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Wii U Information Thread

D

DrM

Redmond's Baby
Mrbob said:
Reggie said we would get Wii U online information this week, any updates? After seeing some of the press conference I'm almost positive it is using EAs upcoming Origin service. Which is alright I guess but is a mistake when they should have went to Valve if they were going to outsource online.
Click to expand...
There will be developer roundtable later today dedicated to WiiU
 
G

GregLombardi

Member
Mrbob said:
Reggie said we would get Wii U online information this week, any updates? After seeing some of the press conference I'm almost positive it is using EAs upcoming Origin service. Which is alright I guess but is a mistake when they should have went to Valve if they were going to outsource online.
Click to expand...
Yeah that EA thing was strange. It wasn't even clear what kind of partnership they were announcing.
 
G

GoldenEye 007

Member
Thoughts on the sound support? Seems to be vague with LPCM 6 channel through HDMI. Enough since it can be uncompressed through six discreet channels?
 
N

nVidiot_Whore

Banned
Refreshment.01 said:
No i didn't say that at all. Split screen has its role and place. But nowadays the popularity of split screen changes with genre. In FPS for example, it's used and implemented by developers less and less, specially for more than 2 players. Local LAN is getting less love also. For the other aspects of my post i won't bother with any extra explanation.
Click to expand...


ONLINE has certainly taken PRECEDENT over offline or LAN play.

BUT the 3 biggest "shooter" franchises right now (on consoles) are Call of Duty, Halo, and Gears of War. All feature fairly extensive split-screen modes (including 4-player), as well as the ability to do system link.

Neither of us has anything but fairly anecdotal data to support how important or popular 4-player split screen is.. and I'm not even outright disagreeing with you and do see where you are coming from.. so once again, I'll say it, I just think you are downplaying a bit ;)

But that does bring up the other big question.. what does Nintendo have planned for online?

I think a lot of people are very curious how well the Wii-U will fair as a real competitor to PS3/360.. which is why a number of questions have been brought up that relate to many people's preferences who tend to favor those systems over Nintendo's "innovations."

Unfortunately for us Nintendo focuses their efforts on their innovations, and also focuses their PR on them.

Although it is VERY promising to see games like Ghost Recon getting highlighted, I'm still waiting to see how much Nintendo is going to do to support that type of gaming overall, it's going to hinge on:

- How will the games look, and to some extent, sound?
- How well will it control these popular online games?
- What is the online experience going to be like?
- If Nintendo isn't going to focus much effort on supporting these games, will enough of my friends buy it to make it worth me buying some non-exclusives on the Wii-U instead of 360? (my own preference)

And other side questions.. what about mic/headset support for example? Does this device have what it takes to push the competition to release sooner?

It would just be really nice to get the full picture of how well this device will fair as being a true "next gen" competitor to 360/PS3.. does it have the potential to be the top machine for COD 2012 or 2013 for instance?

It's probably too early to tell.. but I think the reason we are seeing so much discussion of topics like this is because of how many PS360 gamers are curious if Wii-U is going to garner their interests outside of the "Nintendo-innovations."

For me personally.. I'm most likely buying Wii-U at launch no matter what.. it doesn't excite me that much but it interests me.. and I skipped the Wii partly because of the lack of compelling graphics.. I'll buy the device just to play the next Mario and Zelda games on the thing.. I'm just really curious if it has any potential to replace or partially replace the 360 as my go-to multi-platform device.
 
M

mclem

Member
GregLombardi said:
Yeah that EA thing was strange. It wasn't even clear what kind of partnership they were announcing.
Click to expand...

I reckon it was because someone had let on that Peter Moore had managed to appear in all three conferences, and Riccitello felt he had to one-up him by appearing *in person* at all three.
 
B

birdchili

Member
Always-honest said:
not sure if answered:
can we use the old sensor bar? or do we get a new one?
Click to expand...
i don't think they've said, though i'm anticipating a new one will be in the box. it must cost them almost zero to make, and nothing so-far indicates that there will be new functionality in the sensor bar (have they talked about the sensor bar at-all yet?...)
 
Refreshment.01

Refreshment.01

Member
Always-honest said:
not sure if answered:
can we use the old sensor bar? or do we get a new one?
Click to expand...
In the demo stations old sensor bar was used for the cases where the game was played with Wii Remotes and Wii U controllers at the same time.
 
A

Always-honest

Banned
Refreshment.01 said:
In the demo stations old sensor bar was used for the cases in which Wii Remotes and Wii U controller was used.
Click to expand...
okay. Wonder how much it will be used (asside from replaying wii games).

