It isn't necessarily the best game of the year (I'd give that to Portal), but it was such an astonishing shift in the way first-person games are played. The control interface is the first time the motion controls on the Wii have been absolutely perfect, the design is beautiful and varied and the gameplay is fluid and intuitive.
I'll confess I haven't played Portal yet, but Metroid Prime 3 was my GOTY pick for a while. Eventually it got over thrown by Mario Galaxy, then by Rock Band 360 (which has been played constantly since it came out).
I've never before encountered such a radical shift in my expectations of how an entire game genre should be played.
Which is exactly why those are my top 3 for the year as they are not only awesome games in their own right, but they also shift your perception of what to expect/demand from the entire genre.
I don't understand why Metroid gets no love, yet people trip over themselves to complement for Bioshock which is "above average" at best.
Are you speaking from personal experience, because I think tornado only works on splicers.
You may be right. I did do the trick described above, but it may have been a splicer rather than a Big Daddy. I honestly forget, and no longer have the game to try it out and verify if it works on the Daddy's or not.
I think Nintendo would be hit big time with bad publicity if they suddenly raised their prices. Have you ever seen any consumer electronic device come out and then suddenly raise their price when demand was high?
They can't raise their prices without increasing the perceived value, or there will be a huge backlash. What they COULD do, is what retailers are doing and forcing bundles. Make the Wii available in 2 packages. 1 solo $250 package (what's offered now) that will get 30% of production, and 70% of production will go to the new $399 "Wii Multiplayer Bundle"; which includes the system, WiiPlay, an Extra Nunchuck, 2 Classic controllers, and $40 in Wii Points cards.
I just don't understand how they could not have for seen this shortage. I mean last year the same thing happened and they said then they would be ready for this year.
The issue is the Wii is selling better than any console in history. The Wii is selling faster than the PS2, the DS, or anything else that came before it. So Nintendo forcasted based on "Aggressive sales" and started with production of 1 million for launch, and 1 million a month, which they felt was a fair target (even optimistic, considering that's the rate of initial PS2 sales). Now demand is much higher than anyone (even Nintendo) anticipated, and even now at 1.8 million units per month it still isn't enough.
From a business point it would make no sense to short your sales. From a marketing point however it's been brilliant. Wii is all the rage and is likely so popular BECAUSE it's hard to get.
You're right in saying it makes no business sence to short your sales. Demand isn't a constant, neither is hype. You want to satisfy demand before it wanes.
I feel almost certain that this will do the trick! Thanks for your feedback, every replacement bar I have seen so far plugs into the Wii itself -- which I assume will be no more powerful than the stock sensor.
This sensor with its AC adapter should be able to provide a brighter IR signal for better long-distance remote control. I've got it on order, thanks again!
I actually get a better response from my Wii if I pull the sensor bar a bit over the top edge of my TV screen. Further out than flush seemed to make a big difference in my living room. I still can't reliably use the thing from across the room where I would like.
I've been waiting for a good 3rd party sensor bar that might actually glow a bit brighter. You mention the "Nintendo Stock sensor bar" and imply there are better sensor bars out there. Have you had any success extending the practical range of your Wii with a better sensor bar? Do you have any brands you would suggest?
My living room isn't long enough for it to be an issue (it's only 15 feet long total), but I did end up getting one of these when I bought a projector. The cable for the WiiSensor bar is rediculously long (nearly 12 feet) for Entertainment center set ups where the Wii is near the TV, but not nearly long enough when they are across the room from eachother. This was one of the few that didn't run exclusively on Battery power, and has an AC adapter. The ability to plug it in and never think twice about it was important to me. The site claims it's good up to 30 feet, (and they may be right) but I never had to test the distance portion due to my setup so I can't vouch for it.
What I can vouch for is it's ability to work exactly like the WiiSensor bar, and I am able to get good and smooth movement from the remote whenever I use it. If you have a projector setup, I highly recommend it.
There's no way the Wii mote compares to a mouse and keyboard for shooters.
The only reason it's usable at all in Metroid Prime 3 is because the Z button auto-locks your view onto the target.
If it wasn't for that feature, the controls would be hopeless.
Yes, It has that option if the thought of Shooters is too intimidating to you. This is on par with some of the "Auto-aiming" tricks used in other console and PC games to simplify it for a novice.
