I assume it's going to be Opera again? I'd rather they have more time with the final hardware before releasing the browser this time. But it took a while for Wii Opera to be released too.
Didn't it take a while for the Wii Shop to become available after launch? How long was that?
The shop channel launched with the console, with like 5 or 6 NES games (Nov. 19 2006). Wiiware didn't show up until much later (May 12 2008).
Ah, thanks. Could have sworn there was something they advertised but didn't show up until much later. Weather Channel maybe?
I think it was the Internet Channel that wasn't available at launch. Edit: Looks like the beta version of the internet channel launched about a month after the console.
Either way, the thing's been out 5 years with no significant price cut. I'm kinda doubting you'll be able to get a 3DS for under $175 without getting it used after waiting a few years. I hope I'm wrong though.
Turn based according to CVG. Not surprising really. Isometric, turn-based strategy game.
Looks like hell compared to Capcom's offerings, but it could be fun.
Hrmm... No Ocarina of Time at launch, bummer. And no store at launch? God damn. Both quite devastating to me, and yet I could not help but throw all my cash at Nintendo as fast as I could.
I actually had the chance to briefly make an appearance at the NYC event. Saw the keynote, played a few games. I'm very pleasantly willing to admit that I was wrong about the price (I had bet either $279 or $299), and I was off on the release date by a week. And I am ecstatic about the single per-system Friend Code, which will make online play a lot easier—I loved that the status light actually changes color to let you know when a friend comes online! For the first time in years, I'm looking forward to trying out online gaming on a Nintendo system.
Some immensely rudimentary impressions (I literally only spent five minutes with each game):
- Kid Icarus Uprising: Hella awesome. I can see it suffering from some minor Metroid Claw-ish feeling, but I was also playing it tethered to a demo station and standing up. But the rail shooting segment is fantastic and uses 3-D really well.
- Steel Diver: Slower-paced than I anticipated. Also uses 3-D a lot more impressively than I would have thought. I only played the tutorial, didn't get to try the periscope mode, but will be curious to see more of it.
- RE Mercenaries: 3-D doesn't add that much, but I love Mercs mode enough not to really care. I chose to play with Hunk, naturally, and did the RE4 Village scenario.
- Ocarina: Looks gorgeous, both with and without 3-D. I couldn't tell if it was running at 60 FPS, but it's definitely a solid 30. Very smooth and good usage of the 3-D.
- Dead or Alive: The FPS changes between 3-D and 2-D modes is really noticable; I don't think I'd ever really use the 3-D given the option, outside of novelty.
- Pilotwings Resort: Only got to try the hang glider in the free mission, but it's a gorgeous display of the foreground/background stuff.
- AR Games: One of the most impressive demos there: The question-mark card game is a simple target-shooting setup, but a few of the segments involves warping the surface the card is on or cutting holes in it, and it's really convincing. I had to shift perspective a lot by sliding left and right to find targets hidden around an in-game statue, and one of the targets was actually hidden in a hole "cut" inside the table. Another had the table surface warping up and down in waves. Very nicely done, and I hope they flesh this out with more stuff.
- Asphalt: Dragged into playing this by the PR rep working with me. Looks and plays like butt.
In general, I was really skeptical about the whole 3-D thing but I'll admit it's really, really nice; I can see myself turning it down to 2-D mode a lot, and with a few games I had some trouble finding a sweet spot of the 3-D slider, but it is stunningly amazing the first few times you see it. I did my best to try and sneak my way into the online setup, but their demo kiosk guides were watching us like hawks and didn't let us break out of anything other than what each kiosk was set up to show. And a good number of them weren't real Nintendo employees so much as people hired to run the kiosks, so asking them about the online infrastructure or accounts was met with blank looks and shrugging shoulders.
I'm bummed about not getting any real sort of info on what will be available on launch day itself, but given the March 27 release date, it's only a six-week window we're reallying talking about. I wonder if the lack of solid dates is a play by Nintendo to try to give more exposure to third-party games. But anyway: Hyped.
Didn't it take a while for the Wii Shop to become available after launch? How long was that?
The shop channel launched with the console, with like 5 or 6 NES games (Nov. 19 2006). Wiiware didn't show up until much later (May 12 2008).
Ah, thanks. Could have sworn there was something they advertised but didn't show up until much later. Weather Channel maybe?
I think it was the Internet Channel that wasn't available at launch. Edit: Looks like the beta version of the internet channel launched about a month after the console.
