General Gaming Discussions

[Demelza]

I know the rest of the internets is already raging over this, but it has to be said: the 6 month+ delay of Rayman Legends on Wii U makes me a sad panda.

There's barely anything to play on the Wii U right now as is, and as someone who loved Rayman Origins and the Rayman Legends demo, I've been dying to finally own this new game. It looks great. I even paid off some of my pre-order for the game last week because I'm so damn eager to play it. Now I'm thinking that I'll ask for a refund and put that cash towards different things (games that are actually releasing during this half of the year). .

I largely agree with the above. It's really sad news, especially for most Wii U owners who were looking forward to the game and may have bought the Wii U with the intention of playing this game in mind.

I guess it's another reason I haven't picked up a Wii U yet, because you just never know what's going to happen with these games until they finally see their release. I mean, Europe hasn't even had Scribblenauts Unlimited yet and we know from its release in the US there is nothing wrong with the actual game and no real, important, reason to put the games release off. Nintendo could have been brave and released the game digital only for now (it mistakenly went up in the eShop this morning and of those who downloaded it before Nintendo took it down, no one has found any faults with it yet), so it's a bit silly and sucks for those of us in the UK.

Really, a lot of good stuff needs to happen to make it up to the Wii U owners who bought the console on launch and are still waiting for two of the core games. The Rayman delay has been the last strew for most Wii U owners, especially when we know the game is basically done and will be just sat around until September when we could have had it now and been enjoying it.

 

[Doctor Oak]

Proof that Nintendo learned nothing from the 3DS.

Nothing at all..

 

[Linkachu]

We're getting another Nintendo Direct broadcast tomorrow. The stream will air at 6 AM PST/2PM GMT.

To quote IGN's article:

Curiously, the topics vary by region. Nintendo appears to have no plans for a Japanese broadcast, though the lack of an announcement could simply be due to the fact that it's past midnight in Kyoto... Nintendo of America says it will be discussing upcoming 3DS and Wii U games. Nintendo of Europe, however, will only be discussing 3DS games.

I guess that's 10 AM my time, smack dab in the middle of work. I'll likely still attempt to watch it.

 

[Demelza]

Yay for half days and being home just in time for the thing~

I don't expect much huge news, they'll likely spend a good ten minutes going over Castlevania and Luigi's Mansion seeing as they'll likely be released before we see another Nintendo Direct airs. At this point I'm kind of just hoping for a release date for Pokemon Mystery Dungeon 3DS considering the thing has its US date for March for quite some time now, I don't think I'm pushing it wanting the European date to finally be revealed.

Overall I guess I'm not quite sure what to expect, hopefully some really good announcements, but I won't build my hopes up too high.

 

[Doctor Oak]

NOE can hardly discuss Wii U games when they don't have any to discuss. Binning Scribblenauts' release alongside Rayman's delay is a pretty lethal blow to the Wii U for the majority of this year.

Let's just hope that Lego City Stories doesn't get shelved too.

 

[Linkachu]

They axed Scribblenauts' release in the UK/Europe? Ouch. That was a dumb idea. The game currently has one of the more popular communities on Miiverse so surely it can't be selling that badly in North America? :/

 

[Linkachu]

(I meant to finish writing this and post it days ago, but after saving it as a draft I completely forgot about it. << >>)

The latest Nintendo Direct was actually pretty sweet. I'm amazed that Nintendo keeps announcing so many new games before E3, but I guess E3 is still quite a ways off from now.

To give a quick news 'round up:

• Animal Crossing: New Leaf dated - June 9th in North American and June 14th in Europe.
• Mario & Luigi: Dream Team announced for 3DS.
• Mario Golf: World Tour announced for 3DS.
• Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D, unsurprisingly, also announced for 3DS. While this is a port it's apparently being rebuilt from ground up to make the most of the 3DS hardware.
• HarmoKnight, the 3DS rhythm game developed by Game Freak, was dated for the North American eShop - March 28th. I'm not sure if a Europe release date has been announced.
• Mario and Donkey Kong: Minis on the Move announced for the 3DS eShop.
• Dillon's Rolling Western: The Last Ranger announced for the 3DS eShop.
• Harvest Moon GB and Legend of the River King announced for the 3DS Virtual Console
• Several 3DS eShop games are going on sale. I'm not sure if Europe's eShop is receiving the same deal as North America, but the North American discounts will focus on one game per week.
• Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate will be receiving demos for both the 3DS and Wii U on February 21st - today! I'm not sure if this applies to both North America and Europe or just the former.

