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[GameplayWhore]

Say, speaking of pixel counters¹, we've seen numerous non-direct shots of the GamePad camera. Did anybody take a closer look and try to get a decent idea of what resolution it might be? I was expecting it to be pretty crappish, but it suddenly hit me that it looked totally fine during the "zombification" parts we've seen. Granted, I have pretty low standards for some things technical, so here I am, wondering what conclusions others have come to on this topic.



¹ I'm a bit late on that one, ain't I?

 

[gamergirly]

"I used the word "was" a lot up there, though. Because that's no longer what E3 is about. Ever since the show imploded, collapsing under the weight of its own expenditure and hubris back in 2006, it hasn't been the same."

I know he doesn't directly mention the casual revolution, but we all know Nintendo started focusing a little too much on Wii Fit/Wii Music/Wii whatever the fuck after Wii Sports set the world on fire, Sony followed with Move and Microsoft with Kinect. Before 2007, E3 was all about core games. Before 2007, it was what GAF wanted.

Like the article states, I wish they just split the conference in two: one focus on core games (so the REAL E3), and another focused on social gaming. Everyone would be happy.



Also, I noticed the Alberto plagiarism. Pretty blatant

I guess it's not a big deal for other sites to copy ppl's "flavors" from Gaming Age

 

[Fantastical]

I guess it's not a big deal for other sites to copy ppl's "flavors" from Gaming Age

Scumbag gaming journalist:

Take shit from NeoGAF.
Complain about the site on podcasts.

 

[IdeaMan]

Some pictures of Netflix on Wii U in this thread

 

[Spieler Eins]

lol, its not like they got surprised with E3, they had a year to prepare for it.

That's the biggest problem here. Last year it felt rushed, perhaps because of the leaks that forced them so show it. This year, it shouldn't have.

I'm skeptical that we'll see some blowout next year now. Pretty much every mildly informed gamer was expecting it this year already. Can't wait for next year, when they show off some delayed games from this E3 and maybe have the ,grace' to show off Retro Studios or something. Then everyone who expected more can assume that they are ,,saving the other announcements for 2014, obviously!!'' :-/

I'm sick of waiting tbh. Right after 2010, there was literally nothing worthwhile coming out for the Wii. Since the second half of the year, it got quite better, especially in EU, and I'm still looking forward to picking up Project Zero 2 very much, but except for Skyward Sword, nothing needed internal teams or it was just late localisations. So, wtf were they all working on, what kind of new 3rd party relationships were the strengthening exactly? There wasn't even anything new for 3DS, except NSMB2 which looks even lazier than the rest of the series.

I hope many of the expanded-audience titles don't meet expectations like Wii Music back in the day and they get their shit together. I could deal with this conference any other year, but the one before launch should show significantly stronger future prospects.

 

[Plinko]

That's the biggest problem here. Last year it felt rushed, perhaps because of the leaks that forced them so show it. This year, it shouldn't have.

I'm skeptical that we'll see some blowout next year now. Pretty much every mildly informed gamer was expecting it this year already. Can't wait for next year, when they show off some delayed games from this E3 and maybe have the ,grace' to show off Retro Studios or something. Then everyone who expected more can assume that they are ,,saving the other announcements for 2014, obviously!!'' :-/

I'm sick of waiting tbh. Right after 2010, there was literally nothing worthwhile coming out for the Wii. Since the second half of the year, it got quite better, especially in EU, and I'm still looking forward to picking up Project Zero 2 very much, but except for Skyward Sword, nothing needed internal teams or it was just late localisations. So, wtf were they all working on, what kind of new 3rd party relationships were the strengthening exactly? There wasn't even anything new for 3DS, except NSMB2 which looks even lazier than the rest of the series.

I hope many of the expanded-audience titles don't meet expectations like Wii Music back in the day and they get their shit together.

I really think Nintendo was saving a lot of stuff for next year when MS and Sony do an in-depth reveal of their system.

