Notebooks, guitars, and Wii remotes are a small collection of items not intended for the left dominate. Notice I didn’t mention the PlayStation Move.
In San Francisco this week I used Sony’s new motion control device, a near pixel perfect 1:1 take on Nintendo’s casual controller, with two games: Farsight Studios Brunswick Bowling and Zipper Interactive’s SOCOM US Navy SEALS 4. I’m left-handed, and in both games, I didn’t have problems.
I experience subtle, sometimes overt disconnects with most Wii titles. Reticules jiggle or snake across the screen because I hold the remote in my dominant hand. Cameras zoom and pan around 3D worlds while my hand remains firm and centered.
In action adventure games like Zelda the inputs can be confusing for me: the green-garbed adventurer Link holds his sword in his right hand, his shield strapped on his left arm. My left-hand then becomes his right.
I expected a similar sort of issue with Brunswick Bowling, a simple debut PS Move title that features right-handed bowlers spilling fiberglass spheres across a lacquered lane. But the Eye didn’t lose me, I didn’t need to re-sync, and the throwing motion didn’t feel awkward.
During an impromptu PS Move session with SOCOM 4, Zipper Interactive’s resurrection of a series that Slant Six might have turned people off from, creative director Ed Byrne shot me nervous glance when I told him that I was left-handed and would only feel comfortable if I could use the PS Move and sub-controller in that inverted style. Byrne then said he was excited to see if the game took to southpaws.
SOCOM 4 is an over-the-shoulder, cover-based shooter. It’s also a simulation that requires you to be aware of your surroundings and react as a viper. Speed and precision are more vital as they are in Zelda. And the lead protagonist, like Link, uses his right-hand to assault.
No worries. After a brief hiccup with the PS Move hardware -- the device is still in the pre-Alpha stage -- I was able to maim, pan, and destroy just as well as I imagine my right-handed cohorts were able to within the darkened, sequestered booth. I wasn’t thrown off by the action, nor did I feel handicapped because of my genes.
I need more time with the hardware to be able to definitely say that there won’t be any problems. And more than likely it’s up to developers to sculpt an experience that works well for both right and left handers, but in my limited time with two different games, I can say that I didn’t have issues.
And considering that I still can’t roll with bosses in Zelda, that’s saying a lot.
Zipper Interactive’s SOCOM 4 is due out this Fall. The PS Move integration that I used was in a pre-alpha stage and the team had a mere six weeks of serious time with the device. Color me impressed and eager to see what else comes. Look for my full impressions of the game with the PS Move later this afternoon.
Contest:
5:45 PM on 03.13.2010
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Apparently Zipper is worried about balancing the two control methods because some people were stomping other players by USING the motion controls.
Here's a little article that brings that up and a bunch of other tech stuff on SONY's motion control system.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-vs-playstation-move-article?page=1
Freaks.
Now, don't get me wrong. SONY is following Nintendo. But the actual tech is vastly different overall, even between the Wiimote + and Move.
Saying they're the same is pure ignorance. Now that still doesn't mean I want Move, but its clearly better on the tech side. Now they need games and developers to do things with the tech that actually show off that its far better than the Wii.
@mrandydixon
I remember responding to you awhile back about this same subject. I don't think you played Metroid Prime 3, so it's obvious why you don't see how motion control can benefit games like SOCOM.
Is an FPS better with a mouse and keyboard than dual-analogue? Answer that, and you'll understand the answer to your own question.
You're right, you did tell me that. And then I told you something like this:
mouse > dual analogs > motion controls
I own a Wii and Metroid Prime, and I always thought the controls gimped the game. (Same with every other shooter on the Wii.) I don't like light gun games -- not in an arcade, and not on my home console.
Sometimes I play shooters for five or six hours, uninterrupted. Who the fuck wants to hold their arm out in front of them for that long?
Those doctors must not have seen Brad's biceps.
Ya, like 300 years ago.
I agree with mrandydixon.
