What happened to "DNFTT"?
Nah, not fixed. I truthfully reported my opinion.
Most of that was fact, though, which I'll cover more below.
Wii Remotes use Bluetooth to function.
Voice chat is available through the WiiSpeak peripheral.
And if, by "high def graphics," you mean 720p or 1080p, then no, the Wii doesn't offer those resolutions. It does offer 480p, though.
I'll concede that online multiplayer for the Wii is weak, based solely on personal experience. Few games include online multiplayer. Some do a fair job with it, though you have to get past the Friends Codes rot. Other games, like Super Smash Bros. Brawl, lag so badly that it effectively eliminates the purpose of including online multiplayer in the first place.
Yes, Wiimotes use bluetooth to transfer information, which amounts to basically nothing. Do we really spend much time 30 feet from our TVs on the Wii? Good luck finding your pointer.
Bluetooth on the Wii provides virtually no use to the customer.
Here's what I meant by bluetooth: my bluetooth keyboard and mouse work with my PS3. So does my headset. None of them are Sony products, and any bluetooth device that meets the bluetooth profile will work. My 320GB hard drive cost me only $49.99. Again, I did not buy a "Sony" hard drive. Nintendo
could have done this but didn't, which is one of the reasons I liken them to Apple. They keep tight control (except for the shovelware) at the cost of the consumer. If they do ever grace their customers with voice chat and a hard drive, odds are it will be for expensive Nintendo-only devices. Opinion? Yes, but it would be silly to believe otherwise.
I honestly do not like Sony as a company (I'm looking at YOU SecuROM and everything having to do with record labels/movie labels). Like 'em or hate 'em the hardware and software on the PS3 is
much more open than the competitors...leading to a better value in the end.
As for hi-def...I'm a huge proponent of "gameplay over graphics". Also, many games look fine in 480...primarily cartoony or cell-shaded games. Okami was beautiful. Most everything else can certainly benefit from 720, which is honestly what most games are at. You know I'm looking forward to 3D Dot Heroes.
There's a long list of fantastic games for the Wii, many of them with serious replayability. When you've played every released game in this (incomplete) list and decided you didn't like any or only a small portion of them, then you can say the Wii has nothing to offer you.
Obviously everyone's mileage will vary by game, so there is some opinion involved, but there was more behind me saying that replayability is an issue on the Wii. As for me, I own and have played most of the games on your list, and they were fantastic. I read all the time about people talking about how their Wii collects dust, and thought, "Yup, me too!". But I own plenty of good Wii games...and so does everyone else. Nintendo is obviously not having a problem selling games. That's what led me to replayability.
I realized that the reason I personally do not play my Wii is because games on the Wii lack a few key nuggets that make a game "replayable" for most people:
* Good online play
* Ever-dangling virtual carrots.
World of Warcraft is king at these two things. Wii games are not. I love a great single player game, and I thought SM Galaxy/Twilight Princess were superb games, but they do not have "high" replayability. Maybe bust through them again every now and then and collect all the hearts/stars, but that's about it. Saying WoW can be a time sink isn't an "opinion", we have a lot of evidence to back that up. I think the same goes for the amount of time people spend with their Wiis. Mileage may vary, of course.
PS3 and 360 games have trophies/achievements (carrots) if that's your thing, great online play in many games, etc. Games on the Wii that take much time to "complete" everything are few and far between. It's ironic that while the Wii rules the party games...the system "built for multiplayer" has such a bad online experience.
I have not read a single post that implies or states that the Move controllers offers a zero-lag experience. The lag may be insignificant, but it's not nil. (Is that a double negative?)
Here is my understanding of how the Sony wand works. Again, I'll of course reserve judgment until it is in my living room:
Information is processed inside the controllers and sent to the playstation eye at the speed of light. The information is then transferred on down to the PS3 via USB. Translation? It's as fast as it could possibly be, only limited by the speed of the PS3 processor (which is arguably faster than what the Wii is running).
I believe the Wii actually uses infrared to pass motion info, but don't quote me on that.
Now, while I don't have the Move in my hand, here's the prototype demo from last year:
Part 1:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-mB5eOAmpE
Part 2:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mC4t4_c8cQE
Looks pretty convincing to me.
I have to wonder what would be involved in "patching" motion controls into a game released 1-3 years ago would involve. I imagine it would be more involved than one would first think.
Programming? Super simple.
Putting the patch out? Super simple. (although publishers do pay for bandwidth on PSN)
QA to test every aspect, make sure the game isn't too hard/easy, etc? Getting feedback to programmers to make adjustments and making/testing those adjustments? This is where the time (money) is.
I do not expect a large portion of old games to be patched backwards patched. That said, I know that Sony has been very up front about putting effort into supporting this peripheral, so we'll see how that plays out...especially with first-party games. I'd love to swap in motion control for Resistance 2.
There aren't any adventure RPGs that meet that criteria yet, but there are reports that indicate the next Zelda Wii game will support MotionPlus.
If you're itching for some surprisingly fun virtual swordplay, I'd highly recommend Wii Sports Resort's Swordplay games. It was, for me, the highlight of the full WSR package.
I had forgot to mention the next Zelda (TP was really a GC game), and thought about going back and editing, but just didn't. I agree and do expect the next Zelda to be everything I'm hoping for. I also have high hopes for Dragon Quest 10. I do own Sports Plus, and it's a very fun tech demo. I would really have loved if they added more "meat" to the sports titles...like maybe a "season" mode for most of the sports or something.
I would hope they'd deliver a much better motion control experience. They've had three more years to work on theirs.