There IS a control option called "Advanced" that doesn't auto lock the reticle on enemies, but locks your camera, so you can "Free Aim, and Shoot your enemies with precision at a distance". It is very precise and works well. I suspect that those who are praising the control scheme played it this way.
Thanks for the advice. The coffee table is a possibility since it has a shiny finish (it's not glass or mirrored though).
Make sure where ever you have the sensor bar it is at the very edge of whatever it sits. Set it flush with the face of the TV (if on top) or the front of the entertainment center (if on bottom). I had instances where the sensor bar would be obscured by the angle of the entertainment center (If I rested the controller in my lap), and the pointer went crazy until I brought the Wiimote higher so it could get a clean view of it.
Any infrared light source near the TV (or IRsensor on the Wiimote) could be disruptive. Lamps, Candles, and especially the Sun.
The WiiMote uses the the sensor bar to triangulate position based on 2 steady points (provided by the sensor bar).
If multiple sources are competing with the signal then it will confuse the Wiimote causing jitter. The Sun is the worse as it can blanket the Wiimote sensor with IR light making it impossible to detect the 2 points of the sensor bar among all the noise. So as an experiment you may want to close the curtains, blow out the candles, and turn off any lamps that may be near the TV to see if they are adding interference.
Another issue is distance, if you have a rectangular living room you may have issues with the Nintendo Stock sensor bar after 10 feet or so. (or if you are too close IE: less than 3 feet from it will cause issues)
*Games are already improving on the design, play Medal of Honor Heroes 2 and customize your aim sensitivity to achieve mouse level precision if you like.
almost every PC shooter allow you to customize your mouse sensitivity, from Quake to Counter Strike... Dont know what PC gamers would ever do without that. But Medal of Honor did innovate upon the shooting scheme but allowing you to manually look over covers at the direction you want.
Sorry if I was unclear. I was not commenting on customization as an innovation in this particular game, rather I was commenting on how MoH Heroes 2 (with its' customization options) can actually reach mouse levels of sensitivity on the Wii, and how that was an improvement on the Metroid Prime 3's (Still wonderful) controls.
Do you get a lot of Sun in the room you play the Wii in? In general if I have those issues drawing the curtains fixes them ( sunlight screws up communication with the sensor bar).
There's no way the Wii mote compares to a mouse and keyboard for shooters.
The only reason it's usable at all in Metroid Prime 3 is because the Z button auto-locks your view onto the target.
If it wasn't for that feature, the controls would be hopeless.
On the default "n00b setting", yes it does this. On "Advanced" the Z button locks the camera on a specific target, but gives you free range shooting ability anywhere. This is the way it should be played.
The only reason this is controversial is because the wiimote doesn't have good enough aim. It's often off by an inch or more on smaller tv's. This is hard on hard core FPS fans, but for me this isn't a problem. First, between wrestling with the auto-aim feature on a lot of shooters and using two analog sticks to control my movement and aim, I find correcting for the wiimote's bad aim to be easy by comparison. I'd rather have faster, more responsive aim that's off by a consistent amount than have to use a regular controller.
I didn't have that issue with a big screen. I wonder where that line really diverges, is it bad on say 19" TV, but Sweet at 42"+ ? Dunno. It was pretty easy for me to pick off people in the distance on my projector and I have a 92" screen on that.
I know I'll get flamed to hell for this, but unlike the article I think the Wii Controls are already better than the PC's (and there is still room for improvement*). The Advanced sensitivity on Metroid Prime 3 is "Nearly, but not quite as sensitive as a mouse", but for what little sensitivity is lost, the Analog on the Nunchuck kicks the shit out of WASD, and there is simply nothing that can compare on the PC with the visceral immersion of the Grapple gun.
Using your left arm to throw a grapple on you're opponent's shield, then jerking your arm back to pull the shield out of their hand so you can blast them with your arm cannon is something you can't get elsewhere. Add that with full analog movement, and you have an experience that not only rivals, but betters the competition.
*Games are already improving on the design, play Medal of Honor Heroes 2 and customize your aim sensitivity to achieve mouse level precision if you like.
Re:Where are the internet games?
on
Where are Wii?
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· Score: 1
There is about a dozen online games now, like Madden, Battallion Wars 2, Mario Strikers, Pokemon and Dragon Ball Z;3.
