E3 - 2011

[Aslanna]

Since all nice 1080p TV's now a days have 3D built in, its going to be hard to not get 3D. If the glasses are in the box with the TV, like mine were, you wouldn't be saying that its shit, that much I can say because I have experience with 3D tv and gaming and bluray...its way different at home vs. the setup at BestBuy.

It's shit. Even if I do get a 3D-capable TV I doubt I'd be using it. But if I do I'll be sure to report back just how shit it is!

Anyway.. Wii U (seriously?) specs:

1. Graphics: Custom AMD RV770 Chip “WOLF” @ 766 Mhz on 32nm process 1398 Gflops
2. Memory: 512 MB XDR2 DRAM
3. CPU: Custom IBM Power 6 Chip “FOX” on 32nm process
4. 4 cores, each two way SMT – capable and clocked at 3.5 ghz
5. Backwards compatible with 8cm Nintendo GameCube Game Disc and 12 cm Wii Optical Disc
6. Custom Bluray-Disc up to 50 GB
7. Storage: 2.5-inch SATA hard drive with 250 GB/ 320 GB capacity / Expanded storage via SD and SDHC card memory (up to 64 GB)

And of course they have another gimmicky controlller. Hopefully they don't try and have every game cram that shit down people's throats like every game had to have motion controls for the Wii even if it didn't benefit at all from that sort of control scheme. Interesting that they are keeping Gamecube compatibility. Wasn't that a way in for the hackers with the Wii? It was years ago I can't recall now. I'm sure they wont make the same mistake again.

Note: I didn't actually watch the presentation or read much about it other than specs so I don't know how the controller actually functions other than it has its own display. Or something like that.


Switching gears - Personally I think while the PSVita is reasonably priced it wont sell as well as previous models around the world in the same way the 3DS doesn't seem to be. With other mobile platforms like smart phones and tablets I don't think mandheld gaming machines have the market that they did before. I know I wont be buying one!


Edit! I guess 'custom blu-ray' in the list aboe is called iDensity and supposedly only 25GB. So not sure if that means it will play Blu-Rays as well or not.:

In a wide-ranging interview with Kotaku regarding the new Wii U console, one of Nintendo's chief game designers, Katsuya Eguchi, confirmed that the system's proprietary disc format will hold 25 Gigabytes of data. That squares with our own reporting from before E3 and puts Nintendo in a good place to run games that fill up a single-layer 25GB Blu-Ray disc, the format used by current console king of large game discs, the PlayStation 3.

[Animalor]

Bing is fucking trash. They should put their pride down, admit google is and always will be the better search engine, and pay hem royalties to integrate that into the 360 instead, IMO.

I'm going to disagree. Google's algorithm has been getting gamed really badly in the last little while that half the results on my first page are either content farms or retarded content aggregators with little or no value.

I've been using Bing as my main search engine and frankly I haven't had to fall back to Google much at all in the last few months.

[Funkmasterr]

Bing is fucking trash. They should put their pride down, admit google is and always will be the better search engine, and pay hem royalties to integrate that into the 360 instead, IMO.

I'm going to disagree. Google's algorithm has been getting gamed really badly in the last little while that half the results on my first page are either content farms or retarded content aggregators with little or no value.

I've been using Bing as my main search engine and frankly I haven't had to fall back to Google much at all in the last few months.

Guess I rarely ever have that problem. And the layout for bing is obnoxious. The FIRST thing I do when I work on someones computer, no matter what's wrong, is switch their search in IE to Google if it's set as Bing.

[Funkmasterr]

What makes you think that the 'Wii crowd' will have that much effect on this generations handheld console market?
The Wii has had less impact than than PS and PS2... Sure it made significant inroads in the NA market but overall I don't think its the juggernaut you seem to think it is.
It's still 18 mil short of the PS1 and nowhere near the PS2.
And the PS sales were from when the video game console market was considerably smaller than it is now.

It has the lowest attach rate and people play their Wii a lot less than people play their 360 and PS3.

