We’ve already heard that Wii U developers have received their final development kits for the console, but what do surprises do they contain? Well according to a source over at Neogaf the latest dev kits allow for voice chat, multitasking and facial recognition. Here’s a supposed list of the latest features:

• Video Chat is available, but must be from the main menu of the system (not while playing a game).
• Voice Commands are available (similar to this rumor we heard about the 3DS maybe?)
• Facial Recognition (similar to features of the Xbox Kinect)
• Ability to suspend games, similar to 3DS.
• Ability to share achievements with friends by sending videos or screenshots with drawings on them.
• Watch a friend play online
• Multitasking (example: keep a text or video walkthrough open from the site while playing the game, swap back and forth as needed)

http://mynintendonew...wii-u-dev-kits/

The bolded ones are tasks which current gen consoles cannot complete. How many times have you had to close a game on the 360 dashboard or PS3 just to go browse some guide or pause a game while answering a message on Live. Watching a friend play is a big feature as it can allow you to see how to beat a certain section of the game you struggle with, view gameplay footage of a game you might be interested in, or just see how other ppl play. It may be Wii U's killer online feature. The facial recognition was expected with the Kinect being out now. Voice commands is interesting. The rest were expected.

spoiler for you
it's not bluray it's proprietary

My apologies...blu-ray LIKE discs

Yes, CPU cache is inside the CPU core it self and is required for cpu to actually function. additional EDRAM is be embedded on die or ASIC, used for other stuff such as frame buffer

eDRAM is costlier ofcourse, its 3 times as dense than sdram and offers much more performance because of density and effectiveness of the short-distance interconnect.

edram is mostly used in consoles and ibm power 7 cpus , we are not sure yet if the wiiu implementation has edram on cpu die or asic, but there are theories and hunches the other tech guy always crunch about which i dont recall at this moment.

now we get to shared or main ram ... but we dont know if GPU has dedicated gddr so .... if it has thats the external gddr then, our main external  ram still remains  shared ... its also the audio DSP that uses that one.

If theres only one external shared ram its probably 2GB ...

Correct. And history of Nintendo suggests they will share RAM with the main memory pool and GPU working together. I would bank on 2GB of RAM total. NIntendo has shared RAM on all of their consoles (although I believe the 3DS has some VRAM allocated)

I think it was close to confirmed that the Wii U would have three cores with the DSP negating the need for a fourth core.

e3 is just around the corner and when nintendo shows the wii u it has to make gamers go WOW. the question is?

what game should nintendo show that will show what the wiiu can do?

Probably Pikmin 3. They thought the tablet and high resolution graphics would serve it better. Think of it....the art style, all the different colors of pikmins, the lush environments with plants and animals of all colors and shapes, the water effects, lighting during the day and night, etc. Show the audience that these things can't be done on the 360/PS3. We sure as hell know it isn't going to be a third party game or NSMBMii lol.

Is there a way we can enable swearing (or disable it)? I understand if people get easily offended and want to have it on, but reading fork and carp on the forums just seems so weird and doesn't convey the proper emotion. I'm ok with seeing ppl's swear words, so if there is an option to allow it, let me know please and thanks

My cell phone is 20x the wii lol. The Wii was a suped up GameCube (which Nintendo had been developing it's GPU and CPU since 1998) so it's over 10 year old tech with some older motion controls added in. I expect the Wii U to be a beast for a Nintendo console but this rumor coming from Wii U Daily sounds fishy (I still remember them posting about 768mb eDRAM LOL)

My favorite Marvel character is Spider-Man but Sony owns the movie rights not Marvel, so we will never see him in the Avengers

But, the movie was great, it balanced all those actor's screen time and they all got to do their thing. Hulk stole the show imo. Mark Ruffalo played an excellent Bruce Banner. Robert Downey Jr. is the perfect Tony Stark and he did an excellent job. I loved that Black Widow wasn't just a sex doll, she actually was useful on the battlefield. Thor actually didn't receive as much attention as I think he should have seeing as how is brother was the main villain. But overall it was an excellent film that had the odds stacked against it of failing.

Like with the 360, it wasn't until the release of Gears of War that we saw a truly next gen looking game with Unreal 3 running on it. Then came Mass Effect, Assassins Creed, Bioshock, etc. these games came out in 2007, 360 came out in 2005. Going by that formula, it will take about 2 years for third party games to look next gen on the Wii U (or whenever PS4 and 720 come out)

It will debut the same way the 360 and PS3 debuted. Ports will look the same as last gen, fanboys will accuse of being on-par because devs won't be used to the new tech yet. Nintendo's first party games will have glorious graphics. At launch, look to PIkmin 3 and maybe killer freaks (built form the ground up for Wii U) for next gen graphics.

I'd be good with black and blue. Just not white or grey. So damn dull and boring.

Sony is blue now. Microsoft was always green. Nintendo was red for most generations except for the Wii and midway through the GameCube.

To me, going red is a combination of nostalgia of the old days (bringing back some gamers who ditched Nintendo for the PS1 or Xbox) and also looking more hardcore and intense instead of white game cases (PS3 being clear cases with black and Xbox being green looks much better than the generic white cases of the Wii)

So, should Nintendo start branding their stuff Red or stick with the blue and white?




Red 3DS cases in Japan:

Mock Wii U case with Red theme:

I recently beat New Super Mario Bros. again (replayed it because of the sequel releasing soon).

Today, I started a new game in Heart Gold.

Me too! I recently finished a second play through of most of my wii games. Donkey kong country returns, NSMB Wii, and Kirby's Return to dreamland as well as epic yarn.