More news than that came out of the stream but it's been a week now and I can't fully remember it all (nor have the patience to dig back through old news articles ;x). Personally I'm just happy to see Animal Crossing: New Leaf finally dated. June isn't a bad date at all. That gives me roughly four months to play the game before Pokemon X&Y release and take over my 3DS.

 

[Doctor Oak]

More importantly, there was ANOTHER Nintendo Direct in Japan today talking about third party 3DS games - and an announcement that the twin Zelda titles from the GBC: Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages will be hitting the 3DS Virtual Console soon.

Honestly, they're more interesting games than half the 3DS games in the list above, so roll on their release over here.

 

[Linkachu]

Well, isn't this a nice deal.

Only announced for Europe so far, but if you guys register 3 (3DS) games out of a possible 8 on Club Nintendo you'll be able to claim any 1 game from that same list of 8 for free. Considering that several of the games listed are good games there's a high chance that some of you lot will be able to take advantage of the deal (I'd definitely be able to if this comes to North America ).

The applicable games include the following:
- Castlevania: Lords of Shadow – Mirror of Fate
- Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate (Nintendo 3DS version)
- Luigi's Mansion 2
- Fire Emblem: Awakening
- LEGO® CITY Undercover: The Chase Begins
- Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Gates to Infinity
- Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D
- Animal Crossing: New Leaf

The games must be registered with Club Nintendo no later than June 30th, 2013 and then the forth game can be selected for free. Nintendo pointed out that, if you so choose, you could give your freebie game to someone else if you select one that you already own.

For more info from NoE: http://www.nintendo.co.uk/Misc-/Nintend ... 50389.html

 

[Demelza]

Nintendo pointed out that, if you so choose, you could give your freebie game to someone else if you select one that you already own.

Can't see many doing that with this list of games, I certainly won't be much as I love my friends/family.

I already own Luigi's Mansion 2 and Fire Emblem, I'll likely make the point of buying either Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D or Pokémon Mystery Dungeon (most likely the former) and then download Animal Crossing. I'm really glad they've announced this though, I wasn't going to bother buying another game before Animal Crossing because I couldn't afford it, but now I can and it gives me the option to download Animal Crossing which is what I wanted to do rather than having a cartridge. ^^

 

[Teapot]

That is a seriously cool marketing move. I may just end up taking them up on that offer - I plan to get Luigi's Mansion, Fire Emblem, and Animal Crossing anyway, so a free copy of DKCR3D or even PMD would definitely be awesome. Basically, I'll buy the three cheapest from Amazon and get the fourth from the eShop

 

[Fumanshu]

Nintendo is going really hard lately. I like it.
What I dont like is how the are pushing digital distribution lately.
All bundles come with preinstalled games instead of cartridges, digital games give you more stars than physical ones, all those offers lately.

But hey, it saves me money right now so its not that bad I guess.

Already have Monster Hunter with 120hours player on it, recommending that to everyone.
Thinking about buying Fire Emblem and maybe Castlevania.
I dont know about Luigis Mansion, really. I should probably play the first one as I missed out on that one.

 

[Doctor Oak]

The most astounding thing is that these are all new games, and will all be out here within the next 2 months.

It doesn't even take into account the 3DS library for the rest of the year - though most of it has yet to be announced (and I imagine most games will steer well clear of October).

It's definitely shaping up to finally be the year the 3DS woke the fuck up from a 2 year coma.

It does paint a depressing picture against the Wii U, though. The 3DS is rapidly building up a solid library that may one day rival the DS's. The Wii U still doesn't even have anything to look forward to outside of WindWaker's remake. It's a wasteland.

