Wii

Posted by: visuvius

Re: Wii - 18/12/2006 22:01

Quote:
As soon as you start getting into old games however you will find that a good percentage of the quality comes from the nostalgia factor and is something completely mental.

For me, this is true with most of the old school games, but there are definitely a handful of games that I will ALWAYS enjoy. Punch Out, Bubble Bobble, and Battle City are three that come to mind.

Posted by: wfaulk

Re: Wii - 18/12/2006 22:05

I'm a bigger fan of the early-80s arcade games than early console games. I could play Galaga for hours.

Posted by: FireFox31

Re: Wii - 19/12/2006 00:29

Quote:
technical, licensing or marketing issue.

Drakino and others summed it up pretty well. But how could this be a technical problem? Independant programmers have been creating emulators for almost 10 years. Couldn't Nintendo just write an emulator for Wii to play the old games? Or are they trying to get fancy and improve the sound and graphics for the classics? That'd be sad.

Here I was hoping to buy the Classic Controler immediately, but if there are only 15 games in VC, then forget it.

Oh, and I happened to find this deal at Amazon to get a Wii. Signed up for a chance to buy one just hours before the 42 hour registration period ended. With a 1 in 28 shot at one, it sure beats driving to the stores like I did today (and may try again Wednesday).

Posted by: hybrid8

Re: Wii - 19/12/2006 01:00

The classic games *are* played under emulation on the Wii as far as I know. There are no changes to the original games in graphics or sound.

One could easily play nearly all NES and SNES games on the Wii. I wouldn't want to do that of course, but there are are certainly a few select titles that will be interesting. Gamecube titles will be more appealing of course - and for those you just need the original disc and a controller.

Posted by: visuvius

Re: Wii - 19/12/2006 04:52

Ahhh, Galga, one of my personal favorites as well.

Galaxian was my #1shooter game on the NES though.

See, I need both of THOSE on the Virtual Console. Not freakin Xevious.

Posted by: Dignan

Re: Wii - 19/12/2006 11:45

I think comparing emulators to the VC is a little tough. Nintendo has to make sure these games work perfectly with their hardware, and I'm sure there's a lot more to it than sticking a ROM on the Wii store. I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt there.

Posted by: Dignan

Re: Wii - 19/12/2006 12:02

Quote:
Going to see if I have any more Miis on parade, last I checked I only had 2. But, I've made20+ and they are all set to mingle. Mostly celeb look-a-likes. =]

Check out this contest (already finished, but interesting winners).

Posted by: Tim

Re: Wii - 19/12/2006 12:49

Not sure if this should be a whole new thread or not. This morning, on my way out the door to work I noticed the blue tray light was on, which I set up to mean Connect24 downloaded something. I checked and the Forecast Channel is now live. It is a pretty cool little interface, where you can set up your city and see the current weater and forecast, or you can look at a globe and zuke around and see the current weather and forecast anywhere you want.

I was about 10 mins late for work because I was playing with it so long. Pretty neat application.

Posted by: drakino

Re: Wii - 19/12/2006 12:56

Saw the same thing, and the globe is going to be handy. It allows you to zoom around, seeing todays forecast or tomorrows at all the locations it supports. I'm driving home for the holidays, so before I go, I can just drag the globe around where my planned route is, and know what to expect.

I'm glad to see they are going to notify users of useful updates like this via the blue light.

Posted by: hybrid8

Re: Wii - 19/12/2006 13:20

That just means modifying the emulator to make sure the ROM works. The same thing the emulator programmers have been doing for years.

Any decisions/reasons for having only a small selection of titles is surely purely marketing motivated. Flooding the online store would cause consumers to overlook many titles and might reduce over all sales.

Of course shipping more Wii consoles would probably incfrease sales...

Posted by: Dignan

Re: Wii - 19/12/2006 15:31

Yeah, I can't wait to check that out when I get home.

But even bigger news is that it's pretty certain that the Opera browser will be available this Friday!

Posted by: visuvius

Re: Wii - 22/12/2006 09:07

Its up and works like a champ!! Better than i expected actually. Youtube works nicely.us I can see this being used often.

Using it right now btw.

Posted by: Dignan

Re: Wii - 22/12/2006 12:19

Quote:
Its up and works like a champ!! Better than i expected actually. Youtube works nicely.us I can see this being used often.

Using it right now btw.

Sweetness! I stayed up later than I wanted to in case they released it soon after midnight. They didn't

Now I'll have to wait until I get home...

Have you run across any sites that don't work with it yet?

Posted by: hybrid8

Re: Wii - 22/12/2006 13:22

Do they have text macros built-in so you can leave comments on YouTube? Stuff like "Get your ugly ass off my screen" and "You SuX l0z34!"

I'd be far more interested in using it with Flickr than YouTube which tends to be nothing more than a giant pool of intenet vomit. That's in contrast to MySpace of course which is the other end.

Posted by: msaeger

Re: Wii - 22/12/2006 14:46

I pretty much just tried youtube and empegbbs and it worked good I am impressed. I wasn't expecting much since they are working with the low resolution of the TV.

Posted by: Dignan

Re: Wii - 23/12/2006 05:05

Quote:
I pretty much just tried youtube and empegbbs and it worked good I am impressed. I wasn't expecting much since they are working with the low resolution of the TV.

Wow! I'm really impressed with the browser! I'm on it right now and while I wouldn't use it to write messages all the time, it's certainly feasible to do so.

Youtube works perfectly as well, and in keeping with the spirit of the Wii, I just watched a bunch of Rayman ads.

The zoom function works really well.

Posted by: sein

Re: Wii - 23/12/2006 08:34

Quote:
Wow! I'm really impressed with the browser! I'm on it right now and while I wouldn't use it to write messages all the time, it's certainly feasible to do so.

Awesome. How do you guys type on the Wii? Is there an onscreen keyboard or something?

Posted by: wfaulk

Re: Wii - 23/12/2006 12:48

It would be awesome if you could use the motion sensing control to write in a PalmGraffiti-like manner.

Posted by: FireFox31

Re: Wii - 23/12/2006 13:04

But...... why a web browser in your Wii? What is this, WebTV again?

Or is this the techie's and marketer's dream of "convergance", where they put every function into every device, albiet poorly. For instance, Office Live and Google Docs: putting office suite functionality into the web while regressing its functionality 10 years. Web browser on Wii: regressing input and screen resolution.

Maybe there's money to be made by converging perfectly good devices where they don't belong. I just see regression and loss of functionality.

Posted by: hybrid8

Re: Wii - 23/12/2006 13:27

I asked for a bluetooth hammer for christmas. It's cool. Then I can count my hammering through-put on my PDA.

Posted by: sein

Re: Wii - 24/12/2006 12:40

Quote:
But...... why a web browser in your Wii? What is this, WebTV again?

Oh, I think a good browser is a useful extra. It would be fun to flick through YouTube on the TV. Flickr on the TV would also be neat. If you have MythTV it would be convenient to set things to record with MythWeb on the Wii.

Poor convergence always sucks but if the implementation is fairly good, a browser on the Wii doesn't strike me as being out of place for some reason. I've played with the browser on the DS too. Its great for flicking through web comics, but I'd never post this entry on the BBS with it. It has a time and place.

Posted by: FireFox31

Re: Wii - 24/12/2006 13:55

Come to think of it, it would be very convenient to "Alt-Tab" out of a game into the Wii web browser to look up game hints or walkthroughs online. Or, if there is a formidable keyboard, to post requests for hints on a forum.

Posted by: Dignan

Re: Wii - 24/12/2006 16:11

You guys are too hard on this web browser thing. This is not a "convergence" of products. This is first and foremost a gaming machine, with a browser designed for it by a company (Opera) who has attempted to make its negligible impact through browsers designed for portable devices. It's what they do, and it works here.

That said, the weather and internet channels are not meant for extensive use. They're meant for about 5-10 minutes of use. At least that's the way I see it. I think I remember a Nintendo exec saying that these additional channels are intended to make the Wii a sort of quick portal to useful information. So in the morning, you can check the weather and read the paper online, and be out the door in a couple minutes.

That said, the internet channel is a "free trial." Would I pay for it if/when they set a price? Probably not. I'm sure they'll set the price too high if they did, and I can't see anyone paying a lot for a basic web browser.

Posted by: Dignan

Re: Wii - 24/12/2006 16:17

Quote:
Google Docs: putting office suite functionality into the web while regressing its functionality 10 years.

I don't want to go on much of a tangent, but I think you're missing the point here. I heard a saying once that applies here: 90% of Word users use 10% of Word. That's certainly how it is for me. I don't need anything more than basic word processing, so I use Google docs. I don't have any word processing software installed, even the free programs, because I have no need for them.

Posted by: Roger

Re: Wii - 25/12/2006 11:30

Quote:
90% of Word users use 10% of Word.

But it's never the same 10%.

Posted by: wfaulk

Re: Wii - 25/12/2006 12:23

No, but it's always the same 8%.

Posted by: JeffS

Re: Wii - 25/12/2006 18:43

Ok, so I got a voucher for one of these for Christmas. Which means I'm picking one up this week. Wich ALSO means I've got to pick up some games, extra controllers, etc.

I will definitetly get Zelda, and that will probably do it for my single-player stuff for a while, but I'd like to get a fun-for-the-whole-family multi-player game that my 5 year old nephew could play with us. So recommendations here? And what is the deal with the extra controllers. Do you have to buy them in two pieces (the remore and nunchuck) or do they come as one packagge. And if it's in two pieces, will I need them both for said multi-player game?

Thanks in advance- I've only been following this system on the fringe here. I know almost nothing about it or any of the games so any help would be greatly appreciated.

PS, my wife is awesome

Posted by: msaeger

Re: Wii - 26/12/2006 04:15

For a family fun type game I think Wii sports which comes with the system fits the bill. The controllers come in two pieces and not all the games require both. With Wii sports the only one that uses both is boxing. Good luck getting more controllers I have yet to see any in a store.

Posted by: loren

Re: Wii - 26/12/2006 21:34

I'm typing this on the run, but after a 30 minute session with the new Monkey Ball, I'm not happy with it. The mini games are f'n terrible and they obviously went with quantity over quality... there are a few where the control scheme just flat out doesn't work, at least not to the point that I can control anything (paragliding especially). The regular Monkey Ball one person game is as would be expected, same old but with a new control method... i.e. tilting the wiimote. It'd harder. Overall it just sorta bugs me... too many non skipable flashy screens and "story" crap. I played Rayman for a couple minutes and it's infinitely better. I also got Call of Duty 3 but have yet to crack the wrapping. Will update.

So far, the Wii was a huge success for the whole family. They all got into it WAY more than I expected. I had to unplug it mid game to leave for another relative's 2 times already, to the jeers of the currently bowling players. Everyone picked the controls up really fast and just wanted to keep playing!

Posted by: hybrid8

Re: Wii - 27/12/2006 02:17

Ok, where am I going to get a Wii (for retail price) before March? Arrrgh.

My brother brought his over to our parents yesterday and it was definitely fun. I didn't break the strap on his wimote, but I did let it lose once playing tennis and while trying to bowl with my left hand, I smacked it into a metal bowl on the coffee table and threw the remote across the room and into the speaker grill below my parent's TV. Oops! Not wearing the strap for that left handed madness.

Anyone have any bowling tips? I coulnd't really figure out what would make the ball hook left near the end of the lane. I tried different angle and spin techniques with the wiimote but could never get it to spin/hook to the right.

Zelda, as others have said, looks awesome. Plays fairly well. Tried it only for a minute but watched my brother play for about an hour (I had to figure what to do for him a number of times

)

Posted by: loren

Re: Wii - 27/12/2006 03:44

Quote:
I didn't break the strap on his wimote, but I did let it lose once playing tennis and while trying to bowl with my left hand, I smacked it into a metal bowl on the coffee table and threw the remote across the room and into the speaker grill below my parent's TV. Oops! Not wearing the strap for that left handed madness.

I totally forgot to mention this. I was a huge skeptic about all the BS surrounding broken straps on the wiimotes, until 2 days ago. We were playing bowling and had been for about an hour or so, and I was seated with my feet up on an ottoman with my buddy bowling beside it to the left of me. He wound up, swung forward, clipped my shoe, which knocked the wiimote lose from his grip, and on the forward swing, the wiimote went flying into the ceiling, hit the wall, and smacked into the floor. We were astonished. The strap was still hanging from his wrist, and the cord dangled, broken (image links). There was a dent in the ceiling and the battery cover came off the wiimote, but other than a scuff on the front, it works fine. I never would have believed it if I hadn't seen it with my own two eyes. And he wasn't even swinging very hard. I was pissed we didn't have it on video!

Quote:
Anyone have any bowling tips? I coulnd't really figure out what would make the ball hook left near the end of the lane. I tried different angle and spin techniques with the wiimote but could never get it to spin/hook to the right.

I always line up on the far right, and release a little past the bottom of the swing with a pretty good twist on the remote. If you hit the 1/3 pocket it's a pretty guaranteed strike.

Posted by: Dignan

Re: Wii - 27/12/2006 14:06

I'm glad to hear of this strap thing isn't just bull (well, not glad for your ceiling, but you know). I think I'll go fill out that replacement form. I was given two new Wiimotes for Christmas, and they both have the old strap.

I have a question for Wii Athletes out there: how the hell does the boxing work? I can't for the life of me figure out how to box correctly. It's incredibly unresponsive, and only rarely seems to do what I'm actually doing. I certainly can't figure out how to hit the side of my opponent (it just seems to do that randomly). It's really frustrating. I can dodge and block just fine, but when I try to hit, it seems to detect my movements about half the time.

Posted by: hybrid8

Re: Wii - 29/12/2006 14:27

Ok, I picked up Zelda and Raving Rabids today. Woo!

Now I just need a fricken console to play them on. I went to 5 stores this AM and all were sold out. I wish I had known Best Buy was still opening early as I may have had a shot if I got there before 9am. I've got a plan formulated for next week though - I just hope the stores receive some stock. Wiimotes and Nunchakas are also not available anywhere from what I have seen. Plenty of Classic controllers in stock.

Best Buy and Toys R Us carry the games at full MSRP of $59 and change here in Canada while Walmart's prices run from $40 to $59 for the same titles (Rampage and other lame titles are the cheapest).

Posted by: JeffS

Re: Wii - 29/12/2006 19:14

Quote:
Now I just need a fricken console to play them on.

Yeah, same here. Except my options are more limited. My wife bought me a Target gift card on the theory that giving me $250 and saying go buy a Wii is a lame Christmas present, which is true. This isn't something I'd buy for myself, and that's exactly what it would feel like. But now I'm reduced to calling Target every day and seeing if they've got them in stock. I called yesterday and the tired operator told me they had none. I called this morning and the tired operator said they got in a shipment yesterday and they're all gone. So know I guess I'll just call every hour since they can't tell me when they expect their shipments to come in.

Posted by: Dignan

Re: Wii - 30/12/2006 04:11

Quote:
My wife bought me a Target gift card

Oooo, I'm sorry to hear about your difficulties in obtaining the console, but I must know if the card is one of those cool blue LED ones...

Posted by: JeffS

Re: Wii - 31/12/2006 00:47

Quote:
Oooo, I'm sorry to hear about your difficulties in obtaining the console, but I must know if the card is one of those cool blue LED ones...

No, just a little fake game controller. Blue LED would be much cooler

Anyway, I've decided not to get neurotic and just wait for a while. It's game console after all; some people in the world don't know where their next meal is coming from. I can wait a couple of weeks to play Zelda.

Posted by: hybrid8

Re: Wii - 31/12/2006 14:44

Anyone know of any site listing upcoming Wii games with some semi-detailed info and perhaps screen shots?

The forum thread below collects a number of images in a small list:

http://www.gamespot.com/pages/forums/show_msgs.php?topic_id=25249462&page=0

Some titles there I hadn't seen images of before. While there are some titles that should be quite good (or at least look like must-try) there are also a lot of real stinkers. A number of the titles already out have been universally panned - most of which didn't interest me anyway.

I'm already on the hunt for games in the vein of Zelda. Adventure/RPG titles with some type of action component. Resident Evil, Tomb Raider, Elder Scrolls, etc..

Posted by: FireFox31

Re: Wii - 01/01/2007 19:57

Super Mario Galaxy

If Mario 64 put gamers into the third dimension, it seems like Mario Galaxy is putting us into a "fourth dimension". Soaring from planet to planet, each with their own gravity, making even the Wiimote seem too "two dimensional" of a controler for the task.

What amazes me, though, are children's ability to handle these complex controls. I was horrible with the N64 analog stick until now, 6 years later (though I didn't get any significant play time in until now). My preference for precision "digital control" (eschewing mice for keyboard shortcuts) makes me nervous of the Wiimote. Though I bet "kids these days" will have no problem, just like N64.

But yes, I'm not going to bother looking for a Wii for at least two more weeks.

Posted by: loren

Re: Wii - 01/01/2007 21:48

Quote:
What amazes me, though, are children's ability to handle these complex controls.

I've been watching Kelly's nephews (5 and 8 years old) play games the past couple of days and had the same thought. It's really amazing. Watching them play some of the Sonic games on Gamecube just blew me away... the games are SO FAST and complex, with cameras and levels moving in multiple dimensions and at epilepsy inducing speeds. Not to mention the subtleties of some of the control schemes. We were thinking back to the troubles we had with the simple 2 button jump controls of the NES. Kids minds can handle amazingly complex interactions.

Posted by: hybrid8

Re: Wii - 02/01/2007 01:26

Just as I started to get the hang of all the starter controls in Zelda (including the various sword attacks) my brother tells me you get even more special attacks later on. Oh boy.

Played a few of trials in Rayman today which were pretty fun. Even my girlfriend who initially dismissed the game as "stupid" got hooked in the one where you slam the outhouse doors shut.

Tomorrow begins my quest to find a unit for myself. My brother located one yesterday that had just been traded at an EB-Games, but the people at the store wouldn't sell it because they said they had to check with head office to find out how much to sell it for (since it was no longer "new") Ugh.

Posted by: FireFox31

Re: Wii - 03/01/2007 03:27

On finding a Wii, I wonder if those Wii Finder sites are still working. My brief search didn't turn up any.

But what are the rumor sites that nicely predicted the 12/17/06 stockpiling? Maybe those sites know when the next stockpile release date will be so we can all camp out for one. I'd camp out if I knew I'd picked the right night.

Posted by: tfabris

Re: Wii - 03/01/2007 06:52

Man, it's too bad those Wiis are so rare.

I was at Target buying a light bulb last night, and they were selling a PS3 right off the shelf, with one more left in the glass case. Should I have bought it just to ebay it for a profit?

Posted by: matthew_k

Re: Wii - 03/01/2007 07:13

Quote:
Should I have bought it just to ebay it for a profit?

Nope, apparently the ebayers are returning them to stores as they can't make a profit on them on ebay.

Matthew

Posted by: BAKup

Re: Wii - 03/01/2007 14:55

Don't bother with the ebay, I'm now seeing places that have PS3s in stock, but no Wiis though

The bottom has dropped out of that market.

Posted by: drakino

Re: Wii - 03/01/2007 15:33

After figuring sales tax, shipping, and eBay costs in, not many people had a very profitable sale of the PS3s after about a week of them being out. There was a huge rise in people trying to sell on eBay compared to the PS2s, but not a noticeable rise of wallet burning holes in pants people to make it work.

Posted by: tfabris

Re: Wii - 03/01/2007 15:53

Ah, good thing I didn't act on that impulse then. Strange, because I'd heard that Sony was going to be shipping very few units, and there would be a shortage. I was under the impression that the PS3 was a) likely to be the more popular console, and b) shipped fewer units at rollout than the Wii. Ah well, I guess Nintendo's finally hit the right target with the Wii. I'm happy for them, they really deserve the popularity, they make great products.

Posted by: hybrid8

Re: Wii - 03/01/2007 16:10

There are likely only about 1/3 or less PS3 units out than Wii. But every store I go to looking for a Wii has at least 1 (if not 3) PS3 60GB models sitting on a shelf.

Their price is one of the biggest factors I'm guessing. The Wii's control mechanics and fun party games (and lower price) have also made it the must-have console this season. On Ebay it's still fetching between $350 and $650 US daily.

I went out looking for them today and got to ToyRUs just after the delivery truck (perfect timing) - but they received no units. A friend called me to let me know EB Games received stock today but by the time I got to the closest one they were all sold out. Have to wait till next week to try those chains again. I will probably try WalMart tomorrow and I'd like to try Best Buy on Friday, but I'm not sure if they're doing their normal 'hold until Friday" this week.

Posted by: JeffS

Re: Wii - 03/01/2007 17:43

I just think it's nice to see fun and affordability beating out eye candy and power. This is probably a good thing for the game consumer, as it might drive game companies to put more emphasis on the fun factor.

Posted by: hybrid8

Re: Wii - 03/01/2007 18:22

There's plenty of Eye Candy on the Wii as well. It's no slouch in that department. The difference between the NVIDIA chip in the PS3 and ATI chips in the Wii and 360 will not be evident in some games. At low SD resolutions (720x480) all the chips should manage full frame rate with a lot of 3D "wow"

Things you will notice on the more powerful chips in the PS3 and 360 will be higher resolutions (which require an HD set to use) and pixel-based filtering (anisotropic filtering is probably what one would notice right away). Per-pixel shading may also be easy to spot in some games, but it really depends how and where it's used for it to make a big difference. Model/object detail in some games is evident but in many it's easily lost on the majority of players. Obviously the faster chips can handle more tris/polys, but there's no guarantee a game publisher will even use different models for the various ports of their games.

