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Metroid Prime Hunters interview

INTERNET said:
So yanking a network cable or turning off a modem or router won't affect your dropped percentage? That is pretty hard to do though, I'm sure no one would do such a thing.
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Put
alu1.jpg

around the
nintendo_ds_2.jpg

for some time.

Or
exit.jpg

your house...
 
Well obviously there's going to be some way of getting around it, but it's nice to weed out the idiots that just shut their system off when they're losing.
 
INTERNET said:
So yanking a network cable or turning off a modem or router won't affect your dropped percentage? That is pretty hard to do though, I'm sure no one would do such a thing.
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Well to be fair there's no way to distinguish accidental disconnects from deliberate disconnection by doing what you said. It's just something all online games have to deal with.

Personally I feel a way that it could be dealt with is to force people with large amount of disconnects to play with people of low skill/ranking. Since more often than not the ones with low rankings are going to be your droppers. And if not a dropper that some newbie... this would punish droppers by hurting their OWN gameplay experience and not others. Just a thought, may not work well in practice.
 
I'll choose my words carefully so I don't go overboard with my optimism for this game, but I think there is a 99% chance that Metroid Prime Hunters will be the greatest game ever released in all of history (past or future) and may change the face of mankind for the better.
 
Haleon said:
I'll choose my words carefully so I don't go overboard with my optimism for this game, but I think there is a 99% chance that Metroid Prime Hunters will be the greatest game ever released in all of history (past or future) and may change the face of mankind for the better.
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Try being more careful next time.
 
More impressions from ToastyFrog

Oh, and for those who complained about the lack of the traditional evacuation sequence in Prime: apparently Hunters has an escape sequence on each of the eight planets you visit. This is an application of the principle of "careful what you ask for."
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The Wi-Fi Connection service has some impressive stat tracking (the typical wins and losses, but also things like headshots). Most importantly, it tracks how many wi-fi matches you weasel out of. You're not penalized if you're dropped by a bad connection, but if you cheap out and drop a losing match, everyone will know.
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I've got to say that I'm really impressed with the quality of the WFC connection. Four player matches, even in a room full of wildly screaming wireless signals, demonstrate no lag, and there's no apparent slowdown in the engine. Hunters pushes the fastest, smoothest 3D graphics I've seen on the DS, and having three other jackasses shooting at me all at once doesn't seem to have any effect on the framerate.
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Mashing said:
Well to be fair there's no way to distinguish accidental disconnects from deliberate disconnection by doing what you said. It's just something all online games have to deal with.
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Yeah but well, I don't care if his connection gets f*cked up accidentially or by intention. When I see in someone's profile that he doesn't finish 60% of his games, I'd rather play someone else, no matter what the reason is.
 
The Wi-Fi Connection service has some impressive stat tracking (the typical wins and losses, but also things like headshots). Most importantly, it tracks how many wi-fi matches you weasel out of. You're not penalized if you're dropped by a bad connection, but if you cheap out and drop a losing match, everyone will know.
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This is useless if the game matches you up with random people like in Mario Kart. I would like some more info on how the WiFi hub works.
 
Everyone's favorite baldy Craig from IGN is posting impressions as he plays the game. Sounds great. I can't wait.

Right now I'm sitting at Nintendo's headquarters in Redmond, WA watching a demonstration on the final build of Metroid Prime: Hunters. We're currently being led through the single player portion, and man is it looking good. NST's said that they recently ran through the single player adventure and clocked it, putting it just shorter than the time it takes to complete the original Metroid Prime on the GameCube.

I just saw a little slowdown in the boss battle with someone called "Spire", but nothing tremendously obnoxious.

The introduction to boss battles use dual-screen FMV similar to the trailers used in the demo from 2004. Multi camera and single display. Really slick.

Now, we're into the multiplayer aspect. The game actually has a "bark mode" like Nintendogs called "Rival Radar." Snag someone's profile in this mode and you can actually track your rival's progress over the Nintendo Wifi network.

The multiplayer modes include Survival, Bounty, Defender, Capture, Prime Hunter, and Nodes. There are, according to the demo, 19 different arenas to choose from. Lots of options to set before the battle: turn on or off the radar to see enemies on the lower screen, turn on or off friendly fire, adjust the level of damage shots give on an enemy. You can also set up what type of weapons to use during the match.

Everyone gets a "Hunters License" in Metroid Prime Hunters Wi-fi Connection. It keeps track of the Wi-fi wins/loss record, and lets people know who keeps dropping a game with a "connection history" percentage, reducing the percentage from 100% if they hit the power switch during a battle -- if the connection is accidentally lost, it won't affect that number. Nice.

Now we're into Voice over IP. It's like a walkie talkie, holding A to send the message. Sounds great. You can also instant message using an on-screen keyboard.

Heh, they're now showing a in-house video of the NST team playing Metroid Prime Hunters. Goofy stuff.

Now we're into the NintendoWifi.com link, features. The site will track data such as win streak, kill streak, headshots, who their favorite hunter is, who their favorite rivals are, how long they've spent on the WiFi network. It tracks how frequent you've used each hunter in battle. There will be a comparative leaderboard that stacks you up against your friends and rivals.