It's not quite the same experience as with the 360s friend lists and the like, but the games are online.
Don't forget Medal of Honor Heroes 2. It's a lot of fun, and supports 32 players online with EA Nation (free).
Gameplay. The mechanics of the core game. How it plays, how it feels, how you interact with the machine. If you haven't got it, then you've essentially got a very expensive set of polygons moving about on screen, with an occasional soundtrack. Storyline, music, characters, are all filler, not the core. If you haven't got gameplay, you haven't got a game. You've got a plausibly interactive, low quality animated feature.
Re: 360 an Overclocked Gamecube...
on
Where are Wii?
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· Score: 1
PS3 and XBox360 are completly new architectures and have little in common with their predecessors, the Wii is the exact same architecture as the Gamecube, just a bit higher clock and a bit more RAM.
Actually a 360 is pretty much an overclocked Gamecube and shares more arcitectural similarities with the Wii than it does to the Original X-box. The Gamecube and Wii are both PowerPC systems with an ATI GPU... The 360 is a PowerPC system with an ATI GPU. It has a higher clock speed and more RAM, but it really is in the same family.
I'm always amazed by the people who take advantage of all the things that make the game easier, and then complain that it is too easy. Are people really so undisciplined that they are unable to make their own challenges, and have to have them forced on them?... If that's not scary enough, how about making the wrench your default weapon?
The issue is you can beat the game on Hard with the Wrench as your only weapon. Just lure a big daddy outside a vita chamber and nail him with your leveled up wrench, rinse and repeat till it suits your fancy.
If you want to FORCE a challenge, remove and kind of storage for saves (hdd/memory) then wrap a launch 360 with shag carpet before starting.
Yeah, difficulty levels are the common way of making story-based games challenging. Still, they're only good for replayability. They don't help challenge-based players enjoy the game the first time through.
I disagree. If Bioshock was more limiting in resources such as health, ammo, money and respawn chambers (despite having a save anywhere feature) it might have encouraged tactical thinking beyond "Equip Wrench, and Hit the "R Trigger" until you win". This makes for an incredibly boring experience which unfortunately is how the game is designed.
Ever plant a Proximity mine on a ceiling and then send a Big Daddy into it with the Tornado plasmid? It's very fun, and gratifying. The issue is you only "play around" with the tools you have as a Metagame to keep from being bored with the actual game.
I have no problem with the "Novel games" being easier so anyone who wants to experience the story can play through and foolishly that's why I thought there were 3 difficulties "Casual play, Some Challenge, and Real Challenge" but as it stands now there isn't a reason for any difficulty below "Hard" in Bioshock. Though there isn't a vita chamber, there IS a health station in the room with the final boss. How hard CAN a boss be when you can go in stacked with full health, 9 health packs, AND $500 to buy full health bars at $10 a clip. Hell I think I'll dig up my last save and see if I can kill him with the wrench this way.
And isn't the point of demos to produce interest in sales of new games, thereby increasing MS's licensing revenue? How exactly does this help increase their bottom line?
Rather than having 1 massive wave of traffic to download the latest "HotDemo", you have 2 and the the paying customers get first crack. This lowers their infrastructure demands and (in theory) should be better for each set of customers because by having 2 availability dates the downloads for each set should be faster.
I've been feeling like I just don't get as much "value" from games nowadays and am left wondering if the issues in TFA are really based on this. Were folks left feeling like they didn't get enough value and partially due to external forces?
Yup. There isn't any real tiered pricing for new video games (It's simply "Budget", and "Everything Else") single player games with little replayability drop in perceived value, yet they still cost $50-$60 new. What they really need to do it put out some short titles with high production values, for $20. Something like Heavenly Sword, Stranglehold, or Bioshock should have been $20-$30 to start. If they did that there would have been more sold (and kept) rather than rented, and returned after a weekend.
Have you tried System Shock 2? It's a bit old but you can find high def texture packs online which update the graphics quite nicely. It's a great game.
Not yet. Once I get through my current batch of games, I'll check it out though. Thanks.
Sorry, but the lack of difficulty really took what could have been a "great game", and made it "good" to "above average".
The basic issue is there was no cost to dying totally undermined the atmosphere, and tension they tried so desperately to create. What fun is a "survival horror" if you're not scared?
