Burny

Yeah, those lucky core games, that routinely sell more than 20 mil. units should really be launch titles instead. All three of them. It would appear, that this evil casual game has found itself a niche larger than most of the core game's market.

Street Fighter IV isn't major? I don't like fighting games at all, so this wouldn't be a title I'd buy a 3DS for. It's still a portable 3D version of a home console game of this generation which uses a lot of the 3DS' major features. The most effective thing to do would be to collectively not buy the thing. Looking at customer behavior today though, fat chance.

Let's hope they use the cash they're going to make of a 250€ gaming handheld to skip the bronze age. Codes to identify people online are alright in themselves. "Burny" seems to be a rather common nickname, so people like me don't have to resort to means like leetspeak. :p The only thing I'm slightly worried about is, that their press release makes it sound as if the code is tied to the 3DS system itself. Not sure if that's the case, but if it is, they haven't gotten the online system quite right yet. What would be with people who buy every revision of the hardware? Do they have to communicate a new friend code to all the people in their friendlist? Same when the 3DS breaks.

They're not Valve. They've just left the stone age of internet use and take every cent they can get or save in development / maintenance cost over the convenience of their users.

Both are explanations and both may be the case, at the very least for movie stuff. Another explanation for the Shop and DSiWare transfers might be they're holding stuff back. If the shop and transfers are opened only weeks or a month after release that is pretty certainly the case, as these things can't possibly be implemented and tested out within that timespan. That's nothing to do with a rushed release though. At least not rushed any more than other releases are. Good software is maintained and extended all the time. If they waited until they had developed all possible features in their OS before release, they might as well never release at all. 4 million units at a worldwide launch, numerous press and public events (even if the EU presentation yesterday was mostly piss poor) and a tight release schedule until E3 aren't exactly rushed. When the software that's preinstalled on the system or can be bought at release is unstable, crashes, bricks systems etc., that's a rushed release. We'll only know that though, when people get their hands on the thing. Tbh. if I was in their position, I'd hold back as many features as possible. What is it, that Nintendo gains from having some Gameboy games on the virtual handheld at launch and no 3DSWare available? Either they divert attention of those people, who are willing to pay the launch price for the expensive launch retail games or the shop goes pretty much unnoticed. They can as well take their time holding back or finishing the shop and then make a bit more of a spectacle out of it, when they update it into the system. Preferably with some software available.

Wait and see. It seems 3DS games will be able to rival or surpass Wii games in complexity and we know now, that the online system will easily beat the one on the Wii in terms of connectivity with friends. The 3DS might well end up becoming the console Nintendo focus all their efforts on within the next two or three years. I'd just wait a year or two until it's a bit more matured. Concerning hardware revisions: Nintendo are the only ones who haven't done that with their home console. In the mobile gaming sector it's pretty much a revision per year. The one thing you can count on, is that future revisions of Nintendo's handhelds won't introduce features, that make new games unplayable on old revisions or old ones unplayable on new consoles (PSP Go anyone?). With game prices as high as 40-50€ they'd be shooting themselves into the foot. It's the same as with all consoles, really. As an early adopter, you pay more, have less games to chose from and will likely be presented with a slicker version of the device once the dust has settled and they look for ways to keep up the momentum. Might be. I'd rather have them release with less features than promised and update more features into it over it's lifetime. Otherwise it'll be like the Wii's "OS", which has effectively a frozen feature set while the XBox and XMB on the PS3 have evolved heavily over their lifetime.

ONE thing from the official press release: So yeah, still no hardware independent accounts... With the LED showing when someone comes online and stuff it's still three steps up for Nintendo's standards. Like the price...

Nope. It's embedded into the homepage. Just hit "Chat" at the bottom of the banner.

I'm positively reminded of all the cheesy weapons in Perfect Dark. Secondary fire: become invisible, shoot through walls? I'm actually starting to develop interest in this...

It even had a relaunch recently, to make it less rubbish.

And at the same time globally, if I remember correctly. Chances are those are "parallel" events.

Whoever of the Nintendo officials is there, if it turns out they haven't improved the friend code / online account system drastically, make sure you run up to them and kick them into the balls from me. Although I'm still hopeful Nintendo has already realized they're doing themselves no favor with the current system.

Do you think you'll have the opportunity to ask someone official a couple of questions or will you just be playing? Otherwise just have fun.

They have been around Christmas in the last two years. Additionally there are week-end sales every week, where you'll sometimes get real bargains. Just check out the "specials" section of the Steam store every Friday. I believe there were also summer sales last year? Otherwise you'll get sales on special occasions and with a bit of patience you'll find both L4Ds cheap. I got both for around 10€ last October.

Nothing I suppose? As long as you'll find people who'll buy the PS3 version without the Steam code. Edit: Unless the Steam code is required to activate the online portion of the PS3 game and connect your Steam account to your PSN account, of course. That should be a pretty safe method for preventing people to take advantage of this. Not sure if this will result in an outcry from the PC crowd, although fans tend to find reasons to cry about anything. Portal 2 seems only to feature cooperative multiplayer, doesn't it? In that case the disparity between gamepad and keyboard+mouse controls won't have much of an impact. It would be a bit different, if gamepad players got thrown in a competitive game like Counterstrike. You'd have console gamers complaining about being matched against PC gamers and PC gamers complaining about their teams being dragged down by console gamers.

