Yeah, there's gonna be some mocking of this, because there's a lot of times when rumble is misused (Psycho Mantis anyone? Oooh, the Rez vibrator!), but it's really great when you don't immediately notice it.
Best example I can think of is Halo. Firing weapons produces vibrations, and when you're in the warthog's gunner seat and taking advantage of the unlimited ammo on the backseat cannon, it can throw off your aim a little bit as your hand starts to go numb...
But, I think I speak for everyone when I say that I will miss the rumble pack, if only because of that whole Rez vibrator thing:).
How they have any money left to spend, I have no idea. But if they are actually going to sell it, then great!
I mean, the one thing I've heard that's positive about the Phantom is that the lapboard is actually a good idea that people might buy.
I think I remember the Penny Arcade people saying this.
Of course, there's a chance that they're using this as a method to scare up more investment dollars for the Phantom, so they might not be selling it. Even so, taking everything this company says with a few thousand tons of salt, they could actually sell something...
1: Size. Many of the games with the good plots, you know, the Bioware games, Starcraft, some of the Japanese RPG's, and such, are really long. REALLY long. Games can reach 40 hours of length and while not all of that is taken up by the main plot, it still makes things difficult as hell to translate to a script. So either this limits the games that can be used (action-heavy games like Doom) or the plots are cut up and shrunk down to be "faithful" but still not that good.
2: Genre choice. Only one RPG has gotten the adaptation treatment, and that film (Final Fantasy) didn't actually use any of the games' plots. The rest of them: Platformers, survival-horror, a few fighting games and a FPS. Not exactly the creme of the crop when it comes to narrative threads.
I was watching AOTS (Tivo treatement makes it okay) and they brought on Adam Sessler on to comment on it, and he brought up an important point:
We all saw the train wreck that was the 360's worldwide release. Not enough units to meet demand by far.
And sony's trying this themselves.
So Sony's gonna have a difficult launch with shortages probably everywhere. and a launch lineup that is probably not going to be stupendous (what launch has been that good?), meanwhile Microsoft will have significantly more units on hand, a year's worth of titles to choose from, not to mention more than a few good ones by November, and the promise of Halo 3.
Sure, there's the whole "latest greatest thing" part, but how long do you think it'll last?
Maybe sony would be better off doing a Japan only release first, if they don't think they can meet preorders worldwide.
Oh, but right, the industry makes all of their money in November and December...
Every year, dozens, maybe even hundreds, of films discussing the human condition, controversial topics, and important figures of the past, are released that, rather than providing simple entertainment, actually broaden the minds of the viewers and takes the taboo and makes it discussable.
And what do we have?
Halo 2's commentary on religous extremism, Final Fantasy's many, many, many discussions on what makes a person "human", Starcraft's look at the depths of evil and how it takes advantage of the hopes of good men, Warcraft's look at how old hatreds only die slowly.
Good? Yes, albeit not the central aspect of the pieces.
As good as any of this year's Best Picture nominees?
No.
Well, if you ask my sister, maybe Crash. But that's about it.
I got tired of MGS2's cutscene-o-rama just as quickly as everyone else. But while some people play games soley for the "Blow stuff up" factor, others play them for both that and the story.
Starcraft, anything by Bioware, Halo, Final Fantasy and others use cutscenes to advance the plot and also tell you what you need to do. Some games abuse them, many don't, and I know that a lot of them wouldn't be anywhere near as good as they are if there weren't any cutscenes.
Playing games is fun, but lets also experience a good story while we're at it:).
Yeah, flashing back to the Producers here. I mean, it fits, save for the fact that they aren't taking the worst script they could find. They just took some game licenses that wouldn't mesh well with the silver screen and used them!
Between games that won't be released by the time the show takes place (King Kong, for one, with the most nominations too!), mostly big-name stars getting voice acting noms (as opposed to people who actually do this stuff for a living...), and two of the "best tech" nominees being consoles that won't be released yet (including the PS3 who's design is still not finalized), this is just pure insanity and stinks of money getting too much involved.
For the best piece of evidence, lets look at the "BEST GAME BASED ON A MOVIE" category:
Star Wars Battlefront II (LucasArts) Release Date: October 31
Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie (Ubisoft) Release Date: November 21 (on Xbox, next gen consoles have no expected date).
The Warriors (Rockstar Games): Already released.
James Bond 007: From Russia With Love (Electronic Arts): Release Date: November 1
The Matrix: Path of Neo (Atari, Inc.): Release Date: November 7
...