Currently I am playing Xenoblade Chronicles (taking my time with it) and I'm going to start Darksiders for the PS3 after it (in anticipation for the sequel for Wii U)

Huh. I guess the slight change actually DOES change perceptions. I guess it does sorta change from a "girly" teal color to a more neutral blue. I do agree that I miss the red branding though. Even if I do associate purple systems with Nintendo...

Red FTW!

Blue is my Uncle's favorite color.

Random lol.

My hope was Nintendo would go back to their red logo and make the Wii U look white, grey and red. Have the "Wii" as grey and the "U" as red and the console white with red trimmings, a red tray light and home button light, and some grey lines as well.

Something like these 10 minute shops I did with Gimp (the poor man's Photoshop)




I mean like, the 3DS is already branded as black and red, and Nintendo does use the red Nintendo logo on game cases and the back of game cases. Why not share the themes as they are similiar products? PS3 and Vita are now blue themed. Apple's iProducts are all similarly colored in white or black. Microsoft brands all there stuff in green. Nintendo needs to use Red like in the good old days. Red cases for 3DS games and red Wii U game cases.

Red 3DS cases in Japan:

Mock Wii U case with Red theme:

Why can't Nintendo defy the main formula?
I can't be the only one to want this!

The beauty of Zelda was it's single player adventure, where the player would feel like Link was their "link" or avatar into this open world where they need to save Hyrule from harm. Your choices are Link's choices, your battle movements are his. Your strategy is his strategy. You must solve the puzzles on your own. You feel alone. This kind of single player experience needs to be deep and lengthy, and to do that requires massive resources and dev time, especially in the HD era. Adding multiplayer would take away from the quality and lengthof the single player (don't believe me, look at Mass Effect 3, BioShock 2, Assassin's Creed Brotherhood and Revelations, etc).

Some games need innovation or a change in ways (Star Fox and Metroid need it) but games like Mario and Zelda are fine the way they are, and that is why people flock to them, because they only get 1-2 a generation and they know what to expect, but they want bigger and more. Zelda is a game series that is more "If it ain't broke, then don't fix it". Better overworlds, more detailed and larger overworlds, more dungeons, more strategic battle, better uses of items, etc. are what Zelda needs to improve it, not adding multiplayer and making Zelda a 10-12 hour experience.

I dont think I am familair with "Platinum" What have they made? As of now I want Retro making Starfox.

MadWorld, Bayonetta, Vanquish, and Okami are the most notable.

They're going to be the last to show something, but they're the first conference of E3. In other words, it's not happening.



Apple has a console. It's called the iPad/iPod Touch/iPhone. Valve has already said they're not making a system.

Seriously TRON, what happened? You used to make sense when talking about things. Now all I've heard from you recently is gobbledygook and nonsense.

Sounds like his younger sibling got a hold of his account and started typing and making threads.

I'm digging the darker blue. I hope they make their game cases this shade of blue to separate it from the Wii game cases. Plus blue is a sexy color.

MadWorld 2 on Wii U?

Yay or Nay.

Simple as that. I say 100% Yay.

I think because it was overlooked on the Wii I would add HD visuals and port it over to Wii U with the original controls or add some tablet function. Hope it builds ups audience and then do a MadWorld 2.

Donkey Kong Country 1 &2 for the SNES. Beautiful soundtracks.

Wii U in Black if possible.
Pikmin 3
NSMBMii

What if the next Zelda has online multiplayer?
This topic has came up a lot ever since the Wii U was revealed. There was even some talk that Skyward Sword was going to have DLC and online multiplayer. If this where to happen, here is how I would want it to be:

The online multiplayer I have thought up would place a variety of players (probably around 15 of them) in a map (woods, volcano, you know, generic Zelda locations) and the players basically hunt around for others and kill them. The player with the most kills would win, (basically the same concept from the Kid Icarus Uprising online Free for All mode). The combat system should be redesigned to fit fighting other players. (Hopefully the controls for your sword will be similar if not identical to Skyward Sword.) You would also find treasure chests with power ups, to be displayed on the controller. (Tap them to use.) There would also be kill streak rewards, one of them being that you could set a enemy free on the map via the controller. (So you could send a enemy at certain parts of the map with a player close by.) Imagine having a huge kill streak reward that allows you to send the Imprisoned crashing through the stage.
The players would most likely be Link but with different tunic colors.
Maybe the online multiplayer would even have a Light VS. Dark-esque mode also.
A co-op mode similar to Four Swords Adventures would be a nice addition also.

As for weapons, you would be able to pick your sword, your shield, and around 3 items from the game along with them. I would imagine the weapons wouldn't do much damage compared to close combat.

Well, that is all I have at the moment. I may update this if I think of anything else.

This thread is sacrilege. Close it.

Neogaf user IdeaMan broke this news the first week of May. This news is ancient.....

Microsoft copied GameCube diagonal analog stick placement.

It might have been your first experience of that since you did not have a gcn. But Nintendo was first. And that GameCube controller... Is legendary. I do prefer the 360 pad to the playstation one though.

The 360 pad feels good for fps games. But it suffers badly for fighting games with the atrocious dpad and the angle at which your hand holds the right side where the most commonly used buttons reside on the face. 360 game pad is basically the old OC sidewinder game pad that came out after Nintendo GameCube showed the world how to build a controller (what IS it with the purple color though?...)

The gcn controller had it all thought out.

I had a GCN......but the c-stick was rarely used the same as a right analog stick. Microsoft copied nothing because Nintendo had all the development of the console on wraps until E3 2001.