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Short demonstration of Wii U's April 2013 update

Very nice. I think I'll be spending much more time in a console I really like, but get me on my nerves sometimes. Well NFSMWU will help too :)
 
I just want the ability to do nothing with the tablet controller unless it requires it. I don't want to use it for the store, miiverse, or anything else. I also want the ability to shut the controller off from the menu (not sure if this already exists, but I haven't seen it).
 
Well, I'm pleased. Feels way more in line with what the Wii U hardware should be capable of. This better not be the only area of improvement in speed, though.

Now let's get some more games on this thing. I can't play Monster Hunter 3 U forever... though it may feel like it sometimes.
 
9YMeOAB.gif

can't wait x)
 
That's much better, but you really shouldn't need to exit the game to view the home menu, that's a step backwards from the 3DS and goes against other advancements like being able to use the eShop while a game is running.

Graphics Horse said:
Yeah takes 3 Earth seconds on my stock SD card.
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Maybe he thinks anything over one second is too slow.
 
Synless said:
I just want the ability to do nothing with the tablet controller unless it requires it. I don't want to use it for the store, miiverse, or anything else. I also want the ability to shut the controller off from the menu (not sure if this already exists, but I haven't seen it).
Click to expand...

Yeah you can - press Home then the controller option, there is a button in there to turn it off.
 
M3d10n said:
That's much better, but you really shouldn't need to exit the game to view the home menu, that's a step backwards from the 3DS and goes against other advancements like being able to use the eShop while a game is running.
Click to expand...

Hadn't even noticed that its a step backwards - but you're right! How silly!
 
M3d10n said:
That's much better, but you really shouldn't need to exit the game to view the home menu, that's a step backwards from the 3DS and goes against other advancements like being able to use the eShop while a game is running.
Click to expand...

When you press the the home button, doesn't the menu thats pops up allows you to use the eShop?
 
Daedardus said:
When you press the the home button, doesn't the menu thats pops up allows you to use the eShop?
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Yes, that's a step forward from the 3DS. But you don't get a list of games and can't switch to a different one directly from it, just like the original Wii. That's a step backwards from the 3DS (and the Vita), where you get the same full menu whether you have a game running or not.
 
The load times are shitty, but long load times never really bothered me as long as the apps themselves are smooth as silk, which the Wii U is. I hate going into a program, only for it to be extremely sketchy and slow, which were major problems I had with 360 and PS3.
 
mAcOdIn said:
I'm willing to bet that that is not how Wara Wara works and that instead the servers take your messages and stores delivers them and puts random new ones on display for you while noting who's in your friends list and makes sure those are shown as well. I do not believe for a second that it works the way you describe by connecting to the Wara Wara/Miiverse server(s?) finds who your friends are and then connects you to them(especially considering they may not even be online at the time!) and then goes and finds a handful of random peeps(who also may not even be online!) and connects you to them as well to see their most recent messages.

The only logical way is if the server just caches our messages and spits them out to our friends in our place. Especially considering they're all filtered/censored in the first place.
Click to expand...

That makes some sense. I have had moments when it was offline though, so it doesn't seem to work when it can't get through. My point was really that it's doing more things than you think, and that anything that's connected to the web (at all) causes problems. I'm completely dreading the nextbox/ps4 launches for this reason. I always buy all the consoles but I loathe these cloud services.
 
I'm never going back to the menu ever anyway, why would I? They should just
(1) Make loading a game way faster
(2) Add an option to always automatically start the game in the disc slot instead of loading that damn OS. I want to play why does Nintendo of all companies try to hinder me :/? And that goes for 3DS, too, although that's a bit better, because the game is always automatically highlighted, whereas I have to press the d-pad once before I can confirm I really want to play with my game console
 
Yeeeeeeah, i hope it comes out soon, the state they launched the os in was pretty unreal. A machine in 2012 with a whole gig of ram just for the os shouldnt have ran like that out the gate.
 
I still can't believe the load times are this long. This is the same company that stuck with expensive cartridges on the N64 because they hate load times, the Cube had short low times despite being disc-based, same goes for the Wii. And now this, horrid load times with flash memory and 1GB RAM for the OS alone, what happened?
 
Seems like a good improvement, although i don't understand why you should close the game to enter the home menu, it should be like the 3DS where it pauses the game and returns to the main menu.
 
tassletine said:
That makes some sense. I have had moments when it was offline though, so it doesn't seem to work when it can't get through. My point was really that it's doing more things than you think, and that anything that's connected to the web (at all) causes problems. I'm completely dreading the nextbox/ps4 launches for this reason. I always buy all the consoles but I loathe these cloud services.
Click to expand...
Well, yeah, if it's not connected, whether due to network congestion, servers down, whatever then yeah, it won't work but honestly, with my connection at least I think Nintendo's done an "ok" job. I've never had a problem with the on-line except what I consider slow download speeds. But yes, this is going to be a problem for some people with unstable or outright poor connections for sure. And I generally hate anything that requires online for that reason because I don't wish a bad experience on people with poor online and I don't know what my online may look like in the future! Ah, the perils of broadband being a regional monopolistic market in my country.

As an aside, something that didn't hurt me financially today, but would have if it had happened later due to my ISP starting bandwidth caps in my region, is how Nintendo handles failed game installs. I had to download Monster Hunter 3 6 times because each time it refused to install. As the games get larger and larger and more and more stuff is done digitally Nintendo(and the other platform holders) need to come up with a friendlier way of doing this! The error message I kept receiving didn't exist on Nintendo's support forums but when I googled it I found one user who said a Nintendo Rep had told him it had to do with USB devices which led me to take my y-cable connecting my HDD to the Wii U and plug the other end into the wall instead of the other free USB port of the Wii U and after that I did indeed get it to work. I do not know if that was just luck as I did have that error once before on one of the smaller downloadable games I downloaded and just trying it a second time got it to work that time or if me plugging it into the wall actually does make it more stable than having it plugged into the Wii U. But there's little sense in my opinion to make a user redownload 6GB of data, surely they can devise a system a little smarter like Steam where it can see what files is messed up, if any, and just get those or if none were found just let you try the install again.

