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[N-Conf] Pikmin 3

A lot of people figured this wouldn't be that impressive looking visually after hearing how far it was into development for the Wii. Supposedly it was nearly ready for release, so they probably did as much as they could to spruce it up. I think it looks good in the end, obviously it passes for a current gen game, but not the best way to show off the system.
 
Shadow of the BEAST said:
it looks like pikimin 2 on dolphin.
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As good-looking as Pikmin 2 is in high-resolution, this simply isn't true. Watching the two side-by-side provides an obvious contrast in visual quality. Foliage has better textures and geometry, animations are more elaborate (like the glass and ice breaking in the Pikmin 3 demo), the DOF changes the viewing experience quite substantially, and so on.
 
This made the conference for me. Pikmin 1&2 are by far some of the most charming games Nintendo has made. This will be no exception. Very happy about this one :)
 
Mr. B Natural said:
My thoughts:

1. Wow, that's a game on a console that hasn't been released it. Really?
2. Wow, they're out of ideas. The sequel was how long ago?
3. Wow, people are actually excited over this? If this wasn't called Pikmin, people would be harsh on a game this underwhelming in 2012.

So, wows all around.
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Quite.

Pikmin has always been underwhelming and quite boring, actually.

Though, you know what they say about desperate times.
 
Miles better than Pikmin 2. I'm quite content with the visuals. They strike a good balance conveying both realistic environments and the strangeness of the creatures in the Pikmin world.

Quite.

Pikmin has always been underwhelming and quite boring actually.

Desperate times as they say.
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If Nintendo had pulled out all the stops, Pikmin 3 would still be one of my highlights. It is a really refreshing and fun franchise, and one of the best things Nintendo has created this millenium.
 
Ultimadrago said:
Quite.

Pikmin has always been underwhelming and quite boring, actually.

Though, you know what they say about desperate times.
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If you don't like the game, then why are you here? Clearly there are people who do enjoy it, and their enjoyment can't be propped against some objective standard of entertainment quality. Stop trolling and go comment on games you actually like.
 
So since Pikmin 3 is launch window...I bet this means that Mario U comes out around Christmas, while the WiiU itself hits in October?
 
It could look a lot better. I mean this is coming out 8 years after the last one... And the flying things don't even reflect in the water
 
Pikmin 2 was probably the best game Nintendo has put out in the last decade, for my tastes, I hope they keep all of the meat, the dungeons, etc going forward. I also kind of hope they keep the battle mode and put it online I had a lot of fun with that oddly enough

Visually... its OK, I mean its pretty, but it def is just a small leap above Pikmin 2 and not something really legitimately high end. Which is a shame because it'd be nice to see it swimming in a lot of flora and fauna but honestly as long as it's not SD blur across my screen that's good enough for me personally. You can tell it started as a Wii game.

I think Nintendo did make a mistake debuting a console where they didn't show a single visually high end game, though. It's exciting to see a bunch of new visual techniques leap out at you and it was really just Wii+ pretty much from Pikmin 2, NSMB and their... weird themepark game.
 
elongation said:
Anyone saying this looks basically like Pikmin 2 upscaled needs to get new eyes. Not glasses, new eyeballs.
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Nothing stood out in the game at all. It looked extremely average. The water was very, very unimpressive. The foliage looks ok. The ground looks low res and an ugly mesh.

The enemies and Pikmin themselves didn't look high poly at all. It doesn't look BAD. Just underwhelming. I expected more from a Nintendo Wii U game.
 
shinobi602 said:
Nothing stood out in the game at all. It looked extremely average. The water was very, very unimpressive. The foliage looks ok. The ground looks low res and an ugly mesh.

The enemies and Pikmin themselves didn't look high poly at all. It doesn't look BAD. Just underwhelming. I expected more from a Nintendo Wii U game.
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It was originally a Wii game was it not?
 
