Epic Sticking With Classic Controllers For Now

Cliff Bleszinski, design director for Epic Games, said in an interview with Develop that while motion control schemes like Project Natal look interesting, Epic will probably be sticking with classic controllers "for the foreseeable future." He said, "Microsoft came down a few weeks before E3 and gave us a demo, and they're now shipping out the dev kits; I think it's great. When you start combining the motion-capture, the facial recognition, and the vocal recognition you can create some unique experiences. And of course more accessibility is always a good thing. When you build an interface like that though you need to [specifically] design a game for it. It can't just be tacked on."

Comments

Good idea

[ShadowRangerRIT]

Like the WiiMote, Natal will probably be horribly misused early on. Watching competitors releases and looking for lessons is a good way to approach this. Let the smaller (and sometimes larger) companies flame out on ill-conceived uses of Natal, then avoid the same mistakes.

Re:Good idea

[Directrix1]

The WiiMote is still horribly misused. I have a Wii, and after my initial wow factor with motion controls, constantly making jerk off motions to do stuff got old. And while I used to postulate about how great motion controls would be with my friends, I never really thought about the accessibility side of things. Because of work video games are often what I do when I'm sick or something along those lines. It sucks having to move all over the place just to do what used to be doable with a standard controller. I'm not saying it doesn't have its uses, but it often does make me second guess using it.

Re:Good idea

[Aladrin]

Other than Wii Sports, the only game I've found that uses the WiiMote well is WarioWare. Yeah, a silly mini-games game. I blame this on the fact that the WiiMote is sadly lacking in capability. There is no 1:1 mapping of movement (yes, WiiPlus is coming... We'll see) and pointing at the screen is -not- accurate. With the old light-gun, you could use it like a regular gun and aim from the hip. With the WiiMote, you can't do that... You have to aim in relation to an invisible box... One that changes position and size depending on where you stand.

So thanks to those 2 problems, both melee and ranged weapons are both flawed horribly.

Natal, supposedly, won't have the 1:1 problems... But it still won't handle guns properly. It's also a lot more flexible than the WiiMote as well, though... So we'll see.

It might end up like the WiiFit, though, with only a couple games supporting it and just dying.

Re:Good idea

[RogueyWon]

Most developers have given up on trying to do anything clever with the Wii-mote. Most games now use the pointer-function, and then basically map "waggle" onto a single action. If you're lucky, you might get "waggle from side to side" mapped to something different to "waggle up and down" (though the Wii-mote's now-legendary imprecision can make even this annoying). Personally, I felt that Force Unleashed was the moment it was clear that the Wii-mote's impact on gaming had been massively overhyped. People had demanded a lightsabre-fighting game on the Wii from day one and, when one finally appeared, it turned out that the secret to winning fights in it was just to waggle furiously.

The fact remains that at present, a mouse and keyboard remains the best option for precise control, while a decent, well-balanced 2-stick analogue controller is a respectable second.

Re:Good idea

[DigitalCrackPipe]

I've played some games that I thought did a good job of using the wiimote, and some games that were just crap. I'm thinking that the crap games were crap regardless of how they used the wiimote.

That makes two of us

[elrous0]

As a gamer, let me say that the Wii controllers (and now Sony and MS motion controllers) SOUNDED cool. But, at the end of the day, I realized the essential flaw in them:

I'm a lazy-ass.

Re:That makes two of us

[PeanutButterBreath]

Meanwhile, conventional, real-world sports have not died out, even though they require (gasp) moving your body!

If you want a real-world sports experience, play a real-world sport. Motion control is a gimmick because standing in front of a TV mimicking the motions of playing a sport within the confines of a room in your home will simply never be a substitute.

This quote says it all:

[Reason58]

When you build an interface like that though you need to [specifically] design a game for it. It can't just be tacked on.

These controllers are gimmicks. A very small percentage of the games are truly designed from the ground up to incorporate these controllers, the rest are using them simply because they can and it is a frustrating experience.

no surprise here

[thetoadwarrior]

Epic is one of the least innovative companies around. The won't do anything different until there are about a dozen solid examples to copy.

Ouch! That Has Got To Sting For Microsoft

[Anonymous Coward]

Epic is Microsoft's premier third party developer for the Xbox.

And they just came out and stated they aren't bothering with this motion controller crap that Microsoft just showed off as the future of the Xbox. That has got to sting up in Redmond.

Completely understandable on Epic's behalf. Old Sony EyeToy style tech, Microsoft getting caught faking the demos at E3, a late 2010 release date at the earliest, and demos being done in special clothing and lighting conditions.

Microsoft has the weakest first party lineup compared to Nintendo and Sony. Microsoft only has about 4 first party developers, Nintendo has around 10, and Sony has some 19 or 20. If major third part devs are already in public coming out with statements of non-support for Microsoft Xbox motion controls, Microsoft is most likely looking at another HD-DVD add-on level of success - ie. mostly diehard existing Xbox owners being the only people buying into the tech.

Re:Ouch! That Has Got To Sting For Microsoft

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't think anyone at Microsoft expects this motion controller stuff for the Xbox to be any more successful than HD-DVD was.

Spending billions to create new Xbox hardware obviously wasn't going to happen given the huge layoffs and cutbacks going on. Microsoft needs something to keep the suckers forking out 50 bucks a year for online play for another year or so. The absolute joke release list of exclusive games for the 360 wasn't going to do it and keep the existing base from abandoning the console.

   

Re:Ouch! That Has Got To Sting For Microsoft

[Monkeedude1212]

All Epic is saying that the game ideas that they have and/or are planning on developing weren't designed for Natal, and that Natal games should be designed with Natal in mind. Basically, they don't want to be attributed to alot of the flops that will jump on a new gimmick controller.

But once a developer comes along and says, "Hey, I've got a great idea and Natal is the perfect tool to implement it" - it'll take off.

Epic has never done anything new. Anything in UT, GoW, whatever, its all been done before and Epic just did it better.

And Natal will be the same as the Wii controller. Would gamers consider it fail? Probably a little, it aims itself to casual games, has alot of experiences of being finicky and frustrating, and can be mastered on the couch.

But guess what - it sold, it still sells, and alot of people enjoy it, people who weren't gamers before. Mario Kart? Designed for Wiimote - done right.

Now Natal needs something like that, a first party developer for the X-box, and then we'll see Epic jump on board. I have very few doubts.

Sorry...

[Zab UvWxy]

I may sound like a troll with this post, and my apologies for it. But I've lost all respect for Cliff B., ever since he used the lame-o "piracy" excuse for not porting - PORTING, mind you, not "developing from scratch" - Gears of War 2 to PC. It's a cop-out, and to me it shows a lack of understanding of the issue and ways around it.

After all, Stardock doesn't have any problems developing for PC; they don't DRM their titles beyond what's being implemented with the new GOO platform; and despite the rocky launch of Demigod mired by users connecting with warezed copies, they seem to have made it a fairly successful title.