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Ubisoft reveals seven launchish Wii titles

We don't know exactly when Wii will hit shelves, but we do have a confirmed list of Wii games from Ubisoft that will arrive in time for the console launch.  Once again, I thank Wii.IGN for being cool enough to get the interview with Laurent Detoc, President of Ubi North America.

• Red Steel (previously announced)


• Rayman Raving Rabbids (previously announced)


• FarCry


• Blazing Angels


• Open Season


• Monster 4x4: World Circuit


• GT Pro Series

You are probably wondering about that last one.  GT Pro Series is, per the article, and unreleased Japanese racer that Ubisoft plans to ship with an unannounced controller attachment.  My speculation about this is that it's either going to be a wheel, or it's going to suck.  I'm sure we will find out soon enough.

Getting more excited.  I'm such a tool of the hype. :sad_panda:

This is a really shitty lineup.

All I needed was FarCry to get me excited.  It's one of my favorite games.

FarCry?

What?

(http://jon.happyjoyfun.net/pics_fl/halfbaked/halfbaked4.jpg)

Dude, have you ever played FarCry.. on Wii?

It's true. On the other hand, Wii gets the new Zelda at launch, which alone makes it a better launch than either the PSP or XBox 360 managed.

Zelda will be on the GC also though. Launch title my balls.

Edit: I'll still buy one AND Zelda. But I'm not going to kid myself. I could buy the new Zelda (and play with a Wavebird no less) if the Wii didn't exist.

You should still be able to use a Wavebird on the Wii if you are so inclined.

What is open season?  Is it duck hunt with deer?

None of these games do much for me but a Wii is in my future.  Heck, if the launch lineup just had the Nintendo Sports game (tennis, baseball and one other that I can't remember) I would get one.

I have not owned a Nintendo system since the NES, but I have so bought into the hype.  I have a 34 inch tube TV in the living room that I don't know what to do with (the hi-def is in the bedroom) that I am just thrilled that someone is making a neat lo-def console.  Nintendo also makes the best party games (guitar hero being the exception).

That's some funny shit right there.

You should know that the way they play will be completely different, so much so that if every single bit of the game was exactly the same, there would still be a world of experiental difference. Far Cry and Red Steel on the Wiimote should make up for any other shitty titles.

Also, Open Season is probably a game based on that animation movie or something.

You are probably right, after a quick google of "ubisoft open season" reveals a cross-platform movie-license game.  It's a tad funny because Open Season a Sony film.

And, yes, it's a rather shitty list even if you assume Red Steel won't suck.  Might as well call it "Rayman and Some Other Shit".

I wouldn't call it a shitty list at all.

Blazing Angels was decent on the X-Box, and if they Wii-fy the controls, it could be a much better version than the current console version. Far Cry... it's a shooter with the Wiimote, which seems like a perfect match. GT Pro is a driving game, and assuming they use the same type of controls that the ExciteTruck game is using (use the Wiimote like a steering wheel), it could be a blast, same as the Monster 4x4. They won't be killer apps like Red Steel should be (fingers crossed) but they won't be shitty either. The only shitty parts of that list are the Rayman (not a platform fan) and Open Season.

so are you all just convinced by the previews that the wii controller will actually be good or was there some hands on testing by someone that I missed? I think it will be a plus but I am still skeptical and I definitely will not say that the controller will make most games better...

(http://i41.photobucket.com/albums/e257/superkensey/haemcopy.jpg)

HA HA, awesome.

About the Wiimote, I'll just say that I have never heard anyone complain about it after using it.

I think the fact that Haem and I have -- apparently -- opposing tastes in games, yet are both excited about Wii, is yet more anecdotal evidence of how great it will be.  I admit that I am willing to let WiiCry change my opinion on the console FPS but I am keeping my expectations low.

Cue Schild to pelt us with PSPs.

Ocelot, you are an ar-teest!

Yes, I'm pretty convinced. I've seen video, I've heard and read anecdotal evidence both from total strangers and people whose opinion I give credence to that the Wiimote does not suck. As a matter of fact, the worst report about the damn thing I've heard is it might possibly have been a little wee bit imprecise at E3. Everything else has either been positive or downright gushing. I'll be the first to admit if I'm wrong about the thing, but there just seems to be too much positive "buzz" for lack of a better word, about it. Nintendo can't pay that many people to fellate the thing. Sony could, not Nintendo.

