PS3 a worthwhile purchase?

[John Crichton]

Natal or any of the "motion capture" stuff is pointless without compelling games. Tech like that on it's own, is nothing more than an interesting oddity and I'm not convinced that being able to wave your arms in the air is necessarily better or even more desirable than using a controller for a lot of the things they were showing in the demo video. I certainly don't want to have to be waving my arms in the air for an hour while playing GT5/Forza/Tekken/GTA or what ever.

Agreed. Unless Natal is one of those things that turns out to be something that I never knew I was missing until I had it in my gaming life I'm not going to care or want to even bother with it.

Original post in sblock:[sblock]Agreed. Unless FATAL is one of those things that turns out to be something that I never knew I was missing until I had it in my gaming life I'm not going to care or want to even bother with it.[/sblock]

 

[Rackhir]

Agreed. Unless FATAL is one of those things that turns out to be something that I never knew I was missing until I had it in my gaming life I'm not going to care or want to even bother with it.

If F.A.T.A.L. (just google it. I'm at work and can't post links to it) is something that you never knew what you were missing until you had it in your life. I'm quite certain I hope to never meet you IRL.

Perhaps you meant "Natal"?

 

[John Crichton]

If F.A.T.A.L. (just google it. I'm at work and can't post links to it) is something that you never knew what you were missing until you had it in your life. I'm quite certain I hope to never meet you IRL.

Perhaps you meant "Natal"?

Hah! I had a feeling that I posted that wrong.

Confirmed.

 

[Steel_Wind]

Agreed. Unless Natal is one of those things that turns out to be something that I never knew I was missing until I had it in my gaming life I'm not going to care or want to even bother with it.

Sure, it's about the games. Microsoft is saying that Natal will launch a year from now with 14 titles that support it.

How good will that support be? Well that's another question entirely.

But look - we all wanted that light sabre to play a Force Unleashed or KotOR style game on the Wii. The desire for the game was so high, housings for Wii controllers were made and released - and there is still no damn game to actually use them with. Instead, we got the forgettable Red Steel, which only showed that the rest of the Wii hardware simply isn't up to the task.

If we get a Natal capable Fable 3 which allows for sword play and genuinely cool spell casting via gestures? I don't think spellcasting is going to be a hard sell around these parts.

As for Natal nods to Star Wars...how cool would something like SW Battlegrounds be with gesture controls for Darkside electrical attacks? I'm guessing, very - provided it actually works!

For the most part, I agree that we will see Natal used initially to capture more casual gamers in the same manner that the Wii used its controllers (and price) to do so. The difference is, the 360 has an installed hardcore gamer base with HD capability to provide a ready made audience of millions. Price for Natal appears to be aimed in the $50 to $79.99 range. Less than a DJ hero controller.

Or as part of a system price which will be less than $299?

I call that a big win.

 

[John Crichton]

Sure, it's about the games. Microsoft is saying that Natal will launch a year from now with 14 titles that support it.

How good will that support be? Well that's another question entirely.

But look - we all wanted that light sabre to play a Force Unleashed or KotOR style game on the Wii. The desire for the game was so high, housings for Wii controllers were made and released - and there is still no damn game to actually use them with. Instead, we got the forgettable Red Steel, which only showed that the rest of the Wii hardware simply isn't up to the task.

If we get a Natal capable Fable 3 which allows for sword play and genuinely cool spell casting via gestures? I don't think spellcasting is going to be a hard sell around these parts.

As for Natal nods to Star Wars...how cool would something like SW Battlegrounds be with gesture controls for Darkside electrical attacks? I'm guessing, very - provided it actually works!

That's the rub. I'm smellin' allota if comin' off Natal.

But seriously, unless it works pretty much like the interface in Minority Report it's not going to do what we all really want it to do. I'm not seeing any real precise movements in any of the videos and I'm in no way convinced it could accurately give us a proper lightsaber duel or be precise enough for targeting smaller objects with spells/guns and the like. And then there's the whole walking around thing.

If it does, great! I gotta see it to believe it.

For the most part, I agree that we will see Natal used initially to capture more casual gamers in the same manner that the Wii used its controllers (and price) to do so. The difference is, the 360 has an installed hardcore gamer base with HD capability to provide a ready made audience of millions. Price for Natal appears to be aimed in the $50 to $79.99 range. Less than a DJ hero controller.

Or as part of a system price which will be less than $299?

I call that a big win.

The Wii was really fun for the first few days. Natal takes away the controller and adds voice to it which could open up some really cool games. As you said, that will tap MS into the same crowd that flocked to the Wii. The casual gamer market has proven to be too large for another company to not take a bite out of so it was just a matter of time. I guess we'll see how much of that market comes to the Xbox once Nintendo makes a price drop to combat Natal. At that point it will all come down to who has the better game offerings.

Either way, that isn't taking customers away from Sony assuming they are buying the system for more "serious" gaming or for the Blu-ray capabilities.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

I think fighting games (be it with lightsabers or with bare hands) should be a lot of fun even for a "serious" gamer. Other games are probably more for the "casual" player and for party games. Which is still pretty cool.

I am not sure I can see myself playing a Command & Conquer IV, Never Winter Nights 3, Need for Speed or X-Wing vs Tie Fighter II with it, and that would be the kind of games I personally would prefer.

The real challenge with new types of controls is to make new types of games that benefit from it, i think.

 

[Punnuendo]

The fact of the matter Nintendo for the most part actually made using the Wii motion controls interesting to people. They took a gimmicky idea and made it work with the software they put out. I have zero faith in Microsoft actually producing any quality content for Natal. Innovative technology is great, but if you never do anything with it then there is no point.

As to the subject of the thread, I'd for sure call the PS3 a good buy. The library of games is really good and as others have said it works well as a media server.

Plus I've had zero problems with my PS3 while I'm on my fourth 360 in two years, so I may be just a bit biased on that end.

 

[Orius]

Natal faces the same problems as the Wii.

Nintendo developments for the Wii are all supposed to be pretty solid; they developed the system in the first place, and they know what they're doing with it. Third-parties are more hit and miss. A lot of them have churned out shovelware crap that apes Wii Sports and Wii Play, yet those two titles seem to be indended by Nintendo as more of a demo of the system's capabilities (and in the case of Wii Play, also a sort of tutorial on the Wiimote). Some third-parties have tried making some real use out of the Wiimote but the results have been mixed with some good games and some mediocre.

The same thing could happen with Natal. The developers may not step up to the plate and deliver games that are worth it. Microsoft also has the disadvantage of being more reliant on third-parties than Nintendo, so more bad third party games using Natal support will probably hurt them more.

On the upside, Microsoft looks like they're being far more serious about competing with Nintendo's Wii controls and putting more thought into it than Sony did with their Sixaxis controller.

 

[Welverin]

I find it funny that in almost a page of discussion on Natal and the Wii no one bother to mention that Sony is also working on motion controller.

 

[Brandigan]

I got the PS3 and Wii. The PS3 serves mostly as a blu-ray player. Valkyria Chronicles, Uncharted and Assassin's Creed are all good games. The Wii is the crowd pleaser during parties. Never had a X-box so I can't comment on that, still have a PS2 in the other room! But I have no complaints about the PS3, really solid, nice controller design, worthwhile purchase!