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[Dreamwriter]

Considering the number of cars/buildings you can see being absolutely destroyed, yeah, I imagine game buying will take a backseat in the coming weeks/months.

Pretty terrifying that for all our technology we still can't predict such catastrophes.

To be fair for the most part the only cars/buildings destroyed were in the area affected by the tsunami, luckily most of the country won't be dealing with that stuff. The people stranded by lack of trains and the power outages, however, are a different story.

I bet some of those people are really rueing the 3DS battery life.

 

[poweld]

To be fair for the most part the only cars/buildings destroyed were in the area affected by the tsunami, luckily most of the country won't be dealing with that stuff. The people stranded by lack of trains and the power outages, however, are a different story.

I bet some of those people are really rueing the 3DS battery life.

Where is my goddamn :lol when I need it?

I guess I don't have a firm grasp on the damage wreaked on the country. Been a fairly busy day, so I haven't delved deeply into the news yet.

 

[friskykillface]

Dat blue/green, whatever color it is lol, looked like that to me when I played it at PAX, glad I pre-ordered that color, it really stands out, in a good way


Resident Evil: the mercenaries is godly , so fun, controls felt perfect to me, I want that at launch now

I'll play street fighter and most of the other games tomorrow, hopefully.

Hype is getting to it's max

Oh yeah, I played it on 4 hours of sleep and 3D on max, worked perfect, was afraid it wouldn't

 

[Londa]

Nintendo, put a side quest where Link gets the triforce and marries Zelda please. lol

 

[Father_Brain]

FYI, from NOA's Twitter:

Thanks for your concern! During the earthquake no one at Nintendo in Japan was injured and there was no apparent structural damage.

 

[Rich!]

Just 10 days left until I have my own PAL 3DS in my hands.

Oh man oh god oh man...

 

[Dreamwriter]

Just 10 days left until I have my own PAL 3DS in my hands.

Oh man oh god oh man...

Getting yours early?

 

[FINALFANTASYDOG]

FYI, from NOA's Twitter:

First I realize that talking about economics right after extreme times of tragedy seems incredibly improper, but need some way to relax when all that is on the news is death tolls and disaster.


People in Koyoto(Nintendo's headquarters location) didn't even feel the Quake.

Reading the business articles coming out of Japan right now, it was mainly heavily rural farmland areas that were heavily hit. Analysts are not expecting that large of an impact to the entire economy.

The question does head over to, in times of tragedy do people buy games? In terms of logistics: Game stores closer to the epicenter have been reporting that shipments have been stopped, they aren't receiving new stock for the weekend.

 

[AceBandage]

First I realize that talking about economics right after extreme times of tragedy seems incredibly improper, but need some way to relax when all that is on the news is death tolls and disaster.


People in Koyoto(Nintendo's headquarters location) didn't even feel the Quake.

Reading the business articles coming out of Japan right now, it was mainly heavily rural farmland areas that were heavily hit. Analysts are not expecting that large of an impact to the entire economy.

The question does head over to, in times of tragedy do people buy games? In terms of logistics: Game stores closer to the epicenter have been reporting that shipments have been stopped, they aren't receiving new stock for the weekend.

I'd think that entertainment spending would go up during times of crisis.
Escaping reality for short periods of time is a big part of coping.

 

[WillyFive]

I'd think that entertainment spending would go up during times of crisis.
Escaping reality for short periods of time is a big part of coping.

Yeah, but it won't be the same for those making the entertainment. Comedians and entertainers in the US went to almost a complete stop after 9/11.

It wasn't until a whole week after 9/11 that Letterman decided to air a show. After him, all the other shows stared to slowly return.

Maybe we will see a rise in business, but I still think rebuilding and relief will take the biggest share of activity in the economy.

 

[saucyminx]

i hear a lot of talk about pal and ntsc 3dseses but does this standard apply to self contained hand held video game units? does anyone know exactly how region locking will work, especially how many regions and how the market is divided? where does australia sit - i must know immediately or i can't pre-order.


God bless japan

 

[Truth101]

i hear a lot of talk about pal and ntsc 3dseses but does this standard apply to self contained hand held video game units? does anyone know exactly how region locking will work, especially how many regions and how the market is divided? where does australia sit - i must know immediately or i can't pre-order.


God bless japan

Europe/Australia
Japan
North America
South Korea

 

[trinest]

i hear a lot of talk about pal and ntsc 3dseses but does this standard apply to self contained hand held video game units? does anyone know exactly how region locking will work, especially how many regions and how the market is divided? where does australia sit - i must know immediately or i can't pre-order.


