[Thrik]

Okay, Aj. Okay.

I'm not even going to bother retaliating any further — life's too short. Try as I might to explain how more buttons does not equate to better games and simply over complicates them, it's just not going in. You're picking out specific points in my posts and ignoring the overall message; bad form, my friend.

You're right. To hell with innovating new ways of doing things; let's just stick to the ways of old, and throw more buttons onto the controller while we're at it. Let's not even give new methods a chance! Why move forward?

Hey, that almost sounds like the mantra of the AG community.

[insane_cobra]

Orthodox console haters rejoice! We've finally found hard proof that PC games are superior to their console brethen: keyboards have way more buttons than any gamepad!

[Jackal]

Thank goodness developers aren't limited by the cynicism of people with no imagination.

Interesting that a thread about PS3 quickly became about Revolution. And rightfully so, really, because it's the only console that really gives us something to talk about. Whether it's a raging success, a dismal failure, or (more likely) somewhere in between, at least it's progressive. What do the others offer? More.

Speaking of Nintendo and/or next gen systems, I have one gripe. Why isn't someone making better use of voice technology? Most of the buttons used now are for completely inane things that could easily be replaced by a single voice command. Is it that demanding to have a system understand words like crouch, reload, use, etc.?

[Thrik]

Yeah, it's kind of amazing just how uninspiring the new consoles are. I mean, sure, they do take things forward technically, but they're stepping more towards becoming restricted PC's rather than striving to offer a unique type of playing experience that a PC can't. Don't forget that Vista will be loaded with a lot of advances for PC gaming too, including the ability to slot in a game and just play it — there's one massive incentive of consoles gone right there.

PC's are also getting smaller, cheaper (especially once the hardware race begins to die down), and simpler to use. Where exactly is this going to leave consoles such as the 360 in the long run?

Nintendo are at least trying to expand gameplay and the value of consoles in general in more ways than with pure specification, and I commend them for going against the waves of those who'd prefer to just see a better CPU, GPU and a PPU slotted into the GameCube.

[insane_cobra]

Originally Posted by Jackal

Speaking of Nintendo and/or next gen systems, I have one gripe. Why isn't someone making better use of voice technology? Most of the buttons used now are for completely inane things that could easily be replaced by a single voice command. Is it that demanding to have a system understand words like crouch, reload, use, etc.?

That's exactly what I've been thinking about earlier today! Well, not exactly, I've been trying to predict what could be the next step for Nintendo (as in next next generation) and came to the conlusion it might be voice recognition. But there are some problems with that, like distinguishing between commands and simple multiplayer chat. You could solve it by having players, er, hold a button while issuing commands, but that seems kinda clumsy.

[Jackal]

Yeah, true, I was thinking only of single player, but it would definitely create some logistical problems for multiplayer games. A button isn't ideal, but it'd still be preferable to 5 or 6 buttons doing easily replaceable functions. Or you could have a code word that toggles commands and chat. That would need to be pretty responsive, obviously, but then you wouldn't want to rely on voice commands for any split-second actions.

[insane_cobra]

Originally Posted by Jackal

Or you could have a code word that toggles commands and chat. That would need to be pretty responsive, obviously, but then you wouldn't want to rely on voice commands for any split-second actions.

Yeah, but your co-players could then say your code word and issue some commands to screw you up.
That could be avoided if people played with haedsets, but not if they used speakers.

[tabacco]

Hah... socom2 allowed voice commands. A housemate bought it one time, and we all used to try to sabotage his game by shouting destructive commands while he was playing

Who actually played SOCOM2's single player?

[insane_cobra]

Guess we finally have some leaked GDC videos on our hands. Despite them being nowhere near what was shown at last year's E3, some of them look very nice!

[avatar_58]

Originally Posted by Thrik

Hey, that almost sounds like the mantra of the AG community.

Ba-zing....


Also we all know adventure games blow hard because they only use two buttons....left and right click *ahem*

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Originally Posted by avatar_58

Also we all know adventure games blow hard because they only use two buttons....left and right click *ahem*

LOL! You're evil.

I think it's funny how many adventure games seem to fall into these conventional trappings. Makes me wonder, what if adventure games had always been direct control and a different kind of interface all these years, and then a couple games introduced an 'innovative' approach: exclusively mouse driven, point-&-click? Would it have been controversial too? Would there be a lynch mob of gamers screaming bloody murder because their precious keyboard direct control adventures are suddenly threatened to be extinct?

[insane_cobra]

Of course.

[avatar_58]

Originally Posted by Intrepid Homoludens

LOL! You're evil.

I think it's funny how many adventure games seem to fall into these conventional trappings. Makes me wonder, what if adventure games had always been direct control and a different kind of interface all these years, and then a couple games introduced an 'innovative' approach: exclusively mouse driven, point-&-click? Would it have been controversial too? Would there be a lynch mob of gamers screaming bloody murder because their precious keyboard direct control adventures are suddenly threatened to be extinct?

Well we did make that leap from text to point and click, however the internet wasn't around so I couldn't tell you if there was outrage. Guessing from the leagues of old lucasarts and sierra fans today, I'd say it was a good move.

[Intrepid Homoludens]

From what I've read it was a controversial move to go from text to p&c, just as Myst back then was controversial because it was so different from most other games.

[insane_cobra]

There were some differences, though. The most prominent one - adventures weren't a niche genre back then, they were mainstream and Infocom was HUGE! Also, some games would have you pointing and clicking, but weren't really what we now consider point & click. For instance, they had just as many verbs as their textual counterparts. Streamlining that to just a few verbs DID cause an outcry from the hard core part of the audience, in their eyes those games were dumbed down. So today's old farts were young turks then, it's only the natural course of events, it happens with everything, everywhere.

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Yeah, I agree.

[jjacob]

Funny how every thread eventually boils down to the ancient history of the adventure genre (And no I don't mind). Just a useless observation, is all.

[tabacco]

Originally Posted by jjacob

Funny how every thread eventually boils down to the ancient history of the adventure genre (And no I don't mind). Just a useless observation, is all.

I'm sorry, I don't know how to "boil down".

[insane_cobra]

Originally Posted by jjacob

Funny how every thread eventually boils down to the ancient history of the adventure genre

That's not true! Some end up being about StarForce.