Thread: Nintendo 3DS

Wow. Nintendo is just freaking on a roll. They are, by far
the saviors of the video game industry. They just announced
their new machine - the Nintendo 3DS. It's the successor
to the DS. This one, however, will be 3D capable! And even
better, it won't require glasses! They're going to reveal it
at e3.

I'm excited to see this machine. The DSi, with clever
developers, can already do awesome 3D like this:

YouTube - DSi「立体かくし絵　アッタコレダ」PV

That's why Nintendo rules. Their machines give developers
more freedom to be creative. The Wii is also so awesome
that both Sony and Microsoft are desperately trying to enter
the motion control space (lol). Sony's scheme is a blatant
rip-off of the Wiimote & Nunchuck, and I can't see Natal
being anything other than awkward. Do you have any idea
how much the world would suck without Nintendo? It would
suck tonnes, man.

From what I have heard Sony's motion control offering is not that great and Natal is a buggy mess.

However I have a Wii and I'm not all that impressed with it nor the motion sensing technology. Overall I find it inaccurate, clumsy, gimmicky, and annoying since games tend to combine the motion in with button mashing and it's impossible to do both at the same time. The Wii is a nice attempt but it has very poor hardware, graphics are from the NVidia GeForce 4 era, sound is no better than your typical SoundBlaster card, and the games are not all that great since they try to use the motion sensing crap and usually fail big time. The Wii is a big fail for me.

That's why Nintendo rules. Their machines give developers more freedom to be creative.

Do devs really want to mess with motion sensing hardware knowing that it may not work correctly? Nothing sucks more than to spend dev time on figuring out the motions only to have the hardware utterly fail to pick them up thus causing the game experience to be less than satisfactory. Your statements about Nintendo are a bit presumptious, fan-boyish, have little or no evidence to back up, and overall inaccurate. I will say that if Nintendo offers up another Wii for their next gen console they will make a huge mistake.

However I have a Wii and I'm not all that impressed with it nor the motion sensing technology. Overall I find it inaccurate, clumsy, gimmicky, and annoying since games tend to combine the motion in with button mashing and it's impossible to do both at the same time.

That just says you either have it set up incorrectly or have
picked poor titles. You must be doing something wrong.
Do you have the strap wrapped around your wrist like the
picture shows? If not, try doing that

Have you tried the Motion+? Go pick up Red Steel 2. Just
came out this week. Great reviews that say the sword play
is fantastic. .

Do devs really want to mess with motion sensing hardware knowing that it may not work correctly?

If it doesn't work correctly, it's their own fault and their own
poor design choices. The hardware is demonstrably capable.
However, if they don't want to do motion control, they're
under no obligation to do so. It's the option that gives them
more creative freedom.

Your statements about Nintendo are a bit presumptious, fan-boyish, have little or no evidence to back up, and overall inaccurate.

There's nothing presumptuous or inaccurate about my
statements.Only the fan-boyish part is true. This is a War,
brother. You're on a side whether you want to be or not.

I will say that if Nintendo offers up another Wii for their next gen console they will make a huge mistake.

Nintendo doesn't make mistakes (except the Virtual Boy...
and the cartridge-based N64). They know the market and
have never performed poorly.

They said they're not going to release a Wii 2 until there's
a big enough change to warrant it (which isn't simply HD).
However, motion control is the future. Just like when they
popularized analog and it became standard, now too will
Motion Control.

Originally Posted by ethic

This is a War,
brother. You're on a side whether you want to be or not.

There are more computer literate people and gamers not giving a rat's arse for who wins the consoles war, if anyone wins the consoles war, or caring for who loses, than there are people paying attention to it.

If you are into that stuff, have fun. But you are way wrong if you think most of us give a damn. I'm more caring of my toaster brand.

Originally Posted by ethic

Wow. Nintendo is just freaking on a roll. They are, by far
the saviors of the video game industry. They just announced
their new machine - the Nintendo 3DS. It's the successor
to the DS. This one, however, will be 3D capable! And even
better, it won't require glasses! They're going to reveal it
at e3.

Yes, this is quite interesting. I certainly wasn't expecting a 3D machine as a next-gen DS.
If there is anyone capable of pulling it off, I'd say it's Nintendo. Unlike Microsoft and Sony, they usually target more affordable hardware.

Do you have any idea
how much the world would suck without Nintendo? It would
suck tonnes, man.

:P Maybe...

Originally Posted by Bubba

However I have a Wii and I'm not all that impressed with it nor the motion sensing technology. Overall I find it inaccurate, clumsy, gimmicky, and annoying...

While I've heard a lot of games have had trouble, Metroid Prime 3 was overall good with the motion. This shows it can be done correctly.
So I'd the developers are having a hard time here. Perhaps it's because it's difficult and they haven't got enough help from Nintendo or they're lazy.
(However, the force unleashed had horrible inaccurate and gimmicky controls.)