God bless japan

Regions are the same as the Wii. So: Japan, America, Europe & Australia, Korea.

 

[M3d10n]

I am 90% sure that their engine wasn't sufficiently tweaked to allow moving backgrounds and maintain a relatively stable frame rate. And I am referring to Capcom's engine and Capcom's tweaking. And I believe with more time this would probably have been overcome. For the time being we can act like these battles are taking place in a rift in the time space continuum.
Edit: And I am basing this off of my ass.

It's likely that in the console versions the background characters' animations were done without much regard for optimizations, since SSFIV obviously doesn't push as much polygons or CPU as many other PS360 games (you can only go so far in taxing the hardware in a 1 vs 1 2D fighter). I wouldn't be surprised if they used the same animation engine as the main characters.

With less resources to spare on the 3DS, the animated background characters probably turned out to use much more resources than they should, and while Capcom could probably have kept them by writing a different animation engine solely background stuff, they simply ran out of time.

Also gotta remember that with SSFIV3D Capcom did *two* port jobs: porting the MT Framework to the 3DS *and* porting SSFIV to the (new and likely very incomplete) MT Framework.

 

[abasm]

does anyone know exactly how region locking will work, especially how many regions and how the market is divided? where does australia sit - i must know immediately or i can't pre-order.

That's just it: we can't possibly know until the 3DS is available for purchase in multiple regions. It COULD just be the online store that's region-locked, as is the case with WiiWare and DSiWare. The actual gaming software might be left unlocked.

The games themselves might be locked on a per-game basis. Some companies may opt to leave their games region-unlocked.

...or, in the worst case scenario, everything is locked. We won't know until we can test games and systems of differing regions.

 

[Throwaway123456789]

Getting yours early?

Press copies are being sent out. I have mine already.

 

[M3d10n]

That's just it: we can't possibly know until the 3DS is available for purchase in multiple regions. It COULD just be the online store that's region-locked, as is the case with WiiWare and DSiWare. The actual gaming software might be left unlocked.

The games themselves might be locked on a per-game basis. Some companies may opt to leave their games region-unlocked.

...or, in the worst case scenario, everything is locked. We won't know until we can test games and systems of differing regions.

The regions are very likely to mirror Wii regions. Aren't Australian Wii's coded with the same region as Europe?

 

[Zane]

Press copies are being sent out. I have mine already.

UK or NA press copies? Hopefully I get my NA one soon.

 

[marc^o^]

3D doubters won't like this new webcast: http://www.gamexplain.com/article-3...t-zelda-3d-kid-icarus-uprising-and-more-.html

From gameplay enhancements to prefering 3D to 2D flat graphics, impressions are awesome. Everything about the 3DS is covered here, most interesting and comprehensive impressions I've heard so far.

 

[Cyborg]

How much did it sell in Japan? When I see the weekly reports no 3DS game is on top. Is true your eyes start to hurt if you play it longer than 30 min?

 

[JoshuaJSlone]

How much did it sell in Japan? When I see the weekly reports no 3DS game is on top.

It's pretty rare for launch games to top the lists--the new system's userbase is necessarily dwarfed by the other machines. I mean, we're still in the time when there are twice as many Xbox 360s in Japan as 3DSes.

In its first two weeks, 3DS sold between what Wii and original DS did. GBA still seems to be launch king.

 

[UncleSporky]

Is true your eyes start to hurt if you play it longer than 30 min?

Different for every person but generally no. You can even turn the 3D way down and it should affect you less.

 

[mclem]

Is true your eyes start to hurt if you play it longer than 30 min?

I can't be sure of this until I have a system in my hands, but I suspect the situation is this:

If you're used to focussing on a different position to the apprent focal point (After using magic eye pictures a lot, or cross-eyed stereoscopic pairs), you'll probably have little issue with adapting that skill to 3DS use in an appropriate manner. If you've no experience of that, it'll probably take practice to get comfortable with it.

Again, I have no experience with the 3DS directly. I do know that magic eye pictures did hurt my eyes after a bit, but practice made them fine. The principle is slightly different - Magic Eye pictures you focus at the depth of the image, not at the page, 3DS you focus at the depth of the screen, not at the depth of the image - so there may be nuances there, but I suspect the brain can be trained equally easily.

The human brain is smart. I recall stories of experiments where people were given glasses which made them view the world upside down, and after a fairly short period of exposure to this the brain had interpreted the images correctly and as far as they were concerned, everything looked normal to them.