Anyone wanna bet that at least two of the four to-be-released games will, at best, be good "movie companions" as opposed to actually good games?
This is the argument hackers use to claim the high ground: "I only did this to show everyone to be careful!"
And yet, if it weren't for the trojan makers and hackers, we wouldn't need so much security.
You make malicious code and release it into the web, YOU are responsible. Even if its obvious that the users shouldn't download the code, the problem wouldn't exist were it not for you.
1: It seems like the author of this is more pining for the old days of Halo 1 than looking at the new game. The non-timer-based weapon spawn means that someone can't maintain a full load of rockets, dooming their opponenets till eternity. Instead, they have 4-6 shots and then they have to switch to something else.
2: This guy has clearly not been on coag since the battle rifle modes were established. Yes, rockets are the best way to take out warthogs and banshees, but not the only way. Since every player has an accuracy based weapon, its actually quite easy to knock out the pilot's shields with a coordinated assault. Also, how do you take out the warthog? Snipe the driver.
3: Dual wielding. This guy has no idea what he's talking about. Plasma Rifle/SMG gets destroyed on open maps by Battle Rifle, and on confined maps either pistol shows what true skill is. And then there's the grenades. Most good players don't dual wield until they find a pistol because the grenades are so powerful now.
I don't know about anyone one else, but I've never really had a problem with that. Yeah, you'll hear someone occasionally swear off his entire team, and rarer still drop f-bombs or n-bombs (or bombs of other racial epitaphs), but I've really never seen a horrible problem with it.
Frankly, I'd rather a person use his microphone, throwing around curse words in times of stress (like when grenades are going off all around him) than someone not use the microphone at all, choosing to leave me in the dark as to where the sniper is, whether or not he's seen the bomb, or if the warthog has spawned and he needs a driver. I'll live through a couple bad words if it means that he'll tell me strategically useful things!
Oh, and it should be noted that Bungie and Microsoft have dropped the Banhammer on a lot of users just for lots of repeated cases of negative feedback of the "he's an ass" variety.
Well, actually, Gamespot broke the news yesterday. They did take a look at a bunch of new games, so its alright.
What should be noted, though, is that G4 is still taking votes, all the way until August 8th. So what happens if someone else wins one of the awards on a final count?
Or do the votes get dropped into that infamous black hole where poorly maintained variables go?
To be fair, I'm a halo fanboy myself (or at least a Bungie fanboy. Loved Marathon and all that). But come on:
How the hell did Halo 2 really deserve to win for male voice and best boss battle? I loved fighting that Scarab, and David Cross is a great actor with a unique voice and good lines, but God of War was DEFINED by its boss battles, and Cross's character was a bleeding extra! A freaking marine with some clever lines in the middle of battle!
Oh, and madden won, big surprise, even though it was clearly not the best in the category. Hell, it wasn't even the best football game last year!
And the North American made KOTOR 2 won, even though it was horribly imbalenced and clearly unfinished, while a gem of a game, although rather traditional Japanese RPG, Shin Migumi Tensei clearly deserved it.
Hence the problem with online voting by fans: The real good stuff gets overlooked by the really popular stuff.
1: Not talking about regulation. Talking about good taste. Its this little thing that every company except for Rockstar seems to have.
2: Yes, all industries should be treated the same. And I'll gladly whip out my ID if it keeps some twelve year old kid from watching someone's head get torn off in front of their eyes.
Especially if it'll ease off political pressure.
3: Are you a 60 year old woman? No? Then I'm not talking about you. If it seems like the purchase is not for the buyer, then maybe the employee's should try to, I don't know, INFORM THE PARENTS?
4: Because parents want to believe their children. Because they might not know all of the intricacies of this game, and they're willing to trust little johnny to not lie about extremely explicit violence.
Look, I agree that the parents need to do a better job of protecting their children from extreme imagery, but, lets face it, there's plenty of blame to go around.
Maybe the game developers can make thier games a little less, oh I don't know, in-your-face about the violence and stuff? I mean, GTA was okay with that, but Manhunt? Manhunt, rockstar? Do we really need a game who's basis is to sneak up behind people and kill them in hideously ghastly ways?
The government could get involved in helping to make sure that the little-uns can't get their hands on Mature rated games, through the classic system of fines.
The stores could get involved, when a 60 year old woman comes in to buy GTA:SA, by asking if its for thier underage kid and asking if they think its really appropriate?