Mouse > Dual Analogs > motion controls
Most good Wii games can swap between lefty and righty mode. LoZ:TP doesn't do that? Thats weird because other Nintendo games do. Hell even DS games have lefty mode. Wario Ware comes to mind having lefty mode. Plus, LoZ:TP isn't close to 1:1 motion, so I don't see why you have a problem with it. Maybe user error? :P
i agree with you on the notebooks though, that damned coil kills my pinky
Who the fuck wants to hold their arm out in front of them for that long?
Simple solution: Don't.
More than three years into this and we are still getting people who have no idea they can rest their hand on their lap like any ol' controller? I don't believe this. Moving a pointer on the screen requires nothing more than the slightest of wrist motions. If even THAT is too much, I'd suggest going to a doctor and checking for carpal tunnel syndrome.
@the whole lefty thing
I'm still trying to work how left-handers have trouble with the Wii remote. I've dabbled with switching hands now and then and haven't noticed anything that would impair the controls. Maybe I'm missing some teensy fundamental problem that only lefty's can perceive, but I highly doubt that.
Perhaps someone can provide a specific instance where being a lefty would be detrimental.
I'll let you in on a secret, Brad. Your problems with the Wiimote (aside from the visiospatial disconnect of holding the "sword" in the opposite hand as the game's protagonist) are a result of imprecise hardware, not left-handedness. If the PS Move can detect lefties, then that is pretty nifty, otherwise, it is still seeming like just a more accurate Wiimote.
Which isn't bad, by the way.
Also, Link being right-handed is utter rubbish.
"More than three years into this and we are still getting people who have no idea they can rest their hand on their lap like any ol' controller? I don't believe this. Moving a pointer on the screen requires nothing more than the slightest of wrist motions. If even THAT is too much, I'd suggest going to a doctor and checking for carpal tunnel syndrome."
Tell you what, when the game comes out, we'll both use Move, but you rest yours in your lap and I'll hold mine in front of me like it's intended. We'll see which one of us is more accurate.
This is a competitive multiplayer shooter, not Wii bowling. You can't play it with a flick of the wrist.
Now, if Drakengard turns out to be right, then I stand corrected! I have just PERSONALLY never played a motion controlled game that was better for it. That's why I asked the question.
I've played Metroid Prim 3 with the remote sitting in my lap. I had no troubles.
Of course, I never was wary over motion controls when they were introduced nor did I grow disillusioned by certain parties' missteps with motion controls over the past few years. I welcome them openly, so in that regard I don't necesarilly see the huge problems that others do. Maybe it's because I ignore those issues, but I like to think that being more welcome of motion controllers has allowed me to develop a certain play style that is efficient and effective.
Also, just because it uses different tech and improves on the WiiMote this thing is an incredibly blatant copy (not that I care just the semantics behind some peoples arguments are frustrating me). It's exactly the fucking same! Technology advances at phenomenal rates, that's why when you release something in the same vein but years later of course it's going to be better. It has to be otherwise Sony would be the most retarded company in the world. It's like having 5 extra years to complete an assignment then gloating over your peers who only got B's when you got an A+.
In my opinion it should do far more than it does, sure it improves on the Wii's basic functionality but what else? NOTHING! That's what.
You obviously have not played Metroid Prime 3 for any substantial length of time. If you're trying to justify your bias against motion controls by pretending you've had any real experience with effective, well-implemented motion input, please, stop lying to yourself. For example:
"...and I'll hold mine in front of me like it's intended."
You're really making a fool of yourself. Please check your biases and preconceptions at the door and try again.
(Maybe I'll set my mouse sensitivity to the minimum and waggle my arm across my desktop "like it was intended", and then claim mouse control is an ineffective input...)
But seriously, while it's arguable whether or not motion control is (currently) as good or better than mouse + keyboard (I'd say it isn't, but that it's getting pretty close), I take it as a given that motion control > dual-analogue. This should be plainly obvious to anyone who is being even remotely objective (i.e. hasn't been used to dual-analogue for the past decade and has spent more than an hour with motion controls).