Sounds like in most cases you will use the wiimote without the sensorbar.
 
Refreshment.01

Refreshment.01

Member
Always-honest said:
okay. Wonder how much it will be used (asside from replaying wii games).

Sounds like in most cases you will use the wiimote without the sensorbar.
Click to expand...
It's kind of weird. Maybe Nintendo could implement the leds on the Wii U controller and have it function like a sensor bar when docked on a recharging base.

The Wii U controller has some sort of strip surrounding the camera, maybe it has some IR leds there. The thing is the distance doesn't correspond to the one the sensor bar uses for the controllers to triangulate the aboslute positioning. It would be cool if Nintendo also allowed, for Wii U exclusive the games, the use of the camera for more acurate tracking of Wii remotes like the PlayStation Move does. But i don't know how feasible that is since the Wii Remote doesn't have anything that's easy to track, again, like the PS move ball.
 
Z

Zero-Crescent

Member
Always-honest said:
not sure if answered:
can we use the old sensor bar? or do we get a new one?
Click to expand...
The sensor bar was just two IR "lights" (reference points), nothing advanced. Since they're apparently still using an IR camera and they support Wiimotes, it's almost certain that the old bar will be fully compatible.
 
B

birdchili

Member
Refreshment.01 said:
In the demo stations old sensor bar was used for the cases where the game was played with Wii Remotes and Wii U controllers at the same time.
Click to expand...
was discussing this in one of the various wiiu threads... it seems there's an ir camera (ala remote) in the wiiu controller... this is probably what was being used to recalibrate objectively where the tv was in the "block pirate plunger" game.

edit: ign (i believe) said there is a sensor bar on the controller. i expect there are two leds on the sides of the camera... this would let you use a remote with the new controller and no tv. the controller will surely have a stand for sitting "upright" for this purpose.
 
D

DoubleTap

Member
ethic said:
Virtual Console games will be hella fun to play on the controllerscreen.

hella.
Click to expand...

I think my bigger concern is if the VC games purchased on the Wii would be transferrable to the WiiU.
 
Refreshment.01

Refreshment.01

Member
birdchili said:
was discussing this in one of the various wiiu threads... it seems there's an ir camera (ala remote) in the wiiu controller... this is probably what was being used to recalibrate objectively where the tv was in the "block pirate plunger" game.

edit: ign (i believe) said there is a sensor bar on the controller. i expect there are two leds on the sides of the camera... this would let you use a remote with the new controller and no tv. the controller will surely have a stand for sitting "upright" for this purpose.
Click to expand...
I've already considered the bold part in my previuous post, but to repeat again the distance of the LED's would be different then.

Regrad the first paragraph of your post. Where exactly is that camera? There hasn't been any mention of it in the confrence or press releases. The demo seems to be using the Gyro calculating relative positioning and generating the perspective of the camera in that way.
 
B

birdchili

Member
Refreshment.01 said:
I've already considered the bold part in my previuous post, but to repeat again the distance of the LED's would be different then..
Click to expand...
yeah... but that might not be a problem as long as the system knows you're using the ucontroller sensor bar... i don't think there's been any true confirmation that there's a sensor bar there, though i believe they call it a "sensor strip", which probably indicates it's more than just a camera.

Refreshment.01 said:
Regrad the first paragraph of your post. Where exactly is that camera? There hasn't been any mention of it in the confrence or press releases. The demo seems to be using the Gyro calculating relative positioning and generating the perspective of the camera in that way.
Click to expand...
there's a gap on the top of the controller that someone suggested might be the ir camera... i can't find the post right now. you'd get "drift" over time without an objective sync-up every now-and-then...

(i considered that the camera might do this when you "flick down", but that seems pretty hackish...)
 
M

mclem

Member
Refreshment.01 said:
It's kind of weird. Maybe Nintendo could implement the leds on the Wii U controller and have it function like a sensor bar when docked on a recharging base.
Click to expand...

There's a weird black bar at the top of the controller. I wouldn't be surprised if that's exactly what it is.
 
D

DXB-KNIGHT

Member
Iwata seems proud
316499725.jpg
 
B

BuzzJive

Member
So did I miss the discussion on how the Unreal Engine 3 will be running on this thing? I mean, Warner announced Batman Arkham City for the thing, which uses UE3. I know that Rein had some tweet about it, but there's been no official announcement, right? And there's no way they're rewriting Arkham City on some other engine.
 
