Wii U

[Ingmar]

You said "something comparable", which is not the same thing as what you're saying now.

[Margalis]

My experience is that people who pirate generally just pirate whatever they can because they can. The value of the thing being pirated is essentially irrelevant. I certainly don't see any evidence that people pirate things more as they decrease in value.

Looking at NSMBU is fantastic, like a koala crapped a rainbow into my eyeballs.

Box quote!

In general I find looking at the pad is basically the same as looking at the TV. Lower res but smaller screen, view distances, etc, ends up looking essentially the same in terms of overall image quality.

[Rokal]

So, hows the graphics? On TV and Handheld.

I've noticed that the gamepad looks a little blurry and has more visible jaggies compared to the same game on TV. It still looks good, but there is a noticeable difference. More obvious with 3D games like Nintendoland or Sonic Racing than with NSMB though.

I still do 90% of my Wii U gaming on the gamepad because being able to play a game while doing something else is worth the lower image quality. It's being sold as the perfect living room device for a family who might be competing over the same TV, but I ended up throwing it in the bedroom. It's a better web-browser than what I had on my smart phone and the ability to play real games with a comfortable controller or surf the web while watching TV before going to sleep is pretty great.

The e-shop is a real missed opportunity though. It should be loaded with old N64, SNES, and GBA/DS games for me to buy and play on the gamepad but instead it's got nothing. The Wii Shop still exists, but nothing you buy on there can be played on the gamepad.

Still, it has turned out pretty well for a system that I essentially bought just to play Monster Hunter on.

[dusematic]

To me complaining about the transfer process is a perfect example of the sort of fake outrage-of-the-day shit Neogaf is infested with.

It's not hard and Nintendo is basically the only company that let's you transfer content to begin with. 360 is not backwards compatible, PS3 backwards compatibility was quickly removed, there's no way to transfer PSP UMD games to Vita even though it's something Sony has the tech to offer, etc. Meanwhile not only is every recent Nintendo system backwards compatible with media but you can transfer digital content across them.

Yeah, I understand people would prefer to have a unified account with games linked to the account (e.g. Steam).  The problems are those you have noted, and the fact that piracy is a real thing that exists.  The DS was festooned with it.  It was absurdly easy to grab a flash card off the internet and then download every game ever made for the handheld for free/peanuts.  My brother actually brought me the means home from China.  I never utilized it because A) I'm opposed to piracy on ethical grounds, especially when I have the means to purchase the games if I so choose, and along with that, B) Having the means, the experience of just buying whatever gamer I want and playing it legitimately is easier than messing with flash cart downloads.  

I also don't really understand how people can simultaneously love a product (e.g. viideo games) and then become irate when companies (engaged in the business of making money, whose board members owe a fiduciary duty of loyalty to the shareholders to that effect) attempt to stem the theft of their product.  You don't see that in other industries.  People don't typically grow upset when Sears employs Loss Prevention Officers and installs cameras to stop shoplifters.  You also don't see people employ a tortured logic of "the theft of those products don't hurt the company's bottom line."  Or, even better, "Piracy actually helps software developers because of free advertising!"  Now, there are differences to be sure, one is a physical product and one is not (necessarily).    But, the biggest difference is probably the human brain which has a hard time wrapping its neurons around the morality of stealing a digital product.  That, and the general degradation of our society.

Still, as you say, the most befuddling thing about it is the very loud and public outrage involved.  I prefer a quiet sense of shame in my thieves.

DS piracy was so prevalent because the worth of the product plummeted.   Yes it was ridiculously easy to pirate but also DS was right when cellphones became the new handheld and why buy any game at $50 when something comparable is $1 on your iphone?  WiiU is addressing the handheld issue in a creative way but that old gameboy model of handhelds is simply outdated now, tbh the piracy of the ds probably kept it an active system longer than it would have normally.

Typically people steal things they want, which means those things have value (i.e. worth).  Also, shovelware aside, I'm not aware of any $1 cell phone games that offer the experience of top shelf DS software.  Angry Birds is no more sophisticated than one of a dozen minigames  included as a throwaway with the original NSMB for DS.  Your argument that people are stealing things because the value of those things is decreasing is without merit.  Supposing that were true, people would be less likely to pirate DS games, and more likely to buy cell phone games.