1.) While the tech is obviously different, the functionality is nearly identical. I thought it was blatantly obvious that Sony's implementation had more to do with not intruding on Nintendo's patents/copyrights/whatever than anything else.
2.) Why do people keep comparing Move to the standard Wii Remote? Isn't it more accurate to compare it to the MotionPlus?
3.) I've yet to see any direct comparisons between Move and MotionPlus. Any practical differences have appeared to be negligible at this point. (Of course, that's with the exception of the augmented reality elements, but those don't really have to do with motion control.)
Hell, he's even lefty in the Twilight Princess promo poster. What's up with that, then?
I am left handed and I've never had a problem using the wiimote. Though that could be because when I first started using computers, I never thought to use the mouse with my left hand, and just learned to use it with my right hand. I remember it was hard at first, but eventually I got the right hand/ eye coordination down.
The wiimote nunchuck combo essentially just acts like a regular controller except cut in half, why would you put the directional controle under your right thumb when you are so used to it in yor left?
I should note that the article I posted, which you didn't read, said that it really depended upon the person. Some were just as good with a typical controller, but Zipper devs said they knew that the motion controls were more precise and quick than a normal analog stick and thus there would be possible balance issues.
They suggest that they may implement special rooms for those who don't want to mix motion and controls, though that appears to be something optional you can do rather than forced.
We'll just have to see in the long haul.
Also, boo-yah lefties! :D :D :D
*leftie fist bump*
@Tony Ponce
Well, either you're going to use your right hand for a pointing device, or your right hand for the analogue stick on the nunchuck. Either way you're going to do it differently than any other console.
left-handedness doesnt has anything to do with your genes... well theres a gene which makes it more LIKELY but its mostly preference
In the GameCube version of Twilight Princess, Link is left-handed.
It's in the genes, I have evidence in my family tree! (of course you're still right though, it can also be a preference)
I play Wii games with my controller in my lap all the time. I just can't imagine doing so and still being able to have as quick of reaction time as the live person running across my screen.
@LoftyTheMetroid
We can argue all day about what games I have and haven't played and which controllers I've had experience with, but you'll never be convinced either way, so it's not worth my time (or would you rather I take a picture of my consoles, peripherals and stacks of games?)
But I will say this: if Nintendo and Sony don't "intend" for people to actually use their arms to play their motion control games, they should really work on their advertising.
Oh, and I've never seen a mouse advertised as such, so I don't think they're "intended" to be dragged all the way across your desk.
@Drakengard
Good call on my not having read the article. I used what you said as an example even though Safari wouldn't open the page for some reason, and I intended to read it later.
I feel like the wiimote is going to be awkward for us anyway. Personally, I hold TV remotes in my left hand, so it makes sense to hold the wiimote in my left. So either it will be awkward using the joystick with the right hand or awkward pointing and clicking with the right hand.
Either way we're better than you lesser right-handed folk.
... though I just can't see motion controllers being at all better than a regular controller...
There's no need to argue anything - you know exactly how little experience you've had with effective motion control. Before you start suggesting taking photos of your consoles and games, maybe you should get a pic of your Metroid play time.
Either way, it's unnecessary. I'm just surprised you would hold hold such a bias against motion control while knowingly lying to yourself about having given it a fair chance (or any chance at all). You think you're being clever, but it's plainly obvious to anyone who's fully experienced an effective motion-controlled FPS that the majority of your claims are nonsensical. (Speed and accuracy? Extended arms? Inability to play for lengthy periods of time?)
Also: You're right. The most effective way to advertise a new input would be to show a fatass sitting on his couch doing nothing.
You must not see many advertisements.
@Max Hickson
I know, I'm very familiar with Twilight Princess. I just assumed you weren't, since your post implied you thought Link was only right-handed. The original, "real" version of Twilight Princess is the GCN SKU, where Link is left-handed as was always intended.