Inside Scoop On Upcoming Xbox 360 Games

Big props are in order to SQU1FFY for tracking down some information courtesy of 360 Magazine on the inclusion (or exclusion) of Southpaw and Legacy in some upcoming Xbox 360 games:

* Unreal Tournament 3: Southpaw & Legacy (based on control options in the PS3 version)

* Dark Sector: Southpaw

* Army of Two: The ability to adjust controls is omitted

So there you have it - some info on Xbox 360 games that have not been released yet to save you the trouble of buying or renting games that don’t support your control preference. My guess is we will all be occupied with Unreal Tournament 3 since Southpaw and Legacy will be both be available (thanks, Epic!). And for you Playstation guys, we’ll venture to guess that the same options will be available in the PS3 versions of these games as well.

Although Dark Sector will only sport Southpaw, hopefully Legacy players will do alright depending on the style of aiming to be utilized in the game. Army of Two is a bit of a letdown, though I’m not at all surprised. In any case, we hope this information will be helpful for everyone.

Alt-Controls.com Member Gaming Night

This Friday, Alt-Controls.com will be hosting the first of (hopefully) many Alt-Controls.com members only gaming nights. So this Friday, Feb 29th at 9pm to 12pm EST (-500 GMT) is game time and this week’s game is Infinity Ward’s Call of Duty 4. These will be private matches so rank is not going to be aquired and all the various gametypes, team DM, Harcore team DM, Free for All, S&D, etc. will be played.

To sign up, you must be a member of Alt-Controls.com. If you haven’t signed up yet you may do so here. If you are already a member send your XBOX LIVE gamertag and Alt-Controls.com screen name here before Thursday, Feb 28th 5:00pm EST. Instructions for joining the matches will be sent to your E-mail.

I look forward to seeing all of you guys and gals there. Happy gaming!

Introducing: ClasVena.com

Alt-Controls.com would like to introduce you to our new sister site: ClasVena.

So what the heck is that? Well, in short the name means ‘classic games.’ And here we’re going to be paying tribute to, and remembering (you guessed it) classic videogames.

A number of articles have been posted already on great old school games such as Mario 64, Sonic the Hedgehog, Donkey Kong Country, Mortal Kombat and more. There will be plenty of postings on more classic games in the coming weeks as well.

Feel free to stop by. I’m sure there are a number of old school gamers on this site as most of us alt-control players either started using Legacy with GoldenEye, or Southpaw with Turok.

GDC ’08 From the Alt-Control Player’s Perspective

Like many of you, I’ve been following the 2008 Game Developer’s Conference closely. A number of potentially great games are on the horizon and there have been many exciting announcements (Gears 2..!).

Usually with a show or convention of this nature, gamers marvel at the new pieces of software that they’ll be scurrying to pick up when everything is released. But for alt-control players, we look at these shows a little differently.

When new games are announced (first and third person shooters in particular) the Default player says, ‘Wow, that games looks cool… I’ve got to try that one.’ The alt-control player on the other hand says ‘Wow, that game looks cool… I hope my controller preference is included so I don’t miss out on yet another great game.’ Read the rest…

Gears 2: More Good News for Alt-Control Players

Many of you are aware of this not-so-shocking announcement: Gears of War 2 is slated to be released in November of 2008 on the Xbox 360.

This one will definitely be a stocking-stuffer for the 360 alt-control players and it’s been a refreshing change to be able to report some good news this week. It was starting to seem that Alt-Controls.com was just a bearer of bad news with so many games omitting Southpaw and/or Legacy recently.

This has been a good week for us all with Rainbow Six Vegas 2 on the way in a few weeks, and now we have the Gears sequel to look forward to as well. The first Gears of War was one of my favorite games of all time. The graphics, the foreboding environments, the fantastic orchestral score, and the chainsaw bayonet… what a gaming experience. And for you snipers out there, nothing beats the crunching sound of firing your Longshot and hearing Marcus shout ‘Ohhh Yeah!’ as you blow off the head of a raging Locust Drone from a distance. Anyone with surround sound knows what I’m talking about here.

