Slashdot Mirror
Slate Pans the Wii, Slate Loves the Wii
thatguywhoiam writes "Slate's Eric Sofke takes a few considered shots at Nintendo's latest console. He claims the Wii Remote has major accuracy problems, which are compensated for by too-easy games. Meanwhile, just next door, Chris Suellentrop says the Wii is even better than the PS3. Check out both sides of the issue." From the Sofke article: "The new Nintendo's flaws make me question who the Wii's audience will be. Kids don't want embarrassingly easy games. Casual gamers of any age will bail out the first time their crosshairs go AWOL. And hardcore gamers like me aren't going to bother with a magic wand that makes us less efficient at killing aliens. For a console that wants to start a revolution, making users doubt their reflexes is a serious design flaw."
To be completely blunt, most of the control problems I have seen people have with the Wii have been problems with the user, not the interface. Much like the analogue stick (or the keyboard mouse before that) it will take a little time to get used to the input device.
I remember (back in the day) watching people flail around in Goldeneye or crash in Mario Kart simply by making too large of a gesture on the analogue stick; after you had a few games under your belt these problems went away. The Wii is fantastic, but it is a new way to control games; an input method that you don't have 20 years of experience using.
"And hardcore gamers like me aren't going to bother with a magic wand that makes us less efficient at killing aliens."
Is he pointing his remote like a gun and holding it to his eye as if it had crosshairs? Cuz otherwise, I don't get how you could miss anything; it has been pretty much effortless for me to aim and shoot in Rayman Raving Rabbids' gun games, for example. Anybody else having accuracy problems out there?
I also have trouble with the guy telling everyone what he thinks "mainstream" and "hardcore" people want. If you're gonna review it, tell us what YOU think. Seems a bit more relevant than what you assume grandma will think (unless, of course, you report on what your grandmother's impressions were, which would be much more valid, not to mention a pretty interesting idea).
Slashdot Pans The Wii, Slashdot Loves the Wii
OMG it's like when different people think different things... but on the same site! Whatever happened to good old fashioned values like Groupthink? :(
I ran into some accuracy problems for the first maybe 30 minutes when I got my Wii home. If you just take it out of the box and expect it to work with no tuning, you will definitely have problems. Of course, if you RTFM and follow the instructions, things are much better.
Basically, you have to be really careful about how you position the sensor bar in relation to yourself and the TV. I'm not sure there is much science behind it, but you have to make sure to get the sensor bar centered horizontally and at the front of the TV, but it also needs to be perpendicular to the way that you are aiming the controller. If it's a little angled, then things get a little messed up. The other big thing is that if you have other sources of IR than the sensor bar (like the sun, or anything that is going to reflect the IR from the sensor bar) then you need mess with the sensitivity of the wiimote and possibly cover things up (a lot of people on the gamespot forums recommend covering up any theoretical glass coffee tables that are between you and the system).
As for games being easier, yeah- some of the games do seem to START OUT easier, they get harder though (you wouldn't realize that if youre a typical sort of reviewer who only plays the first 30 minutes of a game though). You also have to remember that A: Nintendo is trying to rope in people who might have NEVER played a console game before in their ENTIRE LIFE. You have to make games easier for those people. B: Even hardcore gamers have never used something like the wiimote before, so everyone needs some time to get used to it. Look at how easy the first few levels of Super Mario 64 were- nobody was used to fully 3D analog control then either- but the game ramped up in difficulty toward the end.
I'm no blind nintendo apologist, but the Wii is a really fine system, and it seems like there are a lot of people who are either having legitimate problems with it because it's something new, and need to be set strait, or are just trying to set the console up to look like a failure, since it's doing something new.
Famous Last Words: "hmm...wikipedia says it's edible"
I wonder how many people having problems forgot to calibrate their wands.
You must A) tell it the proper position of the sensor bar (which should be as close to immediately below the TV, or directly on top of it, as possible, with on top being HIGHLY reccomended by nintendo)
and B) in most games, actually configure it if it needs accuracy. This usually consists of shrinking an area on the tv until it knows the size of your tv in relation to the sensor bar, but in Red Steel they use a more ingenious method. You're asked to look at things on all corners of the screen as part of the story so its harder to ignore.
But anyway, I wonder how much is simply calibration problems, or due to it being too far from the bottom of the tv?
