Bizarre, poorly advertised, obsolete, or underutilized console features
- Thread starter Theorymon
- Start date
Share Play on PS4. It's actually crazy that a friend can take control of any of my games with relative ease and either help me out or simply try the game over the network.
Nah, it's not an either or thing. Supporting touchscreen and buttons at the same time is basic stuff. Docked players aren't missing out on anything when all I'm asking for is some dang menu button support
I remember when the joy cons were announced some people groaned at the return of motion controls. I think motion in general has a stigma against it because of elitism thanks to the more casual focused Wii or the amount of badly implemented controls in shovelware.
I had varying success with it. Input lag made it difficult to play on the long term but my friends used it to help me get past level boundaries and kill zones in Destiny. (I remember only being able to log in intermittently while they were leagues beyond me. After a certain point I just stopped doing damage to the enemies during raids with them.)
Absolutely, a lot of people just completely misunderstand what motion controls really mean. They think of waving the Wiimote when gyro aim is nothing like that. Motion controls can be done in various ways.
I love this feature. I run my cable box through it and the xbox controls basically everything.
You can take screenshots on a Vita by pressing the home button and start and zoom in on anything by pressing the home button and square.
The only thing I can ever remember using it for is tossing whichever explosive you have equipped by swiping up on the pad while aiming with your gun in GTAV/Online.
Can't really count this as a console exclusive feature, but I really thought EA's GameFace software was going to be a literal game changer. Last time I used it was UFC 2, and I was surprised to see they were still supporting it at the time as they never advertise it. Having a created character that actually looked like me made me more invested in the game.
Why they never thought to bring that tech to RPGs is astounding to me. Most people I know create a rough approximation of themselves as an avatar. But actually making Commander Shepard or the Inquisitor look exactly like you would be a huge QOL improvement. No more sliders! A truly unique avatar for all created protagonists.
Why they never thought to bring that tech to RPGs is astounding to me. Most people I know create a rough approximation of themselves as an avatar. But actually making Commander Shepard or the Inquisitor look exactly like you would be a huge QOL improvement. No more sliders! A truly unique avatar for all created protagonists.
All the reminiscing reminded me that I bought the Nintendo wifi adaptor when I first got a Wii. It was a little usb piece you stuck into your computer and was usable only by the Wii or DS. Since wifi was still a new enough thing to still be pretty uncommon, Nintendo put out this solution.
Seriously. I have a gaming PC and I still find myself debating getting games on the PS4 just because that rest mode is so damn convenient.
I had to use this bad boy for years on my DSAll the reminiscing reminded me that I bought the Nintendo wifi adaptor when I first got a Wii. It was a little usb piece you stuck into your computer and was usable only by the Wii or DS. Since wifi was still a new enough thing to still be pretty uncommon, Nintendo put out this solution.
It took my family awhile to get WiFi...
the Wii U TV button was fun for a bit when it came out, esp with it's TV Guide/live chat feature
I had to use this for years, mainly in college apartments when I didn't have control over the building/s wifi/etc (required login). Was a godsend really.All the reminiscing reminded me that I bought the Nintendo wifi adaptor when I first got a Wii. It was a little usb piece you stuck into your computer and was usable only by the Wii or DS. Since wifi was still a new enough thing to still be pretty uncommon, Nintendo put out this solution.
I miss the music integration from the original Xbox, where you could rip CDs to the internal HDD. More than just playing music over the game, it replaced the music the game came with. In-game actions like pausing or cutscenes would properly pause the music. The Tony Hawk games come to mind as the best example of using this custom soundtrack feature.
Now there's just streaming options that play over anything else, and you have to manually mute the in-game sound. Without the integration, it just doesn't feel the same.
Now there's just streaming options that play over anything else, and you have to manually mute the in-game sound. Without the integration, it just doesn't feel the same.
I love speakers on the controller. Fatal Frame IV used it the best, where you'd get phone calls and the Wii remote would act as the phone receiver. I think there are a couple other games that did something similar. That concept doesn't translate as well with controllers like the Dualshock 4, unfortunately.
SharePlay on PS4 is still a dream-come-true feature for me... and nobody seems to know it exists.
It gave me online co-op for PS2 titles. Insane.
It gave me online co-op for PS2 titles. Insane.
Yes! I remember even using windows live messenger on it!
wait a second... I'm almost at the end of the game and never noticed the gryo. I assume its used for weapon aiming?
I believe it got patched in fairly late on and needs to manually be enabled in the menu. I didn't start playing until the last patch was out.
