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E3 is scheduled to begin in just two weeks. That means a lot of news on comic books, video games, and movies. All of these things are awesome, so naturally I'm making a topic about it.
For starters, Nintendo says it is going to release more info on its next console, codenamed Project Cafe. We might get some cool new tech info or even some screens from games they're making for it. All we know right now is that it is more powerful than both the X-Box 360 and the PS3. We also know that the controller will be more traditional and that it will have a little LCD screen in the center of it (kinda weird, but whatever).
As for games, expect to see a lot of new ones, including Batman: Arkham City, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Mass Effect 3, Zelda: Skyward Sword, plenty of 3DS games, and a big apology from Sony about their Playstation Network fiasco.
Posts: 1324 | Registered: Feb 2011
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quote:All we know right now is that it is more powerful than both the X-Box 360 and the PS3. We also know that the controller will be more traditional and that it will have a little LCD screen in the center of it (kinda weird, but whatever).
Actually, I don't think we know any of these things. Nintendo has only publicly announced that a new console will be discussed. Everything else comes from rumors and purported "spy" photos/videos which may or may not be authentic.
Posts: 3275 | Registered: May 2007
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quote:Originally posted by Jeff C.: E3 is scheduled to begin in just two weeks. That means a lot of news on comic books, video games, and movies. All of these things are awesome, so naturally I'm making a topic about it.
Since when is E3 about comic books and movies? Isn't that more prominent at ComicCon?
I've been to two E3s myself (2000 and 2001) and they were 100% video games, but that was a long time ago.
Posts: 3486 | Registered: Sep 2002
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Its almost 99% certain to be going to be relatively less graphically powerful then the next Microsoft and Sony consoles; its 100% certain there's going to be a Mario game, a zelda game, and a metroid game; and maybe an older title like donkey kong.
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It's mostly about video games, but there will be a few booths for comics, especially online comics like Penny Arcade, etc.
They'll showcase whatever movies are spawned from games, which could be a few different ones, but it depends it they actually got greenlit or not. I've heard rumors about all kinds of stuff, but very little confirmation.
The nintendo console's specs are rumors, but they sound pretty plausible. We'll find out in a few weeks though. Personally, I'd like to see what Mario and Zelda look like with next gen graphics.
Posts: 1324 | Registered: Feb 2011
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They aren't even using all of the potential for the PS3 yet, so I wonder when the new hardware will become overkill. I know that I love my PS3, and look forward to using it for many years. Posts: 15082 | Registered: Jul 2001
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So a friend and I are gonna be podcasting about games regularly with two or three posters from forums we go to. Podcasting like three times a week. With different groups of guys. Anyone want to talk about E3 next week?
Posts: 1407 | Registered: Oct 2008
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From what Sony has said, they're not tweaking the graphics power of their next gen machine much and are focusing more on catching up to the motion control, etc. pioneered by Nintendo and improved by Microsoft and lowering the cost to produce versus the selling price, so it's possible and even likely that Nintendo's new machine will be more graphically powerful.
Posts: 10177 | Registered: Apr 2001
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I think Sony's next may just be super late, maybe pushing into 14 or 15. They said that this was planned as a ten year console cycle.
Posts: 1407 | Registered: Oct 2008
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I'm sorry, but I hate the motion control trend. If I want to get off my couch and play tennis, I will go out of my house and play tennis.
I'm fine with it for fitness purposes. I use the Kinect and Wii to work out. I don't want to have to use a motion control to play a Mario game or an RPG.
Nintendo has really lost my interest. To be honest though I am a heavy RPG player, and it seems to me the only decent Wii RPG's have not even made it here to the US yet. I own Monster Hunter 3, but would prefer to play it on my PSP. I actually bought a PS3 because Monster Hunter 3 was supposed to be on that machine, and then Capcom pulled a fast one on me and changed it to the Wii.
Monado (Xenoblade) is really the only RPG that I absolutely want to play on the Wii, but it hasn't been localized yet. It was made by the same creators of Xenogears (The best RPG ever made. FFVII has NOTHING on it) and Xenosaga. Unfortunately even though Nintendo keeps saying they will release it I just don't think it will ever happen.