They could have simply "fixed" the larger issues by scaling back on all the shit they gave you, like not having a vita chamber every 10 feet (I know you can turn them off now, but that doesn't solve the issue when you seldom die), or less ammo, or less health packs, or fewer/ no health stations or if you can buy health it actually cost you an amount of money you might care about like $400 instead of $10.
Basically they broke the game in play balancing. It was far more challenging playing Metroid Prime 3 on "Normal" (Easy) than Bioshock on "Hard", and thus I had a more engaging, and entertaining experience with the game as well as a greater sense of satisfaction when I beat it.
The New "Brass Balls" achievement is an acknowledgment from 2K Games that the game is too easy, so hopefully in the future there will be a patch to add a higher difficulty level and make it challenging. They don't need to change the core game, just subtracting available resources would work.
for Super Paper Mario? Was Miyamoto on an extended leave when this guy inserted hours worth if babble in between the platforming stages? Don't get me wrong, SPM is still a fun game, but I would have found it far more enjoyable if they reduced the nonsequitur story and stuck more with the platforming.
The 360's selection of causal games is only slightly larger than what the PS3 has, and that's with a 1-year head start. I don't see how you can say it "blows it out of the water".
But clearly you've never browsed the PSN catalog for PS3.
I know it's in vogue to simply dismiss or try and discredit the parent post by claiming they are a fanboy, or ignorant; though it does allow one to reply without any form of reasoned or researched response it also lends nothing to the dialog.
I check every Thursday. There simply aren't that many downloadable games for the PS3 yet, let alone casual oriented ones. According to this list. there are only 29 PSN games available in the United States as of tommorow (PixelJunk Monsters should come out tomorrow). And according to this list. there are 101 Xbox live arcade games out today .
How about this, I'll make a list of games I consider "casual games" and I'll stop when they outnumber all available games for the PSN. Will that be good enough?*
Uno
Hardwood Hearts
Hardwood Backgammon
Hardwood Spades
Texas Hold'em
Spyglass Board games
Soltrio Solitare
Tetris Splash
Word Puzzle
Zuma Deluxe
Bomberman
Geometry Wars
Caracasonne
Catan
Bankshot Billiards
Ms. Pacman
Pacman
Asteroids
Missle Command
Frogger
Galaga
Contra
Joust
Defender
Centipede/ Millipede
DigDug
Gauntlet
Golden Axe
Gyruss
Paperboy
*I stopped at 30, but if you want more games to add to the list, click on the link I provided above.
Slashdot Mirror
I'll confess I haven't played Portal yet, but Metroid Prime 3 was my GOTY pick for a while. Eventually it got over thrown by Mario Galaxy, then by Rock Band 360 (which has been played constantly since it came out).
Which is exactly why those are my top 3 for the year as they are not only awesome games in their own right, but they also shift your perception of what to expect/demand from the entire genre.
I don't understand why Metroid gets no love, yet people trip over themselves to complement for Bioshock which is "above average" at best.
You may be right. I did do the trick described above, but it may have been a splicer rather than a Big Daddy. I honestly forget, and no longer have the game to try it out and verify if it works on the Daddy's or not.
They can't raise their prices without increasing the perceived value, or there will be a huge backlash. What they COULD do, is what retailers are doing and forcing bundles. Make the Wii available in 2 packages. 1 solo $250 package (what's offered now) that will get 30% of production, and 70% of production will go to the new $399 "Wii Multiplayer Bundle"; which includes the system, WiiPlay, an Extra Nunchuck, 2 Classic controllers, and $40 in Wii Points cards.
That they could do.
The issue is the Wii is selling better than any console in history. The Wii is selling faster than the PS2, the DS, or anything else that came before it. So Nintendo forcasted based on "Aggressive sales" and started with production of 1 million for launch, and 1 million a month, which they felt was a fair target (even optimistic, considering that's the rate of initial PS2 sales). Now demand is much higher than anyone (even Nintendo) anticipated, and even now at 1.8 million units per month it still isn't enough.
You're right in saying it makes no business sence to short your sales. Demand isn't a constant, neither is hype. You want to satisfy demand before it wanes.
No Problem. I hope it works out for you.
