What features are you looking forward to with the next-gen consoles?

Note that you can vote for more than one option in the poll.

I was just wondering what some of you guys on the board thought about the features the next-gen consoles will be providing. These features could be something that has an impact on the games themselves such as online play, powerful “next-gen” hardware, or a truly innovative controller that will impact how you play games. Or it could be something that has little to do with playing games, such as the ability to play HD movies (HD DVD or Blu-ray) or offer PC-like features with a Linux OS. Or it could simply be that the console is “affordable.” Here are just some features that I just came up with for the poll, but feel free to post you own thoughts, especially if there is a feature (or features) that I didn't mention:

Motion-sensor controller
This has been one of the biggest features that Nintendo has been pushing with their Wii controller, and from all indications, it does seem like a nice step to take the video game industry in. Apparently Sony agrees as they decided to offer a similar feature in the PS3 controller, which I’m sure flattered Nintendo (). If implemented correctly, you won’t have to worry about memorizing complicated button sequences in order to pull off a simple lean or some other maneuver in a game. Just use motion to help you perform the action you want.

"Next-gen" hardware
This is the usual feature you get from next-gen consoles, although Nintendo’s decision to focus less on hardware power has led to this being a feature not available in every console. Sony and Microsoft have paid IBM and ATI/Nvidia a lot of money for processors in their consoles, and we’re starting to see the results of this with games like Gears of War, Halo 3, Metal Gear Solid 4, MotorStorm, Lost Planet, Heavenly Sword, and more. This is for the people looking forward to next-gen graphics, next-gen physics, next-gen AI, next-gen animation, etc.

Ability to play HD movies at a relatively cheap price
This is one of the features Sony is heavily promoting with the PS3, and MS is also providing their own option with the HD DVD add-on for the 360. Even better, with movie studios apparently holding off on forcing down-conversion until around 2010, the $500 PS3 r****d pack doesn’t seem as r****ded anymore (maybe even the better SKU of the 2 thanks to this and other news), and the HD DVD add-on for the 360 is a much more respectable add-on than once thought. I guess Microsoft and Sony must have known something about that deal; I was wondering why they were promoting the ability to play HD movies, yet offering solutions that did not support HDMI, something that seemed necessary if you wanted to watch every BD/HD DVD movie in HD. Thank goodness we shouldn’t have to worry about that anymore.

Free online play
XBL is a nice service, offering some awesome services, but sometimes all people want to do is play games online for free. Well, that seems to be what Sony and Nintendo will be offering. Maybe even Microsoft once they can start relying on advertising revenues instead. Pretty simple feature to describe, and hopefully we can get it from all 3 consoles, allowing us to play games online for free (well, most of them anyway).

Downloadable content
This is one thing that all 3 consoles will be providing in some way. Microsoft has already down a remarkable job of showing how to do this correctly, offering amazing low-budget yet highly-addictive games via Xbox Live Arcade (like Geometry Wars), as well as exclusive demos and trailers to several high-profile games like Halo 3, Fight Night 3, GRAW, and more. Sony appears to be offering some similar features with their service, as well as some of their own thanks to everything their company is involved in (movies and music for example). Then we also have Nintendo, which will be putting up many video game classics online to download and play on the Wii (from NES to N64, including some non-Nintendo consoles). With broadband being in a large number of homes worldwide, these companies are providing some excellent ways to take advantage of these fast-connections.

Since this a bit general, I guess you guys can single out what exactly you’re looking forward to in a post if you vote for this option (Nintendo classics, demos, trailers, etc.).

Linux
Only one console will support this, and it may not even be all that great, but I thought I’d mention it since it might be pretty interesting…if nothing else, it kind of explains why Sony thinks they can charge $500-$600 for the PS3 and still call it cheap.

Basically, the PS3 will offer something similar to the PS2 with its Linux solution, although unlike the PS2, the PS3 will supposedly offer it with every console as opposed to offering it only as an add-on. The PS2 Linux Kit allowed the PS2 to function much like any other computer running Linux, providing functionality with programs such as Firefox, Thunderbird, and Gaim. It could also perform word processing and connect to printers, cameras, flash drives, and CD drives via the USB ports. I’m assuming the PS3 version of Linux will offer similar features and possibly some new ones (ability to record TV onto the hard drive ala MythTV?). This will be a “wait and see” thing, but it could be a pretty interesting feature of the PS3.

