As I quickly learned while watching my girlfriend play "Left 4 Dead," modern games are tough for newcomers to sit down and play.
Controllers as complicated as the Xbox 360's and PlayStation 3's are here to stay, but games need to do a better job of educating new gamers.
"Bionic Commando" isn't the game I expected to do that. But while checking out the game's addictive multiplayer at a San Francisco event last week, I noticed the game's flashy-but-effective introduction.
The screen above shows up while the game is loading. Press a button on the controller and the game gives a text explanation of what it does. A welcome addition would be a video or some kind of graphic showing that action in real-time, but this is a step in the right direction and one I'm hopeful will be included in the final version of "Bionic Commando" next year.
Tap a button. Get an explanation. So simple.
Do you guys know of any other games that introduce their controls as effectively?