Edit: Ah, Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perceptual_adaptation

Disclaimer: This could still be a load of rubbish.

 

[Lee N]

3D doubters

Wait... what?

 

[mclem]

Wait... what?

Depth is a lie!

 

[gkryhewy]

Ah, Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perceptual_adaptation

Disclaimer: This could still be a load of rubbish.

I think your point about adaptation is a good one (people who do have problems in the first few days will have them to a lesser degree as they adjust), but I'm not sure the stare-e-o-gram / magic eye analogy is a great one. For those things, eyes are asked to do something they don't naturally do. Stereoscopic 3D movies are a better analogy.

 

[mclem]

For those things, eyes are asked to do something they don't naturally do.

I *think* the reason for people's eyes aching is because their eyes naturally attempt to focus at the percieved depth of the image, which would cause it to go *out* of focus, which their brain would then compensate for.

So the eyes are constantly being asked to change focus because the brain doesn't immediately understand why focussing isn't working any more, and I think it's *that* which is "something they don't naturally do", and *that* which causes the eyestrain/headaches.

You're right in that stereoscopic 3D movies may fit as a better analogy, though, although I thought that the difference in focal points at a screen at range would be less significant than the difference in focal points at one quite close to you. I guess the depth slider would alleviate that, though.

 

[Lee N]

Depth is a lie!

That's a pretty shallow thing to say.

 

[BowieZ]

3D doubters

depthers

 

[swerve]

I've not had any incidents of headaches or eye-strain from 3DS, despite hours of daily use for two weeks now. There are of course different levels of sensitivity - I've never had any reason to use anything other than FULL 3D POWER on the volume slider, but I have shown many friends who instantly freak out on seeing 3D photos, perhaps *thinking* it must be doing them damage even if it isn't. There are many people who will say 'oh, turn it off' straight away or very quickly, rather than adjusting.

For those people, the 3D slider will help. I've only turned 3D off when playing with other people watching. I also have no problem keeping the 3D view whilst moving the machine around for the AR games/face shooting.

All-in-all, the 3D is a job well done for me.

 

[marc^o^]

I've not had any incidents of headaches or eye-strain from 3DS, despite hours of daily use for two weeks now. There are of course different levels of sensitivity - I've never had any reason to use anything other than FULL 3D POWER on the volume slider, but I have shown many friends who instantly freak out on seeing 3D photos, perhaps *thinking* it must be doing them damage even if it isn't. There are many people who will say 'oh, turn it off' straight away or very quickly, rather than adjusting.

For those people, the 3D slider will help. I've only turned 3D off when playing with other people watching. I also have no problem keeping the 3D view whilst moving the machine around for the AR games/face shooting.

All-in-all, the 3D is a job well done for me.

After 2 weeks with 3D, would you miss it if your turned it off? I read previews saying graphics feel flat and lifeless once you put the slider down.

 

[idwl]

how's the viewing angle on 2D mode?

 

[Lee N]

how's the viewing angle on 2D mode?

It's on par with the DSi XL I'd say.

 

[idwl]

It's on par with the DSi XL I'd say.

I'm assuming thats a good thing? Never seen a DSi XL

 

[angelfly]

Capcom sent out another Spot Pass notice. This time it's level 7 E. Honda.

 

[Jackano]

After 2 weeks with 3D, would you miss it if your turned it off? I read previews saying graphics feel flat and lifeless once you put the slider down.

Indeed 3D is something you quickly get used to. Going back to 2D is not difficult, but you feel like there is something missing. Even if I barely never set the 3D depth slider to its maximum, I turn 3D off only when I want to quickly show new game content like a new toy in Nintendogs+cats to my friends.

 

[VOOK]

Got another SpotPass trophy for SSFIV3D today... haven't redeemed it yet.

 

[345triangle]

I've not had any incidents of headaches or eye-strain from 3DS, despite hours of daily use for two weeks now. There are of course different levels of sensitivity - I've never had any reason to use anything other than FULL 3D POWER on the volume slider, but I have shown many friends who instantly freak out on seeing 3D photos, perhaps *thinking* it must be doing them damage even if it isn't. There are many people who will say 'oh, turn it off' straight away or very quickly, rather than adjusting.

For those people, the 3D slider will help. I've only turned 3D off when playing with other people watching. I also have no problem keeping the 3D view whilst moving the machine around for the AR games/face shooting.