...since games tend to combine the motion in with button mashing and it's impossible to do both at the same time.

I can agree that the button layout of the control is retarded since the buttons are few and far apart.
That said, I haven't encountered many games that are poor in this regard, so I can only surmise what I wrote in the previous section.

The Wii is a nice attempt but it has very poor hardware, graphics are from the NVidia GeForce 4 era, sound is no better than your typical SoundBlaster card, and the games are not all that great since they try to use the motion sensing crap and usually fail big time. The Wii is a big fail for me.

The graphics look okay to me. The sound sounds okay to me.
I wouldn't say the hardware is bad. Mostly just a lot of developers who do not utilize it properly. All the games I've played looked nice.
Motion sensing is nice. When done properly, that is. Unfortunately, not so many games do it correctly.
Nintendo is no angel however; they've done a lot of things wrong, including this whole ridiculous online strategy. I must say I, too, am disappointed with the Wii, having only so few good games. But some pearls (Metroid Prime 3, Mario Galaxy) are real nice.

Your statements about Nintendo are a bit presumptious, fan-boyish, have little or no evidence to back up, and overall inaccurate.

It's funny, because I feel mostly the other way.
Even so, I am in no way a fan of Nintendo this generation. I am severely disappointed with all three gaming companies, yet I do not hold your views regarding Nintendo (just as to say I am not a fanboy/girl of Nintendo).

I will say that if Nintendo offers up another Wii for their next gen console they will make a huge mistake.

I say that if they can offer more games and stop this casual crap of dumbing down their interface until it looks grey, ugly, slow and unintuitive and get higher quality on their games (ie motion working correctly), then I'd say that if the next console was Wii 2, it would be the best console ever.

Originally Posted by yaya

I agree with Bubba on this one. But the fact is, Nintendo are targeting casual gamers and ONLY casual gamers. Casual gamers only want to play on a system that sounds cool, regardless of whether it works well or not. This is because these gamers are new to the gaming world a don't know where to start, so they pick something that looks fun. That's my take on things, anyways.

That's nonsense. Nintendo is aiming for all the gamers.
Now, if they are doing this right is entirely different matter. I feel extremely disappointed with their approach to "hardcore" gamers.

Originally Posted by Elysia

The graphics look okay to me. The sound sounds okay to me.
I wouldn't say the hardware is bad. Mostly just a lot of developers who do not utilize it properly.

That's really funny coming from someone who hates netbooks and/or the Intel Atom. As per your posts not long ago...

Seriously, from what I've played of the Wii -- it's terrible. The competition comes down to who can mash the buttons fastest or fling the somewhat inaccurate remote around.

Originally Posted by zacs7

Seriously, from what I've played of the Wii -- it's terrible. The competition comes down to who can mash the buttons fastest or fling the somewhat inaccurate remote around.

It depends on the games. I enjoy those kinds of things as little as you do.
As for the why on the consoles, I'll just throw in some arguments in favor of consoles (or at least this used to be true until this multimedia console madness this generation):
- No upgrades needed. Buy the console. Play it.
- Works out of the box. No need to install. No need to patch. No need to register, etc.
- Doesn't crash. More reliable. Less buggy.
- No technical prowess needed. What specs do I need? Etc.
- No troubleshooting. It just works out of the box.
- Fluid graphics. Unless the game was poorly designed, there are no framerate drops. Or they aren't noticeable, etc. On a PC, it depends on your hardware. If your hardware is bad, then shucks on you. Get used to that slow framerate. Plus no twiddling with graphics settings.

And the big killer of the PC is, of course, the piracy.
I'll even admit that some of these reasons are why I tend to like console games over PC games. PC games do have some advantage over console games, but mostly it's merely just a keyboard and mods/add-ons.

The fact that you could use motion to activate force powers ala the force unleashed is a very cool idea, I'll admit, and it's one that Nintendo should be focusing on. New experience. Different ways to play. That is not a gimmick. What is a gimmick is that these controls rarely work too well in many games. What that depends on is anyone's guess. But I wouldn't place the entire blame on Nintendo, at least, even if they've done so much wrong.

Originally Posted by Elysia

As for the why on the consoles, I'll just throw in some arguments in favor of consoles (or at least this used to be true until this multimedia console madness this generation):
- No upgrades needed. Buy the console. Play it.
- Works out of the box. No need to install. No need to patch. No need to register, etc.
- Doesn't crash. More reliable. Less buggy.
- No technical prowess needed. What specs do I need? Etc.
- No troubleshooting. It just works out of the box.
- Fluid graphics. Unless the game was poorly designed, there are no framerate drops. Or they aren't noticeable, etc. On a PC, it depends on your hardware. If your hardware is bad, then shucks on you. Get used to that slow framerate. Plus no twiddling with graphics settings.

