Wii U Discussion

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Wii U Discussion

It tends to take a lot to break something Nintendo releases. I've seen my 3DS bounce twice on concrete flooring and slide across it face open. No scratches.

That never happens with my iPhone or Sony handhelds because I'm way more conscious about those breaking. My iPhone has made it 16 months without incident so far.

[Icemage]

Re: Wii U Discussion

I think we can all agree that the price of the currently non-purchasable-outside-of-Japan GamePad is the least of the Wii U's woes at the moment. What it really needs is more games (and maybe some better tech). Getting a second gamepad isn't really an issue when no games will ever use one (esp. not at THAT price point).

It does give a good indicator of where Nintendo thought they were headed when they invested that much into the controller, but that's sort of academic at this point.


Icemage

[Kailea]

Re: Wii U Discussion

good lord, so it is 150... -.- well damn

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Wii U Discussion

Well, while its not a huge boost, Monster Hunter is coming next month and given the climate in the US - which is understandably resistant to this series on handhelds due to local-only play - we could see a small boost in sales. There are people that will buy a whole system just to play MonHun. It won't be a big boost, maybe a boost like Vita had with Persona 4 Golden or Project Diva in Japan, but it will likely be a healthy one. Hopefully we get some dates of Pikmin 3 and Wonderful 101 soon.

I believe Lego City Undercover is also next month and while that's clearly not for everyone here, it looks like the buzz is pretty strong for it. Bit Trip Runner 2 just hit Wii U and Steam today and Gajin considers the Wii U version the best and the PS3 version the one they had more difficulty with.

I still think people are blowing the software thing out of proportion, though. Every console is like this after launch. The real problem with platform launches is they throw out a load of games up front, people consume them and then there's nothing for months on end. 3DS, Vita and Wii U all made this mistake. They put everything on the launch and then there was seemingly nothing for months.

[Icemage]

Re: Wii U Discussion

I still think people are blowing the software thing out of proportion, though. Every console is like this after launch. The real problem with platform launches is they throw out a load of games up front, people consume them and then there's nothing for months on end. 3DS, Vita and Wii U all made this mistake. They put everything on the launch and then there was seemingly nothing for months.

Oh, no doubt. It's still early days yet, but you can't help but think Nintendo's really squandering their best chance at success. They've basically got the entire next-gen market to themselves for the next 7 months or so, and they're selling maybe 200K units per month worldwide? That's not a comfortable situation to be in when you've got not one but two competitors poised to hit the market by holiday 2013.

Things will pick up a bit as new titles hit in the next several months (Monster Hunter, LEGO City Undercover, Pikmin 3, Wonderful 101, etc.) but I don't see any of those titles really moving the needle for the Wii U in the numbers it really needs before Microsoft and Sony use up all the oxygen in the room with their announcements.


Icemage

[Malacite]

Re: Wii U Discussion

Yeah I'm honestly surprised they didn't have a Mario game ready to go. Metroid or Zelda would have been nice, but hard to expect those as they tend to take longer.

[Kailea]

Re: Wii U Discussion

I can not wait for Monster Hunter, the fact that the Wii U and 3DS versions are cross play is a nice touch, and allows me to get the game on each, and let a friend play with me, as they do not have a 3DS or Wii U, but they like Monster Hunter.

Also if crossplay works well, I hope to see a Monster Hunter 4 on Wii U as well, instead of just 3DS

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Wii U Discussion

Does PS4 really even have any momentum, though? I mean, sure, last wee there was excitement but now that everyone sees we're not getting that broad leap in performance lots of people seem ambivalent about PS4 and even the prospect of what MS could show for the next Xbox.

If Sony and MS's best case for this gen is social media integration, I think a lot of people would just go build a PC. Don't get me wrong, integrating social media more deeply is a fine direction to go in, but I don't think its going to take gaming to the next level. It might take people being annoying to the next level, but not gaming

I like that Catherine and The Walking Dead collect data and show you what other people think or what choices they made - that's cool, but Bioware proves there's a negative to that. All the data they collected for Dragon Age Origins shows people prefer playing humans so derp derp no more playable elves and dwarves. What was cool polling data for Atlus and Telltale was focus testing for Bioware and EA. So I'm really iffy about how far the social media stuff goes.

[Firewind]

Re: Wii U Discussion

It tends to take a lot to break something Nintendo releases. I've seen my 3DS bounce twice on concrete flooring and slide across it face open. No scratches.

That never happens with my iPhone or Sony handhelds because I'm way more conscious about those breaking. My iPhone has made it 16 months without incident so far.

My youngest sister has been through 3 DS consoles though given that she as 9 when she broke the first one, I can put it down to not even Nintendo making kid proof stuff.