Re: The offer. I already have Luigi's Mansion 2, and was looking to get both DKC Returns and Fire Emblem regardless, so what I'll probably do is get Animal Crossing for free. I wouldn't have bothered putting money on it before, but for free, I might as well. Lego City's the only other game on the list I'd really consider - but as much as I'm sure the story will be a great companion for the Wii U game, I can't see the gameplay being different enough to warrant owning both.

 

[Linkachu]

Nintendo's not holding a large-scale press conference at E3 this year.

Read the article for the full details, but this quote from Iwata sums up the situation:

"We decided not to host a large-scale presentation targeted at everyone in the international audience where we announce new information as we did in the past. Instead, at the E3 show this year, we are planning to host a few smaller events that are specifically focused on our software lineup for the U.S. market. There will be one closed event for American distributors, and we will hold another closed hands-on experience event, for mainly the Western gaming media."

You may want to read between the lines, as many folks are already doing, but I'm not entirely surprised that Nintendo is making this change. Iwata himself mentioned that they have nothing major to show off this year, aside from new Wii U games and such, and the most recent Nintendo Direct streams have almost felt like "mini E3's". I'm just curious to see how this decision will affect their press coverage against the likes of PS4 and the next Xbox.

That being said, Sony has already unveiled PS4 and Microsoft plans to hold a next-gen Xbox conference next month. Aside from retreading the same ground with minor bits of new info, E3 may not be that groundbreaking for them either. Guess we'll have to see what Nintendo brings to the table behind those closed doors.

 

[Demelza]

I honestly don't mind this change all that much. Nintendo can generally always impress with their Nintendo Directs and never tend to hold anything back, so I've gotten used to them bringing us some of their biggest announcements like that, may as well have them little and often than all at once.

They probably shouldn't have made the change until next year because I can see most press and suchlike taking one look at this and thinking Nintendo should be doing everything they can to give the Wii U a firm kick, and stepping out of the spotlight so much at E3 doesn't really look good because many could take it as though they have very little to announce and 'wow' us with. Again though, I never find myself overall disappointed with the Directs, so if they do something good for the Wii U with that then we'll all be happy.

Guess we shall see, should be interesting either way.

 

[Toastie]

I'm delighted at this. Nintendo Direct always felt much more personal, and with all the hype around E3 it's nearly always disappointing. Additionally, it's a bit weird to have one conference for journalists, investors and fans, so separating them is a great idea, especially as Nintendo would probably be buried under the PS4 and the new Xbox. Besides, I'm sure most people don't watch it live anyway and just read the announcements on websites, so not having fireworks and live music isn't that big a deal.

Also, there is a great line-up this year. Not only are we going to get a trailer for SSB4, but also for the new 3D Mario and Mario Kart U. Hopefully we'll also get more info on the new Monolith game and, of course, FINALLY a reveal of Retro Studio's new project.

 

[Linkachu]

IGN added a clarification to their original article care of NOA's Charlie Scibetta. The guy rambled on quite a bit but here's a couple of snippets from what Scibetta had to say:

"We look forward to continuing to provide you with Nintendo news and content in ways you haven't before experienced. Beyond the news that will be communicated through Nintendo Direct videos in the run up to E3, at the show itself we're hosting two smaller events on Tuesday morning before the LACC opens instead of just our traditional one event. A media event and a partner presentation will both occur that morning."

"New this year at our booth in the LACC, prior to the show opening, we'll invite a small group of media to play our games. We will have a strong line-up of beloved franchise experiences available for immediate hands-on play."

So we can expect more Nintendo Directs between now and E3 (nothing surprising there) which will likely include new game information. I'm wondering now how Nintendo plans to unveil the next Smash Bros. game. Maybe we'll see it beforehand via Nintendo Direct instead? That'd be cool.

But gah, I'm going to miss watching Miyamoto walk out onto the stage, live, and hearing all that crazy crowd cheering. He better do something awesomely silly in one of the upcoming Nintendo Directs to make up for it. </3

 

[Doctor Oak]

Nintendo were going to be annihilated at this year's E3, so I'd say this is just to save them the embarrassment of it all, really.

