Today Atari tarns 40 years old. So Happy Birthday Atari!
Here's some Atari fun facts:
1. Atari is now owned by Hasbro Interactive, which was bought by Infogrames Entertainment a few years later, which than renamed Hasbro Interactive, Atari Interactive, and few more years after that, renamed the entire company (Infogrames Entertainment), Atari, SA.
2. Atari first released PONG as a upright arcade cabinet:
Nintendo has confirmed that the Wii U will have "Simplified" Friend Codes (note: friend codes are generally considered a nuisance). Some think that means the Wii U will have FC's only a little better than the Wii's. Others think it will be like the 3DS's FC's (if you own a 3DS you will know it's not bad). Others think the Wii U's FC's will be a little better than the 3DS's, and there are a few people (myself included) who think the Wii U's FC's will be something like this:
You have a friend whose name is (insert popular name here), and he that just got a Wii U. You want to add him to your friend list, so you search for him on Miiverse, and there are multiple people with the same name (with Mii's that look almost the same). Thankfully he told you his Friend Code, so you press the "show Friend Code" button, and there he is.
Here's what I think in non-story form: Friend Codes will exist so multiple people can have the same username (something not possible on Xbox Live and PSN). The Friend Codes give an easy way to tell people apart who have the same username as 100s of other people, but they are not necessary to know in order to add someone to your friend list, therefor making friend codes helpful not a nuisance. Though remember this is just a theory.
In the Nintendo Direct -- Pre E3 2012, Non Specific Action Figure was introduced in a promotional video for Nintendo’s Miiverse. He became very popular among Nintendo fans, so Nintendo had him appear in more videos throughout E3. Here is "The Non Specific Action Figure Complete Saga" with all the the official Non Specific Action Figure videos:
This is part of my Review-as-I-Play-It series, where I write a review for every two (or so) hours of a game I'm playing. You are reading my review for The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess Hours 0 to 1. I will also have a review of Super Paper Mario starting on Saturday.
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is my second Zelda game (my first was Skyward Sword).
Controls:
If this was the first motion control Zelda game I had played I would give it a 9/10 for controls, but since I played Skyward Sword before this one, I'm spoiled, so I give it a 6/10. I won't go into details, but here's my main complaints: instead of being able to swing my Wiimote in the direction I want my sword to go in, I have to press a button while swinging my Wiimote (and the direction I swing in doesn't matter). My other main complaint is that it's such a pain to change the item you're using (like changing from a lantern to a slingshot). Though comparing the controls of a 2011 game that has MotionPlus to a 2006 Wii launch game -- that's a port of a GameCube game -- is not fair.
Warning Spoilers! Only Read If You Have Played The Game
What I think of the first 2 hours:
Some of the first 1.3 hours was sort of boring, like the fishing part -- I'm not a big fishing fan, plus it took me 20 minutes to actually catch a fish. It did, however, have it's fun parts, such as riding the horse to roundup the goat's, solving that one puzzle with the birds, and meeting the people in the village.
The next 0.7 hours was really fun for the end of the beginning of a game (may be funner then Skyward Sword's). My first enemy was a Deku Baba (one of those big, carnivorous plants) and I'm disappointed by the lack of strategy required to defeat them (Skyward Sword Deku plants were a lot harder to defeat). Than I was attacked by a skinny blue goblin (not sure what they're called? Where's Fi when you need her...) once again I was disappointed by the lack of strategy required to defeat them (MotionPlus makes all difference).
It was still really fun, though after saving the kid I had to roundup the goats again ("Link, are you okay, you were 00.01.45 seconds slower than usual"), after that I was criticized for overworking my horse (that's why I like loftwings -- you can't overwork them). Anyway, something happened and now I'm wolf, and now this annoying giggling creature is talking to me. ...And then I had to quit the game after this. Can't wait to see how the gameplay is as a wolf. I give it a 9/10 for the first 2 hours.
Come back on Monday-Tuesday to see what I think of the next 2 to 4 hours, and come back tomorrow for my thoughts on the first 1 to 2 hours of Super Paper Mario.
That was one of the best E3 press conference I have ever watched (9.8 out of 10). There is no doubt about it Nintendo won E3, and Nintendo still has one more major press conference and one more minor press conference. My favorite part is at the beginning, when.... Well, you can see it for yourself: (For those who don't know, Miyamoto created Mario, Donkey Kong, The Legend of Zelda, Star Fox, F-Zero, Pikmin, the Wii series, and more. He is considered to be one of the greatest video game developers in the world.)
In my opinion that right there is cooler than Microsoft's entire E3 Press Conference. The one thing that I didn't care for was the fact Satoru Iwata (the president of Nintendo) was not there... Right now it's hard to find a video (at the time I'm writing this) of the press conference, so here's what was revealed and more.
Wii U Games Shown:
Nintendo showed off 23 Wii U games and said that many more would be revealed later. (I have included "New" by every game that has never been announced before for the Wii U.)