Ahh gotcha, yeah I started playing last month myself. I'll look around for the setting. Funny enough Bend just released a patch yesterday, nothing major, bug fixes and consolidates all of the patches into one file.
One of the best things ever done in the old place was the board members created a custom soundtrack for WipEout HD called G.A.M.3. You can still find it online. Loads of original dance music created as an alternate OST. It was all I used for the game and it's sad that I can't use it with Omega Collection
Yeah but that's on purpose, though. The Switch has to be easy to use in both docked and handheld, so making games that are touch-centric makes people that prefer to play docked feel left out. I think they intentionally underuse that feature, because the Switch really isn't meant to be a handheld device. It's marketed as a home console that can also be taken on the go, so the games sort of need to be designed first and foremost with the docked feature-set.
Vita back touch was cool but rarely used. Same goes for Dualshock 4 touch pad. Switch touch screen barely gets used and I think a few games would really benefit.
Switch has a model that can't be docked at all. To me it's 50/50. There should be more touch support for the portable players, and some games would just play better like Mario Maker.
PS3 and Wii originally required a disc to run Netflix streaming in USA. People speculated it was a loophole to get around the exclusivity agreement they made with Microsoft to have the Netflix app on the 360 first.The PlayStation 2 had HD capabilities though they were only utilised for like 6 games, one of which was a Jackass game.
I believe it was also compatible with Netflix, though due to lacking any sort of app feature you used a disk before going online. If I recall correctly is was mostly utilised in Brazil where the console was still obscenely popular long into the Playstation 3's lifecycle.
The discs where free and arrived in the same envelopes Netflix's movie by mail service used. I still have both on mine somewhere.
Not necessarily a console feature, but in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate you can export videos of entire matches (no matter how long) as decent looking videos in MP4 files and pop the SD card into a PC and view them as normal video files. You can edit these with something fancier than the built-in editor in Smash if you want.
Here's a funny one: I'm sure most of you know about the Genesis / Megadrive's headphone jack, right? Pretty famous stuff, but Sega went way further with this in 2 other models! I have a Sega Genesis model called the CDX (known everyhere else as the Multimega)...
It looks like a CD player, right? That's because it actually is! If you unhook it from the wall, you can put batteries in it and listen to CDs! It's sorta big for a CD player, but it's actually very damn small for a 16 bit console, so I love this thing a lot as a space saver (and cd player when I wanna go back to the past hehehe)
This system was called the Sega CD X in North America, and retailed for about $399.99 US, though they were closer to $500.00 in Canadian currency. I remember seeing these displayed in stores back in the day, I wanted one really bad. But the price was a big turn off. Plus, I already owned a Sega CD Model 2. I only wanted one of these because they looked cool.
But yes, this thing has a battery compartment for AA cell batteries. Sega thought it was a good idea to make it a portable CD player as well, which made it one of the most expensive portable CD players for its time between 1993 to 1995. it was such a weird selling point.
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The infrared sensor on those cartridges were also used as a copy protect / anti-piracy system if I'm not mistaken. Most of the common flash cartridges at the time didn't include one.
I actually miss this. I remember using it in Metal Gear Solid 2. Light press to ready weapon, full press to fire. Was so cool at the time.
It would be nice to give controllers more buttons without giving them more buttons.
No More Heroes also used it in the same way, by having Travis receive a phone call and the person would be heard through the wiimote. I remember thinking how novel it was at the time.
Duhhhh!
Every rumor about the next system comes in the system after. I remember the rumor for the Wii being that the controller had a touch screen, that happened on the Wii U. And the rumor with Wii U was that you could take it anywhere and play it. That happened with the Switch. Can't recall the Switch rumors at this time though.
The PS3 and PS4's ability to play 3D movies. Not that they are all that good 3D movie players compared to dedicated machines, nor was it a format ever in any meaningful demand, but it is there and barely talked about by fans of that format or by Sony itself.
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The thing can't even use the 32X IIRC (the dozen fans at the time would've been crushed, I'm sure).
Yeah, I mean, Nintendo made that system for people in 2012, and no one bought it. lol. The Switch is primarily a home console. The Lite is always gonna be a much smaller segment of the userbase. I don't see them every doing much to make more games touch-centric.
Well I mean any CD or DVD player with optical output allowed you to do this, wasn't specific to PS2.
something like this would help so much for games like xenoblade 2 where there's like 3-4 menus to navigate
PAL GameCubes supported the cable but could only output a maximum of 720x576i instead of 720x480p, it still looked a stack better than composite. I remember calling Nintendo Australia directly and paying $100AUD for the cable.
That's was used by this parties. Mostly for piracy and cheat devices