Nintendo Wii U

[shirubagan]

What HDDs have you guys got? eBay specials across the board, or something better?

Any advice welcome. I've decided I'm going to load up on games.

Bit Trip Runner 2

The Cave

Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate

Nano Assault Neo

Already got Mario & Nintendo Land on disc.

[scottcr]

Must be frustrating having tech you love wasted on a current gen machine.

Yeah - does my nut.

*goes back to monster hunter*

[Not Thread Owner]

What HDDs have you guys got? eBay specials across the board, or something better?

Any advice welcome. I've decided I'm going to load up on games.

Bit Trip Runner 2

The Cave

Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate

Nano Assault Neo

Already got Mario & Nintendo Land on disc.

Toshiba one from my old MacBook, in a super cheap caddy.

[Droo]

I just have the internal 32gb one. There's barely enough content to fill it up at the moment.

[Shimmyhill]

Im going to use my cheap, well expensive compared to dekay's, ebay special with either my MBP original 320gb or a 500gb WD drive i have in a draw somewhere - ive filled the 8gb already...

[Super Craig]

I just have the internal 32gb one. There's barely enough content to fill it up at the moment.

Bit of a daft comment considering that you wouldn't be able to fit Lego City Undercover and Tekken Tag Tournament 2 on the internal space at the same time.

[Not Thread Owner]

Downloading Monster Hunter. It's my reward for cycling today.

[scottcr]

The wife insisted in watching TV tonight... So I played Arkham City on the gamepad. I wish the new next gen machines had screens in the controllers too.

I can't believe the amount of negs this got...! Ha! YOU GUYS!

[Red Alignment]

Anyone else hoping that Nintendo give the Wii U a Trophies/Achievements type system in a future update? I'm wondering, with the stamps in Nintendo Land, that some sort of achievments equivalent was/is planned, but they couldn't roll it out of the door on launch due to all the OS teething problems.

[Radish]

Q.U.B.E is coming to the Wii U (and possibly Vita).

I quite enjoyed it on the PC, definitely something to be excited about I think.

Review:

If someone had told me I'd be spending a peaceful night this week in a stark white room playing with bright blocks, I'd have run before they could wrap the straightjacket around my shoulders and throw me into the back of a windowless van. Instead, I spent a few hours positioning primary-colored cubes around a vast test chamber from the comfort of my own home -- with full mobility of all my extremities -- and I enjoyed my time immensely. Toxic Games' Q.U.B.E. (Quick Understanding of Block Extrusion) joins other puzzlers as the crossword of the plugged-in generation, stimulating spatial, physics and reasoning skills in a direct way that shooters can't touch (or shoot).

Q.U.B.E. begins without preface: you're suddenly face-down on a white platform, in a white room, wearing a pair of awesome black-and-white gloves. That's it. There isn't a story to Q.U.B.E. aside from what's filled in by the vast recesses of your own imagination. Personally, this means that upon finishing a puzzle, I hear a disembodied, robotic female voice chastise me for being dumb, slow and/or fat. Again, we're not going to psychoanalyze anyone here (that said, Portal comparisons are inevitable, and completely fair.)

The puzzles in Q.U.B.E. start out simple, allowing you to figure out the controls and strategy entirely on your own -- a mechanic I thoroughly enjoy -- and get progressively more difficult. The tests are satisfying, so much so that at one point I involuntarily yelled, "I'm a [Expletive deleted - Ed.] genius." I was, however, driven to search the Internet for a solution just once, only to discover that I'd known what to do the entire time. Suffice it to say that patience is a must in many of Q.U.B.E.'s later puzzles.

Q.U.B.E. has three distinct tones within the same testing environment: an initial white, sterile section; a crushingly dark, glowing-block area; and a dilapidated-laboratory run. Over the course of the campaign, simple blocks and spheres evolve into laser beams and magnet-controlled cubes -- the last of which I found more annoying than fun -- but it's an innovative form of gameplay nonetheless. Eventually, a choose-your-own method of cube placement offers more control and, at times, more of a challenge.

The giddy joy of solving a puzzle never gets old, although something about Q.U.B.E. made me question the nature of my joy. When I first rolled that neon green sphere into the correct-colored pools of light to unlock the next level, I felt as if I could wag my tail in delight and Master Pavlov would hand me a treat. That's the nature of Q.U.B.E. -- the tools are so basic that if you take a second to think about what you're really doing, you may feel a tad silly for enjoying a room of blocks so much. But this is coming from someone who still plays with Legos and reads Harry Potter religiously, so the point may simply be don't think about what you're doing, and just enjoy your time.