At this time I can't say I'm overjoyed at the title availability for the Wii. Zelda is head and shoulders better than anything else on the platform right now. Easily 10-100x better than the other games. I'm hoping for more titles in that league sooner rather than later. Nintendo will need it to keep the console sales strong in the long run.

Posted by: wfaulk

Re: Wii - 03/01/2007 18:29

Game quality is very subjective, though. Though I've not played the new Zelda, I always found the older ones to be dreadfully boring. And I'm not a tweak player by any means. It always seemed to me to hit at that dead spot between action game and adventure game, where none of the positives of either side existed.

That doesn't mean that I think you shouldn't like it, but just the notion that a Zelda game is far better than any other game on the system tells me that either all the games are dreadful or that you and I don't share tastes, so there's no telling what other people might find compelling, and, therefore, your assessment of the current slew of games isn't necessarily relevant.

Posted by: JeffS

Re: Wii - 03/01/2007 18:51

I agree that the current offering of games isn't that great. It seems from reading reviews that there's Zelda, party games, sports games, and then a bunch of other so-so stuff. It does sound like the sports games and party games really shine with the new remote, but since I'm not really into sports games that doesn't do much for me.

Fortunatly, I've not really got much time for gaming, so as long as there's something great released every once in a while I'll be good. Zelda will hold my attention for a while, and the new Mario is supposed to be good as well. I hope that they make a good shooter at some point, as it sounds like they haven't really gotten that right even though you'd think the new control system would be perfect for it.

Nintendo has done a good job in the "fun" department in the past, and it seems the capabilities of the system should carry this focus foward. Also, at this price point it won't be hard to feel like I'm getting full value

Posted by: Dignan

Re: Wii - 03/01/2007 18:53

Quote:
There's plenty of Eye Candy on the Wii as well. It's no slouch in that department.

That's what I keep saying! I fully realize that it's not in the same league [graphically] as the 360 and PS3, but there are so many people out there with the misconception that the Wii is absolutely nothing more than a smaller Gamecube. I was a little shocked to watch a Diggnation episode, and Alex was dead serious about his claim that the Wii's innards contained the exact same hardware as the Gamecube. Obviously, this is not the case.

The way I see it, no, the Wii did not take the jump in power that consoles usually do. It took a step. It seems to me that (on average) the Wii is picking up in the graphics department where the GC left off. Yes, there were games that looked better on the GC (RE4 is the one usually cited), but on the whole the graphics are better, IMO. Besides, we're at the beginning of the product's life cycle, and 2nd/3rd generation games almost always look better.

But you know what? Even if they don't, I could care less. The games I have right now are a ton of fun.

Quote:
At this time I can't say I'm overjoyed at the title availability for the Wii. Zelda is head and shoulders better than anything else on the platform right now. Easily 10-100x better than the other games. I'm hoping for more titles in that league sooner rather than later. Nintendo will need it to keep the console sales strong in the long run.

That's where I'm worried. Did you hear that Super Mario Galaxy and the next Metroid game are slated for next fall? That's a big problem, I think. I don't really see any big games coming down the line. Does anyone else?

*edit*

I forgot, there's one other serious issue that could mean colossal failure for the Wii.........FACIAL HAIR!!

Okay, so I'm joking, but it's been an annoyance of mine when it comes to the Mii channel. I've been to Japan, but can't remember how popular facial hair was. But apparently, in their mind everyone in the world has 3 kinds of beards and 3 kinds of mustaches, all of which are comical (and on the Wii, unadjustable).

I mean really, you can choose from what, 48 different eyes? And each one can be moved around and sized? But if you have a light beard, you end up looking like Grizzly Adams with a Mexican biker 'stache? What's with that?

Posted by: visuvius

Re: Wii - 03/01/2007 18:56

Zelda is pretty damn fun but there are defintely a couple of other cool games out. Excite Truck is a lot of fun. I rented it and it seemed really simple at first but there are a ton of little tricks that you can master which make it really fun.

Also, they are starting to put out some decent Virtual Console games. Street Fighter II: The World Warrior is on there now and so is a Castlevania, which I've always loved. Apparantly new games are released on Mondays.

If anyone is looking for awesome 4-player action, I HIGHLY recommend downloading Bomberman. Man o man that game is insanely fun.

Posted by: Dignan

Re: Wii - 03/01/2007 19:00

Quote:
just the notion that a Zelda game is far better than any other game on the system tells me that either all the games are dreadful or that you and I don't share tastes

No offense, Bitt, but I don't think there's any denying that you're in a very small minority. Many could argue that Nintendo's Zelda series* is considered the best gaming series of all time. I'm pretty sure they're the highest-rated, and although that doesn't necessarily translate to how much gamers like them, it certainly seems to me that that opinion is reflected in the general gaming public.

Which games did you play? What exactly didn't you like about them?

ps- there are only two instances where the word "boring" applies to my memory of Zelda games: the very beginning of Twilight Princess (I was very worried there), and about half of the sailing in Wind Waker. I liked the other half

* - I made sure to specify the "Nintendo Zelda series." Nobody wants to remember those CD-i attrocities (which weren't made by Nintendo).

Posted by: wfaulk

Re: Wii - 03/01/2007 19:08

Quote:
No offense, Bitt, but I don't think there's any denying that you're in a very small minority.

No offense taken or meant. I regularly am in a minority.

As I didn't enjoy the games, I don't remember which ones I played, but I have most of them on the GameCube demo disc. I do remember finding one of the early top-down ones moderately fun, but that was back when I thought consoles were serious underdogs to PCs in gaming, so that was moderately fun in comparison to other console games.

Anyway, I think that the ones I spent any time with were Link to the Past, Ocarina of Time (or maybe it was Majora's Mask), and Wind Waker. Of those, Link to the Past was by far the most fun, and then not all that much. I spent probably ten hours playing Link, with friends, and about two hours playing Ocarina/Mask and Wind Waker, combined.

Posted by: Dignan

Re: Wii - 03/01/2007 19:18

Gotcha. Well, there's definitely different tastes. So it's possible that there's another game on the system that you'd like much more than Zelda. I'm reasonably certain that there's not another game on the Wii that's as enormous or deep* as Zelda, but there might be ones you like more.

*Wii Sports, as I explain to anyone who tries it, is as deep as a puddle...or perhaps wet pavement. But that doesn't mean it isn't insanely fun. Excite Truck isn't very deep either. Race, do tricks, score stars, unlock courses and trucks. That's about it. But it's also very fun, although to me, it seems extremely hard. I don't know why. I've gotten the S class (the highest one) on all but one course in "Excite" mode, but I still find it very difficult for some reason. Maybe because it's so frenetic.

Posted by: JeffS

Re: Wii - 03/01/2007 19:23

Quote:
and about two hours playing Ocarina/Mask and Wind Waker, combined.

Ocarina is one of my fav games ever, but it doesn't really shine until you get a ways into it (not that it isn't fun in the beginning, just that it's much better in the middle and end sections). I have high hopes for the new Zelda, as it has been compared to Ocarina many times.

Posted by: wfaulk

Re: Wii - 03/01/2007 19:31

I understand what you mean by depth, and I'll agree that Zelda is deep, and also that, on paper, that that is something that I'd love, but not in the way I want it to be, which may be why I don't like it. Playing Zelda requires you to do a large variety of things, from trading to fighting to puzzle-solving, etc. But, from my perspective, it doesn't do any of them well. I think that that (not to discount the import of the fuckwads you always find there) is also why I despise MMORPGs.

In fact, it may be that the closer that something comes to what you want while still falling short, the more you dislike it. I've been playing golf on the PSP, and I find that putts I miss by a few inches piss me off a lot more than the ones I miss by yards.

Posted by: Dignan

Re: Wii - 03/01/2007 20:12

Quote:
I find that putts I miss by a few inches piss me off a lot more than the ones I miss by yards

How true. The only thing I'd point out is that you don't need to do everything that's available to you in a Zelda game. In Link to the Past, for example, you can beat the game without any bottles, but each one makes it easier to progress. I like that.

Link to the Past, by the way, is one of my top two favorite games of all time. Lately it's basically been my favorite game ever. So I guess I'm a little biased

Posted by: hybrid8

Re: Wii - 03/01/2007 22:35

Bitt, I've never played a Zelda all the way through. I've not owned any console ever, just PC's of one sort or another (Commodore 64, Amiga, Windows boxes, etc..)

I like straight up adventure and have also liked many action-oriented games. I think Zelda does blend those two genres very well and the new game better than any before it. I've watched my little brother play countless hours of various Zelda games and once I watched the first few minutes of the Twilight I knew this one I'd have to play myself.

I think Metroid should be a good action game with some logic involved. I've never been a big fan of the Mario games unfortunately, so I'm glad Zelda was the launch title and not Mario Galaxy. I thought both new titles were coming out in March, not fall. Best Buy Canada already has them listed online - expected March 30th.

So.... I bit the bullet, paid an extra $100 Canadian, but now I have a Wii in my hands. I just couldn't wait till next week for another crazy hop from store to store trying to catch the delivery trucks (today's truck at the local TRU didn't have any consoles).

I'll hook it up tomorrow and continue the Zelda save game I made at my brother's on Monday. Tonight I'm parking it for a couple of hours to watch a movie. Though I may just try hooking up the Wii when my GF goes to bed...

Posted by: hybrid8

Re: Wii - 04/01/2007 02:43

Anyone else notice on-screen pointer jerkiness after applying the online update (version 2.0u)?

My console is brand new (just shipped 1/1/07) and when I was first setting it up the pointer was silky smooth. In fact I was surprised because it was smoother than my brother's this past weekend.

After setting up the net connection it grabbed an automatic update and now the movement is jerky and changing the "sensitivity" has no effect for the issue. Basically if I move the pointer back and forth or up and down in an empty space it will stutter even though I'm moving my hand very slowly and smoothly. At times you can almost see two pointers on the screen at once (like the hand is bouncing quickly between two places).

The difference between what I'm seeing now and when I first started up the console is night and day.

Is there a way to do a factory reset?

Posted by: drakino

Re: Wii - 04/01/2007 03:45

You sure it's not just an IR interference issue with something else? The remote uses the sensor bar to re-calibrate, and all that the bar has in it is 8 IR senders. I found at one place I set mine up, some christmas lights has to be turned off to use the system, as the pointer was highly erratic, and would work even when not pointed at the TV.

Posted by: hybrid8

Re: Wii - 04/01/2007 04:20

I'm positive it's not the physical setup. I changed nothing but the software update. One minute it's working smooth as butter and the next it's like chewing on rocks. Christmas tree lights can definitly affect the remote's receiver - saw this first hand at my brother's on Monday. Those issues aren't at play here at my place.

I've since made some adjustments to remedy the situation as best as possible. I cranked the sensitivity and moved the sensoor bar to the bottom of the TV on top of its little stand. The way I like to hold my hand though requires the bar to be a bit higher so I will probably attach it to the TV just below the screen (which is 4 inches higher than it is right now). I'll try it on top of the TV again tomorrow, but like I mentioned, the current performance is not anywhere close to what it was when I first hooked it up.

Wii code: 8513 0580 4643 5279 - I should have a Mii or two created by tomorrow night.

Now for a little Zelda before bed...

Posted by: FireFox31

Re: Wii - 05/01/2007 00:56

What did I miss with "Link to the Past" that made me pass it off as a fancy remake of "The Legend of Zelda"? "Ocarina of Time", on the other hand, was time well spent. Well balanced game play, loads of side quests, and it was easy enough to be relaxing at the end of a long day.

Bruno, your store hunting was an inspiration. I hope I don't cave and pay an extra $200 to get one online. February, I'll find one...

Posted by: BAKup

Re: Wii - 05/01/2007 03:49

Right now I'm finding Wiis in Walmart of all places, picked one up, and I've also picked up Rayman and Zelda.

Thoughts so far: Wii Sports is just fun, haven't played all the games there, but it would be a blast for a party.

Rayman is funny, and I see I'm going to have a lot of fun there, I loved the cow tossing, First time I was laughing hard enough to not get a good throw. Need to play more, lots more.

I've not gotten to Zelda yet, going to play after I post this.

Wii code: 1866 9499 5376 9057, I've already added in everyone else on the board.

Now on to Zelda.

Posted by: hybrid8

Re: Wii - 05/01/2007 05:35

I'm now in the second "dungeon" in Zelda and damn is it ever difficult (for me). Just a lot of running and jumping, the two things I'm not the greatest at. I fall off edges far too often still - probably because I use the analog stick as if it were digital. I'll have to give it a bit more finese or this level is going to drive me batty. Each fall means instant death which aso means starting at the entrance of the
room again. And obviously that means having to repeat all the same PITA running and jumping.

I'd like to see a game in a similar vein with a more open (non-linear) plot where there's also more interaction with the environment. Link can't really climb very many things, nor is there any dedicated jump command (it just happen automatically when you run off an edge). Maybe a cross between Zelda, Tomb Raider and Ultima 4 and 5. Damn, that would be sweet.

Oh yes... I also suck at horseback combat.

Posted by: frog51

Re: Wii - 05/01/2007 06:40

Had insane fun last night with the Happy Feet game. Not so much playing it, but watching the kids just about turn themselves inside out playing the dancing game (bit like dance dance revolution, but flick the wiimote in the direction of the arrows instead of step on a pad)

I am definitely liking this fitness for kids idea. They ended up tired out and slept very well!

(But I agree that Monkey Ball sucks with this UI - or maybe I'm just incapable of getting past the parrots on the first world:-(

Posted by: Tim

Re: Wii - 05/01/2007 11:54

Quote:
Thoughts so far: Wii Sports is just fun, haven't played all the games there, but it would be a blast for a party.

Its fun for not just a party, but when you only have two people. If both my roommate and I are in the living room at the same time, that is what we play. Everything else we'll play when the other isn't around, unless one of us gets stuck somewhere (he had a heck of a time driving in COD3 so watched me where to go) and needs to see how the other did it.

Posted by: hybrid8

Re: Wii - 05/01/2007 15:26

I'd love to have someone here right now to do this really lame timed jump routine I'm in the middle of. Personally I hate it when games force you to jump little platforms in a specific (short) amount of time. This whole dungeon in Zelda has that all over the place. Very frustrating to say the least. With my suckiness at the running control it's hard to go both fast and precise. So either I die (by falling) or I don't reach the end of the sequence fast enough (meaning I have to jump all the way back to the start to try it again). Arrrrgh!

Frustration takes the fun away from gaming really fast. And when you've accomplished the goal, instead of being satisfied, I'm just left thinking "damn, that was insanely difficault and completely lame!"

The least they could do it finally remove the BS hold-over from the original Zelda games and just let you save and continue from anywhere. And I mean from the EXACT spot you've saved in. People who don't want to save as often don't have to. People who do (like me) can do so without wanting to throw the controller (without strap) at the TV.

Posted by: tfabris

Re: Wii - 05/01/2007 15:43

http://theinspiracy.com/400_project.htm

Posted by: Dignan

Re: Wii - 05/01/2007 15:50

Which dungeon is this, Bruno? I can't remember what the "second" dungeon was. At the moment I'm stuck in the water temple with no idea what to do.

As for the saving part, there is a little trick to that, if you search the dungeons carefully enough. You'll find this really weird chicken...person...thing... which will let you warp out of any dungeon and then warp back in no matter where you were, and it will warp you back to the exact spot you left from. That's something similar to what you're wanting. You can just warp out, save, then warp back in again.

Now that I think of it, are you talking about the temple with the monkeys? If so, I think I know what you're talking about. Are you at those bridges that turn when the wind blows? I hated that dungeon, honestly. It was extremely difficult for me to figure out what to do next. And I apologize, but I'm not sure I could walk anyone through it at this point.

Man, I really need to play Zelda again. I haven't had long periods of time where I could play, so I've just been playing Excite Truck and unlocking new trucks.

Posted by: JeffS

Re: Wii - 05/01/2007 16:11

I hate "falling death" in video games pretty much anywhere it exists. I hate figuring out a puzzle, managing my character's health, etc. and then falling off a cliff that in one instant destroys everything I've accomplished. However, just about ever every adventure game seems to include platform jumping at one point or another (did Ocarina have platform jumping?).

Posted by: hybrid8

Re: Wii - 05/01/2007 16:13

Rule #7 :

Quote:
Let the Player Turn the Game Off --- A player should be able to save and exit the game at any point, losing at most a few seconds of progress as a result. Our objective as designers is to entertain, not punish – and many games force players to play for extra minutes, even hours, until they can reach a “save game point”, forcing them to recapitulate those minutes if they quit prematurely, in frustrating repetition of now-familiar events. It’s a commercially important rule, akin to the old adage, “the customer is always right”. Players have been known to give up on games that did not follow this rule, and even return them.

Thanks Tony. I knew I wasn't alone in thinking this.

Posted by: hybrid8

Re: Wii - 05/01/2007 16:28

I'm currently battling boredom and feelings of aggression in the Goron Mines - the lava dungeon.

The puzzles aren't a problem. The combat isn't a problem (once you figure out weaknesses of what you're fighting). Basic running is my biggest challenge.

As the camera changes angle you have to compensate with your controller. So you might be pulling back (down) on the stick to run "ahead" and suddenly the camera shifts and you're now turning left or something similar. I find it a total pain in the ass trying to run and jump from small platform to small platform while avoiding lava giesers.

The save issue means that if I want to quit I have to go all the way back to the start of the dungeon. The part with the timing I'm stuck at is in the third room. The first two rooms are already a pain in the ass. At least when you die in the third room you can just continue from its entrance (losing one heart's worth of energy up to twice before it's game over). When it's Game Over you can continue again of course and you're better off actually because you're only down one heart. But the Game Over prompt takes seconds to appear and then another second to actually load the room back up again. Plus the monsters are all regenerated again.

Nintendo have done wonders with the graphics and have decent controls (the lame camera and running aside), but they really need to revisit the core of game design. The Zelda series is still using saving conventions and level restarting principles that were necessary for the original 8-bit versions of the games with "save codes" for fixed locations and other early formats with limited save memory.

Why does Twilight only allow you 3 concurrent save games? Why no option to save directly to SD card instead of having to then copy from main save memory?

Anyone know of a cheat that helps with running/jumping? Something to auto-target or tweak the jump to always land on the desired mark would be awesome.

If you're off by just a sliver you're in the lava, poof. Having a chicken permanently in my inventory would be great for jump/gliding.

While games like Wii sports are for non-gamers, Zelda is very much for Gamers. And I haven't been a "Gamer" in 20 years so it's taking some getting used to. I just wish right now I had a greater sense of excitement and less one of dread (of having to see that Lava dungeon for one minute more and knowing I have all the jumping to do over again...

The chicken thing is Ooccoo and I used it in the first dungeon (Forest Temple) to teleport outside to save - this is a big time saver to get back to the room you teleported out from. But that Dungeon was pretty straight forward and all its jumping around was very easy for me. In this dungeon it's not come up yet in the three first rooms.

Posted by: RobotCaleb

Re: Wii - 05/01/2007 16:55

Quote:
As the camera changes angle you have to compensate with your controller. So you might be pulling back (down) on the stick to run "ahead" and suddenly the camera shifts and you're now turning left or something similar. I find it a total pain in the ass trying to run and jump from small platform to small platform while avoiding lava giesers.

I'm not that far. I don't find Zelda games very fun at all and have only just recently finished the monkey dungeon. However, I do know that if the camera changes and you maintain the previous holding on the nunchuk stick he will continue to run in the direction that he was. If you need to continue in a straight line try not compensating when the camera shifts and just leave the nunchuk stick where you have it. If, however, you need to turn then all I can offer you is lrn2playnoob. :P

Posted by: hybrid8

Re: Wii - 05/01/2007 17:12

I thought he'd keep running too. But it doesn't actually work that way. At least not from what I'm seeing now. Or rather, perhaps only when going UP. Get the camera angle so that you have to push to the right or left to make link walk straight ahead (relative to his own body of course). Now keep holding in that direction. He will start to run in an arc when the camera changes.

Anyway, I passed the third room! Woooooo! I now also have the Ooccoo and have saved the game (outside) while teleported out from the 4th room.

On the jumping attempt where I finally made it, I though to myself, "this is the one, this time you're finishing this bloody room." And I did!

Of course every other time I thought that I ended up in the fire.

Posted by: Dignan

Re: Wii - 05/01/2007 17:25

Congrats!

Now, I haven't played the game in a couple weeks now (:(), but can't you move the camera most of the time? You could just keep the camera behind you all the time.

Anyway, I agree with you to a certain extent, but I haven't found the controls all that difficult.

Posted by: RobotCaleb

Re: Wii - 05/01/2007 17:26

hmm. I remember specifically testing for the running camera thing. I don't recall the specifics, though.

Posted by: hybrid8

Re: Wii - 05/01/2007 22:20

The only way I know to adjust the camera is to press the C button causing a first-person view. When released, the camera will be over link's shoulder.

After passing the lava jumping parts of that dungeon the rest ended up being fairly straight forward with some fun parts. For the most screwed up controls one needs only to start walking on walls. Ceilings no problem but walls, ugh...

