Hogge

Hope this drives Wii U sales. Beyond that... meh.

It's the biggest franchise around right now (unfortunately) and the developers should know much better. My third statement is what buggs me the most. Because people whom have studied 80's action have called those movies "secretly fascist". The statement in this trailer is all-out Die Untergang-level fascist! Also, it's played by impressionable kids. Kids who in general don't even know what the cold war was. Kids whom in some cases think that war is just like Call of Duty and sometimes try to join the military for that reason.

Call of Duty reaches new levels of retardedness. Firstly, the space shuttles have been taken out of service, as they were too expensive to maintain. To the point that NASA have stated that they're not sure such a machine will EVER be financially viable. And to develop such a machine is out of the question, as the US is on the brink of financial armageddon. Secondly, the same financial facts are true for developing a space artillery unit. Not to mention that militarization of space is against international law. Thirdly "A true patriot doesen't just give his life for his country, but his sons" is so chest-thumpingly patriotic and distasteful that I almost puked in my mouth when I heard it. And I'm the guy who gladly performed his compulsory military service to perhaps someday defend his country for real! Fourthly, this seems to take place in the near future. And the russians barelly use any equipment displayed in that video anymore, because it's ANCIENT. The russians have more than doubled their military expenses since 2008 and are developing high-tech stuff on-par with the US. Fifthly, how can a few artillery shells cripple the US to such an extent that it's open to attack? Blasting off ten nukes wouldn't ruin americas chances to defend itself, let alone whatever ammount of artillery that puny satellite can hold. And of course, the singleplayer is going to be as linear as ever and the Wii U version won't get DLC. In other words, it's a pass for me, and I hope everyone else here. The unfortunate fact is that the only shooter even remotely worth considering on the Wii U is Sniper Elite.

Give this guy a break. Like, before they get too far in development with the real Wii U Zelda. Sorry to say, none of the Zelda titles he's worked on has been on par. Of course, I'm not sure how much is his fault and how much has been budget restraints, but no Zelda game he's worked on has had the same level of ambition as even Zelda 64 (yes, Zelda 64, not Ocarina of Time). It's all been about experimenting, rather than just taking the formula and just let it evolve.

I think he's got a bit of a point. Graphical style has a lot to do with the "personality" of a game. For me, Zelda, A Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time all featured a vast world to explore with secrets around every corner. A story as well rendered as the technology allowed for. For the time, the world felt almost as vast as Skyrim does today, the story was as impressive as Mass Effect and the combat system was tenfold more impressive than any combat system in any game available today. Sorry to say, I believe that after the N64, the Zelda series went kinda south. I know people whose favorite Zeldas are Ocarina of Time, Majoras Mask, A Link to the Past... even Zelda II. But noone has ever listed Skyward Sword, Wind Waker or Twiligt Princess. Wind Waker ends up "near the top" at best. It's like Nintendo dropped the concept of being perfectionistic with their Zelda games and instead decided to try and reinvent Zelda with each home console entry. Each time with a worse result. I'm going to be a bit booring and say that I don't want Zelda to be DIFFERENT. I want it to be BETTER. The cartridge limitations are gone, you can add voice acting without a problem. Processing power and storage means you can create vast, truly open game worlds, like in let's say Red Dead Redemption. The Wii U has several gigs of fast-loading flash memory, Nintendo can add the persistent world they envisioned, but failed to acheive when creating Ocarina of Time. NPC's can go about their business during the day, like in Majoras Mask... potentially, if you create the persistant world, you can even make them change their daily routines dynamically, depending on what's happening in the world around them. And of course, no need to create an artsy-fartsy art style to hide system limitations. And before you say that more of the same would be a bad thing: look at Grand Theft Auto. GTAV is a natural evolution of the original GTA. Do you think anyone in their right mind will say it's worse than San Andreas? Unlike Darkjak, I'll buy this game because I've wanted to own it for some time now. But I think Nintendo need to get their thumb out and make a tried and true, according to the book, looking at what the rest of the industry has been doing for the last 15 years and adapting accordingly, honest to god bloody terrific Zelda.