It's people like us that Sony is going to win over with price/quality of software

I think you're underestimating the power quality games have to move consoles.
Just look at what Halo and Gears of War did for the 360

You're comparing the sales of consoles that have been out for over a decade to one released in the past few years, so I don't see any weight to that argument to be honest. Your comment about attach rate and play time just support my argument more, imo... A lot of people just want it because it's the cool thing, a lot like Apple. I know people that are just as you said, don't buy many games, hardly play it, but guess what? They bought 4 complete controllers and all the other bullshit accessories for the Wii. If Nintendo is smart they will market the 3DS like a accessory to the Wii U, and even if they don't I can tell you for almost certain I can think of a good number of people that will view it that way.

I could be totally wrong, but I think Nintendo is going to outdo themselves sales wise this time around.

[Funkmasterr]

Since all nice 1080p TV's now a days have 3D built in, its going to be hard to not get 3D. If the glasses are in the box with the TV, like mine were, you wouldn't be saying that its shit, that much I can say because I have experience with 3D tv and gaming and bluray...its way different at home vs. the setup at BestBuy.

It's shit. Even if I do get a 3D-capable TV I doubt I'd be using it. But if I do I'll be sure to report back just how shit it is!

Anyway.. Wii U (seriously?) specs:

1. Graphics: Custom AMD RV770 Chip “WOLF” @ 766 Mhz on 32nm process 1398 Gflops
2. Memory: 512 MB XDR2 DRAM
3. CPU: Custom IBM Power 6 Chip “FOX” on 32nm process
4. 4 cores, each two way SMT – capable and clocked at 3.5 ghz
5. Backwards compatible with 8cm Nintendo GameCube Game Disc and 12 cm Wii Optical Disc
6. Custom Bluray-Disc up to 50 GB
7. Storage: 2.5-inch SATA hard drive with 250 GB/ 320 GB capacity / Expanded storage via SD and SDHC card memory (up to 64 GB)

And of course they have another gimmicky controlller. Hopefully they don't try and have every game cram that shit down people's throats like every game had to have motion controls for the Wii even if it didn't benefit at all from that sort of control scheme. Interesting that they are keeping Gamecube compatibility. Wasn't that a way in for the hackers with the Wii? It was years ago I can't recall now. I'm sure they wont make the same mistake again.

Note: I didn't actually watch the presentation or read much about it other than specs so I don't know how the controller actually functions other than it has its own display. Or something like that.


Switching gears - Personally I think while the PSVita is reasonably priced it wont sell as well as previous models around the world in the same way the 3DS doesn't seem to be. With other mobile platforms like smart phones and tablets I don't think mandheld gaming machines have the market that they did before. I know I wont be buying one!


Edit! I guess 'custom blu-ray' in the list aboe is called iDensity and supposedly only 25GB. So not sure if that means it will play Blu-Rays as well or not.:

In a wide-ranging interview with Kotaku regarding the new Wii U console, one of Nintendo's chief game designers, Katsuya Eguchi, confirmed that the system's proprietary disc format will hold 25 Gigabytes of data. That squares with our own reporting from before E3 and puts Nintendo in a good place to run games that fill up a single-layer 25GB Blu-Ray disc, the format used by current console king of large game discs, the PlayStation 3.

Interesting, not as good as I was expecting, but not bad.

[Aslanna]

Someone said those specs aren't the actual ones.. So who knows! Although I guess we know for sure on the optical drive.

[miir]

So the game footage Nintendo used in their Wii U presentation... well they weren't actually showing Wii U games
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2386582,00.asp

[Fairweather Pure]

The surprise of the show for me was Sony's 249$ price for Vita. That is an impressive gamble to say the least. I was fully prepared to laugh my ass off at yet another asinine price point, but was happily surprised. Shocked even. Rumor has it that Sony will be selling at a loss for the first 3 years though. We'll see how that works out for them. The handheld landscape has changed drastically in the past 5 years. On paper though, I would think they should be making Nintendo very nervous since they have experienced such a lukewarm reception to the 3DS. Then again, Nintendo makes a profit on every device sold. However, the 3DS is also severely lacking in games too. Sony is bringing the thunder in that category with an impressive launch line up (including games that also play on the PS3). Will it be enough to give them solid inroads? I sure hope so. If the Vita fails, it will be yet another blow to a weakened Sony and I absolutely do not want that to happen. Every person that buys a Vita needs to buy some fucking games this time.