Now, I wasn't fortunate enough to get my hands on a Wii, but I imagine there is a way to calibrate the thing right? I think I remember seeing someone mess with the options at the local Gamestop.
You constantly struggle for self improvement - and it shows.
Hooray for bad Engrish on fortune cookies
While everyone's entitled to his opinion, some opinions are less generally applicable than others, and I suspect that Mr. Sofge's are among the "less" bunch.
...compared with the full-body workout of a game like Dance Dance Revolution, you're not getting any kind of exercise at all.
Every time I sighted down the controller at the TV, the crosshairs were off-center
This presupposes that you should be sighting down the controller to aim the crosshairs, which I contend is not how most people (myself included) will be using it. A light gun, since it mimics the feel of a real gun, should meet this standard. The Wiimote, since it mimics the feel of a laser pointer (roughly, at least), need not. When I point a laser pointer at part of a slide, I don't actually sight down the barrel before pressing the button. I point it at the intended target, turn it on, then adjust the aim appropriately. I'm sure if the laser was significantly off-line, it would be problematic, but as long as it's close, I don't really care. If there's an onscreen pointer, then I don't see this being a problem. It's certainly not going to be less "realistic" or "natural" than moving a mouse - in a plane perpendicular to the viewing plane - to aim a gun, and that's been the standard for FPS-style aiming for a decade and a half.
During a quest to catch a magical fish, the onscreen directions told me to cast my line by swinging the right controller back, then forward. And when the fish bit, a graphic showed me how to make a reeling motion with the nunchuk. I was annoyed when I couldn't shoot straight, but this was worse. The Wii is T-ball for gamers.
I hardly think that having games show you the appropriate controls to accomplish in-game tasks is unique to either Zelda or the Wii. While the growth of in-game tutorials might be criticized for leading to a dearth of quality manuals, it's certainly an effective way to learn how to play a game. So it shows you the correct motions to make to do something in the game. How is this any different than a manual showing you which buttons to press to accomplish something in the game? You still have to go and actually do it, after all. Besides which, Zelda as a franchise (recently, anyway) isn't exactly known for being a demanding twitch/precision control style of game. It's a pseudo-RPG in its modern incarnations. A little assist on the dextral mechanics for playing isn't really a bad thing.
After a few whacks, I realized that the Wii isn't asking me to simulate a realistic swing... [snip]
No kidding. I can virtually guarantee that a console which required a full-body workout to play games would be a dismal failure on the marketplace. It's one thing for DDR, it's another thing for a whole system. The idea behind the Wiimote, in my mind, is that someone can pick it up and play baseball as if he was actually swinging a bat. That's the part that's accessible to everyone who's gone bowling, or played tennis, or baseball, etc. That you don't have to do that doesn't mean the system's a disappointment. In fact, for a lot of people, that's probably an advantage: that means that the novel control scheme won't get in the way of having a good time.
(And I won't even touch the amount of criticism that Nintendo would draw if their console was completely inaccessible to, say, paraplegics)
Which is why I could hit one-handed home runs without winding up or following through.
Strictly speaking, follow through isn't a physical requirement for hitting home runs. Once the ball has left the bat, the bat imparts no more energy to the ball. It could stop the instant it was out of contact with the ball, and the ball would go just as far. Follow through is simply a result of swinging that mass around, and mentally focussing on follow through is what allows the actual impact to be smooth and at peak velocity.
If you translate this to something the mass of the Wiimote, you've still got exactly as much follow throug
Reality has a conservative bias: it conserves mass, energy, momentum...
Admittedly, playing an FPS with the Wiimote takes some getting used to, but once you do, you will never want to go back to dual-analog. I played through CoD3 over the last two days, and it took me a solid 90 minutes to get accustomed to using the Wiimote as is necessary to get through the game. However, once I did, the experience became so much more immersive and satisfying than it would have been otherwise (CoD3 is a pedestrian game saved by a cool control scheme).
I have played most of the major FPSs ever to come out. From Wolfenstein, Doom, Goldeneye, Half-Life (and mods), Halo, HalfLife2...etc ... On some, I have used a console controller, on others, I have used a PC. IMO, for FPSs, the wiimote is far better than dual-analog, but not quite as good as wasd+mouse.