Oh, and the most important culprit: The kids themselves! Are we totally forgetting that the way that a lot of these kids are getting these games is by convincing their parents that "oh, don't worry mommy, GTA really isn't THAT violent a game!"
Show of hands: How many people here have convinced mommy and daddy to pick up an M rated game for them when they were under 17?
*raises hand*
The parents have to do a lot of things. Maybe the other people involved could, *gasp*, make their jobs a bit easier! Some fault does lie with them, but not all of it...
I'm not going to get into an argument over the meanings of his works, or the fact that he can't write non-brilliant characters, but, come on, thinking that Ender's Game is an apologist book for Hitler? That's just silly.
When you're looking for correlations, you'll find them. Doesn't matter what you're investigating, the human mind will find some.
Oh, and since mister "localroger"'s friend's essay isn't even viewable (pure coincidence, of course, that this supposedly damning essay isn't shown as evidence), I really, well, put much stock in this essay.
But that's just me. I must be a loonie for putting the word of a well known, if heavily religous, published author over that of a guy with a website!
Well, it should be noted that this is a TEASER trailer. No big concept, no high science fiction preaching, just enough explosions and monsters and hard rock music to wet our appetites and to make us be eagerly anticipating its release.
A more informative trailer will probably be released in a month or two.
Besides, its a movie based on Doom. What were you expecting, sci-fi on the level of 2001 or Blade Runner?
I think that the main beef the writer has about this is that it is a soundtrack category and not a score category. But, then again, a musical score tends to be, well, orchestral and instrumental, which are, sadly enough, not 'hip' or 'cool', just extremely well done and capable of playing with the viewer's emotions.
Oh, and G4's award show, G-phoria (groan) two separate song categories: Best Liscenced Soundtrack (GTA:SA, Lumines, THUG2, Def Jam, Wipeout Pure) and Best Original Soundtrack (Halo 2, Fable, God of War, Katamari Damacy, World of Warcraft), so there are some award shows that get it.
Look, if it just took the ESRB ratings and used them as the basis for this law, then I'd love it, because it'd put a bit more authority and force behind the Mature and AO ratings.
These games shouldn't be sold to kids in the first place. Putting a fine in there can only help, but the ambiguity makes things too tricky.
1: Shut up with the whole "Why isn't the gov investigating (issue X)? They're just picking on video games to give us the runaround!"
The video game industry is a $10 billion dollar industry, with powerful influence into the Male 18-35 market. This makes it the governments concern. And all this vote means is that the Federal Trade Commission has free reign to investigate this. Nothing else. Other parts of the government look into the Karl Rove thing, or the missing WMD's, or all that other shit that's gone on.
I mean, come on, what the hell is the FTC gonna do about Rove?
2: About the whole "sex isn't as bad as the Murder Death Killing going on in the game: Come on. Its the straw that broke the camel's back, and lets face it, there are, in fact, some things that probably shouldn't be out for public consumption.
3: Oh yeah, by the way, in case anyone here forgot about it in their mad dash to shout down the govenrmnet, Rockstar lied to the ESRB, the ESA, and the public! Whether or not Rockstar did actually intend to get this out for public consumption, bypassing the ESRB by making it hidden in the code, is a relevant question! Its not like they've been very honest and noble throughout this whole thing.
4: Finally, trust the government to do some things right. While the house and senate are voted in, and thus will be outraged for votes sake, the people in the FTC are hired and fired just like anyone else. They have no political motivation for rigging the investigation.
Look, if Rockstar did leave this code in there, then they screwed up big time. I mean, yes, the game is rated Mature, but had the ESRB been shown a sex minigame during rating then the game would be rated AO.
However, any hearing about the mod should be held after the ESRB does its report, makes its findings, and changes GTA's rating if neccessary. Otherwise its too great a chance that the gov may just get in the way of the actual investigation.
Yeah, the whole sneaky enemies thing got old kinda fast, but I actually liked the whole lighting thing.
And, yes, that includes the flashlight. So sue me.
Id could've done something different with the flashlight, though. For example: You can use tape to put the flashlight on a gun. Sure, why not!
Except that you can do it on only one gun at a time, and it takes some time to switch which gun its on, so if you put it on your shotgun and you run out of shells, or you need the rocket launcher, you're pretty much SOL. Just a little bit of strategy to add to the game.
Should've been better, no doubt, but it wasn't that bad.
Look, the guy has his own opinion on the controllers, I have mine, you all have yours, and boy is everyone voicing theirs...