Aliens: Colonial Marines
Assassin's Creed III
Marvel Avengers: Battle for Earth
Batman: Arkham City Armored Edition (New, and exclusive to the Wii U)
Darksiders II
Just Dance 4
Lego City Undercover (Exclusive to the Wii U)
Mass Effect 3 (New)
New Super Mario Bros. U (Exclusive to the Wii U)
Ninja Gaiden 3
NintendoLand (New, and exclusive to the Wii U)
Pikmin 3 (Exclusive to the Wii U)
Rabbids Land
Rayman Legends
Scribblenauts Unlimited (New, and exclusive to the Wii U-3DS)
SiNG (New, and could be exclusive to the Wii U)
Sports Connection
Tank! Tank! Tank! (New, and exclusive to the Wii U-Arcade)
Tekken Tag Tournament 2 (New)
Trine 2: Director's Cut (New)
Wii Fit U (New, and exclusive to the Wii U)
Your Shape: Fitness Evolved 2013
ZombiU (Exclusive to the Wii U)
3DS Games Shown:
The 3DS will have its own press conference tomorrow, but they did show off these.
Luigi’s Mansion: Dark Moon
New Super Mario Bros. 2
Paper Mario: Sticker Star
Scribblenauts Unlimited
And a few more that I can't remember.
Ofter Stuff Raveled:
The Wii U will have Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Instant Video, and YouTube apps.
The Wii U will be available in both, black and white.
I suggest that you go to http://e3src.nintendo.com/wiiu/ for game trailers and a cool video that gives a virtual tour of the Wii U GamePad. Come back to my blog on the 8th for "Everything Wii Now (after E3 2012) Know About The Wii U."
Nintendo's E3 2012 Press Conference will start at 9:00 AM PDT, 12:00 PM EDT, 5:00 PM BST, and at Wednesday June 6 at 2:00am AEST. It will be Wii U-focused with a bit of 3DS news.
I will also be updating this post as the new games, Wii U news, you name it, is revealed!!!
Update 8;20 am:
Nintendo has sent this notification to 3DS's:
Throughout the week, visit the Nintendo eShop for information revealed at E3 about upcoming games for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U systems. For a limited time, you can also download trailers for select Nintendo 3DS games.
I think it was pretty good, I give it on a scale of 0/10, 7.
Hears the Wii U games they talked about:
Rabbids Land
Your Shape: Fitness Evolved 2013
Sports Connection
Just Dance 4
Avengers: Battle for Earth
ZombiU (use-to be known as Killer Freaks from Outer Space)
Rayman Legends
It's been more than 1 year and 3 months since Project Cafe rumors started appearing on the internet, and now the Wii U's second E3 is approaching fast, so let's look back at what we know about Nintendo's sixth home video game console.
Release date: By Christmas 2012
Price: MORE THAN $250
Processor: A custom-designed IBM POWER7 processor (same processor found in the Watson supercomputer, and if it's good enough for Watson, it should be good enough for you).
Graphics Processing Unit: A custom-designed Radeon HD similar to the Radeon R700 architecture (3 years newer than the Xbox 360 & PS3's architecture).
Media (Discs): The Wii U will use a disc format developed by Panasonic based on China Blue High-definition Disc, but with the ability to handle more layers. It has capacities up to 75 GB, (the Xbox 360's disc format has capacities up to 8.7 GB, and the PS3's disc format has capacities up to 100 GB). The Wii U is also backward compatible with Wii Optical Discs.
Storage: Internal flash memory, supports SD cards and USB hard drives to increase hard drive space.
Supported Controllers: Wii U controller (see below), Wii MotionPlus/Wii Remote Plus, Classic Controller Pro, Wii Balance Board.
Backward Compatibility: All Wii games and peripherals are backward compatible with the Wii U.
Other: 4 USB 2.0 Ports (2 at front of console, 2 at rear), HDMI 1.4 port (interesting fact: HDMI 1.4 supports 3D images), Sensor Bar power port.
The Controller
Dimensions: 5.3 inches high x 0.9 inches deep
Screen: A 6.2 inch 16:9 resistive touchscreen with a resolution of 854×480 (could be higher when the final-form is shown at E3). (Note: Some people say that since it's a resistive touchscreen it can't support multi-touch, but that is not true. Resistive touchscreens can support multi-touch and still be a lot more accurate than the touchscreen you can find on a iPad.)
Buttons: It has 12buttons,A/B/X/Y face buttons, ZL/ZR bumper buttons, L/R trigger buttons, and Select, Start, Home, and Power, buttons.
Sticks & D-Pad's: Two Circle Pads (like those on the 3DS) and one D-pad, or if the leaked photo is real, then two Analog sticks and one D-pad.
Motion Control: It has a 3-axis accelerometer and 3-axis gyroscope, like the 3DS.
Battery: A rechargeable battery pack.
Wireless: Bluetooth and NFC (Near field communication chip, not Nintendo Fried Chicken, see Rayman Legends concept trailer below).
Other: Rumble, a 3.5mm Headphone jack, a Volume Slider, a microphone, a front-facing camera, built-in speakers, and a IR sensor strip (for Wii Remotes).
Online Services
The Wii U will use the newly announced Nintendo Network, we currently don't know much about the Wii U's Nintendo Network features (we don't know that much about the 3DS's Nintendo Network features either), but here's the little we know:
Nintendo NetworkFeatures: User Accounts, the ability to buy and download full retail games, online gameplay, Videocalls, Virtual Console (in a interview, Nintendo's Amber McCollum said that GameCube games would be available for download on the Wii U's Virtual Console, in addition to the games you can already buy on the Wii's Virtual Console), DLC (paid downloadable content), downloadable-only software, game patches, and Wii U-3DS connectivity.
The Games
Hear are the few games that have been confirmed to be in development for the Wii U (expect this list to double or even quadruple after Nintendo's E3 press conference).