Personally, I won't ever go back to using archaic dual analog ... even for Gears of War. In fact, I think that in 4 years, all the next-next gen consoles will be sporting Wiimote-like controls.
burrocrisy
and that would be what? Ruling by jackasses? Never has a slashdot misspelling been more apropos
Everyone I know who has used the remote has started off extremely dubious, but eventually been won over, and gotten used to it. It sounds like the Wii just didn't match up to what he wanted, instead of trying out what it was.
but where are those good old fashion values, on which we used to rely?
:S
Sorry, I was humming this as I read your message, now thats scary
slate is owned by microsoft
conflict of interest?
This is the Wii's biggest letdown--you don't need to stand up, leap around, or otherwise leave the warm embrace of your couch.
Actually, that's a huge advantage. It's cool that the game allows it (wireless controler) but doesn't enforce it. I would hate to come home after work, exhausted and tired, and have the game console force me to jump around. Sometimes I want to, sometimes I don't - and if the console respects that, bonus points for playing nice with me.
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
In the first article the writer beings to complain about accuracy problems with the remote. Stange that there is no mention of hime calibrating the Wii to make it as accurate as possible. Not to mention that the few games he does talk abouit having calibration problems on haven't been played by the public or seen by the press since the New York launch date announcement.
Boy, did they hit the head on the nail:
He says:
"I realized that the Wii isn't asking me to simulate a realistic swing. There's no reason to assume a batter's stance, and no reason to bother swinging the controller fast or following through--flicking the controller like a pingpong paddle works just as well. This is the Wii's biggest letdown--you don't need to stand up, leap around, or otherwise leave the warm embrace of your couch. The console senses motion, but compared with the full-body workout of a game like Dance Dance Revolution, you're not getting any kind of exercise at all."
PA says:
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/11/13
I say:
He doesn't appear to understand a certain type of fun that videogames can provide. You _can_ decide to play it like Cartman playing WoW, or you could have fun. Your choice. He chooses to be a f***ing toolbox.
I'm not a Wii fanboy, but I have to say that article is pretty terrible.
"Every time I sighted down the controller at the TV, the crosshairs were off-center."
The Wii-mote isn't designed for this, period. While there is minimal configuration for the Wii-mote's sensitivity, there is no way to make the Wii-mote's pointer line up pixel-perfectly. The Wii-mote is pretty accurate, but it's more of a relative movement like a mouse. Games aren't designed to require pixel-perfect accuracy. If you needed pixel-perfect accuracy, you'd need a more complicated setup to calibrate for the size of your TV, the orientation of the TV and sensor bar, and to take in account the fact that players will be playing from different angles. It's just not needed.
While the Wiimote is pretty good, game companies need to understand its limitations - and this includes Nintendo. Wii Sports is a lot of fun, because it uses mostly relativistic movements of the controller. By contrast, Super Monkey Balls includes a lot of games that require precision aiming, like a gun. This does NOT work well. It was frustrating. So it depends what you use it for. It's a great controller, great functionality - but its limits need to be understood. Furthermore, I don't want to put as much energy into my game playing as many of the games such as Wii Sports makes you - usually I want to relax. Wii Sports/etc are GREAT fun, but I don't want those most of the time. So I hope that companies realize that that functionality should be supplemental, in most cases, to the game play, and not the be-all end-all of control.
-Daniel
The Wii Remote? Whatever happened to Wiimote? And didn't everyone get over the "unfortunate name" months ago? Between these examples and the references to playing Duck Hunt and arcades in Times Square, it seems to me that Sofge is acting like a crochety old man with no desire to keep an open mind. He even throws in Halo to make it seem like hes "down" with the new kids. Don't get me wrong, I grew up in the Duck Hunt era (I was depressed when it was coming to virtual console because 15 years later I still can't shoot that damn laughing dog). I remember paying 3 quarters to play Street Fighter 2 Turbo. Sofke, despite living through the same era, kept a tone made it seem like unless the Wii danced the polka and then cooked him a steak dinner, it sucked. The entire article might as well say:
"In my day, we only had 1 button and a joystick, and we liked it! And we had to hike to video game store 5 miles in the snow! Uphill both ways!"
-Now I may be an idiot, but there is one thing I am not sir, and that, sir, is an idiot.
Takes a while to get used to any analogue control, surely.
New clutch, new steering wheel or, power steering.
It took me a few days to get used to my Logitech MX1000 mouse after using a standard el cheapo mouse for years, mainly because of the shape, I could not draw a straight vertical line in Photoshop with the MX1000, now I'm used to it.
