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My Hopeful Future for Gaming

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The other day I was hit with an epiphany. It was a pretty bad bitch slap of a realization too. While I sat in front of my PC and mowed through yet another horde of mindless neck-biters in Left 4 Dead, I thought to myself, how much more can our gaming experiences improve?

What is beyond this? What does the future hold for us? Most of us have been walking the gaming line for a long, long time now and the majority of us have been working on our controller calyces since before our knees were fully functional. If we look back on how much things have changed, what do you guys think is the future? Virtual Reality? GPS gaming (online gaming points readily available anywhere…Musica, Woolworths even Nandos?) Or will graphics and realism simply keep improving? Improving? In which ways?

I read something the other day about a new technology called 4D. It runs on the basis that everything in the world is expendable. I don’t mean like Battlefield, where you can lock and load and evaporate anything with a grenade launcher. I’m talking about a light bulb slowly dimming over time if it is left on. Wood rotting if it is exposed to continuous rain. Things like that.

Now that is pretty damn realistic. But is it SO much different than what we are experiencing right now. With the near arrival of engines like the CryEngine 3 and the now slightly improved Unreal Engine 3…the question remains…can it get any better than this? And if it can, how?

The new CryEngine 3 prides itself on its insane realism (water ripples and tiny water explosions if bullets hit aqua, trees getting moved down by explosions and bullet fire and realistic environment destruction thanks to fire, lighting, cold, etc. are only a few of the mind-blowing features) and the Crytek boys are definitely taking the console gaming experience into a new age. But like I said before, what’s after that? Take a game like Uncharted, where Sony reportedly said:

 

“We haven’t even begun to push the boundaries. There hasn’t been a game to date that uses more than 30% of the PS3’s potential”.

 

So if you all remember how mind-numbingly great Uncharted was, then think about that statement for a second…not more than 30%? That means, take Uncharted, times it by 3, and you’re still not at the full potential that the PS3 could expel out of it’s glossy-black bodice.

Once again, don’t get me wrong, I’m not PS3 fanboying. Just to prove it, let’s go to PC arena with one of my favourite titles…Crysis. A game which required a mini-jumbo jet of a PC simply to run. I mean, the specs for Crysis to perform at full potential without lagging were ridiculous. However, Crytek did what they came to do…they pushed some boundaries. And now they’re doing it again. But where is the finish line?

I’m just wondering if we’re now reaching that plateau of gaming, where games become so realistic, that the developers kind of hit that middle ground where all they can do is tweak instead of revolutionizing. Are we now going to simply see additions to games, much like EA Sports does with all their yearly franchise additions? Will the leap from Uncharted 2 to Uncharted 3 simply be an improved aiming system? Will Gears of War 3 feature a new character…and nothing more? What is our end point?

I ask these questions, because as gamers I believe it is a question that all of us face? As fathers, what will our children be playing? As boyfriends, when will our girlfriends start kicking our ass at Call of Duty? And as fellow gamers, when will we lust for more? When will we silence the void and finally be satisfied? As a game reviewer, I constantly find myself slashing games based upon what they, The Developers, did wrong. And even with the most brilliant of games, we constantly find fault. So what is the finish line? What is that Holy Grail that you all as gamers are striving towards?

For me, I think mine would probably be a FPS shooter (much like one of my new favourites, Left 4 Dead…I just love wasting zombies) with a set of gaming peripherals which allow me to use virtual reality. I’m talking virtual reality glasses which actually make things feel realistic, with built in surround earphones (almost like a helmet from those old-school films like Back to the Future) and an entire set of weapons that I can carry on me.

Rifle on my back, and two pistols on my sides. But then I think to myself: say good ol’ girlfriend comes walking in…how ridiculous would I look? I already got a pretty stunned look, almost as if she caught me with another woman, when she walked in on me the other day: shirt off, tiny plastic guitar, spinning around like the guitarist from Fall Out Boy, while I rocked away at Rise Against on Guitar Hero.

controller_evolution

So all I can ask myself, and ask you all as fellow gamers, is when will enough truly be enough? When will our lust for digital mastery finally be fulfilled and our insatiable hunger for improvement be quenched? Will only time tell, or has the watch now finally stopped ticking? I don’t hear the tiny grind of the clock’s gears anymore, do you?

I thought I’d throw in some of these “ridiculous” yet pretty cool future devices I was talking about…tell me if you think this is our future, or if our digital future is looking pretty grim?

Virtu Sphere

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“VirtuSphere takes gaming to a whole new level, allowing users to walk inside a virtual space “while being totally immersed” — through the head-mounted display system. Built-in sensors detect movement and transmit that information to a linked computer. A special platform inside the sphere allows it to rotate in any direction as the user walks.

