A lot of people will have painted video games as being something you have to sit down on the couch and the most exercise you’re getting solely in your thumbs. In recent years though, video games have been getting gamers to put down the controller or get more active when playing games. The fact that many people treat some video games as an actual exercise aid has introduced video games to an entire new audience.
There are already a wide range of games that encourage movement from the Nintendo Wii whose sole input method is based on the movements made by the Wii-mote controller, even music based games like Guitar Hero, Rockband and Dance Dance Revolution encourage us to get a similar workout that real musicians get diving around on stage.
In the coming year other console brands Sony and Microsoft aim to introduce major steps into the motion controlled video games market. Sony already includes a motion sensing controller but is only really limited to tilting the controller to balance your character or peek round corners. Sony’s big effort is their Playstation Move controller. The controller is similar to the Wii-mote except it has a glowing orb on the end which is picked up by the Playstation Eye camera.
The new input claims to be more detailed than the Wii’s infra-red based sensors and obviously a wider range of games with superior graphics quality over the Nintendo console. Microsoft, not to be beaten by bitter rivals Sony also intends to introduce motion control via speech and motion recognition with their “Project Natal” camera.
Ambitious projects have seen people able to communicate with an on screen character and even detect a disparaging tone in your voice, which promptly upsets the in game character. Some early testers have claimed there is a slight delay which is understandable considering the masses of calculations and computations going on behind the scenes.
Sony has an expected date for autumn 2010 for their Playstation Move product whilst Microsoft has had a few delays and setbacks pushing it to Christmas at the earliest, although that particular launch date is sure to be perfect to catch the Christmas buying crowds! With plenty of motion encouraging consoles and games now available video games can be perfect for getting children or even grownups to exercise more, some nursing homes even use Nintendo Wiis as great exercise aids with the Wii Bowling game being particularly popular!
Check out the video games consoles available now at lower prices, even bundled with a few games. For the High definition consoles you should look into Plasma or LCD TVs too.