It seems a general consensus is that a well-calibrated wiimote is very accurate as far as the hardware goes, but the first wave of games does not use this accuracy. Instead they all go for a kind of mouse gestures without 1:1 mapping off player movements to in-game movements. Of course this disappoints gamers who already dreamed of "real" sword fighting, golf, or tennis.
That the first games that are published for the Wii go this route does not surprise me at all though. First of all there is Nintendos initial main focus on casual gamers, which of course makes them emphasize more accessible games. The developers also need to come to grips with the controller, they need to understand a new kind of gameplay, and there also may be some hardware precision issues in the first Wii generation.
However if the wiimote is capable of precise tracking in principle, and it seems like it, then I am convinced that the second or third wave of games will go into completely new directions, and there will be games that will use precision movements for all kinds of stuff: sports like gold, tennis, or ballsports, sword (or lightsabre) fighting games, and things I am not creative enough to think of.
I for one cannot wait.
"When I first heard Daydream Nation it quite frankly scared the living shit out of me." -- Matthew Stearns
Here is a choice quote from the first paragraph...
But the Wii, which is being marketed as the ideal system for newbies, made me feel like an incompetent novice. I don't blame myself. The ugly truth is that the Wii's already-legendary motion-detection system doesn't work very well.
Emphasis mine. That pretty much sums up the article.
Perhaps Eric didn't read the directions or trouble shooting guide and adjust the sensitivity or place the sensor bar in a good location. The sensitivity setup feature is really cool; it displays an image of the sensor bar's IR LED's from the Wimote's IR camera. You can easily tell if the Wimote is picking up reflections or if the bar is blocked from some angles of view. Every TV remote should have these features and I predict they will within a few short years. It's that good.
I dont have super monkey balls but I have CoD3 and Rayman Raving Rabids and both feature FPS. So far I have had no trouble shooting or targeting. Honestly I think its easier to play FPS with the Wii controllers. I gave up on the Genre long ago because play on consoles sucked with dual analog. Perhaps Super Monkey Balls just implments thhe hardware badly.
"Don't mess with him, he taunts the happy fun ball."
What are you talking about, precision aiming is where the WiiMote absolutely shines. I suspect you don't have something set up correcty. Oddly enough the "FPS" mini game in monkey ball features the best FPS control setup I have ever played (on a console). Red Steel, no so much.
When you play a racing game how do you drive? Do you gently move the stick 1/3rd of the possible range? Probably not, most people apply the same strategy to analog sticks as digital pads. You move the stick 100%, release, and back. This is what i call "tap steering".
Playing Gran Turismo years ago taught me how to use an analog stick properly. The wii is very similar. There are a number of challenges to face players. For example, trauma center has you selecting your tools with the nunchuck's analog stick. Sounds easy enough, but since the nunchuck and wiimote aren't rigidly connected, i find my left hand rotates to the right a bit, meaning the direction i traditionally translate to upwards motion is now up-left.
It is the adult view to apply known concepts to new problems (tap steering).
It is the child's view to find an optimal solution to the challenge.
Some people will never grow up. And some people never revisit youth. You get out what you put in.
Wouldn't a round peg and a round hole fit just fine?
This guy is an idiot. Sure the Wii has its problems, and I am not a fanboy (at least of Nintendo, I am an xbox fanboy if anything) but this guy just doesn't get it. First off the remote is not a light gun, and you shouldn't be holding it to sight down it at all. Next of course you don't have to swing the remote like you really would a bat or bowling ball or your fist. To force people to do that would be stupid. But you sure can jump around with the remote and look like an idiot if you want. I do when I play the golf or bowling for example. I think that it is fun and that is the appeal of this system: Fun.
www.madeofwinandawesome.com
Ok, I was fine up until this point: "Strictly speaking, follow through isn't a physical requirement for hitting home runs. Once the ball has left the bat, the bat imparts no more energy to the ball."
Huh? I've never played baseball in my life but it's simple enough - if you were to swing the bat in such a way as to be able to stop it immediately the ball has left it, the energy imparted would be very small indeed; follow through is everything.
Going back to Wii Sports, it is supposed to be incrediably easy to "cheat" in all the sports games, greatly reducing the fun level. Personally I'm surprised that there hasn't been more reviews along the same lines as Sofge's, but I guess Nintendo marketing has done a good job. (Got the journos well liquored up and not let them play the same game too long.)