Either way, the thing's been out 5 years with no significant price cut. I'm kinda doubting you'll be able to get a 3DS for under $175 without getting it used after waiting a few years. I hope I'm wrong though.
Have to agree with you on not thinking there will be a price drop of any kind, at least not a significant one. Personally I think I will wait things out a year or so to see if there's any word on a 3DS lite of sorts. I wouldn't mind paying in the $200 range somewhere still, I think I'll just wait to see if there are battery life improvements or anything of the sort. Or until, of course, there is a game that I just have to play. Plenty of good games lined up for the 3DS right now, just not any I have to play.
Oh, and it's worth noting that from the official hardware spec sheet on the press site:
Charge Time: About 3.5 hours
Battery Duration: When playing Nintendo 3DS software about 3-5 hours. When playing Nintendo DS software
about 5-8 hours. Battery duration differs depending on the brightness setting of the screen. The
information regarding battery duration is a rough standard. It can be shorter depending on what
functions of the Nintendo 3DS system are used.
Which is still maddeningly vague, but the English wording leads one to imply that the brightest/full-power settings will last you three hours, and the darkest/low-power settings will only net you five. I know this has been under debate, but it sounds like we won't really know until we get our hands on units ourselves.
As much as I don't wanna fuck over PSP owners, I kinda hope Monster Hunter goes to 3DS (however unlikely).
Not that unlikely. I believe the creator of MH said he would have brought it to the DS if the DS had better networking features.
Add to that, MH3 appeared on the Wii. So stranger things have happened.
Quite frankly, I would be shocked if MH4 didn't appear on the 3DS and PSP both in a way like we saw with MH Tri and MHP3rd. The DS never got a MH because it wasn't powerful enough. The 3DS clearly is.
Rakai on
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Oh, and it's worth noting that from the official hardware spec sheet on the press site:
Charge Time: About 3.5 hours
Battery Duration: When playing Nintendo 3DS software about 3-5 hours. When playing Nintendo DS software
about 5-8 hours. Battery duration differs depending on the brightness setting of the screen. The
information regarding battery duration is a rough standard. It can be shorter depending on what
functions of the Nintendo 3DS system are used.
Which is still maddeningly vague, but the English wording leads one to imply that the brightest/full-power settings will last you three hours, and the darkest/low-power settings will only net you five. I know this has been under debate, but it sounds like we won't really know until we get our hands on units ourselves.
EDIT: And it does support WPA/WPA2!
That's the same battery life as the stated specs on the DSi (3-4 hours on brightest setting). However, my experience with the DSi on the highest brightness has been a longer battery life than that, so it may be a case of Nintendo understating the battery life. And I'm rarely in a situation where I'm away from a charger for more than 3-4 hours, so that's not a big deal to me personally. But we'll have to wait and see.
And thank goodness they're now supporting WPA/WPA2 in games. That's my biggest problem with the DS - I can't download any in-game stuff because of it.
wow I'm surprised that the PSP launched at $250. I thought that was really expensive. And now 3DS is coming for the same price and I'm like hells yeah. Aside from lol fanboy, I think it's because no other system is coming out right now to compare prices with. Back then is was DS vs PSP and the DS was much cheaper.
- Asphalt: Dragged into playing this by the PR rep working with me. Looks and plays like butt.
A little sad. It looked like the superior option to Ridge Racer. The Asphalt games haven't been too bad in the past, what sticks out as being bad about it?
Also I am especially happy about the augmented reality included with the system, I know it's a gimmicky kind of thing but I think people will really be impressed by it. I've wanted to try it for years (and on a handheld device, not something static like Eye of Judgement).
wow I'm surprised that the PSP launched at $250. I thought that was really expensive. And now 3DS is coming for the same price and I'm like hells yeah. Aside from lol fanboy, I think it's because no other system is coming out right now to compare prices with. Back then is was DS vs PSP and the DS was much cheaper.
I think there's a big perceived difference in price vs. feature set too, as well as comparison to other small electronics prices since then. iPods, iPads, iPhones, netbooks...paying $250 or more for handheld devices is expected now.
So how does Amazon preordering work, anyway? I'm assuming it's basically "first come, first serve," right? Well, either way I'm probably going to be waiting a while to play thing thing. And I have $40 left on a giftcard, so.
I'm pretty sure the 'no store at launch' thing is a mistake, guys. I have the press release here and it seems to say that the store isn't pre-installed on the machine, but a day-one firmware update will add it. It's obfuscated in asterisks, though.
