It seems like it was only a few years ago we were talking about games going HD and starting to use wireless controller. Our favorite franchises (or at least those that weren’t a Nintendo franchise) were updated with even more glorious visuals and we no longer had to worry about our controllers ever getting tangled together, or ever wondering which controller is which due to the facts that these wireless controllers have light patterns.  Even before that, when it came to our televisions we had been playing in the standard definition era from the Intellivision to the PS2. The move to HDTV was inevitable as the install base grew, but when it comes to today’s advances, do we really need these in our games? Are we ready for them?

Motion controls are something that we’ve all experienced firsthand using the Wii. When you look at it a certain way, some people might think “it’s about time Microsoft the Sony finally stepped up.” Meanwhile, others moan and groan as to what this means for our PS3s and 360s. This might promote more people to go out and buy consoles, along with Kinect or Playstation Move, but as for the core gamers that have been playing these consoles for the past four years, does it worry us that this could possibly bring in a new era of shovelware? I’m sure there are a few skeptics out there already that are predicting a new video game market crash, much like the one of 1984, purely on motion controls and their knack for making developers create games that are no more than just mediocre minigame compilations that will not hold the interest of someone “seriously into gaming” as developers start to shift their focus to soccer moms or families wanting to waggle, as we’ve seen many times during the Wii’s lifespan. This is even more apparent when you look at Microsoft’s debacle of an E3 press conference this year. Are we doomed to a gaming future of driving with an invisible steering wheel, or petting animals?

Now, really, obviously we aren’t looking at a potential market crash (unless you look at today’s economy as a whole) but you have to wonder with all of these garbage motion control games coming out, how much longer until we see the equivalent of E.T. on the 2600?

Motion controls sometimes don’t even work in some environments. Believe me, I’ve had two rooms that did not have an ideal setup for motion controls with my Wii. The first involved a TV sitting on a stand hanging over my bed. The other one has the TV sitting on an unstable shelf with the top of the TV just below my chin when I’m sitting down. It isn’t noticeable so much if I just have to point the remote at the TV, but if I have to switch between a sideways remote and a pointer like you have to do in Super Paper Mario or Metroid: Other M, more often than not it doesn’t work. What’s to say that Kinect and Move won’t have the same issues on a “poor man’s gaming setup?”

This doesn’t take away from the fact that, if you look at the Wii’s gaming library, most of the games that use motion controls to begin with are shit, and there aren’t enough games that utilize Wii Motion Plus, technology that’s built-in with Move and Kinect.

And as far as 3D goes… did we really need it?  Heck, barely half of gamers have an HDTV to begin with. The rest of us are all sitting close to our TVs and squinting so we can read what’s on screen. (At least if you’re playing a game by EA, you are. Even with the 3DS, what does 3D really mean to me? More headaches. I’m not attracted to the 3DS by its ability to project a 3D image without the need for glasses. I’m attracted to it because of its projected game library and the fact that I’ve always been a fan of Nintendo handhelds. Chances are, I’m going to be playing with 3D either low or off most of the time because I tend to get very headache-prone. I don’t need the frequency of my migranes going up.

To be completely fair, 3D right now is completely optional. Playing a 3D-enabled game on an HDTV isn’t going to give people playing on a 3DTV any more of an advantage, and heck; Maybe they’re not playing with 3D on either. I still think it’s ludicrous that HDTVs have only been commonplace for a couple of years now and now everything is transitioning to 3D. It’s like computers in the late 90s and early 2000s; Nowadays you can’t have a TV for a month without it becoming obsolete. I think I’ll skip 3DTVs altogether and wait until we have holograms.

Look at it this way. If you’re limited on space, why go out and buy a 3DTV for thousands of dollars plus the cost of glasses, when you can get a moderately sized HDTV for $250?

That’s really my take on this. From what I’ve gathered most core gamers would rather push buttons than waggle. Only a slim majority of them are on HDTVs. As far as motion controls are concerned, maybe the devs are noticing these trends and therefore making mainly casual motion games because of it? Who knows? The worry for me there is that more focus will be put into these new systems, alienating the core market just like what we’ve seen with the Wii. 3D isn’t a concern for me yet, but I still think it’s early to try to push it as mainstream where we still live in the age of HD. It’s a luxury, but not a necessity.

But, without further ado, here are some of the games you can expect between now and the end of the year:

(Note: The following list is only for North America)

Xbox 360
Oct 13th: Brutal Legend
Oct 27th: DJ Hero
Oct 27th: Forza Motorsport 3
Oct 27th: Tekken 6
Oct 29th: GTA4: The Ballad of Gay Tony

Nov 3rd: Band Hero
Nov 10th: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Nov 17th: Assassin’s Creed II
Nov 17th: Left 4 Dead 2

Dec 22nd: Guitar Hero: Van Halen

Playstation 3
Sept 29th: Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2

Oct 13th: Brutal Legend
Oct 20th: Ratchet & Clank: A Crack In Time
Oct 27th: DJ Hero
Oct 27th: Tekken 6

Nov 3rd: Band Hero
Nov 3rd: Lego Rock Band
Nov 10th: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Nov 17th: Assassins Creed II

Dec 22nd: Guitar Hero: Van Halen

Wii
Sept 29th: Dead Space Extraction

Oct 4th: Wii Fit Plus
Oct 6th: Spore Hero
Oct 13th: Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games
Oct 27th: DJ Hero

Nov 3rd: Band Hero
Nov 3rd: Lego Rock Band
Nov 3rd: Rabbids Go Home
Nov 3rd: Silent Hill: Shattered Memories
Nov 10th: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Reflex
Nov 15th: New Super Mario Bros. Wii
Nov 27th: Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles

Dec 22nd: Guitar Hero: Van Halen
Dec 26th: Final Fantasy Chrystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers

(I also believe that Tatsunoku vs. Capcom is supposed to fit in somewhere here, unless I missed something.)

Nintendo DS
Sept 29th: Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days

Oct 6th: Spore Hero Arena
Oct 12th:  Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Sky
Oct 13th: Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games

Nov 3rd: Lego Rock Band
Nov 10th: Band Hero
Nov 10th: Call of Duty Modern Warfare: Mobilized

Dec 7th: The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks

PSP
Oct 1st: PSPGo [Hardware]
Oct 1st: Gran Tourismo
Oct 1st: Shin Megami Tensei: Persona
Oct 13th: Half Minute Hero
Oct 20th: Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars

Nov 17th: Little Big Planet

(And yes, that’s it for now.)

PC
Oct 13th: Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga
Oct 22nd: Windows 7 [Operating System]

Nov 10th: Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
Nov 17th: Left 4 Dead 2