I think Aslanna stated my feelings on the issue very well with this:

Personally I think while the PSVita is reasonably priced it wont sell as well as previous models around the world in the same way the 3DS doesn't seem to be. With other mobile platforms like smart phones and tablets I don't think mandheld gaming machines have the market that they did before.

All in all, there were few surprises for me. Everything that was shown was great from all 3 companies. Instead of one or the other falling behind, all 3 conferences were pretty good IMO. Definitely lots of stuff to look forward to. I'm still unsure about the Wii U, but on the surface I am actually excited about it. I really need to see price and games before I'm on board though. Lots of weird rumors out there. I almost feel like Nintendo showed it a bit too soon. The MS dashboard updates are cool. Games for both the 360 and PS3 have good outlooks. I guess I was surprised at the amount of Kinect stuff. At least it looked like second generation Kinect games. The Disney one is bought. My girls will flip over that. The integration into games looks like fun (head tracking in Forza 4 and the Ghost Recon weapon building looked fantastic). I don't recall a single Move game at the Sony Conference? Have they abandoned the peripheral already? It's too bad if they have, but it sure feels like it. The Star Wars game that MS showed for Kinect would likely be much better with Move. There should have been a happy medium between Kinect and Move. Instead, MS concentrated on Kinect too much and Sony pretty much ignored Move altogether.

All in all, everyone played it safe. Everyone had lots to show. I'm interested in almost all of it to one degree or another.

If I had to rank the conference, I would say Nintendo>Sony>MS, but they were all really close.

[Winnow]

Did anyone watch the Sony Press Conference and hear the huge amount of boos when they announced AT&T as the 3G carrier for Vita?

I love it! I hope more people leave AT&T! I love AT&T. Anyone notice all the problems iPhone on Verizon are having? I shit ton. They can't even update to the latest iphone features and are always a few iOS versions behind.

I'm grandfathered into unlimited bandwidth on my iPhone plan...not giving that up...at least until LTE when they'll probably force a data plan change.

Nintendo products all look like toys for retards. They look like shit you could mold in your kitchen or something from a kid's science project kit.

If I could find any reason at all to own a portable, it would be the Vita. I hope it get hacked quickly. If so, I might buy it and steal all the games but otherwise see no reason to own it. On the other hand, I make daily use of both of my iPads and iPhone

------

On another note, anyone see Apples plans for their new campus?:



Interesting video of Jobs addressing the Cupertino city council yesterday. His tone is a little different because he's speaking to dumbass city government people.

holds 12,000 peeps

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtuz5OmOh_M

It's a pretty amazing building. It's a little like a spaceship landed. It's got this gorgeous courtyard in the middle... It's a circle. It's curved all the way around. If you build things, this is not the cheapest way to build something. There is not a straight piece of glass in this building. It's all curved. We've used our experience making retail buildings all over the world now, and we know how to make the biggest pieces of glass in the world for architectural use. And, we want to make the glass specifically for this building here. We can make it curve all the way around the building... It's pretty cool.

One of the city councilors asked what the citizens of Cupertino would get from the new campus, and in particular brought up a free Wi-Fi network, like Google offers in Mountain View. Steve responded that Apple was the largest taxpayer in Cupertino and he felt that the tax benefits to having a company like Apple in Cupertino was benefit enough and the city should be providing a service like that.

"If we can get out of paying taxes, we would be glad to provide free Wi-Fi."

[Aslanna]

Another Wii U (still a dumb name!) spec clarified:

Speaking to Kotaku earlier today, Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime revealed that while the Wii U will still be compatible with Wii software, its predecessor's backward compatibility with the GameCube will not be making an appearance.