The idea that piracy kept the DS afloat is malarkey.  It honestly  sounds like the tortured  logic of someone trying to rationalize their own illicit behavior.  A system is active (i.e. supported) only inasmuch and insofar as it makes money.  Piracy does not contribute to the making of money (unless you're Blackbeard).

Hold on honey, someone on the internet is wrong.

If you think people only steal things you want then you are seriously uninformed about a topic you seem passionate about, namely internet piracy.  Quick rundown is that the ease with which one can pirate something online lends to people pirating things they would never desire to the extent of spending money.  Sure there's crossover into the popular and it's prevalent enough for people to lose money but it's not the majority.

You're also arguing that angry birds is not as sophisticated as a top shelf DS game well...no shit?  Now ask yourself how many people play angry birds or how much man hours have been spent on it VS any DS game made. It's not about quality, it's about how much fun and time we get out of our diversions.  Yes that $50 DS game has a huge team of developers, cutscenes and wonderfully crafted vistas but it all means jack shit if someone has just as much fun playing fucking farmville...welcome to the new age of gaming.

Couple things.

1.  I didn't say people only steal things they want.  What I said is that there is a strong correlation.  You said that people began stealing more on the DS because the value of the software plummeted.  I pointed out that was retarded.

2. I ain't really all that 'passionate' about piracy.  I also think directing your burps into someone else's face is wrong, and I feel at liberty to say it freely without fear I might start picketing your house at dinner time.

3. I refer you to Ingmar's comment above.

[Rendakor]

Get a room you two.

[Lakov_Sanite]

You said "something comparable", which is not the same thing as what you're saying now.

You're right, angry birds is wildly more popular than any DS game ever.

[Ingmar]

You said "something comparable", which is not the same thing as what you're saying now.

You're right, angry birds is wildly more popular than any DS game ever.

OK, so you were just trolling then. Good to know.

[DevilsAdvocate25]

Got an e-mail from Nintendo yesterday about their new promotion for the eshop.

As can be seen here, they will be selling a new virtual console title every month for 30 cents. This month it is Balloon Fight. I haven't tried it yet, but, based on what it says in the article, it is supposed to be part of the virtual console that won't be installed until Spring? So, does the game work? Or do we have to wait until the new virtual console thing is installed to find out? So confusing. I guess I could spare a quarter and a nickel to find out.

[dusematic]

I bought it for 30 cents.  Basically you just go into the eshop and click the big balloon fight banner.  After you purchase, download, and install the game, it will appear as any other app in the wii u os.  I presume the full launch of wii u virtual console will be a distinct storefront from the eshop but work similarly.

[KallDrexx]

Got an e-mail from Nintendo yesterday about their new promotion for the eshop.

As can be seen here, they will be selling a new virtual console title every month for 30 cents. This month it is Balloon Fight. I haven't tried it yet, but, based on what it says in the article, it is supposed to be part of the virtual console that won't be installed until Spring? So, does the game work? Or do we have to wait until the new virtual console thing is installed to find out? So confusing. I guess I could spare a quarter and a nickel to find out.

I think the spring update is that you can play VC games on the gamepad itself.  I believe you can play VC games on the TV now (though I haven't transferred my games over yet to try)

[dusematic]

Got an e-mail from Nintendo yesterday about their new promotion for the eshop.

As can be seen here, they will be selling a new virtual console title every month for 30 cents. This month it is Balloon Fight. I haven't tried it yet, but, based on what it says in the article, it is supposed to be part of the virtual console that won't be installed until Spring? So, does the game work? Or do we have to wait until the new virtual console thing is installed to find out? So confusing. I guess I could spare a quarter and a nickel to find out.

I think the spring update is that you can play VC games on the gamepad itself.  I believe you can play VC games on the TV now (though I haven't transferred my games over yet to try)

Not quite.  Right now, you have to go into "Wii Mode" to play VC games you downloaded on your Wii and transferred over.  There is no VC storefront for Wii U yet.  Currently there is one VC game available for Wii U, and that is Baloon Fight, and it is available on the Wii U eshop. 

