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TrueMotion Game Controller a Step Up From Wii Remote
Harry McCracken writes "One of my top picks at the Consumer Electronics Show was Sixense's TrueMotion, a game-controller technology that resembles the Wii's remote, but uses an electromagnetic field to provide far more precision — it knows the exact location of the controller in 3D space and which way you're pointing it. (The Wiimote only knows which direction you're moving the controller.) TrueMotion-based remotes are due by Christmas, bundled with a PC game for under $100."
Alot of your tripe is irrelevant. The complaints were:
You don't need to upgrade a console.
Actually you might depending on what you buy and your needs.
Updating isn't necessary.
It is for certain games. I had to get Firmware updates for my Wii so I could play Brawl. Some games just don't work right out of the box for certain SKU's until you patch it. Your lack of problems are irrelevant here. Some games don't work properly and require patches. Consoles require firmware updates for certain games and features, and sometimes those updates can make things worse, not better.
PC Gaming is More Expensive.
It really isn't. Just because someone choose to build a $1000 box doesn't mean everyone has to. Just because someone choose to upgrade every year or sooner doesn't mean everyone else has to. If in the future you need to upgrade some major component in your PC, you can do that. It negates the cost of having to buy a new PC. Once a new console comes out (generation wise), the entire box is obsolete. You don't run into that as often with the PC. PC's have greater backwards compatibility than consoles do. Can you play every single one of your NES games on your Wii? Probably not. Can I do that on my PC? Yes I can! Besides, games on the PC are cheaper at retail by at least $10, if not more. My parents accidentally bought me the new PoP game for the PS3 instead of the PC for Christmas. When I returned it for an exchange, I got $11 and some change back. If you buy a lot of games, that really adds up.
Gameplay (and gamepads).
Only a minor point. Platforming and racing is still easily done with the mouse and keyboard. It's just more fluid with a controller. It's like FPS's on consoles. The controller isn't optimal, but it's very doable.
Your glib comment about me thinking all consoles are a PS3 is just idiotic rhetoric. All of your comments consist of, "I didn't have that same experience, therefore you are full of shit", instead of you actually looking at the facts.
You *may* be correct about Brawl. I just remember needing a firmware update. I remember talking to one of my coworkers about it and he found it odd, stating that if I was keeping the firmware up to date, I shouldn't have needed that update.
The distinction here is that the game doesn't work out of the box. While it might have the necessary updates to play the game on the disc, I couldn't just pop it in and play. But this is just on the Wii platform alone.
The PS3 has had a firmware update that made your PS3 useless. A lot of high profile games that have recently came out on the PS3 and the 360 just don't work properly for some people. Not because they can't be read, but the games themselves have bugs.
Once again, the whole point was that on the PC you had to do all of this tedious updating and on the consoles you don't. But you clearly do have to do some tedious updating on the consoles too. That things just sometimes don't work out of the box like everyone expects it too. And guess what? You need to pay for an Internet connection for these updates.
A PC for $300 bucks? I'm sure I could play half of the PC games "properly", whatever that means. The Wii was nothing more than last generation hardware. If we're going to go by those specs, I could do the same with the PC.
However, I doubt one could find a plethora of prices from that time period. Even if you could find some prices, it's probably not enough information to do smart shopping to get the best deals. What you're clearly asking for is probably impossible.
And even then, what you may consider to be enough to be a full build, I may consider less to be a full build. I may consider that more items are necessary to be a full build. Am I allowed to reuse parts? Am I not allowed to reuse parts? Not all parts are immediately dated.
Are you saying the games for that console don't work well with it anymore? Or are you just saying that you lose the advantage of saying you've got the latest, greatest?
It's obsolete because it's older generation hardware. That doesn't mean people can't do with it as they please. Sony dropped backwards compatibility for PS1 and a lot of PS2 games. I also wouldn't call the 360 backwards compatible, as it doesn't work with most XBox games. The Wii is backwards compatible, but anything older than the GC (assuming you had one and games for it), you will have to pay money once again to get those games on your Wii IF they're available. The point is when companies start making next generation items of their hardware and make it so you can't use some of the old with their new hardware, it's obsolete.
And for the people who don't spend a lot of money every year on their PC, that doesn't mean that their initial build wasn't built to take future games into account, and it doesn't mean that they can't play newer games at max settings.