I agree with you here on the hardware and I think MotionPlus is a good step up, but I wasn't referring to the hardware. I was referring to the software, and Nintendo is the one with the huge head start there. And so far there just haven't been very many good uses of motion control on the Wii. Sure, it's an opinion, but I'm expecting better from Sony. At least the demo above is using a sword, lol.
Also, 3rd party support is much better outside of Nintendo consoles. I expect to see a lot of party games on the PSN that would be full $50 games on the Wii.
"Cheaply made." Do you mean "inexpensively" or "with shoddy materials"? Yes, the Wii console and Wii Remote are inexpensive to produce, but both components feel solid and have held up well after 3 years of frequent use.
They've held up pretty well. Don't forget that Nintendo ended up issuing those rubber harnesses and new wrist straps because the old wrist straps. I do typically differentiate between "cheap" and "inexpensive", but in this instance I would use them interchangeably, since while they are inexpensive to manufacture, they certainly aren't to buy.
"Gouging accessories." Are the accessories you mention first-party or third-party? You can blame Nintendo for selling the Zapper (which is essentially a plastic shell for a Remote and Nunchuk) for $20 USD. I don't know how much the Wii Wheel (again, a plastic shell for an existing controller) costs on its own, but it was packaged with Mario Kart Wii for no additional cost (i.e. the game still cost $50 USD at launch).
$70 for a WiiMote with motion plus & nunchuck. If you really want to use it as a "party system" with four controllers, you're looking at over $500 bucks. $80 per wiimote/nunchuck if you owned the controller already and bought attachment. $80 for the balance board (which most people barely used). $200 for the system which is basically gamecube hardware. Nintendo is the current king of the nickel and dime...and people are buying up games and components they don't even use. It's like mind control, lol. I want to get Fit+ and I barely played the first Fit...and I don't even know why!
Oh, and don't forget $20 for classic controllers that you have to plug into the Wiimote.
I don't know about $20 for the zapper is a good deal, but I have actually heard the Link "game" with it is very fun and makes it works the money.
Really, it just offends the sensibilities paying the same price for 10 year old hardware as you could pay for a 360 or PS3.
This also goes for the software, though. How often do you see Wii game prices drop? Sure there are exceptions. I recently ordered DQ: Swords for $10, and A Boy and his Blob for $13. But take a look at Nintendo-published games...Super Paper Mario and Twilight Princess came out 3 years ago, and are still $49.99. I can't even bring myself to look in the "bargain" bins anymore, there's nothing but shovelware. New 360/PS3 games are $59.99 MSRP, but considering they often drop to $39.99 in a month and $20-30 soon after. So, the irony is that with my gaming/buying habits...my "paystation" has had a lower cost of ownership per game...and I have a $600 60GB model. Maybe they don't have sales because they don't need to, but I really don't care. I only care about how it hits the wallet to get each game.
Also, I'm not sure if you've done a comparison on what it would cost to buy every game in the Virtual Console that you get in Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection...but it's silly.
"They tell the gamer how they're 'supposed' to game." Huh? What does that even mean? I can't make sense of that line.
Mostly what you mentioned...it comes down to leaving things out and telling people they don't need them. Everything that the Wii isn't because Nintendo can't do it, it's because they choose not to.
I don't blame them for the weak hardware specs by themselves. I'm very glad they did something different there and it had mass appeal. Their initial success is well-deserved. I think that while the Wii is not my favorite console, it has probably done more for gaming than the other two this generation. We just haven't received the benefits yet.
As for motion controls being "10 years old," what are you basing this on? If you mean prototypes, then maybe so. But again, we're not talking about prototypes. We're talking about hardware realized on a massive scale. Again, Nintendo tried something different--focus on controls rather than graphic processing power--and it paid off.
Sorry, I stand corrected. 25 year old hardware, at least in the gaming world.
http://classicgames.about.com/od/consoleandhandheldgames/p/LeStickProfile.htm
Did it take off? No...you've probably never even heard of it. Nintendo did it at the right time and made it work, which is great. But when I hear people and Nintendo scream "innovation", it reminds me of a certain other group of technology fans.
There are a number of other points I could bring up: Price comparison of launch consoles (Wii's $250 price tag as opposed to the PS3's $500 and $600 options), a list of very promising Wii titles due out before Q3 2010, the fact that the Wii wasn't designed to compete directly against the 360 or PS3, people blaming Nintendo for third parties churning out lazy ports and shovelware and stubbornly refusing to adapt to a new design concept, and so on.
I agree these are large factors in the Wii's success (and the PS3's lack there of). I believe that for most gamers, the $300 PS3 Slim has a lower cost of ownership (although very close) than a $200 Wii if you look at it "per game". If you factor in gametime, this will tip even more in favor of a PS3 (or 360). Obviously the 360 is much more expensive for most people.
And since people are slow to catch on, they still think of the PS3 as the most expensive.
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Didn't mean to add another novel, but I suppose I will add that as I said above, I agree completely that the Wii has been great for gaming. You playing Mario Kart with the parents is great. I know old people at work who play Wii sports. This is effectively expanding the number of people interested in my favorite hobby.
Sony (and MS if Natal works as advertised) are expanding on that. It's not just "having" motion control. Did you watch the PS Move demo that just came out? It looks
exactly like a Wii commercial, and it's clear they are gunning for that audience. If I were a betting man, I would bet that ModNation Racers will include motion control...and they'll be following suit with a lot more.
Competition is (almost) always good for the consumer. As you stated, Nintendo hasn't had any up to this point. Now the gloves are coming off. So, I think that the move will be good for PS3 and Wii owners, alike.
Bah, curse you Joshinator! Clever troll!
