it.

Seriously.