I think it was a mistake, though, and if the rumors about the Retro trailer being ready are true than I can't believe they didn't show something else.

 

[Plinko]

This is just a small example, but the Wii U makes some really nice lighting/shadowing effects (F-Zero-car). I believe this is one of the main points, which puts it apart from last-gen. Luckily, good lighting makes games looking a ton better and more realistic.

I can't be the only person who glanced at that picture and thought Matthew Perry was the guy playing Nintendoland.

 

[IdeaMan]

I can't be the only person who glanced at that picture and thought Matthew Perry was the guy playing Nintendoland.

"I'll be there for Wii UuUuUuUuU"

Spoiler

Ok, i'm far away

 

[Linkhero1]

Remember that if the gamepad isn't used much the whole game can be put on the gamepad alone, freeing up the TV for whatever, playing in bed, on the crapper, etc (I'm still assuming limited range here though, like within the same room).

As for "casual" gamers...I'm not a big fan of that term. Like a lot of phone or Facebook gamers would probably be considered casual, but I wouldn't necessarily put them in the Wii Sports/Just Dance/whatever only crowd, NintendoLand seems like it'd fit them better. Just people into traditional gamey stuff...which probably has a decent overlap with the "core" audience, which is why I think trying to categorize them is a mess.

I do agree NintendoLand probably won't appeal to the Wii Sports/etc only crowd, but that's what the other stuff shown is for. I think the biggest thing is that it could attract more of the regular gamer type that might end up buying more stuff, like they might not be the super hardcore bald/brown shooter type, but they're still clearly games (as opposed to "non games"

For your first point, I don't think that would sell the console to "casuals" or non-gamers. Although the GamePad is a neat idea, they would need software that utilizes it effectively enough to push them to buy the console.

Regarding your second point, I totally agree. I'm not a huge fan of the term core/casual because nothing is ever black and white. Similar to the shades of gray in html, there are different shades of gamer. I just can't find the time to describe them, so I end up succumbing to those words

I feel as if Madden utilizing two GamePads would sell more units than Nntendoland just because the functionality of choosing plays on your GamePad would appeal to that audience. If EA did not delay Madden Wii U to include two GamePads then I will be disappointed.

 

[IdeaMan]

A really positive hands-on preview on Game and Wario

It sounds promising, the mini-games seem to cleverly use the Wii U setup.

 

[Spieler Eins]

I really think Nintendo was saving a lot of stuff for next year when MS and Sony do an in-depth reveal of their system.

I think it was a mistake, though, and if the rumors about the Retro trailer being ready are true than I can't believe they didn't show something else.

Reggie didn't even sound confident it would be shown next E3. He obviously isn't allowed to say anything, but I think he'd say something different if its showing was just cancelled shortly before the conference.
How big are they anyway? They can't be that burdened with upgrading a couple of Mario Kart tracks...

 

[Glorified G]

A really positive hands-on preview on Game and Wario

It sounds promising, the mini-games seem to cleverly use the Wii U setup.

I hope it turns out to be as good as the previous Wario mini games. I've read some not so positive impressions, which has been disappointing

 

[Thraktor]

Considering I already posted the theory on B3D, I might as well post it here, too:

From the leaked specs, it becomes apparent that the Wii U won't have a Broadway CPU for BC. Instead, the Wii U CPU will be fully binary compatible, including all the custom features like L1 cache locking, write gather pipe and proprietary SIMD instructions. Moving all those custom features to a completely different PPC64 chip, a modified Power7 for example, is probably not exactly trivial - using something closer to the 750 line should be a more straight forward approach.

Another interesting detail is that the toolchain Nintendo uses doesn't support Power7 or Cell or any other big IBM design. It's heavily optimized for embedded 32bit PowerPCs like the IBM 4xx or Freescale e500 lines of cores. And the 4xx, more specifically the 470S, seems to be IBMs go-to design for custom processors these days. The design is out-of-order with a very short pipeline, supports SMP and tons of L2 cache, is highly modular, small, cheap and efficient. It's also 45nm SoI, so there's that as well. But it doesn't support SMT (not that it would really benefit from SMT in the first place), which is something the Wii U CPU reportedly does.

