Lens of Truth

Shin'en have got a patch ready that sounds like it may fix this:

Wow, they've really gone above and beyond on this one! Sonic Racing Transformed has really got me in the mood for some old school Sega goodness. Love hearing the Space Harrier theme on Race of Ages.

I guess the decider will be how cheap ME3 is after Christmas and how forthcoming EA are with an announcement.

I actually kind of like the idea of the motion comic and rounding off with the last episode in trilogy rather than the slogging through 2 more 20 hour+ games... but I realise that makes me a bad person. Can't decide whether to pick this up early next year or wait after EA teased the trilogy set coming over. Maybe they were just being dicks? "Never say never"...

There's a stronger chance for this on the 3DS. Miyamoto has been toying with the idea of a 3D Link to the Past (I assume layered like the 3D Classics range) or even a sequel iirc. I'd love a direct sequel done in the same style with modern bells and whistles. Either that or a proper Wind Waker follow up, discovering the New Hyrule, and we're sorted.

Everyone should check out the trailer for The Life of Pi and the animated short Luigi's Pizza Ride on Nintendo Video (if you still have it). Some brilliant use of 3D! The 3DS conveys it surprisingly well

The issue with the Wii U for me is that Nintendo have consciously tried to sell it as a 'whole package', rather than on the strength of any one killer app, feature or must-own game. The trouble is that the package has very rough edges. Apart from slowness, a few aspects of the OS feel half-baked. Many core features just aren't standardised; online, chat and audio being the most glaring. Eg Nintendo Land and Mario default all audio to the headphone out on the gamepad when you've got a pair hooked up (as they should), and ZombiU has an easily located option, but Sonic and Batman and I assume many other 'second rank' titles only output the gamepad sounds (like kart engine noise or Alfred on the bat-radio-thingy). Under what circumstance would you ever want partial audio through headphones?? Even a selling point like 'Off-TV play' has no standard means of access - it's different in every game, some more obvious than others. To compound all this is Nintendo's policy of conservatism, caution and secrecy (which it must be remembered is newly renewed after showing almost every major franchise ahead of the 3DS' launch fizzled to nothing in PR terms). The feeling around the console is one of uncertainty and it has to be addressed soon. As Grazza says, for this to be a hit with core gamers it needs 'big' games that inspire passion. I know many will eye-roll at this, but Nintendo Land is inspiring passion in a lot of folk on Miiverse and it really is a joyous game. It's brought back game nights with mates, which imo is a good thing, and it's addictive as hell. So it *is* possible to enjoy the Wii U an awful lot but still have PLENTY of concerns! Or do we need another thread for that?

Definitely. Two big positives for me are that items are less game changing (though they still have a huge impact - if you try one of the boost races where it's just pure driving the AI is a lot easier to beat!) and unlike almost every Mario Kart, one character doesn't keep getting the top spot. In other words it feels a bit better balanced. Having said that, I have noticed certain bottlenecks in the higher difficulties, where you basically get stuck in a particular position and can't progress, even if you drive perfectly, drift, hit all the boosts and trick every jump. The difficulty is also wildly uneven in World Tour. It sort of reminds me of a Rare game from back in the day in that respect; brilliantly designed and balanced in fundamentals, but uneven in the finer points. Another observation (and it really is that, not a criticism) is that with the tracks being more elaborate and 'realistic', and incorporating water and air, it can be tough to tell sometimes what's 'track' and what's not. There've been a few times as well that I thought this game would benefit from 3D (like in the underground water bit in Chilly Castle or the flying sections in Race of Ages). You soon get used to the chaos though and it adds a lot of excitement to discovering your favourite routes

I noticed a few bugs playing this earlier, while playing World Tour in 2-player. Firstly when you select a mod it says the name but then reverts all variables to standard, the icons all reset. Tried multiple times with different characters and mods and every time the same thing. Next there was some weird flickering and glitching behind the main player characters on both the gamepad and TV on Roulette Road, which luckily stopped after that one race. I also noticed that on the gamepad screen a thin sliver of the image that should be the bottom appears at the top (eg on the Golden Axe track, a bright yellow line of the lava appears) - might happen in single player too, but it's the first time I've noticed it. Does anyone else see this? At first I thought it could be something the matter with my pad, but it doesn't happen in any other game or in the system menus. I think there are still a few issues to be ironed out. If anyone could check the two player mod thing I'd be grateful.

Odd. If anything the lower resolution should make it run more smoothly In gamepad mode is it duplicating what's on the tv or sending it only to the pad screen? Maybe they just didn't code it properly. How is the game in other respects? My brother seems interested in it so I might pick it up for him.