That said, it does speak a lot about the success of Nintendo Direct and Nintendo's begrudging acceptance of new technology and online media. The fact is, a Nintendo Direct around E3 would have more impact for Nintendo, and they'd be able to make people happier by just focusing on new games instead of the boring financial stuff that ends up taking up a good third of the conferences anyway. Especially since Nintendo will likely want to sweep that under the rug as quietly as possible this year.

It does paint a nasty picture for the Wii U, though. The primary point here is that Nintendo does not feel the Wii U can compete against the new Xbox and Playstation, and they'd be right. It may be a microcosmic impact here, but it details a bigger problem - the Wii U is, for all intents and purposes, failing. That Nintendo doesn't feel they have anything strong enough to turn that around, and thus make a big deal about it standing proud against the might of the other new consoles, is a bad sign for the system.

Also, I hope they stick to having a European-specific Nintendo Direct (though they have only mentioned North America and Japan specifically when referring to any of this so far), but it'd be nice if it wasn't just "here are a load of games that will exist at some point, but unlike America, you won't find out when any time soon" like, well, all the other Nintendo Directs so far, really.

 

[Linkachu]

Said to be focusing on Wii U games releasing in spring/summer. (There are Wii U games releasing in spring/summer...?)

That's 3 PM UKer time of course, aka. 7 AM PST for Americans. You can watch the North American stream at http://www.nintendo.com/nintendo-direct ... 5-17-2013/

It'd be cool if they announced at least one brand new game for summer release but I'll not get my hopes up. This is Wii U we're talking about. Gotta be realistic.

 

[Doctor Oak]

No Frostbite games from EA, no Unreal 4 games from pretty much the whole Goddamned development community and, most importantly no bloody games from Nintendo, either.

How can they possibly paint a positive picture about the Wii U for the 'spring/summer' when there's nothing coming out, and no sign of the Wii U ever getting the third party support it needs to not just be another Wii (only without the shovelware keeping it afloat this time).

Telling us that games that should have been released during the 'launch window' will be coming out in the next few months isn't good enough, either. It's just further admission of failure to deliver.

The 3DS is killing it this year. The 360/PS3 have more than enough going on to stand up to even the PS4 and next Xbox for the sake of this year's Christmas rush. Unless Nintendo gets their thumbs out of their arseholes and starts dropping bombs, the Wii U is going to fade into irrelevance even before this time next year.

 

[precita]

Over on various gaming forums they have already noticed that the GameCube was outselling the Wii-U in its first 6 months on the market. Keep in mind the GameCube was Nintendo's least selling console and only did around 21 million lifetime sales.

Kind of ironic since the GameCube also had the best third party support of any Nintnedo console since the Super Nintendo era.

 

[Doctor Oak]

No EA titles for the Wii U at all in development.

When you've lost one of the biggest publishers in the world, you're in srs trouble.

 

[Linkachu]

No EA titles for the Wii U at all in development.

When you've lost one of the biggest publishers in the world, you're in srs trouble.

Yes sir indeed. Wii U is shaping up to be my nicest paperweight, even moreso than my Vita.

This is alarmingly all too common lately, to the point that I've come to expect stories like this each time I read Wii U news. Which third party developer will pull out next? It's a revolving door these days. I can only hope that the Wii U Direct today gives some sort of positive news because they're getting damn short on it. -_-

 

[Toastie]

No EA titles for the Wii U at all in development.

When you've lost one of the biggest publishers in the world, you're in srs trouble.

This is Nintendo's fault. They haven't learned from the 3DS AT ALL. They need to build up a userbase with first party titles, and they haven't done that at all. Additionally, they've failed to differentiate it from the Wii, despite having the exact same problem with the 3DS.

 

[Fumanshu]

"No EA titles for the Wii U at all in development. "
Does anybody really care?
Anybody who has any kind of interest or love for Videogames should avoid EA like the plague.
EA itself is on the way down the drain and they deserve it oh so much.

I noticed that all the shit publishers that did more harm than good to videogames are leaving the WiiU while the Nintendo itself is amassing all the devs I really want to see games from.

Platinum Games partnership, Sega partnership, Capcom support, Atlus support and SquareEnix is doing things with them.

The WiiUs future is bright.

Read the first few pages of this thread. I called it with the 3DS, I'm calling it again.

