When the Wii was first announced, way back in 2005, I was thrilled by the prospect of the motion controller. I knew that it could come off as gimmicky, if not handled well, but I also knew that it had the potential to revolutionize gaming. In the past five years, the motion controller has sort of done both. It has become a staple for family-centric party games, but also has been largely shunned by the hardcore audience. Part of the reason for this is that the Wii does not output in 1080 high definition, which is becoming a necessity to the hardcore gamer, but another reason for this shunning is that no one has really perfected the first-person shooter (FPS) with the motion controller.
Many developers have tried their hands at the genre, with varying degrees of success. The greatest successes thus far have been The Conduit (High Voltage Software) and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare: Reflex (Treyarch). The issues that have crippled the FPS with motion gaming has been the way that turning has been handled. Traditionally, these games have incorporated an invisible box that is the aiming area. If they player moves the reticule out of that box, the character turns or looks in that direction. Every game has done this differently. Some games have a large aiming area, while others have a small aiming area. In some games, the camera turns very quickly when going outside of this box, and in others is moves slowly. The Conduit introduced the ability for the player to set the size of their aiming area and camera speed, and it worked pretty well, but it still did not feel as comfortable as playing with an analog stick.
So, what does the traditional controller do differently? When playing on a system that uses two analog sticks, the right stick is almost always used for aiming and turning the camera. Instead of having an aiming area, everything turns when the analog stick is used. So, if you aim up, your character is also looking up. I have always asked why the motion-controlled games did not simply follow this model. Why do we need an aiming area? Would it work well if done the traditional way? This past week I played a game (Cabela’s Dangerous Hunts 2011) with my PlayStation Move that has done this, and despite the games other shortcomings, the aiming felt amazing.
This is seriously the best motion-controlled FPS shooting mechanic that I have every played. If I tilted my Move controller up, my character looked up and brought his gun up, just like I was using an analog stick. Turning was just as easy as well. After playing for a while, I realized that if you move the controller slowly, there actually is a small aiming area for precision, but quicker motions, which FPS games require, simply revert to the traditional camera type.
In a world where the FPS still reigns, or is still at least a high-level member of the royal court, having good motion controls in the genre is ever important. I had hopes for the newly patched MAG, but my gun would either list lazily to either side due to the lack of stability in my extended arm, or any real movements in the fast-paced shooter would cause my reticule to leave the aiming area and force me to turn in circles. Hopefully more developers, with far superior FPS games, can humble themselves and learn something from Dangerous Hunts 2011. Until then, I will be sticking to my analog sticks for my first-person shooters.
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