Wheels2050

@SilverBullet89: If you actually believe that, well, I don't know what to say.

At least I know to disregard your opinion in future!

@SilverBullet89: No, there's absolutely no reason at all whatsoever to buy a 360. Oh, wait, what's this?:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_video_games_exclusives_(seventh_generation)#Microsoft_Xbox_360http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Xbox_Live_Arcade_games

Nah, never mind, absolutely nothing anyone could possibly ever enjoy on there.

/sarcasm

I like Super Mario Kart, but unfortunately (for it's sake, not for the series') these days I feel it's been surpassed by later entries. I never played it back in the day so that's probably got something to do with it - I only played it after playing the more fleshed-out 64 version.

Mario Kart DS is fantastic - I don't really think you can go wrong with a handheld MK game as good as this. I haven't sunk a huge amount of time into it yet, but I'm sure I'll be playing it for years.

The only other one I've played is Wii, which I really enjoy. The somewhat random nature of the power ups can be frustrating and has, on more than one occasion, prevented me from winning when I'm just about to cross the finish line, but if you approach it just as some maniacal fun rather than a serious racer I think it really delivers.

Shantae: Risky's Revenge. Should easily be able to finish it off this weekend, then it's just a matter of deciding which game to start next! I'm thinking maybe Layton: Pandora's Box, but I'll decide for sure when I get to it.

For a long time I've spent more time reading about games than playing them, so it's nice to finally be working my way through some of them!

@antdickens: I'm not worried about the absolute graphical power of the Wii U. I'm saying that if the Wii U's capabilities aren't comparable to those of the next XBox and PS consoles, then multiplatform games will likely simply skip the Wii U.

I'm worried about the power of the Wii U in a relative, not objective, sense.

@Scollurio: That's a big 'if'. I really hope for Nintendo's sake they've future-proofed the Wii U enough that it can keep pace with the next PS and XBox - it doesn't necessarily have to be as good as them, but close enough that a Wii U port doesn't require intense reprogramming. If the latter ends up being the case Nintendo will be back to the position they were in with the Wii - either ports don't happen because they're too much effort, or the Wii U ends up with a shoddy, half-hearted effort that's probably not worth playing.

"Graphics alone do not a game make," sure, but an underpowered console can mean NO games.

I really like the idea of programming for the old systems, needing to pay strict attention to their limitations. These days there's so much computing power available that it's fairly trivial to make decent graphics (although the really fancy engines obviously require detailed knowledge).

I really like the stories of people figuring out really obscure methods of increasing rendering speeds by playing tricks with memory usage and stuff like that. Back in the day, it pretty much took a genius to figure out the ins and outs of a system and develop amazing tricks to squeeze as much as possible out of a system. These days even I can program a game that runs great!

Good on him! After watching the King of Kong, I greatly admire the dedication it takes to get this good at the game. Can't say I'd want to do it myself, but I find it amazing that people can remain so disciplined!

Hmm, VectorRacing looks interesting, at least aesthetically (I like vector graphics). I don't have a 3DS, but I'll still be interested to read a review!

@Ren: right on. Not to mention that phones, for most people, aren't an optional purchase - most people have one anyway, so the barrier to entry for mobile gaming is very low. It's pretty common to get some sort of smart phone included in a monthly plan these days, and so people end up with a gaming-capable device as a result. There's no need to go and spend another $200 on yet another device that, for many people, won't offer anything over their phone.

@Knuckles: re-read my post.

@GameCube: I know the reason for having an in-store promotion, I just don't want to actually go in-store to get it. There's approximately zero chance of me buying anything while I'm in there, so it's not like GS is losing out if I can do it from the car park.

@OlympicCho: I'm not talking about a rivalry with Apple, though - that would be pointless, and in any case not comparing apples with apples (sorry). I'm simply saying that with 20 million console sales, the 3DS is, objectively, not a failure and shows that there is still a market for dedicated handhelds. It's (now) turning a profit for Nintendo, which proves that handhelds still have a justified place in the market, even if that market share may be shrinking.

I'd wager that in 5 or 10 years they may be an extinct species, but for now they're doing OK.

Oooh, schmexy. Looking forward to grabbing a copy!

@OlympicCho: While I'm not qualified to comment on the depth of games on mobile platforms (I've played very few games on them), the sales numbers of the 3DS speak for themselves.

I'm absolutely certain that there are people who bought a DS back before smartphones became prevalent but have skipped a 3DS because their phone now offers what they want from portable gaming, but there are many people still buying 3DSs - that can't be argued with. As such, Nintendo's strategy is still working, at least for the time being, regardless of Iwata's views.

Having said that, it'll be interesting to see the final sales figures for the 3DS. My guess is that it won't reach anywhere near DS figures.

While fortunately I'm currently in the US (Australia misses out on a lot of event Pokemon) I'd prefer to be able to access the event through wifi. I'm hoping I can just park my car outside Gamestop and grab the Pokemon - I really don't feel like going into the shop to do it!

Still, it's an event Pokemon which is nice

@Klyo: I'd agree if Nintendo had an account-based system for digital purchases. Until they can implement one, retail is the far better option in my opinion.