Q.U.B.E.'s save system can be troubling, as it relies exclusively on auto-saves, meaning manual saving is out of the question. It can become a problem if, say, you stop half-way through a puzzle to make some pesto chicken and someone "accidentally" unplugs the power cord to your PC. Hypothetically, of course.

It's also worth noting that Q.U.B.E. isn't exactly strong on narrative. It's more of a playground for your newfound telekinetic powers than it is an immersive experience, partially because it's confined to single type of environment and features an anonymous character, no dialogue and an ambient soundtrack. For a puzzle game, this isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it is a thing.

Overall, Q.U.B.E. isn't on par with Portal 2, but it offers a delightful on-screen Rubik's Cube to puzzle-lovers and perfectionists everywhere -- maybe just don't tell anyone you played with blocks all day.

[joffocakes]

It's just superb, really. Nintendoland and Hidden In Plain Sight alongside Micro Machines '96 are now my main multiplayer choices when folk are over.

I kinda wish the post-mario chase replay showed more than just the map though, maybe the last few seconds of the chaser's screen and a short recording of the gamepad player's face just as they're caught. I kinda prefer 4 player just for that ridiculous face-cam, haha.

Also, I got around to playing Runner 2. It's pretty excellent.

[Vorgot]

Another gush for Nintendoland. Great for me and my boys to play, and some of the games have that score attack/one more go vibe even in single player. DK and F Zero in particular.

With such a perfect multiplayer, I can't believe they screwed up with NSMB by not allowing the gamepad to be used as a regular controller in MP. I got rid of a Wii remote with my old Wii as I thought 2 remotes and a pad would let 3 of us play the game together, only to find one of us has to poke at the pad annoying the other two, or making the game easy, or guaranteeing the gold flagpole bit at the end. Was really disappointed with that.

[scottcr]

And people say Nintendoland is just a collection of 69p mini games...

[Not Thread Owner]

How does one reach stages 2 of DK?

Complete stage 1.

[Larsen B]

Anyone else hoping that Nintendo give the Wii U a Trophies/Achievements type system in a future update? I'm wondering, with the stamps in Nintendo Land, that some sort of achievments equivalent was/is planned, but they couldn't roll it out of the door on launch due to all the OS teething problems.

I was actually thinking about this last night when playing Lego City. I hope to get 100%, something that is commonly a final achievement in the previous Lego games. When I achieved this on the 360 with Harry Potter, I knew I'd done it and felt pleased but no-one else did, unless they looked up my achievements.

On the Wii U, I'll be able to post a screenshot of my finished percentage and everyone on the community and my Wii U friends will be able to see it and like it or say something about it. I have shared my success with other people.

There's nothing wrong with the first system and I've been using it for 7 years but it is a very insular thing. And I think the desire from lots of people for achievements on Wii U instead of using the community system available maybe does go some way to explaining why Wii U, very much a console about community and how your gaming habits integrate with other people, is struggling amongst a demographic that likes to keep things solitary.

[Massive Invisible Dog]

I think an API that hooks into Miiverse and the Activity Log would do the trick. No arbitrary point limits or forcing developers to use it, just something where the system can log a few things from the game other than playtime that devs can use as they see fit.

The current activity log is pretty poor, actually. I quite like occasionally going into the 3DS one, but the Wii U equivalent looked liked it was missing quite a few things the last I checked.

[Shimmyhill]

Noob question but how do you capture a screenshot?

[squirtle]

Noob question but how do you capture a screenshot?

You have to be good with the timing. In game, press the home button, go to the Miiverse and make a post and in that post is the option to post the screenshot where you have "paused" the game to go to Miiverse.

[joffocakes]

You have to beat each level twice to access the next one.

I though I'd done pretty good beating the first stage in under 85 seconds until I saw someone get a ridiculous time under 30 seconds on youtube. Guh. The internet.

[joffocakes]

You have to be good with the timing. In game, press the home button, go to the Miiverse and make a post and in that post is the option to post the screenshot where you have "paused" the game to go to Miiverse.