Right now I'm back in Kakariko village picking up things like heart pieces and flying around with chickens.

Posted by: FireFox31

Re: Wii - 06/01/2007 01:48

Bruno, I think I saw you mention that Twilight Princess was your first Zelda in a long while, if ever. You may want to take a break and try to play N64's Ocarina of Time for a bit. The controls are simpler yet I'll bet the concepts are the same. This exercise may give you some practice with the camera (UP not always being UP, etc). After a short time, you'll know to move the stick in the direction Link is facing, no matter where the camera is.

I wonder if in the vastness of the Internet, there is someone who will take your saved game, get you past the trouble spot, and send the save back to you. That is, if you can download the save game to a computer or send it via the Opera browser. Now THAT'D be a good use for internal browsers.

Posted by: BAKup

Re: Wii - 06/01/2007 05:44

Evening 2 of the Wii: Checked my Mii Parade, no Miis there. Popped in Zelda, got another hour and a half in. Got to the point where I sneak around and get the sword and shield, decided I needed a break from that for a bit.
Changed over to Sports, did some boxing, tennis and bowling, that does give you a workout.
Took a break, played with the weather channel, it's neat to look at.
Started up Rayman, wore myself out with all the pumping I had to do.
Went back to my Mii parade, still no one there.

Zelda is a great game, and I need to devote more time to it, I'll probably be cursing it during the jumping parts though.

Posted by: hybrid8

Re: Wii - 06/01/2007 13:09

I've found a huge problem with Zelda. While playing it, real-world time slips by at an incredibly fast rate. All it takes is one "just another 5 minutes and I'll shut it down" to find a whole hour gone by. Before you know it it's 4am and you're crawling into bed with, what in the morning will probably be, a pissed off girlfriend.

I don't know if I can stop playing this one to try the N64 Ocarina.... I do remember little parts of that one because it's probably the last I saw my brother play while we still lived together. I'd also have to borrow the N64 from my him as I don't believe that title has been release as part of teh Virtual Console yet, has it? Not to mention I also don't have any other controllers yet (classic or Gamecube). So it's a hard life and I'll have to stick with Twilight for now. Heh.

Posted by: Dignan

Re: Wii - 06/01/2007 14:41

Yeah, the wall walking annoyed me too. I guess the C button was what I was thinking of. I tap that all the time so I have the camera behind me.

I'm glad to hear you're getting into it again

Posted by: drakino

Re: Wii - 06/01/2007 18:38

I'd recommend to sticking to one Zelda game at a time anyhow. I'm nearing the end of Wind Waker so I might finally start Twilight Princess soon.

As far as getting Ocrina of Time, I'd look around at the used game stores for this GameCube version.

Posted by: hybrid8

Re: Wii - 06/01/2007 21:29

Ok, I just finally had a Mii show up in the parade. Is there any way to find out more about them? This one has the name "Gord" but I have no idea who it is. I've added everyone from the BBS to my addressbook using their BBS names, but I can't see a way to find out what the link between the character and the address book entry is.

What happens on the receiver's end when you send someone a Mii manually using the send feature? Both my brother and another friend are the only two that show up in the friends list, but I don't have any Miis on parade from either of them.

Posted by: BAKup

Re: Wii - 07/01/2007 00:04

Quote:
I've found a huge problem with Zelda. While playing it, real-world time slips by at an incredibly fast rate. All it takes is one "just another 5 minutes and I'll shut it down" to find a whole hour gone by. Before you know it it's 4am and you're crawling into bed with, what in the morning will probably be, a pissed off girlfriend.

Well, with the Wii, I end up getting tired out quicker than if I was playing on another console or a computer, so I do end up stopping around 1:30AM instead of 4.

Also I'd stick to one Zelda at a time, you'll have more fun that way.

Posted by: FireFox31

Re: Wii - 07/01/2007 15:15

Quote:
4am

Games in the Zelda series always seemed to have well laid out break points - completion of a task or pauses in the action where you could actually stop. Maybe Twilight Princess is more seamless, but those break points make it easy to get a small "daily dose". Now, resisting the temptation to play PAST a break point, that's another problem.

Posted by: hybrid8

Re: Wii - 07/01/2007 18:26

I now know what happens when someone manually sends a Mii. The recipient gets notified and the new characters appear. In the parade there is no notification. I now have a Hulk Hogan in the parade as well - I think that one came from my brother's console.

Just finished the third dungeon in Zelda and I'm at one of those break points. I suppose I can make it another action session, but I've managed to put it down for now.

Posted by: drakino

Re: Wii - 08/01/2007 15:27

Quote:
I was sort of disappointed in the number of games available through the Virtual Console.

Something I didn't even think of was that most of these games have no ESRB ratings, so Nintendo is probably having to spend a decent amount of time filling out paperwork on every old game in their library to then send off to the ESRB. The last thing Nintendo needs is Liberman or Thompson trying to sue them over the lack of warnings on a game that promotes taking mushrooms and stomping on peoples heads.

Posted by: hybrid8

Re: Wii - 08/01/2007 16:42

I thought the ESRB was voluntary and then only of concern when a game sits in a box on a shelf?

Besides they don't have a classification B for Bitmap.

I'm trying to keep most of today a "work day" but I've got the shakes bad to play a little Zelda. Damn, haven't had the fever this bad since Ultima 5 waaaay back.

Posted by: drakino

Re: Wii - 08/01/2007 16:48

Quote:
I thought the ESRB was voluntary and then only of concern when a game sits in a box on a shelf?

It's more of a mandatory voluntary system. Any product, be it a box on the shelf, or a digital distribution, has to be rated.

"We don't want to get into this and have have the government regulate video games or force you to adopt a rating system, but if you don't do it yourself we will."
-- Joseph Lieberman

Posted by: hybrid8

Re: Wii - 08/01/2007 19:47

And old games aren't grandfathered? I mean, some of the games being "released" are 20 or more years old. And really they're not so much being released as they are simply being made available for download - technically they were released when they hit the street on their original platforms.

Not to turn this into a political thread, but is Lieberman a Democrat or Republican?

Posted by: wfaulk

Re: Wii - 08/01/2007 19:53

He's a Democrat, but he is, perhaps more often than any other one, labeled as a "DINO": Democrat In Name Only. He's so outside the party that he didn't get the Democratic nomination for his seat in November and started his own party just to run. And then the Republicans basically supported him for reelection rather than their own candidate. But after he was elected, he switched back to the Democrats from his vanity party. In name, anyway.

He's also an outspoken proponent of the Iraq war and Bush in general.

Posted by: Dignan

Re: Wii - 09/01/2007 15:02

Quote:
I'm trying to keep most of today a "work day" but I've got the shakes bad to play a little Zelda. Damn, haven't had the fever this bad since Ultima 5 waaaay back.

Bruno, you might find this funny

Posted by: hybrid8

Re: Wii - 09/01/2007 16:40

Can't the Dem's just kick him out of the party?

Posted by: wfaulk

Re: Wii - 09/01/2007 18:10

I don't think they can, but it would be stupid to do so. As it is, the Democrats have a 51-to-49 majority in the Senate. That means that they are in control of ... well, without getting too far into it, everything in the Senate. If they were to get rid of him, they would no longer have control. Also, on most issues that are more core but less glitzy, he does tend to vote with the party. It's just that he's in favor of the Iraq war and, in relation to this thread, video game censorship, although another big proponent of that is Hillary Clinton, and few would call her a DINO.

Posted by: JeffS

Re: Wii - 10/01/2007 12:10

Still no Wii for me, but a friend got one and brought it over this weekend. We played Wii sports the whole time. Man this thing is cool and FUN. This would be the first time (other than my single DDR experience) I worked up a sweat playing a video game. My "tennis" shoulder is very sore though.

Posted by: Tim

Re: Wii - 10/01/2007 20:25

Lunchbox (my roommate) actually moved a tabletop and floor fan into the TV room for use while playing tennis or boxing. Still super fun

Posted by: wfaulk

Re: Wii - 10/01/2007 21:02

WARNING!!! Your Wii has porn!!!
</hysteria>

Real story: The Wii web browser doesn't have any CyberNanny-type software.

Posted by: hybrid8

Re: Wii - 10/01/2007 22:31

I can't think of any other reason for having a web browser in the Wii if not for porn. In fact I'd like to have a Skin channel right on the main Wii menu.

Posted by: JeffS

Re: Wii - 10/01/2007 22:38

Wow, what a dumb article.

Posted by: hybrid8

Re: Wii - 10/01/2007 22:48

There's no such thing as a dumb article... Only dumb reporters.

Posted by: JeffS

Re: Wii - 12/01/2007 00:11

Of course, the web browser might not be the biggest worry for parents- there's always Leisure Suit Larry.

Posted by: hybrid8

Re: Wii - 12/01/2007 13:16

The Wii browser isn't as well suited to Porn as it could be. The huge button bar at the bottom really blocks out a lot of the centerfold type layout. I'm sure a 16:9 spread would work very well though.

Posted by: JeffS

Re: Wii - 14/01/2007 01:33

Andybody try out Elebits yet?

Wow, VERY fun. Not sure how it's going to be over the long term, but there's nothing like completely trashing a room looking for these little guys. And the technology is pretty cool- nice way to show off what the Wii can do.

Posted by: loren

Re: Wii - 14/01/2007 07:28

Haven't played it yet... but I think i'm going to trade in Farcry, which I haven't even cracked open yet, that someone gave me for xmas and buy elebits.

I'm finally on the last level of Zelda... 54 hours into it. It's getting to be a bit of a drag at this point honestly, but i'm going to finish it none the less. Oh, and those who hate jumping... learn to love it, quick.

Posted by: hybrid8

Re: Wii - 14/01/2007 13:32

The last level is pretty straight forward as far as the jumping goes. I found the most difficult jumping "level" to be the Goron mines.

The first half of the game was defnitely its strongest in my opinion. I won't give any spoilers, but I just found that the discovery/adventure aspects to be of higher quality. After the second half it just started to become more of a "get through this part quickly" thing.

I've been doing a lot of the side quests and hidden caves as well finding bugs, etc. The game keeps tracking time even when you pause it with the Home button, so I'm at over 90 hours after having completed the last dungeon, but before killing the last boss. I forgot that I had a certain item that I could use and just quit out to come back to it later. Probably for the best anyway because there were a couple of other hidden areas I wanted to fart around in first - just in case the game would come to an abrupt end after that battle. I also still have to get the final special ability - I was playing late one night and just couldn't nail the howl down.

The reviewers that mentioned the graphics were "lacking" in this game are off their rockers. There are many aspects that don't push the envelope, but there are some really great visuals in Twilight Princess. Nintendo put in a lot of attention to detail.

Posted by: Dignan

Re: Wii - 14/01/2007 17:58

Quote:
The reviewers that mentioned the graphics were "lacking" in this game are off their rockers. There are many aspects that don't push the envelope, but there are some really great visuals in Twilight Princess. Nintendo put in a lot of attention to detail.

Agreed. I think the problem is that many of those reviewers don't realize that there's more to graphics than poly counts. The game still has to look good. Twilight Princess looks very, very good. The only problem I had with it is that overall it's a little too brown. It gets a little muddled at times. But it may just look that way because Wind Waker was so full of color.

Posted by: Schido

Hold your wee for a Wii ! - 15/01/2007 12:05

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6261509.stm

Posted by: blitz

Re: Hold your wee for a Wii ! - 15/01/2007 12:21

Hold your wee for a Wii !

See above regarding Wii porn compatibility. BTW, doesn't Apple have i copyrighted?

Posted by: cushman

Re: Hold your wee for a Wii ! - 15/01/2007 13:07

I don't think you've read the article.

Posted by: frog51

Re: Hold your wee for a Wii ! - 15/01/2007 13:23

Looks like Cisco may lose iPhone in Europe, but they did buy Linksys (if I remember correctly) who did do a VOIP device called the iPhone, so there will be a heap of legal fun and games ahead, I bet.

Posted by: blitz

Re: Hold your wee for a Wii ! - 15/01/2007 13:36

Quote:
I don't think you've read the article.

I read it but when I first glanced at the Subject line I thought the reference was to the original topic. Oh well.

Posted by: tfabris

Re: Hold your wee for a Wii ! - 15/01/2007 18:14

Quote:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6261509.stm

Holy cow. When are US radio stations going to learn? I'm always hearing about some botched promotion or other, resulting in the radio station either hurting or killing someone, or getting sued for a huge amount of money. Anyone remember the "New Toyota/New Toy Yoda" thing?

Don't these stations' PR people watch old episodes of "WKRP" any more? ("As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly...")

Posted by: CrackersMcCheese

Re: Hold your wee for a Wii ! - 15/01/2007 18:19

Its her own fault for being a dumb ass. Darwin Awards anyone?

Posted by: tfabris

Re: Hold your wee for a Wii ! - 15/01/2007 18:34

Oh, that gets into the darwins for sure. However, since the contest and its parameters were organized by someone other than her, I'm wondering who gets the award: The station or the lady?

Posted by: tfabris

Re: Hold your wee for a Wii ! - 15/01/2007 18:41

And the Wikipedia entry on "Water Intoxication" already cites the Jan 12th case. Wow.

Posted by: wfaulk

Re: Hold your wee for a Wii ! - 15/01/2007 18:45

The Darwin Award, as the name suggests, rewards people for being so stupid that they remove themselves from the gene pool. Since the station didn't die, it is not eligible.

Posted by: tfabris

Re: Hold your wee for a Wii ! - 15/01/2007 18:55

The more I read about it, the more I think the organizers of the contest should be drawn and quartered. One of the articles I read said that the station spokesman said something like "we are awaiting information about how this tragedy could have happened" or some such.

Now, I admit, I didn't know about water intoxication before reading the news article. But you'd think the station would've had the good sense to ask a doctor what the possible risks were.

This is one of the situations where I think a big fat lawsuit is justified. I'm sure it's coming, I'm sure the station is going to settle out of court as soon as they realize how negligent they were, and I hope that poor sweet lady's family gets an obscenely gigantic sum.

To get back to the darwin question: I don't think the lady deserves the award. She stopped participating in the contest when she started feeling badly. She wasn't being stupid: Water intoxication isn't something that's widely known about. It was up to the radio station promoters to keep the contestants safe. They should have had a doctor present.

Posted by: peter

Re: Hold your wee for a Wii ! - 15/01/2007 18:58

Quote:
When are US radio stations going to learn? I'm always hearing about some botched promotion or other, resulting in the radio station either hurting or killing someone, or getting sued for a huge amount of money.

Not just US stations. (That isn't Birmingham, Alabama. It's the real one.)

Peter

Posted by: tfabris

Re: Hold your wee for a Wii ! - 15/01/2007 19:25

I like the statement from the radio station in that article. Much better than the one I saw about the Sacramento station.

And you get points for knowing about the town in Alabama.

Posted by: Roger

Re: Hold your wee for a Wii ! - 15/01/2007 19:25

Quote:
To get back to the darwin question: I don't think the lady deserves the award.

She's ineligible anyway; she's already got 3 children. From the BBC article:

Quote:
"She was telling me about her family and her three kids and how she was doing it for her kids," Mr Ybarra said.

Posted by: tfabris

Re: Hold your wee for a Wii ! - 15/01/2007 19:27

I don't think you have to be childless to be eligible, do you? I thought you just had to be capable of making *more* babies?

Posted by: hybrid8

Re: Hold your wee for a Wii ! - 15/01/2007 19:32

I knew about water intoxication only because of an episode of ER a few years back. The radio station is very much at fault here - it's gross negligence on their part. A large lawsuit would likely sink most radio stations, depending on whether or not they have a large corporate owner. I can see multiple lawsuits here, the first from the family of the deceased. Other participants would also do well to sue because their well-being was also put at risk through this misrepresented promotion.

If the promotion had been wrestling a wild bear, then I'm sure participants would be rightfully wary. But in this case, as Tony pointed out, who knew drinking a lot of water could easily lead to death?

Stupid radio personalities (and 99% of the people on the radio are barely smart enough to tie their own shoes) are the primary driving force behind my decision not to listen to radio. Next comes of course crappy music selection and non-stop commercials.

Posted by: wfaulk

Re: Hold your wee for a Wii ! - 15/01/2007 19:32

Quote:
And you get points for knowing about the town in Alabama.

Town? It's the 48th largest metropolis in the US. It's not like it's Lizard Lick.

Posted by: tfabris

Re: Hold your wee for a Wii ! - 15/01/2007 19:38

I wonder if English people get (or got) mad that our founding fathers kept stealing all the good city names.

Posted by: Roger

Re: Hold your wee for a Wii ! - 15/01/2007 19:41

Quote:
I don't think you have to be childless to be eligible, do you? I thought you just had to be capable of making *more* babies?

I stand corrected. The official rules are in your favour.

Posted by: peter

Re: Hold your wee for a Wii ! - 15/01/2007 19:50

Quote:
I knew about water intoxication only because of an episode of ER a few years back.

Over here the sad story of Leah Betts is probably the #1 reason people know about it.

Quote:
The radio station is very much at fault here - it's gross negligence on their part.

Agreed; if there were Darwin awards for commercial suicide-by-litigation, this would be a strong contender.

Quote:
Stupid radio personalities (and 99% of the people on the radio are barely smart enough to tie their own shoes) are the primary driving force behind my decision not to listen to radio. Next comes of course crappy music selection and non-stop commercials.

Any of our US friends listen to these stations? Clearly they aren't going to be John Peel, but are they more listenable than the single-genre stations?

Peter

Posted by: wfaulk

Re: Hold your wee for a Wii ! - 15/01/2007 20:04

Jack is still very a very commercial format, so while you're hearing a variety of genres, it's still top 40 hits from those genres, and usually a limited variety of non-threatening genres.

College radio (that is, radio stations run by colleges with their students as staff) is probably much closer to UK radio than anything Clear Channel is likely to promote.

Edit: I guess Jack is actually Rogers Communications, not Clear Channel, but the devil goes by many names.

Re-edit: You can take a look to see what a Jack playlist looks like. I'm sure you will be unimpressed.

Posted by: hybrid8

Re: Hold your wee for a Wii ! - 15/01/2007 20:27

Jack started in Toronto in 2002 and has since been licensed to a number of US stations. Their basic concept is that they play what THEY want, not what YOU want. The format is somewhat loose where each station can add their own flavor to the recipe. There are recommended playlists and promo clips. On the original Toronto station you are absolutely guaranteed to hear at least one Bon Jovi song every morning.

This whole reverse psychology bullshit appeals to the dumb-asses out there who suck it all in. They fail to realize that the "play what we want" is in fact the creedo of pretty much every station out there. They just don't advertise it.

For the majority of last year they pushed the fact they had absolutely no DJ's - in fact Jack and most other stations don't have DJ's but "personalities" anyway. But any talk time and nonesense from these personalities was replaced by commercials, not more music. They promoted this concept constantly - it, along with their primary "play what we want" was their edge over the competition.

In the past month or so they have brought back morning and evening personalities and are now advertising their morning show and drive home show. The personalities are, of course, obnoxious twats. Without them you have semi-decent musical selection of mostly older cuts, but very annoying commercials and promos.

My girlfriend keeps the alarm clock set to Jack, so depsite my no radio stance, I do catch a bit in the morning as I'm waking up. Once I pick up some powered speakers that can turn themselves on/off with a line-level signal, I'll be putting a Squeezebox in place as our alarm. Then I'll play what I want.

Posted by: AndrewT

Re: Hold your wee for a Wii ! - 15/01/2007 21:56

Quote:
I wonder if English people get (or got) mad that our founding fathers kept stealing all the good city names.

Well, I got caught out on that one a while back. Seriously*, have you ever heard of London being anything other than the capital city of England? OK, I hadn't, don't answer that!

Oh, and I knew about Birmingham, Alabama!

* - FAO: Grammar Police: Should it be semicolon or a comma after the word "seriously" in that sentence?

Posted by: wfaulk

Re: Hold your wee for a Wii ! - 15/01/2007 22:10

Depends if you meant it as an interjection ("Seriously!": semicolon) or as an adverb ("Have you ever seriously heard ...": comma).

No one really uses semicolons any more, but they're interchangeable with periods. (Sorry: "full stops".) It just implies a closer relationship between the two sentences than a period might.

For example: "Bob was happy. The rain had stopped." vs. "Bob was happy; the rain had stopped." The latter implies that Bob was happy because the rain stopped. The former just expresses two separate ideas. A comma would be inappropriate and would turn the quote into a run-on sentence.

Posted by: hybrid8

Re: Hold your wee for a Wii ! - 15/01/2007 22:19

You could drop the punctuation completely in the form "Bob was happy that the rain had stopped." Then I'd read it was because of the rain stopping that Bob was happy. Not simply that both were true but one not the cause of the other.

Bruno was happy; the wine was pouring. Bruno was happy because that wine was pouriung from his glass into his mouth. Sorry, that wasn't an example, just an awkward narrative.

Ok, 3 minutes left on the 2 inch thick steak under the broiler. MMMmmmm...

Posted by: FireFox31

Re: Hold your wee for a Wii ! - 16/01/2007 02:18

This is why terrestrial radio is dead. I can't comprehend how any human with ears can listen to popular radio or the metal-garden-rake-on-chalkboard morning/evening talk "personalities". There is some good radio out there, ah, college radio.

