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Nintendo E3 2006 Conference Thread (start at reply ~#1300)

Gallagher

Banned
Havok on Wii
Innovative physics software officially licensed for Nintendo's Wii console.
by Matt Casamassina

May 10, 2006 - Havok today announced that its leading physics and technology software has been licensed for Nintendo's new videogame console, Wii.

Havok is no stranger to Nintendo platforms. According to the company, more than 15 GameCube titles made use of the middleware physics solution.

"Nintendo has always captured the imagination of game-players and developers alike around the world," says Jeff Yates, VP product management at Havok. "Havok is no exception when it comes to the Wii platform. We look forward to seeing the amazing range of new experiences that this game system brings to new-generation developers."

"Havok has become synonymous with state-of-the-art physics in games in recent years," said Ramin Ravanpey, Director of Software Development Support, Nintendo of America. "With this announcement from Havok, we feel Wii developers have another critical tool in their hands that helps unleash the real magic of the Wii platform."

This is so friggin awesome!
 
shibbs said:
Might be a stupid question but why is the classic controller connected to the remote? It's not like you can hold them both. Or is it to make it wireless?

It's being treated as an attachment; clearly they just couldn't find a good way to slot in the wiimote. So like the nunchuck controller and zapper grip, the classic controller is connected in order to piggyback the wiimote wireless emitter and battery power source.
 

psycho_snake

I went to WAGs boutique and all I got was a sniff
Synbios459 said:
Do you guys think there'll be very many people buying the GC and the Wii version of Zelda?
Not at all. If people own a wii and GC then they'll just buy the wii version because they'll be able to play the game using the wii mote and using the standard controller than Nintendo have developed.

i predicted a long time ago that this is exactly what nintendo would do. There was no point releasing such a high profile game like Zelda during the end of a console's life cycle, tit would be much better to release the game as a launch title for Wii. It would give Nintendo the perfect start that they need for next gen. Zelda sells systems and Nintendo need a game like that to help sell Wii at launch. Zelda will probably sell much better on Wii that it will on GC because Wii seems like it will eb very successful and a lot of people who buy it will end up buying Zelda especially at launch.
 

GC|Simon

Member
A big German daily newspaper about Wii:

bild.jpg


Okay, I know, some of you don't speak German. But the newspaper writes good things about Wii!
 

wasting

Banned
Crazymoogle said:
It's being treated as an attachment; clearly they just couldn't find a good way to slot in the wiimote. So like the nunchuck controller and zapper grip, the classic controller is connected in order to piggyback the wiimote wireless emitter and battery power source.

This sucks
 
I haven't had much time this week to follow all the conferences...has it been announced if Wii games will also be playable with a alternate control setups w/ a standard GC pad or classic shell of some sort?
 

Aurora

Member
rusty said:
I haven't had much time this week to follow all the conferences...has it been announced if Wii games will also be playable with a alternate control setups w/ a standard GC pad or classic shell of some sort?

Nintendo have confirmed that some Wii games (such as SSB: Brawl) will only use the classic controller (or the GC controller).

If you're wondering whether games using remote can also use the classic controller instead then I can almost safely say no.
 

Beezy

Member
Aurora said:
Nintendo have confirmed that some Wii games (such as SSB: Brawl) will only use the classic controller (or the GC controller).

It doesn't only use the classic controller. They have motionbased controls for the Wiimote also. You can use which ever one you want.
 
Ok, that's good news, at least for Smash Bros. I am probably in the minorty here but I just can't see myself playing games with the waggle wand on a regular basis.
 
Trurl said:
Wow, that is by far the most negative impression that I have heard. Kobun said that he got really good at Red Steel after a few minutes so hopefully you were just using the wiimote wrongly. :(

Im not sure if it matters how much somebody plays the Wiimote. Chances are they just jerked it around and called it a gimmick from the cramp in their arm
 
I'm willing to bet everybody sucks with Wii when they first play it, if it's a game requiring a decent amount of aiming.

I was shit at Mario 64 for a good few hours. And the first time I used a mouse and WASD, I was awful.
 

Aurora

Member
Beezy said:
It doesn't only use the classic controller. They have motionbased controls for the Wiimote also. You can use which ever one you want.

Oh really? I read somewhere that Nintendo thought it would be too complicated if they moved SSB to motion control so they decided to leave it on classic controller.

polluar said:
http://gamerfrance.verygames.net/dot...e-gamecube-wii



bouh bouh

Wow, very nice. :D
 

Kai Dracon

Writing a dinosaur space opera symphony
After reading Shog's impressions, I honestly do have major concerns.

First, I CAN see the Wiimote working "as expected" for some games and not being a gimmick.

