Natal may sound cool, but it's a BAD idea!

Now, I’ll admit upfront that I’m not entirely educated in the works or distribution of motion controllers, but to my knowledge, the Nintendo Wii was crowned as the first to widely popularize motion in games. This and all preceding technologies are (in my book at least) considered the worst move since Betamax!

Virtual Reality has been a pipedream for gamers, and well… everyone really. People think that such technology would introduce new revolutionized interfaces. While it’s quite logical that such equipment would be useful to organizations like NASA, but for gaming, this is a step into a realm of unspeakable irritability. If we continue to utilize these in everyday games, tears will undoubtedly spray from our already overworked tear ducts. So, why are motion controls such a bad idea? I’ll tell you…

First, who can honestly say that waving a Wiimote has proved annoying and/or pointless in one game or another, a resounding yes is the answer I would likely expect. So, for these games that simply don’t fit the criteria for motion control, how would you like to kick it up a notch? Instead of that pointless waving to smack your opposition, or pushing forward a joystick to walk or run, why not flail your arms around or stick your feet out in front of you? Not only could it prove to be a hazard to yourself and virtually anything within a yard of your protracted limbs, but it simply sounds boring.

Another difficulty arises when camera views are introduced, seeing as you can’t readily rotate your screen view when your right hand is busy shooting, you’re jumping in place to continue running, and your left hand is in possession of a clip ready to reload. Humans have one undeniable flaw, we aren’t readily equipped to multitask in this way, and nobody even has the attention span to continue all of these bodily controls without severe internal hemorrhaging.

With recently announced Natal and Sony’s patented “Household items as controllers” deal, it’s going to be hard to dodge what people consider “the future of gaming”. However, the fate of all motion controls lie in the developer’s palm. I’d love to see how they could possibly implement these mechanics, but I’m certainly not going to jump right on the bandwagon. So until further notice, consider me extremely skeptical.

Cue Scary Music

Anyone whom has ever seen a movie trailer, watched a movie, or even just taken a look at the backside of some DVD cases should be very familiar with the phrase “In a World…”. Unfortunately, these three words, said in tandem, often kill a small part of me inside. After years of hearing it, years of witnessing the movies which the phrase is attached, it’s become my personal bodyguard against clichés.

I guess you could say that I’m saying, don’t watch movies that take refuge with this saying to promote itself, or at least beware of them. Nothing’s worse than to be incredibly hyped for a film and to end up sickened at the thought of actually paying to see it. Not only are these three hackneyed words overused, but in fact give you a clear idea of what the movie will be about. When “In a World…” is introduced, you can be sure that a danger has spread wide enough to impact one or all persons involved world. From this sorely overused premise there are multiple ways in which the plot can turn, three in fact. The protagonist can win and all is good, the protagonist can win but inevitably die in the process, or the story continues in a sequel after leaving you (the viewers) on a cliffhanger worse than Assassin’s Creed.

Beware “In a World…” because it will only bring tears to your eyes, it’s an all but evil phrase that Hollywood has adapted to so very well. Thus, I am officially calling war on clichés of any kind, whether it it’s in movies, videogames, or a Chuck Norris joke, They’re officially on my enemies list (right below Uwe Boll).

Original Gamer Limit Logo

Well isn’t this just grand everyone? Gamer Limit, already nearing its 8 month anniversary has provided us with news, reviews, and oh so many original features, and now this! NexLimit may just be what pushes this astounding indie website to the limit (excuse the pun).

Never in my years wasted staring at these colorful dots we call pixels have I witnessed such a transcendent rise to glory. I’m not sucking up either, you really don’t understand how much effort these folks put into this collaborative masterpiece. Now, I’ve had a wonderful opportunity to get to know the founder of Gamer Limit, Colin, and what he and his the crew of caged code monkey’s have done with this new profile/blog system is simply mind-boggling. Of course, Gamer Limit isn’t the first to embrace community blogging, but it is quite possibly the fastest to adapt, and I for one am whole-heartedly proud to have contributed to this site at one time or another.

If you yourself were here from the beginning, you would understand that Gamer Limit has evolved into a classy, interesting, and committed site (they work like a machine to pump out news). So as the first ever post on the Gamer Limit community blogs, I’ll say this…

You did a FANTASTIC job.