I am convinced that as advertising finds new ways to invade our lives, the older, easily ignorable or digitally disarmable methods, only experienced by those out-of-the-know enough to be victimized, are hawked to whichever hacks can cough up the necessary $0.99. I forget how that relates to how media sucks, but it does.

Oh, and Lizard Lick is a monstropolis compared to Dering Harbor, New York (on Shelter Island, between the forks of Long Island). I've seen it first hand.

Posted by: peter

Re: Hold your wee for a Wii ! - 16/01/2007 11:36

Quote:
You can take a look to see what a Jack playlist looks like. I'm sure you will be unimpressed.

Well, it's not genre-less, is it? It's all rock. (Or at least, all the bands in there I've heard of are rock.) And it looks like I'd occasionally go a while between hearing bands I know. But I do have some respect for a station that plays that much Depeche Mode, Smiths, Queen, U2, INXS, plus all the old 80s rock boys. In fact, it's not all that different from what I'd get if I turned shuffle on and told my Empeg to play genre "rock".

I'd like to see a similar one for electronica, though I guess that's what Secret Agent is for.

Peter

Posted by: wfaulk

Re: Hold your wee for a Wii ! - 16/01/2007 13:05

Quote:
You could drop the punctuation completely

Yes, you could, but that wouldn't help in answering the question "which punctuation mark is accurate?".

Posted by: wfaulk

Re: Hold your wee for a Wii ! - 16/01/2007 13:17

Quote:
Well, it's not genre-less, is it? It's all rock.

You clearly misunderstand the American musical landscape. For example, I seriously doubt that there is a commercial radio station in the US that plays more than a few hours of electronic music a week. (Well, discounting the possibility of a house station or two somewhere.) And I can't imagine a station with a different format playing all of those songs. There are several different types of rock stations in the US: the modern rock station, that plays stuff that appears on the current rock Billboard charts, the "classic rock" station that plays old rock hits from the late 60s thru the early 90s, and, uh.... Well, that may be it. Of course, that's better than the country stations, of which there is one type, which plays modern "country" hits plus a smattering of older hits, plus a smattering of "keeping up our cred" Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash tracks. Same with the "urban contemporary" (that is rap/hip-hop) stations, except they don't seem to play anything but current hits. You find that the Jazz and Classical stations are better, but they're seldom commercial, and when there is a commercial "Jazz" station, it's elevator music.

The Jack stations I've experienced do include a little more pop than that one seems to, although you might count American-style pop as being a subcategory of rock, too, except for the pop-rap. (Hip-pop?) But they certainly wouldn't play any electronica or classical or jazz or blues or country.

Basically it's like a bookstore. You go into your mega-bookstore and there are sections for Horror and SciFi and Mystery and Romance, but then there's one big section for "Fiction". As if the rest of the books in the genre-specific sections weren't also fiction. But then you go looking for "Slaughterhouse Five". Is it in "SciFi" or "Fiction"? (Of course, the real answer is that it's in "Literature".) Jack is the "Fiction" section of the bookstore. It's middle of the road crap, plus the occasional good middle of the road thing, plus the occasional mainstreamed genre find.

Posted by: Roger

Re: Hold your wee for a Wii ! - 16/01/2007 15:14

Quote:
You clearly misunderstand the American musical landscape.

I was in Nevada over the last 2 weeks, and I caught some of the news about David Beckham signing for LA Galaxy. One thing that made me go "huh?" was when one of the pundits described Posh Spice as being a member of "one of the most successful UK rock groups."

Spice Girls = Rock. WTF?

Oh, and we spent some time listening to both Jack FM and "Bob FM". Found some amusing God Rock stations as well.

Posted by: Dignan

Re: Hold your wee for a Wii ! - 16/01/2007 15:31

Quote:
Spice Girls = Rock. WTF?

Don't worry, there are idiots everywhere. I think the average American would know that they aren't rock.

If nobody minds, I'd like to take this back on topic. I thought this was an interesting article. I can see how you could get a workout from that game. It's really easy to break a sweat on tennis and boxing. Tennis is my favorite of those, too, so I enjoy playing that one, but I'm a bit disappointed that the game eventually tops out on difficulty. Now I just beat 2000-point Elise over and over again.

Posted by: JeffS

Re: Hold your wee for a Wii ! - 16/01/2007 16:40

Quote:
Found some amusing God Rock stations as well.

Most CCM stations (Contemporary Christian Music) have a VERY narrowly defined target audience with soccer moms square in the middle. There are other "God Rock" stations, but the biggest are the CCM format.

Posted by: tfabris

Re: Hold your wee for a Wii ! - 16/01/2007 18:43

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16652323/

Radio station that pulled the stunt is off the air.

Supposedly a local nurse called in and told them the stunt would be dangerous, but they went on with it anyway.

Posted by: wfaulk

Re: Hold your wee for a Wii ! - 16/01/2007 18:48

No, the show is off the air, not the whole station.

Posted by: tfabris

Re: Hold your wee for a Wii ! - 16/01/2007 20:39

Hah. They updated the headline and the article after I posted it. I guess they'd gotten their facts wrong and were corrected.

Posted by: lectric

Re: Hold your wee for a Wii ! - 17/01/2007 00:29

I gotta wonder. Why is the show pulled? I mean, it was an accident, right?

Posted by: tfabris

Re: Hold your wee for a Wii ! - 17/01/2007 03:00

It was not an accident, it was gross negligence.

Posted by: hybrid8

Re: Wii - 17/01/2007 21:26

Ok, I've finished Zelda... And though it had some nice sequences during the credits through till the final frames, I was a little underwhelmed. I knew it would finish right after a final battle, but to me that's not the right way to do things. You don't put the climax of a story in its final page.

So I loved the game, but I still stand by my comment from last week, that the second half seemed much more like going through the motions than anything else. Maybe it was just the sense that the end was coming. But I truly think they could have worked out the pacing of the story a little differently.

Soooo... Now that I'm done, what do I do? I tried a little Ray Man last night and... I suck.

Well, at some events anyway. I don't like the one where you have to tilt the remote to guide a ball through a maze. Zelda has a similar mini-game in it so I knew I'd be terrible at this one. I could try it a few times and hopefully get better, but each time I do I feel like I'm going to scream because of the frustration. The other mini-games don't do that to me, so I generally don't have a problem trying them over and over.

I discovered the pig racing was pretty difficult as well, though I only did it twice. Difficulty steering was my primary weakness there. The navigation controls in the game's menus are a bit annoying - not really well thought out at all. I can see this being an issue in the future if games don't standardize on some button actions.

Anyone have any insight into the Score mode? I successfully completed a number of games but didn't see any new ones open up (for instance the dancing bunny-zapping one... Did the two available to me but no others became available...)

Going to try a bit of Wii Sports now...

Posted by: loren

Re: Wii - 18/01/2007 01:20

I'm feeling exactly the same about Zelda.

As for Rayman score mode, you have to unlock them all in Story mode. Just keep playing story mode and you'll see a few unlock. Sort of annoying... but there are some really fun ones that are worth the effort. Compared to Monkey Ball, the mini games in Rayman are light years ahead. GOD the Monkey Ball mini games SUCK. They should have made 10 good ones instead of 50 horrible ones. The controls are atrocious.

Posted by: hybrid8

Re: Wii - 18/01/2007 03:32

Thanks for the info. I've been playing story mode and am on the third or fourth set of games. I didn't know you were supposed to do that before trying out score mode. The instructions weren't clear when I read them. Maybe it was the sleepiness.

Posted by: JeffS

Re: Wii - 18/01/2007 09:57

Quote:
Soooo... Now that I'm done, what do I do?

Elebits FTW. Played it ALL weekend on my friend's Wii. Seriously addicting and taps into some kind of primal destructive gene or something.

Edit: Oh, BTW, fun game, but the story and voice acting are REALLY bad- like to the point you will cringe. Almost so bad it's good again, but not quite.

Posted by: Dignan

Re: Wii - 18/01/2007 11:17

I haven't gotten very far in Zelda still (I just haven't had time for Wiiing!), but I can see that being the case. They've had some real issues with pacing in their recent games. One of the things I loved about Link to the Past was that it had a three-part first act, but then surprised you with a whole other enormous seven-part world for the rest of the game. I thought it worked really well. Wind Waker had a similar design, but the second part seemed terribly rushed and lacking in dungeons (you'd find parts of the Triforce on random small islands). Still, I don't think it could ruin my enjoyment of the game.

Last night I picked up Wario Ware and the DBZ game (because I'm a dork). I'm pretty upset at Nintendo for making Wario Ware 4:3 after they said that nearly all first-party games would be widescreen. I'll let everyone know how these games are when I've had a little time with them.

Has anyone tried Super Swing Golf? Golf is my second favorite Wii Sports game, so a full golf game might be a lot of fun, but I think it's a third party game, so I'm not sure how well the motion sensing is implemented.

Posted by: JeffS

Re: Wii - 18/01/2007 12:44

Quote:
Has anyone tried Super Swing Golf? Golf is my second favorite Wii Sports game, so a full golf game might be a lot of fun, but I think it's a third party game, so I'm not sure how well the motion sensing is implemented.

I had pretty much the same thought/question when I saw that there was a full length golf game out.

Posted by: BAKup

Re: Hold your wee for a Wii ! - 18/01/2007 13:47

Quote:

I'd like to see a similar one for electronica, though I guess that's what Secret Agent is for.

Thanks for the music tip, I've been listening to SA for a couple of days now at work, and it's a good mix.

Posted by: wfaulk

Re: Wii - 18/01/2007 14:25

I don't know why, but I've always loved golf games. I think it's because it's got the elements of all good games. Largely very simple rules, but the situations become complex. That's a statement most often applied to chess, and I don't want to imply that golf is as complex as chess, but I do enjoy the fact that you're basically just hitting a ball around, but you have to consider ball placement in a variety of ways to make your next shot easier. I guess it's kind of like pool in that way. Anyway, it's more complex than it would seem on the surface.

Posted by: wfaulk

Re: Hold your wee for a Wii ! - 18/01/2007 16:09

Ten fired after radio contest death, including several on-air DJs.

Quote:
In an online recording of the show, the DJs can be heard making comments joking about people dying from water intoxication, even discussing a case in Northern California two years ago in which student Matthew Carrington, 21, died after drinking too much water during a fraternity pledge.

Nice.

Posted by: tfabris

Re: Hold your wee for a Wii ! - 18/01/2007 17:29

Wow. It was my personal opinion that the radio station employees were negligent, but I had no idea HOW negligent. I thought they merely didn't know about the possible dangers, but that statement tells me they not only knew the dangers, but discussed them on the air. And they STILL didn't have a doctor present? Wow.

Posted by: andym

Re: Hold your wee for a Wii ! - 18/01/2007 19:09

Quote:
And they STILL didn't have a doctor present? Wow.

Sounds to me like if you've already ingested too much water then you're fscked.

Posted by: wfaulk

Re: Hold your wee for a Wii ! - 18/01/2007 19:16

I imagine that they can give an IV of minerals, but a doctor might be able to recognize symptoms or set a limit on the amount of water consumed.

It would hardly be a different contest if they asked you to drink a liter of water and then see who could go the longest without peeing.

Posted by: Dignan

Re: Wii - 18/01/2007 19:16

I have a question for any Wiiers out there using component cables on big screens. Does anyone else have this odd horizontal line effect in any of their games? I don't see it all the time, and I was starting to think it was just how Excite Truck was programmed, but I've noticed it in Zelda a bit.

The most noticeable instance is starting a race in Excite Truck. I think it's visible on any course, but try the first one and focus on the screen as the timer is counting down. Does anyone else see what I'm talking about? I don't know if it happens with composite cables.

I wish I was better at describing visual elements. Sorry

Posted by: tfabris

Re: Wii - 18/01/2007 19:28

Are you describing video tearing?

Still looking for a link that has a graphical illustration of the phenomenon. Anyway. If that's what you're seeing, it's probably unlikely to be related to the component cables as it'd all be rendered that way within the Wii's own video card.

Might be worth it to see if you get the same problem by plugging in with an s-video cable.

Posted by: Tim

Re: Wii - 18/01/2007 19:32

I didn't notice any 'lines' on the screen that don't look like they belong. I don't have Excite Truck, but didn't see any in Zelda, with either composite or component cables. Next time I play, I'll keep an eye out for them.

Posted by: tfabris

Re: Wii - 18/01/2007 19:35

Aha. Here is a perfect example of video tearing. Is that what you're talking about?

http://www.macintouch.com/reviews/macpro/macpro_pics/tearing-halo-1.jpg

Posted by: Dignan

Re: Wii - 18/01/2007 19:45

No, it's definitely not that. I'm pretty sure that, whatever it is, it isn't exactly a "problem." It's just noticeable occasionally. Hmm, let me see if I can explain:

The best ways I can think of to describe this is to think of corduroy. It also reminds me of the surface of a screen for an old rear projection TV, the kind that if you run your fingernail down you'll get a sort of "zipper" sound.

Didn't I say I was horrible at describing things? I'm almost embarrassed to read that description, but it's the best way I can think of to explain it. If I get five minutes at the Wii this evening I'll try to capture an image of it.

Posted by: wfaulk

Re: Wii - 18/01/2007 19:49

Like this?

Posted by: Dignan

Re: Wii - 18/01/2007 19:56

It's that fine, but the picture isn't necessarily distorted like that... I'm going to need to take a picture of it in action in order to convey what I'm blabbing about.

Posted by: drakino

Re: Wii - 18/01/2007 21:05

What type of TV do you have? That may be playing a big factor in what it is.

Posted by: hybrid8

Re: Wii - 18/01/2007 21:18

What Bitt posted is a crop of two interlaced fields of video (what makes up one frame for any interlaced format such as NTSC).

I understood the first post as one line, but the second description throws that out the window and I also started thinking about visible fields or single-field output onto a progressive display (which would be very odd - or very even, but not both

).

The Wii component cables are supposed to output 480p so you should never see any type of interlacing.

Posted by: tfabris

Re: Wii - 18/01/2007 22:19

Quote:
The best ways I can think of to describe this is to think of corduroy.

Ah, yeah. Great description of what bad deinterlacing looks like. I'll have to remember to use that in the future. The thing Bitt posted is an extreme example.

If your TV is supposed to accept a progressive-scan signal, and the Wii is supposed to output progressive-scan, then there should be no problem and this shouldn't happen. The only way this would happen is if the Wii was outputting interlaced video, and the TV was trying to deinterlace it.

Like Bruno said, check and see if the Wii has an option to change its output from 480i to 480p, or from interlaced to progressive, and see if that fixes it.

Posted by: Dignan

Re: Wii - 19/01/2007 12:40

Oh yeah, I know about interlacing from all the video editing I do. I would know if that's what I'm looking at (and of course my Wii is set to 480p).

I'm attaching a couple images here. Does anyone see this?

Posted by: Dignan

Re: Wii - 19/01/2007 12:41

Second shot.

Posted by: Dignan

Re: Wii - 19/01/2007 13:00

If anyone is interested, as I am, in what the Wii SSX game is like, this early look at the game seems favorable. I have all the SSX Gamecube games, and I'm surprised I enjoyed them so much. I'm really looking forward to this one, as well as the new Prince of Persia game.

Posted by: drakino

Re: Wii - 19/01/2007 15:00

It looks like the graphics are experiencing aliasing problems. Compare them to here, and that shows what anti-aliasing will do to try to clean that up. With the Wii, there really isn't a choice to turn this on or off though by the end user like on computers.

Posted by: wfaulk

Re: Wii - 19/01/2007 15:21

I don't think he's talking about the aliasing. I think he's talking about the raster lines you can see in the consistently-colored sections. Look at the dust coming off of the back of the dunebuggy-looking car on the left of the second picture. It's stripy.

I would imagine that this has to do with how the TV draws on the screen. You expect it to be consistent, whereas the TV is drawing in lines that aren't as wide as they should be. I would imagine that you would see the same thing no matter what 480p source you were using. Do you have a progressive-scan DVD player? Try pausing on a scene that has a darkish consistently colored section and see if you see the same thing.

Posted by: drakino

Re: Wii - 19/01/2007 15:27

Ahh, ok, I see them now that I look closer.

I'm still wondering what type of TV it is.

Posted by: Dignan

Re: Wii - 19/01/2007 16:04

It's a brand new Sony KDS-R60XBR2. I'll check out what my DVD player looks like, although I have it set to upconvert to 1080i at the moment, so I don't know if it will show the same problem. I don't remember seeing any problems in DVDs...

Posted by: tfabris

Re: Wii - 19/01/2007 16:18

Hm. Still looks like some kind of an issue with deinterlacing, except for the part where your Wii is set to 480p, and it just looks like brightness differences instead of combing. Hm.

See if the Sony TV set has any options for deinterlacing modes. They might be labeled things like "film" or "video". See if changing those fixes it.

Is the signal from the Wii passing through any sort of intermediate switching system, or are the cables running straight to the TV's component inputs?

If your DVD player looks fine (and it's using component video too), try swapping inputs between the DVD and the Wii at the TV end. Also try swapping cable sets completely (if the Wii and the DVD are near each other, you can do this by swaping plugs at their end).

Posted by: tfabris

Re: Wii - 19/01/2007 16:24

Also, looking at some screen shots of ExciteTruck online, the game isn't supposed to look like that. The other screen shots are smooth and don't have the corduroy effect. So it's definitely something.

Posted by: tfabris

Re: Wii - 19/01/2007 16:29

Maybe Sony sets detect which game console you've got plugged in, and degrade the signal if it's not a Playstation. :-)

Posted by: tfabris

Re: Wii - 19/01/2007 16:33

Looking at the manual for that Sony set online, try toggling the "Game Mode" feature (in the Setup menu) on or off. Also try toggling the "DRC" feature (in the Picture menu) on or off.

Posted by: JeffS

Re: Wii - 19/01/2007 17:07

Quote:
I have all the SSX Gamecube games, and I'm surprised I enjoyed them so much.

I have played the SSX games on my sister's Gamecube and I thought they were a LOT of fun- more than I expected for sure. This Wii thing might be bringing me back to console gaming for a while, especially with the weird state of online poker at the moment.

Posted by: wfaulk

Re: Wii - 19/01/2007 21:51

Awesome: Wii use can cause weight loss

Some guy based a workout regimen on playing 30 minutes of Wii Sports a day and he lost 9 pounds over six weeks. I'm gonna have to get me one of these jobbers.

Posted by: JeffS

Re: Wii - 19/01/2007 22:10

Quote:
Some guy based a workout regimen on playing 30 minutes of Wii Sports a day and he lost 9 pounds over six weeks. I'm gonna have to get me one of these jobbers.

My wife just said I need to start exercizing. Think this will fly?

Posted by: Dignan

Re: Wii - 21/01/2007 04:22

Quote:
Maybe Sony sets detect which game console you've got plugged in, and degrade the signal if it's not a Playstation. :-)

I'm going to check your last few suggestions out soon (I've been so busy!), but I thought I'd mention that I don't think it's a problem with just this TV. Perhaps your theory here is correct, because I also tried it on a 2 year old 60" Sony set and it does the exact same thing. So yeah, I'm not sure it's the TV. Besides, I would be willing to bet that the video game mode probably just changes some brightness and contrast settings and not much more, but I'm willing to give it a shot.

Posted by: FireFox31

Re: Wii - 21/01/2007 14:24

I really have to wonder if major online retailers (amazon, buy, etc) are in collusion with Wii poachers. I find it unreasonable that it's January 21st and Amazon still doesn't have any Wii online. Yet, they'll gladly help the scalpers sell theres for the (ever decreasing) price of $475.

Maybe Nintendo and the retailers should stop the shortage scam. It's going to lead to customer frustration, like mine, and turn people away. The wait is outlasting my buying impulse.

Posted by: msaeger

Re: Wii - 21/01/2007 15:20

Are they still unavailable ? I was expecting there to be some around this weekend it sounded like target and circuit city were hording them for their Sunday ads.

Posted by: drakino

Re: Wii - 21/01/2007 19:19

Quote:
Maybe Nintendo and the retailers should stop the shortage scam.

Shortage scam? Wiis don't appear out of thin air, I'm sure Nintendo is trying to make as many as they can to ship out. They not only have to build, assemble and test the units, they also have to wait on many external companies for components like IBM, AMD, and Mitsumi. They also chose to launch them in 4 major regions, so they have to try and supply all 4 of those areas with products.

Now some retailers are still stockpiling the small shipments they get for the Sunday ads, but they aren't getting enough to do much with. And if Amazon opened up sales of the Wii, well, they would have to have boxes to ship, or have a backorder list stretching from here till likely December.

Posted by: loren

Re: Wii - 21/01/2007 21:45

The Circuit City here in SF had 28 this morning.

Posted by: Dignan

Re: Wii - 22/01/2007 01:36

Quote:
They also chose to launch them in 4 major regions, so they have to try and supply all 4 of those areas with products.

I agree on all of those points, and I think this is the biggest. I don't believe the PS3 has even launched in Europe yet.

Posted by: drakino

Re: Wii - 23/01/2007 15:22

Quote:
Amazon still doesn't have any Wii online.

They do now here.

Probably won't last long though.

Posted by: matthew_k

Re: Wii - 23/01/2007 16:26

Thanks! Got one, we'll see it if really makes it here tomorrow.

Matthew

Posted by: drakino

Re: Wii - 23/01/2007 16:36

Cool, glad someone grabbed one. Looks like they are sold out again.