Anyway, I've found that I prefer the PS2 and Xbox controllers over the gamecube one, but not by a huge amound.
Xbox: I love the left thumbstick location, making it the clear default choice for when you go to move something. The four main face buttons are well done, with both letters and colors identifying them. I wish that the black and white buttons could be shoulder buttons instead, and it is a little big, although not as big as the classic version.
PS2: Its small and light. I was able to play the PS2 with a cast on my left arm, for god sakes, its that tiny. Not a big fan of making the left analog stick constantly looking like an afterthought, but, hey, that's just me. In the end, though, its really solid, with all of the buttons easily accessible.
GC: I hear the point made about the different button shapes, but, seriously, when was the last time a gamer, soft or hardcore, couldn't tell where each button was without looking at the controller? But, still, it does come in handy for first time players, and I love the analog triggers. But the right thumbstick I've never really liked, and, gasp, its short a button. That last button can get annoying when dealing with cross-platform games...
Just sayin', guys, that he's wrong on some counts and right on others. Doesn't mean he can't present his opinion.
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, there's gonna be some mocking of this, because there's a lot of times when rumble is misused (Psycho Mantis anyone? Oooh, the Rez vibrator!), but it's really great when you don't immediately notice it.
:).
Best example I can think of is Halo. Firing weapons produces vibrations, and when you're in the warthog's gunner seat and taking advantage of the unlimited ammo on the backseat cannon, it can throw off your aim a little bit as your hand starts to go numb...
But, I think I speak for everyone when I say that I will miss the rumble pack, if only because of that whole Rez vibrator thing
How they have any money left to spend, I have no idea. But if they are actually going to sell it, then great!
I mean, the one thing I've heard that's positive about the Phantom is that the lapboard is actually a good idea that people might buy.
I think I remember the Penny Arcade people saying this.
Of course, there's a chance that they're using this as a method to scare up more investment dollars for the Phantom, so they might not be selling it. Even so, taking everything this company says with a few thousand tons of salt, they could actually sell something...
1: Size. Many of the games with the good plots, you know, the Bioware games, Starcraft, some of the Japanese RPG's, and such, are really long. REALLY long. Games can reach 40 hours of length and while not all of that is taken up by the main plot, it still makes things difficult as hell to translate to a script. So either this limits the games that can be used (action-heavy games like Doom) or the plots are cut up and shrunk down to be "faithful" but still not that good.
2: Genre choice. Only one RPG has gotten the adaptation treatment, and that film (Final Fantasy) didn't actually use any of the games' plots. The rest of them: Platformers, survival-horror, a few fighting games and a FPS. Not exactly the creme of the crop when it comes to narrative threads.
I was watching AOTS (Tivo treatement makes it okay) and they brought on Adam Sessler on to comment on it, and he brought up an important point:
We all saw the train wreck that was the 360's worldwide release. Not enough units to meet demand by far.
And sony's trying this themselves.
So Sony's gonna have a difficult launch with shortages probably everywhere. and a launch lineup that is probably not going to be stupendous (what launch has been that good?), meanwhile Microsoft will have significantly more units on hand, a year's worth of titles to choose from, not to mention more than a few good ones by November, and the promise of Halo 3.
Sure, there's the whole "latest greatest thing" part, but how long do you think it'll last?
Maybe sony would be better off doing a Japan only release first, if they don't think they can meet preorders worldwide.
Oh, but right, the industry makes all of their money in November and December...
Ebert might be right!
Every year, dozens, maybe even hundreds, of films discussing the human condition, controversial topics, and important figures of the past, are released that, rather than providing simple entertainment, actually broaden the minds of the viewers and takes the taboo and makes it discussable.
And what do we have?
Halo 2's commentary on religous extremism, Final Fantasy's many, many, many discussions on what makes a person "human", Starcraft's look at the depths of evil and how it takes advantage of the hopes of good men, Warcraft's look at how old hatreds only die slowly.
Good? Yes, albeit not the central aspect of the pieces.
As good as any of this year's Best Picture nominees?
No.
Well, if you ask my sister, maybe Crash. But that's about it.
Starcraft, anything by Bioware, Halo, Final Fantasy and others use cutscenes to advance the plot and also tell you what you need to do. Some games abuse them, many don't, and I know that a lot of them wouldn't be anywhere near as good as they are if there weren't any cutscenes.
Playing games is fun, but lets also experience a good story while we're at it :).
Ouch.