I quit PC gaming for a number of these reasons. I don't want to spend any more than 5 minutes on getting a game to work. With console games, you just google it; it either works, or it doesn't. With PC games, it's anyone's guess. It might be the game. It might be the hardware. It might be a totally different program that's installed.

I suppose someone out there has the magical PC box that manages to run every PC game out-of-the-box, but I'm not that guy. Fortunately, I can buy a console and reduce the complexity of the "will it run?" equation. The hardware becomes a constant.

Originally Posted by yaya

But the fact is, Nintendo are targeting casual gamers and ONLY casual gamers. Casual gamers only want to play on a system that sounds cool, regardless of whether it works well or not. This is because these gamers are new to the gaming world a don't know where to start, so they pick something that looks fun. That's my take on things, anyways.

I wouldn't agree on the only part. Maybe mostly. Their target is, as always, all gamers for big companies like Nintendo. Their advertisements will be mostly for casual gamers, since hardcore ones will look mostly on specifications (before even the first ad is out). But that doesn't mean that Nintendo is not aiming for hardcore players as well

My two cents is that Nintendo is really cashing in on the novelty effect. Motion detection has been around for a while, but it still feels new (probably because it is done poorly, not in the sense that it isn't precise but rather in the sense that it doesn't feel natural). Likewise, the variety of games available for the wii generally explore new (or at least underused) concepts, like driving your vehicle by turning the remote.

I applaud Nintendo for trying new things, and I also thank Nintendo for trying out the 3d technology. But that does not mean that it will be fun to play. That depends on the games. Sure, Nintendo can keep cranking out generic wii<insert suffix here> games and an infinite number of Mario clones to showcase their technology, but once the novelty wears off it really comes down to whether or not the games are fun. Since Nintendo has been focusing on "Hey, look! You can aim the wiimote like a gun!" rather than "This is better than our imagination's version of DNF," my opinion is that the games aren't really fun for the time being.

Chances are, as players and developers get more comfortable with the technology, the games will improve. My guess is that it will be a story similar to 3D graphics. The success of a Wii 2 largely depends on Nintendo's cooperation with the people who make games - the people who make games that aren't Nintendo, that is.

By the way, these are the observations of someone on the outside looking in. I stick with my good old PC for games.

Just exactly how do you move your controller wrong when it shows you and tells you exactly what to do? When I bowl and the bowler starts the action before I've even moved my controller - how am I wrong? In The Bigs 2 the batter swings when I barely move the controller and doesn't swing when I make an obvious attempt to move it.

The era of watching bars fill up and empty in sports games is long gone on the PC and thankfully so. Unfortunately this is all Wii sports games ever do and it sucks big time. The only Wii game so far that has combined motion with buttons fairly well is Super Mario Wii. The only time the motion gets in the way of what you need to do is when attempting to fly with the propeller thingy on your head. Other than that most of the motion is good, quite honestly, because there isn't a lot of it in the game b/c it just doesn't fit.

But a lot of times the Wii simply fails to pick up the motion correctly or fails to register motion at all. I like how this is all the user's fault. If I recall the last car company to blame all their problems on the consumer....just went into bankruptcy so I surely hope Nintendo is not going to do adopt that type of customer support.

It is an excuse to blame users for all the problems with the Wii. I've heard rumors that most devs do not want to develop for the Wii and instead would rather target the 360 or the PS3. The motion stuff is cool for about an hour and then it just becomes annoying. Maybe devs don't really want to program for motion control....unless of course their name is Peter Molyneux (NATAL anyone?) in which case all you will get is tons of hype about how you can live and thrive in a virtual world.....yet the game will still be no fun at all. But, hey, at least you get to live and thrive in a virtual world and exchange notes with your console. Wow. Can't wait.

My overall take on the consoles is this:

I bought the Wii for the fam but quite honestly my PC steam rolls the thing into the pavement. Heck my PC steam rolls the 360 into the pavement and I cannot figure out why there is so much hype and development for truly inferior platforms other than they are more accessible and thus more profitable. For me playing the 360, PS3, or Wii feels like a gigantic step backwards. So much so that I'm constantly asking myself why even bother when I have a killer PC that can run all 3 consoles into the dirt and that I have more peripherals for and have more fun with. I just bought a Logitech G27 wheel and have been playing some rFactor which is quite old yet still looks and plays better than most 360, PS3, and Wii titles. I just don't get the console crowd but hey if they want to play really cool games on really inferior hardware then let them. As for me....I'm PC all the way. If EA and others abandon the PC others will take their place. If stores stop carrying the games I always have D2D, Steam, and Impulse. I will get my games one way or another and as long as there are PCs there will be games so I'm not all that concerned.