Sony encouraging developers to take advantage of the motion controls of the SIXAXIS controller has resulted in some developers pulling it off pretty well, while some… not so much. The better examples would be the character balancing in Drake’s Fortune and aiming arrows into the enemy’s tender places in Heavenly Sword. And the bad example is of course Lair (which should get the controls fix soon by the way), in which the poorly made and forced on motion controls ruined a large portion of the game.

Kojima has chosen to take the ‘less is more’ approach in Metal Gear Solid 4, and has even removed motion controls from several places where they were previously planned, like maneuvering Snake’s Mk. II robot for example.

Assistant Producer Ryan Payton, as written in the latest issue of EGM: “I think the problem with this feature is it was severely overhyped. It was talked up as Sony’s answer to the Wii Remote. The trick is to use Sixaxis sparingly and have fun with it. I don’t think anybody wants to play a long game while consistently having to tilt the controller around. Rather, it’s fun for the player when they’re given a chance to use it in short bursts — that’s how we’re approaching Sixaxis in MGS4.”

There you go, out of all the things Metal Gear Solid 4 will have to offer this summer, hours-long SIXAXIS wielding will not be one of them.