SG:GTA: GTA: Vice City is a resounding title today. Despite not having the scope and diversity or the landscape of San Andreas, the city of Vice City is still very large and full of things to do.
An editorial by Pixelvolt editor Kory McGaughey looks at the concerns of touch and motion controls and how these alternate control methods will affect the traditional controller's future.
I don't think motion controls or touchscreens will ever replace traditional controllers.
Thanks for the article, Jimmy.
I don't think the Move controller was meant to replace traditional controls. It was given to us as an option.
The Wii, however, straight up replaced traditional controls for motion controls and with a limited number of buttons. That is a sin that cannot be forgiven.
I understand the aprehension with these different controller types as familiarity is comfortable. However, their design has always been changing. After the Activision Joystick, the D-pad became popular, and after that we gained the analog stick. If the Steam Machine is a success, trackpads may become the main movement input.
The same applies to the shape of the controller. Up until the fourth generation, the rectangular design was popular. Now we have controllers where the focus is comfort.
The controller design is a constantly altering thing and I believe that we should embrace these new, possibly superb, designs before shunning them due to the comfort we have with familiarity.
(EDIT) as we gain a more perfected design of controller, the development process must try completly new things to continue to innovate, and since we can't improve on comfort as much now'a'days. Touch screens and motion have been experimented with.
I don't think they will ever replace traditional controls. But with that being said it can definitely improve our game play experience if implemented in the appropriate manner. Like give us more ways of accessing features that are otherwise cumbersome to utilize. Or making gestures for things typically assigned to the controller to free up space for more performable actions.
Personally that's why I like the concept of Kinect more than the Move or Wii-Mote, because it can be used in tandem with traditional controls rather than outright replacing them. I wish they would show this demo more publicly but there was a demo at E3 where it was a very crude shooter but all the traditional controls were mapped to the pad, but the Kinect was used for more extraneous stuff. Like tapping your right temple to activate night vision. Or leaning left and right to peek around corners. Making those actions Kinect based can free up valuable controller real estate.
In this editorial, Pixelvolt editor Kory McGaughey speaks about the good and bad when it comes to mobile gaming.
Oli Smith takes a look back at Grand Theft Auto Vice City on IOS.