Willeth on
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- Asphalt: Dragged into playing this by the PR rep working with me. Looks and plays like butt.
A little sad. It looked like the superior option to Ridge Racer. The Asphalt games haven't been too bad in the past, what sticks out as being bad about it?
Also I am especially happy about the augmented reality included with the system, I know it's a gimmicky kind of thing but I think people will really be impressed by it. I've wanted to try it for years (and on a handheld device, not something static like Eye of Judgement).
Again, it was entirely a snap judgment, but it felt clunky and my car had really janky looking collisions with other cars, barriers, etc. Ridge Racer felt much more polished, maybe a bit smoother on frame rate. The 3-D effect felt more pronounced in Ridge Racer as well. I'm not really well-versed in either franchise, but I had much more fun with RR than Asphalt.
The AR cards left me really impressed. I couldn't quite figure out what the guy was telling me, but it sounds like the AR utility is a standalone program on the 3DS menu* and then you can just swap in new cards to play new games? I'm not totally sure about that.
* The new 3DS menu is really cool in that it expands on the customization you were allowed on the DSi menu. You have a choice of three visual arrangements of the icons: one straight line, exactly like the DSi, or two different-size grids, which look much more like the Wii menu.
Kotaku, so grain of salt, but this is a nice feature too:
And finding and becoming friends sounds like it will sometimes be easier as well. While we don't yet know if they Friend Code will be a 16-digit number, or even a number at all, we do know that you will have to exchange them just once with your friend to offer and accept a friendship on the 3DS.
But if you're connected with another friend via local wireless, you won't even have to do that. Instead you can push a button to accept or send friend requests and the 3DS will take down the number automatically and remember it.
Kotaku, so grain of salt, but this is a nice feature too:
And finding and becoming friends sounds like it will sometimes be easier as well. While we don't yet know if they Friend Code will be a 16-digit number, or even a number at all, we do know that you will have to exchange them just once with your friend to offer and accept a friendship on the 3DS.
But if you're connected with another friend via local wireless, you won't even have to do that. Instead you can push a button to accept or send friend requests and the 3DS will take down the number automatically and remember it.
I remember hearing Reggie saying something like this at the keynote, so I'm pretty sure this is a go. Didn't the original DS do this too, though?
Kotaku, so grain of salt, but this is a nice feature too:
And finding and becoming friends sounds like it will sometimes be easier as well. While we don't yet know if they Friend Code will be a 16-digit number, or even a number at all, we do know that you will have to exchange them just once with your friend to offer and accept a friendship on the 3DS.
But if you're connected with another friend via local wireless, you won't even have to do that. Instead you can push a button to accept or send friend requests and the 3DS will take down the number automatically and remember it.
I remember hearing Reggie saying something like this at the keynote, so I'm pretty sure this is a go. Didn't the original DS do this too, though?
I don't think so, or if it did it was on a per-game basis.
Kotaku, so grain of salt, but this is a nice feature too:
And finding and becoming friends sounds like it will sometimes be easier as well. While we don't yet know if they Friend Code will be a 16-digit number, or even a number at all, we do know that you will have to exchange them just once with your friend to offer and accept a friendship on the 3DS.
But if you're connected with another friend via local wireless, you won't even have to do that. Instead you can push a button to accept or send friend requests and the 3DS will take down the number automatically and remember it.
Some DS games had the same feature. If you play Pokémon with someone locally, it asks you if you want to add them to your friends list.
I'm so jazzed about there only being one FC per system; it means we can actually trade codes and have it mean something now! In case people didn't catch, the 3DS does notify you when one of your friends goes online (the status light apparently changes color to ... orange, I think?), and I'm assuming the implication is that you'll get these notifications even when you're playing a game in single-player—this is the sort of Live/PSN-ish integration that I was hoping for.
No more "making a game, adding your code" memes, though.
This Scandinavian retailer has a pretty good record of predicting prices for new hardware. They had the european price for the Kinect spot on way before it was confirmed by Microsoft.
You are able to preorder it at their site for 1999 Danish Kroner which converts to £225 or $350.
That US price should say something about how expensive it is to be a gamer in Europe :P
But the Wii launched at $400 here, so that should give you something to compare the price with.
Oh! And the release-date seems to be 31/3
CDON.com just changed the release date to march 25, but the price has not changed. Guess it'll be around £225
EDIT! Would you look at that? I just got an e-mail from Shopto.net. They sell them for £219,85
This Scandinavian retailer has a pretty good record of predicting prices for new hardware. They had the european price for the Kinect spot on way before it was confirmed by Microsoft.