For the best piece of evidence, lets look at the "BEST GAME BASED ON A MOVIE" category:
Star Wars Battlefront II (LucasArts) Release Date: October 31
Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie (Ubisoft) Release Date: November 21 (on Xbox, next gen consoles have no expected date).
The Warriors (Rockstar Games): Already released.
James Bond 007: From Russia With Love (Electronic Arts): Release Date: November 1
The Matrix: Path of Neo (Atari, Inc.): Release Date: November 7
Anyone wanna bet that at least two of the four to-be-released games will, at best, be good "movie companions" as opposed to actually good games?
This is the argument hackers use to claim the high ground: "I only did this to show everyone to be careful!" And yet, if it weren't for the trojan makers and hackers, we wouldn't need so much security. You make malicious code and release it into the web, YOU are responsible. Even if its obvious that the users shouldn't download the code, the problem wouldn't exist were it not for you.
2: This guy has clearly not been on coag since the battle rifle modes were established. Yes, rockets are the best way to take out warthogs and banshees, but not the only way. Since every player has an accuracy based weapon, its actually quite easy to knock out the pilot's shields with a coordinated assault. Also, how do you take out the warthog? Snipe the driver.
3: Dual wielding. This guy has no idea what he's talking about. Plasma Rifle/SMG gets destroyed on open maps by Battle Rifle, and on confined maps either pistol shows what true skill is. And then there's the grenades. Most good players don't dual wield until they find a pistol because the grenades are so powerful now.
At least they own up to the fact that they kinda screwed up.
But, yeah, nice try by the has-been humor mag to make a desperite appeal to what used to be a loyal fan base.
Frankly, I'd rather a person use his microphone, throwing around curse words in times of stress (like when grenades are going off all around him) than someone not use the microphone at all, choosing to leave me in the dark as to where the sniper is, whether or not he's seen the bomb, or if the warthog has spawned and he needs a driver. I'll live through a couple bad words if it means that he'll tell me strategically useful things!
Oh, and it should be noted that Bungie and Microsoft have dropped the Banhammer on a lot of users just for lots of repeated cases of negative feedback of the "he's an ass" variety.
What should be noted, though, is that G4 is still taking votes, all the way until August 8th. So what happens if someone else wins one of the awards on a final count?
Or do the votes get dropped into that infamous black hole where poorly maintained variables go?
How the hell did Halo 2 really deserve to win for male voice and best boss battle? I loved fighting that Scarab, and David Cross is a great actor with a unique voice and good lines, but God of War was DEFINED by its boss battles, and Cross's character was a bleeding extra! A freaking marine with some clever lines in the middle of battle!
Oh, and madden won, big surprise, even though it was clearly not the best in the category. Hell, it wasn't even the best football game last year!
And the North American made KOTOR 2 won, even though it was horribly imbalenced and clearly unfinished, while a gem of a game, although rather traditional Japanese RPG, Shin Migumi Tensei clearly deserved it.
Hence the problem with online voting by fans: The real good stuff gets overlooked by the really popular stuff.
2: Yes, all industries should be treated the same. And I'll gladly whip out my ID if it keeps some twelve year old kid from watching someone's head get torn off in front of their eyes.
Especially if it'll ease off political pressure.
3: Are you a 60 year old woman? No? Then I'm not talking about you. If it seems like the purchase is not for the buyer, then maybe the employee's should try to, I don't know, INFORM THE PARENTS?
4: Because parents want to believe their children. Because they might not know all of the intricacies of this game, and they're willing to trust little johnny to not lie about extremely explicit violence.
Maybe the game developers can make thier games a little less, oh I don't know, in-your-face about the violence and stuff? I mean, GTA was okay with that, but Manhunt? Manhunt, rockstar? Do we really need a game who's basis is to sneak up behind people and kill them in hideously ghastly ways?
The government could get involved in helping to make sure that the little-uns can't get their hands on Mature rated games, through the classic system of fines.
The stores could get involved, when a 60 year old woman comes in to buy GTA:SA, by asking if its for thier underage kid and asking if they think its really appropriate?
Oh, and the most important culprit: The kids themselves! Are we totally forgetting that the way that a lot of these kids are getting these games is by convincing their parents that "oh, don't worry mommy, GTA really isn't THAT violent a game!"
Show of hands: How many people here have convinced mommy and daddy to pick up an M rated game for them when they were under 17?
*raises hand*
The parents have to do a lot of things. Maybe the other people involved could, *gasp*, make their jobs a bit easier! Some fault does lie with them, but not all of it...
