Valve’s Chet Faliszek Sick of Waving Arms

In a recent interview with CVG, Valve writer Chet Faliszek blasted mainstream developer’s current obsession for mini games and crowbarred motion control, urging teams currently tinkering with hardware like Microsoft’s Natal to “get some real interaction going” rather than “mak[ing] sh*tty games I wouldn’t want to play if I had to use a joystick”.

Despite making an open admission that he thinks that Natal is “really cool”, Faliszek promised fans that Left 4 Dead would never resort to asking players to “make the arm movement of sawing off a zombie’s head in some tiresome mini-game”. Although he sidestepped around offering a solid answer as to whether Natal would play a part in future Left 4 Dead development, his assertion that developers have technology now that lets us interact in “really exciting ways” and should “do something with it” offers a certain community reassurance. “I’m sick of that”, said the writer, waving his arms in now patented Wii simulation, “that’s not a game for me anymore”.

It’s perhaps unsurprising that members of Valve, a developer consistently happy to cater for the salivating hardcore, would berate existing motion control use with such caustic common sense. Remaining personally non-plussed by the current swathes of forearm jiggle offered by the Wii, I implore wholeheartedly Faliszek’s challenge to all developers: “Impress me.”