As you say, the Wii U VC will launch in the spring supposedly, and all the games for it will be playable on the gamepad.  Balloon Fight is playable on the gamepad right now.

[KallDrexx]

ah didn't realize that, my bad.  I haven't had any inclination to play my VC games until I can play it on the gamepad, so I haven't tried.

[dusematic]

To download a wii u version of the vc games youll have to pay.  If you already bought the game on wii, they are charging a reduced fee of like a buck to get a wii u copy that has off tv gamepad capability.

[Yegolev]

Also the Wii Mode is awful.  It somehow looks worse than an actual Wii.

[dusematic]

Also the Wii Mode is awful.  It somehow looks worse than an actual Wii.

Yikes, I bought Last Story and Xenoblade Chronicles to play on Wii U.   Haven't played them yet (Xenoblade Chronicles is expensive as shit secondhand though).

[Margalis]

Make sure your TV is set to accept limited range HDMI signal. (Or whatever your TV calls it) If you don't you will have bad black levels and a washed-out look.

[Yegolev]

I'll see if I can set that, thanks.

[Trippy]

Got a Wii U last night. My first impressions are this thing is an Epic Fail of Epic Proportions (yes the Fail is that Epic).

The dual screen thing does not work with a TV and a hand held controller. Nintendo knows this which is why at times you'll see on the the TV, "Hey dumbass look at the GamePad" and at other times on the GamePad you'll see, "Hey dumbass look at the TV" (I may have made up the "dumbass" part). I have a DS Lite and a 3DS XL so I don't have an issue with dual screen gaming in general but the ergonomics of the Wii U GamePad with a TV are fundamentally flawed. Yes you can sort of get used to but it'll never work as well as the adjacent dual screen system on the DSes.

Other gripes:

You need a Wii Remote to launch the Wii game player even if the fucking game doesn't need a Wii Remote (i.e. it's playable with just a Wii Classic Controller). I don't have a Wii so that means I have to buy, borrow, or steal a Wii Remote Plus just to play Xenoblade Chronicles.

You can't use HDMI and output audio through the RCA outputs of an AV cable. This is even more fucked up than the Xbox 360 which blocks the HDMI port when you use the included AV cable with RCA audio outputs but you can either mod the plug or buy an AV cable without the fucking tab that blocks the HDMI port and get audio out of the AV port while using HDMI for video. The PS3 is the best of the three in this regard -- it has settings for independently controlling where the audio goes and the bundled AV cable doesn't have a cockblocking design. I had to order a special HDMI audio "extractor" box which will hopefully let me work around this problem.

Also there doesn't seem to be a way to mix and route all audio to a single source (console audio output or GamePad audio output). I understand that some games like ZombiU use both sources independently but it still would be nice to be able to have all the audio coming out of one place. My original attempt to workaround the above problem was to try and use just the GamePad for audio (through headphones for better quality) but that was a miserable failure.

The latest system update has not fixed the ridiculous Wii U menu switching delay like switching into the system settings. Assuming there are been 4 million systems sold so far and owners have spent an average of an extra 5 minutes waiting for fucking menus to display that's a third of a million people hours of human potential wasted waiting for fucking Wii U menus to display to date and will likely increase into millions of wasted people hours if Nintendo is too incompetent to fix this (which so far they seem to be).

[Yegolev]

Yikes!  Is this just for Xenoblade Chronicles?

[Trippy]

No, I'm also playing Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate.

[Yegolev]

Did some looking around.  I haven't come close to finishing Monster Hunter Tri, and since my Wii is dead I'd have to play it on the WiiU anyway... so, is MHUltimate worth it?

[Trippy]

This is my first Monster Hunter so I can't compare the graphics to Tri and I'm still in the tutorial so I haven't been able to use the new lock on targeting feature yet either.