I'm not going to get into an argument over the meanings of his works, or the fact that he can't write non-brilliant characters, but, come on, thinking that Ender's Game is an apologist book for Hitler? That's just silly.
When you're looking for correlations, you'll find them. Doesn't matter what you're investigating, the human mind will find some.
Oh, and since mister "localroger"'s friend's essay isn't even viewable (pure coincidence, of course, that this supposedly damning essay isn't shown as evidence), I really, well, put much stock in this essay.
But that's just me. I must be a loonie for putting the word of a well known, if heavily religous, published author over that of a guy with a website!
A more informative trailer will probably be released in a month or two.
Besides, its a movie based on Doom. What were you expecting, sci-fi on the level of 2001 or Blade Runner?
Wow. An intelligent comment on /..
I think that the main beef the writer has about this is that it is a soundtrack category and not a score category. But, then again, a musical score tends to be, well, orchestral and instrumental, which are, sadly enough, not 'hip' or 'cool', just extremely well done and capable of playing with the viewer's emotions.
Oh, and G4's award show, G-phoria (groan) two separate song categories: Best Liscenced Soundtrack (GTA:SA, Lumines, THUG2, Def Jam, Wipeout Pure) and Best Original Soundtrack (Halo 2, Fable, God of War, Katamari Damacy, World of Warcraft), so there are some award shows that get it.
Look, if it just took the ESRB ratings and used them as the basis for this law, then I'd love it, because it'd put a bit more authority and force behind the Mature and AO ratings.
These games shouldn't be sold to kids in the first place. Putting a fine in there can only help, but the ambiguity makes things too tricky.
The video game industry is a $10 billion dollar industry, with powerful influence into the Male 18-35 market. This makes it the governments concern. And all this vote means is that the Federal Trade Commission has free reign to investigate this. Nothing else. Other parts of the government look into the Karl Rove thing, or the missing WMD's, or all that other shit that's gone on.
I mean, come on, what the hell is the FTC gonna do about Rove?
2: About the whole "sex isn't as bad as the Murder Death Killing going on in the game: Come on. Its the straw that broke the camel's back, and lets face it, there are, in fact, some things that probably shouldn't be out for public consumption.
3: Oh yeah, by the way, in case anyone here forgot about it in their mad dash to shout down the govenrmnet, Rockstar lied to the ESRB, the ESA, and the public! Whether or not Rockstar did actually intend to get this out for public consumption, bypassing the ESRB by making it hidden in the code, is a relevant question! Its not like they've been very honest and noble throughout this whole thing.
4: Finally, trust the government to do some things right. While the house and senate are voted in, and thus will be outraged for votes sake, the people in the FTC are hired and fired just like anyone else. They have no political motivation for rigging the investigation.
However, any hearing about the mod should be held after the ESRB does its report, makes its findings, and changes GTA's rating if neccessary. Otherwise its too great a chance that the gov may just get in the way of the actual investigation.
That's gotta be one hell of a time record.
And, yes, that includes the flashlight. So sue me.
Id could've done something different with the flashlight, though. For example: You can use tape to put the flashlight on a gun. Sure, why not!
Except that you can do it on only one gun at a time, and it takes some time to switch which gun its on, so if you put it on your shotgun and you run out of shells, or you need the rocket launcher, you're pretty much SOL. Just a little bit of strategy to add to the game.
Should've been better, no doubt, but it wasn't that bad.
Anyway, I've found that I prefer the PS2 and Xbox controllers over the gamecube one, but not by a huge amound.
Xbox: I love the left thumbstick location, making it the clear default choice for when you go to move something. The four main face buttons are well done, with both letters and colors identifying them. I wish that the black and white buttons could be shoulder buttons instead, and it is a little big, although not as big as the classic version.
PS2: Its small and light. I was able to play the PS2 with a cast on my left arm, for god sakes, its that tiny. Not a big fan of making the left analog stick constantly looking like an afterthought, but, hey, that's just me. In the end, though, its really solid, with all of the buttons easily accessible.
GC: I hear the point made about the different button shapes, but, seriously, when was the last time a gamer, soft or hardcore, couldn't tell where each button was without looking at the controller? But, still, it does come in handy for first time players, and I love the analog triggers. But the right thumbstick I've never really liked, and, gasp, its short a button. That last button can get annoying when dealing with cross-platform games...
Just sayin', guys, that he's wrong on some counts and right on others. Doesn't mean he can't present his opinion.