EA's 'Family Play' for Wii: making games more accessible, or dangerous dumbing down?

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Have you played the last Madden NFL game on Wii? It’s pretty tough, especially if you’re flummoxed by the ins and outs of American Football. At least, that’s my excuse for the 51-point loss I suffered in my first game. On easy level.

EA thinks it has the answer though, in a new control mechanism called ‘Family Play’, which it’s introducing across its range of sports games. It basically streamlines the controls and uses the in-game AI to interpret your Wiimote wavings into actions, rather than expecting you to control every little thing.

Gamers are already muttering about dumbing down, but that’s missing the point a bit – Family Play is in addition to, not replacing the original controls. Whether it’ll get your grandma playing Madden NFL 08 is anyone’s guess, though.

(via WiiWii)

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Stuart Dredge
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