Pretty cool to see Darksiders II being shown off as the lead in video for the new Nintendo Wii U console. I'll be heading to E3 on Wednesday to try and get some hands on time with the new Wii U and the new controller. Anyone have anything specific they want me to look into?




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Mainly I just want to know if the whole thing is as awkward as it appears. The whole thing is very intriguing, but I think Nintendo might have failed at clearly conveying how this whole thing is supposed to work. The Wii was an easier idea to get across: you move and that controls it. Now we have this enormous pad that will be a harder sell.

It was certainly noticeable that at one point in the presentation they brought out several very adult gaming experiences. Fortunately, it looks like the new hardware will finally be able to support that stuff. But that's not too much of a surprise. If they hadn't gone HD this time, that would have been it.

I wish we had more information on it. One basic question would be: will it play bluray? The biggest question of course is how much this brand new console with the wacky controller will cost. Will the controller be sold with the console? I assume so, but that must mean it'll be pretty expensive, and currently you can get a 360/Kinect bundle for $299. That'll be a challenge for the big N.

In the end, I think I'm going to need to know a great deal more about the system before I get excited about the WiiU. And I'm sorry, but that's a terrible name. I know most people got adjusted to the Wii, but it looks stupid. I keep wanting to call it the "wee-ooo."


What has me most excited are the new Zelda and Mario Kart games. If you're able to get your hands on those, I'd love to hear about them...

I am impatiently waiting for both Space Marine and Guild Wars 2 if either of those are in attendance.

My take on BluRay: Who cares? Streaming is on the rise and the only thing we need BluRay sources for are ripping the content to a file. Plus there are already a million and one BluRay players out there.



This has me pissed off. Nintendo should have already released two *additional* Zelda sequels in the lifetime of the Wii. I bought the Wii primarily for Zelda and I think it was worth it for that alone.

I don't have time to read much about the new Wii, but that isn't actually supposed to be their new controller is it? I think it might make a good accessory, but it doesn't really make any sense as a primary controller.

Why did they bother showing anything at all if it's not ready to ship? Kind of pointless.

I'm with you just like when people complained about dvd playback not being included in a console. If they are planning on getting PS3 ports you would think they would want something with more storage though.

According to this article the new controller will work with the Wii.



That's the way of videogames they announce crap two years before it will come out.

Showing early helps to slow down adoption of competitors products. One hopes. But it can also stop potential buyers from buying your own current products. I do understand their motivation, but I don't dig their method of putting everything (except the new hand-held thing) behind glass. I have to believe there's also another controller that will ship with the console. I can't see this screen-based monstrosity as the default pack-in.

WIth regards to BlueRay, I suppose they can support the disc format for storage and now support playback of movie titles. Just like with the Wii and DVDs.

I can think of two reasons for showing early:

1. It lets Nintendo (or Sony/Microsoft/Sega, whoever) control the announcement message and show what they want. At this early stage, it's likely very few developers have direct access to the SDK or test hardware, but that will need to expand to ensure enough launch games also exist.

2. It gets developers interested in making games for the system. Games takes years to complete, and if Nintendo wants a stead stream of releases from launch onwards, developers need to be working on titles now, and not in 2012 when the console is ready to ship. Console development is also a more involved relationship, with the developer needing to buy access to the SDK and test hardware, along with certifying their games with Nintendo prior to shipping.

In most cases, the older console will continue to sell fine, as the price drops help to open it up to more and more homes. The new consoles will always have a higher price point, and fewer games out of the gate. The Playstation 2 has pretty much achieved the 10 year lifecycle goal Sony had, even though the Playstation 3 shipped in the middle of that cycle.

Surprisingly, it's not as awkward as it looks. I didn't play a motion demo, but from holding the controller and waving it around, it wasn't terrible. It's a lot lighter then you expect, though without a different controller to directly compare to at the time, it's hard to describe how it compares to playing with a 360/PS3 controller for a few hours. Does the motion type games really appeal to me? No, but I don't see the new controller being a hinderance for adoption for those who like the current Wii stuff.

Graphics wise, it was pretty impressive. The particular demo I got was the "HD Experience" one showing a scene using Link. It wasn't a game, and the controller was simply allowing me to move the camera around as it went through an on rails demo. It is definitely ahead of the 360/PS3 (as it should be this far out), and seemed to be pushing the 1080p screen, along with the one on the controller just fine.


They wouldn't really confirm anything in the way of specs, but I personally don't expect BluRay movie playback. Not even sure if it's going to use anything beyond DVDs for storage, though I hope it has something bigger. No price news either, but I din't think they are too worried about competing with the 2005 era consoles, just as Microsoft probably wasn't too worried about the price of the PS2 when the Xbox 360 launched. The new controller also does have some design decisions clearly made to keep the cost down. It's a resistive touchscreen, and only supports one touch point. It's not an HD screen either. No demo had the camera in use, but I'm betting it's similarly low end.