But what if the chip isn't really multi-threaded in a traditional sense? In 1996, a company called Digital Equipment introduced a processor that did SMT in a pretty unique way: Each "core" was actually two cores that only shared cache and early pipeline stages (fetch and decode). Cheaper and more energy efficient than using two full blown cores, and the performance is much more predictable as the threads don't have to compete for resources. That's how modern AMD Bulldozer cores work as well, by the way.

My theory at this point is that the Wii U uses a "three core", dual threaded 32bit PowerPC that's actually made of six modified 470S cores with Gekko features and FPUs (and whatever new shit the engineers came up with). Using eDRAM as L2 cache should further reduce space and power consumption. Such a design should offer a pretty damn good performance/ Watt and performance/ Dollar ratio and mesh very well with the few known facts.

This is pretty interesting. I've been expecting binary compatibility since the start (much cheaper than including a Broadway, and much more reliable than emulation), and the write gather pipe and L1 locking are good finds, and seem to confirm this.

On the toolchain support, I wouldn't pay much attention to what other CPUs are supported, as the custom instruction set means they'll have to write a compiler and tools specifically for the Wii U's CPU anyway. In fact, I'd say the lack of Power7 and Cell support are simply down to a lack of clients requesting them (Cell is almost non-existent outside of PS3, and Power7s will be running IBM software most of the time).

There are three problems I've always seen with a design based on the 4xx series of processors; the lack of SMT, the lack of AltiVec units, and the low clock speeds the architecture is designed for. The lack of SMT you seem to have accounted for, and I'd accept the possibility that they could have squeezed 2.5Ghz or so out of the design, but the lack of AltiVec units is still something I believe rules a 4xx-based chip out. A good SIMD unit is simply too useful to game programmers to be left out of a modern gaming CPU and I definitely expect a heavily customized AltiVec unit, like a more modern VMX128, to be part of the design, something which this IdeaMan post seems to indicate is the case.

In general I think people are searching too hard for existing chip designs to compare the Wii U's CPU to, and in reality we're probably going to get what is, functionally, a completely new chip. Nintendo went with a customized variant of an existing chip last time around because a suitable chip already existed, but with the Wii U that isn't the case. Designing a new CPU for a gaming console isn't exactly new. The PS3's Cell was a new design. The XBox 360 was originally supposed to have a new, out-of-order chip until what I assume were time constraints forced them to a more conservative PPE-based design (with the VMX128 seemingly carried over from the more customized chip).

What's more, since Apple switched to Intel, Nintendo have been IBM's biggest customer for CPUs, and the two companies have been working together for about a decade and a half now. Nintendo also have the money to spend on the R&D for a new CPU (and we know that Nintendo's R&D spending has been very high for the past few years), and there would have been enough time for a new CPU to be put together, given the apparent 2009 start of the Wii U hardware's design.

 

[Christberg]

Reggie didn't even sound confident it would be shown next E3. He obviously isn't allowed to say anything, but I think he'd say something different if its showing was just cancelled shortly before the conference.
How big are they anyway? They can't be that burdened with upgrading a couple of Mario Kart tracks...

Retro has something in the ballpark of 90 employees iirc. You have to figure that their title is a holiday 2013 release if it's an HD Metroid Prime or something of similar scope. Depending on how development goes maybe longer.

I'd really like to get some general comments from somebody there and Monolith about rough targets for their game releases but I'm not holding my breath. Nintendo likes to not show anything until 2-3 months prior to release a lot of the time.

 

[Linkhero1]

According to Joystiq

Sacrilegium is slated for a Q2 2013 release on PC, Mac, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Wii U. Check out the first screens and concept art in the gallery below.