You are able to preorder it at their site for 1999 Danish Kroner which converts to £225 or $350.
That US price should say something about how expensive it is to be a gamer in Europe :P
But the Wii launched at $400 here, so that should give you something to compare the price with.
Oh! And the release-date seems to be 31/3
CDON.com just changed the release date to march 25, but the price has not changed. Guess it'll be around £225
2000 dkk is around what I was expecting. In case anyone cares, the Wii launched at 2200 dkk here in Denmark.
Of those titles, there's only one I'm only interested in Time Travelers. I expect 3DS to eventually take the adventure game mantle from PSP, but it's going to take a long time.
Posts
I assume it's going to be Opera again? I'd rather they have more time with the final hardware before releasing the browser this time. But it took a while for Wii Opera to be released too.
I think it was the Internet Channel that wasn't available at launch. Edit: Looks like the beta version of the internet channel launched about a month after the console.
Either way, the thing's been out 5 years with no significant price cut. I'm kinda doubting you'll be able to get a 3DS for under $175 without getting it used after waiting a few years. I hope I'm wrong though.
As far as I remember, the news channel didn't launch until sometime in early 2007.
EDIT: Oh yeah, web browser too.
Turn based according to CVG. Not surprising really. Isometric, turn-based strategy game.
Looks like hell compared to Capcom's offerings, but it could be fun.
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I write about video games and stuff. It is fun. Sometimes.
At least there will be one way to see previews of 3DS games in 3D.
Browse Penny Arcade forum in 3D!
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I write about video games and stuff. It is fun. Sometimes.
Not that unlikely. I believe the creator of MH said he would have brought it to the DS if the DS had better networking features.
Add to that, MH3 appeared on the Wii. So stranger things have happened.
I actually had the chance to briefly make an appearance at the NYC event. Saw the keynote, played a few games. I'm very pleasantly willing to admit that I was wrong about the price (I had bet either $279 or $299), and I was off on the release date by a week. And I am ecstatic about the single per-system Friend Code, which will make online play a lot easier—I loved that the status light actually changes color to let you know when a friend comes online! For the first time in years, I'm looking forward to trying out online gaming on a Nintendo system.
Some immensely rudimentary impressions (I literally only spent five minutes with each game):
- Kid Icarus Uprising: Hella awesome. I can see it suffering from some minor Metroid Claw-ish feeling, but I was also playing it tethered to a demo station and standing up. But the rail shooting segment is fantastic and uses 3-D really well.
- Steel Diver: Slower-paced than I anticipated. Also uses 3-D a lot more impressively than I would have thought. I only played the tutorial, didn't get to try the periscope mode, but will be curious to see more of it.
- RE Mercenaries: 3-D doesn't add that much, but I love Mercs mode enough not to really care. I chose to play with Hunk, naturally, and did the RE4 Village scenario.
- Ocarina: Looks gorgeous, both with and without 3-D. I couldn't tell if it was running at 60 FPS, but it's definitely a solid 30. Very smooth and good usage of the 3-D.
- Dead or Alive: The FPS changes between 3-D and 2-D modes is really noticable; I don't think I'd ever really use the 3-D given the option, outside of novelty.
- Pilotwings Resort: Only got to try the hang glider in the free mission, but it's a gorgeous display of the foreground/background stuff.
- AR Games: One of the most impressive demos there: The question-mark card game is a simple target-shooting setup, but a few of the segments involves warping the surface the card is on or cutting holes in it, and it's really convincing. I had to shift perspective a lot by sliding left and right to find targets hidden around an in-game statue, and one of the targets was actually hidden in a hole "cut" inside the table. Another had the table surface warping up and down in waves. Very nicely done, and I hope they flesh this out with more stuff.
- Asphalt: Dragged into playing this by the PR rep working with me. Looks and plays like butt.
In general, I was really skeptical about the whole 3-D thing but I'll admit it's really, really nice; I can see myself turning it down to 2-D mode a lot, and with a few games I had some trouble finding a sweet spot of the 3-D slider, but it is stunningly amazing the first few times you see it. I did my best to try and sneak my way into the online setup, but their demo kiosk guides were watching us like hawks and didn't let us break out of anything other than what each kiosk was set up to show. And a good number of them weren't real Nintendo employees so much as people hired to run the kiosks, so asking them about the online infrastructure or accounts was met with blank looks and shrugging shoulders.