 

[Toastie]

"No EA titles for the Wii U at all in development. "
Does anybody really care?

I'm sure Nintendo care, as they'll be missing out on yearly releases and quite a few AAA titles.

Anybody who has any kind of interest or love for Videogames should avoid EA like the plague.

Unfortunately, this isn't the case. SimCity sold 1.6 million copies.

EA itself is on the way down the drain and they deserve it oh so much.

How so? They recorded a revenue of over $4 billion last year.

I noticed that all the shit publishers that did more harm than good to videogames are leaving the WiiU while the Nintendo itself is amassing all the devs I really want to see games from.

Platinum Games partnership, Sega partnership, Capcom support, Atlus support and SquareEnix is doing things with them.

While some of these partnerships (such as the Sega one) are good, a lot of good companies don't seem interested in developing for the Wii U. Nintendo arguably didn't future-proof it enough.

The WiiUs future is bright.

Once the userbase expands after we get some 1st party titles (and when Nintendo get their act together on the advertising) then yeah, probably.

Read the first few pages of this thread. I called it with the 3DS, I'm calling it again.

Nintendo did well to turn the 3DS situation around, but they screwed up tremendously with it at first. The advertising was awful, only emphasizing the 3D and not differentiating it from the DS or showing off any other new features. Very few must-buy games, the console itself perhaps slightly too expensive. Then, to top it all off, they go and make the same mistakes with the Wii U. Hopefully they can turn things around in the same way.

 

[Doctor Oak]

The 3DS has the benefit of having no real competition. On the market, the mobile games and Vita do not provide the same experience, so the games on the 3DS have a unique selling point that can help sweeten the blow of those comparatively high prices.

The Wii U has no such advantage. It very much has competition, and it's outclassed entirely by all of it. Power-wise, it can definitely stand up against the 360 and PS3, and that'd matter a damn if the remaining 360 and PS3 multi-platform games were going anywhere near the Wii U... but they're not. And in the cases they have been so far, the Wii U has come off the weaker for it feature-wise.

The PS4 and next Xbox will outclass the Wii U exponentially, and the engines that games for these systems will be developed on will not work on the Wii U. EA are not the only publisher around, but they are one of the biggest and one of the most influential (and whether you like their games or not, they still sell by the tonne). They're not the only ones turning their back on the Wii U either, and their actions do little to encourage anyone else to.

The 3DS could afford to limp through the past two years because, at the end of the day, the games were always going to come. Primarily 'cos, most importantly, those games were going to include Pokemon X/Y - and the Pokemon series has been keeping Nintendo's handheld ambitions afloat since 1996.

The Wii U has no such luxuries, and given the lacklustre response to the console from the Wii Sports crowd, is going to need a lot more than the Mario Kart attempt they're planning for this Christmas to start swinging the casuals on board. The Wii was a fad, that you had to have. The Wii U isn't even a blip on the radar to these people, and to most it's just a confusing looking tablet thing that the people in the shop are telling them they can't use on their existing Wii, "so what's the point in that then?".

The Wii U will very much definitely end up with amazing Nintendo-developed/published games on it... but that does not a console make. Excellent third party games dominated the previous Generation of gaming in a way that's never really happened before in the old world of first party-driven consoles and platform exclusives. The Wii U is storming down the road of losing all that support entirely - something Nintendo has traditionally been very weak at anyway when they haven't been in monopoly position to bully developers into working with them in the first place.

You can take a rose-tinted look at the Wii U's future all you like, but the fact is, everyone else is turning their backs on it, and it's making worse and worse headlines every month for investors to be reading. The system has great potential, even against the bigger boys, but Nintendo need to be the ones pushing it forward and putting their money on the table and taking risks... and right now, they're really not. Their plan for this year is a WindWaker re-release and a rushed Mario Kart to sell in Christmas bundles. None of that is risky, none of it is innovative, and none of it is going to bring the third party developers back on board to develop entirely new games for a system they physically can't release their otherwise platform-wide AAA releases.

If Nintendo are leading the Wii U by example, it's a fucking shitty example, and it's going to lead the system to utter failure.