But hey, Samp if you do end up going to E3 could you do me a solid and ask Monolith soft if they are there if they ever plan on releasing it?
Any League of Legends goodies from the Riot booth would be cool as well. I'd pay you for them of course. Or a beta to Tera / Guild Wars 2.
Posts: 1937 | Registered: Nov 2006
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The only good games Monolith has made since Xenogears are the two Baten Kaitos games and Xenosaga 3. But Monado looks good, and I like the stories in Xenosaga 1/2.
Also, in terms of motion control, Metroid Prime 3, No More Heroes, and Red Steel 2 are all well done, but overall, it never met its potential.
Hoping for a new Fire Emblem.
Posts: 1407 | Registered: Oct 2008
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quote:Originally posted by Samprimary: Oh i might be able to get LoL goodies with or without the trip to E3, I love Riot.
I sometimes talk to some of the developers at Riot. My father, brothers and I actually played a game on Christmas Eve against Pendragon, Ryze, and a few others.
I applied for an Human Resources position there a week or so ago. Hopefully I will hear back from them soon. Posts: 1937 | Registered: Nov 2006
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Don't forget about The Last Story, a wii exclusive RPG. The guy behind Final Fantasy and several other killer RPGs made it (Sakaguchi), so it has me excited.
Posts: 1324 | Registered: Feb 2011
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Does anyone else find it funny that the creator of Final Fantasy is making a game called The Last Story?
I thought lost Odyssey was a great game that deserves a direct sequel. I hope Last Story is as good or better.
Posts: 1937 | Registered: Nov 2006
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Takeshi Mike is making a Pheonis Wright movie. This could be the best thing since The Burrito, or Pheonix Wright vs Professor Layton.
Posts: 1407 | Registered: Oct 2008
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Nintendo's gonna have a rough few years ahead.
With the PS Vita's competitive pricing, it could very well take Nintendo's handheld market crown, since the hardware itself allows for more for the consumer and the developer. The 3D effect isn't enough for the 3DS to claim a higher value.
The Wii U won't have the obvious appeal to people who have never tried video games that the Wii did, and is therefore at a bit of a disadvantage. However, the software is what sold the Wii to casual audiences: Wii Sports made a viral impression on non-gamer audiences and Wii Fit sealed the deal for family, middle-aged and older audiences. If Nintendo bundles something with obvious casual appeal with the console, they might be able to win with the Wii U.
Nintendo's biggest challenge will be making meaningful change in third party approaches to their consoles. The Wii and DS are loaded with so much shovelware to target uninformed casual audiences that more savvy gamers tend to stick with first-party games, which are much more likely to be quality titles. This is not as much a product of the DS/Wii's underpowered processors or graphics capabilities as it is the fact that first-time casual gamers who were gateway-drugged with Wii Sports are supposedly easier to seduce into buying a low-quality title.
Because the Wii U is now on par with the XBox and PS3, it makes more sense for third parties to port games in development for those platforms to Nintendo's console. The reason we never saw most cross-platform killer apps on the Wii was indeed because the less powerful Wii would require a game to either be built from the ground up or be seriously watered down. The Wii just couldn't handle the physics, graphics, and raw power that developers were used to with Microsoft's and Sony's consoles, so developers just neglected to port their games to the underpowered Wii.
To hear Nintendo talk, they've already convinced a lot of developers to commit to Wii U. We have promises of Assassin's Creed, Darksiders II, and Batman: Arkham City coming to the console. But chances are most gamers interested in those games already have an XBox 360 or PS3. Nintendo's first-party killer apps (*cough HD Zelda make it happen Nintendo cough*) will get committed Nintendo fans (such as myself) on board.
However, to get devotees of Sony and Microsoft to convert, Nintendo needs to show that their console can do something that they never knew they desperately needed. The screen in the controller might be an adequate answer, but I have yet to see a compelling case that it will really change gameplay as we know it. Plus, Sony can respond to the screen-controller thing by making Vita compatible with the PS3, which would be exactly the copycat thing Sony would do.
