Everything in the technical specs seems to line up with the details Nintendo has publicly announced or said in official interviews. 1GB dedicated VRAM, 3D capabilities (play games in 3D if you have a 3D TV - the Wii U uses HDMI instead of proprietary connector.. definitely looking solid), low TDP to be "green", and 40nm fabrication sounds 100% spot on given the time the Wii U was being developed. If this is all correct, the Wii U will not have any problem running the same games as the PS4/720 ... the main problem will be getting developers to utilize the GamePad, which is going to require extra time and energy for one console specific functionality. If the Wii U just uses the wand still, the only difference between it and the Wii is the graphics. If all you want is better graphics, undoubtedly you'll want the PS4 or 720. I love Nintendo but the Xbox 360 is my favorite console. I want the Wii U to get great games and utilize the GamePad which sets it apart from all the other consoles, and I hope it's not too much to ask from game developers to actually make it happen.

I need a reason to play the Wii U over the 360/720 (I hate the PS3 controller and psn so I traded in my PS3 towards the Wii U), graphics being better is great and all but we NEED less shovelware, every AAA game (and a high percentage of "good" games) to use the GamePad, a gamertag-esque system, and some GOOD exclusives.

If these are the specs then What's with all these reports that it only supports dx10?

There's been no official confirmation that it doesn't support DX11, nor affirmation that it does. At this point, since DX11 was released in late 2009, I'm inclined to believe it does.

You guys, I just noticed something. What if you keep dying repeatedly on ZombiU... do the players eventually cycle around? Like if you played as Bob Hipposplasher on day 1, and died 40 times, do you eventually get to play as Bob again?

As far as I know, ZombiU doesn't have unlimited characters, unless the game characters and their names are randomized.

Just a guess, but isn't the point that Bob has turned into a zombie? Don't see how you'd get to play as him again since he's already turned.

"there is nothing that really gets me hyped to play."
I think they did a great job of trying to have something for everyone, instead of a couple games that they force on everyone - if that makes sense. 50 games in a launch window and over 20 on launch day is amazing for a brand new console. Rabbids Land looks fun for playing with my son, ZombiU by myself, CoD:Black Ops 2 for online multiplayer, Tank! Tank! Tank! for the whole family really (reminds me of some tank game they had for the N64 that I loved), Skylanders Giants Wii U of course because my son really enjoyed playing the original one with me on the 360, Scribblenauts Unlimited for my wife (she has both of the DS games, absolutely loves figuring out the levels and getting to be creative), SMB is a staple and Nintendo Land for the whole family. The only game I wish they had to go with the Wii U is a brand new Zelda game - but I know that will come with time. Speaking of time - if there's no games you want to play, don't buy the Wii U. The point of any console is to have fun while gaming, to kill time and enjoy doing so. If there's no game that sparks your interest, just don't buy it yet.

Yeah, here's what I think they should make: a free roam MMO with full length story line and optional side quests. Regions should be Kanto and Johto, with Hoenn in the future as a possible expansion. I don't care if Sinnoh or Unova are accessible or not.

Battling gameplay should be the same as the core Pokemon DS games, it's turn based and will support 4 players at once. That's you and up to 3 friends battling 1 to 4 wild pokemon at a time. When someone in your party engages a wild pokemon, you will automatically be notified/invited to join the battle. Roll the dice to determine who gets to throw a pokeball each round (if someone tries to throw a pokeball everyone in the battle has the option to roll for a throw or cancel their attack). Battles automatically start in 10 seconds or when everyone in the party has opted in or out of the battle. It should definitely have guilds/clubs.