Can't help you with this, but if you don't mind me asking, what exactly is the point in upgrading your laptop's processor? You've already got a dual core 64bit CPU at 2+GHz clock. Chances are that you won't gain too much processing power, even if you could easily replace the processor. I'm not informed about laptop mainboards, but with desktop CPUs you can't stick any CPU on any mainboard. So, even if it's possible, you probably won't be able to upgrade to any core i processor you want. If you'll have to exchange the mainboard, you can as well go and buy something new for all it's worth. What use would a slightly more powerful processor in your Laptop even be? The thing is already overpowered for practically any office task. If you want to heavily work with video editing that thing is the wrong (underpowered) tool for the task anyway. And in order to play recent games, a faster processor alone won't help you, as long as you're stuck with a mobile middle class graphics card and a fairly high display resolution.

Sadly, I've only played it a bit past the introduction you mention, bet Retro Link has summarized it already. Story and action picks up a lot after the introduction, when the colony goes to the dogs. I'm keeping it for a cooperative playthrough. Lot's of high quality voice acting and quite well executed scripted sequences as far as I could tell. If you didn't pay more than I did (13 pounds with shipping to Germany), you were certainly not ripped of. Eurocom thankfully got another chance with Goldeneye and the really made it great.

Currently playing: Epic Mickey On my way to the haunted mansion. It definitely gets a lot better starting from the moment you finally get to Oswald, although this game could've been a lot more than it is. Currently on hold: New Super Mario Brothers Wii Stopped halfway through world 6. Will get back to it after Epic Mickey. Goldeneye 007 Finished the single player on the lowest difficulty. Difficulty is automatically lowered when you don't meet all required mission objectives, so I just moved on after the first level. Only finished the three dam levels on 007 classic, but might try a few more levels on that difficulty. Lost Winds Winter of Melodias Stopped halfway through. Will get back to it later. Very relaxing and cute. LIT Halfway through. Nice puzzle game. Not sure when I will go back to it. Onslaught Nice for a bit of mindless shooting. Not sure I'll finish it, as Goldeneye on 007 classic appeals a bit more. Stuff on the shelves I've hardly touched, but will play eventually: Zack & Wiki Dead Space Extraction Resident Evil 4 Smash Brothers Brawl VC stuff on the SD card I still have to play / finish: Majora's Mask The original N64 game belonged to my brother and I never finished it. Stopped in the last of the four temples. Need to set that right, as I even prefered it to Ocarina of Time back then. A Link to the Past Doesn't draw me in as much as more recent games. Still want to finish it. Secret of Mana Would like to finish it, but not sure I will. I consider this a cooperative game, but when we had a couple of people together, we always played other things (Mario Kart).

Does anyone else think that a Metroid in the style of Other M would be absolutely ace on the 3DS? With the fixed camera angles throughout the levels the and the 3d screen, it should really be able to make the architecture pop: Add the 3DS's capability to compute normal mapping and superior lightning effects compared to the Wii... They would just have to think of something for using the rockets. Using the 3DS's motion sensors? I'd certainly prefer a more standard layout to flailing around the 3DS, but with Nintendo, you never know.

If you consider it awkward to hold a direction button down instead of constantly pushing a joystick in one direction, the only advise you can get is: Get over it. Any gamer with average motor skills should be able to handle this naturally within minutes. Also, the question isn't why they couldn't have used the nunchuck, but why they didn't want to, as the whole game is build around the wiimote without the nunchuck. Using the d-pad doesn't add anything. In the contrary, it takes away the smoothness of movement you get with joysticks. It makes movement in Other M extremely sharp. Samus either stands still or she flies through the levels. I'd say it worked a lot better than in Super Metroid or Fusion (didn't play the other 2d ones). Using different shoulder buttons to aim diagonally up or down and having to cycle through weapons with Select was replaced with mechanics, that just seemed to better fit into the whole flow of the game. The main "quest" just went a bit too linear in comparison to Super Metroid...

That's the complaint about Other M I can understand the least. I've played third person adventure type of games with analog stick controls and I could still practically play Other M in my sleep. What's the issue with the d-pad? It's not like you have to sneak diagonally anywhere in the game. The way the controls are handled with the d-pad and fixed camera angles is still what I consider the most impressive part of the game.

Or you want to play Pokemon Black/White using a WPA encrypted network, but have no DSi and see no point in getting one now.

Why? As darksnwoman said, that "bloatedness" should only be welcome if the game heavily relies on online races. If anything, I'd like them to blow it up with even more recognizable characters. I wouldn't mind having as many drivers as there are characters in Smash Brothers. At least the characters don't bloat the balance: three weight classes and that's it. Beyond that it's just a different model, different animations and different sounds. With cars and bikes you're right, MK Wii was hopelessly bloated. To many different vehicles to make them all useful and still distinguishable, and far too weak karts in comparison to bikes. :-/

That's most certainly not due to the lack of opportunities for people to fall of the course when they are hit at the right time.

I'm in the same boat concerning price. At 200€ I might even consider picking one up at or close to launch. But everything points to a higher price and I don't have hopes for anything below 250€. At that price I would still want more than a glorified DS however, especially as game prices seem to increase with higher development costs. DS games have been far to expensive at retail around here, IMO. They are usually 35€, no matter what games they are. Given that NSMBW, SMG2 and the likes release at 40€, that makes smaller DS games seem a bit overpriced already.