| ddobson said: I suspect the Wii is even harder for reviewers to deal with objectively in a short amount of time because the motion controls often DO require more precision and practice than a traditional controller. When they're well-implemented, you can get good at the controls with practice and achieve a degree of finesse and immersion impossible with buttons. But when they're not handled well or bad choices have been made, as has been the case with many of the early releases, the learning curve for any game can become frustrating. The problem is that it's impossible to review objectively when you don't know if it's YOUR approach to controlling that's the problem, or the game itself. We've seen wide disparities on some games' review scores in part because most reviewers will never, ever assume that they're not playing the game right or haven't learned the controls well enough. It's like the guy at the arcade who kicks the machine when he loses and says the joystick must be busted -- he knows that isn't true at some level, but he stands by it just the same. Publishers seem to be figuring this out -- we're seeing more and better tutorials and practice modes in Wii games, which will hopefully make motion control more consistent and workable for ALL players. |
I've noticed this, too. A friend of mine says that games should remove the physical skill so everyone can play it. For this reason, he enjoys games with the standard controller. The truth is he just isn't that good with physical activity and Wii games kick his butt. At least he's come to accept that fact, but I think eventually he's going to have to adjust or drop out of gaming all together since odds are the next generation will feature motion controllers. Kind of a shame, really. It does mean that there are people (even reviewers) who fall into this category and in my opinion, the powers that be for any publication should move those guys to other projects. They're not doing the site/magazine any favors by reviewing games they obviously can't play.
What this means is that Wii gamers are going to have to rent more games because it'll be harder to guage reviews at this point. Some reviews are just all over the place and even opinions of those who are not reviewers are all over the place. The only way to know for sure is to rent the game and try it for yourself. I've always said that even before the Wii came out, but now even more so. Don't let other people decide what games you'll like.
-Darkness