D

DrM

Redmond's Baby
BuzzJive said:
So did I miss the discussion on how the Unreal Engine 3 will be running on this thing? I mean, Warner announced Batman Arkham City for the thing, which uses UE3. I know that Rein had some tweet about it, but there's been no official announcement, right? And there's no way they're rewriting Arkham City on some other engine.
Click to expand...
Aliens: Colonial Marines is also on UE3. Metro Last Light is running on 4A Engine.
 
D

dankir

Member
DXB-KNIGHT said:
Iwata seems proud
316499725.jpg
Click to expand...


Man they should of made the controller the system! Look at it it's the same size lol.


I'm quite hyped now after reading all the impressions and stuff. Nintendo did a very poor job of conveying all how awesome this really is during their conference.

Thank god E3 continues on for a few more days.
 
J

Jocchan

Ὁ μεμβερος -ου
badcrumble said:
The answer seems to be pretty obvious by omission, but this is NOT backwards compatible with Gamecube games, correct?
Click to expand...
Correct. They only mentioned Wii backwards compatibility multiple times, and it makes sense (no need for controller/memory card ports taking out space, no need for a more expensive drive able to accept mini DVDs).
 
L

Lonewolf_92

Member
DXB-KNIGHT said:
Nintendo Booth this Morning
http://www.twitvid.com/OYZK4
Click to expand...

Reminds me of the old shots of the line to play the Wii. :)

Also, is it just me, or should people be expected to read the OP of this thread BEFORE making comments in it? It's getting really annoying seeing "so the controller is the console?" posts every other page or so.

It's worth mentioning that Nintendo is looking into Multi-WiiU controller support, according to Katsuya Eguchi. It seems unlikely that they would do that if they had no intention of selling the controller separately or had a technical limitation preventing the option.
 
K

Krowley

Member
Jocchan said:
Correct. They only mentioned Wii backwards compatibility multiple times, and it makes sense (no need for controller/memory card ports taking out space, no need for a more expensive drive able to accept mini DVDs).
Click to expand...


They will probably put popular gamecube games on the VC.
 
A

antonz

Member
Krowley said:
They will probably put popular gamecube games on the VC.
Click to expand...
Exactly. With the system coming with so many GBs of storage built in and the ability to attach unlimited storage to the system they will move bigger stuff to VC
 
A

AbsoluteZero

Banned
Esnel Pla said:
Has anything been mentioned yet about VC and WiiWare transfers?
Click to expand...

Not to my knowledge, but I would assume something similar to how DSiWare transfers went.

Zero-Crescent said:
http://kotaku.com/5810084/this-is-the-wii-u-console-in-my-ink+stained-hands
Kotaku's Stephen Totilo made a short video tour of the Wii U console itself, with some notes after the video. One correction: The yellow port on the back is likely the power connector, and the port that Totilo identified as power is likely the A/V connector.
Click to expand...

Considering those ports are identical to what's on the current Wii, I'd say you're right.

Edit: I'm bummed about the lack of verticalability.

Epcott said:
How funny would it be if Thq had seen Wii U's dev kit a year ago and decided to release a knock off called Udraw. Probably just coincidence.
Click to expand...

I dunno, IIRC THQ worked fairly close to Nintendo on development of the UDraw tablet.
 
O

Orbis Tabula

Member
I know this has probably been mentioned before, but I can't help saying it.

This console was DESIGNED to play Pokemon Snap 2. It needs to happen.

EDIT: Also, I dunno about seeing gamecube games on VC, at least not immediately. Aren't gamecube disks like 1.5 gigs? And if this things has flash storage, it can't be THAT big. Sure you can expand it, but Nintendo might be hesitant to release GC games at first if they're gonna eat up space like that.
 
M

Morkins

Banned
In terms of RPG design, I would like to see the controller used to sort of free up the entire "conversation" aspect of RPGs. As it is, most of the time we are locked into static "cutscenes" where the dialogue option merely branches out the cutscene we watch. With the controller and touch functionality on it, they now have the ability to intuitively and simply allow for player control simultaneous with dialogue choice. Basically, what I want to see is the ability to have my character walk and talk at the same time... The second screen can act as a close up camera displaying the faces so that you can still get that up close animation, but the TV monitor can display the third person camera standard in most RPGs so that we can still be doing other things while we talk with someone(You know, like in real life). That way we aren't passively engaged in the game during conversations....
 
S

spliced

Member
Thanks for the great post Zero-Crescent.

One of the first things I thought of when I saw the controller is that it looks like it could possibly be a bit more confortable for adult sized hands than something like the DS/3DS. I guess we'll see if that's true or not in the future.

Is there any pictures of the new controller next to a dvd case for a size comparison?
 
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