Another Game Ruined By Kinect: Steel Battalion Heavy Armor

[Friendly]

http://www.metacritic.com/game/xbox-360 ... eavy-armor

What a shame.

[Ruldra]

Watch it and see it for yourself: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VxKRBUzElTU

It looks like a good game. Unfortunately Kinect ruins everything.

[Friendly]

Yeah, from what I gather Steel Battalion Heavy Armor was initially designed to be played with a regular controller; but then Micorsoft had the glorious idea to turn it into a Kinect-only title.

At this point we should probably just forget about Kinect. Its enormous lag and lack of precission all but guarantee there never will be a good game for it.

[Jeneki]

Honestly I'm more upset about Crimson Dragon.

HELL YEA PANZER DRAGOON SPIRITUAL SEQUEL! DAY 1 BUY!

Oh ... kinect only? Screw it.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Yeah, Crimson Dragon's a fucking shame.

"We want to sell our shitty peripheral, so we'll pay you money to fuck over anyone using an actual controller by making your game controller exclusive!" "OKAY!"

Perfectly good game was wasted. ._.

[BulletMagnet]

Honestly I'm more upset about Crimson Dragon.

You'd think that the word "Lair" would have come up in the conversation someplace as that decision was being made...

[Friendly]

Oh man, I didn't know about Crimson Dragon. I agree, that's even more upsetting.
That's got to be money-hatting, makes absolutely no sense otherwise. Why else would anyone create games for the worst motion control system out there, thus ensuring that they play like crap?
Crimson Dragon would be awesome with PS Move, or even on Wii

Are you sure Crimson Dragon won't have regular controller support?

[Skykid]

Why else would anyone create games for the worst motion control system out there, thus ensuring that they play like crap?

For ca$h. Kinect is absolutely -- and unjustifiably -- enormous.

I won't be playing Crimson Dragon if there's no controller option. I love PD, but not enough to want to wave my arms around in-front of the TV like a twat. I do that enough during the football.

[njiska]

Guess I'm going to be the one person here to post in defense of Kinect. While most of the games designed to use it are absolute crap, in the right lighting and with the right game it game be a lot of fun. Child of Eden for example controlled well and felt alright to play. Granted it was also just as good with a controller. EA Sports Active 2 for Kinect is by far the best version of the three because it actually allows you to work out.

The best use of Kinect I've encountered though is Dragon's Lair. FMV games are significantly more fun when you're getting your whole body into it. It's not 100% perfectly responsive, but it is a damn good time if you have the room and lighting.

All that said, Steel Battalion without a table sized controller is just wrong.

[DJ Incompetent]

I'll vouch for Child of Eden on Kinect too. It works well. It's not ideal for scorechasing, but it works fine for experiencing the game.

I can't see Steel Battalion having a competitive element, so if they get the basic motion functions working correctly, this should work out pretty well. It'll be more intuitive then mapping 60 button controls anyway.


Crimson Dragon kinect-only does deserve nerdrage.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

It's not 100% perfectly responsive

Hence why it sucks.

Have you tried playing a shmup with a less than responsive controller, or worse, a broken one? It feels like you're handicapped by your controller, because that's what's happening when the controller interferes with player skill. Fiddly motion controls just aren't precise enough to be enjoyable, especially not when they're totally unnecessary (New Super Mario Bros for the Wii for instance refused to allow you to spinjump without shaking the controller like you're having an epileptic seizure, hence no support for the motion-sensor-less classic controller which would otherwise have been perfect for the game, absolutely infuriating). At least when you're playing a PC FPS with a mouse or a rail shooter with a lightgun you can get pinpoint precision. Heck, I imagine Child of Eden is the sort of game that would work fine if not better with a lightgun than flailing your hands at the screen via the Kinect.

It's pretty much an admission that your peripheral sucks when you force people to use it/buy it just to play a game even though said game's controls could easily be mapped to the standard controller. This isn't DDR or Guitar Hero, sheesh.

[njiska]

It's not 100% perfectly responsive

Hence why it sucks.