All in all I purchased Monster Hunter 3 on Tuesday and finally got it downloaded AND installed on Saturday. It would have been faster and easier to just order the thing from Amazon.
 
Very good. 3DS had similar problems at launch, and they have vastly improved that user experience.

We should stop expecting smartphonesque performance on day 1 of a 300 unsubsidized piece of hardware. It takes time to work these kinks out.
 
jmls1121 said:
We should stop expecting smartphonesque performance on day 1 of a 300 unsubsidized piece of hardware. It takes time to work these kinks out.
Click to expand...
Huh? I got that smartphonesque experience day one on my smartphone for $299 unsubsidized!

Also got a better OS experience on my previous $129 unsubsidized smartphone too, but turns out that while the OS ran snappy that's about all it could run!
 
jmls1121 said:
You have no idea what next gen standards are.
Click to expand...

Instant ON/OFF and continue gaming from where you left off without having to go through the entire reboot sequence, Heavily reduced loading times (made possible by simultaneous loading from BD and HDD) and playing while you install/download the games will be standard on PS4 and most definitely Durango.

You think it looks bad for the Wii U now? It'll look positively ancient when the big 2 come out.
 
ambientmystic said:
Instant ON/OFF and continue gaming from where you left off without having to go through the entire reboot sequence, Heavily reduced loading times (made possible by simultaneous loading from BD and HDD) and playing while you install/download the games will be standard on PS4 and most definitely Durango.

You think it looks bad for the Wii U now? It'll look positively ancient when the big 2 come out.
Click to expand...
There are a lot of people from the future here on GAF lately, Wonder why.
 
Daedardus said:
He's just a PR spokesperson. I'm not going to quote Reggie to deliver 'facts'.
Click to expand...

PR? He helped build and design the damn hardware lol. Educate yourself about the man before making statements like those. Also, he knows what he's talking about when it comes to the hardware, unlike Reggie lol.
 
ambientmystic said:
PR? He helped build and design the damn hardware lol. Educate yourself about the man before making statements like those.
Click to expand...

I know who he is. That doesn't take away all that he says in public is tightly related to PR.
It's not that I don't want to believe the PS4 will be a fast machine, it's just that I will see it for myself once it hits the stores.
 
ambientmystic said:
Just stating the facts is all.
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Nextgen consoles from MS and Sony are not out yet.
I believe everything should be taken with a grain of salt (ie: not stating them as "facts") until then.

Back on topic, the upgrade seems really good, definitely a much needed update over current situation.
 
Looks like a great update. I'm definitely looking forward to it. Nintendo seems comitted to clean up the issues that needs to be improved.

I was wondering if they intent to include a feature that stops the discs from spinning in the main menu. On Xbox 360 the discs stop spinning after a minute or two when on the dashboard. I'm not sure if it actually stops on Wii U, or perhaps I've just not idled long time enough for it to happen? ;)
 
ambientmystic said:
Instant ON/OFF and continue gaming from where you left off without having to go through the entire reboot sequence, Heavily reduced loading times (made possible by simultaneous loading from BD and HDD) and playing while you install/download the games will be standard on PS4 and most definitely Durango.

You think it looks bad for the Wii U now? It'll look positively ancient when the big 2 come out.
Click to expand...

It is like saying the vita is positively ancient for not having folders i guess
 
That seems like a good update!

But the way they manage the WiiU is incredible : they're forced to clean their own mess once everybody has emphasized how slow the OS, which gave credit to people saying that it's heavily underpowered... The harm has been done.

I don't know about Iwata's fate and I know he is responsible for a large part of this mess, but I hope heads will roll among the people who designed the console.

Perhaps next year it will be a funny memory "do you remeber these load times?!?". But then I ask myself what the WiiU will look like in a year and and I have thrills down my back.
 
ambientmystic said:
Not from the future mate, a lot of what I mentioned has already been outlined by Mark Cerny during his PS4 presentation and in a seperate interview he did recently in Japanese:-

New interview with Cerny, goes into detail about PS4 hardware

Just stating the facts is all.
Click to expand...
I know that, and it sounds good, I understand your argument, but before talking about "ancient" things in comparisons you should consider being able to actually make the comparison first. You even added Durango to the equation, of which we know nothing about as of yet.
 
netBuff said:
Unless you own the magical golden 3DS, it's still a very slow device. The 3DS being such a catastrophe in terms of OS certainly doesn't instill much confidence in Nintendo's capabilities to better the Wii U.
Click to expand...

The 3DS's speed is much more about resource constraints at this point rather than optimization (of course, things can always be tweaked). It's likely much more a matter of having to load things in to the tiny amount of RAM the 3DS has every single time you switch to a different app, or open the Home Menu during a game. Frankly, I think it's pretty darn quick for what it has to work with (though, once again, it could always be better).

I've been saying for a year now that it's time for Nintendo to do a refresh of the 3DS. No changes to games, just a die shrink to hardware, allowing for a smaller system with better battery life, and more powerful hardware that can be used exclusively for the OS.
 
This update is going to make the system so much more pleasant to use. Now I just need the games to have a reason to turn it on.

Virtual Console and Pikmin 3 should help with that though.
 
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