Source

Grain of salt...blah blah blah

Edit: Probably old. Didn't notice the date the article was posted until now.

 

[ShockingAlberto]

I had said Retro had a demo of their game prepared. This does not mean it was cancelled right before the conference.

 

[Donnie]

I had said Retro had a demo of their game prepared. This does not mean it was cancelled right before the conference.

Any clues on why they didn't show it?

Also what are your thoughts on the claim from that guy on Beyond3D (Espresso) that WiiU's CPU is a modified PowerPC 750 clocked a bit higher and still only one thread per core?

I know everyone else says 2 threads per core so I'm very wary of the claims personally. There is wsippel's theory about 6 partial single threaded cores effectively giving you something similar but better than 3 full dual threaded cores. But I'm pretty sure Espresso is claiming three single threaded cores (?).

 

[lherre]

So 1.5GB it is?

Nice tag by the way.

Lol I didn't notice XD.

 

[EVIL]

Something I haven't read anything about, how many MP is the camera on the wii-u gamepad?

Edit: according to wiiudaily, its 1.3 megapixels, which gives you 1280 x 1024 pixel video. I guess if the quality of the sensor is alright video chat is pretty doable.

 

[EloquentM]

Wow so we confirmation on those specs. It's still mind boggling why all wii u titles contain little to no AA then with that 32 MB of edram.

 

[Donnie]

Wow so we confirmation on those specs. It's still mind boggling why all wii u titles contain little to no AA then with that 32 MB of edram.

According to the Digital Foundry article the WiiU version of Arkham City is the only one to include AA. But yeah most games shown seemed to lack it.

 

[Plinko]

Still surprised they didn't go with 2GB of RAM.

Also, I agree it is mind-boggling we saw no AA on those games. Is it possible they release with AA? That would make a huge difference.

 

[bgassassin]

Well the specs in the list aren't target specs, they are the "true" wii u specs (remember is a copy-paste from the sdk). But nintendo didn't detail them a lot in the documents. But there is no lie in them.

Someone is saying the CPU doesn't have 2 threads per core. Your response?

This is pretty interesting. I've been expecting binary compatibility since the start (much cheaper than including a Broadway, and much more reliable than emulation), and the write gather pipe and L1 locking are good finds, and seem to confirm this.

On the toolchain support, I wouldn't pay much attention to what other CPUs are supported, as the custom instruction set means they'll have to write a compiler and tools specifically for the Wii U's CPU anyway. In fact, I'd say the lack of Power7 and Cell support are simply down to a lack of clients requesting them (Cell is almost non-existent outside of PS3, and Power7s will be running IBM software most of the time).

There are three problems I've always seen with a design based on the 4xx series of processors; the lack of SMT, the lack of AltiVec units, and the low clock speeds the architecture is designed for. The lack of SMT you seem to have accounted for, and I'd accept the possibility that they could have squeezed 2.5Ghz or so out of the design, but the lack of AltiVec units is still something I believe rules a 4xx-based chip out. A good SIMD unit is simply too useful to game programmers to be left out of a modern gaming CPU and I definitely expect a heavily customized AltiVec unit, like a more modern VMX128, to be part of the design, something which this IdeaMan post seems to indicate is the case.

In general I think people are searching too hard for existing chip designs to compare the Wii U's CPU to, and in reality we're probably going to get what is, functionally, a completely new chip. Nintendo went with a customized variant of an existing chip last time around because a suitable chip already existed, but with the Wii U that isn't the case. Designing a new CPU for a gaming console isn't exactly new. The PS3's Cell was a new design. The XBox 360 was originally supposed to have a new, out-of-order chip until what I assume were time constraints forced them to a more conservative PPE-based design (with the VMX128 seemingly carried over from the more customized chip).

