Nintendo: Project Cafe - Wii U

[Czernobog]

So I saw the hands-on video on Kotaku Ack and a few others had linked to and it has eased my concern about comfort considerably. Of course I won't know for certain until I hold it in my hands, but if it's as light-weight as they make it out to be, I doubt I'll have any issues.

I'm not terribly excited about the Wii U (don't get me wrong I own every major Nintendo console and dig them - I'm just not feeling much anticipation for this one yet), but I am intrigued to see what developers do. There's a ton of different ways to use the controllers screen to interact with the primary image that I'm sure many of us are pondering whether or not we'll see.

As for the exclusives you guys are talking about, well all the systems have some great exclusives right now, but I do think the Wii has the most by a long shot, especially for retro gamers as many of you have pointed out. I own all the current systems sans the 3DS because I'm a cheapskate and enjoy exclusives on each one.

@Niode, I'm not foolish enough to put my dick in the PS3. It was embarrassing enough to have to go to the hospital to get the Dreamcast removed and she was a much better lover. (She wasn't nearly as broken in!)

[Bootaaay]

Some new Ubi titles just got announced at the Ubi/Nintendo Q&A event - a new Assassin's Creed (they aren't sure whether it will be a sequel or a spin-off), they talked more about Ghost Recon, said there'd be another Rabbid's game for Wii U and a new multi-sports game.

Also, they showed off an interesting FPS with unique sounding multiplayer from UbiSoft Montreal;

Killer Freaks from Outer Space

In 2012, the world is going down the drain, fast...

Reams of alien ships have crashed into our planet, and these big wads of diseased, planet-eating, phlegm are spawning hordes of insanely vicious killers! The dangerous and degenerate creatures from outer space we call FREAKS seek to eradicate the human species with single-minded fury.

You're a survivor; a winner -- humanity's only freaking hope! Those raunchy aliens missed their chance to put you and your buddies down. And now you're going to make them regret it -- one slimy alien body-part at a time!

Immerse yourself in this psychotic, arcade-style, 4-player co-op shooter; and just try and keep your head...

Screens;









CGI trailer on official website;

http://www.alien-conspiracy.com/

Info pinched from NeoGAF, thanks to othersteve;

Ubisoft Montpellier -- "Killer Freaks from Outer Space"

• Exclusive for the Wii U
• "Redefining FPS Competitive Multiplayer"
• Little goofy looking alien things eating a human arm; Saw gun slices them apart.

• STORY
• A big wad of pulsating pus has travelled through space and time and has now arrived in London. It is spawning hordes of evil, nasty, flesh-eating freaks. There are a wide variety of said freaks, but the only ones shown today were the little ankle-biting (quite literally) annoying little freaks.
• No one listened to you as you frantically prepared in your paranoia for this inevitable alien war

• CONTROLS
• This is what brings the FPS to the next level.
• Darren Boyd (?) main character. You are a bit obsessed with shooting things, and with all these aliens, it's sort of open season for you.
• Control is slightly buggy in this early state
• He is playing directly on the new Wii U controller screen using the gyro controls. Every movement he makes in real life is translated to the game.
• Looks like it may be tiring. "Spatial gameplay." Clearly this requires a decent amount of radial open space, sort of like with Kinect or the 3DS AR stuff.
• "More Immersion through controls."
• Accelerometer feature moves the character much faster if your movements indicate the need to do so automatically. This makes 180-degree turns much more reasonable.
• Jetpack + guns, controllable only because of the new controller's flexibility in design.
• Two aliens kinkily spanking one another in the back of one building, lol.
• A new way of playing FPS. More accuracy when needed and more immersion.