I keep saying this, but I think the main point of convenience of digital games is that you can enjoy them when- and wherever you wish. If your game is locked to a single console with no easy way to transfer to another one (let's hope you don't lose it or have it stolen or break) then the most attractive part, at least for me, of having a digital copy is gone.

If Nintendo seriously wants to push digital distribution (DD) they need to make it attractive - currently, with more expensive games and arguably worse convenience, they're not doing enough. I think once they implement an account-based system then that will push many people over the edge to DD but speaking as someone who has been buying retail games for many years, I'm not willing to give up owning a physical copy (I enjoy the artwork etc.) in order to buy a more expensive, more limited version of a game.

Haha yeah I was pretty happy when I saw this on the weekend. Amazon didn't even have any pictures up of HH yet when it reached the top of the charts.

I'm looking forward to getting it. At $21 it's a steal.

@SteveW: Did you even read his post, or get so offended by the first few words that you missed his point entirely on your rush to the comment box?

@Ryno: But the Wii sold bucketloads, and the third party support wasn't great. I can't deny that there were some fantastic games on the Wii, but the third party support paled in comparison to the 360 and PS3.

The problem is, though, and many have raised this point in the past, that if the Wii U is far out of step with the next gen Sony and MS consoles then devs will be less likely to bother making Wii U ports of their games. Once again, Wii U owners will miss out on a bunch of third party games.

The reality of the situation is that if the Wii U can't compete with the other next gen consoles it'll have a very difficult time. Games devs are only becoming more risk-averse, and they're not going to spend time developing exclusives for the Wii U when they can potentially triple their audience by developing multiplatform titles for the PC and next XBox/PS.

If I was a potential Wii U owner, I'd be worried.

Neat! I like it a lot.

Looks good. I'm yet to really play any LoZ games, but plan on doing so in the near future, and I'm a sucker for this type of thing. I think I'll snatch it up once it's released!

@hydeks: Plus, for collectors, this is the type of thing that may become quite valuable down the track due to its uniqueness.

I considered getting it just to have but, alas, finances foiled that plan!

Still lacking account-based purchases. This is a major problem, and I imagine that it's preventing sales to some degree.

Where did you manage to scrounge up a sealed copy of a GBC game?

I'm assuming it would be a European celebrity, given it's NoE?

Having said that, I've still got no idea. I'm not up with celebrities these days - I should ask my wife!

Wow, that's a fair few releases still to come for the DS (though, granted, I assume many of them probably don't warrant a purchase.)

I think I've got about 5 more DS games I want to get before I'm done, including Pokemon Black 2 and Adventure Time. Hopefully I don't end up adding too many more to my list!

@Kirk: You do realise that Nintendo needs to make their money back from the actual development of the game, right? There's a whole team of artists, programmers, designers, producers, musicians etc. that need to be paid a wage in order for the game to be released. I seriously doubt that 5 pounds would get Nintendo their money back, let alone make a profit.

Fact is, video games are only getting more expensive to make as platform capabilities constantly increase and consumer expectations rise. It's only due to a massive expansion in the market that the price per unit has come down (taking into account inflation).

I remember having to pay about $90 AUD for a brand new PC game back around 2000. If I plug that into the Reserve Bank of Australia's inflation calculator (http://www.rba.gov.au/calculator/annualDecimal.html) then that tells me the same game should cost about $125 AUD now. However, brand new PC games still only cost about $90 new, despite the huge amount of money that's poured into development.

Constantly wanting better, more involved games and paying less for them simply isn't sustainable. I know that as a consumer it's nice to get things cheap, but I've been gaming for a long time now and I've seen far too many excellent developers go bust or be swallowed up by the big publishers because, despite making great games, they were constantly juggling funding and desperately trying to get their next game out the door in order to pay employees, who in some cases would work for several weeks for free just to finish off a game.

It's insane, and leads to the homogenisation of the gaming industry that has become apparent over the last 5-10 years. I look back at the late 90s and early 2000s PC scene, which I consider the golden age of PC gaming, and I remember a lot of innovation and cool ideas that simply don't come from the big publishers any more. Fortunately indie developers have been the saving grace for PC gaming in the last 5 years or so, as the big pubs don't seem to care about the platform.

Anyway, that ended up being longer than I intended. Long story short - if you want cheaper games, that's fine, but be careful what you wish for.

I don't think that an extra 10 pounds is good value since one of the major benefits of digital downloads - namely, an account system allowing the easy playing of games on multiple systems - is not implemented for the 3DS yet.

Once that is organised, I think the value of eShop purchases will be increased greatly. Until that point, though, I'd stick to retail to avoid losing a system's worth of games (not to mention the console itself) should anything untoward happen to my console.

Hmm, my wife works at Best Buy. I should ask her about it!

@Peppy: I'd assume that they sat the tablet next to the TV and filmed both with a very high frame rate camera. Analysing it later by figuring out the frames at which a given image appeared on the TV and the tablet then gives you the lag.

Hmm, I've played enough online games to understand the difference a 'tiny delay' can make - hopefully this isn't a sign of things to come!