What's more, since Apple switched to Intel, Nintendo have been IBM's biggest customer for CPUs, and the two companies have been working together for about a decade and a half now. Nintendo also have the money to spend on the R&D for a new CPU (and we know that Nintendo's R&D spending has been very high for the past few years), and there would have been enough time for a new CPU to be put together, given the apparent 2009 start of the Wii U hardware's design.

Good response. I forgot about that post from Ideaman.

 

[AzaK]

Iwata's absence was the oddest thing about their conference besides the general crappiness of it. It did seem like they were winging it to an extent and talking just to fill time.

Whatever issues are going on I just hope they get resolved sooner rather than later. The 3ds really was a work in progess when it launched both in terms of hardware and software. Of course things like that improved later but I hope the wii u doesn't have a similar launch period.

Well we've heard games were pulled last minute so who knows what else changed. Maybe given what happend Iwata thought it best he not appear. It might very well have been a completely different conference at one point.

I had said Retro had a demo of their game prepared. This does not mean it was cancelled right before the conference.

So are you suggesting that it was ready to go if they needed it, but they didn't? I was wondering if because of the relatively boring shows of MS and Sony that Nintendo chose their b-roll conference. If MS and Sony had have had some blockbusters or mentioned their upcoming console, maybe Nintendo would have pulled put their big guns. Ah who am I kidding, that's giving them too much credit.

 

[fabricated backlash]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j1vqyYIKFsU&feature=g-all-u

the part at 9:00 with the asymmetric two players mode of NSMBU seems to be really fun

Me and my girlfriend are very much looking forward to this. Since she isn't as proficient and trained with gaming as I am, this asymetric gameplay shown in most WiiU games is a blessing for us. Especially Rayman looks to be the perfect game to play for me and my girl.
She's going to use the Gamepad, while I use the Wiimote/Pro Controller.

I've been staying away from WiiU talk on Gaf lately, mainly because I got sick of all the cynical bullshit. One could think that GAF hates games, or at least everything that isn't a shooter or some other game involving guns in some fashion. And that's not even limited to Nintendo. All the unwarranted trash talk about MS and Sony was getting on my nerves.

I can see a lot of couples thinking similarly like us. Hell even the Puppetmaster mode in Just Dance 4 should make for some great party fun when we have guests.

So far, I have 4 must buy games for the WiiU launch. Pikmin3, ZombiU, NSMBU and Rayman Legends. I expect Nintendoland to be a pack in. Nintendo needs this game in the box to comunicate the asymetrical gameplay to everyone. A huge reason for the longevity of the huge Wii sales was due to the fact that Wii Sports was packed in. People immediately understood what the Wii was about, and they absolutely need to have the same hook here. Especially since the Gamepad is just vastly more complex.

Something I haven't read anything about, how many MP is the camera on the wii-u gamepad?

Edit: according to wiiudaily, its 1.3 megapixels, which gives you 1280 x 1024 pixel video. I guess if the quality of the sensor is alright video chat is pretty doable.

1.3 should be more than enough, especially at indoor distances. Now sensitivity and colour range are going to be the most critical aspect to it. I could see the camera working fine under daylight circumstances, but even on stage, the feed looked a bit washed out and overexposed.

 

[Instro]

I had said Retro had a demo of their game prepared. This does not mean it was cancelled right before the conference.

Fall conference here we come.

 

[DaSorcerer7]

Still surprised they didn't go with 2GB of RAM.

Also, I agree it is mind-boggling we saw no AA on those games. Is it possible they release with AA? That would make a huge difference.

So this is no longer the case?? I thought they settled on 2GB for the retail units.

 

[GameplayWhore]

So this no longer the case?? I thought they settled on 2GB for the retail units.

I don't think the amount of memory was ever established definitively anywhere. We just had numerous leaks which essentially said that it was substantially more than 1GB.

 

[blu]

- About the system specs: the leaked sheet seems to be true. BUT, they are target specs, they were relevant more than a year ago. I think not many alterations happened on the CPU, but for the GPU, Nintendo customized it even more, to a point it's not just a "RV700" chip. Still, this document is satisfying enough for people here to speculate more precisely on the Wii U hardware.