However, from the way the technology is set up, it appears we will NOT see what we were expecting for games like FPS: super intuitive freelook gameplay like in Metroid Prime Hunters.

It doesn't seem possible for instance, even if it turns out the gyros in the Wiimote could handle fast camera look, to deal with the issue of having to turn more than 180 degrees. In Prime Hunters, as with a mouse, you merely lift the stylus off the screen and recenter it after you flick your POV around.
 

Krowley

Member
Kaijima said:
After reading Shog's impressions, I honestly do have major concerns.

First, I CAN see the Wiimote working "as expected" for some games and not being a gimmick.

However, from the way the technology is set up, it appears we will NOT see what we were expecting for games like FPS: super intuitive freelook gameplay like in Metroid Prime Hunters.

It doesn't seem possible for instance, even if it turns out the gyros in the Wiimote could handle fast camera look, to deal with the issue of having to turn more than 180 degrees. In Prime Hunters, as with a mouse, you merely lift the stylus off the screen and recenter it after you flick your POV around.

Yeah, that can't really be done on the rev and that doesn't really make me happy to be honest...

but i am seeing a trade off... you should be able to more quickly aim at things within your field of view... Plus it will require more skill to hold your cursor over a target which could add some realism to FPS. It will also drasticly change the strategy in online games. Circle strafing won't be a big part of the gameplay... Steady aim will be more important. I'm betting that a whole new approach to deathmatch tactics develops as a result of this control scheme.

After watching more footage... you see some people are good at the FPS games and others aren't and when your watching a video, if you can get used to ignoring the cursor when someone is turning, it doesn't seem so awkward but it does seem slow to turn.

My one major complaint is that it seems that turning speeds are too slow and that would be a problem in the software rather than the hardware. If you look at metroid, samus turns at the same speed that she did in the other prime games, but you can see how quickly the cursor moves around the screen, so you want her to turn more quickly to match the speed of the cursor. I haven't seen any floor videos of red steel, but the game informer article claimed the turning speed was quite fast... From what i've heard in impressions, it sounds like it's not fast enough.

Obviously i haven't played it myself, but there seems to be a wide range of opinions. Kobun seems to really like the FPS controls, and shogmaster hates them.. I've seen a lot of that.. For example, some people hate zelda, others like peer from IGN seem to think it's much better than normal zelda. Matt talked like mario was incredible and nearly perfect, and others have said that the aimer bugs out on them while playing it.

I'm convinced that shogmasters problems with the sensor bar losing it's connection and taking time to get it back will be fixed before release. Nintendo will not release hardware that glitches like that. But i'm also convinced that playing FPS will be a very different expierience on the rev. It won't be anything like mouse and keyboard, nor will it resemble playing with a dual analog setup. I think i'm going to like it but i'm no longer convinced that it will convert people that are hardline fans of other schemes.
 
Kaijima said:
After reading Shog's impressions, I honestly do have major concerns.

First, I CAN see the Wiimote working "as expected" for some games and not being a gimmick.

However, from the way the technology is set up, it appears we will NOT see what we were expecting for games like FPS: super intuitive freelook gameplay like in Metroid Prime Hunters.

It doesn't seem possible for instance, even if it turns out the gyros in the Wiimote could handle fast camera look, to deal with the issue of having to turn more than 180 degrees. In Prime Hunters, as with a mouse, you merely lift the stylus off the screen and recenter it after you flick your POV around.
i think it could work as long as the cursor is center on the screen, the problem looking at red steel for instance is that since you can free look all over the screen with the wiimote , it makes it hard to do a 180 trun
 
Krowley said:
Yeah, that can't really be done on the rev and that doesn't really make me happy to be honest...

but i am seeing a trade off... you should be able to more quickly aim at things within your field of view... Plus it will require more skill to hold your cursor over a target which could add some realism to FPS. It will also drasticly change the strategy in online games. Circle strafing won't be a big part of the gameplay... Steady aim will be more important. I'm betting that a whole new approach to deathmatch tactics develops as a result of this control scheme.

After watching more footage... you see some people are good at the FPS games and others aren't and when your watching a video, if you can get used to ignoring the cursor when someone is turning, it doesn't seem so awkward but it does seem slow to turn.

My one major complaint is that it seems that turning speeds are too slow and that would be a problem in the software rather than the hardware. If you look at metroid, samus turns at the same speed that she did in the other prime games, but you can see how quickly the cursor moves around the screen, so you want her to turn more quickly to match the speed of the cursor. I haven't seen any floor videos of red steel, but the game informer article claimed the turning speed was quite fast... From what i've heard in impressions, it sounds like it's not fast enough.