• MULTIPLAYER
• Now, we will see another way to play.
• 1 vs 1, local multiplayer
• One of the two showcasers is playing with a Classic Controller.
• "Real-time enemy director"
• Player 1 is playing a classic FPS game style. Nothing's there for him to shoot, however, until player 2 moves around in a top-down view of the battlefield (zooming in and out, etc.)--who plays as an alien commander--sets out to eradicate the human race by placing hordes of enemies to try and stop the player. Select a freak on the left side of the screen and set it to send it at the opponent. As Player 1 deals with the chaos Player 2 has created, 2 can watch all of the action from his top-down tactical perspective.
• Deeper -- New fun with the new controller (gyro, accelerometer); spatial gameplay
• Wider -- Real-Time Enemy Director (RED) system

[NeverGoBak]

So I saw the hands-on video on Kotaku Ack and a few others had linked to and it has eased my concern about comfort considerably. Of course I won't know for certain until I hold it in my hands, but if it's as light-weight as they make it out to be, I doubt I'll have any issues.

I'm not terribly excited about the Wii U (don't get me wrong I own every major Nintendo console and dig them - I'm just not feeling much anticipation for this one yet), but I am intrigued to see what developers do. There's a ton of different ways to use the controllers screen to interact with the primary image that I'm sure many of us are pondering whether or not we'll see.

As for the exclusives you guys are talking about, well all the systems have some great exclusives right now, but I do think the Wii has the most by a long shot, especially for retro gamers as many of you have pointed out. I own all the current systems sans the 3DS because I'm a cheapskate and enjoy exclusives on each one.

@Niode, I'm not foolish enough to put my dick in the PS3. It was embarrassing enough to have to go to the hospital to get the Dreamcast removed and she was a much better lover. (She wasn't nearly as broken in!)

And the games should all get dirt cheap when the Wii U comes out .

[s1mplehumar]

Not sure if this has been mentioned yet, but OMG!!!

http://www.joystiq.com/2011/06/08/farew ... nd-friend/

[Niode]

Not sure if this has been mentioned yet, but OMG!!!

http://www.joystiq.com/2011/06/08/farew ... nd-friend/

Queue the entire gaming community breathing a collective sigh of relief.

Aaahhhhhhhhhhhh. Much better.

[Curlypaul]

Odd that Nintendo wouldnt confirm it, but they would be crazy not to. I dont really like online play, but its def better if you can communicate with the other people and even play a fully featured game with a stranger. I'm 33 for fucks sake, I think I can play a bit of Goldeneye without ending up dead in a ditch somewhere.

[equalsign]

Not sure if this has been mentioned yet, but OMG!!!

http://www.joystiq.com/2011/06/08/farew ... nd-friend/

Queue the entire gaming community breathing a collective sigh of relief.

Aaahhhhhhhhhhhh. Much better.

Did you read the update ?

[dsheinem]

I know Kotaku isn't everyone's cup of tea around here, but Ashcraft's editorial seems like interesting food for thought:

The Wii U Might Be Too Little, Too Late

Brian Ashcraft — In 2005, Nintendo showed off the controller for its then-upcoming home console at the Tokyo Game Show. The console was still codenamed the Revolution, and the motion controller was nothing short of just that. The debut blew people's minds. You could feel it in the room.

For the first several years of this console generation, Nintendo dominated. Back in 2005, Nintendo stressed how it was going to let Sony and Microsoft duke it in the HD area. The Wii, and Nintendo, wanted to have fun.

That initial Wii Remote trailer showed all the amazing things you could do with the Wii Remote—stuff I'd never seen a home console controller do. The concept was easy to grasp, and easily copied by rivals (even if the promise of that initial trailer wasn't actually met until Nintendo finally released a more accurate Wii Remote).

Wii games were never as interactive as that initial trailer promised—we never jumped behind sofas. The console ended up with a heavy casual game focus, and there was poor third party support—both of which Nintendo hopes to rectify with the Wii U. And we still haven't gotten that lime green Wii console. The Wii has been a mixed bag: sometimes brilliant, sometimes less so, rarely consistent.

This week, Nintendo unveiled its latest controller for the forthcoming console now officially known as the Wii U. The console addresses gripes that have developed over this console generation, namely the Wii's lack of HD graphics. The concept is a little harder for the general public to grasp, and the addition of a second screen will both simplify and complicate things.