My living room isn't long enough for it to be an issue (it's only 15 feet long total), but I did end up getting one of these when I bought a projector. The cable for the WiiSensor bar is rediculously long (nearly 12 feet) for Entertainment center set ups where the Wii is near the TV, but not nearly long enough when they are across the room from eachother. This was one of the few that didn't run exclusively on Battery power, and has an AC adapter. The ability to plug it in and never think twice about it was important to me. The site claims it's good up to 30 feet, (and they may be right) but I never had to test the distance portion due to my setup so I can't vouch for it.
What I can vouch for is it's ability to work exactly like the WiiSensor bar, and I am able to get good and smooth movement from the remote whenever I use it. If you have a projector setup, I highly recommend it.
Yes, It has that option if the thought of Shooters is too intimidating to you. This is on par with some of the "Auto-aiming" tricks used in other console and PC games to simplify it for a novice.
There IS a control option called "Advanced" that doesn't auto lock the reticle on enemies, but locks your camera, so you can "Free Aim, and Shoot your enemies with precision at a distance". It is very precise and works well. I suspect that those who are praising the control scheme played it this way.
Any infrared light source near the TV (or IRsensor on the Wiimote) could be disruptive. Lamps, Candles, and especially the Sun. The WiiMote uses the the sensor bar to triangulate position based on 2 steady points (provided by the sensor bar). If multiple sources are competing with the signal then it will confuse the Wiimote causing jitter. The Sun is the worse as it can blanket the Wiimote sensor with IR light making it impossible to detect the 2 points of the sensor bar among all the noise. So as an experiment you may want to close the curtains, blow out the candles, and turn off any lamps that may be near the TV to see if they are adding interference.
Another issue is distance, if you have a rectangular living room you may have issues with the Nintendo Stock sensor bar after 10 feet or so. (or if you are too close IE: less than 3 feet from it will cause issues)
I hope that helps.
Sorry if I was unclear. I was not commenting on customization as an innovation in this particular game, rather I was commenting on how MoH Heroes 2 (with its' customization options) can actually reach mouse levels of sensitivity on the Wii, and how that was an improvement on the Metroid Prime 3's (Still wonderful) controls.
Thanks.
Do you get a lot of Sun in the room you play the Wii in? In general if I have those issues drawing the curtains fixes them ( sunlight screws up communication with the sensor bar).
On the default "n00b setting", yes it does this. On "Advanced" the Z button locks the camera on a specific target, but gives you free range shooting ability anywhere. This is the way it should be played.
I didn't have that issue with a big screen. I wonder where that line really diverges, is it bad on say 19" TV, but Sweet at 42"+ ? Dunno. It was pretty easy for me to pick off people in the distance on my projector and I have a 92" screen on that.
I know I'll get flamed to hell for this, but unlike the article I think the Wii Controls are already better than the PC's (and there is still room for improvement*). The Advanced sensitivity on Metroid Prime 3 is "Nearly, but not quite as sensitive as a mouse", but for what little sensitivity is lost, the Analog on the Nunchuck kicks the shit out of WASD, and there is simply nothing that can compare on the PC with the visceral immersion of the Grapple gun.
Using your left arm to throw a grapple on you're opponent's shield, then jerking your arm back to pull the shield out of their hand so you can blast them with your arm cannon is something you can't get elsewhere. Add that with full analog movement, and you have an experience that not only rivals, but betters the competition.
*Games are already improving on the design, play Medal of Honor Heroes 2 and customize your aim sensitivity to achieve mouse level precision if you like.
Don't forget Medal of Honor Heroes 2. It's a lot of fun, and supports 32 players online with EA Nation (free).
Pick up Metroid 3. Mario Galaxy casts a large shadow and so Metroid isn't getting much love, but it is one of the best games this year.
From that description I take it you've played Dragon's Lair.
Actually a 360 is pretty much an overclocked Gamecube and shares more arcitectural similarities with the Wii than it does to the Original X-box. The Gamecube and Wii are both PowerPC systems with an ATI GPU ... The 360 is a PowerPC system with an ATI GPU. It has a higher clock speed and more RAM, but it really is in the same family.
The issue is you can beat the game on Hard with the Wrench as your only weapon. Just lure a big daddy outside a vita chamber and nail him with your leveled up wrench, rinse and repeat till it suits your fancy.
If you want to FORCE a challenge, remove and kind of storage for saves (hdd/memory) then wrap a launch 360 with shag carpet before starting.