And Sony's stuff is actually very durable. I have had:

A portable CD player that repeatedly survived being knocked off a desk by idiot classmates at high school.
A PSP that has survived my rugby teammates using my bag as a rugby ball with the PSP in it (to be fair they didn't know that it was in my gear bag and I lost count of the number of apologies and offers to replace it if broken I got for that).
A PS3 that has survived my aunt dropping it in box down a flight of stairs when I was moving into a new dorm at college.
A PS3 pad that has survived my sister throwing at at the wall in frustration and being stepped on when my sister left it lying around on the floor.

Trust me, stuff like this is assumed to be treated roughly at some point and Sony's handhelds and consoles, while fragile looking, are surprisingly durable.

That said iPhones and Xbox 360 pads are exactly as fragile and/or cheaply made as they look. I've had 360 pads literally vibrate themselves apart. Also, Yyg, Cid, Hayde and Jarre will be able to tell you how ridiculously over the top the vibration can be when playing PC games. I'm fairly sure they they have heard my pad vibrating over my microphone while playing FFXI before I worked out how to turn it off.

[cidbahamut]

Re: Wii U Discussion

Actually I never heard it. I guess your mic is just well positioned to not pick up background noise.

I'll agree that Nintendo input devices are usually pretty durable. I'm only just now looking at my SNES controllers beginning to show their age, and I'm still pretty sure the only reason my N64 controller's sticks went out is because I owned the original Mario Party(anyone who's played knows exactly what I'm referring to).

That said, shit happens and a single input devices should not account for 50% of the cost of the system. It's outrageous. No if's ands or buts BBQ. It's straight up nuts.

[Kailea]

Re: Wii U Discussion

Actually I never heard it. I guess your mic is just well positioned to not pick up background noise.

I'll agree that Nintendo input devices are usually pretty durable. I'm only just now looking at my SNES controllers beginning to show their age, and I'm still pretty sure the only reason my N64 controller's sticks went out is because I owned the original Mario Party(anyone who's played knows exactly what I'm referring to).

That said, shit happens and a single input devices should not account for 50% of the cost of the system. It's outrageous. No if's ands or buts BBQ. It's straight up nuts.

I agree about the price, but at the same time, look at the thing....... it is not just buttons and sticks.

[cidbahamut]

Re: Wii U Discussion

And your point would be...what exactly?

[Icemage]

Re: Wii U Discussion

It's not really a matter of PS4 having a ton of excitement (which it does, actually, particularly amongst developers and publishers). It's more an issue of "where does Nintendo go from here?" The system just needs games, period, and what we know about what's coming to the platform is not going to fix what ails it. 3DS had huge issues until it got a bunch of major software announcements and a huge price cut, and it had a much easier road to recovery being a Nintendo handheld with much less competition. None of the software known to be coming to Wii U is going to do much to help it out of its funk. Granted, it doesn't have anywhere really to go but up from where it is, but it really needs to be doing much better before this fall or it's going to get steamrollered for 3rd party software like the Wii did.

Anyone who thinks Microsoft and Sony aren't going to make a huge splash by E3 is delusional. Two console launches in a year is going to turn a lot of heads, especially if the 3rd party stuff we end up with looks half as good as that real-time Deep Down reveal from Capcom (it wasn't CGI, or if it was, it's the best badly faked CGI I've ever seen).


Icemage

[Malacite]

Re: Wii U Discussion

Well, as they pointed out at GT, EA was surprisingly absent from the Sony event, which means they've no doubt got something major for E3 - Probably BF4 and quite possibly the next Mass Effect. They're not the #1 publisher in the business for nothing. Plus I'm sure Activision can't wait to show off at least a preview of the new CoD. Not that I care particularly for that, I just wanted to make a few important observations with regards to that franchise.

- Infinity Ward should have the last kick at the can for a CoD game this gen, meaning Treyarc will be first on the next gen platforms (unless by some oddity BO2 ends up being the last of this gen)
- Whichever console launches first, if they're out in November, could potentially get the new CoD before the other which even if you hate CoD, you can't deny it's selling power.

A lot of people were saying that there's no way that demo of Deep-Down was gameplay, but I think it was for 1 reason - it looked like you had some kind of menu in the lower left with those 3 icons. Either way it was an impressive demo.

MS has their work cut out for them. I'm eagerly awaiting what they've got planned, but right now Sony definitely has the momentum. You can't count Nintendo out just yet, but so far it's looking like an uphill battle for them, especially if the specs for the new xbox are anywhere close to PS4's (and I'm sure they will be if they want to stay competitive). Nintendo's always been somewhat safe because of the popularity of their 1st party stuff, but there is going to be a stark world of difference for 3rd party games given the difference in hardware this coming generation which may very well come back to bite them in the ass.

[Firewind]

Re: Wii U Discussion

Actually I never heard it. I guess your mic is just well positioned to not pick up background noise.

I use a Turtle Beach headset, they all have built in monitors so if I can hear background noise I can easily adjust mic settings on the fly to filter that out. I also have a bunch of different programmable mic settings where I can do things like change sensitivities and volumes on the fly.

Even the entry level ones are really nice in terms of sound quality and mic quality.