 

[Fumanshu]

I wonder if people will still question me after the disastrous conference yesterday.

I called it, and I will end up being the one who is right.

Oh and btw:
http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/05/21/ ... ium=social
Looks like the public WiiU shaming campaign is over now that EAs plans on making loads of money with the xbox dont look realistic anymore.

 

[Linkachu]

I wonder if people will still question me after the disastrous conference yesterday.

I called it, and I will end up being the one who is right.

I personally don't really care "who is right", so good on you if Wii U ends up being a bigger success than I'm expecting. I just want to play original Wii U games and, at this time, have none to play but the games I bought at launch.

Your earlier comment of "does anyone really care?" about EA potentially pulling out is easy to answer: yes, people do care. The fact that EA's doubling back on its previous comments sparked such commotion, just as the initial statements did, proves this in spades. And you can bet that Nintendo as a company cares too. They're in the business of creating partnerships so that they don't need to support the console alone, not alienating third party companies (especially those as big name as EA). It's not a matter of whether one company is "good" or not, it's a matter of how much extra business they can bring to Wii U. Every game on the system counts because it keeps the system relevant.

It's silly to spell doom and gloom for Wii U now because Nintendo hasn't even released anything for it yet beyond NSMB. Once they finally get their act together the system will start selling again. But trying to paint this current situation positively is just as silly as the doom and gloomers. Right now Wii U is doing terribly, moreso than 3DS ever did, and that's nothing to praise them for. Keep in mind too that 3DS and Wii U launched at different times of year and by this point in 3DS's life cycle it had already started pumping out a few hit games. I'm pretty sure that they'd already had the price slash and introduced the Ambassador's program too. Nintendo hasn't done anything like this to show its support for Wii U yet, and it shows.

The fact that Nintendo hears this bad press is actually a GOOD thing because it's encouraging them to work harder but it's still taking them a damn long time to get there. They could be doing things differently, the easiest being releasing multiple virtual console games per week as opposed to 2-3 max, but it seems like everything is focused on this fall. That sucks for actual Wii U owners when there are very few third party games to pick up the slack.

People can gloat all they want about Wii U's successes once Nintendo actually starts properly supporting it but that doesn't the fix the problems that early adopters are facing now and have been for months. Considering that Nintendo pledged to support the Wii U throughout the year, especially during that initial "launch window", and promised that there wouldn't be a repeat of 3DS's launch, you really can't blame people for feeling discouraged. In the end we're just the fools who believed that Nintendo would make good on their promises, playing the waiting game.

 

[Doctor Oak]

I wonder if people will still question me after the disastrous conference yesterday.

I'm not entirely certain what exactly was disastrous about it.

They revealed the system, gave good insight into what it was capable of, both in terms of games and outside of gaming itself (which, whether or not you care about those abilities, there's a massive market share from the 360 and PS3 that shows other people do care and will be more likely to buy a new console because of it).

All the Xbox One has to do to have an edge over the PS4 is to actually be available (the PS4 won't be in Europe this year unless anything changes between now and the end of the year) and to be cheaper. The two are practically identical otherwise through deliberate design - so that multi-platform development between Xbox, Playstation and PC will be cheaper and easier.

It'll be tough to come up with a PC rig that can match or exceed the Xbox One or PS4 at launch for a better price, so they'll definitely have their place in the sun for a while, but the three platforms are very deliberately moving to a more united future.

Because the games in that future don't really matter to the platform itself (afterall, the biggest titles this past generation, and going forward, will be third party multiplatforms - not exclusives), as there's not much that Microsoft could have shown off last night that Sony couldn't turn around tomorrow and say "well, we've got that too". So, they (rightly) focused on what was actually new about the system, to sell it to the people that it needs sold to the most (the 'expanded audience' that's looking for more media functions than just the latest Call of Duty and Fifa game they'll buy every year and more or less leave their gaming at that).

With E3 just around the corner, we're not going to be short on 'next-gen' games to drool over, so I really don't see why it would make sense for Microsoft to try cramming them into the reveal last night. Afterall, it's no secret that it plays games, why work so hard to sell that fact when it's the other features they need to get across for the mainstream media?