Someone here at work sent out this tracker, it's how they saw them pop on to Amazon this morning.
http://www.nowinstock.net/wii/index.php

Posted by: Dignan

Re: Wii - 23/01/2007 16:38

There was a story on Joystiq about his sister's experience trying to get one this past weekend. It sounded like the demand was just as high as it was at launch! People were still waiting in long lines and getting turned down....

That's great!

I mean, not for the people who can't get a system, but I'm really excited that Nintendo can't make enough units to satisfy demand. Does anyone know where I can find launch numbers for previous consoles? I'd love to compare this to the initial Gamecube sales.

Posted by: JeffS

Re: Wii - 23/01/2007 17:28

Heh, we ended up using the Target gift card to buy some other stuff we needed and I just got one slightly used on ebay. I got it for maybe $10 more than retail after shipping so I'm not complaining. Apparently the seller bought it, played Zelda, and then sold it. I got it in the mail yesterday and Wii Sports hadn't even been opened yet.

The downside was that after playing with it for about two hours the batteries I pilfered out of my TV remote died and I didn't have any more in the house

Posted by: Dignan

Re: Wii - 23/01/2007 18:35

Quote:
after playing with it for about two hours the batteries I pilfered out of my TV remote died and I didn't have any more in the house .

Yeah, it eats batteries like crazy. I have eight of these wonderful things for my four Wiimotes, and USB hub to charge the ones I'm not using.

Of course, that is until they release good, Wii-specific rechargeable battery packs.

Posted by: Tim

Re: Wii - 23/01/2007 19:10

Quote:
Does anyone see this?

How are you feeding the signal into the tv? Are you going through a receiver or directly into the tv?

Posted by: matthew_k

Re: Wii - 23/01/2007 19:17

Quote:
I have eight of these wonderful things for my four Wiimotes, and USB hub to charge the ones I'm not using.

Of course, that is until they release good, Wii-specific rechargeable battery packs.

While the USB charging AA batteries are impressive, why not just buy some good NiMH batts and a charger? They'll last twice as long, and a good charger will keep your batteries in good working order.

Why would you want wii specific packs? AA's will be cheaper and are always getting better.

Matthew

Posted by: Dignan

Re: Wii - 23/01/2007 19:27

Quote:
While the USB charging AA batteries are impressive, why not just buy some good NiMH batts and a charger? They'll last twice as long, and a good charger will keep your batteries in good working order.

Because I've never had any luck with standard rechargeables. They either don't charge or they last for extremely short times. They've just never worked for me.

Quote:
Why would you want wii specific packs? AA's will be cheaper and are always getting better.

I would want Wii-specific ones because most of the products I've seen announced (well, two) are designed so that you can just sit the controllers down in a cradle and leave it. This is far more convenient than switching rechargeable batteries out all the time (and you will be - wait till you see how fast they drain).

Oh, and one other battery point I wanted to make: watch out when you're taking the Wii to other people's houses. You should take the batteries out first

I didn't, and because there is no "on/off" switch for the controllers, it just kept turning on because buttons were being pressed in the bag I was carrying.

Posted by: matthew_k

Re: Wii - 23/01/2007 19:45

Quote:
just sit the controllers down in a cradle and leave it.

Ok, I'm always in favor of cradles, that makes sense.

I'm quite fond of my LaCrosse BC-9000. It's got some great testing and conditioning cycles, so you can test and see what the actual capacity of each cell it.

Matthew

Posted by: tfabris

Re: Wii - 23/01/2007 22:34

Quote:
I have eight of these wonderful things

Holy cow, that's brilliant.

If I only had free USB ports on any of my systems, that'd be ultracool to own. :-)

Posted by: hybrid8

Re: Wii - 23/01/2007 23:24

In rechargeable cells, look for Maha (PowerEx brand) and Sanyo. Those are "the business." Maha chargers are also tops.

Posted by: Dignan

Re: Wii - 24/01/2007 12:32

Interesting. Regular batteries drained for me much faster. They lasted much longer than the rechargeable ones, of course, but they still didn't last for over 90 days like you're describing, and I've only had limited playing time with the system.

Posted by: hybrid8

Re: Wii - 24/01/2007 12:54

I think I blew through the original batteries that came with the Wii in 3 or 4 days playing only Zelda.

Posted by: visuvius

Re: Wii - 24/01/2007 15:47

Link to the Past is out on the Virtual Console. I really need to pick up one of the snes type controllers. VC titles are still, for the most part, unimpressive.

There seem to be a bunch of sites popping up now that are designed for use with the Wii's Opera browswer -- lots of flash games and whatnot. Seems like a pretty cool idea but the games seemed pretty bleh.

Posted by: Dignan

Re: Wii - 24/01/2007 15:53

Quote:
Link to the Past is out on the Virtual Console. I really need to pick up one of the snes type controllers. VC titles are still, for the most part, unimpressive.

I'm incredibly psyched. I think I've bought this game in every form I can, but I'm going to buy it again. Like I said before, it's one of my top two favorite games of all time.

Quote:
There seem to be a bunch of sites popping up now that are designed for use with the Wii's Opera browswer -- lots of flash games and whatnot. Seems like a pretty cool idea but the games seemed pretty bleh.

Have you seen sofatube? It brings YouTube to the TV screen. Not too bad, either.

Posted by: visuvius

Re: Wii - 24/01/2007 17:00

Quote:
Have you seen sofatube? It brings YouTube to the TV screen. Not too bad, either.

Heh, yeah youtube was actually one of the first sites I tried on the Wii's browswer. I havn't seen softatube but will have to check that out tonight.

www.wiihear.com seems pretty cool too -- streaming music.

Posted by: BAKup

Re: Wii - 27/01/2007 13:49

The news channel is now out for the Wii, and it seems to be pretty interesting, I like the way they map out the stories on the globe.

Also if you don't mind looking like an idiot, get Wario: Smooth Moves, it's a blast.

Posted by: hybrid8

Re: Wii - 27/01/2007 14:45

For the first version of the Wii News, it really rocks. I can think of a few small things I'd like to be able to do - like toggle on/off the map split screen and sort by locality, but it's still very usable.

I hope they enhance their photo viewer to be able to hit the net, including local shares and web sites like Flickr. I'm not so interested in using the web browser as a poor substitute for this. The image viewer can be made faster and easily supports rotation and enhancing effects like brightness (which I also wish you could make 'sticky' so it stays at the current setting as you continue to browse).

Posted by: Tim

Re: Wii - 29/01/2007 15:44

Quote:
The news channel is now out for the Wii, and it seems to be pretty interesting, I like the way they map out the stories on the globe.

My roommate's girlfriend is in town, visiting for a week. She never played the Wii before and had me teach her how to play tennis after work on Thursday so she didn't 'look like an idiot' when he got home from work and they played. So I showed her how to play and she instantly started laughing - she fell in love with it.

The goofiest thing is, after Wii Sports (Tennis and Bowling mostly), her favorite 'games' are dorking around with the Weather and News channels. She was looking at how cold it was back at her home (Boston), which was -8F, saw that the South Pole was at +8F, and decided that she didn't mind the summers in Phoenix after all and was going to move back. She can literally spend an hour playing with the globe checking out the forecast for different cities, go and read the news, then back to the forecast.

Totally bizarre

Posted by: JeffS

Re: Wii - 29/01/2007 15:49

Quote:
The goofiest thing is, after Wii Sports (Tennis and Bowling mostly), her favorite 'games' are dorking around with the Weather and News channels.

Heh, I had the pleasure of introducing a friend of my sister's to the Wii, and after playing a few different games, she fell in love with "Smash Bowling"- the training feature where you get to knock down ~90 pins at once.

Guess everyone has their sweet spot. I think at least a few people so far have had more fun creating Miis than anything else

Posted by: tfabris

Re: Wii - 29/01/2007 15:59

Quote:
She can literally spend an hour playing with the globe checking out the forecast for different cities, go and read the news, then back to the forecast.

Her and Gabe, apparently.

Posted by: Taym

Re: Wii - 05/02/2007 07:22

I got it. Now I have all this thread to read, and then maybe play on-line with some of you!

Last night I only had time to set it up, connect it to the internet, update it, and love the force feedback on it, and the menus, and the sound.

I guess now I should start to play WiiSports.

Posted by: loren

Re: Wii - 05/02/2007 20:46

Congrats! Post your number when you get a chance.

I beat Zelda a couple nights ago. Amazing game.... get it. 62 hours playthrough for me.

Posted by: Taym

Re: Wii - 05/02/2007 21:44

Thank you!

Ahhh, I just switched it off after a night spent boxing with my gf.

I forgot to read my Wii number, but I'll definitely post it soon.

Now, that's a fantastic toy! Wow, if it's fun!!

Now, I wonder why they did not make it a DVD player as well?!

Also, do you knoe if there's any way to make it interface with Nintendo DS? Just curious....

Zelda... I'll get it. Also, I couldn't find any SW game where I could swing a light saber! Qhat are they waiting for???

Posted by: loren

Re: Wii - 05/02/2007 21:55

Quote:
Now, I wonder why they did not make it a DVD player as well?!

Rumors are that there will be a patch to enable DVD playing in Japan, but not stateside... I wondered the same thing myself.

Quote:
Also, do you knoe if there's any way to make it interface with Nintendo DS? Just curious....

Supposedly this is coming very soon, along with multiplayer online gaming

Posted by: Taym

Re: Wii - 05/02/2007 22:58

Why? A DVD player does not take anything from the gaming machine. The hadware is all there. Maybe royalties to pay and increased per unit price.

Well, here's my number: 1601 4701 0635 3562

Edit: ok, I've added all the numbers I found in this thread

Add me!

Posted by: Dignan

Re: Wii - 06/02/2007 00:36

Quote:
Why? A DVD player does not take anything from the gaming machine.

That's not what I'm saying. The Wii is a video game console, not a video game console and DVD player and...etc. They wanted to make a video game console only. That's part of their philosophy. I'm not really arguing whether this is right or not, just stressing their agenda.

Regardless, I think it's pretty clear that their philosophy is paying off

Now I must go download Super Mario World. I'm a little scared of what will happen when they start putting out a lot of old games that I want. They're going to have quite a bit of my money

Posted by: Dignan

Re: Wii - 06/02/2007 15:19

Well, if you're a modder, you can always go with this.

I'm not certain if you can save games to an SD card. I don't think you can. I think you can move saves to an SD card to back them up, but no VC titles. Apparently the word at the moment is that if your system dies, you lose your downloaded VC titles and have to redownload them. I hope Nintendo figures out a way to rectify that.

By the way, Super Mario World is frustrating on a Gamecube controller. It seems that the button layout of the "classic controller" was the focus, and the GC controller just got mapped so the letters matched up. Consequently you use the small red B button to do a normal jump, the big A button to do a spin jump, and the Y button to dash. It was incredibly frustrating, as I'd keep dashing while riding Yoshi, and I'd instinctively try to jump with the huge green A button, but that meant I'd be jumping off Yoshi.

I guess I'll have to go pick up a classic controller.

Posted by: FireFox31

Re: Wii - 08/02/2007 01:27

Now this is brilliant use of the Wii browser:
HomestarRunner Wii Games
Makes me want to get one again. Let's see, does Amazon have any? Nope. Oh well, good thing, or else I'd never get anything done.

Posted by: JeffS

Re: Wii - 08/02/2007 14:06

Quote:
Why? A DVD player does not take anything from the gaming machine.

Well, it could easily take away from the gaming machine if

1) it made the interface more difficult to work with (which can happen when adding additional functionality not related to the core product)

2) it increased the price

3) The DVD software was subpar compared to the rest of the system. This might seem like it wouldn't take away from the gaming portion, but it would. It would be a negative strike in otherwise glowing reviews, giving people a complaining point, and call into question the quality of the product overall. Sure NOT having a DVD player provides a sticking point, but most people (and reviewers) don't seem to upset about it and quickly point to the pricetag as soon as it is mentioned.

4) if the software for the core system lessend in quality due to development efforts spread out to ensure that #3 didn't happen.

Obviously Nintendo felt like some non-game functionality was OK, as they have the picture browsing stuff, weather, etc., but the point is that sometimes adding "low hanging fruit" can decrease the overall quailty of a product even when it seems like it shouldn't. Adding functionaly ALWAYS adds complexity, so the risk has to be compared against the gain. I'm not saying Nintendo was correct in their choice, but I understand their concern.

Posted by: hybrid8

Re: Wii - 08/02/2007 14:49

Who doesn't already have a DVD player? I think that's the main point. DVD playback requires licensing which would eat a small bit of profit annd for what gain? None that I can think of. The machine can only hold a single disc at a time and it's likely to be a game disc.

I would much rather see playback of networked media which makes a bit more sense and is something not everyone already has.

You can buy a DVD player for under $50 - tomorrow maybe it'll be $10. Good for Nintendo to not waste any time/money developing DVD playback software.

Now give me network picture browsing - it's a PITA to swap SD cards.

Posted by: Dignan

Re: Wii - 08/02/2007 16:20

Quote:
You can buy a DVD player for under $50 - tomorrow maybe it'll be $10.

That's my main reason that I'm happy there's no DVD playing capability. I have a standalone DVD player (two, actually) in my home theater. I don't need or want this one to have it too.

And those are as good reasons as I could think of, Jeff. Excellent points.

Posted by: tfabris

Re: Wii - 08/02/2007 16:24

If it weren't so fricking noisy, I'd be using my game console as my DVD player just to free up a component input on the TV set.

Posted by: Taym

Re: Wii - 08/02/2007 16:51

Well, JeffS, I cannot but agree that if 1, 3, and 4 happened, Nintento would decreatse Wii "quality" rather han increasing. Clearly, my question could be rephrased as: "I wonder why Nintendo did not include a nice, simple but effective, not complex, dvd player".

In other words, I agree that adding any sub-par component is bad, but I was thikning of an at-par (is it correct English?) component.

Thinking of the Wii interface, adding 1 "channel" to play dvds would make it no less nice or simple or versatile, I think. Or, even just using the same channel you use for games, since you either use a game or a dvd, would have been probably even simpler.

I instead agree that 2 is generally true, and is the most likely point that made Nintendo decide against the dvd-player.

As to wanting or not wanting it, that clearly depends on a individual different needs. Who owns any home theatre system, very likely has some advanced stand alone machine and does not need Wii (or any other gaming console) as a dvd-player. Other people may want to free some shelf space, component input, or whatever, just like Tony (and me, for the record. While I don't have a home theatre system in my new apartment, I do have a € 40 dvd player, and need another one in another room. The Wii would have been a nice, simple solution).
As a matter f fact, the market for a small, nice, extra dvd player is there, so I personally do not consider this as a generally valid point for not including a dvd player in the Wii.

Posted by: JeffS

Re: Wii - 08/02/2007 17:55

Quote:
Thinking of the Wii interface, adding 1 "channel" to play dvds would make it no less nice or simple or versatile, I think. Or, even just using the same channel you use for games, since you either use a game or a dvd, would have been probably even simpler.

I think, however, that simply "adding a channel" is not enough. You have to then write whatever goes into that channel to control the DVD, provide menu options, etc. I have a couple of DVD players, and they are not all the same. My cheapest one doesn't deal with the menus on some DVDs well, and others exhibit other strange behaviors.

So once you add this capability, it DOES add complexity to the product, requires more QA, and will bleed resources (or require more of them) from other poritions of the system.

My Wii is hooked up to a small TV in my study that does nothing but play DVDs and games. I have a seperate DVD player for that room, but it would be nice to have that shelf space back. In short, I've felt like it would be a nice-to-have if the Wii would play DVDs. However, I wouldn't have wanted to pay even $25 more for that functionatlity, nor would I want to sacrifice anything the Wii currently offers.

Posted by: Taym

Re: Wii - 08/02/2007 19:53

Quote:

I think, however, that simply "adding a channel" is not enough. You have to then write whatever goes into that channel to control the DVD

Well, true, but I was only referring to the interface layout. That, I think, would not become more compless or difficut to use. Actualy, controlling a DVD in some creative way with the Nunchaku, for example, could 've been something nice and unique. Wii could easily become the nicest dvd player in the market just for that.

The code behind it would certainly become more complex, on the other hand, but that would fall into what we said before in points 1, 3, and 4.
If such complexity caused any of what you said in 1, 2, 4, then I aagree it would not be good; but, that is not necessarily the case.

Quote:

In short, I've felt like it would be a nice-to-have if the Wii would play DVDs. However, I wouldn't have wanted to pay even $25 more for that functionatlity, nor would I want to sacrifice anything the Wii currently offers.

I would have probably paid $25 more, but like you I wouldn't have wanted to sacrifice anything to it.

Posted by: Dignan

Re: Wii - 08/02/2007 20:02

So has anyone else played Wario Ware yet? I've only played the single player mode so far, but I can't wait to have people over so I can act like a total fool in front of them. It's really fun.

Posted by: Tim

Re: Wii - 08/02/2007 20:41

Quote:
If it weren't so fricking noisy, I'd be using my game console as my DVD player just to free up a component input on the TV set.

Thats why I use a receiver for hooking everything up, and then only have one connection to the TV. If you run out on the receiver, you can then plug some directly into the TV, if you really wanted to. If I ever run out of inputs, it means I have to think hard about throwing something away, it means I probably have too much stuff

Posted by: loren

Re: Wii - 08/02/2007 20:50

Quote:
If it weren't so fricking noisy, I'd be using my game console as my DVD player just to free up a component input on the TV set.

This is my reason. I never had a DVD player... I used my PS2 up until a month ago. It has finally started being a major pain in the ass for playing DVD-Rs, so I caved and bought a $50 Phillips, which other than being slightly buggy, is awesome because it plays Div-x, avi and mpegs.

But I'd rather have one less component and have the DVD player function in my Wii.

Posted by: JeffS

Re: Wii - 08/02/2007 22:47

Quote:
If such complexity caused any of what you said in 1, 2, 4, then I aagree it would not be good; but, that is not necessarily the case.

I think 1, 2, or 4 is likely unavoidable without adding more resources (time, people, whatever) to the product.

I am especially attuned to this topic because I've seen countless software projects end up worse than they should because a user requested a certain "simple" feature be added, and the developers agreed because it was a simple change. What often resulted, though, was consequences neither thought through. Additional configuration, more cluttered UI, more QA and development effort (even minimal, it still has to be done), etc. In the end, the products end up being of a lower quality because of a "simple to add" feature that wasn't part of the core functionality from the get go.

Is this a case of that? I dunno- but I do think engineers and users alike tend to overcomplicate things and make them more difficult to use than they should be. Nintendo has seemed to take a fairly simple approach (though not tunnle visioned- they've definilty added more than just playing game dics to their system) and I like it. I don't know if the DVD thing was added complexity, cost, or both, but I can certainly see the possibilities.

Posted by: drakino

Re: Wii - 14/02/2007 02:02

New channel is available for free from the store, called "Everybody Votes". It requires a system update, and lets you vote on regional, nationwide, and worldwide topics. Odd thing to see on a console.

Posted by: loren

Re: Wii - 14/02/2007 02:46

Interesting. * me goes to boot up Wii *

I hope they come up with better uses for all those channel boxes than this.

Posted by: drakino

Re: Wii - 14/02/2007 04:15

Quote:
I hope they come up with better uses for all those channel boxes than this.

Most of the empty ones are likely there for the Virtual Console games. I wonder if the system automatically adds another page when it needs one, or if they will have to do an update for that.

I've already got enough stuff on mine now that the first page is all games with some empty spots, and the second page has all the non game stuff, like weather, shop and news.

Posted by: wfaulk

Re: Wii - 14/02/2007 05:49

I updated the list with more recent posts and added my own friend code/Wii number:
Code:

l0ser		3936 1790 6273 8490
Dignan		2346 2852 4904 8562
drakino		3248 5534 2295 4054 
msaeger		7010 4111 2461 3022 
ricin		3313 8584 0068 9980 
adavidw		6940 1103 2809 4388
loren		1042 3358 6234 5595 
visuvius	6427 6579 1576 5804
BAKup		1866 9499 5376 9057
hybrid8		8513 0580 4643 5279
taym		1601 4701 0635 3562
wfaulk		8079 8810 6672 8054

Posted by: loren

Re: Wii - 14/02/2007 06:24

Wow, that vote thing is useless.

Posted by: BAKup

Re: Wii - 14/02/2007 12:18

I've gone and added everyone in on the list, please add me in

Posted by: JeffS

Re: Wii - 14/02/2007 13:03

Hmm, I guess I need to do this too. I'll post mine when I get a chance.

What does adding friend codes do exactly?

Posted by: hybrid8

Re: Wii - 14/02/2007 14:20

Does anyone else see graphical corruption after the previous (the one that added News) update? As most of you guys know, I used to work for ATI, so I know graphics corruption when I see it. Something is wrong with this box. Engine or memory clocks for the graphics are either tweaked and causing it or there's some bad ram in the unit.

While on the main Wii screen on many other light coloured screens, I can easily see glittering vertical bars at random locations on the screen. They vary a little bit in height and width, but mostly less than pencil thin on a 32" 4:3 TV and about 1-2" tall. By glittering I mean they sometimes have that 'Predator' effect to them because they're made of up similar colours to the background they appear on. Not something like black on white to make it completely obvious.

I believe they started right after the Wii update for News and the recent update for Voting didn't fix it. I've even powered down the system (unplugged) for a few minutes with no change when booted back up again. At this time I think I'll have to get it replaced...