The fact that of the 3 next-gen consoles, it's the only one to focus on GAMEPLAY over graphics just lends it more credibility. I'm happy with X-Box level graphics, and am not willing to pay a premium for more jigglies. But a new way to interface with a game? I'm all over that, especially when its retail price is in the realm of reason such as the Wii. 

So yes, call me convinced, or at least extremely hopeful. I've gone from an anti-Nintendite to a notch below fanboi. Giving me faith in a game development company should be unpossible.

You'd be wrong. This is a list of titles dumped onto a system with a new control scheme dropped on top. I very much want to play an FPS on the Wii. But I will not buy Far Cry again. And I've heard way too much bad about Red Steal to give a shit about that either.

I'm still of the opinion that Nintendo focused on gameplay over graphcis simply because it is what they could afford at the time. This system had to be in development for YEARS. Nonetheless to say the 360 isn't gameplay focused is just wrong. The controller is the Best Controller since the Dreamcast. XBL is the user friendliest thing I've ever seen in the gaming industry, not to mention the multiplayer is multitudes easier to enjoy than any shit on the PC (for Joe Six-Pack at least, I miss my server lists). And in an evil perversion of corporate justice, Microsoft's purchase of Rare, Silicon Knights, and a few other companies - as well as their stake in Mistwalker - seems like it has paid off. I'm not trying to one-up (hohoho) the Wii here with 360 claims, but the 360 is as focused on gameplay as the Wii is. The 360 just happens to use traditional gameplay with normal advances while the Wii uses generation old advancements with untraditional gameplay. That's fine. Different strokes.

The PS3 does all of these things as well. And it does them all badly.

Rounding the corners and putting a white skin on an old controller is not focusing on gameplay. It's iterating tech to fit with those trendy Ipods.

Can you link to the "way too much bad" you've heard about Red Steel? Because I haven't heard anything bad other than the goofiness of the French announcer at E3.

I never played Far Cry past the demo, so it's new to me. As for a new control scheme on old games? That's called a new game, since the control scheme really is 80% of the game.

Haem, you are a Nintendo fanboy, or at least a Wii fanboy.  Best to acknowledge that.

I remember reading something about Red Steel being unfun and being sent back to the drawing board due to that.  Not necessarily bad on its own, but the release date did not move.

It is less disappointing then Apple releasing a light-years-ahead of windows feature called system rest... i mean "Time Machine" (Dr. Evil quotes)

No links handy on the Red Steel thing, sorry.  Seems like it was around E3, which is outside my recovery window for memories (~ two weeks).  I might be able to find something but no guarantees.


Yeah, I just think you aren't a notch below, is all.  More like three notches above.  I had pretty much written off Nintendo as becoming a handheld-only company, although I still was something of a Nintendo-fag.  Now, I seem to be the local Wiivangelist.  They could still blow it, but now I'd give odds to them building market share in the console space.

I'm also reminded that it's probably great to have a large lineup of specious titles with a few AAA winners than just a few AAA winners alone.  Shitty people buy shitty games, and there are a lot of shitty people out there.





Shitty.

The 360 controller is an advance, I can't live without my damm center button.  It does not seem like much, but it opens up a lot of funtionality.

OK, try this terse hands-on (http://www.nintendowiifanboy.com/2006/05/15/wii-impressions-red-steel/) report from E3 that I found at NintendoWiiFanboy.com, in which David Hinkle is disappointed with the controls of Red Steel.  Not the article I read, but illustrative.  I atrribute this to the general unavailability of a controller for long-in-development games and do not forsee a trend in ballsucking FPS for Wii.

About the 360 controller, the most exciting advancement in Xbox technology, to me, is the sit-on-your-ass power button.

I think the best part is how the system knows how it is being positioned and changes the controller lights accordingly

Good enough. Being a pre-release on a not-finished console hardware without even a finished graphics chip, color me not surprised. I'm certainly hoping that they put some form of user-customizable sensitivity settings in either the hardware itself, or in each game that uses the controller.

But the game certainly has the room to improve between now and release. The graphics issues he mentioned mean nothing to me. The control issues are troubling, but not insurmountable. See, I have faith in gaming again, and that is just frightening.