[Trippy]

You need a Wii Remote to launch the Wii game player even if the fucking game doesn't need a Wii Remote (i.e. it's playable with just a Wii Classic Controller). I don't have a Wii so that means I have to buy, borrow, or steal a Wii Remote Plus just to play Xenoblade Chronicles.

Got a Wii Remote Plus controller (and Nunchuk) so now I can get into the Wii menu and load the game but Xenoblade isn't recognizing any of the buttons so I can't get past the start screen

Edit: Got it working. Remote has to be controller 1 for the game to recognize the controls (it was 2 cause the GamePad was 1 before I sync'd the Remote).

[dusematic]

Got a Wii U last night. My first impressions are this thing is an Epic Fail of Epic Proportions (yes the Fail is that Epic).

The dual screen thing does not work with a TV and a hand held controller. Nintendo knows this which is why at times you'll see on the the TV, "Hey dumbass look at the GamePad" and at other times on the GamePad you'll see, "Hey dumbass look at the TV" (I may have made up the "dumbass" part). I have a DS Lite and a 3DS XL so I don't have an issue with dual screen gaming in general but the ergonomics of the Wii U GamePad with a TV are fundamentally flawed. Yes you can sort of get used to but it'll never work as well as the adjacent dual screen system on the DSes.

To be fair, I've really only seen that on Nintendo Land which is supposed to be the new Wii Sports. Obviously it's just about impossible to look at both screens at once.  I think any unique gameplay comes from the asymmetry or the need to juggle concentration between the two screens.

As far as being an epic fail?  Yeah, maybe.  But only if you thought the touch screen was going to revolutionize gaming.  It's a neat gimmick, nothing more.  I think they needed to do something like this to differentiate themselves.  What, is Nintendo going to come out with a Nintendo Ultra with better specs than PS4?  That would be an even worse plan.

In the end it's an HD Nintendo console that comes with a shitty universal remote.  I use it to run Netflix and Amazon Prime. 

[schild]

I just saw this in a store for the first time (like, on display).

How stupid.

[dusematic]

I just saw this in a store for the first time (like, on display).

How stupid.

I just wanted to play some HD Nintendo games after skipping the Wii.

[Rasix]

[Yegolev]

Very appropriate.  Good job.

The nine-year-old gang likes the WiiU.  I'm fine with that.  I'll just keep playing with my hoop and stick.

[dusematic]

Schild has wanted Nintendo to fail since at least 2006 so he could have access to Nintendo software without the need to buy their hardware.  Can't fault the logic really but I'm less dogmatic.

[Trippy]

Nintendo's been on a downward slide since 2011 so unless they can pull a rabbit out of their hat with some sort of new system (not the Wii U) in the next year or so that reverses that they will become the next Sega.

[Yegolev]

A new system would be to not lock downloaded games to hardware and generally stop being dicks.

[schild]

Schild has wanted Nintendo to fail since at least 2006 so he could have access to Nintendo software without the need to buy their hardware.  Can't fault the logic really but I'm less dogmatic.

2006? September 29th, 1996. I've wanted Nintendo shit on other consoles since the N64 had giant cartridges and a crappy controller and the PS1 had already been out.

[dusematic]

Nintendo's been on a downward slide since 2011 so unless they can pull a rabbit out of their hat with some sort of new system (not the Wii U) in the next year or so that reverses that they will become the next Sega.

Doubtful.  3DS is doing fine.  And really, what did the GC sell?  26m?  Wii U can do that and Nintendo will be fine presumably.

[schild]

The GC didn't put Nintendo in a "fine" position though. The Wii did because it was previous gen cheap as shit tech and for some reason people were like 'HURRR DURRR I WANNA WAVE MY HANDS AROUND.'

[dusematic]

The GC didn't put Nintendo in a "fine" position though. The Wii did because it was previous gen cheap as shit tech and for some reason people were like 'HURRR DURRR I WANNA WAVE MY HANDS AROUND.'

But the Wii gave Nintendo a warchest.  And for all the talk about Nintendo losing money on each Wii U sold, that's apparently only after you factor in R&D.  It's not as if they're getting burnt on the materials cost.  Looks like they'll be able to carry on for some time yet.