U-GPU was never "just an R700". Take that as a leak.

ps: sneaky bastards, the entire lot

 

[Linkhero1]

Can someone link me to the Wii U specs?

 

[schuelma]

Can someone link me to the Wii U specs?

Link

 

[Smiles and Cries]

oh a negative day in the WiiU thread?

so when do we expect the WiiU2 to launch to be 1.5 x the power of Durango?
this may fix all our problems in 5-6 years

 

[HylianTom]

Okay.. I've been watching as many gaming footage videos as I can get my paws on over the past few days (when I haven't been working), and I've gotta say.. Launch Day is going to be pretty damn sweet. I'm still worried about what games are coming after the Launch Window, as people like to have that kind of info before committing to buying a new console. But I'm not going to dwell on it that much.

And this is going to sound weird coming from me, but: major kudos to Ubisoft for ZombiU. I am loving how this game uses the GamePad in so many interesting and varied ways, and if impressions are even mildly positive, it's a Day One purchase for me.

Spoiler

(what's happening to me? I'm praising.. Ubisoft? Someone - help me!)

Well, I'm reigniting my love affair with the Super Mario Galaxy games for the summer. I have the giant new TV, and the game looks absolutely fantastic. I'm quickly remembering why I loved these games so much.

 

[bgassassin]

*high fives HT*

Looking at the games themselves (away from anything else) makes it clearer that the launch lineup is looking very good.

So this is no longer the case?? I thought they settled on 2GB for the retail units.

I said it was safe to assume it will have 2GB based on talking with some people. How much of that will devs have access to is another is another story. And that was a couple of months ago as opposed to the older target specs.

A response I made to AlStrong on B3D reminded me that one of the cores acts as a master core to the other two. Anyone want to chime in on how that might affect optimal usage of the CPU?

 

[TheCongressman1]

I'm really interested in Pikmin, Zombi U, and Nintendo Land if it's a pack in. I'm just not certain that this is going to keep me interested enough to justify the purchase at launch.

Another thing is, I'd really like to have a game that takes advantage of the new Nintendo Network. I'm hoping at least Pikmin has some sort of online play. There was a verses mode in Pikmin 2, so it's not impossible, just unlikely I suppose. Any word on Zombi having online play?

 

[andthebeatgoeson]

*high fives HT*

Looking at the games themselves (away from anything else) makes it clearer that the launch lineup is looking very good.

Yeah, NSMB will be a great launch game but it's the Nintendo effect that prevents people from appreciating it fully. That and Pikmin make me want to be there day 1. But just like Zelda's are held to ridiculous standards (like GTAs, now), it's hard to get excited unless it's revolutionary. But I played thru COD this year and did not explode from terribleness, I should be okay with NSMB. I just remembered I haven't played Halo since Halo 2's terrible single player. Again, no combustion. We will survive and may even smile. I'm just dying for some good 3rd party info. And if I can use the pad while others use the TV, I'll increase my gaming on a console (mafiawars up in this piece) dramatically. The pad will make this console worth it.

I said it was safe to assume it will have 2GB based on talking with some people. How much of that will devs have access to is another is another story. And that was a couple of months ago as opposed to the older target specs.

A response I made to AlStrong on B3D reminded me that one of the cores acts as a master core to the other two. Anyone want to chime in on how that might affect optimal usage of the CPU?

I'm confused. You still think 2GB is a possibility?

 

[Smiles and Cries]

does ZombiU have any daytime gameplay? I would like to see how the lighting could be used for that game

I may end up adding it to my list but those games are not my kind of tea

 

[bgassassin]

I'm really interested in Pikmin, Zombi U, and Nintendo Land if it's a pack in. I'm just not certain that this is going to keep me interested enough to justify the purchase at launch.

