Warhawk and The Dualshake Controller

You may recall Warhawk from the Sony conference demo, their flagship 'dualshake' controller product. A few of the news sites have gotten their hands on the game, and have impressions of what it's like to use the PS3 controller with the game. From the Gamespy article: "I was initially very skeptical of how this feature (which looked hastily tacked on to a regular joypad without a rumble) would work, but after a lengthy playtest of WarHawk's 30 percent complete single demo stage, I can safely attest to the excellent maneuverable quality possible from the very first moment you pick up and play. The slight delay at the Sony press conference between Phil Harrison's pivoting, and the on-screen tilting of his rendered joypad meant I was expecting the same problems during my WarHawk piloting. Not so. This works flawlessly, and immediately, and allayed any fears I had that this was a last-minute gimmick designed to tear interest away from the Wii."

It IS a last-minute gimmick...

...designed to draw your attention away from the Wii. That doesn't mean it isn't well-executed. For all their many flaws, and they certainly are numerous, Sony does actually know its shit.

Re:It IS a VERY last-minute gimmick...

It was VERY last minute. Check out this Euro Gamer Article [eurogamer.net] where they talk to a guy from the team behind Warhawk. Here is the most important part:

EG: When did you first learn about [the tilt functionality] controller?

Dylan Jobe: We've really known officially for about a week and a half, and we did the final tuning just a couple of days ago.

In other words, the gimic worked...

and allayed any fears I had that this was a last-minute gimmick designed to tear interest away from the Wii.

So, in other words, the Sony gimic worked to tear your interest away from the Wii. Sony must be ecstatic.

Anyone remember the pressure-sensitive buttons on the PS2 controller? Anyone remember any game that used them? The only one I recall was Metal Gear Solid 2, and with that game, I only succeeded in screwing up the amount of pressure required, accidently shooting guards I only wanted to hold up. Supposedly some driving games used it, but I don't play driving games, so I can't verify that. Bottom line is that I really didn't notice any games using the pressure sensitive buttons - and even if they did, I wasn't actively using them, instead just pressing the button like I always did.

I can't help but feel that this new "motion sensitive" feature will go the way of the "pressure sensitive" buttons - very few games will bother using them, since they're not really a core feature of the controller. Try as I might, I cannot imagine twisting a PS2 controller around for any length of time. It's just too heavy and too unweildy to continuely wave around. Imagine having to hold your PS2 controller steady, because accidently tipping it might do something unintended. (To be fair, I can't imagine twisting the Wii remote around for any length of time either, but not having held that, I'm willing to give Nintendo the benefit of the doubt.)

Just like the pressure sensetive buttons, this whole motion sensitive thing on the PS3 controller feels like a pointless gimic. Apparently they're also trying to use that to distract from the fact that they've removed force feedback from their controllers in response to a patent lawsuit. I dunno about anyone else, but I like having force feedback.

The whole PS3 "DualShake" thing still sounds like a gimic to me, just like the PS2 "DualShock" was essentially a gimic. I'd much rather have force feedback than be required to wave a DualShock controller around in the air. (And, yes, it's been confirmed that the final PS3 controller looks exactly like the PS2 controller - except it's wireless. It's not that boomerang thing.)

Re:In other words, the gimic worked...

Really, this is almost a retread of the analog button story. The analog buttons on the Dual Shock have a completely digital feel, and you get the feeling that the feature was only added because it was planned for other consoles. If you ever try making use of the analog button feature in Gran Turismo on the PS2, all you get in return is very sore hands from the reinforcement of the natural tendency to push the button REALLY HARD.

Whether the motion detection in the Dual Shake is implemented well or not is irrelevant -- it's still a two-handed controller. When I imagine playing a game with one, I think of simple tilting motions to steer or control an airplane, and that's about it.

On the other hand, when I imagine playing a game with the Wiimote, I can see myself cutting people open in Trauma Center, or swinging a sword around, or learning the proper gestures to cast spells in some spiffy new Harry Potter game. The gesturing power of my right hand alone simply dwarfs that of both hands tied together.

Re:In other words, the gimic worked...

The gesturing power of my right hand alone simply dwarfs that of both hands tied together.

...ummmm.... nevermind, it's just too easy....

Just because the engineers rock

doesn't mean it wasn't still just a last minute gimmick and attempt to steal thunder from the Wii. Just means the poor bastards who had to implement it in crunch-time actually got the job done.

Crap too late.

Cue Nintendo-fanboy flames in three, two... aw fuck too late.

Litigation still pending

Don't think for a second that Sony didn't do this because of the continuing litigation regarding the Dual Shock vibration. They're losing their case [totalvideogames.com], but to include vibration feedback would incur more litigation, but to ship without some controller gimmick would make for a marketing loss.

Last Minute Gimmick?

Now why would anyone possibly think that? [joystiq.com]

Boomerang?

But do they still look like giant half-moon boomerangs? That's the question. The controllers in the early pictures looked amazingly uncomfortable. Flying is nice, but are the controllers actually comfortable?

Re:Boomerang?

In other words: a 10-year old design that looks completely out-of-place when compared to the aesthetics of the console itself.

I agree. This [awesometools.com] goes much better with the aesthetics of the console [sonyplaystation3news.com].

A gimmick's a gimmick.

