Vita’s capabilities are impressive for sure, though I’d have liked to see more games since it’s launching this year. Uncharted didn’t look particularly thrilling gameplay wise and the touch features were a little silly but graphically it was jaw droping for a handheld.
Wii U, we just don’t know enough about it. The potential with the controller is promising, just like the DS range of systems, and the various developers had cool ideas for its usage but didn’t really have much to show for it. The Japanese garden demo was impressive but was just a tech demo so who knows how closely it reflects the possibilities of actual games.
As for the price of the controller, so far they’re pimping it as part of the system, not to be sold separately and enable 4 players to play each with one of those, but rather one player (or no player) using that while the rest use compatible Wii controllers. So yes, it’s likely that it’s quite expensive, though they’re “looking into” allowing at least 2 player play with two such controllers. Still, with the current plan, I think it can bring great asymetrical local multiplayer gameplay styles, like one player playing a RTS style game on the controller, spawning enemies and such, while up to four others play a split screen FPS against his forces. Similar to Left 4 Dead but replacing the AI director with the tablet user.
The motion controls look more awkward than the Wii’s due to the size of the pad, so I hope they will still heavily use the Wii Remote Plus and nunchuck i (though I’d have preffered to have a new even more capable revision with more and better button placement) as it’s much more fitting for genres like FPS or action adventures. They certainly seem to want Wii controllers to be considered as standard as the new one since so far they’re the only way to enable local multiplayer at all so I’m hopeful. Losing pointer controls for FPS or similar titles would be pretty devastating to my gaming experience and I’d likely just stick to PC if no other company implemented them for their next generation.
The new controller however could have cool uses too. During Ubisoft’s roundtable it was mentioned that it’s very precise, so that you can calibrate it in a way that makes turning around 45 degrees in real life also shift the in the game view by 45 degrees. Playing some immersion based title like Endless Ocean (it’s an underwater exploration simulation) with such an interface, if it’s really that precise, could be thrilling, with the TV off and only using the controller, like a window to another world, looking up/down left/right and all around you. It can be combined with traditional controls too. In a Fatal Frame you could utilise the dual analog setup yet hold the controller up when using the camera against the ghosts.
I think the potential is there, though the demonstration wasn’t the best. Still, they have a full year to give us more details, examples, and show actual games instead of ideas and tech demos. Third parties seem to be more onboard this time with all the announced ports but that always happens at system launches and isn’t indicative of future support.