Another thing is, I'd really like to have a game that takes advantage of the new Nintendo Network. I'm hoping at least Pikmin has some sort of online play. There was a verses mode in Pikmin 2, so it's not impossible, just unlikely I suppose. Any word on Zombi having online play?

ZombiU does from what I've seen, though I only read it in passing so I don't remember the details. Considering how little we know about it, I guess we'll get an ND on the online setup eventually.

Yeah, NSMB will be a great launch game but it's the Nintendo effect that prevents people from appreciating it fully. That and Pikmin make me want to be there day 1. But just like Zelda's are held to ridiculous standards (like GTAs, now), it's hard to get excited unless it's revolutionary. But I played thru COD this year and did not explode from terribleness, I should be okay with NSMB. I just remembered I haven't played Halo since Halo 2's terrible single player. Again, no combustion. We will survive and may even smile. I'm just dying for some good 3rd party info. And if I can use the pad while others use the TV, I'll increase my gaming on a console (mafiawars up in this piece) dramatically. The pad will make this console worth it.

The part in bold is what makes the current communication by Nintendo so weird. When you look at what we officially know there is one FPS (I guess ZombiU fits that), and no racing or sports titles (that I'm recalling) that have been made official. That's a huge hole of "primary" genres.

I'm confused. You still think 2GB is a possibility?

Until it's officially stated or someone opens up a retail unit that shows otherwise, yes.

 

[Sadist]

Well, technicly there are two shooters on Wii U, the second being Aliens Colonial Marines. But apparantly Gearbox can't talk about that one, even though Pitchford said they would soon enough prior to E3.

There is only one sports title present in Wii U's line-up: NBA 2K 13

 

[schuelma]

There is only one sports title present in Wii U's line-up: NBA 2K 13

That is the eye opener right now for me. We know EA Sports stuff is coming, but to not have anything at launch would be really weird.

Possibly EA thinks it is better to just skip launch and have a great product in 2013, but that goes against every other launch they've ever done (well, besides Dreamcast).

 

[bgassassin]

Well, technicly there are two shooters on Wii U, the second being Aliens Colonial Marines. But apparantly Gearbox can't talk about that one, even though Pitchford said they would soon enough prior to E3.

There is only one sports title present in Wii U's line-up: NBA 2K 13

Forgot about A:CM just that quick. And 2K13 must have been on that partial list? I haven't looked it over.

That is the eye opener right now for me. We know EA Sports stuff is coming, but to not have anything at launch would be really weird.

Possibly EA thinks it is better to just skip launch and have a great product in 2013, but that goes against every other launch they've ever done (well, besides Dreamcast).

Only thing I can think of with EA is that they are waiting to show their games with two controllers.

 

[TunaLover]

BTW Ghost Recon Online just dissapeared from the map, I wonder what happened, it was already running in the system the last year.

 

[DrWong]

Found you guys! Happy to have this thread.

 

[bgassassin]

^ People are slowly making their way back.

BTW Ghost Recon Online just dissapeared from the map, I wonder what happened, it was already running in the system the last year.

I think I saw something that they are devoting more resources to the PC version for now. Hopefully someone can confirm that.

 

[bigtroyjon]

oh a negative day in the WiiU thread?

so when do we expect the WiiU2 to launch to be 1.5 x the power of Durango?
this may fix all our problems in 5-6 years

WiiU is coming out 7 years after the 360 so I guess if Durango launches next year you can expect 1.5X power in 2020.

 

[bgassassin]

WiiU is coming out 7 years after the 360 so I guess if Durango launches next year you can expect 1.5X power in 2018.

fixed >_>

 

[Eradicate]

Say, speaking of pixel counters, we've seen numerous non-direct shots of the GamePad camera. Did anybody take a closer look and try to get a decent idea of what resolution it might be? I was expecting it to be pretty crappish, but it suddenly hit me that it looked totally fine during the "zombification" parts we've seen. Granted, I have pretty low standards for some things technical, so here I am, wondering what conclusions others have come to on this topic.

