I think it'll be more like in the Prime games how when you were near a pick-up it made a low humming sound.

The article said there is a ping sound. That seems more obvious. Prime made a humming sound? I'm so attentive.

Yeah it did, which to me seems more obvious than a ping, seeing as the hum was constant.

@romulux: Those are some pretty good impressions. I can't wait to try out this game's controls for myself, especially since they seem to get such mixed reactions.

Anybody get the poster from Nintendo Power?

I never noticed the humming in Prime

Yes, and it looks gorgeous! Glad I'm a subscriber!

Really? That surprises me...but I guess we all listen for different things.

The humming was great. It let you know when something was near, kind of...but you still had to zero in on it. It could be totally inaccessible from where you were, requiring a big circling-around in order to get to where the hum originated. It wasn't as simple as a hum in the left channel meaning you needed to turn left and shoot a missile. It did a good job, imho, of making the pickups findable, but not easy.

even more impressions, this time from just an average player who won a contest: http://aussie-nintendo.com/previews/23187/
for what it's worth, he absolutely loved the controls: "It feels exactly how any of the 2D Metroids feel when you are running down a corridor blasting the crap out of everything that jumps in your way." that's exactly what i was expecting from the videos we've seen so far. just running and gunning without aiming is how it usually went in super metroid and fusion, so i never thought auto aim would hurt much.

it's interesting to read something that's not from a professional reviewer for a change. and he makes it abundantly clear he's not professional with the last few sentences of his article... :/

@romulux: Great articles, thanks for linking them...

I did. It looks pretty neat! I'll put it up once I get the game.

You know, there really isn't all that big a hype for Metroid: Other M. It's not like we're all counting the days until its release. Because of that, I hope it gives us a very pleasant surprise.

Speak for yourself, man...

Also, what's this poster you guys speak of? Is it in the new NP? If so, I'm going to have to buy it...

It's not in the Newsttand Edition, MetroidFan. Only for subscribers.

Yeah, its gorgeous; both sides are really fantastic! As for what somebody said about "not counting the days"...I am more excited for this than I was Metroid Prime 3. With Prime 3, we knew what to expect...I feel like M:OM will be a surprise from start to finish.

Well, I didn't find the secrets that hard to find in Prime without noticing the hum. Anything bombable has a set pattern that stands out, making it way too easy to find. Not that everything required a bombed wall, but just as an example.

As for how so many of us missed the hum, a constant sound can fade in the background. A sudden "ping" should be really obvious since it's sudden. Of course, I haven't heard this ping, but I am familiar with pings in general, and to a lesser degree pongs as well.

Metroid: Other M Media Embargo Lifted!
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08.05.2010 - CapCom

Nintendo has lifted their media embargo for Metroid: Other M, giving us some brand new screenshots as well as allowing press who got to play the game this weekend to talk about their experiences. Though the version played was not a final build, play experiences are revealing many new things, including:

• Speed upgrades increase the rate of the charge beam.
• The game is mostly gameplay NOT cinematics. As in, an hour or more stretches without a single cutscene.
• That said, there will be small real-time cutscenes (similar to Prime), but these seem to be thinly placed.
• You cannot skip cutscenes.(Not sure about successive play-throughs though)
• You can dodge while in first person.
• Deactivating holographic generators reveals new areas to explore.
• The music seems to be mostly atmospheric, but should include lots of remixes.
• The auto-aim function can hit enemies from very far away, but missiles have a limited range.
• Samus turns slowly in first person.
• There will be sequences that can result in instant-death (such as one involving an elevator).
• There are both save points and continue points. Continue points occur more frequently, and usually right next to difficult sequences (such as the said elevator sequence).

While some of you might be as shocked as I initially was to learn about instant-death sequences, especially after those obnoxious pistons in Metroid Prime: Hunters, which made me hate that game even more. Thankfully, the generous inclusion of continue points should mean we don't have to play long stretches over and over again, so hopefully they won't be too bad. It also seems that surviving these sequences requires a little common sense (i.e. don't stand underneath a falling elevator - what did you think would happen!?).

I have to say though - I'm more excited to play this than ever!

More info

JEEZ, STILL AN EMPTY MAILBOX?

yes, that was a pleasant surprise, getting that poster in the mail from NP. I have never been this excited about a Metroid game before, as I've never been a huge fan of the series, but this looks like a day one buy.

What?! FFFFFFUUUUUUUU!

Would anyone be willing to part with theirs? Or at least take a picture of it and post it here?

It's good that the cutscenes won't dominate the game like we thought it would. Also, thank goodness for checkpoints.

And some of you might suspect me of setting low expectations for this game, but I'm doing anything but.

@Metroid_Fan one side looks like this

The other is this

Edit: But without ign on it.

The first one looks really weird. Looks like she has no neck and a giant left shoulder when she wears the power suit.