Burny

Just played a little bit more and there doesn't seem to be rubber band AI. During the races of the slowest speed class, I tried to pay attention to the minimap. When I got a large lead, I kept that unless I did something stupid. There are instances where the game announces "You've got a five second lead" only followed by "You've got a two second lead". Those seem to be caused by slightly flawed computation of how much you're in lead at a given point however. Once you take a boost field your lead increases until the racers following you take the same boost field, while you've already slowed down again. In the interview Dante linked, what they say even implies to me that they avoided rubber band AI:

*Laughs* Nah don't fret, Nintendo saw the light and they're using names for IDs now. My ID's "m4$t0rH4X0r_1337". Add me when you're at home! They should avoid usernames as online IDs. I've argued before that the system is flawed and numerical IDs bound to an account (aka "friendcodes" in an ideal implementation) or personal emails are a better option. Overall I'm cautiously optimistic concerning online with Nintendo. Iwata acknowledged XBox Live in his GDC speech for it's impact on social gaming (iirc). Nintendo knows their system so far is shit. They know 3rd parties think their system is shit. They know every player with access to other systems thinks theirs is shit. They know they can't fix it by their own and Iwata basically confirmed that they've been looking for outside help. If we chose to believe rumors, they are also trying to make a system that enjoys multiplatform support, which is impossible without an online system to back it up. Let's see what E3 brings.

Do the retailers even make money at prices around 160 pound? What's Nintendo asking them for the devices? If German retailers dropped the 3DS to such levels here, I might have caved in by now. Around launch there were a lot of offers, most of which included the 3DS for its standard price (250€) - maybe slightly less - and one game (usually a quality Ubisoft title ). Now, the lower prices are still around 220€. It's certainly a sign, that the UK has ample supply of devices or rather that the demand isn't quit at the levels that stores would have liked. Will be interesting to see, if prices rise when the bigger games arrive. In the meantime, I wouldn't mind if someone over here started a price war. :p

Do yourself a favor and use your time better. A blind man with a stick can see why they aren't including some things fans might want and iirc someone from Capcom even stated that DLC would depend on the game's popularity. Also: boycots and petitions for things that don't necessarily kill the game, tend to end like this.

Obviously, playing a remake of one of the greatest games of all times in 3D on a handheld is only half the fun with a crumpled poster instead of a bloody plastic ocarina. That's why I've been trashing those bonuses in the first place.

Yeah, and from the context it was totally not obvious, that I was talking about the value as the "bonuses" being garbage instead of high quality collector's pieces. Good at twisting stuff, aren't we? And as for the charging more stuff for the garbage, listen to Ike! Burny out.

...which is that I think the Zelda OoT 3D preorder bonuses shown so far are mostly a pile of useless garbage (except for the seeds) and I'd prefer a nice metal game case - all of which has nothing to do with their physical value or if GAME gets 10k more preorders than they would've otherwise. :p

Got a Paypal account? I ordered points from an eBay power-seller this morning and got the code in the email five minutes later. Unless you're getting the actual physical card for much cheaper than the standard price, there is no contest against this. I only played the tutorial and the first planet's races of the lowest tier racing league, but it's already clear that this is an outstanding WiiWare game. The visuals give pretty much any Wii-retail game a run for their money in terms of style and quality. The game plays smooth as hell and the phase-switching mechanic adds something to the game that distinguishes it from the likes of F-Zero and Wipeout.

I was never debating the power of preorder bonuses to fool people and their worth for shops, but how they usually give out garbage, which is no different with this Zelda. No shame in enjoying something this good. That sucks. I was assuming Norway is a member of the EU and learned it actually isn't. The reason importing works so well here, is that games in the UK are often criminally cheap and there aren't taxes for imports within the EU. If there is a public vote for entering the EU, think of all the games!

You're into multiplayer far as I can tell. Maybe you should have a look at Starhawk. Loved Uncharted 2 as a kind of blockbuster experience and never had a problem with it's length. If anything the game might have been shorter for my liking. I'm not very fond of the shooting mechanics in Uncharted 2 (I think they're solid, but unremarkable), so I wouldn't have complained, if they decided to shorten them by throwing less waves of enemies at you.