Probably because they couldn't secure it properly!

[Aardor]

Other than Halo/Halo4, I think the most exciting announcement was Prototype 2.

[miir]

[Show]

On another note, anyone see Apples plans for their new campus?:



Interesting video of Jobs addressing the Cupertino city council yesterday. His tone is a little different because he's speaking to dumbass city government people.

holds 12,000 peeps

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtuz5OmOh_M

It's a pretty amazing building. It's a little like a spaceship landed. It's got this gorgeous courtyard in the middle... It's a circle. It's curved all the way around. If you build things, this is not the cheapest way to build something. There is not a straight piece of glass in this building. It's all curved. We've used our experience making retail buildings all over the world now, and we know how to make the biggest pieces of glass in the world for architectural use. And, we want to make the glass specifically for this building here. We can make it curve all the way around the building... It's pretty cool.

One of the city councilors asked what the citizens of Cupertino would get from the new campus, and in particular brought up a free Wi-Fi network, like Google offers in Mountain View. Steve responded that Apple was the largest taxpayer in Cupertino and he felt that the tax benefits to having a company like Apple in Cupertino was benefit enough and the city should be providing a service like that.

"If we can get out of paying taxes, we would be glad to provide free Wi-Fi."

What in the fuck does this have to do with E3?
Apple isn't even at E3.

Maybe we should start faggoting up the fairweather/winnow circlejerk ipad thread with shit about Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony. I think I'll start spamming it with PS Vita specs and Wii U screenshots.

[Kwonryu DragonFist]

I want to see PS Vita in EVERY thread from now on!

[Winnow]

What in the fuck does this have to do with E3?
Apple isn't even at E3.

Maybe we should start faggoting up the fairweather/winnow circlejerk ipad thread with shit about Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony. I think I'll start spamming it with PS Vita specs and Wii U screenshots.

I'm sorry, news about the company behind the largest mobile gaming platform isn't game related? The company behind the soon to be huge, cloud based gaming isn't news?

Apple Gaming Center = 50 Million
MS Live = 30 Million
(Sony = who cares)

While Apple may never attend E3 as a participating company, the future smart money may be on the game developers and publishers who are here devoting an increasing share of their time, money, and attention to iOS and Android games, rather than traditional living room or handheld console games.

I'll go back to reporting the daily hacks of Sony's network(s).

[miir]

You're delusional.

Steve Job's cock is so far down your throat that you cant even think straight.

[miir]

The company behind the soon to be huge, cloud based gaming isn't news?

I'm not sure what 'icloud' you're talking about but the one they announced has little to do with gaming.
It's little more than server based storage for your itunes library.

[Winnow]

You probably missed it but iCloud also offers new API for storing key data which allows you to start playing your games on your iMac, iPad or iPhone and pick up exactly where you left off on an iMac, iPad or iPhone. If you watched any of the briefing on iCloud, you'll see that it's pretty much instant syncing between devices (unless of course it's huge amounts of data).

You could be sitting on your ass at work, playing iPhone game, and then whip out your iPad on the public bus you ride, resuming immediately where you left off, then, apply for a loan to scrounge up the money for an iMac, and play the rest of it there when you get home.

Other enhancements coming to iOS 5 will spill over to benefit gamers. Apple’s new iCloud service may hold the key to one long-standing problem of iOS - synchronization of saved game files between devices.

If you use an iPhone and an iPad, for example, you can install the same game on either device, but there’s no easy to way share game files between them. So if you get to level 30 on Angry Birds on your iPhone and fire it up for the first time on your iPad, you’ll find yourself back to level 1 on that device. It’s frustrating.

iCloud will enable applications to back up their settings files and documents to the cloud, and thus synchronize to each iOS device. Apple is providing access to those Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to developers, which opens that door.

Play a game on your iPhone while you’re commuting. Get home, fire up your iPad and pick up where you left off, same level, same achievements, same score. It only makes sense to do it this way.