The VirtuSphere is currently the only technology in the world, which permits the user to move about in virtual space through the most natural movement of all by walking.”

Meta Mersion

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MetaMersion is a “cutting-edge gaming platform designed to let you play your favorite PC-based game titles in a fully immersive, virtual reality environment.”

You “step inside” the game and move through the virtual landscape — just as you would do in the real world. You can: physically walk around; crouch and take cover behind virtual objects; shoot around corners; look up, down, and even behind you.

 

Here’s even some videos of the technology at work: Techeblog

Now as a gamer, I look at this image above, and think to myself…seriously? Seriously? Have I now gotten to that point that I will stand in my room with a Time-Crisis looking plastic gun and a device that, pretty much resembles a microwave from the 50’s after it got into a fight with JJ Abrahams, stuck to my head? Probably…probably not.

Last Updated: May 18, 2009

11 Comments

  1. janrik

    May 18, 2009 at 13:02

    Matrix head jack. beam the game straight into the mind.
    No helmets and crap.

    The mind responds to internal and external signals. All you see, smell, feel etc is just a set of signals being processed by you.

    All they need to do is high jack the ‘normal reality’ and and supliment is with the game one.

    You can be lying on a bed somewhere, seemingly asleep, when your actually fighting a war in some distant jungle, in the game sim.

    Your brain will tell you via the game feed that you are hot/cold/wounded etc. You think: run or shoot and you will be doing it. But your body wont be moving…

    Gonna be awesome.

    Reply

  2. koldFU5iON

    May 18, 2009 at 13:12

    what if you die in the game does your brain give you a heart attack :wassat:

    Reply

  3. Bliksem_182

    May 18, 2009 at 13:24

    you read my mind buddy! I was just thinking, if you’re lying there, do you kinda do the convulsing thing like Mouse in the Matrix when all those SWAT guys popped him? but yeah, what janrik says is true, the mind does work on impulses. However to kind of “trick” those impulses to think that they are experiencing something else is on the same level as recording our dreams on PVR. And, would really want to have a hole drilled in your head to be able to play games? Think about synaptic seepage from an overflow of stimulation? Like Johhny Mnemonic. Nose bleeds, brain fluid leaking out of your gaming jack…girls don’t like that :wassat:

    Reply

  4. Macethy

    May 18, 2009 at 14:12

    The first pic,they should bundle that peripheral with Bioshock 2!

    Reply

  5. janrik

    May 18, 2009 at 15:13

    Would you notice? :sleeping:

    Reply

  6. Bliksem_182

    May 18, 2009 at 15:30

    hahaha! brain fluid slowly dripping out the back of my skull? I would probably notice, but it would be like crack. I would know: this can’t be good for me, but it just feels so awesome, that I don’t care.

    *under no way do I support drug use whatsoever… :angel:

    Reply

  7. dreamhunk

    May 18, 2009 at 16:39

    I can tell your a consoles fany boy or you would know that pc gaming is getting better each year. The power of the consoles are a joke compared to pc gaming

    http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article4557935.ece

    Reply

  8. Nick - Lazygamer

    May 18, 2009 at 19:11

    I agree with Janrik, our brains are the best processors around. You wouldn’t need graphics processing if your brain could just be given the instructions. It will be a heightened sense of realism and basically lucid dreaming in it’s best form.

    Anyone here seen the movie Strange Days, one could record their experience and someone else could put a little thin device over their head and re-experience it. This will definitely be the way forward if it becomes possible.

    I sure as hell hope that no one gets a blue screen though… :biggrin:

    As far as gaming goes though, the idea of sitting on a couch in front of your TV or playing on a PC is an integral part of the experience that we all enjoy and a virtual reality will almost be something entirely different. It’s not such a bad thing that we remain semi-disconnected from the experience, it is after all just that, a game.

    Looking forward to it either way, but the difference between a side scrolling platform game and a virtual reality war experience will always be two completely different things and be appreciated for different reasons.

    Virtual Reality Solitaire Anyone?

    Reply

  9. Bliksem_182

    May 18, 2009 at 20:23

    Nic my man, virtual solitaire, nah. but if you keen for some Virtual Bridge, bring your grandma, coz I’m kicking some ass :w00t:

    Reply

  10. Nick - Lazygamer

    May 19, 2009 at 14:07

    My granda will beat up your grandma

    Reply

  11. brain wave

    September 25, 2009 at 11:48

    Great stuff! I’m enquiring if you know of any forums that discuss these intriguing topics at all? Thanks 🙂

    Reply

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