The hardcore PC gamer tends to spend a lot of money anyway. The average PC gamer, the ones who play a lot of flash based games, probably don't need to do a lot of updating period. Perhaps a memory upgrade after couple of years (though 2GB is pretty much the standard these days, and most won't need more than that). Or possibly a video card upgrade, which can run you as low as $30 or so and can net you a DX10 card. Those types of cards are low end, however if you do low end gaming, they suit their purpose well, and then some.
But it was suggested that with a console you *have* to buy accessories like a gamepad
Not sure where you got that idea from. It was actually suggested for the PC, and then only for a few types of genre's which aren't the "norm" on the PC.
But then you go on further to say that PC's you can buy don't automatically come with the right input devices to play the games. You must have a very narrow view of what the right input devices might be. All you need is a mouse and keyboard. They may not be "gaming specific", but not every game you play on the PC will benefit from "gaming
So how is Windows update painful? It looks for updates for you and even installs them for you if you so choose. That's far less work that you have to do than the Wii. Yes, sometimes you have to reboot your PC, but so what? I wouldn't call that "painful".
Long load times have always been a problem with console games in the past ten years or so. That specific problem I wouldn't call "recent". But yeah, the other problems are more recent. I'm not trying to say they're equivalent by any means, but they do exist. If someone is going to make blanket statements that consoles don't suffer some of the same problems as PC gaming, I'm going to point out that they do suffer some of the same problems, because they do in fact suffer from the same problems.
Right, I'm a sexually frustrated 15 year old because I've pointed out flaws in someones understanding. I hope you enjoy your troll mod.
CAN you play every game that ever came out for 360 without hardware upgrades? Do you HAVE TO upgrade your 360 in order to run (not play - run) the latest 360 games?
A bit irrelevant. When it comes time for updates, whether it be bug patches or content update, you're going to need that hard drive. Maybe you don't want updates? That's fine.
Assemble a "gaming PC" for ANY of those prices
People do it all the time. Hell, my old gaming PC can still max out L4D's settings. It has an X2 4800, 2GB DDR400 RAM, and a 7950GT. It's old by today's standards and can run games well into the future. But I'm sure you'll go on some long winded rant about Crysis, a game that is the exception, horribly developed, and certainly isn't the rule, right? Because no gaming PC can handle that game at max settings.
But wait, you guys on the consoles can't even change your graphical settings. So when a game is horribly designed and you get frame rate issues, there's not a whole lot you can do.
However I'll bite.
CPU - 99$
Motherboard - 55$
RAM - 38$
GPU - $150
Case (with PSU) - $50
HDD - $80
DVD Burner - 23$
Mouse - $10
Keyboard - 7$
Total Cost: $512
For the OS, they can easily install Linux and use Wine. You don't need an uber leet box to make sure you can play games at max settings next year, or even the year after.
The CPU is fine. Not top end, but it can hold it's own. The GPU is more powerful than a 3870, which can still max out every recent game so far, except for the exceptions (which none can max out). And 4GB of RAM will last a very long time.
I could have went cheaper on the Case, which would take out $14. I could have went with a 4670 with 1GB of RAM, which would take another $50 off. And that PC would still run games at max settings a year from now. That new price would be $448. More expensive than the 360 at launch by $50, but with greater backwards compatibility and room to do actual upgrades that mean something.
Let us for a moment live in an imaginary world where people play HD console games on old 15" TVs.
But people do. It may not be their old 15" TV, but those TV's probably don't have HD capabilities. Monitors inherently have it. A left over 19" monitor would be very acceptable.
Naturally... we are talking about GAMES games. Not your mom's solitaire or flash games, or some poor freeware game.
You are truly narrow minded. Those are still games. Would you toss Audiosurf into that mix as well? A game but really isn't a "game"? It's fun, it's cheap, and it can run without beastly hardware. How about any other awesome indie game?
Excuse me? Which game is that? The one that does not work with 100+ key controller and an additional 2+ keyed pointer device?
I don't know what you're smoking. I never said no game on the PC worked with that. I was just merely stating some genre's aren't going to be played with the optimal input devices with a mouse and keyboard. That doesn't make it any less doable.