Burny

That's just unrealistic though. Any high profile game - especially when Nintendo is behind it - takes like a minimum of 2 years to develop now. If it runs on a new dedicated engine, it takes more. That's probably a lot longer than the amount of time between the point where the new hardware is finalized and where it is released. The only way to get such high profile games for launches, would probably be to develop them on an existing engine and with existing tools etc. for the previous generation's hardware a long time in advance. From the moment the new dev-kits are available, the efforts would have to be concentrated on porting the game - which would have to be mostly done at that point. This might happen in the future, where hardware jumps between consoles could be subjectively a lot smaller.

I can imagine how camera control with the gyros might work and very well so. So, before we see how it is implemented, there is little point in condemning the idea. In any case however, a Mario Galaxy like automatic camera would be required for the "day-to-day" camera tasks. Nobody wants to go spinning on the spot like mad, because they're just in a particularly insane level and have to constantly adjust the camera. One possible solution I could imagine, would be replacing the freely controllable camera of Galaxy with tilting the 3DS. If the camera would pan accordingly if you only slightly tilted the 3DS and they could get it to work in a way, that reverting to the "default" position wouldn't undo the camera movement, that might be a magnificent workaround for a lacking second analog input. Unfortunately, that'd break the "sweet spot" for a moment. It might still be worth a try.

Yeah, there's a game nobody has ever seen running - probably for good reason - which could be considered "hardcore", because it's violent. Nintendo better start throwing money aimlessly at the devs/publishers. After all, that very game might save the day! Oh, how "hardcore" gamers would flock around the 3DS, if they only had a low profile shoot-man-with-gun-hardcore-game. Not. Whoever considers themselves "hardcore" because they play stuff like Saints Row, is not exactly the target market for the 3DS. Whoever prefers the PSP2 to the 3DS wouldn't be swayed by a "hardcore" game with ~Gamecube level graphics, either. What the 3DS needs are more new good games, not "hardcore" ones. If large western devs and publishers don't take the handheld market seriously and have high profile teams developing games for it in the first place, there is little point in throwing money after their 3rd class teams.

Remember the GDC trailer? Someone reversed the sound. Familiar? Either they were very lazy with composing, or they had quiet a laugh while at it.

Fixed. I really like what I see, but having watched Nintendo's promotional video tape I-don't-know-how-many-times with the following trailer at the age of 11, the new one is not a trailer I would get excited about, if I didn't know the game.

There was seemingly a Q&A with Iwata after that investors meeting Nintendo held a few days ago. On Nintendo of Japan's homepage a translated transcript is available. There aren't any real news in this and I have to confess, I didn't read the whole thing ,yet. What caught my attention was a slew of articles on Gonintendo about it. It's interesting, because Iwata admits rather openly a few areas, where Nintendo hasn't been able to deliver in the past (online, hint, hint ). Some parts of page 2 especially, make me think, Nintendo will outsource their whole online system for the cafe to experts in that area, or at least parts of it. Well, the biggest possible thing I could think of, is Nintendo collaborating with Valve and fully integrating Steam's online service into the console. If it's anything less, I'm probably going to be terribly disappointed at E3, for no other reason than having fantasized a bit too much, but hope dies last, doesn't it? :p The rest of the Q&A seems to be a good read, too. Edit: I see Dante just quoted the whole thing in the Wii general discussion. Might still justify its own thread though...

If it's a game without dedicated servers, in a multiplayer session one Wii will act as the game server while the others act as hosts. "All" you need for such a system to work, is hardware to run the software, a network interface which can be used by the software in order to send data to specified IP-addresses, the game server/client-code within the game and the IP-address of each participant. Every PC, smartphone etc. has that. If this was all the developers where able to use however, getting into a multiplayer game would work like this: Someone starts the server, phones his IP-address to all other players, they specify this IP as the server's IP by hand and join the game. Standard PC multiplayer (unfortunately not in Starcraft 2 :p). That is not how CoD:BO works on the Wii, is it? Far as I know, in CoD:BO/Reflex on the Wii, you have a user name, that is different from your Wii's friend code (no game specific friend code either). You add people by their username. For that alone dedicated servers are required which handle the visibility, identity etc. of players as well as the joining of games (= sharing of the game-server's IP address) . After all, someone has to keep track of every player's IP address. This system differs drastically from what Nintendo's multiplayer games are using. Even worse: Goldeneye, which was released at the same time, uses exactly Nintendo's system and Monster Hunter uses a completely different implementation. That's a pretty sure indication, that even basic functionality is handled by servers (hardware+software), which aren't provided by Nintendo, but by Activision. On XBLive/PSN, by signing in, you communicate with servers from MS and Sony. These servers keep track of who's signed in, what they're doing etc.. This sounds basic, but it's massive and expensive functionality, if a dev has to built it from the ground up. Even if every Wii multiplayer game would use a system similar to BO's one (because every dev was somehow able to provide it): The Wii's online design would still be shit. Having a game-independent and persistent friend-list on the OS level is a basic requirement for a painless online system. Nobody wants to add a dozen people by their obscure online ID's for every damn game. It's one of the biggest innovations XBLive has introduced to gaming, that these conveniences are offered by the console manufacturer.