All-in-all, the 3D is a job well done for me.

for me, the 3D just flat-out doesn't work at full volume. i'm accustomed to the effect now to the point where i don't feel sick or anything, but i never turn it up beyond halfway because it doesn't look good - so yeah, everyone's mileage is different. also 3D photos don't use the slider beyond a binary on/off

thankfully the system looks good in 2D mode regardless.

 

[swerve]

After 2 weeks with 3D, would you miss it if your turned it off?

No. I don't mean that in a negative way, it's outstandingly cool to have it, and it can clearly greatly enhance the style and look of a game, but the only game I have seen running which looks to suffer from loss of 3D is Kid Icarus. Even the 3D mode in SF4 isn't as dependent on the 3D effect to work as people had suggested - it just looks cooler that way.

So far, I'd say I'm very, very pleased that they introduced 3D in this way, but I am much more pleased that they have done so much cool shit with StreetPass, which is far and away the most compelling feature of the 3DS for me. It works so well, and is so addictive, that they really have a shot at getting people (kids, and kid-like adults) to take their 3DS everywhere.

 

[Yoschi]

3D doubters won't like this new webcast: http://www.gamexplain.com/article-3...t-zelda-3d-kid-icarus-uprising-and-more-.html

From gameplay enhancements to prefering 3D to 2D flat graphics, impressions are awesome. Everything about the 3DS is covered here, most interesting and comprehensive impressions I've heard so far.

If you wanna see the 3d, buy your own stupid system! hahaha

 

[Lonely1]

So, has anyone tested the max battery life we can get out of the system? (Like with brightness at comfortable low, 3D and wireless off).

 

[Snaku]

God bless japan

How can people say shit like this given recent events?

 

[Gravijah]

How can people say shit like this given recent events?

I would think given recent events now is the best time to say something like that. With a different context of course.

 

[swerve]

So, has anyone tested the max battery life we can get out of the system? (Like with brightness at comfortable low, 3D and wireless off).

No, I have just used it as I am going to use it. It seems to stay on full charge longer than it stays on lower bars, which can be irritating, but it only got to red on me once, with genuine usage pattern. Taking on bus, using at work, playing in bed, playing on couch... I have a USB cable so when I'm at my PC it sits on its cradle, but I have no reason to think it would need more than nightly charging for usual use even without that.

I use it on brightness 4 of 5, with power save mode on. I always have wireless on, but rarely have the audio volume up for long.

 

[VOOK]

Let me prefix this by saying, I've never been a Street Fighter fan, nor am I a hardcore player of the game - I just like playing it. But, and I know it's a port but SSFIV3D feels the most '3DS' and complete game so far that I've played. (And I've played everything 3DS except for Layton).

It's got the whole arcade modes, StreetPass stuff, full online modes (and lagless everytime I've played), figure trading, the standard 2D and new 3D mode, sends me new things via SpotPass to let me know it exists, the presentation is ace, graphics great, 3D effect great, music and sound good - I am really impressed. It's made a game I don't really play into something I do.

 

[Lee N]

SSFIV3D feels the most '3DS' and complete game so far that I've played.

Yeah, Capcom did a really good job with it - and the fact that they managed to have something this complete and polished available at launch makes it even more impressive. I remember being caught by surprised when they announced that it was a launch title as I totally didn't expect that.

 

[Neuromancer]

So I ordered an iPad 2 online, it says 2 to 3 weeks. Watch I get it within a day or two of the 3DS. I wish Apple and Nintendo had coordinated their releases a little better so my only two gadget purchases of the year were a little more spread apart. :lol

 

[Celine]

Let me prefix this by saying, I've never been a Street Fighter fan, nor am I a hardcore player of the game - I just like playing it. But, and I know it's a port but SSFIV3D feels the most '3DS' and complete game so far that I've played. (And I've played everything 3DS except for Layton).

It's got the whole arcade modes, StreetPass stuff, full online modes (and lagless everytime I've played), figure trading, the standard 2D and new 3D mode, sends me new things via SpotPass to let me know it exists, the presentation is ace, graphics great, 3D effect great, music and sound good - I am really impressed. It's made a game I don't really play into something I do.

Can't wait for mine

 

[Boney]

Can't wait for mine

Same here.

 

[Jest]

Does anyone have the "Hori 3DS Protector" ?

Is it a clear plastic case that goes on the bottom and top? or is it something like a screen protector but for the top and bottom of the console, similar to the ZAGG invisbleSHIELD's for iPods and stuff?