As for the 360 controller, we have a power on button (good thing) and a center button (what does this do again)? The space between the X-Box and the 360 controller sounds small, while the space between the X-Box controller and motion-sensitive nunchuks and the Wiimote is pretty large.

The center button and the power button are the same thing.

Not only does it allow you to power up/down remotely it also alows you to read/send messages to friends at any time, and to set up chat sessions at any time, no matter what game you are playing.

You exit games and return to the X-Box live menu through it.

It also indicates what controller you are, and lets you know when the batteries are running out.

Not bad for a single button.

But none of all that usefulness really relates to how games play, just userfriendliness.

That would be true if that was the core of the next OS update. As it is, its blasted into insignificance by blue-screened iChat video backgrounds. Heh. Actually some of the updates are rather nice - DashCode is cool, and Core Animation is a big step forward. But most of all, its about doing old stuff (like system restore, graphical mail, virtual desktops, etc) in new ways with ease of use and style.

Anyhow... the term for a Wii fanboy is Wii Yin.

Wiibois wobble.

The Wiibois Wobble is the speech they use to justify some of the shitass releases announced for the system. For the other systems it's just normal. Like Haemish trying to justify Red Steel up there. That's some nasty Wiiboi Wobble.

What, I can't like the concept of Red Steel? Fuck that, a shooter where I can swing my controller like a sword? Longtime Jedi nerds wet themselves at the very concept. If it sucks, it sucks. Like all console launches, I've bought into the concept not the implementation. If the implementation is ass, it'll go into the shitter.

I can count at least 5 Wii release titles I'm interested in. I can't even manage 3 releases I'm interested in on either the 360 or the PS3.

Red Steel
Zelda
Wii Sports
Madden
Far Cry

That's not even counting the Virtual Console releases my wife will want. I'll take the label of Wiibois. Or Wii Yin, or whatever.

I don't even have anything to say with Far Cry and Madden on that list.

Edit: I'll probably be buying two Wiis on launch day. I will buy Wii Sports and Zelda and Trauma Center. I expect less fun from them than I got from King Kong (except for Zelda). You're not going to be swinging your sword like a jedi. You're going to be doing prepackaged (read: Canned) moves at a certain speed. Instead of pressing a button, you'll be moving your arm a bit. Wii Sports will be vastly superior. Hopefully. Maybe.

I fail to see how that's a bad thing.

You won't be able to do the swinging equivalant of spamming maybe?

/shrug


Also, Jedi Academy was the lightsaber game you were dreaming of. Too bad it's getting a little old now.

[edit]

Or was that Jedi Knight 2? I forget.

As long as there is enough variety in the "canned" moves and the control is responsive enough, I don't see the problem either.  What do you want, complete freedom of movement with a lightsaber?  As appealing as that might sound on the surface, it probably means that the AI Darth Vader is going to liquify your ass.

There is a much bigger problem, in my opinion.  My wife already thinks I'm a big enough of a dork.  I can only imagine what she'll think the first time I power up my virtual saber and put it through the infinity loop, only to drop it on the floor whilst tripping over the ottoman.

Strange. Why do you think that? Restrictions to movement are generally meant to put you at a disadvantage.

Besides, there is no such thing as an AI Darth Vader. Not yet at least.

The example was an invented one.  I'll try to explain what I meant though:  Let's just assume that whatever game we are talking about involves the player being forced into lightsaber duels with really proficient bad guy AI.  In order for these to be any fun at all, there going to be some relatively quick pacing.  Attacking, blocking, parrying and whatnot at relatively high speeds.  Your opponent Jedi/Sith type going to need to be reasonably good at all this, otherwise there won't be any fun to have whatsoever.

Now imagine yourself as the player, whose on screen lightsaber precisely mimics your every action (assuming that the control is perfect).   In the absence of "canned" moves, you are really going to be dependent on your actual skills as a swordsman.   Problem is, you don't have any such skills.   You are going to be a spastic hurricane.  Your AI opponent will either "realistically" block and parry all of your sad attempts (unlike you, he is skilled), or you are going to hack him to pieces as a result of your spazziness.  Neither of these possibilities sound particularly fun.  The reverse is also true, where your level-headed, professional swordsman AI bad guy is going to level precise strikes in the direction of your vital organs.  Either it will be so slow as to allow you to reasonably block the attack (not fun), or you are going to get impaled 7 times out of 10 (also not fun).