The real question here isn't whether or not the Dual-Shake was 'stolen' from Nintendo or whether or not it's just a hastily added feature designed to make up for the potential loss of the Dual-Shock feature in future controllers. The real question is whether or not game developers are actually going to actually take full advantage of this feature when they're not under pressure to help Sony one-up Nintendo. The difference here is that Sony once mocked the 'Wii-mote' and its motion sensing features, only to embrace them once they realized that it actually worked - a purely reactionary move, for better or for worse. Nintendo has been making the Wii's controller the thesis of the entire console, and as we've seen, there are quite a few games already in production that incorporate the motion-sensing features of the controller into the gameplay quite well. (While it might work out for Sony in the end, Nintendo has a massive head-start on them.)

Another interesting thing to note is that if games come out for the Playstation 3 that revolve around the motion-sensing control feature, it's likely that they will also be ported to the Wii - or from it, which ever way it works out. This means increased availability of games, which works out for us gamers, though it's hard to tell which company would come out on top of that one. (Something tells me Nintendo would get the long end of the stick on that one, considering the console is already predicted to be much cheaper, and therefore more available to consumers in terms of cost.) This also means that developers wishing to take advantage of motion-sensing controllers won't be isolated to just one console, should they choose to develop for the Wii and the Playstation 3 at the same time. (And eventually the 360, since there's no way in hell Microsoft would ignore a feature like this considering all of the attention it's getting.) After seeing what the 'Wii-mote' can do, it's easy to see that Nintendo's driving a motion-sensing bandwagon right through the industry. Their console may yet be a revolution - in control schemes, if nothing else.

Ergo...

If this is indeed true, that the tilt and roll and gyroscopic capabilities of the PS3 controler are indeed well implemented and fun to use and yatta yatta yatta, does this not also mean that, because the Nintendo Wii focuses specifically upon these aspects of play, that their controller and console will not only be fun to use, but will perhaps be BETTER?

If Sony's done stole a little bit off Wii for itself, that doesn't suddenly mean Sony > Wii. It just means that Sony will have to work hard to encourage USE of that feature, whereas for Nintendo, it's kind of implied from the start that anyone designing games for the system is free to make use of the motion capabilities.

Perhaps I'm not explaining myself well, but I'm just seeing this as another challenge for Sony. They have to prove that this isn't just an E3 gimmick, and that it somehow makes their games more fun to play than Nintendos.

Hastily tacked on?

Just because the game developers found out about the motion sensing functionality within the last few weeks doesn't mean it was "hastily tacked on." To me, "hastily tacked on" means that the decision to add the feature came late in development and was then added at the last minute.

How long have we known about Nintendo's controllers? It was debuted September 15, 2005 [nintendo.com]. So if Sony started working on this technology as soon as Nintendo announced the controller, they would have been working on it for over 7 months before releasing it to developers. They could have waited a while to start working on it, but from all the praise it got at E3 in Japan, I would think they would have started research right away, assuming that they weren't already working on such a feature. The recent release of the technology to developers doesn't seem like something that was "hastily tacked on", but more like something that took a while to develop and perfect before it could be implemented.

...with that said, it definitely seems like they stole the idea from Nintendo and wanted to take the hype away from the Wii.

Re:Hastily tacked on?

To me, "hastily tacked on" means that the decision to add the feature came late in development and was then added at the last minute.

They found out in the last week or so. See here [eurogamer.net]. They did the tuning in just the last few days.

I highly doubt that they wouldn't've given the controller to them if it had been ready earlier - or if they even knew it was going to work much earlier. This was a "have this work by E3 or else" announcement, and I'm surprised that it works at all.

Maybe you're too young to remember this, but.....

Microsoft had a positional controller loooooong before Nintendo, or Sony. They came out with a special edition of the Sidewinder that offered many of the same features as these "next gen" controllers. I believe it was about 1997 or 98 when it was available (it was discontinued after about a year).

Re:Maybe you're too young to remember this, but...

To be fair, Microsoft's controller (and Sony's new one) used a gyroscope/accelerometer combination to track movement. Nintendo is using RF direction finding to determine the exact position of the controller in space.

Hello LocoRoco!

LocoRoco is a game for the PSP where you navigate a blob by tilting the world with R1 and L1. The game would be supercool on the ps3!

Screenshorts [gamespot.com]

Diverting our attention from what, exactly?

Who cares, really. This console is, at minimum, 500 dollars. (100 dollars for a 40 GB upgrade? What the--) ... Five hundred dollars. Cash.

Gee, big surprise.

From the "article":

It took 15 seconds for me to change my jaded mind from slightly mocking to kool-aid drinking. I've experienced the way PS3 games control, and it's epoch-making.

haha. Epoch-making. You've got to be kidding me. I find it hard to take anything else this guy says seriously.

It *is* a last minute attempt...

... to steal Nintendo's thunder. The fact that it is a good idea doesn't take away from the fact that Sony stole the idea because they are creatively bankrupt.

Re:Pelican TiltPak

It's not that Nintendo invented motion-sensing. It is the fact that Sony clearly decided to implement it thanks to all the praise the free-hand controller has gotten lately.

On the other hand, don't forget that the true 3D space movement detection the Wii uses is a true first for the gaming industry. The PS3 and all those other prior products may be "motion-sensing", but are much more limited in their capabilities.