All told, Apple sent a very strong message to WWDC attendees: iOS 5, iCloud and Mac OS X “Lion” are a three-legged stool that serves as the foundation for the future of Apple platforms.

Gaming is integral to that, especially for iOS 5; it’s no secret that games make up the single biggest section of the App Store, and Apple emphasizes its iOS hardware’s gaming potential in its marketing campaigns. Bit by bit, the pieces are falling into place to keep game development at the forefront of iOS.

[miir]

iCloud also offers new API for storing key data which allows you to start playing your games on your iMac, iPad or iPhone and pick up exactly where you left off on an iMac, iPad or iPhone.

Big fucking deal, Sony has been offering the exact same thing for a while now.

[masteen]

Didn't anyone tell the geniouses at Apple that three legged anythings are inherently unstable?

[Leonaerd]

You're delusional.

Steve Job's cock is so far down your throat that you cant even think straight.

iCloud also offers new API for storing key data which allows you to start playing your games on your iMac, iPad or iPhone and pick up exactly where you left off on an iMac, iPad or iPhone.

Big fucking deal, Sony has been offering the exact same thing for a while now.

Sony's dick is so small that Miir thinks nobody notices him slobbin.

[Aslanna]

Didn't anyone tell the geniouses at Apple that three legged anythings are inherently unstable?

One word: Tripods!

[Aslanna]

Thread necro!

playing Killzone3 in 3D is a fucking blast. I thought 3dtv's where a gimmick, but holy shit I'm reformed. I hate the glasses, its lame, but it just works. Simply works. My TV came with glasses and all that shit cause I would have never ponied out money for them, that's for sure, and that's the biggest reason it isn't taking off, the initial costs are unfair to the consumer, IMO. Anyways, was just reading all that hate and wanted to contrast the comments on 3D gaming, cause its the cats ass.

also, its the same hdmi cable box that I've always had that plays the 3D content from comcast and hbo just fine.

Since all nice 1080p TV's now a days have 3D built in, its going to be hard to not get 3D. If the glasses are in the box with the TV, like mine were, you wouldn't be saying that its shit, that much I can say because I have experience with 3D tv and gaming and bluray...its way different at home vs. the setup at BestBuy.

3D is a gimmick and the cost isn't really the reason people aren't interested. Anyway enjoy it while you have it because it sounds like some companies, or at least one, are dropping it for their newest models.

The era of blood splatter on the screen and obnoxious cartoon characters throwing lollipops at your face may be over before as the TV industry's fascination with 3-D seems to finally be coming to an end.

Vizio's 2014 line of commercial televisions — the TVs marketed to regular folk like you and me — will not have any 3-D models, the company announced at the 2014 Consumer Electronics Show (CES), which currently underway in Las Vegas.) Vizio has abandoned the gimmick technology completely in favor of televisions with 4K high definition, the latest advancement in very pretty, but flat pictures.

[Fairweather Pure]

The previous page is a Miir goldmine!

As far as 3D goes, I'm an unabashed lover of the technology. I own a 70" 3D set and every blu ray movie I own is in 3D if available, and I buy a lot of movies. As far as 3D gaming is concerned, some experiences are better than others. I would say that Puppeteer is my favorite though.

I really, really hate seeing tech go backwards. 3D is cheap as fucking dirt to implement and support. It should be in every single TV going forward. If manufacturers want to include it in high end models only, I will gladly pay a premium and let the plebs eat cake and watch 3D movies in 2D like goddamn barbarians.

The fact that Vizio is dropping 3D support in of itself is not that big of a deal to me. But when you add that fact that both the PS4 and Xbone are not supporting the tech at launch and it shows a definite trend that is moving away from 3D. It's a shame because watching Avatar, Hugo, Life of Pi, and so many other movies is a whole different/better experience than the 2D versions.

[Aslanna]

It's funny how I did a 180 on Sony/PS3 since it ended up being my preferred console. Just goes to show how much I did not like the direction MS went.

And I stand by my statement that 3D is a gimmick. As I said if I want 3D I'll go outside!