Posted December 15, 2010
Which is probably why most of the more successful flight sims have focused on WWI and WWII. LOT fewer knobs back then :p
Mech Combat in general, really. Consoles have it (from varying degrees of "realism". Gundam games for fighting game style mechs, Armored Core for a balance between Mechwarrior and Swordy McSworderton Mechs, and even that weird RAD game that was just all shades of awesome gimmicky goodness :p). Last real mech game we had (I don't count Front Mission Evolved, since that is really closer to Shogo than a proper Mech Game) is probably Mechwarrior 4 (If I missed one, PLEASE tell me :p). And I think the community was pretty divided on that one.
Like I said, both platforms have their advantages and their disadvantages. Their genres that they excel at, and their genres that they ignore.
As for mech sims, how'd you overlook Steel Battalion? No, not the upcoming, Kinect-based Heavy Armor that screams "in name only". The original Xbox title, in its massive, backlit-button-bristling controller glory that almost immediately consigned it to "cult classic" status at best. (Yes, I have one. It's bigger than the pictures suggest, but not nearly as heavy.) That controller, while something you'd only expect PC gamers to even think about paying for, certainly adds to the immersion, but the VTs (Vertical Tanks) actually feel like walking behemoths of destruction, especially in Line of Contact. They take a while to start up and get going, they're generally slow to turn (and will tip over if you push the balancer too hard, especially in LoC 5th-gear wheel mode), and you can practically feel every step they take. Outmaneuvering the enemy and his shots is half the game, really, moreso than in something like Battletech/MechWarrior where combat is more about hitting the enemy in the right spots to take out crucial subsystems. (Part of it is due to how HARD it is to hit enemy VTs in SB:LoC. Projectiles are slow and dodged easily with a slidestep, even though everyone has a built-in aimbot of sorts, and long reload times on main guns generally leave an opening for the enemy VT's batteries to recharge for another slidestep.)
I might seem kind of gushy, but it's just that I don't think I'll ever see another mech combat title like it. Not just that controller, but the feeling that you really are commanding a gun platform on legs due to how they move.
ANd yeah, I didn't mention Steel Battalion because I want that thing so badly that I die a little inside every time I realize I am not playing it right now.