I'll try to take a picture of an instance that's very prounounced.

Posted by: wfaulk

Re: Wii - 14/02/2007 14:40

Speaking of problems, did you ever resolve your problem where the pointer was very jittery? I seem to be having the same problem, and the only lights on in the room are the TV itself and one incandescent light. (Well, and, I guess, some LEDs and whatnot on my AV equipment.)

Posted by: BAKup

Re: Wii - 14/02/2007 15:21

For the most part right now, sharing friend codes is just for populating your Mii parade, and sending messages between people, but the network games will be out soon, and it's the only way to find people to play.

Posted by: Dignan

Re: Wii - 14/02/2007 16:07

Quote:
Wow, that vote thing is useless.

Agreed. It's also annoying. I can't remember exactly how many, but there were FAR too many clicks required to vote/predict. You had to confirm everything, sometimes twice.

Bitt, thanks for making that codes list. I have some people I need to add.

Posted by: loren

Re: Wii - 14/02/2007 16:56

Quote:
there were FAR too many clicks required to vote/predict. You had to confirm everything, sometimes twice.

Agreed. I've found that to be the case in general with the Wii interface. And it's lack of consistency drives me nuts. Sometimes the button to get back to the Wii menu is on the left, sometimes right... things that should always be in the same place move around way too much. Something like sending a message is two steps more than it should be and there's not even a confirmation that it was sent. I could go on.

Posted by: wfaulk

Re: Wii - 14/02/2007 17:07

My favorite UI issue is that terrible, poorly kerned serif font that you see in every Japanese document that needs to incorporate the Latin alphabet.

Posted by: hybrid8

Re: Wii - 14/02/2007 20:27

The pointer jitter is not perfect, but it's a lot better. It just seemed to get better as time went on - which is VERY strange. I used the bar below the TV for a little while but when that started getting better I moved it to the to and changed the configuration.

A couple of times I've had to go and play with the sensitivity when it has acted up. Don't know why because nothing in the room had changed from when it was working better. Right now it seems to be pretty decent and in Zelda it was always a lot better than when using the Wii UI.

I haven't played anything in at least 3 weeks though. The last time I made an adjustment to the sensitivity was when my brother was over and had a really hard time in Wii sports because the pointer was just going all over the place.

Bruno

Posted by: tman

Re: Wii - 24/02/2007 09:45

Quote:
Does anyone else see graphical corruption after the previous (the one that added News) update? As most of you guys know, I used to work for ATI, so I know graphics corruption when I see it. Something is wrong with this box. Engine or memory clocks for the graphics are either tweaked and causing it or there's some bad ram in the unit.

People have been saying that this is caused by the Wii overheating when in standby and damaging the GPU. *shrug*

Posted by: tman

Re: Wii - 24/02/2007 12:40

Quote:
I updated the list with more recent posts and added my own friend code/Wii number:
Code:

l0ser		3936 1790 6273 8490
Dignan		2346 2852 4904 8562
drakino		3248 5534 2295 4054 
msaeger		7010 4111 2461 3022 
ricin		3313 8584 0068 9980 
adavidw		6940 1103 2809 4388
loren		1042 3358 6234 5595 
visuvius	6427 6579 1576 5804
BAKup		1866 9499 5376 9057
hybrid8		8513 0580 4643 5279
taym		1601 4701 0635 3562
wfaulk		8079 8810 6672 8054
tman		0559 1159 3698 8856 <-- UK Wii

I've got a UK Wii though... no idea if you can add US Wii numbers. I don't think you can even play against other regions?

Posted by: hybrid8

Re: Wii - 24/02/2007 14:05

Overheating sounds like a possible cause for this type of corruption. But in my case it would have to have been the heat that made a permanent fault. It happens even if the unit has been unplugged for some time.

I finished Zelda with 96 hours of play in 2 weeks, so it's strange it didn't overheat then. But I suppose at that time it's also protected by a fan...

I've heard good things about Nintendo customer support. I suppose I'm going to have to find out about this for myself. I'm just sorry I'll lose my Wii code and have to re-add everyone.

Bruno

Posted by: tman

Re: Wii - 24/02/2007 15:39

Quote:
Overheating sounds like a possible cause for this type of corruption. But in my case it would have to have been the heat that made a permanent fault. It happens even if the unit has been unplugged for some time.

I finished Zelda with 96 hours of play in 2 weeks, so it's strange it didn't overheat then. But I suppose at that time it's also protected by a fan...

Yeah. Apparently it is permanent damage to the GPU. Article here.

Posted by: tman

Re: Wii - 24/02/2007 16:05

I think they can transfer your Wii number over to your new unit but only if you send it in for repair. If you just get a new one shipped to you as a replacement then it will have a new Wii number.

Posted by: hybrid8

Re: Wii - 24/02/2007 17:06

That's the exact corruption I was mentioning. No question about it.

Now what's this about a 90 day warranty? I thought it was 1 year... I guess I should act quickly and not sit on this.

But now that I think back, I did register my Wii for a 90 day extension, so that would put my warranty at 180 days on the short end or 1 year and 3 months on the long. Just have to find out what the original warranty length is now...

Bruno

Posted by: tonyc

Re: Wii - 04/03/2007 18:02

tonyc: 6582 2420 7669 9428

Posted by: drakino

Re: Wii - 04/03/2007 18:43

Just added the master list to the first post. Any moderator/admin should be able to add to it as more numbers are posted. Let me know if the list is missing someone.

Posted by: tman

Re: Wii - 04/03/2007 19:50

Different region Wii numbers can be used together

Posted by: tonyc

Re: Wii - 05/03/2007 00:25

Thanks, Tom.

I'm really liking the Wii so far. Monkey Ball is a blast!

Has anyone played around with the various hacks for streaming music/video to a Wii? I've seen a couple of them (Orb, Red Kawa Media Center) that require you to transcode your videos to FLV in advance, which seems like a hassle. I also found WiiCR, which claims to do the transcode on demand, but requires you to install a full XAMPP stack just to run (I tried to install in my existing Apache server but it seems to have a lot of hard-coded paths and so forth which made things difficult.) Are any of these worth the hassle? Are there any better streaming video solutions?

Posted by: RobotCaleb

Re: Wii - 05/03/2007 04:40

WiiCR isn't really worth it. Takes forever to start streaming. I played with it way back when he first released it, though.

Posted by: JeffS

Re: Wii - 05/03/2007 13:02

If anyone cares, I just got SSX Blur. It is HARD on the Wii, and this is all about the control scheme. The graphics are fantastic, much better than SSX3 for the gamecube, though a lot of the tracks are the same.

Most of the reviews complained about Ubers being hard to pull off; however, I don't think this is much of an issue. I don't find them THAT hard, though they are a little more effort than "mash the trigger and press up-right"- this seems fairly reasonable to me. If I take my time I can nail them consistently, but I have to be paying attention to what I'm doing. It makes sense to me that pulling off big stunts should take a little bit of effort.

Regular tricks, however, seem more difficult than they should be. Often I'll feel like I'm flicking the remote properly and my character just doesn't do anything (though I had this problem with button mashing in SSX3 as well). I haven't quite figured out how to combine board grabs with spins/flips- I think you have to start the spin/flip before grabbing the board, which means you have to really pay attention to the order of things. This kind of leads to feeling like I don't have much much control over what I'm doing in the air.

Even more problematic is landing tricks, whatever you do. In this version you now have to align your body before you hit the ground, and so often, especially on the pipes, I'll do some trick and then wipe out either because I'm accidentally tilting the character by pushing on the control stick or because I'm not doing anything at all and he needs to be lined up. Also, in the previous versions you would hold down the button to keep spinning/flipping and then release to stop- in this version you hit the "A" button to stop, completely the opposite from previous SSX games (which makes sense, because how would it know to keep going/stop when you initiate a trick by flipping your wrist?). The problem is that sometimes I'll hit "A" twice and for whatever reason the character will misalign and crash. Landing seems unnaturally hard.

Carving is brilliant, if a little difficult to get used to. Rather than controlling with the stick, as is the natural inclination, you have to tilt the nunchuck. This was annoying and first and took me a while to get used to. Now that I have, it is a LOT of fun- feels a lot more like I'm snowboarding, swaying this way and that. Is it more efficient than just using the stick (which you can configure to do)? probably not. But it IS more fun.

The new soundtrack thing is pretty cool. They aren't using licensed music anymore, which I DID enjoy on SSX3, but the new concept is pretty cool. Each tune has 5 layered tracks that can be overlayed to add intensity. As you preform well, more tracks get added to make the music kind of stay in sync with how you're doing. The idea is when you find your "groove", the music does too. This works out well and I like the effect.

Overall, I think once I get used to the trick system and get better at it I'll really enjoy this game. For the the moment I'm enjoying the races a lot, enjoying the slopestyle somewhat, and dreading the half pipes. I haven't tried the new slalom yet, but I've heard it's hard. I honestly prefer games to be playable right out of the box, but there's enough fun here that I think it's worth it. I probably give it a 7 out of 10.

Pros:
Great Graphics
Carving is fun
Fun, layered Soundtrack
Ubers take some effort to pull of, and are rewarding when you do

Cons:
The trick system is difficult and pulls away from the "fun" factor
Repeat courses from SSX3

Posted by: Dignan

Re: Wii - 05/03/2007 13:54

Thanks for the review! I was thinking of picking this one up tonight. I've always been a huge fan of the SSX games, and I'll be curious to see if this control scheme just frustrates me

Have any of you Wii owners had a hard time getting classic controllers? I reserved one with my system for launch day, but the EB Games where I reserved didn't have any classic controllers at launch. Since then it's been a complete guessing game. Up until last week they refused to set one aside for me in any of their shipments, despite the fact that I'd already put money down. Fortunately they got a new manager last week who was extremely helpful and agreed to set one aside when they got more in. I wouldn't care, except that it's difficult to play some of the VC titles with the Gamecube controller (and I've already given them $10 toward the purchase). I wish they had envisioned a way to remap the controls for those games.

Posted by: JeffS

Re: Wii - 05/03/2007 14:23

For those still not using rechargeable batteries, I just noticed this while shopping on Amazon. Don't know anything about it, but figured I'd share the link.

Posted by: Dignan

Re: Wii - 05/03/2007 14:27

Quote:
For those still not using rechargeable batteries, I just noticed this while shopping on Amazon. Don't know anything about it, but figured I'd share the link.

It's been mentioned on Joystiq and Engadget, though I haven't heard from anyone who owns one. I've been curious as to how the ridged battery pack changes the feel of the controller.

Posted by: mlord

Re: Wii - 05/03/2007 14:31

Quote:
I haven't heard from anyone who owns one.

I suppose there might be a reason for that:

> This item will be released on March 15, 2007.

Or maybe it's just Amazon being slow?

Posted by: hybrid8

Re: Wii - 05/03/2007 14:41

Every store I've ever been to while looking for a Wii always had stock of classic controllers: Best Buy, TRU, EBGames, Future Shop, Walmart, etc...

What I had never seen were the standard controllers (and Nunchuk) and finally just decided to order directly from Nintendo. It was the same price everyone else would be selling for, pus $7 Canadian for shipping.

Bruno

Posted by: tonyc

Re: Wii - 05/03/2007 14:42

I stopped into a local Target to look for an extra remote and nunchuck, but there were none to be had. There was, however, a lonely classic controller, and I grabbed it.

This Wii tracker seems to show the classic controller being available at a bunch of stores here. Punch in your ZIP and see what it says.

Posted by: Dignan

Re: Wii - 05/03/2007 15:01

Quote:
I stopped into a local Target to look for an extra remote and nunchuck, but there were none to be had. There was, however, a lonely classic controller, and I grabbed it.

This Wii tracker seems to show the classic controller being available at a bunch of stores here. Punch in your ZIP and see what it says.

Yeah, I should probably just withdraw my preorder from EB. Although I'm not sure I can even do that after so long. I won't be buying anything from that store in the future, though. I only preordered there because it wasn't as well known a store, so there was less competition

Posted by: JeffS

Re: Wii - 05/03/2007 15:18

Did you guys also get Wii play? I got a controller with that and bought another on ebay slightly used. Then my brother in law (who I live with) also got a Wii so we now have 4 remotes and two nunchucks in the house.

Posted by: JeffS

Re: Wii - 05/03/2007 15:24

Also, I have a classic controller that my wife bought me for Christmas, but thus far have had no need for it. The only VC game I've bought so far is Super Mario Bros., and the only other one I plan on purchasing is Zelda. I still have an N64 hooked up to the TV along with Mario 64, Ocarina, and Mario Cart 64, and I'm not really sure if there are any other 64 games I'd want.

Dignan, if you get hard up looking for the classic controller I'm sure we could work something out at cost (unless my wife would be upset over me selling something she bought me as a present).

Posted by: tman

Re: Wii - 05/03/2007 15:34

Eh? The Wiimote is hard to find? There are piles of the things everywhere here. What is impossible to get is the Wii Play pack. The Classic Controller is kinda hard to find in shops as well but you can mail order that.

Posted by: JeffS

Re: Wii - 05/03/2007 15:41

Quote:
What is impossible to get is the Wii Play pack.

I ordered mine online. But if you can't get it, it isn't such a big loss unless you have children who are easily entertained. For an adult It's pretty much worth exactly the $10 you pay for it (since it comes with the $40 remote). My nephew, however, has played it more than any other game thus far, including Elebits.

Posted by: visuvius

Re: Wii - 05/03/2007 15:46

My wife bought me the Nyko charger for my birthday. The thing is pretty sweet. It comes with two battery packs and two replacement battery covers. The wiimotes slip right in. If you guys use your Wii a lot, its definitely a good investment.

I didn't really feel like the battery pack/cover changed the way the controller felt, aside from the rubber on the cover which is actually pretty nice.

Posted by: tonyc

Re: Wii - 05/03/2007 16:32

Cool, ordering one now.

P.S. Happy birthday!

Posted by: Dignan

Re: Wii - 05/03/2007 18:53

Quote:
My wife bought me the Nyko charger for my birthday. The thing is pretty sweet. It comes with two battery packs and two replacement battery covers. The wiimotes slip right in. If you guys use your Wii a lot, its definitely a good investment.

I didn't really feel like the battery pack/cover changed the way the controller felt, aside from the rubber on the cover which is actually pretty nice.

Ah-HA! See? Someone already has it!

The main reason I want the classic controller is for Super Mario World. It's extremely frustrating to play with the Wavebird.

Posted by: Tim

Re: Wii - 06/03/2007 11:54

Quote:
Have any of you Wii owners had a hard time getting classic controllers?

All accessories around here are kind of hard to get. I got lucky though, and pre-orded a remote and nunchuk controller even though I didn't get on that list for a Wii. I had the games and accessories before I had the system

I ordered my Classic Controllers from Amazon. They are listed as being in stock right now, as well as part of Amazon Prime. If you can't find them locally, it is worth not dealing with the frustration to just order them somewhere online.

Posted by: JeffS

Re: Wii - 06/03/2007 12:44

Just an update on SSX Blur- Apparently this is one of those "let it sit for a day" kind of things, because I played for a couple of hours last night and the entire control system worked perfectly. I had a blast and had no issues with tricks or landing. Also, I tried the slalom tracks and they work great with the new control scheme (the weaving back and forth feels nice moving the controller rather than pushing a stick). So if you're a fan of the SSX series, definitely worth getting if you're willing to put in a little effort on the front end.

Posted by: hybrid8

Re: Wii - 06/03/2007 13:35

The next time you have an issue check the sensitivity of the remote in the prefs. Make sure movement is not jumpy. One night playing Wii Sports everything just started going nuts and I had to make adjustments to the remote settings to make everything playable again.

Bruno

Posted by: tonyc

Re: Wii - 06/03/2007 13:44

In a sad turn of events, my Wii can no longer connect to the Internets. The error I get when trying the connection test is code 51130. Some Googling suggested changing the network to mixed B+G mode helps, but for me, it has not.

Here are the other things I've since tried to remedy this problem, all to no avail:
- Power cycled the router (several times)
- Changed wireless channel (was 1 before when things were working, also tried 6 and 11)
- Disabled wireless MAC filter (Wii's MAC was in the allow list prior to that)
- Completely disabled security
- Manual IP/DNS settings on the Wii instead of DHCP
- Flashed router with OpenWRT firmware (instead of Tomato)
- Changed the MTU on the Wii from automatic to 1500 (1500 works fine on everything else on my network)

When the connection test runs, I see the Wii's MAC address show up in the router's "Device List" page, so I know the router can "see" the Wii. When trying to use DHCP, no DHCPREQUEST is shown in the router's syslog. All of my other wireless clients are okay, and can get a DHCP lease. The signal strength shown coming from the Wii's MAC address is very high.

Feeling like I tried everything, I tried to jump on an open wifi network in my neighborhood (albeit one with a low signal strength for me) and still didn't find happiness. That could be because the signal isn't strong enough, though.

My next move is to drag the Wii over to my girlfriend's house and see if it likes the network there. After that, I guess I'm stuck calling Nintendo support and dealing with the invariable "is the router on? is the wii on?" line of questioning. So, I figured I'd ask here to see if anyone's run into / heard of any wifi problems, or has any idea how I can go about troubleshooting this further without dealing with support.

Posted by: hybrid8

Re: Wii - 06/03/2007 14:40

I have no idea what the issue may be, but I just tried mine and everything is running as expected (also using Tomato on my WRT54GL).

Twice before I've seen network connection errors, but simply trying the feature again allowed the connection to go through. Not sure what the reported numbers were in each case.

Let us know how the call to Nintendo goes if the problem doesn't mysteriously disappear on its own. I still have to call them to get my unit replaced due to the permanent graphics glitches.

Bruno

Posted by: Dignan

Re: Wii - 06/03/2007 14:47

Interesting. I was having nothing but problems with my connectivity before. I simply could not connect to the online store, and all the internet-related channels were either terribly slow or refused to connect. Then I switched to channel 1, and everything works perfectly now.

I have a question for everyone:

I seem to be doing something wrong in Wii Sports: Boxing. Everyone raves about how great that game is, but it frustrates the hell out of me. It just seems to me that my motions are simply not getting recognized. I feel like I'm just swinging wildly and every other time it'll actually do what I'm doing. Half the time I'm punching with my right and it'll punch with the left.

Maybe I'm holding the controllers wrong. The diagram shows to hold them straight up and down, doesn't it? Is that right?

Posted by: Attack

Re: Wii - 06/03/2007 15:18

Maybe you should try using a wired connection. A friend of my is using a USB network adpater to connect his Wii to the network.

Posted by: hybrid8

Re: Wii - 06/03/2007 17:31

If you want to win at boxing, just hold the controllers as instructed and shake them vigorously non-stop until you have defeated your opponent. That's the technique that works for my brother's fiance.

Bruno

Posted by: JeffS

Re: Wii - 06/03/2007 17:34

I did a couple of the training exercises for Boxing, and what I found is that really getting into it (JUMPING left and right, not just shifting) works out well. I never had it miss-read anything while doing that. Not the blocking, dodging, or punching. Of course, to this sit-on-my-butt-all-day-programmer, about 15 minutes enough to make me almost throw up, so I haven't touched it since. Yup, I'm THAT lazy

However, I did watch my brother-in-law and a friend of his play and they were insane, jumping back and forth and really slugging it out. I was exhausted just watching. When I get a chance I'll probably revisit boxing, as it seems I would be much healthier if I played it more

Right now, though, SSX and finishing Zelda are more my speed (I've gotten to the castle finally, and gotten almost all of the heart pieces).

Posted by: Dignan

Re: Wii - 07/03/2007 11:30

Quote:
Most of the reviews complained about Ubers being hard to pull off

I'm with the reviewers 100% here. I got the game last night, and started with the tutorial mode. I breezed my way through every tutorial with no problem at all. I was quite pleased that everything was so easy to do with the new control scheme.

Then I got to the ubers. I played the uber tutorial at least THIRTY TIMES before I lucked out and pulled off the two ubers that the tutorial asked for. To be fair, for a small portion of that I was forgetting to let go of the A button after I did the motion for the ubers. The things that frustrated me to no end is that it seemed that I didn't have enough time to make the motions, and it maybe understood my motions about 10% of the time. Most of the time, I would try to do the trick and the motion of the uber would pull off another trick.

For example, the hardest one to pull off in the tutorial was the one that looks like a little knot, where you make two loops. First of all, the icon is too small to be able to tell where I'm supposed to begin the motion, but also the motion you have to make requires you to move the wiimote sideways twice, and this just causes me to do a spin.

ARGH! Seriously, this is REALLY frustrating.

Aside from that, though, I really like the game. I loved SSX3 (didn't like SSX On Tour so much), so I'm glad that it's more similar to that game. As frustrating as it can be at times, I'm looking forward to getting used to the controls.

Posted by: JeffS

Re: Wii - 07/03/2007 13:28

Let me assure you, it DEFINITELY gets easier with practice. I blazed through peak 2 without any issues.

Regarding Ubers- I was able to do the "heart" Uber almost instantly, and I can do the other three easily now. Certainly holding and releasing the "A" button is crucial to this, as is not rushing the motions. When you rush it is easy to make horizontal lines crooked etc.

