Post your current thoughts thread

[Barry the Nomad]

+1 Karma to George!

[crackdude]

Wow George! Did you know Karma Points can get you some sweet $wag?!

[Sega Uranus]

Just 199 more to go to get Sonic and the Black Knight!

That trailer for Back to the Future on Blu-Ray really made me want to watch the trilogy again. I was thinking about it the other day and that is pretty much a big sign telling me I should.

Speaking of Xbox 360, did you guys see the new controller?

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That is such a strange alternative... I think most people would not have even considered that idea. But why get rid of the colors? Why is this only available with the Play & Charge Kit? Why are they just now fixing stuff like the sticks and dpad? Why was this recorded in someones garage? WHY WHY WHY?!?

[crackdude]

The colors have always confused me, cause the Dreamcast colors were all mixed up another way. No other controller uses colors so I don't see the problem.

I hope Sony comes out with a better controller as well.

[Sega Uranus]

The only controller that does not have colors is Wii stuff. Before that it was like... the Super Nintendo probably, and even the Japanese version of that had different colored buttons.

A lot of games now have color coordinated actions. I cannot think of a game off the top of my head, but I remember playing some stuff on the Xbox 360 that would use the colors of the buttons for hints of what color you need to use for a specific areas. Extremely clever idea.

EDIT: Oh I know Sonic Unleashed had minor ones. The blue button (X) was supposed to make a blue blur, the red button (B) was for feet related things and the yellow button (Y) was used for doing the light dash on rings. Pretty neat.

[Emmett The Crab]

They should make the thumb pad like the Saturn's.  It was awesome.

[MadeManG74]

They should make the thumb pad like the Saturn's.  It was awesome.

It certainly is. It's still considered the best D-Pad ever made. I can't believe nobody has matched/surpassed it yet. It can't be THAT hard to copy can it?

In any event, the colours for the Xbox 360 pad are quite good I think. A is Green for Go, B is Red for 'Stop' (seeing as it's usually the 'back' button).

I never ever saw that controller before though, all I've seen were those Piano Black ones for the new console.

As for current thoughts: Man, working for a big company can be exhausting. So much beurocracy (I can't be fucked checking the spelling of that).

[Barry the Nomad]

About the new 360 pad:

The new d-pad is a novel idea! Looks better than the current one.

HOWEVER...

What. The. Fuckity. Were they thinking in losing the controller colors? They are essential to game tutorial screens and QTE's. If a game shows a red circle with a tiny "B", I'm going to see the red before I ever see the tiny "B". Stupid stupid decision. Not buying.

[crackdude]

What?
Only the Dreamcast and Xbox controllers have ever given colors an important role in controllers.

AND WHAT THE FUCK:
"If a game shows a red circle with a tiny "B", I'm going to see the red before I ever see the tiny "B". Stupid stupid decision. Not buying."
You haven't remembered the positions yet? If you see red on the screen do you look down to see where it is? If not, then WHAT MATTERS if it has colors or not.

You guys are seeming so retarded over this. And it's a common reaction I've seen around the web.

Seriously, does ANY of you even LOOK at the controller during gameplay?
And if so, how did you survive playing MegaDrive and Saturn without colors?

[Barry the Nomad]

Sonic Unleashed's and Shenmue 2's QTE's were moments when the button colors were important to me. Also, candy colored buttons make me think of the Dreamcast... gray toned buttons make me think of Death...

[crackdude]

Yes, but the colors are the same. They're just not there. But that's okay, cause you don't go looking for them. Get it?

[Aki-at]

Damn those Conservatives! Taking out the NHS Direct, when will their reign of Thatcher end?!

[Sega Uranus]

Yes, but the colors are the same. They're just not there. But that's okay, cause you don't go looking for them. Get it?

Yeah I do not know what you mean by this Barry. The colors in the game will not change, just the controller itself. I doubt this is going to be the standard. I think the next console will have that dpad though.

As for the Saturn dpad, it was one of the biggest around. You cannot really emulate this one perfectly as the space on most controllers now are very limited because you need room for both that and an analog stick, not to mention the back button and Xbox Guide button too.

[crackdude]

Yeah it exists:


In fact, you can get a Saturn USB controller and plug it into your PS3 I think. Mark from CGR has one.

[Barry the Nomad]

What I'm saying is that why take out an important piece of visual information (that being the button colors) and replace them with bland gray tones? The button colors are referenced in the UI and in-game, so why remove them from the controller?

An important part of branding is too keep the brand consistent. Even with the new 360, they maintained the basic shape of the console so that the loading icon on the hub would match both the old model and the new model.

My only thought as to why they went gray scale is that this is MS's small attempt at reaching out the the hardcore crowd. With Kinect on the way, I'll bet they wanted to revamp the d-pad for the 1337 players and gave the gray tone to the buttons to strip the controller of the "family friendly" look.