Console under $400
I just put this option up there because I was getting tired of including the PS3 in everything (although given the price tag, I guess it better have all those features). That said, even though this is one “feature” that the PS3 doesn’t provide, it is probably one of the most-wanted features for a next-gen console, making the Wii and 360 very attractive (and the PS3 very unattractive) to anyone who is considering a next-gen console.

Other
Name says it all. Anything and everything I haven’t already mentioned. I guess this could include some of the other features in the various online plans (video chat, messaging, web browsing, etc.), or some other feature I didn’t already mention. Make sure to mention it in a post in case others would enjoy the same feature(s).

Note that you can vote for more than one option.

 

Just out of curiosity, for the people that voted for downloadable content or for something not listed, what specific features are you looking forward to?

Yeah, I was a little surprised to see BFME II coming to the 360 (or a console to be more specific). I think Bethesda is working on a RTS Star Trek game, although it is a slightly different type of RTS game than BFME II IIRC. More of a space strategy game than some of these other RTS games (BFME 2, AOE, etc.).

There were also some rumors that Ensemble is working with Bungie on a new Halo project (probably not Halo 3, although I don't know). I don't remember if the rumor mentioned if it would be an RTS, but I imagine it would have RTS elements if Ensemble were involved. There was an interesting timeline picture for the AOE series, including concepts for future titles (AOE IV and AOE V); the end of the timeline included a futuristic looking soldier, who looked a lot like Master Chief. Probably just a coincidence, but still interesting considering the rumors.

BTW, since you already seem interested in the PS3, I should note that it is supposed to support mouse and keyboard controls for games. Maybe that will help bring some more RTS-style games to consoles as well.

 

Yes, but you can only use it to input text. You can't play games with it. Unless something changes.

 

I didn't really think it would be used much (at least early on), but some reports from E3 seem to suggest otherwise. It seemed like most developers that commented about the controller expressed interest in it, and already had ideas on how to use it. It even sounded like EA might use it with Madden. Of course, whether it is some gimmick-feature or something that actually improves gameplay is a whole other story.

Also, I'm not really sure if the PS3 controller can only sense tilt and nothing else. I know that's how it was demonstrated, but they did mention it had six degrees of movement (or something like that). That seems to imply that it could do more than just sense simple tilting of the controller. That said, even if it had the same tech as the Wii controller, you couldn't (or wouldn't want to) do the same things on both. Swinging or pointing the Wiimote would be easy and intuitive; the same can't be said for the PS3 controller.

 

That reminds me:

This isn't from Nintendo...as you could probably tell by the other controller in the image.

 

Yeah, the controller is one of the last things developers got (or will get) with the PS3 devkits. I believe final hardware went out in January, but devkits with the controller went out just prior to E3. Along with that, I know most developers didn't know about the feature; some didn't even know about the loss of the rumble feature in the PS3 controller.

Assuming they have the ideas though, it shouldn't be too difficult to implement in a game...which I guess is somewhat obvious since it didn't take the Warhawk developers long to implement it into their game.

Also, FWIW, Sony claims they had this idea since around 1994. I'm not sure if that should be taken seriously though given the circumstances. To be fair, I believe they did have some patents made during the 90's that involved this type of tech, but that doesn't necessarily mean that Sony had this planned the entire time.

I think this is the one you're taking about:
http://revolution.ign.com/articles/705/705870p1.html
I'm not sure if it is completely accurate though, at least when it comes to the PS3 controller. IGN makes it sound like the controller can only detect tilt, but if it does allow for 6 DOF, it should be able to do more than detect just tilt...unless I don't understand what tilt is. Check out this video, especially near the end with the duck:
http://reviews.cnet.com/4660-12331_7-6519205.html
Notice how Phil quickly raises the controller, making the duck jump out of the water. That seems to indicate more than just tilt to me.

Unfortunately, the live video feeds of the presentation didn't show this, so a lot of people missed out on the video that showed off how the controller detects motion. Although as I said earlier, I'm sure there will be some big differences in how the Nintendo controller and the PS3 controller are used.