Also, when you're in Miiverse and writing you can press X to show either the main or gamepad screen on the TV, which is good for sketching things from the game.

[joffocakes]

It's great. Once you've done it a few times it seems hilarious that you were ever having trouble with it but I remember cursing constantly at a few of those sections.

Also, talking of achievements, I prefer Miiverse as an alternative to that, with games prompting you to post upon achieving certain goals. Plus you can just post a screenshot of a screen if you like, like a full load of perfect plus stages in Runner or something. And your friends will all see it, which is the important part for me.

Achievements having that huge meaningless overall gamerscore is what makes them feel more pointless, ironically. I do enjoy them though, when they give alternative goals, praise some particularly difficult or creative play or inspire you to get the most out of the game's mechanics.

[scottcr]

I think they could use MiiVerse to set challenges - kinda like those bonkers insane Mario skill videos. They can obviously link in youtube videos, but I think they really need a mechanism where you can capture a video of what you're doing in a game and post it online. Same as what Sony are doing. I've always thought this would be a good idea.

[Super Craig]

I'd settle for something like the Mario Kart Wii time trial stuff. That was great and needs to be in the Wii U version.

[shynra]

Completed it yesterday, nothing happened.

When you compelte stage 1 the level changes a bit to give you a apth to a doro (you have infinate lives during this bit) This takes you to level 2.

To reach level 2 in a new game session you cannot select it - you have to play though level 1 to get to level 2! (like old starfox 64) Level 1 become such a dodle after a while youll be wizzing through it!

[joffocakes]

I do like that when a game prompts the post to miiverse it can include different tags. If you go to your post on miiverse and click that tag you can see messages from other people who've posted from the same point. That same logic could be applied to other sorts of achievement. They did also say they'd included an option for developers to embed their own tags so they can launch the game directly from miiverse into certain stages. I wonder what creative use of that we might see? Like simply launching into a secret stage or being used to launch the game with otherwise hidden seasonal art assets at christmas from one of the developers christmas miiverse messages. There must be other things you could do with that. Miiverse is great.

I kinda wish there was a quicker home-button friend messaging system though.

[rgraves]

The ex Metroid Prime folks have now confirmed that if they hit their stretch goal of 55k they'll be doing a Wii U port of their iOS game Buddy & Me:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1644707178/buddy-and-me/posts/453061

A wise man once said, “don’t ever forget where you came from.” For the past few weeks, I’ve received a flood of questions and comments from journalists and Nintendo fans from the Metroid Prime days, asking whether or not we would consider a Nintendo version. The game’s characters and play would be a great fit in the Nintendo world, and the touch-screen gameplay would lend itself well to the Wii U’s unique controller. But most importantly, I’ve felt really touched at how enthusiastic and appreciative these loyal fans have been to reach out, to talk about how much those games meant to them, and remind me of some of the most inspiring and influential times of my career. Guys and gals, this one’s for you: We’ve added Wii U eShop support as an official Stretch Goal, at the $55,000 funding mark!

And Crazy Coaster has been announced at iDEAME

[Larsen B]

I think they could use MiiVerse to set challenges - kinda like those bonkers insane Mario skill videos. They can obviously link in youtube videos, but I think they really need a mechanism where you can capture a video of what you're doing in a game and post it online. Same as what Sony are doing. I've always thought this would be a good idea.

But then it comes down to how large of your audience will do it or take the time to view other people's stuff.

The Sony sharing stuff is a nice concept but I won't use it and I'm not sure I will ever watch things my friends make. I made 2 videos in Halo 3 multiplayer when it came out and then never used it again, even when my friends made videos. Looking at a picture to gather the information is easy to make and view and doesn't require much investment.

Having all of these options (achievements, photo sharing, video sharing) in one console would appease nearly everyone but, to an extent, it may be to the detriment of it. When everywhere you go you're seeing your friends' videos, pictures, icons, words, I think you eventually stop caring about any of it. Facebook being an example.

Maybe I'm cynical and just hate other people but I also love my community-centric Wii U.

[rgraves]

I just love The Ranting Robots, always make me laugh:

[Shimmyhill]

Something they need to fix is the constant spinning of a disc if its in the drive while in dash etc, the machine is great for netflix except this issue meaning i have to get up off my ass and remove the disc!

[Not Thread Owner]

I've never noticed it do that. How do you know it's spinning?