Pretty Pretty

A lot of people I know get nostalgic when they go on about their first NES are the ZX Spectrum, the first console I actually got that wasn’t anything that old but the humble PlayStation. Also, it’s only with this generation of games consoles that I finally have them all.
Back at college I did a module about the different kinds of Human Computer Interface, which was interestingly part of the same module as the Second Life thing I talked about before. We looked at lots of different controllers and consoles and it made me think about how much more contemporary newer consoles have become. Now even though I’ve never owned one before I have seen and held an original NES controller, it’s quite uncomfortable a lot like the DS Lite quite frankly. They started to round them off after then I believe but if we may skip ahead to the Dual Shock controller for PS2 I, at the time; loved it. I do remember there was a game where you had to rotate the analog sticks quickly and the only way to do this is to either have turbo charged thumbs or rotate it on the palm of your hand, the latter caused painful bruising which lasted for days.
Nowadays I actually prefer the look of the PS3, it’s just a darn shame that when you get the shiny black grill out of its box; turn it on for the first time every particle of dust from all corners of the room fly to it lovingly. I remember when the concept for the PS3 bananarang controller was released and it got completely ripped into for its shape (by me included) and I don’t know if Sony actually listened to consumer comments (this is rare) because they just scrapped the whole idea and went with something identical to the Dual Shock controller but without actual dual shock, just some copy of the Wiimotes motion sensor.
I was never good at arcade games with joysticks, I never owned one either; I’ve always preferred game pads. Specifically the Xbox 360, it is simply the most comfortable controller I’ve ever held even though I don’t think it works well for fighting games.
I’ve noticed how complicated the PS3 and PSP are to set up or connect in comparison to Nintendo’s even the 360 is fairly straight forward. Although my granddad still can’t grasp Wii bowling…
I am not a fan of the Wii, even though I own one which I think gives me a right to dislike it and this is why. When I have been at work all day, often a very physical job; the last thing I want to do when I come home is flail my arms around in a crazy fashion… I would rather watch a film! So I don’t think that the game pad is a dying technology because even though more ‘people’ buy the Wii and its remote controller ‘gamers’ buy game pads. Joysticks however I can’t really say, they are still used for PC games and can be fun for flight sim games but I find them to complicated anyway.