PixlBit

Am I the only one who really didn't like the Game Cube's controller? I dislike it for the same reason I don't like the Sega Genesis controller, I never liked having 3 buttons spread horizontally, and the Game Cube really felt like it did the same thing with the spread between B, A, and X.

As far as Kinect goes, I hate it too, but I felt it did do a pretty decent job of tracking your movements, as long as you set it up correctly, which is a pain and almost impossible for most people. The only time I've ever seen it work flawlessly is when a friend of mine used the track lighting in his living room like stage lighting to completely cover every single part of his body with light. (side note, his wife wasn't happy with the changed he made to the lighting when she got home.)

Class action lawsuits: This is bad bad bad bad bad. Honestly, it's not about the money, it's about protecting the consumer. As someone who has participated in a class action suit in the past, yes, the money I received was minimal, but it was the equivalent of a refund and a little more. The real satisfaction came from knowing the mega-corporation responsible had to pay for it's actions and would be unable to screw it's customers again in the same way. I don't really worry about Valve too much, as they've done right by their customers so far, but Microsoft and Sony also have worked this documentation into recent system updates, requiring their customers to surrender their rights to pursuing class action suits in order to continue using their services, and I trust both of them about as much as I trust my cat to watch my goldfish while I'm on vacation. I don't recall Nintendo issuing any documentation like this to their customers yet, but I'm sure their lawyers are drafting something up as we speak. It's just how things are moving these days, and I don't like it.

Your thoughts on these class-action lawsuit deals mirror my own, but as long as people understand they can take action on their own, and if the people who realize that hold the company's feet to the fire, the risk for the company could potentially be greater if they make a misstep that results in the risk of a lawsuit. It's a tricky line they're walking, and companies that include clauses about mandatory binding arbitration could potentially be setting themselves up for a ton of smaller lawsuits that would be much more expensive in mass.

The thing about the GameCube controller? If you kept your finger on the A button, you were always very close to every other face button on the controller. You could always transfer to another button very quickly. Comparative controllers don't necessarily have a "main" button in that same way, and as such, sometimes buttons can be awkward. I'm not particularly praising the GameCube controller to extreme degrees, more, I'm just saying it's the last time anyone major attempted to make buttons simpler for everyone, and that's the problem.

To set up Kinect correctly must involve some sort of magic beyond my ability. When there was a Kinect around here, speech registered about 20% of the time. To say it only works flawlessly when one creates lighting like that on a stage is a large barrier of entry. In regard to movement tracking, even in menu navigation, I've had struggles. The Kinect will see my hand for a few moments, and then lose track for just a second, resetting timers for menu selections. The gestures needed to perform some operations are clunky and feel unnatural. Anyone who feels Kinect is a better operator than a standard controller is deluded in my opinion. That's a big problem with the direction of the game industry: Motion controls can have a time and a place, but implementing them everywhere will scare people away and back to their cell phone games more than anything.

I can't believe I'm about to say this, but I agree with Jason. A Septemeber Wii U launch has been in my mind since E3. The only thing that has me backing down on that is the fact that almost nothing about the system has been talked about since. But then again, the same thing happened with the N64.

I can see it launching with a couple games, namely Nintendo Land, Super Mario U, and a couple of the Ubisoft games. But with Aliens being delayed I really don't see Borderlands 2 making it to the system at launch. I do see it coming to the Wii U considering how bullish Randy Pitchford is on the console.

No Angelo, I've seen other people who don't like the GameCume controller. Some people say it's a terrible controller for certain genres, although the only one I've ever seen mentioned is fighters. I never play fighters, so perhaps I just don't play the types of games that the controller isn't suited for. Even if you don't like it, perhaps you can still appreciate that they tried something different with the controller.

The problem with controllers is that it's pretty much impossible to match comfort with functionality. Take the PlayStation controller as an example, its unassuming layout makes it work with any type of game, but it isn't comfortable to hold. Of course, in addition to being used with thousands of games, a controller is also used by millions of different hands, and so it can't really be form-fitted to one hand type because then it'll be excruciating for another. Making a great controller is a tall order indeed, but at least Nintendo are actually still trying, unlike Sony.

That said, sometimes the industry these days falls into the trap of change for the sake of change; look no further than the 3DS for a terrible design that can come out of this philosophy. I'm actually disappointed in the Wii U because it goes back on one thing I feel the Wii controller got right: a disconnected controller. The Wiimote and Nunchuk is easily the most comfortable controller around, and a large part of that is because both sides are not welded together. This means I don't have to keep my hands tightly together at all times, and lets me rest them wherever I want. Going forward, I'll miss the days of a cramp-free controller.

If this [http://penny-arcade.com/report/editorial-article/deeper-coverage-or-caste-system-behind-the-scene-of-judges-week-the-invite-] exists then why bother with E3.

I've actually been meaning to talk about that, Joaquim. I think there's an element of ridiculousness in how that process was described. I'll either talk about it next week in PB & Jason, or write up an extensive comment as a reaction.

Cool, can't wait.