Have you tried playing a shmup with a less than responsive controller, or worse, a broken one? It feels like you're handicapped by your controller, because that's what's happening when the controller interferes with player skill.

Yeah, except I don't feel handicapped in those games. I don't need pixel perfect accurate to play those games. You can not compare playing them to playing a shmup. A motion controlled shmup would obviously suck.

[BareKnuckleRoo]

Are you saying you'd enjoy playing something like House of the Dead or Time Crisis just as much (if not more) with the less precise Kinect controller? Would Child of Eden have been worse or not improved with a lightgun (which it sounds like the PS3 version has support for via the PS Move)? Because I imagine that having a lightgun for that sort of rail shooter would always be preferable to the Kinect (unless the 'appeal' of pretending you're shooting lasers/bullets from your hands is supposed to make up for the lack of precision...?), especially for games that demand more pinpoint accuracy.

[njiska]

Are you saying you'd enjoy playing something like House of the Dead or Time Crisis just as much (if not more) with the less precise Kinect controller? Would Child of Eden have been worse or not improved with a lightgun (which it sounds like the PS3 version has support for via the PS Move)? Because I imagine that having a lightgun for that sort of rail shooter would always be preferable to the Kinect (unless the 'appeal' of pretending you're shooting lasers/bullets from your hands is supposed to make up for the lack of precision...?), especially for games that demand more pinpoint accuracy.

Your argument just keeps boiling down to:

This isn't made of pure gold, therefore it must be shitty shit.

Sorry, but I don't need 100% perfection to enjoy something. Would I enjoy it more? Probably. But that doesn't mean I have to hate it otherwise. And further to that point, I actually greatly prefer playing Dragon's Lair with the Kinect rather than the more precise controller. And I'm someone who's been playing that game for 13 years. Partly because it's something new, but mostly because it's a far more involving experience.

[BryanM]

This isn't made of pure gold, therefore it must be shitty shit.

Considering the saturated environment we live in, not an unreasonable position to take.

It is, after all, the force that causes genres to wax and die.

[BrianC]

I agree games don't need to be perfect to be enjoyed, but I find timing games like Dragon's Lair to be especially hard to play with unresponsive controls, especially when there a small window for input.

[PC Engine Fan X!]

There's always the original 4-way digital joystick controlled Starcom's Laserdisc arcade game of Dragon's Lair to play/own circa 1983. Priced at 50 cents per credit...playing LD arcade games was a expensive hobby back in those days. It meant trying master them with the least amount of money spent. Of course, it'd be up to the discretion of each indy arcade operator to adjust the difficulty factor to keep the quarters rolling in. If set too hard in terms of overall game difficulty then profits won't be as good...it was trying to find "the sweet spot" that kept the early '80s arcade gamers coming back for just "one more game" mentality.

Overnight when breaking a dollar into four quarters, it became quite expensive to just play two 50 cent priced arcade games instead of the usual four 25 cent priced ones. It was worth it in the end since it was the latest 'n' greatest that the arcade game manufacturers were cranking out on a weekly basis to meet the demands of the general public.

There was one local arcade that had a special deal of "two games for the price of one" -- meaning that you could get two credits per quarter. This was back in 1984...so it was possible to get free games if the golden opportunity arose. I'd never turn down a free game if it was offered to me.

The cool atmosphere & vibe of the early '80s arcades was quite something -- something that's currently missing of the modern-day arcade in the USA nowdays (or what's left of them on "life support").

Back in the early '80s, there were some interesting predictions and possible senarios for the future arcades some ten to twenty years (or even thirty years) down the road but they really didn't pan out as expected. Of course, the arcade market changed over time catering to what was "hot" at that given point in time.

The ideal type of old-school arcade where there weren't any ticket prize redemption based games, skill crane games, etc. but just nothing but pure solid arcade games & pinball -- that is the arcade that I'd like to see make a comeback. They were prevalent back in the early to mid-1990s stateside but ended up shutting their doors due to losing their business leases, arcade owner calling it quits, etc.

PC Engine Fan X! ^_~