I disagree. If Bioshock was more limiting in resources such as health, ammo, money and respawn chambers (despite having a save anywhere feature) it might have encouraged tactical thinking beyond "Equip Wrench, and Hit the "R Trigger" until you win". This makes for an incredibly boring experience which unfortunately is how the game is designed.
Ever plant a Proximity mine on a ceiling and then send a Big Daddy into it with the Tornado plasmid? It's very fun, and gratifying. The issue is you only "play around" with the tools you have as a Metagame to keep from being bored with the actual game.
I have no problem with the "Novel games" being easier so anyone who wants to experience the story can play through and foolishly that's why I thought there were 3 difficulties "Casual play, Some Challenge, and Real Challenge" but as it stands now there isn't a reason for any difficulty below "Hard" in Bioshock. Though there isn't a vita chamber, there IS a health station in the room with the final boss. How hard CAN a boss be when you can go in stacked with full health, 9 health packs, AND $500 to buy full health bars at $10 a clip. Hell I think I'll dig up my last save and see if I can kill him with the wrench this way.
Rather than having 1 massive wave of traffic to download the latest "HotDemo", you have 2 and the the paying customers get first crack. This lowers their infrastructure demands and (in theory) should be better for each set of customers because by having 2 availability dates the downloads for each set should be faster.
Yup. There isn't any real tiered pricing for new video games (It's simply "Budget", and "Everything Else") single player games with little replayability drop in perceived value, yet they still cost $50-$60 new. What they really need to do it put out some short titles with high production values, for $20. Something like Heavenly Sword, Stranglehold, or Bioshock should have been $20-$30 to start. If they did that there would have been more sold (and kept) rather than rented, and returned after a weekend.
Not yet. Once I get through my current batch of games, I'll check it out though. Thanks.
Yup. This is why I'm confused by all the "Game of The Year" Nods... It's the only GOTY contender I played where I got bored.
The basic issue is there was no cost to dying totally undermined the atmosphere, and tension they tried so desperately to create. What fun is a "survival horror" if you're not scared?
They could have simply "fixed" the larger issues by scaling back on all the shit they gave you, like not having a vita chamber every 10 feet (I know you can turn them off now, but that doesn't solve the issue when you seldom die), or less ammo, or less health packs, or fewer/ no health stations or if you can buy health it actually cost you an amount of money you might care about like $400 instead of $10.
Basically they broke the game in play balancing. It was far more challenging playing Metroid Prime 3 on "Normal" (Easy) than Bioshock on "Hard", and thus I had a more engaging, and entertaining experience with the game as well as a greater sense of satisfaction when I beat it.
The New "Brass Balls" achievement is an acknowledgment from 2K Games that the game is too easy, so hopefully in the future there will be a patch to add a higher difficulty level and make it challenging. They don't need to change the core game, just subtracting available resources would work.
for Super Paper Mario? Was Miyamoto on an extended leave when this guy inserted hours worth if babble in between the platforming stages? Don't get me wrong, SPM is still a fun game, but I would have found it far more enjoyable if they reduced the nonsequitur story and stuck more with the platforming.
I know it's in vogue to simply dismiss or try and discredit the parent post by claiming they are a fanboy, or ignorant; though it does allow one to reply without any form of reasoned or researched response it also lends nothing to the dialog.
I check every Thursday. There simply aren't that many downloadable games for the PS3 yet, let alone casual oriented ones. According to this list. there are only 29 PSN games available in the United States as of tommorow (PixelJunk Monsters should come out tomorrow). And according to this list. there are 101 Xbox live arcade games out today .
How about this, I'll make a list of games I consider "casual games" and I'll stop when they outnumber all available games for the PSN. Will that be good enough?*
Uno
Hardwood Hearts
Hardwood Backgammon
Hardwood Spades
Texas Hold'em
Spyglass Board games
Soltrio Solitare
Tetris Splash
Word Puzzle
Zuma Deluxe
Bomberman
Geometry Wars
Caracasonne
Catan
Bankshot Billiards
Ms. Pacman
Pacman
Asteroids
Missle Command
Frogger
Galaga
Contra
Joust
Defender
Centipede/ Millipede
DigDug
Gauntlet
Golden Axe
Gyruss
Paperboy
*I stopped at 30, but if you want more games to add to the list, click on the link I provided above.