It looks (ftm) like the Wii is going to be a huge success, however, it will surely depend on how well the remote is exploited vs. how many of the games rely on gimmickry.
When it comes to games the difference between a gimick and a revolution is largely dependant on execution. I have seen many of the 'greatest games of the year' be reviewed so well based on the inclusion of features which were readily availabe in a (much worse) game that was released 18 months earlier; in most of these games these features are passed off as gimmicks.
Whether the Wii ends up being as successful as it can be (both in terms of critical and ecconomical success) depends largely on whether they can convince large (high quality) third party developers to focus on their system; regardless of this I suspect that Nintendo will provide enough games that show of the potential of the system.
My friend's suitemate got a Wii the day it was out, and I got to play Red Steel and Zelda. It was flawless. I could easily aim wherever I wanted and actually enjoy playing the game. Of course, I'd do it much faster and more precisely with a mouse, but it would be less fun , that's why they don't have mice on arcade machines. Also, last time I tried playing Halo or any other FPS on a PS2 - I couldn't play, because I just couldn't use the controller. For a first-time user, Wiimote is much easier to learn than dual-stick; it's faster to move around - and has the fun level which dual-stick will never achieve. In my opinion, he must have been clumsy or slightly impaired if he had too much trouble. Or maybe he was so used to dual-stick that he cannot accept anything else.
The only intuitive human interface is the nipple. Everything else is learned, including pen, keyboard, mouse, and gamepad. You just seem to forget the effort that you spent learning them because you learned them before age 12.
Ubisoft sucks.
Let's start at the begining. Play a nintendo game. Don't want to pay for it? Play Wii Sports. Wii sports is suprisingly spot on with it's controls (Zelda and excite truck is too). So that means the controller is good and the system is amazingly responsive.
Now let's look at the problem with the controller. Point the controller at the screen, can you hold it there for 3 minutes. I can't either. Know why? Because it's a new system. You're not going to completely master the wii mote in the first minute. It takes a couple hours at least. I'm pretty good with the control now, and I expect to get far better. Try holding up a hand and not moving it for 3 minutes, can't do that either right? Again it takes time and practice with it.
Now let's look at the games being too "Easy"? They might be simple (though Again zelda is far from simple) but they arn't "Easy". And why is that? Because companies didn't know how far they could push the new control scheme. You could program a Xbox 360 game years before it came out, because of a simple fact. It's the same as a Xbox control scheme with minor changes you tweak when you get the final dev kits.
As for unresponsive? Out of 4 games (including wii sports) the only unresponsive game was Red Steel, and that was hardly the only problem with that game. There was numerous problems with ubi's launch titles, either being graphically inept (both racing games). Being minigame, with out a real game (rayman) and being Red steel (with a number of problems). So the system sucks right? Well excitetruck showed that the system is more than a little good with racing games, Monkey ball shows we can have full games with mini games, and Call of duty 3 which looks weaker, is said to have the best controls out of all three systems.
The bottom line is that this is a NEW console, with radically NEW control schemes, just because reviewers have had it a week doesn't mean you'll master it in that time. You should already be better at it, and just like us, developers should be getting better and better at it. Just don't blame Nintendo for Ubi's crappy titles when Nintendo and Activision both prove the Wii is more than capable at holding it's own.
I can't find the article but /. ran a story about a company hoping to piggyback off Nintendo's idea with RF based gyromotes for the 360, PS3 and even PC.
No sig for you!!
not the slashdot blurb but still what i was looking for clicky
No sig for you!!
Is in the lack of settings for the Wiimote. Asking whether the sensor bar is above or below the TV is great, but if I have the the intest, let me get in and fine tune the mother fucker: adjust how FAR above the TV it is, and how large the TV is. So far, the horizontal accuracy of the Wiimote is perfect, but the vertical is not very close. It would be nice to be able to tweak it to your perticular game style. I understand that Nintendo is trying to make things simple, but that's what "advanced options" buttons are for. Maybe in a future firmware update. But this is a much smaller complaint than you would think. I'm absolutely loving Zelda (which has a few additional Wiimote options, btw), and my few minutes on WiiSports Tennis was lots of fun. I've heard way too many complaints about Red Steel, and some concern over Metroid... which I hope they fix before its release.
Multiplayer Gaming (defined): Sitting around, discussing single-player games with my friends, at the bar.