I'm bummed about not getting any real sort of info on what will be available on launch day itself, but given the March 27 release date, it's only a six-week window we're reallying talking about. I wonder if the lack of solid dates is a play by Nintendo to try to give more exposure to third-party games. But anyway: Hyped.
Have to agree with you on not thinking there will be a price drop of any kind, at least not a significant one. Personally I think I will wait things out a year or so to see if there's any word on a 3DS lite of sorts. I wouldn't mind paying in the $200 range somewhere still, I think I'll just wait to see if there are battery life improvements or anything of the sort. Or until, of course, there is a game that I just have to play. Plenty of good games lined up for the 3DS right now, just not any I have to play.
:^:
but what about the dinosaurs? WHAT ABOUT THE DINOSAURS?!
Which is still maddeningly vague, but the English wording leads one to imply that the brightest/full-power settings will last you three hours, and the darkest/low-power settings will only net you five. I know this has been under debate, but it sounds like we won't really know until we get our hands on units ourselves.
EDIT: And it does support WPA/WPA2!
Quite frankly, I would be shocked if MH4 didn't appear on the 3DS and PSP both in a way like we saw with MH Tri and MHP3rd. The DS never got a MH because it wasn't powerful enough. The 3DS clearly is.
That's the same battery life as the stated specs on the DSi (3-4 hours on brightest setting). However, my experience with the DSi on the highest brightness has been a longer battery life than that, so it may be a case of Nintendo understating the battery life. And I'm rarely in a situation where I'm away from a charger for more than 3-4 hours, so that's not a big deal to me personally. But we'll have to wait and see.
And thank goodness they're now supporting WPA/WPA2 in games. That's my biggest problem with the DS - I can't download any in-game stuff because of it.
3DS FC: 0817-3759-2788
A little sad. It looked like the superior option to Ridge Racer. The Asphalt games haven't been too bad in the past, what sticks out as being bad about it?
Also I am especially happy about the augmented reality included with the system, I know it's a gimmicky kind of thing but I think people will really be impressed by it. I've wanted to try it for years (and on a handheld device, not something static like Eye of Judgement).
I think there's a big perceived difference in price vs. feature set too, as well as comparison to other small electronics prices since then. iPods, iPads, iPhones, netbooks...paying $250 or more for handheld devices is expected now.
But I do want. Badly.
@gamefacts - Totally and utterly true gaming facts on the regular!
Again, it was entirely a snap judgment, but it felt clunky and my car had really janky looking collisions with other cars, barriers, etc. Ridge Racer felt much more polished, maybe a bit smoother on frame rate. The 3-D effect felt more pronounced in Ridge Racer as well. I'm not really well-versed in either franchise, but I had much more fun with RR than Asphalt.
The AR cards left me really impressed. I couldn't quite figure out what the guy was telling me, but it sounds like the AR utility is a standalone program on the 3DS menu* and then you can just swap in new cards to play new games? I'm not totally sure about that.
* The new 3DS menu is really cool in that it expands on the customization you were allowed on the DSi menu. You have a choice of three visual arrangements of the icons: one straight line, exactly like the DSi, or two different-size grids, which look much more like the Wii menu.
I remember hearing Reggie saying something like this at the keynote, so I'm pretty sure this is a go. Didn't the original DS do this too, though?
I don't think so, or if it did it was on a per-game basis.
We don't know yet, and again it was previously on a per-game basis. Some had 50, some had more or less.
Some DS games had the same feature. If you play Pokémon with someone locally, it asks you if you want to add them to your friends list.
Those health warnings,
Sleep mode,
Friends codes,
CDON.com just changed the release date to march 25, but the price has not changed. Guess it'll be around £225
EDIT! Would you look at that? I just got an e-mail from Shopto.net. They sell them for £219,85
Printing money
2000 dkk is around what I was expecting. In case anyone cares, the Wii launched at 2200 dkk here in Denmark.
What Nintendo games had health warnings before the DS?
It will be a happy funeral.
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Most GameCube games from the last year of it's run.
Not many, but a few latter GBA games had them (so you see it twice when played on a DS).
I can only remember Dr. Mario & Puzzle League had it, but others did too.
Oh well, looks like I'm not getting it on launch day
w00t I say.
http://www.gamesindustry.biz/
I write about video games and stuff. It is fun. Sometimes.
Of those titles, there's only one I'm only interested in Time Travelers. I expect 3DS to eventually take the adventure game mantle from PSP, but it's going to take a long time.