@Tales No online. They said it didn't fit into the budget/time limits in the interview Dante linked on the last page. It's a nice read btw.! It's out? o.O I would've totally missed it. Should really get some Wii points now. A good thing then, that Shin'en seems quiet fond of Nintendo platforms.

So, people fall for it and buy garbage as long as you paint some popular stuff on it. I've been totally proven wrong - my bad. At least they've just cut the premium for their garbage in half, that's nice of them. :p Paying a 10 pound premium for a bit of garbage seems like a luxury problem compared to having to pay the premium by default. Isn't importing from UK online shops an option? People over here do it all the time.

What exactly should I face? They're giving away exclusive trash? I've been facing the preorder trash the whole time. I just didn't know they were bold enough to charge for it at first. Btw. game is now only 5 bucks more expensive than amazon and shopto. Edit: Ike beat me to it. :p

Those, as well as people too stupid to order at some cheaper place. Also: die hard collectors are a rare breed. The rest is just getting ripped off 10 bucks. @The_Peeps: Hero-of-time posted it in the Skyward Sword thread. Saw it on Neogaf, too. It's just not clear how the OoT Soundtrack has been "remastered". In the worst case, this could just mean that he had an orchestra play the song from the trailer linked on the last page.

I only see GAME being that bold, if you like.

To be fair, the text is in German, but it's not the painting that matters which is quiet primitive (although it is painted vs. just blue plastic). It's made of actual ceramik and comes in a leather pouch. That's what distinguishes it from the throwaway trash you're likely to get as preorder stuff. And no, I'm not arguing that they should include something like this for free. I'm arguing that you get what you pay for, and as the preorder stuff is free you get nothing even remotely of value. :p The carrot's made of plastic and can't even be eaten. You can of course try to take a bite, but you'll throw it away afterwards. Except for the tree seed in Greece. That is a cool bonus.

I would agree if we were talking about this. But we're talking about Mc.Do kids meal level of trash and originality. I for one like a nice book or game cover on the shelf and value it far more than any cheap plastic toy that'll only give me a bad conscience for trowing it away, even if it's the only thing to do with it. It doesn't matter if there are a million other games or books with nice covers out there, as long as the one I want has one, too. That said, has there ever been something special with DS games in terms of tin cases? I can't remember anything... I know that Radiant Historia had a soundtrack CD included in the first run (also infinitely more useful than plastic toys), but that's about the only real special I remember for DS games.

With the hardware reliability this gen, companies have really given a big middle finger to the users. Rez, in your place, I'd screw open the PS3, remove the disk, put it back together and sell it as broken over eBay. I believe you can get a good 50+ bucks for a broken system, no? That'd be your first step towards a new system. Then monitor bargain blogs for a cheap PS3 Slim offer.

Meaning, you'll take it in into the hand and look at it a lot more often - if you're fan enough to replay the game regularly - than you would with the "ocarina". That is bound to land in some dark corner once you realize it's not a useful instrument and whatever you're able to produce with it won't even sound good. And it will stay in that corner, unless you sell it over eBay, are a devoted collector in the first place or can finally bring yourself to throw it into the trash, e.g. when moving into another flat.

Metal case beats cheapish low quality piece of plastic with a Triforce printed on it any day. Honestly, these Ocarina's are bound to land in some corner and will collect dust. At least a nice case for the game will look nice in the game collection, so I'd say it already has a much greater value. :p

Add Xenoblade. Far as I know Monolith is now considered first party...

Because this clearly ate the development budges for all those titles and prevented 12 teams - each a 100 people strong - from focusing their attention on the hardcore for the last three years, right? For what it's worth, I really like the trailer - provided these games will have multiplayer. If they do, they look like wacky, short, fluent, easily accessible games with a competitive element. Might be brilliant to play with non-gamer people. That's not evening entertainment for when you're alone with the console or have the Smash Brothers cracks around and it's not meant to be. I would also like to have a Wiimote+ when Skyward Sword is released, so I'll consider this.

More cheap low quality stuff without style that nobody needs. Although that tree seed in the tin is cool. ^^ It'll just take another 5-10 Zelda games at Nintendo's current pace until that Acacia has reached a meaningful size...

Only "autumn 2011" going by interviews/articles. Majesco's site doesn't even tell anything about the release. But there's a bit of info I edited in the OP.

More screens. This time with slightly overblown resolution and AA. Looks still incredible.