There's literally no denying that all the new Xbox and Playstation are about is more power, and more general media consumption. The former, because it makes for shinier games, the latter, because it makes for a better sales pitch and was a great contributor to the sales force of both the 360 and the PS3. Neither are setting out to be ground-breakingly new machines, they're evolutions of the existing platforms out there.

If you want to play the latest games, looking their best, for a more cost effective solution than putting together a comparable PC, one of these consoles is going to be what you need. That is all the sales pitch either console needs for the gamers, and as I said, all the Xbox needs to do to beat the PS4 in those conditions is be cheaper and actually available to buy - something I genuinely expect to see play out at the end of this year. We're the easy sell, and last night was for the hard sell. They didn't deliberately separate the reveal from the E3 press conference for nothing. They're getting their mass media coverage now for those that will follow it, and going for what the gamers care about when they're the only ones that'll actually focus on that between the loud background noise of E3 itself.

All of this makes complete and perfect sense to me. Not sure why it's getting other people's panties in a twist.

 

[Doctor Oak]

First game from Ubisoft using the glorious UbiArt Framework engine outside of the Rayman series, and it's looking like a great, and unusual concept. Inspired by actual letters from World War I, the game will launch in 2014 for PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4. But there's no mention of a Wii U release - and probably won't be until it starts to sell.

 

[Toastie]

Seeing as Inazuma Eleven 3 is out on Friday in Europe, I thought I'd just quickly summarise the series for those who don't know about it, and also give my thoughts on it.

It's basically a weird RTS/RPG/Sports hybrid, in which you control a football team with your stylus from a top-down perspective. Your players have special abilities which allow them to block shots, steal the ball, dribble past the opponent and take shots. An example of this might be setting the ball on fire before shooting, or blocking the ball with a ten-foot wall. Players can be scouted and recruited, and of course have varying stats, and can be trained up.

They're all pretty well made - it's one of Level-5's flagship series. The main criticisms they usually receive are about the simplistic exploration and cookie-cutter format, which doesn't work as well as it does for Professor Layton as Inazuma Eleven isn't as story-focused. Personally, I really enjoy the games, mainly as they're something different, and I enjoy football as a sport. You probably don't need to like football to enjoy Inazuma Eleven, but it certainly helps.

 

[Linkachu]

Was finally catching up on my IGN reading today and came across this bit of information for the 3DS, part of their 3DS: Miiverse and Unified Accounts Now Available article:

The last interesting addition in this update is the fact you're now able to transfer all your content to different Nintendo 3DS systems an unlimited number of times. While you'll only be able to do this once every seven days, you could feasibly do this forever; before the update, it was only possible to perform a system-to-system transfer up to five times.

Guess that solves one of the major issues people have always debated when buying a new 3DS. Very tempted to upgrade to one of the special edition X/Y 3DS XLs now...

 

[Linkachu]

Reviving this topic because want to dump random gaming news somewhere! 8D

Any of you buy into Humble Bundles? At the moment they're currently doing a "Friends of Nintendo" bundle, offering several third party games for a very good price. Personally, I went for it yesterday at the $13 mark. Anyone else interested?

https://www.humblebundle.com/friends-of-nintendo-3ds-wiiu (Humble Friends of Nintendo Bundle (pay what you want and help charity))

For a bit of extra info:

The Humble Friends of Nintendo Bundle
Pay $1 or more for Retro City Rampage: DX, Affordable Space Adventures, Shantae and the Pirate's Curse, and a coupon for 10% off Humble Monthly for New Subscribers.

Pay more than the average price to also receive Freedom Planet, Rhythm Thief & the Emperor's Treasure, Citizens of Earth, and an exclusive Retro City Rampage Nintendo 3DS theme.

Pay $13 or more for all of that plus Super Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition and Darksiders II.

 

[NonAnalogue]

The bundle was tempting! But I already own everything in that bundle I'd want. XD; I really enjoyed Rhythm Thief, but Citizens of Earth was pretty meh. I liked that it was EarthBound-inspired, but it suffered from the problem that Chrono Cross had in that there were so many characters that none of them really got much personality. I dropped it halfway through, though perhaps I should try and push through it at some point.