So while its been a lousy start to 2008 for Southpaw and Legacy guys, things may be looking up.

Rainbow Six Vegas 2 Currently Scheduled for a March 11th Release

Southpaw and Legacy players can all breathe a sigh of relief, as Ubisoft is planning to release Rainbow Six Vegas 2 on March 11th.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe this is the first shooting game of 2008 that will feature both Southpaw and Legacy. It’s a safe bet, as the first Vegas game sported both. I don’t see why the follow-up won’t include these as well, plus this is a Ubisoft title – they are generally a very alt-control friendly developer when it comes to the shooters.

It’s been a touch stretch. Many of the games we have covered recently have omitted at least the Legacy option and in some cases, both. It will be nice to finally have another shooter out that we’ll all be able to enjoy.

When the game is released, we will offer a full report on the control styles and as always, express our opinion of the title as well.

Devil May Cry 4

Our good friend SQU1FFY has informed me that Devil May Cry 4 (Xbox 360, PS3) does not have any thumb stick configuration options at all, thus omitting Southpaw and Legacy.

However, he mentioned that even as a diehard Southpaw player, this game feels perfectly comfortable for him.

My guess is that even though Southpaw and Legacy are missing, we should all do just fine with this game since we don’t need to worry about any FPS-style targeting mechanisms.

Racing Games and Alt-Controls

Hope everyone has enjoyed the long weekend and managed to get in lots of gaming time! For a change of pace, I decided to rent MX vs ATV Untamed. It’s fairly obvious if you spend a few minutes on our site that we love shooters and FPS games, but I enjoy the occasional racer as well. I’ve been a fan of the Mario Kart series since the good old days and I have a couple racing games for my 360 as well that I play when my trigger finger needs a rest.

In any case, while I was playing MX vs ATV I realized that it was really nice to just pop in a game and play comfortably without worrying about control configurations. Of course, I’m a Legacy player as everybody is probably aware of by now, so when I play FPS games, movement is mapped to the left thumb stick. So I can control driving and racing games without any difficulties since the left stick is used for steering.

Now this question is mostly directed at my Southpaw friends out there: I’m curious how you guys manage with racers. Do you need to use a modded controller in racing games since steering is always mapped on the left thumb stick? Legacy players are of course welcome to comment as well. Let us know!

Read the rest…

Conflict: Denied Ops Denies us of Both Southpaw & Legacy

This tactical shooter is out for both the Xbox 360 and PS3. While there are three preset controller layout options (A, B & C), Southpaw and Legacy are both MIA. In each of the three controller layouts, movement is always mapped to the left thumb stick, while the look look/aim function is always set to the right stick.

To be honest, this one is not really much of a loss for any of us alt-control players. Crummy graphics and poor frame rate means that Call of Duty 4 won’t be retired anytime soon!

The only thing was somewhat cool was the ability to change characters in the heat of combat with the press of a button, but that’s been done before. Battlefield ring a bell? So considering that the graphics suck and there is no Southpaw or Legacy available, deny yourself the pain of playing this game and just skip it. Read the rest…

Reminder: Grand Theft Auto IV Southpaw & Legacy Petition Deadline

Many thanks to those of you who have already signed our Grand Theft Auto IV petition for the inclusion of southpaw and legacy due to the new aiming mechanism to be utilized in the game.

For anyone who has not signed the petition yet, please note that the deadline is Friday, February 15th at 12 pm PST. After which, I will be sending out the petition to Rockstar and Take-Two.

For such a short campaign, we have compiled a decent number of signatures. Although we would have liked to run the petition longer as our time was limited, we still think that our efforts will demonstrate how important alternate controls are to gamers.

Again, thanks to everyone who has taken the time to show support, and for those of you who have not signed as of yet, please send us an email and we’ll include your signature as well before the petition is sent out. Of course we will also let everyone know if and when we receive any response from Rockstar and/or Take-Two.

Cheers everyone and happy gaming.