I think it was meant to be a joke. News for Nerds... high percentage of Linux geeks here. You do remember funny, right?
It works beautifully in Twilight Princess.
"Sufferin' succotash."
I've played about four hours of Madden Wii. It wasn't fun and playing with 4 people was ridiculous, if not impossible. Two players is the absolute most to sensibly control things.
The controls are akward, exhausting, and have a very steep learning curve. Unless you sit down and practice the tutorials, you'll have trouble even throwing the football. Even then it's hit and miss, and the wii falsely detects the motion..
Other flaws include the instability of syncing the system up to the controllers wirelessly (sometimes it took us 10-15 minutes)
'Going back to Wii Sports, it is supposed to be incrediably easy to "cheat" in all the sports games, greatly reducing the fun level.'
Say, if you play on your own, you cheat on yourself and deprive yourself of the fun. Unless you are into sado-maso, why would you do this? And if you are playing with some folks in your living room, there will quickly be a social consensus about acceptable moves. I do not see a problem here.
The first titles using the touchpad were a hit and miss situations, the controls even nintendo with its mario 64 port sometimes were out of being playable to a good degree, the situation now is way better, most games are very playable and there are 3-4 standard schemes how the touchpad is utilized. History seems to repeat itself with the wii. It will be interesting to see how the system will be used in the future. If it really is similar to a mouse pointer, adventures and goot strategy titles can arise form it like they did with the ds... Also the ds could function as a mouse for the screen in the long run.
Apparently, he "was in love with the Nintendo Wii long before [they'd] ever met" but he then goes on to describe "the remote-shaped controller (aka the Wii Remote)"
How much of a fan can you be without knowing it's called "Wiimote"? That kind of gaffe makes me question the rest of the article.
The only intuitive human interface is the nipple.
Not even that. Just ask the first woman I ever got naked.
Perhaps life really is full of possibilities.
"I dont have super monkey balls "
Baaawhahahawww
Sorry.
If you wanna get rich, you know that payback is a bitch
\{me puts on my photographers hat} As the camera that senses the sensor bar is in the wiimote, it's using the position of the IR emitters in the light bar to figure out its orientation. I'll bet the lens on the wiimote's CCD has a short focal length, meaning that if it could see normally, it would see fisheye; this means that it can see a wide swath of space, but things held close to it will appear distorted.
This implies that when one holds the wiimote too close, the sensor bar's emitters are being displaced further from the center of the CCDs image (the optical axis) than if they were at a distance. Thus, if your sensor bar is above your TV, your cursor will deflect down. The opposite is probably the case; if you place your emitters beneath the image, your cursor will deflect up if you hold the wiimote too close.
I admit, this effect being noticeable at all is a testament to the sensitivity of the wiimote, it simply must be held at a good distance. If Nintendo could cell LCD screens with emitters embedded behind the center of the screen, you could be as close as you want =D .
Don't blame me, I voted for Baltar.
I have seen many of the 'greatest games of the year' be reviewed so well based on the inclusion of features which were readily availabe in a (much worse) game that was released 18 months earlier; in most of these games these features are passed off as gimmicks.
You mean like every single feature in Warcraft 3?
I think they focused too much on including as many mini-games as possible, rather than focusing on perfecting controls for each particular game, and it shows.
SMB is made by Sega, btw, not Nintendo.
just some guy
You mean like how everyone decried every early game on the DS a gimmick? History is at the door...it's here to repeat itself.
I've had some games suck and others be very good.
In Super Monkey Ball, if I'm sitting on my bed near my bedroom TV, it's very hard to control some of the games; the remote sensing tends to be off. If I move to a TV I can be further from, most of them work fine... But whackamole's "move the remote around to move the hammer" doesn't work well at all, with the hammer bouncing all over the screen. On the other hand, disc golf works like a charm at that range.
In Rayman, the only control problem I've had is that, in the dancing minigame, I tend to have a hard time telling when the remote will feel it's been "shaken", so my timing's poor. The rails shooter is excellent; the game's accuracy is better than I've gotten with any controller but a light gun before. Way better than a trackball or mouse. (Actually, it's fairly similar to using a drawing tablet.)
Trauma Center shows that the potential is there for flawless controls; I'm still getting the hang of it, but I can reliably cut people open in the right spots without missing.
