BLOG 4 U!

Thursday, December 07, 2006

In my opinion, the aesthetic appeal of a console is not a massively important issue. I won’t say it isn’t nice to have a sleek and cool looking console in front of the TV, but the ergonomic issues with the interface and means of operation are probably the most important things so I think I’ll overview a few of the different means of control from the past and present.

Starting with the directional control pads as seen with consoles such as the NES, SNES, PS2 and Megadrive, I feel that these controls work very effectively with 2D games but perhaps aren’t as effective in the transition to 3D. I’m gonna jump straight up to where things change now with the Nintendo 64’s controller. The introduction of the analogue stick added unprecedented control and precision to 3D gaming in particular. This was demonstrated with a pretty spectacular launch title, Super Mario 64, which helped to show how movement in a 3D environment worked.

In terms of good looking consoles, everything has been pretty ugly until this coming generation, with the Xbox 360, Wii and PS3 all looking very streamlined and cool… although the PS3 does kinda look like a George Foreman grill. In fact, now is probably a good time to take a look at the PS-Grill in all its cookin’ glory: http://www.therealps3grill.com/ps3grillpics.htm

Now if they can mod it to grill as well as play games, we have ourselves a super-console. Anyway, being serious now, as much as I don't find the looks of a console incredibly important, I think it's a definite selling point. When your average person sees a shiny good looking console, it definitely says quality which is very important considering how expensive this next round of machines are going to be.


With the introduction of the Wii's innovative control system, it could seem that gaming is on the verge of changing forever. It's going to be interesting to see how successful the "Wii-mote" will be in really immersing the player and giving precise control, and also how it may widen the current gaming market and bring in a whole new group of previously non-gaming consumers. Certainly, if the Wii is a huge success we could now be seeing the beginning of the end for game pads and it's exciting to think of where console gaming is going to be taken next.