I don't know if you know this already, but there is a way to practice drawing the Ubers. Hit the "+" button, select "Ubers" and then the one you want to practice. This was actually how I figured out what we were supposed to be doing with the "double loop" Uber, as I couldn't make it out from the tiny drawing (when you select it from the menu, the drawing is a lot bigger).

Quote:
and it maybe understood my motions about 10% of the time.

I just want to mention that I don't think this is a hardware problem of the Wii not understanding the motions as a couple of the reviews semi-suggested. I have gotten close to 90% when I'm focused, so the issue isn't doing it correctly and not being detected. I only mention this because the thought of doing it correctly and still having the system ignore it is very frustrating, but knowing that they CAN be pulled off consistently is encouraging.

Also, I figured out the trick to slalom- make wide passes around the flags- don't try to breeze past them tightly. If you go wide left and then wide right then you'll use your momentum going sideways rather than forward.

Posted by: Dignan

Re: Wii - 07/03/2007 13:40

Quote:
there is a way to practice drawing the Ubers

Are the ubers based on IR or motion control?

Posted by: JeffS

Re: Wii - 07/03/2007 13:58

Quote:
Are the ubers based on IR or motion control?

I'd guess motion control because

a) sometimes the nunchuck is invovled
b) you can "draw" them with the remote tilted however you like

Posted by: Dignan

Re: Wii - 07/03/2007 14:47

How exaggerated would you say your motions have to be?

Posted by: JeffS

Re: Wii - 07/03/2007 19:34

Actually, I've found they really don't. For example, the single circle that you make going right to left- I've made really big circles and really small ones and both worked. More important it seems is pressing the button before I start and letting go when I'm done, and not getting anything else in the mix while I'm doing it. I think there's a tendency to let go too quickly, right near the end of the pattern, in order to get it to register quickly.

The heart is the easiest if you just remember to go up as your first movement. I've watched friends mess it up, and mostly it's because they tend to try and make a circle rather than a heart, going out instead of up as their first movement, and this never works. However, I've almost never failed this one if I remember to go up first.

Posted by: Dignan

Re: Wii - 07/03/2007 19:49

Cool, thanks for all the tips. I predict quite a few hours of SSX in my house tonight.

One more thing: would you say that you tend to move the whole Wiimote to make the motions, or is it more like you're drawing, so the front tip is moving more than the back? Did I explain that okay? I think I'm doing the latter, and it seems like that's not the way to do it...

Posted by: JeffS

Re: Wii - 07/03/2007 20:06

Quote:
One more thing: would you say that you tend to move the whole Wiimote to make the motions, or is it more like you're drawing, so the front tip is moving more than the back?

I definitely move the whole remote. In fact, I have a tendency to start the "heart" with my hands turn inward and both the nunchuck and remote pointed straight up- I'll then tilt them out as I complete the heart. This method neither helps nor hinders, but it does feel more "artistic"

I hope this all helps- I'm not really certain I'm saying anything of value. It just kind of came naturally to me, so that's what I'm trying to describe. I must admit, it kind of sucks that playing the game normally would be something you'd have to get tips on. It sounds like my brother-in-law and I are fairly unique in getting them right off- I guess I should probably revise that part of my review

Posted by: Dignan

Re: Wii - 07/03/2007 20:16

No, I think my problem is just the ubers part. I think there's something that I'm just missing. I was also trying to pull those off while sitting back with a cat in my lap, so that could have been giving me trouble

In fact, I seemed to have the opposite reactions that you did. The ubers were insanely difficult to me, but everything else just came naturally and I really got into it! I didn't have any problems with the normal tricks, although I would agree that it doesn't feel as natural to stop a trick by pressing the A button. It felt much more natural to have to hold a control stick and have to maneuver yourself upright. Other than that and the ubers, I think the controls are really cool.

Posted by: tonyc

Re: Wii - 09/03/2007 03:40

Well, one more data point. Took the Wii over to my girlfriend's place and it couldn't connect to her network, either. So, I guess I'll be calling into Nintendo support soon. In the mean time, my fix for the problem was to plunk down the cash for the Wii LAN adapter, which I pretty much wanted to do anyway because I like to have devices wired wherever possible to keep the WLAN from being congested.

That being said, I'd still like to get the wireless working, and I'm pretty disappointed that it's not. I'm thrilled with everything else about the system and the games so far, though.

Anyone have Madden 2007 for Wii (or played it)? Comments? The reviews seem mostly positive but I thought I'd ask since there are quite a few Wii owners here.

Posted by: Tim

Re: Wii - 09/03/2007 11:48

I have Madden 2007, and enjoy it. Keep in mind I don't know anything at all about football, it has been a goal of my roommate's to teach me football the last couple of years. Between the Cardinals and ASU, he loses heart and can't watch it halfway through the season, and I lose all retention

The controls are 'different' if you don't know football. If you do, they might be pretty easy to pick up, such as a stiff arm you stick your arm out. It's kind of hard to explain. I will say this, there is a learning curve. The first 2v2 we played as co-op, we lost something like 403-46. I was probably a huge handicap, but it was still pretty depressing

Near the end of the game the strategy moved from 'try to win' to 'try to keep them under 400'. It was fun enough that it kept our interest.

Posted by: wfaulk

Re: Wii - 10/03/2007 04:03

While I'll admit that transcoding in advance is a pain, Wii Media Center X seems to work really well. The biggest problem (besides the transcoding) is that you use the Wii browser, and there's no way to get rid of the big nav bar.

Posted by: hybrid8

Re: Wii - 10/03/2007 14:24

I've still got my fingers crossed that Nintendo will step up and first improve their photo viewer to support the network and then possibly add a video player (which I don't technically need, but it would be great for a lot of other people).

Posted by: Dignan

Re: Wii - 10/03/2007 14:29

Quote:
I've still got my fingers crossed that Nintendo will step up and first improve their photo viewer to support the network and then possibly add a video player (which I don't technically need, but it would be great for a lot of other people).

I was actually quite surprised when I found that the Wii could play back the videos I took with my digitial camera.

Of course, that's not what you're talking about, but I thought it was cool anyway

Posted by: wfaulk

Re: Wii - 10/03/2007 16:08

The photo player actually plays MJPEG movies.

Posted by: hybrid8

Re: Wii - 10/03/2007 16:19

That's cool but I don't shoot MJPEG movies.

I'd like to browse my images from the network or Flickr in that UI. I've used it to browse from an SD card and thought it was pretty neat and usable. I'd also love to be able to set a sticky option for one or more of the adjustments you can make. I found that for some reason all the images I was viewing that day needed to be brightned to show up well. Like many other aspects of the Wii interface, it took a lot of clicks to get through that operation.

Bruno

Posted by: JeffS

Re: Wii - 27/03/2007 12:47

Ok, well just to save someone else the money, skip Tiger Woods. It is a port and plays like one. All the features, games, PGA Tour, face modeling options are really cool, but the SWING is terrible. And really, you've GOT to get the swing right if you're going to make a motion detecting golf game.

The swing is more about timing than your stroke. Rather than mirroring your actions with the remote the way Wii Golf does, the player starts his swing when you start moving back and completes it when you start moving froward. This means hitting a shorter shot means pulling back then pushing froward QUICKLY, not stopping short in either direction or lessening the speed/power of your stroke. It also means you have to be looking at the screen rather than down at your imaginary golf ball. In short, the swing mechanic doesn't match anything like a real shot, and it has been thus far impossible for me to hit a straight shot consistently. I finally put the game on "easy" mode, which makes every shot straight, but now it's waaay to simple- I just point and shoot and the ball goes where I want. Not much skill to it.

I'd chalk this up to- "oh well, they'll need to refine it a bit in the next version", except that Wii Golf did MUCH better with the swing. In that game it really feels like you are playing golf, even if it doesn't look much like it (and if the whole "swing to hard and you'll hook it" thing is a bit contrived). I'd say of the two, Wii Golf easily beats Tiger Woods in the playability factor, and that is just plain sad.

I hope they'll figure it out in the next version, because Golf really is a natural game for the Wii. However, in order for it to be fun it has to actually playing something like golf, not like they mapped a stick timing control system to pseudo golf motions.

In other news, SSX has held up great. I LOVE it and am still playing even after having beaten it. DEFINITELY worth the time spent learning the controls, and now that I am comfortable with them I think the whole scheme is fantastic.

Posted by: Dignan

Re: Wii - 27/03/2007 19:18

Damn. Stupid BBS ate my post. Here's the gist of it:

1) thanks for the review, I think I'll rent Tiger Woods and Super Swing Golf so I can test it out for myself.

2) I find it funny that Wii Sports Golf, which has the depth of a puddle, is so much more fun than a full golf game.

3) The N really should think about expanding some of the Wii Sports games into full games of their own, perhaps making them really good budget titles.

4) I still suck at SSX. It's probably because I haven't devoted the proper playing time to get used to the basics. Board grabs are difficult for me, which is a shame because that's what I loved about past versions like Tricky. You could twist the boarder's body before the jump, so you could really snap hard into a trick immediately after getting air. I loved it, and it allowed for massive trick combos. I realize, however, that Tricky was possibly the least realistic of the SSX games (though I haven't played the first). Anyway, I'm going to have to get used to it. I'm also finding it a lot harder to unlock boards and outfits. Oh yeah, and I suck at the slalom.

Posted by: JeffS

Re: Wii - 27/03/2007 20:44

Quote:
2) I find it funny that Wii Sports Golf, which has the depth of a puddle, is so much more fun than a full golf game.

Heh, your millage may vary, of course. Just my own humble opinion.

Posted by: FireFox31

Re: Wii - 28/03/2007 00:54

Nope, still can't find a Wii for sale at retail price online. Astounding. You'd think all the scalpers trying to push them for $500 on eBay would cut their losses and stop hording them.

Do I really have to go into a store to get this? No, my lack of drive will, in turn, force me to do productive things like professional development and working on my database project.

Posted by: Dignan

Re: Wii - 22/04/2007 19:17

Sorry to bring this thread back again, but I appear to be stuck in Zelda. I finally got some time to play, and I've beaten a couple dungeons. Now I'm trying to go back to the forest and get in that dungeon (I believe it will be the temple of time). The problem is that the game seems to have screwed up or something. Basically, I can't do anything. I've gone through the sacred grove (again), and beaten the skull kid (again), and he let me into the "special area" (again). Now there's nothing for me to do!

I've resorted to consulting walkthroughs on Gamefaqs, but none have helped. They all indicate that I'm supposed to go back to where I got the Master Sword, and the game will prompt me to put the sword back in the block. Well...it doesn't work. I've walked around and around that block, and nothing happens. What the hell am I doing wrong?

Posted by: msaeger

Re: Wii - 22/04/2007 19:20

Sorry can't help one Zelda but I just bought punch out on the virtual console and it still rocks

Posted by: Dignan

Re: Wii - 22/04/2007 19:21

Quote:
Sorry can't help one Zelda but I just bought punch out on the virtual console and it still rocks

Nice!

I'll have to pick that up. Also, I just want to point out how much easier it is to play the 16-bit gen games on the classic controller than it is on the Wavebird.

Posted by: Dignan

Re: Wii - 22/04/2007 19:52

Okay, this is truly frustrating. I even found a video walkthrough of this exact portion of the game, and it hasn't answered any questions. According to the video, you just walk up the block and it just lets you put the sword in. Is my game busted somehow?

Posted by: drakino

Re: Wii - 22/04/2007 19:57

I'm not sure if it's related (I'm only scanning your posts to avoid any spoilers), but there was a known bug that caused Nintendo to exchange discs if you were affected by it. Might be worth a look.

Posted by: Dignan

Re: Wii - 22/04/2007 20:06

Yeah, I'd heard about that one, but I'm not at the same point in the game.

I feel like a complete idiot now, though. I figured out what the problem was. Apparently I've been playing the entire game, since getting the Master Sword, without actually equipping it. This leads to both a sense of stupidity after trying to figure out what the problem was for an hour, as well as a slight sense of pride for playing most of the game with an inferior weapon.

Posted by: msaeger

Re: Wii - 23/04/2007 01:42

I hate Soda Popinski

Posted by: FireFox31

Re: Wii - 27/12/2007 13:00

FINALLY got a Wii. (actually, I bought it from BestBuy online in November thanks to wiitracker.com, and saved it until Christmas as a "present"). This is quite a machine.

I will post my friend code when my Wii LAN adapter comes. I'm all wired here.

Posted by: Dignan

Re: Wii - 28/12/2007 15:49

Excellent! What games are you starting off with? I just started Mario Galaxy, and the gameplay is just as good as everyone is saying it is. I can't play it for more than about 45 minutes at a time, though, due to motion sickness (my problem, not the game's).

A friend just told me that the Olympics game (with Mario and Sonic) is really fun too. I might have to give that a try.

Oh, and I finally got around to beating Zelda a couple weeks ago. I'd accomplished everything but the last couple dungeons months ago (like last March), but I'd never gotten around to finishing it. If you know how to beat Ganon, though, it's really easy. I've heard that in his very last form, you can even use the fishing rod to beat him. I tried but couldn't get it to work $\:\)$

Posted by: FireFox31

Re: Wii - 28/12/2007 16:50

I'm starting with the only games I'll probably ever need:
Mario Galaxy (playing now, AMAZING!!!!)
Zelda: Twilight Princess
Paper Mario (I loved N64 PM and liked SNES Mario RPG)
GUITAR HERO III!!!!!!
maybe Metroid Prime 3

Also, found an eBay seller clearing out his Game Cube games, so I bought the ones I always wanted:
Zelda: Wind Waker
Mario Sunshine (I know, people say it's lame)
Paper Mario 2
Metroid Prime 1
may get Metroid Prime 2 if it's good like people claim

I'm set for games between these and PC games for my new machine: Half Life Orange Box (which I'd never played any of) and Far Cry. After that, I'll branch out into less familiar games for Wii and GCN. I'm a casual gamer, so I like to stick with the favorites.

Ironically, I may buy the Ogre Battle series for SNES and N64 if released to the Wii console. Those are some fun, yet slightly odd, real time strategy games.

Oh, and in Mario Galaxy, try long jumping "off" the "edge" of a two sided, nearly flat planet (like the first planet in (the first) Good Egg Galaxy. What a testament to their gravity engine!

Posted by: hybrid8

Re: Wii - 28/12/2007 19:19

I just got back my Wii from Nintendo after sending it in for a damaged GPU and/or graphics memory (problem looks like bad graphics RAM to me). Since I won't be setting it up again until about mid Febraury when we move to our new house, I can use this time to figure out what to play next. $;\)$

I loved Zelda, but frankly I'm disappointed with most other titles available for the Wii. Though I liked the concept of the original Metroid, I don't think I'd like the current ones since I'm no fan of first-person shooters.

It's been months since I did any type of title browsing though, so I'm not even sure what's available right now. I'm just certain whatever is out there is nearly impossible to buy locally off the shelf.

My brother just got a PS3 and while its UI and the console itself look like utter (pretentious) garbage, it has some really nice titles available. Some also available for the XBOX 360 but some, like Uncharted, are exclusive.

I'm content with having bought the Wii primarily for Zelda and its sequels, but I can't see myself buying a PS3 since I'm such a casual gamer, even if it has titles that appeal greatly to me.

Games like Dance Dance Revolution and their less aerobic clones like Guitar Hero are definitely not my cup of tea. They're actually in my "loathe" class.

Anyone have any links to sites other than those belonging to IGN with a good games round-up for Wii? Hopefully something browsable by category/genre.

Posted by: tfabris

Re: Wii - 28/12/2007 20:37

I'm told that the rayman game on the Wii is hilarious and fun.

Posted by: drakino

Re: Wii - 28/12/2007 22:26

Originally Posted By: hybrid8

Though I liked the concept of the original Metroid, I don't think I'd like the current ones since I'm no fan of first-person shooters.

Metroid Prime really isn't an FPS, Nintendo dubbed it "First Person Adventure" due to how much exploring you do vs shooting. The controls aren't like console FPSes either, and there is no reliance on precise aiming. For me, Metroid Prime was one of the first games I could point to for a classic game making the 3D jump properly.

Now Metroid Prime 3 is a bit different on the Wii for controls, and I haven't put enough time into it to really judge it either way. I can at least highly recommend picking up the first Metroid Prime and giving it a shot.

Posted by: Dignan

Re: Wii - 29/12/2007 03:43

Originally Posted By: FireFox31

Also, found an eBay seller clearing out his Game Cube games, so I bought the ones I always wanted:
Zelda: Wind Waker

Wind Waker got slammed due to the graphics. Frankly, it was the best single player game on the Gamecube (best multiplayer being Mario Kart - but that's my preference). IMO, it only has two flaws: the long sailing distances, and the second act of the game. In the end, it's one of my favorite Zelda games.

Originally Posted By: hybrid8

My brother just got a PS3 and while its UI and the console itself look like utter (pretentious) garbage, it has some really nice titles available. Some also available for the XBOX 360 but some, like Uncharted, are exclusive.

I know I'll come off as a "Nintendo fanboy," but what games? As far as I could see, the only PS3 titles that looked any good are Ratchet and Clank and Uncharted. As far as I've seen the 360 has a far better selection of games.

At the moment, I can't really suggest any other Wii games to anybody. I must sadly agree that they've not really released any top-notch games. But that problem has two somewhat related causes:

1) It's the beginning of the product's life cycle. None of the current consoles are having or had a great start. From the outside, it looked to me like the 360 didn't really have any great games for the first six months or so.

2) Game development cycles are long, and all the third party developers thought the PS3 was going to be huge, any many didn't even look at Nintendo. Frankly, even fewer did when the Wii was unveiled. Now they're all scrambling to develop games for the number one selling console, but we won't see those games for months, if not a couple years!

Anyway, now that I've filled my fanboy quota, I'll back off $\:\)$ Hell, I have to stick up for it. I've never owned the number one selling console before. I started with the Sega Master System, then got the Super Nintendo (which only pulled ahead very late in that generation), then the N64, then the Gamecube. Finally I bet on the right horse! (at least it appears so for now $\:\)$ )

Posted by: drakino

Re: Wii - 29/12/2007 07:45

Originally Posted By: Dignan

(admittedly spinning a bit off the Wii discussion here, but hey, it's off topic)

Both the PS3 and 360 have a good assortment of games available through their online stores. While Nintendo went the route of only offering older games through their store, The PS3 and 360 are packed with an assortment of new games for pretty cheep. The recent one I downloaded on the PS3 is Pain, an odd physics based destruction game, where you use an invulnerable human fired from a slingshot. Even fill production games are downloadable like Warhawk.

As far as released in store games on the PS3 side, you named 2 of the exclusives, and other releases I can think off recently were Folklore and Heavenly Sword. Many games are being released on both the 360 and PS3 now, like Rock Band, Guitar Hero III, Call of Duty 4, The Orange Box and so on. So in the end, if you do come down to only a PS3 or 360, pick the one that has the exclusives you want, as enough other games will come out for both.

For me, I just forgo the whole one is better then the other, and ended up with all 3 under my TV. Even 3 consoles every 5-7 years is cheeper then what it takes to keep a gaming PC up to date. Though the fanboy in me does root for Nintendo, just for proving to both Sony and Microsoft that spouting tech numbers two years in a row at E3 did them little good.

Posted by: msaeger

Re: Wii - 29/12/2007 13:43

None of them are making many games I want really. For the wii all I have is zelda and I want mario galazy. For the 360 I bought viva pinata when I got it and still haven't bought a 2nd game. There are a couple that look good but when the reviews say they are mediocre it makes me not want to spend 60 dollars. The ps3 I bought for ratchet and clank and there is nothing else for it that looks interesting.

I have the most wii virtual console games and ds games their much lower price makes a difference. For Christmas I got 4000 more wii points to spend too :-) Also I mostly like platformers and jrpgs so the home consloe makers aren't making much for me.

Posted by: FireFox31

Re: Wii - 29/12/2007 13:44

Bruno, did you have a GameCube? If not, you could always pick from that library of games.

I simply search the Internet for "best GameCube games" or "best Wii games" and read the "Top 10" lists at all the major gaming sites. A good search keyword is "overlooked"; I've found interesting "Top 10 overlooked games" lists for N64 and GCN which have revealed some real gems (ie: Ogre Battle 64).

I wish there was a master list of games for Wii (and GCN, N64, SNES) with short descriptions and organized by category. That would really help sales (and virtual console sales) for guys like me who don't have a clue what games are out there.

Everyone keeps saying Resident Evil 4 is a "remake of a modern classic". So, is it a port of few-year-old PS2 game? Then there's Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles, which may be as good. Scary stuff isn't my cup of tea; I'll take childish Mario.

And if you liked Mario 64, you'll love Mario Galaxy. It's bite sized, just like M64, broken down into 10-20 minute levels, after which you can easily save and walk away. Perfect for casual gaming.

I tried Rayman 2 for N64 and there really wasn't anything special about it. Not worth playing. Maybe the Wii version is better.

Is Mario Kart: Double Dash for GCN actually any good? Did it trump the all-time great Kart for N64? Better yet, will a Wii Kart outrank its older sibling?

Posted by: tman

Re: Wii - 29/12/2007 15:08

When did they make it so you can buy Wii point cards using Club Nintendo points? Its 4 Club Nintendo Points = 1 Wii Point but you can only buy 1 card per day and the number of cards available seems to be limited.

Also, do you still get the Club Nintendo bonus for signing in? I can't see it any more...