I would love to be wrong.  Just seems like some restraints will be necessary.

Yeah, a lot of what I read here these days has me saying that.

"Seems like some restraints will be neccesary."

You're right, game devs haven't a clue how to balance AI wth input controls to make difficulty settings sensible.

Things they can do to make the game fun might include slowing down the responsiveness of the sword, make damage relative to speed (fast = less damage), enable certain types of combo maneuvers (left swipe + chop = super spin sunshine move), map control movements to certain maneuvers instead of direct sword control, give hefty bonuses to good defense (meaning, spaz movements are unlikely to defend yourself, which means heavy damage), have moves cost stamina (spaz = tired), and so forth.  I'm sure a dev could add another dozen ideas.

The hard part isn't what to do with the controller, it's getting the damn thing to work to begin with.  So long as Nintendo does their job well in getting the functionality of the control where it needs to be, and have the SDK support the needs of game devs and make development of this control easy, things should be fine.  Some games will suck with it, but some games just suck.

I assume this is meant as sarcasm, which is odd, being that I completely agree with you.

So let's say that Red Steel or theoretical light saber game or whatever has pre-programmed movements you must do. Why do I fail to see that as a bad thing?

Because if it was on a controller, I'd have to go through pre-programmed movements, only I'd do it with my thumb on an analog stick (or pair of sticks). I'm not so good with my thumbs, which is why first-person shooters on consoles are so hard. Imprecise is the exact word I'd use to describe those motions.

Though not a master swordsman, or much more than a Star Wars Nerd without the video camera, my body does at least intuitively understand the motions. It knows how to point a gun, or swing a sword. That's the beauty of a motion-sensitive control scheme. Sure, there's going to be pre-programmed motions I have to follow, but so what? It isn't like current controllers are any different in that respect. The difference comes in that IF the developer does a good job with both the hardware and the software, the motions should feel more intuitive, and thus more immersive.

And besides, if there was absolutely no restraint on movement with say the sword interface, I'm sure the character would either chop his own leg off (like I'd probably do with a real sword and no training) or not feel as immersive because of my flailing, nerdy awkwardness.

It all comes down to execution. Saying "you'll go through pre-programmed motions" is just being negative, just like saying "Red Steel with be teh awesomest" is being a fanbois. I'm prepared for the Wii to suck it, I'm just hopeful that it won't.

The innovation in video games isn't going to come in the form of graphical improvements, bigger storage devices or online play. It's going to be in interfaces between man and machine.

RE: Trauma Center, Lost Magic.

I'm pretty sure no one here is going to argue that the control schemes used in these games were superior to the alternative of simply using buttons and a d-pad.

The important bit is that you would not see a game like Trauma Center without the particular control interface.  Some games are not going to work well with the Wiimote for exactly the same reason that a console FPS sucks donkey cock: the gametype isn't matched well with the controller.  The Wii launch titles don't worry me because I expect them to use the Wiimote as effectively as the first analog-stick-using games, at best.  I say at best because there was at least a predecessor to the analog stick, while there isn't any sort of precursor to the Wiimote.  Maybe the DS touch screen, if you stretch.

The thing that I (and Haem if I might speak for him) am excited about is the way this thing could spawn entirely new game genres.  Basball, tennis and swordfighting are the easy ideas.  If nothing else, it should let someone make a real RTS and FPS for your living room.  The crazy thing is that Madden seems to be well-suited to this interface, which is something that I really hadn't thought of.  I later thought that the Wiimote might serve as a steering wheel for driving games, which would get me out of having to buy and -- even worse -- use a steering wheel to play a racing simulator.  This sort of unknown territory is terribly exciting, while I pretty much know what I'm going to see in any given game for 360, PS3 or -- to a large extent -- PC.

I agree with you, but....Halotards.

Meh, no different than WoWtards, RaidTards, Squeenitards, etc.

Are you calling me a Wiitard?

Wiiron.

ComPLETELY different. Halotards use the worst tool for the job. They use a hammer to vacuum the carpeting. Meanwhile WoWtards, etc. use a keyboard to plan an MMOG.