I was just hoping for more of an evolution - Birds, Ant eaters, rain, snow, wind effects on small plants, trees and the grass, actual blades of grass instead of grass textures, more verticality, Bees! I wanted to ride bees, etc.

The use of textures for grass...doesn't make sense considering pikmin are miniscule. It takes away from the world. Give me blades ninendo. They should be using some type of normal mapping or some technique to achieve a better bumby look with the dirt as well. Because it [foliage] honestly just looks like inconsistent set pieces since the grass/ground/dirt is mostly flat.

The lighting is very dull. I feel like they should be upping the contrast. Make your shadows darker and your lit areas lighter. Add some pollen floating around as well.
 
The only game that had me legitimately excited at E3. It looks incredible and I hope it's available at launch, or VERY soon after, because that Wii U roster is looking slim at the moment.
 
It looks nice but I am going to have to see more ambitious and varied level design for me to buy it. Maybe a better story as well.
 
Foxy Fox 39 said:
I was just hoping for more of an evolution - Birds, Ant eaters, rain, snow, wind effects on small plants, trees and the grass, actual blades of grass instead of grass textures, more verticality, Bees! I wanted to ride bees, etc.

The use of textures for grass...does'nt make sense considering pikmin are miniscule. It takes away from the world. Give me blades ninendo. They should be using some type of normal mapping or some technique to achieve a better bumby look with the dirt as well. Because it [foliage] honestly just looks like inconsistent set pieces since the grass/ground/dirt is mostly flat.

The lighting is very dull. I feel like they should be upping the contrast. Make your shadows darker and your lit areas lighter. Add some pollen floating around as well.
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Well said.
 
shinobi602 said:
Nothing stood out in the game at all. It looked extremely average. The water was very, very unimpressive. The foliage looks ok. The ground looks low res and an ugly mesh.

The enemies and Pikmin themselves didn't look high poly at all. It doesn't look BAD. Just underwhelming. I expected more from a Nintendo Wii U game.
Click to expand...

Nah, it looks good. And we have seen only a little bit.
 
Foxy Fox 39 said:
I was just hoping for more of an evolution - Birds, Ant eaters, rain, snow, wind effects on small plants, trees and the grass, actual blades of grass instead of grass textures, more verticality, Bees! I wanted to ride bees, etc.

The use of textures for grass...doesn't make sense considering pikmin are miniscule. It takes away from the world. Give me blades ninendo. They should be using some type of normal mapping or some technique to achieve a better bumby look with the dirt as well. Because it [foliage] honestly just looks like inconsistent set pieces since the grass/ground/dirt is mostly flat.

The lighting is very dull. I feel like they should be upping the contrast. Make your shadows darker and your lit areas lighter. Add some pollen floating around as well.
Click to expand...
The downside of rendering too much grass is that the game might become too busy and therefore difficult to play. Pikmin relies on the player's ability to manage a lot of different things at once; the player must be able to locate objects instantly within the environment.

I agree, though, that the game could benefit from an upgrade in ground textures and lighting; the foliage looks much more impressive. Miyamoto only showed off a small area, so there is likely much more to the game than the video conveyed.
 
The game looks good but Nintendo did choose the most boring environment to show off. I hope the game features cooler environments, weather effects, and cool lighting and other stuff that will give the impression that this is more than an hd port of a wii game.
 
Ultimadrago said:
Quite.

Pikmin has always been underwhelming and quite boring, actually.

Though, you know what they say about desperate times.
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GTFO of the thread if you're not interested. I honestly would trade this for almost any game this entire generation on all platforms.
 
SteeloDMZ said:
8.jpg
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Looks like Pikmin 2.

But seriously, it looks really good in motion.
 
I've never played a pikmin game before, so I guess I don't have pre-defined expectations but I think this looks great. I could really see the WiiU gamepad adding a lot to it.
 
It will be difficult to resist it. I expected it to have one unexpected element like a persistent online element. It's maybe slightly lacking in ambition but I liked what I saw nonetheless. It's been a long time.
 