I have to disagree with that. It's not the Wii, which has a decent online service, because frankly, Nintendo's system sucks hard. There is no arguing that. Not even a bit. It's just that Nintendo leaves it open to devs to come up with their own system. The online service Treyarch build, is a decent one. And that's precisely the reason that the Wii has been a dead fish in the water most of the time where online features are concerned. If the developer have to implement the most basic and necessary features themselves without being able to rely on Nintendo's implementation of such features, that'll automatically result in what we've seen on the Wii. Either they use the shitty features available, or they invest time and money for the development of decent features. After that, they'll have to keep paying for the servers to run these features (that's why EA continually switches off servers of their older games). For any but the largest projects and developers / publishers, the "self-built" route is not even an option. That the console has a notoriously bad reputation for 3rd party games doesn't help, even if that reputation isn't just Nintendo's fault. There is just no arguing, that any large western 3rd parties rely heavily on advanced online ecosystem, which the Wii doesn't provide. It's one of the two main reasons why the Wii has been largely ignored by them. And of course the Wii is not dead, yet (!). It has at least two large unreleased "mainstream" projects (Z:SS, DQX), it's everywhere in stores, people play it and it might quietly keep selling decent amounts of units to less traditionally focused gamers, even with a more pricey and powerful successor on the same shelf, for the same reason the PS2 does. But unlike the PS360, both having OS that can be heavily evolved with updates, that get all the big shiny western games and that could easily sell for another four or five years, if the "Café" doesn't create too much pressure and MS/Sony chose to keep selling them, the Wii has no longer enough customer and developer attention in order to continue at a level even close to what it has enjoyed so far. "Practically" dead is a bit of an overstatement for "has a year to go", but Nintendo has set the clock is ticking. Sometime between Q2-Q4 next year, the Wii will leave the spotlight completely.

Besides being an absolutely unique action game that flows almost perfectly (forced scanning ftw ) and is the most innovative "modern" implementation of a sidescroller I have seen.

In comes Spot Pass ghost sharing / challenges.

There won't be a track editor in this Mario Kart. Mark my words. :p The issue with editors like the one in LBP or Modnation Racers is, that they are rather complex software in themselves, that is to some extend separate from the core game. Nintendo is so conservative in the cost department, that are very unlikely to add a feature that demands so much dedicated development effort, unless they think it's absolutely necessary for the game's core experience. It wasn't for Mario Kart during the whole last decade and it won't be now. Even less, if they have to rush the game out this year and it seems this might be the case. A poor man's editor, like the one found in Smash Brothers, Excitebike 64 or Timesplitters 2 might be a possibility, but even that is unlikely. Now to something I consider more feasible and in the realm of possible enhancements for MK:3DS. I've though about Nintendo's Spot Pass stuff for a bit (Has it been used in any games so far?). I found racing ghosts in MK:Wii in order to unlock stuff surprisingly compelling. Until I had everything, that is. Shaving off tens of seconds from your times can be an addictive feature if you only have a bit of incentive. As far as I understand spot pass, the 3DS starts broadcasting and receiving general and game specific data once it is in range of a wireless access point. Getting ghosts data through street pass would be certainly nice, but permanently getting ghost data and lap records from everyone in the friend list sounds a lot more compelling. The simple exchange and displaying of the data wouldn't be enough though. I'm imagining something like subtle hint in the main menu, which notifies you whenever you've received new ghost data/lap records from someone (at best, there would also have to be a hint in the OS menu). Once you tap on the (in-game) hint for details, the game conveniently shows how your efforts compare to these times and who was responsible for beating your record. From there a button could directly lead you to the cart/driver selection and onto the track, where you are able to race your friend's ghosts. I'm sure this kind of asynchronous multiplayer could give the game quit a lot of long time appeal, even if Nintendo only manages to build an online component for racing mute strangers again. Edit: Now that I think about Spot Pass, it could be used for all kinds of great stuff, as long as the implementation is convenient and doesn't require you to bend backwards every time you want use it. Supposing they still have no notable communication features on the 3DS when MK releases, a kind of appointment system through spot pass might work wonders in terms of getting to race people from your friend list. Just allowing simple in-game announcements like "will be on tomorrow, from 20:00 to 21:00" that are distributed to everyone in the friendlist who owns the game might help. They cannot possibly believe their player base is willing to start a phone conference or organize through forums everytime they want to play together for half an hour...

Yes, the pointer and the Wiimote/Nunchuck combo is a case of ingenious controller design. Sadly, from what I've read and experienced within several horrible minutes of Red steel, shooters before Medal of Honor Heroes 2 didn't seem to get it. Motion Plus would have been a subtle help even here, as it could have helped to make the controls much smother when the pointer left the screen. It'd be a sad loss, if the pointer won't make it to the "Cafe" in some form.

