Jonah Falcon is finally back from PAX East 2017, and related his experiences at the convention. Somehow, T.J.’s musings on Dune and the origins of Mini-Me come up during the discussion. Among the games discussed are Snake Pass, Earthfall, Dauntless, and Yonder.
There’s also some news discussed:
Let us know what you think and post in the comments!
The same company that brought us the NES Advantage has proven the Wii control scheme isn’t as bad as critics speculated. The beauty of adding the “waggle” technology is limiting your button count to a reasonable level without overwhelming gamers.
We’re seeing casual gaming on the rise both in the press and in the public. Yet, each “next generation” console brings new features and functionality to the consoles, games and accessories. Since NES birthed the SNES we’ve seen button count increase on controllers.
Nintendo has usually been conservative on buttons, trying to work “shape” over sheer volume of buttons, barring the C button count on the N64 controller. Nintendo controllers change shape with each generation and they’ve evolved, not innovated, their way around with the Wii control scheme. Each function of the controller exists, on its own, in other products but nobody has built a fully functional controller in such a way for a game console until now.
Sony took pieces of this concept in their PS3 controller and its ability to detect “tilt.” Xbox 360 stuck with the beefy controller with lots of buttons and analog sticks. Not just a D-Pad but two analog sticks and a ton of buttons to press, some pressure sensitive as well. What of our next-generation console? Maybe a few new buttons?
Or, maybe a few new motions? Wii evolved the control scheme and Sony validated their decision, what’s next? Are the controllers just too damn complicated in today’s world? Or, perhaps limiting the buttons brings in more gamers, like Grandma and Grandpa, to play your console as well.
Welcome to the future, as Jonah, Scott and TJ ring in the new year, as this week’s Gaming Flashback reminds Jonah of what his favorite game of the decade was. (Spoiler: Mass Effect 2.) In fact, the game is so good Jonah and TJ talk about it for an hour before discussing the week’s generally weak news.
This week’s topics include:
Was 2010 the best year for games in the 2010’s? Let us know.
This week’s gaming podcast covers a bit of the Microsoft Press E3 news, a tiny portion of our own opinions on Kinect and a slight bit of a gaming flashback on Beat ’em and Eat ’em, an Atari 2600 “game.” A game by any other name would have to be a porn… and that’s as close as we get to one. This weeks news includes:
Question of the week: Does Kinect sound more desirable with all the new information and rumored pricing make you consider the purchase?