Metroid Prime Hunters has a microsite, launched yesterday. "www.metroidhunters.com". They're walking us through it right now, but since you can see what I'm seeing, there's no point writing about this.

We're now in a break. Reggie will be chatting it up with us in a few minutes, unfortunately no filming's allowed. Bummer.

Reggie just walked in, so we'll be starting back up in just a moment. They're doing a drawing for a Crystal Samus, very rare. I doubt I'll win. Penny Arcade just did. Fix!

CrankyIGN just logged onto Nintendo Wi-Fi with Metroid Prime Hunters. You may be able to see that on the www.nintendowifi.com site.

Just played some grueling matchups over the Wi-Fi network. First of all, the Voice over IP works like a champ, and there's very little delay between someone talking and others receiving the voice...like a quarter of a second. It's live chat -- the microphone simply goes live and broadcasts when someone presses the X button. Only one person can speak at a time, though...the speakers turn off when you hold the button down.

We played standard deathmatch with the point system, as well as Prime Hunter mode. This mode's pretty slick -- each player's on even terms until someone kills someone else. When this happens, they become the Prime Hunter. Their health continuously depletes, and can only be replenished if they kill someone in this mode. The idea is to stay the Prime Hunter for as long as possible (our match was set at 1:30 for the win).

The playtime is still going on, and at 12:30 we'll be interviewing NST for a video feature.
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http://boards.ign.com/Message.aspx?topic=111286614&brd=7594

Crystal Samus is the new R.O.B.? Awesome :D

*dances*

I cannot wait for this game. OMG
 
i posted that in first page, and btw, what do they mean by crystal samus? i thought it was just a little crystal statue of her...
 
"
Now we're into Voice over IP. It's like a walkie talkie, holding A to send the message. Sounds great. You can also instant message using an on-screen keyboard."

this is what I've been wanting to know for the longest time :D I figured it would be strange to have only have voice chatting and no typing, in case the mic doesn't pick up what you're saying well enough.
 
Impressions from Jeremy Parish:

So, I'm blogging from deep within the bowels of Nintendo's Redmond, WA headquarters, leeching their delicious bandwidth as Nintendo Software Technologies tells us about Metroid Prime Hunters.

It's a first-person shooter, folks! More details to follow.

Actually, right now they're showing off the single-player mode, which they claim is very slightly shorter than the campaign mode in the first Metroid Prime. They're demoing the game with an overhead projector, which makes the graphics look a whole lot worse than they really are -- DS 3D doesn't work too well at anything more than about 2.5 inches. Adjusted for the actual screen dimensions I'm sure it'll look smashing, though. I do feel terrible for anyone here with motion sickness.

There was talk long ago of an N64 Metroid, which never came to light. I figured it was for the best, but Hunters -- running on what amounts to a portable N64 -- suggests that maybe Prime on N64 technology could have been pretty impressive. Albeit really blurry.

Oh, and for those who complained about the lack of the traditional evacuation sequence in Prime: apparently Hunters has an escape sequence on each of the eight planets you visit. This is an application of the principle of "careful what you ask for."

More impressions as they show off more of the game.


Multiplayer (11:05): There are six different multiplayer modes, which are all pretty much your usual deathmatch/CTF affairs. So if you like killing other people instead of AI-controlled objects, this should be portable heaven.

The Wi-Fi Connection service has some impressive stat tracking (the typical wins and losses, but also things like headshots). Most importantly, it tracks how many wi-fi matches you weasel out of. You're not penalized if you're dropped by a bad connection, but if you cheap out and drop a losing match, everyone will know.

Also, the VOIP seems pretty decent... and it only works with people who have shared friend codes with you. No chatting with "rivals" (people you play without a friend code exchange) and other strangers. So your precious ears are safe from the abuses of horrible jerks on the Internet. Except the ones you like.


Nintendo seems to be putting in a lot more effort into the Wi-Fi hub page for Hunters than with the previous games. Mario Kart DS was pretty much perfunctory, and Animal Crossing was even more minimal, but the Hunters page seems designed to appease the raging egos of competitive online types. There's a ton of stat tracking, including Hunter preference, how many Morph Ball forms you rack up, etc. There's also a big lump of friend features (links to friends' friends and other stalker-friendly technologies that should give parents groups plenty to yowl about).

Edit (11:53): Sadly, Reggie bailed before I had a chance to play him, but I do believe Mark got in a few headshots. The multiplayer feels pretty solid, although I need to get used to the controls. I keep coming in second place because I end up playing some Nintendo employee who shows off by running around without shooting until his gets down to his last life and then goes on the offensive, racking up a brutal killing spree. Developers are so merciless when it comes to their own games.

And no, I didn't ask anyone from the Treehouse if Mother 3 will be converted into Earthbound 2. But we did discuss our mutual terror of the series' hivemind cult.

Edit (12:39): I've got to say that I'm really impressed with the quality of the WFC connection. Four player matches, even in a room full of wildly screaming wireless signals, demonstrate no lag, and there's no apparent slowdown in the engine. Hunters pushes the fastest, smoothest 3D graphics I've seen on the DS, and having three other jackasses shooting at me all at once doesn't seem to have any effect on the framerate.