That would be a disastrous decision. The original Wiimote was originally designed as a Gamecube accessory. And the thing with accessories is that they're rarely a success. Look at the N64 expansion pack: not even all first party games released after supported it. And that's the thing: Nintendo are packing the tablet in with each unit, so that all developers will support it. Without it, no developer will dare to make a game that contains features which require the gamepad. The gamepad is the Wii U's USP. Without it, it's just a bland, underpowered console. With it, it's unique and interresting, although few games have made good use of the tablet yet. And of course, as the console's already been out with the accessory included with every unit, the roster for players who buy this stripped package will be... non-existent. Not to mention the confusion as to which future releases they'll be and not be able to play. People now have trouble telling the Wii U and the Wii apart. What do you think will happen when they'll have to pick Wii U with gamepad and Wii U without gamepad games? Mom will buy a Wii U without gamepad, because she's a cheapskate, grandma will then buy Wii U with gamepad games, because that's what four year old Billy wants to play. And that's how christmas that year was ruined. And not to mention how the 1983 video game crash happened. If such a decision doesen't kill the game industry, at least it'll be the last nail in the coffin for the Wii U. Selling the Wii U without a pad is in other words an assinine idea. We'll see how many games that support it. As a game developer, I can tell you that if we release our games for the Wii U, it'll support the gamepad and do interresting things with it, because all Wii U's will have it. If we release stuff for the PS4, we won't have aditional Vita options (probably not even off-screen play) because not all potential customers will have it. It'll be a waste of resources.

Placing the analogue stick so high up seemed like a really bad idea at first. I mean, they could theoretically have made the top screen fill nearly the full width of the console. But seeing that, I think it may be way more ergonomic than the current 3DS, which I consider to be too small to be comfortable. The shoulder buttons look like a massive improvement. Seriously, the guy who designed those tiny, noisy and poorly placed ones on the current one should really get off the cinnamon soda. I don't get the outrage regarding this device. Yes, it lacks the second analogue stick, but it makes perfect sense from a business standpoint. It looks like a tablet, and is thus less intimidating/geeky than a true portable console. It's cheap, which is perfect in these dire times, espescially considering how many parents keep on buying tablets for their kids, stupidly hoping that their kids will be satisfied by F2P games... without actually buying anything in the F2P games. The main problem is that, yet again, the name. It's called a 2DS and looks very different from a 3DS, thus implying that it's a brand new system. In my eyes, parents who buy this because of it's low price point, will be running around all over the place, desperate to find a shelf with 2DS-games.

Tried this at Gamescom and found it quite pleasant. However, I just read that it shifted just 5000 copies in Japan... which doesen't bode well. How Nintendo an Platinum find this to be more catered to a western audience is frankly beyond me. How do you feel about the sales?

Wuhu Island can sod off. It's the symbol of everything wrong with Nintendo today! Why can't they have levels based off one of the PW64 levels?

What's with the talk about the summer update? It was just shortened loading times in the OS, wasn't it? Who cares when we've only got one thing worth loading?

It's been a while since I updated, so here's some new info for ya. Firstly, we're going to show the game off at GDC Europe this month, so if anyone's going there, please visit us, we'll probably reside in the Swedish Game booth. Secondly, we've just become a licensed Wii U developer And thirdly, this is what the game looks like now:

Tried to get hold of these for several years, found them cheaply at Game:

The answer is simple. Most game companies make most of their sales over the first few months. For example, Blur was considered a flop and the developer was shut down only a few months after the game had been released. Nintendo games sell quite slowly, but evenly over several years. On the N64, Goldeneye still sold fairly well even after the Gamecube had been unveiled. So Call of Duty is cut in price after a certain ammount of time to boost sales. Nintendo don't need to boost sales and thus don't drop prices.

A few days ago a snippet from a canceled Zelda movie leaked out on the internet: http://vimeo.com/64272956 From what I've read, it's a demo movie by the creators of the Astro Boy movie dated 2008. The hope was to show it to Nintendo and hopefully get backing. So, what do you think? IMHO, while it's well made, I just despise the character design. Every single character except Link and Zelda look looks like Groose, including Ganondorf. And this Link looks really scrawny and feminine.

When it comes to hardware, I'd like to see a possibility to play your 3DS games on your TV when you come home. A simple solution would be a redesigned 3DS which contains a jack for let's say an HDMI-cable so you can jack it directly into your TV. Another solution would be if the Wii U had a 3DS-channel, where the 3DS game is transfered to your Wii U via Wifi (the Wii U has 1 Gig of RAM dedicated to the OS and apps, this is the one thing in the world I believe can justify such a moronic decision), and you then play the same game on your Wii U, using tablet and TV. Of course, in this case, graphics should be blown up into HD. Since I only ever play portable games when on a train, this feature would make me play the 3DS way more. Software wise, I know it's getting repetitive, but I want to see Nintendo GT get made. If it's a bit of a gamble to plow piles of money into a super-ambitious franchise on the Wii U, then Nintendo can make a 3DS edition, with downscaled graphics and a smaller roster of cars. 150 cars at the same level of detail as Gran Turismo 4 should be fully doable. And of course, I want to see much more colourful and imaginative tracks than in lets say Gran Turismo. Perhaps more like in Need for Speed: High Stakes.

