Quote:Reports of a redesigned 3DS have been flying around the internet after French website 01net claimed that this new model handheld will "radically tone down" the 3D effect and probably sport a different name.
They also report that the new model will feature twin analogue Circle Pads. As for current 3DS owners, they say that Nintendo engineers are "spending many sleepless nights working on an additional device" that would attach to the console and be sold separately for about $10.
Yet Nintendo told Official Nintendo Magazine this morning that "we do not comment on rumour and speculation."
Meanwhile, Andriasang report that Nintendo will be holding a 3DS event on 13 September ahead of the Tokyo Game Show where the company will be announcing a big title.
As we know, the Wii U is the result of a long engineering and refining process by its secretive R&D labs. But, according to our source, it seems that the final architecture has been rushed through the door, with undesirable consequences. Nintendo’s low cost policy, which has so far allowed the company to surf the tech wave in a distinctively offbeat way, all the while maintaining incredibly high margins, could be about to backfire.
Tethered so far
So far, the Wii U controller’s main chipset - that manages the device’s essential functions, including streaming and wireless – seems inadequate. This chip, described by our source as maybe a tad too cheap, has been the sources of many headaches in recent weeks. So far, the wireless functions simply do not work – at all. There have been so far three different prototypes, and a fourth iteration is expected by select developers at the end of the month.
Developers on the brink
So far, developers are working with a tethered controller: each one is fitted with a small black box with a tethered connection to the main unit. And even then, it still doesn’t work properly. Many developers are feeling lost, their progress impeded by a distinct lack of visibility, their working days paced by the quasi-daily software updates. In those conditions, many feel unable to properly exploit the system’s most innovative and promising features, those very features they haven’t been able to test properly so far.
What about the schedule ?
Ten months before the tentative release date – developers are still expecting a June 2012 release – the fact that Nintendo engineers are still struggling to make this supposedly final architecture function properly is worrisome at best. Could Nintendo have to make radical last-minute changes, and if so, what would be the cost? This unexpected development runs contrary to Nintendo’s reputation for carefully weighing all tech options long before any announcement. Inside the company, there have been talks of a delayed release, with September as a new tentative date. Being three months off-schedule doesn’t seem such a big issue, when compared to a home console’s life cycle. But this is not 2006 anymore. The industry is undergoing a radical mutation, and there is a growing amount of rumors positioning Microsoft’s next system to be unveiled during the 2012 E3 conference, and a relase in short order. If that was to happen, the Wii U would only enjoy a few months of “optimal run” alongside the Xbox 360, which would essentially moot the much-touted ease with which developers can port 360 code for the Wii U. To succeed in its incredibly audacious endeavour, Nintendo will have to walk a very tight rope.
So, yes, Xenoblade is out in English and it's also "out" in English, if you catch my drift.
Anyway, no other JRPG this generation even comes close to Xenoblade in terms of ambition, scope, and pure detail that you can find in every nook and cranny of this game. Even the characters aren't so bad, sure they're plucky teens for the most part but there not quite so annoying or brain-dead stupid as so many other RPGs like to revel in [looking at you, plucky kids from FFXIII] and the story, from what I've seen so far, is actually kind of interesting. I'll have to play further to find out for sure, but it doesn't instantly repulse me, so extra points there.
I like the addition of the Heart-to-Heart scenes, one of my favorite aspects about the Star Ocean series., just little scenes that give you a peak at the characters without the oppressive weight of world-ending disaster looming on the horizon. And it actually seems like they're not total animu embarrassments, so more points for Xenoblade.
I like being able to equip my characters with different armor and weapons and actually seeing those new pieces of equipment displayed. It's a nice carry-over from the game's obvious MMO inspirations. It's just a nice touch that you hardly ever see in single-player RPGs [from Japan].
I love the contiguous world, with hardly any borders in sight, streaming as you run across boundless prairies and watch the mountains grow from out of the distance or looking down at the city from the top of a hill. Towns and buildings have detail, little touches that you won't find in MMOs, things that remind you that you're still playing a single-player game.
Only thing I really have an issue with is the characters' faces. They look...off. At the same time, they sort of remind me of Vagrant Story. Wish they'd gone with higher quality models for the cutscenes, but oh well.
So, Xenoblade is basically a combination of East and West, MMO and single-player RPG, taking aspects of each and melding them into something that's familiar but also unique. And it absolutely STUNS me that Nintendo, in its current mindset, put up the money for something this big.
So, NoA, you can just go right ahead and die in a fire because I'm playing this baby anyway.
This looks fun and crazy, especially to drop on your poor friends without warning in a custom multiplayer game.
What I'd really like is a level that uses a mathematically consistent version of this idea, like a "spheric" space or a hyperbolic space (the first is basically a sphere where you can't tell you're walking on one, but the latter is the real gem, where there are infinite non-intersecting lines one can draw for any one line and a given point, and cubes can "touch" several faces of other cubes at once, and somewhere Lewis Carol is weeping.
So there is this new cartoon on cartoon network, all the people in this cartoon are in their underwear, for no apparent reason. Was this premise thought up by a three year old? I mean really, I understand the need for zaniness in a cartoon, I mean I grew up with loonytoons. But even loonytoons had a plausible explanation for its wild and crazy moments. But this show has everyone in their underwear and for why? If your going to have a entire civilization walking around without pants on, there needs to be a reason! Other wise your premise is as about as sophisticated as a toddler laughing at fart sounds.. I mean seriously who wrote this? Give me a cartoon that takes a creative writing for crists sake. Take sponge bob for example, every episode is about as stupid as you can get, but at the same time the writing is fresh and original every time.. It draws you in... Like when they had David Hassolholf in the movie for example, that's fresh idea that the kids and the parents can enjoy. And theirs other examples, the boondocks, ben10, Avitar.. All have compelling stories that draw you in. Not just a stupid premise from a guy with a maturity problem.
Lets enrich our children with creative storylines and compelling stories so no one has to laugh at "poopy pants head" again.
