I don't usually post from IGN but they have a rare insightful article up. Michael Thomsen takes a
critical look at the FPS genre and how the Wii has grown its interactivity. He admits that lots of the early games have been gimmicky messes, but that the more involved human interface brings the focus back to accuracy instead of mowing down hundreds of identical enemies. He talks about how
Red Steel 2,
Metroid Prime 3 and even the original
Red Steel made him feel more involved and vulnerable because he was putting his whole body into the game and not just his thumbs. His quality vs. quantity argument is well reasoned even if you don't agree with him, and his editorial is worth a look.
With Move and Natal dropping this holiday I wonder if we'll see a shift away from the rather stagnant paradigm of Halo and Modern Warfare to something more involving, where the movements and accuracy of aiming, shooting and reloading are more important and more satisfying than raw kill count. I'd definitely like to see something like a Heavy Rain take on an FPS, where realism and serious drama are the main draw and motion controls are used to realize that idea. With Wii MotionPlus and Move roughly on the same page I'm most interested to see how Natal pulls these experiences off without any interface device per se.
