It seems the number one buzzword at this year’s E3 was ‘SmartGlass‘ or ‘Second Screen‘. Typically us sarcastic and cynical gamer-folk is quick on the draw with negativity and we shoot down the ‘corporate suits‘ who ‘sit in a bord room and try to come up with a new gimmick‘ to sell to people.
Believe me and you, I am on the same page and have pretty much neglected any use of SmartGlass on my Xbox 360 which is pushed to be the companion app to improve your gaming or viewing experience by telling Game of Thrones fans on which part of the map the current battle takes place or allows Forza Horizon players to set a waypoint.
To be honest, all of that stuff is just crap, but I do believe that a second screen companion app can be something cool and I really hope it will be because the tablet app is not going away anytime soon.
At E3 we were shown SmartGlass integration for Battlefield 4’s Commander Mode, the Need for Speed Rivals helicopter thing and The Division’s drone gameplay steered by a tablet user.
Was any of this cool? Sure, some of it seemed like it could be something neat but not much more than something hamers will do 3 or 4 times before they never touch it again.
So what would be something compelling and integral to a game’s experience that we as ‘core gamers‘ would want to see in the next generation of video games.
- Sniping Spotter: For those of you who are into video games that have a sniping element or are purely based on sniping this may tickle your fancy. A sniping team is typically made of 2 members, the sniper and the spotter who helps guide the shooter, find targets or provides vital information for his partner. We would love to see a game that uses the tablet in a way that is integral to sniping gameplay and this would work in single and multiplayer modes and ‘require’ a spotter to play the game.
- Rally Co-Pilot: In the World Rally Championship we usually only hear about the drivers like Colin McRae, Sebastien Loeb or Walter Roehrl but without their co-pilots they would not achieve the fame or titles they have over their careers. A co-driver is responsible for reading pace notes that tell the driver how fast to take a turn, if they need to avoid the inside of a corner or just how to take the next jump. A game like DiRT could take advantage of a second screen where the co-driver is required to use a tablet to read the pace notes to the driver while going at blistering speeds. This could be a couch co-op experience or work over the online network as the iPad could pick up audio from the co-pilot.
- Soccer Coach: When playing FIFA or Pro Evolution Soccer we usually take command of individual players on the pitch via the controller but have to pause and go into menus to make substitutions, change the line up or tactics during a game. A second screen could be used to make these changes on the fly without having to pause the game. Alternatively, SmartGlass or another device could be used to only manage the team while the AI takes over. This would be more of an implementation for a game like FIFA Manager or Football Manager from Sega. A second screen would allow players to watch the game in fantastic 3D visuals on their TV while pulling strings behind the scenes from the Microsoft Surface for instance.
- Hacking: We have seen some of the SmartGlass implementation when Ubisoft’s Watch Dogs was shown and it seems another player who isn’t in ones game controlling the action would be able to hack into their game to alert the police or track the player while hacking into security cameras and so on. This is a great idea and may actually be worthwhile but it doesn’t have enough hooks to keep players coming back more than a few times. Hacking into games could become an incredibly immersive experience that is compelling but it will have to be more than what Ubsioft has shown so far.
I think that SmartGlass or a second screen experience can be something we actually want to use but it has to be more than setting way points or checking achievement scores on an iPad.