My blog: http://www.seebs.net/log/ --- My iPhone/iPad app: http://www.seebs.net/seebsfrac/
I just played one of the FPS games in Super Monkey Ball, and frankly I was amazed at how natural it felt. Sure, it doesn't beat a mouse, but it's certainly much better than using an analog stick to aim.
My experience with most Wii games so far is that they can feel very awkward at first -- and if you are an experienced gamer, you may find this frustrating, because you feel like a beginner -- but after 10-20 minutes it feels totally natural.
The only intuitive human interface is the nipple.
Spoken as someone who hasn't had a problem with a baby latching on to nurse.
I know it's a common cliche, but that doesn't make it right. There are multiple organizations out there because the nipple isn't an intuitive interface. La Leche League. Lactation consultants.
To bring this back to the Wii - yes, people will have to get used to doing something new. But people do that all the time.
Good luck,
=Blue(23)
LITTLE GIRL: But which cookie will you eat FIRST? C. MONSTER: Me think you have misconception of cookie-eating process.
Where is this option? I readjusted the sensor bar, and things are running great now, but I would like to know if there are any 'blind spots' that I haven't discovered yet.
In short, this is a new spin on the old classic excuse of blaming the controller.
Thunderclone: ONE MAN ENTERS! TWO MEN LEAVE! ONE MAN ENTERS! TWO MEN LEAVE!
All in all, it seems like this reviewer's reasons for disappointment are largely specific to this reviewer.
True, but that doesn't completely invalidate the review.
If you're the same type of gamer as the reviewer is, this writeup may very well suggest that playing Wii would to you be a frustrating and disappointing experience. The reader, thus more informed, can make smarter purchase decisions.
That is the standard MO of Blizzard. They don't necessarily innovate. Instead, they take existing concepts and refine them to a higher point of quality than anyone else.
There are generally two ways to be successful: Do something noone else has done, or do something better than everyone else. Blizzard seems proficient at option 2.
Ok, Traumacenter's hit and miss. a Stylus acting as a scalpel is MUCH more natural and intuitive than a laser pointer, but using the Nunchuck as a defibrillator Is natural and intuitive and couldn't be convincingly be done on the DS. For Trauma Center (and a number of Monkeyball mini games) it's Hit and Miss. Some controlls are superb, while others are barely functional. This is something I expected with 1st gen software with the controller.
However in MOST cases I found (as you put it) 'the controls dissolving' and being completely second nature. My learning curve for every Wii sports games was infinitesimal. The controls were intuitive and I didn't think about what I was doing, so much as 'I just did it'.
Not even that, my wife had a lot of trouble learning to get the baby to "attach" correctly...
Once she did learn, it all became easier... like the analog stick or the Wii!
No sig for the moment.
(besides a short stint on Excite Truck at GameStop)... it was really fun. We mostly played minigames (from Sports and Monkey Ball), but they were mostly easy to pick up. I was VERY suprised at how well the remote worked. It was very sensitive, and could detect the precise angle you want to hold your baseball bat, and let you do spinning shots in tennis, and so forth. We played a FPS minigame in Monkey Ball that was GREAT! Really exciting and fun. I'm looking forward to Metroid now, for sure.
On the flip side: The graphics were certainly nothing to write home about. They are better than the last gen, but that's all. The Wiimote does have a tendency to flip out if you move from where you start a minigame... once i moved from the right side to the left mid-game and it was annoying having to compensate for my location swap, but it went away on the next game. Not really sure why it did that, but it was noticable. Also if you are extreme angles to the sensor bar, it seems like there are issues. But both of these are things that shouldn't matter for most play, I would guess.
All in all, for the price I think the Wii is pretty cool. I think I will want to have a 360 or PS3 as well for more traditional games, but for fun party style games I think the Wii is perfect.
Honestly at first I was really very bad at using the wiimote. It was shaking all over the place. But ten minutes later it was second nature. It just takes a little experimentation to figure-out not to do stupid things like move your whole arm and hold it out straight in front of you. (Yup that is what I was doing at first.) Also one of my wiimotes was not as good as the others. It would disconnect all the time and it's pointer was very shakey on the screen regardless of what I did. I exchanged it when I noticed the others were behaving vastly better.
Wii Options->Wii Settings -> sensor bar (on second page) ->sensitivity
Adjust until you see two and only two small blinking dots.
These dots are the sensor bar LED's