@Beta: Light takes about 3ns (3 billionths of a second) to travel 1 metre. You're going to run out into signal strength issues WAY before you run into noticeable delays in the signal transit time.

It's more incredulity than being nasty. I can't believe that people, with the entire internet at their fingertips (and not to mention a link to a page DESCRIBING THE GAME IN QUESTION being provided) that people can't use their initiative in order to figure stuff out themselves.

@C-Olimar - are you serious? There's a link, like, right there. You could click that, but you spend the time to write a comment here asking others?

@Viceroy: Really? Do you mean at launch, or in general? I've never bought a Steam game at launch, but I don't have too many problems with downloading at other times. Have you set it to pick a nearby server?

Hmm. I'd always assumed that textures like that would be created in very high resolution, and then scaled down to suit the capabilities of the system in question - in which case this would simply be a matter of using differently-scaled assets.

Feel free to prove me wrong. I do think it's somewhat hilarious to point out that a better looking pitch and crowd are nice new features of the Wii U version (although, in all honesty, he's got a point about staring at the pitch for hours on end)

Remember that there are two factors involved here - the client-side connection, and the server-side connection (and everything in between, but generally that's not too slow.) The problem could have either been at Nintendo's end or Siliconera's end.

However, it doesn't look like Siliconera repeated the test. This could have just happened to be a particularly slow test. Also, Nintendo may be rolling out a greater number of servers come release day and that would serve to reduce download times. It may be that Siliconera was downloading from the sole, wheezing server that Nintendo has set up for the time being.

I dunno, but there are many reasons why this could have been particularly slow (it should really take 10-20 minutes on a reasonable broadband connection.) I wouldn't get too worked up about it until release day, when we can see what kind of infrastructure Nintendo has set up to meet demand. If it's still bad then, then maybe start getting worried.

I like the layout, but I'm not a big fan of the colours. (Assuming this is real.)

Surely it'd be better to pick some neutral colours for the banner rather than something like this - it's going to lead to some horribly clashing cover art.

Does it come with any special extras? After the highly limited HMV edition of the 3DS XL that came with a second circle pad, I feel they're really letting people down if the Wii U they're selling doesn't come with an upgraded CPU or graphics card.

Notice that it's "up to" ten years.

Given that some games like Ultima Online and Everquest still draw crowds more than 10 years after they debuted, it wouldn't be unheard of for DQX to do the same. It really relies on having a solid game and a good community. It'll be interesting to see what happens.

I've played plenty of games online on PC (including Battlefield and CoD), and I can't remember ever hearing anybody shouting and screaming and swearing. I don't know if it's just an Xbox Live thing, or a USA thing, but it's not something I've ever really come across. Maybe that's an advantage of dedicated servers and me just having picked good ones.

Anyway, as a 26 year old non-parent, I agree with the enforcement of age rankings. There's some grey area with parental supervision (i.e. some kids can certainly play 18+ games at, say, 16, but it's up to the parents to gauge whether their kids should be playing them) but those ratings are there for a reason. As others have mentioned, in the end I feel it simply comes down to keeping an eye on what your kids are doing, and making sure they're using computers/consoles appropriately for their age.

I don't know what it's like in the UK, but I imagine Pokemon Conquest would be charting better in the US if they hadn't severely underestimated demand! I can't find copies in my local stores and it's tough to find online for $30 - most people have been selling it for $45-50.

Fortunately Amazon looks like they're getting more in, but they have a 2-3 week waiting period at the moment.

I think the XL has its place, as did the DSi XL. Personally, I rarely take my games with me, and if I do it's a DS Lite. At home on the couch I play a DSi XL, where portability isn't a concern and I prefer the larger console.

I know not everyone has 2 consoles, but my point is that there may well be a significant number of people who don't take their 3DS with them, and so not requiring portability means that the XL is an attractive purchase.

Cue complaints about the rewards in other countries...

It's not enough at this stage. A lack of account-based purchases means that one of the major advantages of digital purchases is absent. That pretty much leaves not having to swap cartridges (and perhaps go to the store, if you directly download from the eShop) which IMO isn't that big a deal.

If they had account-based systems then that adds a great deal of convenience to the games - one can, for example, play on a 3DS XL at home and take a 3DS with them when they're out, or buy a new console and start playing their purchased games with no hassles. That adds value to the prospect of a digital purchase, and can mean it's worth paying retail price.

At this stage Nintendo needs to get their act together. I really don't think what they've done is enough, and I can see them wondering why people don't flock to their DD service.

@dimi: I know, but that wasn't around back when I was playing (2005)

Ooh, dangerous. If I was able to interact with World of Warcraft even when I was away from the computer I never would have finished uni!

Depending on what exactly they implement it could be a really cool feature though.

Now that looks nice!

@TheConsiglio: I'd really recommend never trading anything to Gamestop (or pretty much any company dealing in used products) if you can avoid it. They're only buying it from you in order to resell it, and want to make as much money as possible. Hence, buy low and sell high.

If possible, sell it privately through eBay, Craigslist or some other local classifieds. You'll get much, much more money for whatever you're selling.

Not a particularly great example of professionalism with regards to the cardboard comment. I don't necessarily disagree with his opinions, but I disagree with the way he comes across.