Nintendo's making a huge gamble on the 3DS, which is meant to attract both casual and devoted gamers, but the 3D effect is not producing the intended viral consumer response. People must be getting sick of 3D in general, and though the glasses thing is what always turned me off about it, the no-glasses aspect doesn't seem to be enough for most consumers. Compound that with legitimate concerns about battery life and lack of killer apps, and the 3DS is off to a very unstable start. With the PS Vita poised to dominate the handheld "hardcore" market and the iPhone already satisfying casual gamers, the 3DS is stuck in an awkward no-man's land. Ultimately (surprise surprise) it will only be first party titles that move units, meaning Nintendo's efforts to court third parties for their handheld will be in vain unless they can convince developers that making exclusives will reach a big enough audience to be economically viable. But since the 3DS is still selling beneath expectations, this is not likely to be the case, though the handheld might see a boost in sales by Christmas, whereupon there will be some killer software titles like Mario Kart, Star Fox, Super Mario, and hopefully Kid Icarus.
My prediction is that Nintendo will see enough of a boost in 3DS sales by the holiday for it to not be a disaster, but they will probably cut the price and/or release a 3DS Lite by holiday 2012. Meanwhile, the Vita is going to give Nintendo a really hard time increasing 3DS sales, and third parties are going to flock to the Sony handheld, leaving Nintendo to push their hardware mostly with their own software, at least for most of 2012. Meanwhile, the Wii's lagging software lineup will butter up hungry Nintendo fans to switch to Wii U, while the Wii U's name recognition will get a significant portion of casual Wii owners to buy it as long as there's an appealing family-friendly casual title with it. Since most of the third-party titles for Wii U will be coming out sooner on the current-gen platforms, it's not going to convert numerous PlayStation and XBox gamers right away. What Nintendo needs to do is find a way to inform its casual consumers about quality third-party titles that they'd actually be interested in, since casual gamers aren't as likely to check IGN or Gamepro for reviews. The 3DS eShop, from what I've seen, could be a step in the right direction, but I haven't tried it firsthand, so I don't know to what degree. If Wii U comes with an intuitive service that makes it easy to find details and reviews of new games, without being intrusive like TV commercials, it could dodge the shovelware trap of the DS and Wii and get new gamers to invest in more third-party titles, making developers more eager to produce quality software.
Posts: 1029 | Registered: Apr 2007
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I think you're misunderstanding the market pretty badly. Also, some of the things you say don't make sense. For instance:
quote:The Wii and DS are loaded with so much shovelware to target uninformed casual audiences that more savvy gamers tend to stick with first-party games, which are much more likely to be quality titles.
Games are heavily reviewed, and savvy gamers are aware of that. There's no lemon problem preventing savvy gamers from trying games because they aren't sure if they'll be good or not, like you indicate. A third party game that's good still sells to savvy gamers, no problem, because savvy gamers quickly become aware of its quality through frequent information sharing.
And, of course, the majority of million-plus selling games on both the DS and Wii are third party, not first party.
As for
quote:However, to get devotees of Sony and Microsoft to convert
, they aren't looking to get people to convert, they're looking to get people to add, and they seem pretty darn likely to succeed. They should be able to sell the WiiU dirt cheap, and so long as they can produce a modicum of innovative gameplay titles that are engaging to everyone, they're in. I'm fairly sure a substantial subset of Wii sales can be attributed to two games: Wii Sports and Wii Fit. I know quite a few people who have bought a Wii just for one or both of those, and have used it for nothing else. Another substantial subset of Wii sales can be attributed to the variety of decent party games available, and I know a number of people who have a Wii just to bring it out for those with groups of friends. What Nintendo is looking to do with the WiiU is create another wave of purchases like that (for instance, they've clearly telegraphed an expansion of Wii Fit that you won't even need to be in the room with the television for), plus sell some gamer games while they're at it, since offering speed and high quality graphics is cheap, now, and their controller should allow for some really interesting interaction.
Posts: 15770 | Registered: Dec 2001
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I do agree that Nintendo's online strategy is basically fail, so far. They need to up their game in that a heck of a lot.
Posts: 15770 | Registered: Dec 2001
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Or a beta to Tera / Guild Wars 2.