The whole concept of the Wii was that players could enjoy something with their family and friends. The Wii U continues that, but adds the idea that here's something you can do by yourself. This is the "U" part of Wii U. So while your family is watching television, you can play a console video game. Alone. Neat, sure, but it's not on message for what Nintendo's been saying for the past five or six years.

With that touch screen, the Wii U will provide new gaming experiences, and don't be surprised if rival hardware makers release similar products of their own. They've done it in the past. The PS Vita offers a somewhat similar experience, but If Sony and Microsoft release game controllers with touch screens, that will undercut Nintendo's novelty factor. But as long as Nintendo churns out Mario and Zelda games, that doesn't matter. If Sony and Microsoft do not release controllers with touch screens, that could actually encourage developers not to support the feature to its fullest. The second screen element makes Wii U game development more complicated and more expensive.

The Wii U is a hi-def game console. The trailer Nintendo showed of third party games were, more or less, target renders. Since developers are just getting to work on Wii U titles, Nintendo used footage of PS3 and Xbox 360 games.

It's a ballpark. The end product might be better than current gen titles, but without finished product, it's impossible to judge how much better. The Wii U does put Nintendo on a level playing field with Sony and Microsoft, meaning that titles released for the Xbox 360 and PS3 can also appear on the Wii U.

It also puts Nintendo in an awkward position. The Wii, released in 2006, is the first console of this generation to get a successor. Nintendo stated that the Wii isn't going away, meaning that the company will probably support both the Wii and the Wii U (at least for the immediate future). Combined with the DSi and 3DS, this means Nintendo will be supporting four different hardware platforms at once. Four!

It also means that the Wii U won't be launching against new, rival hardware. Sony and Microsoft, while no doubt working on new hardware, have given no indications that they'll be ready to launch new consoles in 2012. That's probably smart. Next year is looking to be a bad year to launch new hardware, with only this year being worse.

The U.S. economy remains sluggish. As the government attempts to tackle the national debt, the mood in the U.S. is encouraging people to save money, not spend it. And the Wii U won't be as cheap as the Wii.

"I don't think we can charge the same price as we currently do for the Wii," Nintendo president Satoru Iwata told Japan's Nikkei Newspaper. The Wii is currently priced at under ¥20,000 (US$250) in Japan.

The Wii launched at ¥25,000 in Japan, and $249.99 in the U.S. This is the same price at which Nintendo recently launched its DS successor, the 3DS. Unless the 3DS gets a price cut, it's doubtful Nintendo will launch the Wii U for $249.99. Retailing from ¥30,000 (US$299.99) is more realistic, but the Wii U, with its fancy touch-screen controller, could be even more expensive.

In 2011, ¥30,000 isn't US$299.99. It's $375. Try launching the Wii U in the U.S. for that price.

The value of the American dollar has cratered since the original Wii launched, cutting into Nintendo's profits in the U.S., the world's biggest video game market. Internally, Nintendo is attempting to negate the effects of the strong yen. The yen might dip later this year—it also might continue to remain strong.

Worried about jobs and the future, Americans are less likely to shell out for a hi-def game system—when they might already have an Xbox 360 or PS3. And when the new Xbox and new PlayStation finally do launch, the Wii U will already be a few years old, meaning it could be out of step for future improvements in video game graphics, once again putting Nintendo behind the curve in console horsepower.

Nintendo will argue that its new console is future-proof, that it can render graphics that can compete with upcoming console, or maybe even, like before, that graphics ultimately aren't everything. They aren't, but they are important, because if Sony and Microsoft begin playing at a higher level, that could mean Nintendo will once again miss out on multiplatform titles or get lower res versions of them.

The new controller is interesting, sure, but is it compelling like the original Wii Remote was back in 2005? Does it cause the same buzz? Is the excitement there? For someone who still feels slightly burned on the Wii, I'd say, no.

[Flake]

Lol, a postmortem for something that hasn't even happened yet. Excellent.

[dsheinem]

Lol, a postmortem for something that hasn't even happened yet. Excellent.

It's not a postmortem so much as a consideration of the console in and against the current gaming and economic landscape. Given what we know, it seems pretty on point to me...