That is annoying. I thought they might have fixed that issue (which is very prominent on Xbox/PS3) as other Wii U ports have. This digital foundry comparison with the PC version (on a budget gaming PC) looks almost identical to my eyes, so I think the engine itself has problems:

I find these days that the consensus view of what constitutes 'quality' isn't always a good indicator for whether I'll enjoy it or not, let alone love it. Of course it's very handy to read a good, detailed account of the games strengths, flaws etc, but I really find review scores a bit of a quaint idea. Film reviews are even more suspect. Does this mean you concede that your opinion of Skyward Sword as worthless trash is very likely wrong because its metacritic score is 93%?

Well, like Opoona, also very low-scoring; I recognise it has certain flaws, but I'd be lying if I said it wasn't one of the games I enjoyed most on the Wii (against a lot of stiff competition!). Sometimes games can be perfect in spite of their imperfections. And who actually cares about metacritic?

I wonder what the chances are of this being reduced after Christmas or the original appearing on the eshop.

Fair enough. I do believe it's better to give your full unvarnished views than pretend otherwise. As long as it doesn't get personal or deliberately inflammatory then all is well. I had an idea you didn't quite mean it to come across that way. As for Wii Music, I never got round to it myself. What I saw of it didn't look too appealing, but I've had to think twice since reading the advocacy of some of the folk here whose opinions I respect highly. If it had some sort of simple composing tool like Mario Paint then I'd have been right on board. I'd love them to have another stab at it on the Wii U.

@Wii I think the problem is that when you express your opinion it comes across as spouting vitriol. Saying things like "I've checked up on who's responsible for voting for this shite and it was X, Y and Z" sounds like a deliberate invective against those posters. Can't you see the way you express yourself is less than respectful? If you were less belligerent there wouldn't be an issue.

I started off loving this and marvelling at the crispy HDness of it all, and the nice touch that Miiverse brings, however my interest has waned a little. Maybe going through the same levels in 3 different playthroughs has done it, maybe tackling this so soon after NSMB2.. Feel like I have Mario burnout. Also I can see Ronnie's point about the formulaic nature of many of the levels. There are enough moments where I've smiled with surprise though at little details and the deviousness of certain star coins. Oh, and some of the towers are as tight, design-wise, as a clockwork mechanism. New level tunes, jingles and voice samples would definitely have made it fresher.

Probably up around midday here then. Can't wait to give this another go! Well the Rayman demo is bright, breezy and a ton of fun. Really don't require any further persuasion on this one. Visuals are superb, subtle and beautifully designed. The multiplane fly-through intro with the dragons swooping around looks phenomenal. Co-op works brilliantly and the gamepad player doesn't feel short-changed (unlike NSMBU).

I've enjoyed the heck out of this. Finally managed to crack A Class now on World Tour (meaning I've won a few!). It seems much easier in two player, but otherwise this game has really tested me. Definitely a lot harder than Mario Kart with more to get your head round.

How have I missed until now that none other than Ron Gilbert is the brains behind The Cave?! Lens pay attention! Anyway, sounds fantastic: Further details: I would yes! If it's still that price in the new year I might get it (though it would be nice to have it always on the menu screen). So many games, so little time!

Ah well, glad they've taken the brave step to keep going until it's as good as it can be. I'm going to be snowed under with games over Christmas as it is!

I never get why they do this level of hype for iOS ports. It just seems so silly. I would buy a Wii U eshop sequel in a trice though! There's enough great music left (well... at least in 6, 7 + 8). Of course what we really want are Theatrhythms for different series, like Chrono and Mana.

Ta for that Phube! Wondered what they were there for

Very interesting. I've been hoping something like this might happen for a while. Not at all sure of the likelihood. Disney buying them though... hmmm. How do we feel about Disney interactive these days? They seem to be downsizing and in a bit of a mess themselves.

A bit of unevenness in the framerate will also be less noticeable on an lcd vs a plasma, basically because of the slight motion blur they have (whereas plasma will better resolve higher framerates, so you'll get more benefit from 60Hz in Mario and Nintendo Land). Different people have different sensitivities to this sort of thing. Although I do notice it rather easily, I'm not bothered at all by the odd loading pause or stutter during crowded scenes in Batman. I replayed the opening portion of the game in 720p and found the bit with all the prisoners slightly more consistent and the same with cutscenes. Also if you swivel the camera around you'll notice it. In the end I felt that I preferred the extra crispness of the 1080 upscale (it does it so well!). Ran this by one of my mates as well and he thought the occasional frame drop was extremely minor - "wouldn't have noticed if you hadn't said". I haven't made a great deal of progress with this yet because of other games dividing my attention, but I love what I've played so far! The atmosphere is tremendous. My favourite feature with the gamepad so far is having the map literally at your fingertips and being and to slide it around at a touch, as simple as it sounds. How long did the main story mode take you @Serebii?