Necromanti said:
Looks like Pikmin 2.

But seriously, it looks really good in motion.
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It looks better than Pikmin 2 but it looks like a Wii game in HD, which is probably what it ultimately is and thats fine for me Id rather have them move it up so when I get a Wii U its in decent 720p as opposed to blur-o-rama.

Can't blame people for not wanting them to go all out with the detail and texturing though, especially with the style Pikmin has. It could look really amazing with more modern lighting and shaders and a lot of foliage.
 
LegendofJoe said:
You are crazy.

I'm a tough critic and I thought this game looked gorgeous. This game, Rayman, and Watch Dog are the highlights of the show for me so far.
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Should have read the other part of my post. :P I was just making light of people saying it looks exactly the same as/looks like an HD port of Pikmin 2. Can't wait to see more of it.
 
Vire said:
Well said.
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Most of the trailer the player was limited to predetermined paths.

Stage design was simply underwhelming. Seemed more of the same ant-farm type "linear" paths gameplay we've seen from the GC iterations.

Mix it up. Don't make stage design "CHOOSE PATH A OR B". It should be go almost anywhere or go anywhere as long as you have the means to - in other words: open world.

Add in a lot of verticality. I would love to be able to climb a tree real time and explore it.

This is why I'm not excited just because its a Pikmin game. They've done almost nothing to evolve the series. It looks better graphically (though not where it should be) but the gameplay has made no significant changes from what I saw.
 
We've got extremes on both sides here lol.

"It looks like a gamecube game!"

"It looked better than anything else at E3!" Meaning better than star wars and watch dogs.
 
In my opinion, we need more footage from this game. Or wait for new areas, this one looked just like 'demo area'

also, i think that we will see far more Pikmin types. Where are fatsos and albinos?
 
Really what looks great about Pikmin 3 is the nifty depth of field blurring, the smoothness of the models, and the overall super HD-crispness. Effects and IQ. Fundamentally, though, it looks like a Wii game that has been upgraded to look nice on a new system. Which is.. exactly what it is. They talked about it being in development on the Wii for a long time, and eventually moving it to Wii U cause they loved how it looked HD. So considering THAT, it's a pretty nice upgrade!

I sure hope this isn't our one shot at a Pikmin sequel, though. I'm sure it'll be great for the same reasons any same-system-sequel would be great, but I hope we do eventually get a truly ground-up Wii U version.
 
Tathanen said:
Really what looks great about Pikmin 3 is the nifty depth of field blurring, the smoothness of the models, and the overall super HD-crispness. Effects and IQ. Fundamentally, though, it looks like a Wii game that has been upgraded to look nice on a new system. Which is.. exactly what it is. They talked about it being in development on the Wii for a long time, and eventually moving it to Wii U cause they loved how it looked HD. So considering THAT, it's a pretty nice upgrade!

I sure hope this isn't our one shot at a Pikmin sequel, though. I'm sure it'll be great for the same reasons any same-system-sequel would be great, but I hope we do eventually get a truly ground-up Wii U version.
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Yup. It was very reminiscent of Mario Galaxy, which is a gorgeous game, but a wii game none-the-less.

I hope they delay it tbh.
 
Tathanen said:
Really what looks great about Pikmin 3 is the nifty depth of field blurring, the smoothness of the models, and the overall super HD-crispness. Effects and IQ. Fundamentally, though, it looks like a Wii game that has been upgraded to look nice on a new system. Which is.. exactly what it is. They talked about it being in development on the Wii for a long time, and eventually moving it to Wii U cause they loved how it looked HD. So considering THAT, it's a pretty nice upgrade!

I sure hope this isn't our one shot at a Pikmin sequel, though. I'm sure it'll be great for the same reasons any same-system-sequel would be great, but I hope we do eventually get a truly ground-up Wii U version.
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Yeah I wasn't expecting it to be the most beautiful game for being developed on Wii first. It looks better than I thought it was gonna look.
 
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