PAX Recap 2: Future (Imperfect) Tech

Completely apart from debuting and previewing games at PAX, the expo hall is an opportunity for publishers to show off their new tech. You'll see cutting-edge video cards, processors, and of course a new and more detailed look at the console peripherals that Microsoft and Sony announced at this year’s E3. Microsoft's Kinect and Sony's Move were both on display just about everywhere, but neither Microsoft nor Sony were able to change my mind on the inherent irrelevance of their new products.

The simple fact of the matter is that it’s going to be really difficult for Sony and Microsoft to change the existing narrative about their entrance into the motion control field: Nintendo got there first and Nintendo does it better. After seeing what the Move and the Kinect can do at PAX, that narrative strikes me as being even more true. The release dates for Move and Kinect fast approach, but even with ostensibly completed and fully-tested hardware, there was very little about either offering that impressed me.

Microsoft demoed Kinect Sports, which is a fairly shameless carbon-copy of the now four-year-old Wii Sports. Tennis, boxing, and bowling are in, as well as soccer, volleyball, and track and field. I had the opportunity to play with the boxing controls, and I walked away thinking “that’s it?” The controls were clunky and unresponsive, even by the current standards, and it simply wasn’t as fun as its Wii counterpart. The Kinect seemed to have a hard time differentiating between opponents at times, and subtle movements are completely lost on the hardware, which inevitably leads to a piping-hot mug of shame and embarrassment as both competitors are required to move in comically over-exaggerated ways. The game’s visual aesthetic seems to be focused on cramming as much onto your screen as possible, perhaps to distract players from the significant input lag.

The Sony Move didn’t fare much better. Sony representatives seemed desperate to get people into their booth, but even with the promise of a free t-shirt, their line was never longer than a few minutes. Their titles were a little more interesting than Microsoft’s, including a party game called Heroes On The Move and a re-release of Heavy Rain that uses the Move controls. Heroes On The Move is a party game, and the comparisons to Mario Party are inevitable and completely appropriate. Jack and Daxter, Ratchet and Clank, and Sly Cooper all make an appearance, and the gameplay is sectioned off into short, simple games designed to draw in a group and get them playing with little to no explanation required. Heavy Rain gains nothing from the Move controls, and it feels entirely like a shoehorned-in gimmick. In remaking Heavy Rain, I think Sony has missed the point entirely - a more involved control scheme is not going to save a story-heavy game from its dull, incoherent plot. To its credit, the Move controls are definitely more precise than what I saw of the Kinect, but that only makes comparing the Move to the Wii even easier. I’m not a Nintendo fangirl by any stretch of the imagination - as a matter of fact, I’ve been more than a little disappointed in Nintendo’s efforts with the Wii - but Sony manages to take what Nintendo did and add nothing at all unique to the formula.

By pushing their motion-control devices so hard, Sony and Microsoft seem destined to play a perpetual game of catch-up ball. The Kinect promises remote-less freedom of movement without realizing that swinging controllers around is actually a lot of fun. The Move markets itself as a family-friendly addition to their lineup without realizing that most families that play games together already own a Wii - it’s been out for four years, after all, and is still a full hundred dollars cheaper than the PS3. Unless either company can show gamers something new, exciting, and fun, I don’t see the Kinect or the Move taking off. The only people having fun here are Nintendo - their place at the top of the pile is safe.

But enough doom and gloom. While I was definitely disappointed by Kinect and the Move, I was absolutely blown away by a demonstration of NVidia’s new 3D Vision technology. Now, I’ll be the first to admit that I think 3D is the biggest and most meaningless gimmick to happen to films and TV in years, and I blame James Cameron for what will inevitably throw movies back into the dark ages (kidding (mostly)). But for games, 3D is different. 3D is, I think, very relevant.

Indulge me for a moment. Scientists have known for a while that we’re approaching the theoretical limit of what we can do with silicon from the perspective of processing power. Games are inching ever-closer to the monolithic goal of total photo-realism. Ten years ago, we were playing Quake III and Unreal Tournament - compare that to the newest screens from the CryTek 2 engine or even Portal 2. As games become more realistic, we hope that they in turn become more immersive. But where will games go after we are physically unable to make them look better?

Of course, graphics are but one small part of what makes a game immersive. Writing, atmosphere management, music - all sorts of factors combine to form a complete game. But the 3D craze that James Cameron kicked off is hitting the game industry at just the right time to bridge the gap between this generation of games and the next. And NVidia’s 3D Vision is the perfect example of how to make 3D gaming not only a reality, but immensely successful.

All of this high-minded idealism would be just that if the technology wasn’t up to par, but I am pleased to report that it exceeded my expectations in just about every way possible. I was able to test out a super high-end 3D-enabled gaming laptop running Civilization 5, and even in the case of Civ 5’s relatively simple visuals, the game experience was enhanced to an unbelievable degree. Rather than seeming like a tacked-on gimmick, the 3D display felt like an integral part of the game. Cities and units popped out of the field in an extremely satisfying way, and system and game messages were all the more readable for seeming to hover above the screen. While I didn’t have the opportunity to play any of the other games on display - Left 4 Dead 2 and the World of Warcraft: Cataclysm beta  - I have no doubt that the people playing those games were having similar experiences.

That's pretty much all I have to say about the games and tech I saw during my weekend in Seattle, but I have plenty still to say about the convention itself. Next: Why you should bet on PAX over E3, and why the convention is important: not only to developers and publishers, but for everyone who plays games.

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