Obviously i haven't played it myself, but there seems to be a wide range of opinions. Kobun seems to really like the FPS controls, and shogmaster hates them.. I've seen a lot of that.. For example, some people hate zelda, others like peer from IGN seem to think it's much better than normal zelda. Matt talked like mario was incredible and nearly perfect, and others have said that the aimer bugs out on them while playing it.

I'm convinced that shogmasters problems with the sensor bar losing it's connection and taking time to get it back will be fixed before release. Nintendo will not release hardware that glitches like that. But i'm also convinced that playing FPS will be a very different expierience on the rev. It won't be anything like mouse and keyboard, nor will it resemble playing with a dual analog setup. I think i'm going to like it but i'm no longer convinced that it will convert people that are hardline fans of other schemes.


I totally agree with you
 

birdchili

Member
Krowley said:
I'm convinced that shogmasters problems with the sensor bar losing it's connection and taking time to get it back will be fixed before release. Nintendo will not release hardware that glitches like that.

how long do they have before they need to have the hardware finalized and start manufacturing though? these comments on the controller being glitchy are pretty scary.

plug of my thread regarding how well the controller functions: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=99944

There's nothing more irritating than having unresponsive/glitchy control. Wii was supposed to make interface easier, and having bad/delayed communication between the wiimote and the console is going to be infuriating.
 
Im pretty sure all this will be ironed out. I cant imagine Nintendo releasing a controller that doesnt work as it should perfectly. And remember, these people are all playing at a tradeshow where they have a couple minutes to figure everything out and then learn to use the controller proficiently. This will be utterly different in the comfort of your own home where you have a bit more time to get a feel of the sensitivity, etc. Im not worried.
 

ant1532

Banned
NEW RECORD! (read in Super Smash bros announcer voice...)

anyways probably old but
Most users ever online was 3,618, 05-09-2006 at 01:57 PM.

nintendo wins.
 

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
The more I read, the more I believe Nintendo's "message" is nothing more than a series of empty promises and statements...

Before realizing how the Wii wand ACTUALLY functions (ie - I expected something more complex than it actually is)...most of the games shown did not interest me. Would I have given any of them (outside of Mario) a glance had they been playable with a normal control pad? Absolutely not. The wand makes things seem a tad more interesting, though none of the content looked to deliver any sort of long lasting excitement nor anything that I would expect to be memorable.

After hearing more about how the wand actually functions, however, it sounds so much less interesting. It doesn't sound like the wand offers much more in the way of quick camera control than an analog stick (let alone a mouse, which seems to be miles beyond the wand in terms of accuracy and speed) and the general amount of actions required by the player all seem so very simplistic. These games all seem to be made for the very people Nintendo keeps pushing for; non-gamers. Designing their games at the EXPENSE of gamers, however, is not want I want to see.

What worries me is that, with Sony's PS3 price, Japanese developers could flock to the Wii and I'll end up with a bunch of stuff I never wanted in place of what I was REALLY looking forward to.

Sony's approach to this whole "movement" fad is much more reasonable to me as it is clearly an extra feature on top of an awesome controller rather than the sole focus of the machine.

Nintendo impressed me with their conference and the concepts behind the Wii...but the actual product doesn't excite me. Limited, gimmicky functionality combined with weak, last generation visuals. Surely people also realize that the limited power of the machine does not limit the visuals alone.
 

birdchili

Member
dark10x said:
These games all seem to be made for the very people Nintendo keeps pushing for; non-gamers. Designing their games at the EXPENSE of gamers, however, is not want I want to see.

I categorically disagree with this. The games that Nintendo is showing are way *more* geared to the hardcore than I was expecting. Look at Mario - I was pretty-much certain that this would be a really casual-friendly game using the wiimote only - nope - the flagship mascot game is nunchuck control, with movement on the analog, and pointing on the remote. Getting good at something like this is going to require some skills.

I'm actually surprised we didn't see more games using one-handed control given all of Ns talk of late.
 
Anyone seen this
Nintendo Tokyo Making Mario Galaxy
The development studio responsible for Donkey Kong Jungle Beat brings Mario's latest platforming adventures to life.
by Matt Casamassina



May 11, 2006 - Nintendo Entertainment Analysis and Development's general manager, Takahashi Tezuka, told IGN Wii on Thursday that Nintendo Tokyo is the studio making Super Mario Galaxy.

Nintendo Tokyo has only been operating for a couple of years and is comprised primarily of former EAD employees. The studio is best known for its off-the-wall, but critically acclaimed GameCube platformer Donkey Kong Jungle Beat.

When asked about the size of the development team, Tezuka would only say that it's "much smaller" than the 70-man group working on Super Smash Bros. Brawl for Wii.

More as it develops.

I am glad its not the sunshine team
 
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