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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.’

Of course there are also a number of games where this doesn’t apply, such as Mario Kart Wii, etc. The games in particular that I’m referring to are:

Fracture

This game looks insane. For those of you who have seen any footage, you’ll know that it’s a third person shooter where you have the ability to ‘fracture’ the ground to form walls to take cover by or cause earthquakes, etc. to take out your foes. It’s a unique concept and unlike anything we’ve seen before. We here at Alt-Controls.com are definitely hoping for Southpaw and Legacy support for this one as the game has a lot of potential.

The Agency

An FPS massive multiplayer online game. The look and feel reminds me somewhat of Team Fortress from the Orange Box. I think it definitely has the possibility of being a great success and hopefully alt-control players will be able to take part in the frenzy.

Too Human

The long-awaited game that has been overshadowed by the lawsuit between the game’s developer, Silicon Knights and Epic, of Gears & Unreal fame.

Now when I contacted Silicon Knights and Microsoft to inquire if this game was going to have Southpaw, Legacy and/or controller customization, I was told that the game was still in development, but the combat system allows for some pretty sweet moves that are easy to learn but difficult to master.

I’ll guess that means they’re definitely focusing on developing an innovative and intuitive control system. Whether we’ll have Southpaw, Legacy or customization… I suppose we’ll have to wait and see.

So there you have it. A few cool games from GDC ’08 that we’ll be watching closely, hoping for alt-control support. Of course there is Gears of War 2 as well, but we all know what the controls will be like already. If there is anything I missed that you’ve got your eye on, feel free to let us know.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 24th, 2008 at 9:49 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.