The controller is included, and won't be sold separately. They are investigating allowing a 3DS to work as another controller, and also working to decide how to handle more then one "new controller" on the system if someone were to bring theirs over to a friends house. From the keynote, additional players can use the current Wii controllers.

What has me most excited are the new Zelda and Mario Kart games. If you're able to get your hands on those, I'd love to hear about them...[/quote]
No games for the WiiU were there, it was all just tech demos. I wouldn't even count on a Zelda title early in the WiiU's life, as the Wii is just now getting it's proper Zelda title. (Twilight Princess was a Gamecube game with some Wii stuff bolted on, vs a game targeted for the Wii only and it's capabilities). I did play the Ocarina of Time 3DS game a bit, and it's a decent adaptation of the Nintendo 64 version. They added some motion controls to it for things like aiming the slingshot, but it's not mandatory to use.

Space Marines, I watched others play for a while, and it's looking decent. Probably a solid 80+ review score, but thats hard to really gauge from the short floor demos. If you enjoyed the Gears of War style gameplay, Space Marines will probably appeal to you.

NCSoft no longer attends E3, so no Guild Wars 2 info at the show. This was the biggest difference I noticed with E3 this year compared to my past years of attending (2000-2006). There were many companies just not there, to the point the 3rd hall wasn't even open. I think more and more companies no longer see the usefulness of participating in an ESA trade show when they can control their own marketing message on their own time table just as well in the modern internet age.

I was mostly wondering about bluray support for the sake of games, not movies. You're certainly not talking to a bluray collector here. Aren't games just taking up more and more space on discs?


The new Zelda (Skyward Sword) and Mario Kart games are not WiiU titles, they're Wii titles. They haven't announced a WiiU-specific Zelda title. I was under the impression that in the keynote they indicated there were playable demos of at least Zelda.

Ahh, ok. Been so buried with other stuff I had no idea which platform you were talking about, since there were Zelda related pieces shown for WiiU, Wii, and 3DS. I did see the Skyward Sword game on the floor, but it had a pretty lengthy line to play. Since I was only attending for one day this year, I skipped most lines. Only reason I waited for the WiiU one is that my exhibitor badge got me in early, to have a 30 minute wait, vs the 4-5 hour average wait time.

When does the new (Wii) Zelda come out? Or has it already? It will give me an excuse to connect my Wii up again. If it's not out yet, I hope it won't be before the mid-fall as I have way too much to do until then.

Gears of War was ok, it had a lot of cool effects. I think I didn't play it very much because I really can't stand console controllers and memorizing the buttons needed for all the actions is problematic for me. If there was a keyboard/mouse setup, I probably would've played it through. Off topic, I canceled my pre-order of Dungeon Siege III yesterday after playing the demo they just released. Dear Devs, if you are going to make a console game and port it to the PC, at least desuckify the controls and UI to take advantage of the mouse/keyboard and monitors.

I think even if the game wasn't that great, I'd enjoy the story. I loved Shadow of the Horned Rat and couldn't even tell you how the gameplay was, I kept playing it because I just love the Warhammer universe and am starting to get that way with 40k also.


That is disappointing, but it makes sense. No use spending money that you don't need to spend, especially when the hype machine (especially for games like GW2 which promise to 'change the genre') is in full effect.

I would be surprised if it was before fall.

I did pick up a WiiU about a week ago, and tossed my "Nintendo ID" up top in the thread. (just a username now, thankfully).

Anyone else have one? I've been enjoying the multiplayer New Super Mario Bros U game, and have migrated over all my old Wii content so far. Picked up the 32GB black deluxe unit, which also comes with Nintendo Land, and a copy of Darksiders II.

Mario in "2D" at 1080p looks great, and the game mechanics are fun. Fir single player you can just use the WiiU controller, and play without the TV if desired, as it doesn't use the extra screen for anything unique.

Nintendo Land is a bunch of mini games that show off the possibilities of the controller. Some use the WiiU controller to conceal information from other players.

Darksiders II plays nearly identically to the other 3 platforms it shipped on, with one difference. The inventory is on the touchscreen and allows players to swap in or use items without stoping gameplay. It was fun watching the game come together on the platform and I'm glad it was a launch title.

One neat feature is that the WiiU controller has a universal TV remote function built into it, and it works without the WiiU console being on. This came in handy when I scavenged batteries for the Wii remotes Sadly it's just a basic remote control, but Nintendo has the ability to update it in time, and it could become an interesting way to compete with the Harmony and other similar all in one remotes.

I seem to recall it was a recent Game Informer article that listed Darksiders II as one of the few multiplatform games that plays better on the Wii U than on the other platforms, because the touchscreen genuinely adds to the game in a significant and meaningful way. All the other games listed couldn't make that claim. I found that interesting.

Zombie U has some pretty decent uses of the touchscreen, beyond the typical inventory. It is used as the 'motion detector' type screen, the sniper scope, and some other things that I am sure I'm forgetting. It is kind of a pain to need to look down to see the blips in motion, but it is nice having a persistent view that doesn't eat up screen real estate.