I think he's been... 'punching' much more with his right arm than the other. ... sorry, you sort of went there, so I just had to go all the way.

I couldn't agree more. And then don't forget what we got on the N64. Pilotwings, Lylat Wars, etc. Not to mention that Nintendo made sure we'd get the biggest franchises, even if the original developer didn't want to develop the game themselves. Remember when a Nintendo studio made a Ridge Racer-game for the N64? Or when Silicon Knights made Metal Gear Solid for the Gamecube? I've said it before and I'll say it again: Have Retro Studios make a remake of GTA Vice City, with all the graphics and features seen in GTAV.

The E3 lineup was mostly stellar. But let me ask you this. And WHY did Nintendo decide to make THREE sidescrollers in one year? Will Yarn Yoshi make the Wii U a sales success, when New Mario Bros failed to do so? Or three minigame compilations? Will Wii U Play or Game & Wario do what Nintendoland failed to do? I think that F-Zero, Starfox, Excitebike or 1080 will be bigger system sellers than Yarn Yoshi or Game & Wario. As I've said before, Nintendo have lots of dormant IP's that could be translated really well into something contemporary and cool. I mean, with the Excitebike and Excitetruck-franchise, Nintendo could have an answer to Motorstorm, only with that Nintendo magic. Make a fighting game set in the Zelda universe, and suddenly you have a competitor to Soul Calibur. Have Monolith make a sequel to Disaster, only that it plays like the first screenshots lead gamers to believe, and you suddenly have a competitor to Tomb Raider and Uncharted. Take Miyamotos ideas for Starfox Assault and execute them well, and you have Battlefield, only with more room to include unrealistic, fun gameplay features. Then have someone make a GTA-style game. Perhaps buy the exclusive rights to Just Cause 3 or have Retro Studios make a Miami Vice-game. And finaly, start a new team or buy an existing company, and have them make something like Gran Turismo.

You basterd! Have you got any idea how long it took me to get that main theme out of my head? And you just f***ing had to bring it all back!

While you're right in saying that most "chav gamers" like to play the same thing over and over. However, Nintendo have been lacking stuff for ages. An exclusive, realistic-ish FPS would help the Wii U out a lot. A modern equivalen to Goldeneye would kick ass. And it's frankly embarrasing that Gran Turismo is going to have its 15th anniversary this year and Nintendo consoles STILL have nothing like it. Look at the Wii U lineup. Why the hell have three side-scrolling platformers in the first year of the consoles life? Why is the 3D Mario a lazy port of a 3DS-game? Why is the only Zelda we know anything about a remake? (Note: I am not complaining, I've never played Wind Waker, so I'll enjoy this second chance to play it. Althouth I won't buy it if Nintendo make the REAL Wii U Zelda in toon). I mean, it's not like Nintendo have a lack of IP to choose from. Waverace, 1080, Stafox, Pilotwings, Excitebike, F-Zero, Eternal Darkness and so on and so on. All games with potential to graphically blow everything else out of the water.

Oooh, I'm so inte Kerbal right now! Gonna post some pics when I come home today!

When did you play them for the first time? While I love most of Rare's games, I do believe that the game industry has moved on and a lot of things in them are dated. I must however admit that I on the other hand never got in to Half-Life, and thus think that Perfect Dark is the supperior of the two. There was nothing to do and the level-design was super-linear, while Perfect Dark had open level-design.

From what I heard, Nintendo had more conventional consoles in backup when they released the DS and Wii. In all probability, they have one for the Wii U as well. Although there's the question of how developers and consumers will react if the Wii U will get phased out so fast. We all know that's why the Dreamcast didn't have support from EA for example. Consumers could perhaps be bought over if Nintendo would offer to buy back all sold Wii U's (but only from consumers who want the next system), and have backwards compatibility built in to the next system. Thing is that the main issue with the Wii U is the software. First party support is currently poor, with a small and mainly monotonous lineup.

GTA isn't a driving sim Plus, their talent is even more wasted now that they're doing Donkey Kong Country games.

Too bad the Wii U version isn't getting DLC. Fortunately the game already contains the only cars you'll ever need: Lancia Delta and Lambo Countach. Although I'd like to see a DLC featuring a Saab Turbo X and Ferrari Testarossa. One question: whom do you have to sleep with to use the Delta and Countach in multiplayer?