Posted by: Folsom

Re: Wii - 29/12/2007 16:48

Zack and Wiki is a good adventure game. Not as much fighting as Zelda but some good puzzles.

Posted by: Dignan

Re: Wii - 29/12/2007 18:41

Originally Posted By: drakino

Both the PS3 and 360 have a good assortment of games available through their online stores.

True, and some of them have looked somewhat interesting to me (though not the ones you mentioned). I don't tend to put a lot of weight on downloadable games, though, when comparing the consoles. But it's true, that's something Nintendo hasn't done. And now hasn't Microsoft opened up a slew of old XBox games for download? That's a good move. Lastly, isn't Nintendo adding a downloadable games channel for original titles? I think that's coming down the line...

Quote:

As far as released in store games on the PS3 side, you named 2 of the exclusives, and other releases I can think off recently were Folklore and Heavenly Sword. Many games are being released on both the 360 and PS3 now, like Rock Band, Guitar Hero III, Call of Duty 4, The Orange Box and so on. So in the end, if you do come down to only a PS3 or 360, pick the one that has the exclusives you want, as enough other games will come out for both.

This is definitely the criteria I use. It was a no-brainer for me, though (as it was for many of those posting in this thread): if the Wii will have Mario and Zelda, I'm going with that $\:\)$ It really is a preference thing. I know people who own the PS3 that have no interest in the Nintendo franchise characters, so it's just not their thing.

(isn't Guitar Hero III on the Wii too)

Originally Posted By: FireFox31

And those lists will almost always include two of my favorite games of all time: Beyond Good and Evil, and Eternal Darkness (both for the GC). Both have some of the most fun gameplay and original storytelling that I've seen in video games.

Quote:

I wish there was a master list of games for Wii (and GCN, N64, SNES) with short descriptions and organized by category. That would really help sales (and virtual console sales) for guys like me who don't have a clue what games are out there.

You could check out AllGame.com.

Quote:

Everyone keeps saying Resident Evil 4 is a "remake of a modern classic". So, is it a port of few-year-old PS2 game?

No no no! The PS2 game was a port of the Gamecube game, which most people agree was the best example of what could be done with the Gamecube hardware. It was out for many many months before it hit the PS2 (and didn't have much graphical improvement, I might add). The reason people are touting the Wii version so much is that, while a port, it has a whole different feel to it now that you're able to aim with the remote. It's still a third-person perspective, but now you have more control.

Quote:

I tried Rayman 2 for N64 and there really wasn't anything special about it. Not worth playing. Maybe the Wii version is better.

Well, you might be surprised that it's a completely different type of game. Rayman 2 was a 3D platformer. Raving Rabbids is a series of minigames, like Wario Ware. I started playing it with a friend (it's not co-op, we just traded off between minigames), and had a lot of fun (and a lot of laughs - it's pretty funny).

Quote:

Is Mario Kart: Double Dash for GCN actually any good? Did it trump the all-time great Kart for N64? Better yet, will a Wii Kart outrank its older sibling?

Yes. Yes and No. Impossible to tell.

Double Dash took some getting used to, but it was a real technical step up, which made gameplay much more fluid. Basically, if you ever played the original Mario Kart, go play that again. That's what it's like to play Mario Kart 64 after playing Double Dash for a long time. The old game was insanely fun at the time, but surprisingly the technical improvements make it hard to go back. Hell, some of the most fun I've ever had with video games was playing battle mode on Mario Kart for the SNES with my best friend. But now I play the game and I'm a little spoiled.

I will say, though, that the battle mode on the N64 version is better than Double Dash.

Posted by: Tim

Re: Wii - 07/01/2008 13:26

Originally Posted By: Dignan

Originally Posted By: hybrid8

I finished Uncharted during my Christmas break. The only way to describe it was 'incredible'. They did an amazing job with not just the graphics, but the atmosphere and especially the story. I enjoyed it so much that I took the time to watch the bonus videos, such as the making of the game. That is pretty much unheard of for me to do (when one of my friends heard that, she went out and got Uncharted that day).

I'm currently playing Rachet and Clank: TOD. Its the first Rachet and Clank game I've played, so the humor has impressed me so far. The graphics are nice also.

I do agree the XMB sucks. Even though I've had the system since Aug, I didn't even realize it had a 'friends' setup until one of my friends tolk me to add her as a friend so we could play Rock Band together. Overall, it just seems a lot less intuitive than the 360 setup.

One observation that I did make a couple days ago was that our (as in own) PS3 library is now roughly the same size as our 360 library. My roommate pointed out that a few 360 games were lent out, so the 360 still holds an advantage. My Gamecube and Wii libraries dwarf them both, though

Posted by: FireFox31

Re: Wii - 08/01/2008 02:01

I finally got my Wii LAN adapter. I don't have wireless because I don't feel like securing it, so I've hardwired instead.

Updated Wii friend code list:

l0ser 3936 1790 6273 8490
Dignan 2346 2852 4904 8562
drakino 3248 5534 2295 4054
msaeger 7010 4111 2461 3022
ricin 3313 8584 0068 9980
adavidw 6940 1103 2809 4388
loren 1042 3358 6234 5595
visuvius 6427 6579 1576 5804
BAKup 1866 9499 5376 9057
hybrid8 8513 0580 4643 5279
taym 1601 4701 0635 3562
wfaulk 8079 8810 6672 8054
tman 0559 1159 3698 8856 <-- UK Wii
FireFox31 7720 5423 9299 1644

Posted by: hybrid8

Re: Wii - 08/01/2008 18:39

My Wii was replaced under Warranty recently so I'll no doubt have a new code. I wasn't planning on hooking it up again until after I move sometime in February, but I probably should to make sure it's working fine instead of potentially wasting valuable warranty time.

Posted by: FireFox31

Re: Wii - 18/07/2008 01:07

A few Wii thoughts I've been gathering:

Why is my Wii hotter when powered off then when powered on? It has an ethernet adapter, and "powered off" is really the orange lit active standby.

Does the Classic Controller hurt anyone else's hands? I can only play 10 minutes of Renegade before I need a break. Something very odd about that controller. If only the Wii USB port could accept USB-modded original NES controllers (and SNES and N64).

Are video games getting easier as the years go on? Mario Galaxy, I love, but there are so many 1UPs and opportunities to save that it's not a real challenge. Thinking back 20 years, I honestly never beat Super Mario Brothers for NES. The time and stamina required to get through the whole game in one sitting (and without loosing all of your lives? was there a Continue option?) was just overwhelming. I love being able to play Mario Galaxy for 20 minutes, save, and turn it off, but what happened to the challenge?

Does Zelda: Twilight Princess for Wii look much worse than Zelda: Wind Waker for Game Cube? I played TP for 5 hours before switching to WW for 6 months. The TP graphics looked all jagged and gnarled, while WW were so smooth (sure, cell shading helps). WW always impressed me when distant objects came into focus as you approached them; very well done. TP looks like my monitor is on the fritz.

I wish the Game Cube part of Wii could be accessed with the GCN controller, ithout using the Wiimote. I've still got a few GCN games to finish before switching to their Wii sequels.

Rock Band for Wii? Does Wii have the hardware capacity to process all those inputs? Seriously, vocal pitch recognition is bad ass on the XBox.

Seems like Game Cube was the pinnacle of excess, specifically in game music. Wii is the antithesis, absolute simplicity, again specifically in game music. I defy anyone to whistle the songs of GCN Paper Mario, and many sounds in Wind Waker were more complex than taxes. Ok, so those are the only two GCN games I've played so far.

Still no Mii's in my Mii Parade even though I added everyone's console number to my address book or something.

Wii Ware is great! I can't wait for the Strong Bad Game!!!!!!!

Posted by: sein

Re: Wii - 18/07/2008 05:03

Updated Wii friend code list:

l0ser 3936 1790 6273 8490
Dignan 2346 2852 4904 8562
drakino 3248 5534 2295 4054
msaeger 7010 4111 2461 3022
ricin 3313 8584 0068 9980
adavidw 6940 1103 2809 4388
loren 1042 3358 6234 5595
visuvius 6427 6579 1576 5804
BAKup 1866 9499 5376 9057
hybrid8 8513 0580 4643 5279
taym 1601 4701 0635 3562
wfaulk 8079 8810 6672 8054
tman 0559 1159 3698 8856 <-- UK Wii
FireFox31 7720 5423 9299 1644
'sein 1389 3277 4651 6779 <-- UK Wii

So, yes I got a Wii last month too. Boom Blox is a simple but very fun game, totally recommend it - it has that nice mini game quality of a game you can pick up and play for 10 minutes.

Posted by: Dignan

Re: Wii - 18/07/2008 10:31

Originally Posted By: FireFox31

Does the Classic Controller hurt anyone else's hands?

Doesn't really hurt, but I don't like the shape. I love how a few people have modded the controller so that the chord comes out the top (as it should). My main complaint, though, is that there's no way to change the button mapping. A related complaint is that for some unknown reason, the button mapping in Super Mario World is different than the original game! Why on earth would they do that? The new mapping is terrible!

Originally Posted By: FireFox31

Are video games getting easier as the years go on? Mario Galaxy, I love, but there are so many 1UPs and opportunities to save that it's not a real challenge. Thinking back 20 years, I honestly never beat Super Mario Brothers for NES. The time and stamina required to get through the whole game in one sitting (and without loosing all of your lives? was there a Continue option?) was just overwhelming. I love being able to play Mario Galaxy for 20 minutes, save, and turn it off, but what happened to the challenge?

I think that's just that particular game. I agree that there's no challenge to it (aside from some insane levels - have you seen the one with the purple coins?), and I think they essentially should have removed the concept of "lives" in the game entirely. I don't think I ever once ran out of lives, and that's with never even taking the ones Peach mailed me. Between the excessive amount the levels offer you, and the always available 1up under the stairs in the main station, I never needed them.

Originally Posted By: FireFox31

Does Zelda: Twilight Princess for Wii look much worse than Zelda: Wind Waker for Game Cube?

But TP looks so brown^H^H^H^H^Hreal! I'm one of the minority that loved the hell out of WW, despite its flaws (an eternity spent sailing, and a second act that fizzles). It's one of the best looking games I've ever played. I think you're right in the idea that WW gets a big advantage from cell shading. I think there's a lot of cheating that can be done on the graphics while at the same time there's a lot of cool visuals that can be achieved. I think this story pretty much sums up what I think of the art direction in Twilight Princess.

Originally Posted By: FireFox31

Rock Band for Wii? Does Wii have the hardware capacity to process all those inputs?

Um...I'm not sure what you mean... The Wii can understand 4 motion-sensing wiimotes with 4 motion-sensing nunchucks attached to them. Why would drums, two guitars and a mic be too much? I would think they'd be easier for the Wii to handle. Aren't they essentially MIDI controllers?

Originally Posted By: FireFox31

Seems like Game Cube was the pinnacle of excess, specifically in game music.

I can see your point, though sometimes the music of the various Wii channels gets into my head and won't let go.

Originally Posted By: FireFox31

Still no Mii's in my Mii Parade even though I added everyone's console number to my address book or something.

Weird...I'll make sure I've added you later. Are you sure you provided us with the correct number?

Originally Posted By: FireFox31

Wii Ware is great! I can't wait for the Strong Bad Game!!!!!!!

If you haven't, definitely download Lost Winds. It's short but I love it.

Posted by: Roger

Re: Wii - 18/07/2008 10:57

Originally Posted By: FireFox31

Does the Classic Controller hurt anyone else's hands?

Does the design of any game controller make sense? All of the buttons are on the top, where you'd be using your thumbs. The limited number of trigger buttons are on the bottom where you've got about 8 fingers available.

I think this is why I'm a keyboard+mouse man...

Posted by: Tim

Re: Wii - 18/07/2008 11:14

Originally Posted By: FireFox31

Are video games getting easier as the years go on? Mario Galaxy, I love, but there are so many 1UPs and opportunities to save that it's not a real challenge.

I'm not sure if I'm just getting curmudgeony in my old age, but most games seem to get getting harder. Not necessarily in game play, but in understanding/remembering all the buttons and combinations you need to get through a game.

I made a comment to the boss' boss at breakfast a few weeks ago (we were talking about Advanced Warfighter I think it was) about how games are just getting stupid with the number of buttons they need. I told him I missed having two buttons so you could focus on the game and not the controller. One of the people in line in front of us heard me and totally agreed.

The only way I beat Uncharted was by ignoring some of the buttons totally and just using the 'important' ones. I'm sure there was a melee button, but I really doubt I ever used it.

My TV had the optical block problem a lot of Sony's have had, and games were pretty much unplayable. Because of that, I didn't touch GTA 4 for about 6 weeks or something now. If I wanted to get back into it, I'd have to restart to relearn all the controls.

PC games don't seem to suffer from that nearly as much. I guess it is because there are so many more options with an actual mouse and keyboard that combinations and esoteric actions/button aren't required.

That, and I realy wish some companies would actually hire a freakin human factor's group. Yes, I'm looking at you Sony.

Posted by: tfabris

Re: Wii - 18/07/2008 15:13

Quote:

Are video games getting easier as the years go on?

This was the topic of a recent reader letter in one of the gaming magazines I get, and it's something that regularly (if tangentially) gets discussed in Game Developer just about every month.

YES, video games are getting easier.

It's a balance, you see. The idea is to make video games fun and accessible for as many customers as possible without making them either frustrating or boring. Games that are difficult to play will only ever appeal to a small hardcore crowd of gamers and thus will always have small sales.

Finding that balance, that sweet spot that lies between "boring for hardcore players" and "frustratingly difficult for casual players" is the ultimate holy grail of game design. The best games find some kind of magic combination that works for everyone.

Sometimes it's selectable difficulty levels, but that's a sort of cop-out. Lately it seems like they're solving that problem more often by giving additional gameplay content that can be ignored by casual players. For instance, on the Katamari Damacy games, you can complete any given level fairly easily, but getting a great score and finding all the secret goodies on that level takes re-playing it over and over again and finding the optimum strategy. XBox "Achievements" is similar, you can finish a game without getting many of the achievements, or you can try to get them all. I like these solutions, because they have the additional benefit of giving the game more long-term replayability.

Posted by: wfaulk

Re: Wii - 18/07/2008 21:17

I liked the route the Max Payne games took where it would interactively tweak the difficulty level based on how well you played.

Posted by: wfaulk

Re: Wii - 18/07/2008 21:26

Originally Posted By: Dignan

Aren't they essentially MIDI controllers?

I can't imagine that they are. The guitar has five "note" buttons, plus one or two each for the whammy bar and the strum thingy. Given that there are 12 distinct notes in western music, ignoring multiple octaves, I doubt that it would make sense for them to implement MIDI. The drum controller is five buttons. Again, it doesn't seem to make sense to do it that way.

Posted by: tfabris

Re: Wii - 18/07/2008 23:41

The game controllers are definitely not MIDI, but I've heard a rumor that one of the upcoming games (dunno if it was Guitar Hero 4 or if it was Rock Band 2) has a MIDI *input* on the game drum kit so you could use a real drum kit if you happened to own one. Dunno if that's true or not.

Posted by: Dignan

Re: Wii - 19/07/2008 01:14

Okay, I didn't really mean MIDI specifically. I should have just said that the instruments are nothing more than your standard controllers. I guess I was just thrown off by the suggestion that the Wii couldn't handle the input of what boils down to four controllers.

Firefox, could you elaborate on what you meant?

Posted by: msaeger

Re: Wii - 19/07/2008 02:35

The microphone probably more complex than just a standard controller but they made rock band for wii so it must be able to handle it.

Posted by: FireFox31

Re: Wii - 20/07/2008 00:35

Quote:

The microphone probably more complex than just a standard controller but they made rock band for wii so it must be able to handle it.

The microphone was my point. I was pleasantly surprised to see how accurately it identified pitch in my, um, singing. Pitch recognition doesn't seem that easy, especially with three other inputs, sound output, and all that video. I thought the Wii had underpowered hardware which couldn't handle it.

I think games are getting easier because of their play duration. Gone are the days of Contra, where you must play for hours without getting hit three times. Now you can save every five minutes and walk away any time. Not that I mind; this casual approach fits my schedule better than 8 hour sessions of Goonies II or Hudson's Adventure Island.

Make up for their ease by "playing with style." Like Mario 64, I strive to flip, fling and fly through Mario Galaxy with grace. Anyone can stomp on a goomba, but can you land on it by terminating your long jump in a spin stomp? And what is the purpose of the "waggle + stomp" - shake the wiimote and push the trigger at the same time for some odd extended in-air spin and show-off landing.

Lost Winds was a great way to wind down a long day. The music transports soul to a luxurious spa, sipping echinacea punch while getting a pedicure. ... Where are those last three pots??

On game controllers, designers could use those other 8 fingers like The Thummer.

Posted by: frog51

Re: Wii - 20/07/2008 07:29

Originally Posted By: tfabris

Seems to be - looks like most of it is backwards compatible, but in one of the descriptions it appears that it will have a MIDI connector. Can't wait.

Posted by: Waterman981

Re: Wii - 01/11/2008 20:58

Finally picked one up myself. Don't know how much you are all on it anymore, but here's the updated Wii friend code list:

l0ser 3936 1790 6273 8490
Dignan 2346 2852 4904 8562
drakino 3248 5534 2295 4054
msaeger 7010 4111 2461 3022
tonyc 6582 2420 7669 9428
ricin 3313 8584 0068 9980
adavidw 6940 1103 2809 4388
loren 1042 3358 6234 5595
visuvius 6427 6579 1576 5804
BAKup 1866 9499 5376 9057
hybrid8 8513 0580 4643 5279
taym 1601 4701 0635 3562
wfaulk 8079 8810 6672 8054
tman 0559 1159 3698 8856 <-- UK Wii
FireFox31 7720 5423 9299 1644
'sein 1389 3277 4651 6779 <-- UK Wii
Waterman981 1471 8819 8399 9846

Posted by: Dignan

Re: Wii - 02/11/2008 17:55

I'll make sure to add you.

But nobody should add that code for BAKup. At least not at the moment...

Posted by: BAKup

Re: Wii - 03/11/2008 00:30

Aye

I'm currently dealing with that issue.

Posted by: BAKup

Re: Wii - 05/12/2008 02:33

My new Wii Friend Code:
3510 4286 1839 9721

The Wii with old Friend Code is no longer in my possession

Posted by: BAKup

Re: Wii - 20/12/2008 12:44

I've added everyone to my replacment Wii, here's the updated list, please add me back in with my new code.

l0ser 3936 1790 6273 8490
Dignan 2346 2852 4904 8562
drakino 3248 5534 2295 4054
msaeger 7010 4111 2461 3022
tonyc 6582 2420 7669 9428
ricin 3313 8584 0068 9980
adavidw 6940 1103 2809 4388
loren 1042 3358 6234 5595
visuvius 6427 6579 1576 5804
BAKup 3510 4286 1839 9721 <- New code
hybrid8 8513 0580 4643 5279
taym 1601 4701 0635 3562
wfaulk 8079 8810 6672 8054
tman 0559 1159 3698 8856 <-- UK Wii
FireFox31 7720 5423 9299 1644
'sein 1389 3277 4651 6779 <-- UK Wii
Waterman981 1471 8819 8399 9846

Mario Cart Wii Friend Codes:
BAKup 4468-4767-1054

Super Smash Bros. Brawl Friend Codes:
BAKup 2750-5075-0715

Animal Crossing City Folk Friend Codes:
BAKup 3308-8537-5862

Posted by: hybrid8

Re: Wii - 20/12/2008 15:17

My Wii was replaced during its last repair, so I'm not sure what my new code is. I'll have to update the thread once I have the chance to check it out.

I've also got Mario Cart, though I'm not that good at it.

Posted by: Waterman981

Re: Wii - 20/12/2008 17:13

I've added my Mario Kart Wii friend code below. Bruno, have you tried playing it with the nunchuck? I am so much better using that than the Wii Wheel!

l0ser 3936 1790 6273 8490
Dignan 2346 2852 4904 8562
drakino 3248 5534 2295 4054
msaeger 7010 4111 2461 3022
tonyc 6582 2420 7669 9428
ricin 3313 8584 0068 9980
adavidw 6940 1103 2809 4388
loren 1042 3358 6234 5595
visuvius 6427 6579 1576 5804
BAKup 3510 4286 1839 9721
taym 1601 4701 0635 3562
wfaulk 8079 8810 6672 8054
tman 0559 1159 3698 8856 <-- UK Wii
FireFox31 7720 5423 9299 1644
'sein 1389 3277 4651 6779 <-- UK Wii
Waterman981 1471 8819 8399 9846

Mario Cart Wii Friend Codes:
BAKup 4468-4767-1054
Waterman981 0946-5542-7684

Super Smash Bros. Brawl Friend Codes:
BAKup 2750-5075-0715

Animal Crossing City Folk Friend Codes:
BAKup 3308-8537-5862

Posted by: Dignan

Re: Wii - 20/12/2008 20:55

The nunchuck is the way to go, IMO. I hate the wheel. And the Wiimote alone is pretty bad too.

I haven't played Mario Kart in a while now. I'll have to find my code and maybe I'll see you folks on there sometime. I still prefer the previous Mario Kart, but the new one is fun too.

Posted by: BAKup

Re: Wii - 25/06/2009 18:59

If you have added me into you Wii with my *new* friend code, please PM me. Something's happened...Again...

Wii

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