Great roundtable. I share sentiments from a few different staff members. Like Julian I would like something shiny and new. Like Patrick I think this next generation will be more about performance, animation, frame rate, and simulations. I don't care much about games looking better, I care most about games playing better. Efficient development, better tools, not having to start from scratch with every game, solid high frame rates, handling more complex simulations and interactions. Getting high quality, and free, development tools into the hands of as many people as possible. The more design-tool-literate people out there who can experiment, the better. Gameplay and simulations need to take more ambitious steps, but have great engines to do it with, and not have you go bankrupt just trying to design a system. Gameplay experimentation gets me very excite!
The Wii U gamepad seems pretty cool. I just need to get my hands on it, because even though it looks cool and has interesting functionality, I'm also skeptical because I'm hoping that it isn't too long or uncomfortable. I'm accustomed to playing games that utilize thumbsticks and triggers, but on the 360 controller the spread between each trigger is 3" and the spread between the thumbsticks is a little less than 3". Will it be weird to play a thumbstick/trigger game on a controller the width, shape, and button layout of the Wii U tablet controller? I'm going to go into the Gamestop by my house to see if they have a display Wii U and if they do I'll check it out. It probably won't be as drastic as I imagine, but I won't know till I try.
After all, I've played on weirder controllers before. The Duke was really wide and trying to press some of those buttons was like packing up for a cross country trip. I really like small, light, traditional controller design like the PS3 and 360 controllers. Fairly ergonomic, not too big or small, and for the most part the buttons are all easy to get to. I wonder how many games will be able to use the Wii U's Xbox 360 imitation controller? I'd probably end up using that a lot if it's available.
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