Don't know your Wii's from your Xbox, your DS from your PlayStation? Check out our quick guide to interactive gaming and become a two minute expert on the hottest gaming technology on the planet.
What is interactive gaming?
Interactivity was seen as the future of gaming as far back as the 1980s when people donned massive goggles and plastic swords and tried to act out Lord of the Rings while standing in a fake plastic tree trunk. It didn't work, it wasn't even much fun, because the ideas were far ahead of the technology. Nintendo tried it in 1995 with the Nintendo Virtual Boy; the first portable game console that was capable of displaying 3D graphics but it was considered a huge disappointment and discontinued the following year.
Now though there are two types of interactive gaming, with motion detecting technology, as used in the Nintendo Wii, on one side and the world of online gaming on the other. Online gaming, with its ability to link players in distant locations so they can play the same game, was revolutionary and is a standard feature of the modern games consoles like the Microsoft Xbox 360 and Sony PlayStation 3, or PS3 for short.
The revolution started by the Wii has only just begun, and the latest advances in gaming and motion detection could be set to change our world forever. Read on for our guide to what interactivity means in gaming now, and what you can expect in the near future.
What can I play interactive games on?
The Nintendo Wii took the world of interactive gaming to a whole new level and whole new audience when it came out in the Autumn of 2006. The Wii works by detecting the movements you make with the Wii Remote, or the newer and more responsive Wii Motion Plus, and recreating them in the movements of characters or objects in the game you can see on-screen. Through the remote, a swing of the arm becomes a swipe of a tennis racquet or the swing of a golf club. The Wii's focus has been on games that make the most of these kinds of movements, so it's games catalogue is heavily biased towards sports based games. Wii Fit has also seen a move into lifestyle games and uses interactive games to get people to become more healthy.
The PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360 don't offer the same sort of interactive gaming as the Wii at the moment, but they both have online gaming. This allows you to play other gamers from all over the world picking up rankings and achievements. You can go up against other individual gamers online or socialise with friends by joining in with team battles, which is great fun on first-person shooting games like Killzone, Call of Duty and Halo, and very different to how games used to be played.
If you really want to get into online gaming, and get to know the people you are playing with, you can buy a headset or Wii Speak to chat to them while you're playing. You can even see other players with the PlayStation Eye and the Xbox Live Vision Camera, all very useful for discussing tactics during your game.
There are a number of accessories you can buy for your Wii, too. You can buy Wii Wheels for Mario Kart, a Wii Zapper for your shooting games and a Balance Board for Wii Fit. All of these make your gaming experience with Nintendo much more interactive and fun.
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Are interactive games better than standard ones?
One of the main reasons the Nintendo Wii has been so popular is because it's easy for people of all ages and gaming abilities to get into. The Nintendo Wii is great at Christmas parties and social gatherings, because they're loads of fun and everyone can get involved with such games as Carnival Funfair Games, EA Playground, Sports Party and many more.
And while the other consoles may need a bit more gaming experience to play online, they have some really accessible games that family and friends can play together. Guitar Hero, DJ Hero, Rock Band, SingStar and Lips are all really enjoyable games for people to play together. Big artists have even become involved with games such as Beatles Rock Band and SingStar Take That, combining the two popular genres with the large range of music based interactive games.
Can I play interactive games on a handheld console?
If you enjoy playing handheld consoles while you're out and about, interactive gaming is also available when you're on the move. Sony's PSP has Wi-Fi, which means you can play against people sitting near you on the train or across the swimming pool on holiday. You just need to be in range of a wireless network and both be playing the same game. The Nintendo DS also has Wi-Fi access, so you can play against other DS gamers with touch screen interactivity as games like Brain Training and other touch generation games allow you to control the game with the use of a stylus rather than the usual combination button pushing. Nintendo's recently announced 3D handheld, currently called the 3DS, offers even more potential for interactivity in three dimensions.
So is interactive gaming the future?
Interactive gaming looks like it will be the future of gaming, with new developments in the pipeline including Microsoft's Project Natal and Sony's recently christened PlayStation Move game controller. We're likely to see much more accurate motion tracking and full body motion capturing, where cameras will scan your body's movements and transfer them into the gameplay.