Several seconds of remake glory, starting at 2:50

Doesn't anyone else think, that all Mario Kart needs beyond the usual racing and hopefully a solid battle mode, are finally good online features for racing with friends? Screw the track editor, screw the missions, just get the basics and online right for a change. I would have known the people to play the game with on the Wii, but not having a sensible battle mode and private races with convenient means of communication put me off even trying to race them. Racing mute people worked well enough in MK:Wii, but it was just that: racing mute people you might as well not know in Mario Kart. Takes out all the fun for me. What gets me, is that Nintendo might have the means to update the 3DS' OS with the functionality or build the functionality into the game itself, but if they're forced to rush the game out this year, it might just be another MK:Wii. Going by their track record, they might even ignore these flaws, even if they don't have to rush. I'll wait with the real whining until they show what they have in store for the 3DS, but I'm slightly pessimistic for now. If they get it right this time, this might well be the game I'll buy a 3DS for. If they don't, well, the 3DS will still be around if I wait another two years.

So, err.... What was Mr. Tretton saying about self respecting 20 somethings again? :p Not doing much multiplayer, the downtime of the PSN shouldn't be too much of a catastrophe. I had to realize though, that GT5 has the annoing-as-hell habit of asking you to log into PSN after every menu change. The game also thinks it's a good idea to show you a nice popup, asking kindly to upgrade to the newest version if you haven't done that, yet. In the middle of the race. >.<

I was rather scared of the black hands dropping from the ceiling at the time. I can remember they were in the forest temple and in the shadow temple. ^^ It was the same with the zombies. That piercing scream when you'd run into one's field of vision and the couple of seconds where you were stunned and could only watch how he crept up to Link and started to bite...

Personally (mostly) loving the Wii, but still thinking it belongs to the walking dead, due to the lacking third party support, where would that put me? It's a bit too early for a general "retrospective" thread, I believe, but as Caris said: Nintendo have basically set the countdown to the Wii's "death". Now it's a matter of letting it go with dignity and give it a few final releases. The time for new major projects on it has passed and it's a matter of releasing the projects still in development. Here is hoping Nintendo will finish up Skyward Sword in a more timely manner without delaying it infinitely again. I'd also like to see The Last Story localized besides Xenoblade. After a price drop and with a new Zelda to go with, the Wii should do fairly well in the holiday seasons this year. Despite me loving the Wii, I'm probably mostly excited that it will be succeeded fairly soon. It means Nintendo will have a chance to show that they learned from the aspects where the Wii failed. Hopefully they will provide third parties with an attractive platform this time, while still managing to push gaming into new directions. The one thing that I believe is more than a bit sad, is the state of motion controls at this point. Some things might have gone differently if Nintendo had managed to include gyros in the Wiimote from the start. The realization that motion control just isn't good for some things had inevitably set in at some point. But where they could really have been used in sensible ways by traditional games, they would have practically always required the precision offered by WiiMotion+. As it stands, few games successfully demonstrate what Motion controls can add. There are golfing and the Wii-sports games which fit very naturally with motion controls, but are sports/party games. There is Red Steel 2 which I'm not even interested in. Lastly, there will be Zelda Skyward Sword, which - by the looks from the GDC trailer - will be the first game using motion controls, that really proves their worth in a traditional genre.

I believe we're already seeing that to some extend. Sure, Epic's and Crytek's tech demos are still quiet far away from what the average person's gaming hardware can handle, but devs haven't exactly rushed to support the most potent gaming hardware available to them.

@Grazza Not that I did more than copy the gif's url from a neogaf thread. Anyway, I found out that Gimp can open and edit animated gifs. The animation has 64 frames and roughly checking it with the watch, I'd say it takes a bit longer than a second on my laptop, probably even without the 4 additional frames. The number of different positions of the balls are correct. The topmost ball has 60 different positions and the other two have 24. Bottom line: It might be a bit slower than it would be on a console/DVD, but it's a very accurate approximation nevertheless.

I have no means of disassembling the .gif and checking, but if it runs at 60 fps it should be no problem to simulate lower framerates realistically by duplicating frames of the "lower fps part" accordingly. That does however require it to run at 60fps without being slowed in some way.

Here is a pretty good comparison between 60fps animation and 24fps. No 30fps unfortunately:

It's not about processing the images so much with games as about processing the player's input. The only feedback you get to what you're doing with the controller are the images. So it makes a difference if the console processes and shows 24, 30 or 60 "updates" per second. For competitive and fast games (fighting games, online shooters) it's definitely desirable to have 60fps. Would be nice to have 60fps for everything on the 3DS. But realistically many games on all platforms but the PC only run at 30fps and no one ever complains. With Zelda being a single player game and not even a very action-oriented one at that, 30fps will be ok, as long as the framerate doesn't dip noticeably.

Either that or, you know, they can release at a price that's below the average gaming PC. They might even be able to make a profit of the machines - shock, horror! :p

Hey, if you're going to nitpick on the box art of all things, you could as well do it right.