Something I haven't read anything about, how many MP is the camera on the wii-u gamepad?

Edit: according to wiiudaily, its 1.3 megapixels, which gives you 1280 x 1024 pixel video. I guess if the quality of the sensor is alright video chat is pretty doable.

Yeah, the thing seems to have a pretty decent camera. These two shots came from Twitter, and I'm just posting up the links so they get credit:

http://twitter.com/Jeff_Skalski/status/210885775812870147/photo/1

http://twitter.com/Darth_Jay/status/211121771187937280/photo/1

Those are two of the better shots I could find of people using the camera with ZombiU. Pretty funny stuff! But, considering they are doing this in a disadvantageous environment with all those bright lights, TVs possibly not set up optimally, and with the quality of the camera taking the picture of the TV taken into account, I think this thing could easily do video chat and things. It looks pretty good for what it is!

Also, as far as Iwata's "absence," wasn't he just tweeting live reports during the presentation? Also, as far as meeting space, didn't they get rid of a lot of media/meeting space at this E3 to have more floor space for vendors? (I thought I read that somewhere.)

And to jump to another topic, is that Project CARS game coming to Wii U? That'd be a racing game, but I don't know right off when it's coming out. I think that new Sonic racing game is coming to Wii U too.

And to shift to even one more topic, Ghost Recon Online is going through some patching and more testing on PCs at the moment. (I read that somewhere.) I figure they wanted to keep up development on it in a more optimal way before getting the final dev kits. But, I don't know!

EDIT: Here's a Ghost Recon Online link:

http://wegotthiscovered.com/news/worry-ghost-recon-online-planned-wii/

And, a quote:

“Ghost Recon Online is being developed for the PC first. That was always the plan,” he said. “The team is taking a little bit longer than they thought they would to get Ghost Recon Online to the level and quality that they want and that definitely has had an impact on how much time they’re able to spend on the Wii U version because we want to make sure we get it right.

“If we start working on the Wii U too soon, we might end up wasting a lot of resources because the PC is a lot easier to test and learn with. On the PC, we can test and learn with that and apply all the best benefits we learn onto the Wii U version to make sure that it’s a great Wii U game. That’s an unusual product for a console and we want to make sure we nail it. It really is because the PC team is a lot of the same guys that will work on the Wii U.”

 

[Nibel]

Just watched that IGN preview of P-100 with Bill; first: it looks really, really good. But there was a scene in the video which made me think:

There is this machine which drops some "plastic" balls with heroes in it; for reference:

Could they release small collectible figurines with NFC chips inside them? So that you can get rare heroes?

Or the much more important question: will there be a P-100 x Shenmue 3 crossover?!

 

[Sadist]

Forgot about A:CM just that quick. And 2K13 must have been on that partial list? I haven't looked it over.

You know what I find surprising as well? No Lego Lord of the Rings.

 

[Terrell]

I think not seeing Ghost Recon Online and a lot of other games is indicative of a feature Nintendo wasn't ready to talk about... online multiplayer.

EA? Silent.
Ghost Recon? MIA.
Retro's game? Demo pulled.

The only reason we saw ZombiU appears to be that it has an exciting single-player campaign.

And it goes without saying that Japan in general simply wasn't at E3 AT ALL.

Bandai Namco and Platinum were all of the 3rd-party representation of new content from Japan for WiiU.
Capcom really only had Dragon's Dogma and RE6 to show.
Konami only had Metal Gear Rising to get people excited, but that's because they're running out of time and places to demo it in the West before its release date.
Sega had Western-developed games on hand and.... practically nothing else.


I think part of the reason we're seeing paltry 3rd-party work for WiiU at E3 is because Japan has basically told the western gaming press to go fuck themselves and are holding their cards for Japanese gaming events like TGS and/or announcements outside of the press events. Because let's be honest, Japan has never been so un-present from E3 as they were this year.