The voice over IP sound quality is surprisingly good, too -- not quite up to the level of a solid cell-phone connection, but still good. Talking into the microphone is pretty inconvenient during battling, so it's a good thing it doesn't support VOIP during matches, eh?

Edit (1:55): Yay, 100 nerds who had garlic for lunch makes for a fun closed-room environment.

Hunters multiplayer isn't really my main interest, but it's pretty much the major focus. In addition to a 10-hour (ish) solo campaign, the game has seven MP modes:

* Battle: Your usual deathmatch; try to get a lot of kills within a set time.
* Survival: A last man standing sort of thing -- everyone gets a set number of lives and whoever has some left when everyone else is out wins. This was the first mode I tried, and I was far and away the winner. But only because I wasn't playing anyone from Nintendo... they're evil.
* Prime Hunter: The first person to score a kill becomes the "prime hunter," which means they slowly begin losing life. The only want to recharge is to kill more and more -- which also makes the prime hunter more powerful. Whoever kills the prime hunter takes over. Very Aeon Flux.
* Bounty: "Almost like football," NST says. Everyone is out to claim possession of a single crystal, which means whoever picks it up becomes a moving target. In elementary school they called this "smear the queer," but hopefully our species has evolved beyond such pettiness.
* Capture: A bigger version of bounty in which everyone tries to collect as many crystals as possible. Once you grab a crystal you can't transform into a Morph Ball, which apparently is supposed to be a major component of Hunters' strategy.
* Defender: Your usual king of the hill.
* Nodes: A territory thing involving rings on the floor and trying to take control of as much as possible. They didn't show this off so I'm pretty unclear on how it all works.
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wow awesome, it's like nintendo finally realize how to make a good online game :D about fucking time.
 
Does anybody know if there is a button to exchange friend codes with people you enjoyed playing in the random matchups? Or if you just have to type it out in the post match chats?
 
GreenGlowingGoo said:
Does anybody know if there is a button to exchange friend codes with people you enjoyed playing in the random matchups? Or if you just have to type it out in the post match chats?
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From what I understand, you have to be friends already in order to chat in the first place -- text or voice.
 
Sounds fucking awesome. Too bad the download kiosks won't have an upgraded playable demo for download.
 
Mejilan said:
Sounds fucking awesome. Too bad the download kiosks won't have an upgraded playable demo for download.
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too bad it seems there only one so far lol. your lucky you live near it.
 
The demo kiosks will be hitting most major retailers sometime in March. I just have the benefit of being close to a store that got one early. :)
 
GreenGlowingGoo said:
Does anybody know if there is a button to exchange friend codes with people you enjoyed playing in the random matchups? Or if you just have to type it out in the post match chats?
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Animal crossing has an add button for people who end up in a town you are in that you don't have on your list yet, so I'd be surprised if Metroid didn't (especially since they could just recycle the code it uses in bark mode, and send the code over WFC)
 
the androgyne said:
I'd just assume EAD's games were simply rushed for the christmas sales period.
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w/e as long as they learn from what they did, and make Revs online games kick ass (smash!)

you can screw up online on some ds games... but not rev games.
 
I thought this game was going to be shit and was a horrible humiliation to the Metroid name. it appears I was very wrong, Nintendo seems to have prove me wrong :D saw the videos at IGN this game is hotter than a yakuzi filled with Jessica Alba clones... well maybe not that hot, but well you get the picture. I can't wait to play against ya guys just like when MKDS came :P
 
I am impressed beyond belief. I cannot freaking wait.

At first I was bummed that the game wouldn't support 6-8 players over WiFi, but since it's more of a hardware issue I don't care anymore. The game will still be the finest kind of sex (and the only one I know): in the palm of my hands.
 
I wonder if they're lying about it being almost as long as MP (in singleplayer).

Is it true that DSL doesn't come with a thumbstrap? Does anyone remember if it has a place to attach a wriststrap at all?
 
AdmiralViscen said:
I wonder if they're lying about it being almost as long as MP (in singleplayer).

Is it true that DSL doesn't come with a thumbstrap? Does anyone remember if it has a place to attach a wriststrap at all?
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I imagine it would. Hell, I ordered spare thumbstraps from NoA's website and attached them to my GBA SP v2 and GB Micro! I can't imagine the DSL lacking a fixture.
 
Mejilan said:
I imagine it would. Hell, I ordered spare thumbstraps from NoA's website and attached them to my GBA SP v2 and GB Micro! I can't imagine the DSL lacking a fixture.
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im afraid not. it comes with a strap, but no thumb pad as you can see here

DSC03461.jpg


lol, i was just looking for my thumbstrap after i read the hands on, but cant find it so now im ording from NoA.
 
Where is that damn What what what dog gif when you need it!

No Thumbstrap! *jumps up and down on the spot*

:(
 
Really stupid decision. With the slimmer size and lighter weight of the DSL, the strap will be twice as easy to use.

I'll have to buy an extra one, I guess. Do they come in colors other than black?
 
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