People who are criticizing the Apple remote clearly have not themselves played a game recently.
I am former fan of Unreal Tournaments series and currently an active high level player of FIFA soccer series.
Let's talk in details, not in general, about the game:
1. This not a trackpad, but a Glass touch surface. Done. This glass touch area allows for VERY large number of movements (actions), totally replacing usual 4 buttons needing to manage directions. Those who played FIFA soccer, understand what I mean. The joystick on screen replaces all the left side of usual controller, which shows direction. The glass area can do the same (and even more because virtual joystick is more advanced). Moreover, it may also record touch length and strength as in TouchForce or 3D Touch, then it allows for even wider variety of movements, exceeding actually a usual gamepad.
2. That leaves 6 buttons free on the remote . + and - are placed on one button, but will record different movements. Therefore, there are 6 buttons for play actions. 6 buttons (5 physical) are more than enough for anything you may want.
as you see, most probably will use the remote in horizontal by using both hands just as usual gamepad.
This gives you left side of remote for virtual joystick and right side will give you at least 5 buttons. This is actually more than you have on the standard gamepad with XYAB buttons. Even if pause is reserved, which is fine because it will be lowest button if you play remote horizontally, you have the same XYAB combination with remaining 4 buttons of the remote (menu button as X, volume as B, etc).
3. The real kill feature. The remote has gyroscope. What it means that it DOESN"T need D-pad!! The angle and tilt of the remote itself will manage directions! For example, in FPS, you have just to tilt remote in direction you want to run, steeper as you want to run faster. Done. With that you can manage both movements, running, executing actions (like shooting). If you want to use remote as a virtual sword, glass touch area can serve as Dpad, allowing you to use gyroscope as a weapon direction manager. Thats how it manages complex games like FPS.
4. Using the remote for driving games is no brainer with gyroscope. You just turn the remote as a real wheel and use buttons for braking and acceleration.
5. Using for casual games. Most casual games require simple input. No brainer either.
6. For sports game, the gyroscope is extremely important to give the strength and direction of touch, for example as for kicking ball. So I can imagine swinging the remote as a tennis racket etc. or as in hockey, possibilities are endless. I really would like to play FIFA football on AppleTV because TV screen is so much larger than iPad. with ATV connected to TV, you don't have any lag and latency is low, giving you a dynamic, engaging connection of remote with images. I imagine that ATV also can provide great sound, much better than anything iPads' tiny speakers can give.
So I see the remote as being adequate for 99% of games. The only ones which may be difficult to play will be games like Age of Empires, where you have select by mouse multiple functions. This type of games really sucks on any console.
With Metal API, the AppleTV can present games with very complex graphics ala PS3-4 in HD, of course. I am not sure about games like Battlefield, which are already playable on iPads, but games like exploration are perfectly suitable.