While you can choose from any of the original starter pokemon, including Pikachu, everyone starts in Kanto. There are 16 gym badges, 8 from Kanto and 8 from Johto. Once you get all 8 badges from Kanto, the gym leaders all increase in difficulty and can be rebattled once daily. You are also allowed to enter Johto once you have all 8 badges from Kanto. In Johto you collect the remaining 8 badges and are then allowed to battle the Elite 4, and the Champion. For all battle with NPC trainers, gym leaders, elite 4 and the champion, there is Solo mode and Party mode - Solo mode is normal difficulty, while in Party mode the NPC receives handicap spec boosts as well as more items (such as full restores) which are used far more frequently if there are 4 in your party vs. 2. How many pokemon the NPC sends out at once is also dependent on how many players there are in your party. If the NPC has 6 pokemon and there are 4 in your party, the NPC will send out 4 to start. Winning money is divided equally among the players in your party who participated in the battle.

All Pokemon are tradeable anywhere, as are "non-account bound" items. Of course there should be a Global Trade System as well, so you can easily trade with any player.

Yeah that's the thing, "native" or "true" 1080p means it's not upscaled, "full 1080p" is not a solid confirmation of true 1080p status. They can claim full 1080p if it's upscaled - I'd like to know if it's native 1080p or if it's upscaled.

Looks like NSMBU won't be 1080p.



It seems like someone made a resolution mistake when they said the game would be in 1080p.

http://newsupermario...u.nintendo.com/

Yep! The 1080p statement is gone!

This is my pre-order list, I'm sure some of these aren't going to be available on launch day though.

Deluxe Set + Nintendo Land included
Sonic All-Stars Racing Transformed
Rabbids Land
ZombiU
CoD: BO2
Tank! Tank! Tank!
Skylanders Giants (Starter Kit for Wii U - I had the original on the 360 and 3DS)
New Super Mario Bros. U
Scribblenauts Unlimited
Rayman Legends

I also preordered a black Wii U Pro Controller.

tank tank tank looks fun

will tank tank tank have online play I hope so.

" It will also feature a co-op mode where up to four players online and offline can fight against monsters together. In addition, there is a competitive multiplayer mode where everyone fights against one another."
http://wiiudaily.com/tank-tank-tank/


But I haven't found that statement being made at gamestop or amazon's websites, so I'm not 100% sure.

FTA: "In addition, for our past platforms, users had to exchange a number called a "Friend Code" with each other to build a Friend relationship, where data could be transferred between two specific devices. This process was set up to prevent users from being harassed by the few people who like to behave in an inappropriate manner when playing games. For Wii U, as those who have empathized with each other can create a Friend relationship, the important mission of "Miiverse" is to increase the number of friends to play games with. "

When he started talking about past platforms and how users had to exchange friend codes, I was expecting some sort of clarification for the Wii U / Miiverse. Unfortunately all he did is say it was setup to prevent harassment.. and then he changed the subject and started talking about how the Miiverse is trying to increase the # of friends you can play with.

Based on what he said about "creating a Friend relationship", I think it *might* be that there's still Friend Codes to prevent "harassment" but once you add someone's friend code they'll be able to accept the friendship request and maybe you'll have something like a gamertag.

Imagine these two scenarios:
#1) Black Ops 2, you're in a game with 7 other people (4 v 4 match). You're waiting for the next match to begin, you're not friends with anyone yet so you just see the Friend Codes for the other 7 people playing.
One of the people on your team is really good and you want to be friends with them so you can easily play with them again in the future, so you select them and you request a "Friend relationship". Once they confirm, their nickname or gamertag will be displayed going forward INSTEAD of their Friend Code.

#2) Your best friend and you both have the Wii U and both get Black Ops 2. You add his Friend Code manually, and he accepts the "Friend relationship", and now you can see each other's nickname/gamertag.

IF that's how it's going to work, it's fine by me. You only have to enter their Friend Code once so it's not a huge deal, I mean even if they let us add a friend using their gamertag we'd still have to enter something in.
It's really not any worse than entering the download codes or Microsoft Points card code on the 360, they're both "one time annoyances".

The potential benefit to doing it this way is maybe I could have my middle name be my gamertag / be what's displayed to my friends. In this case, I don't have to worry about someone registering my preferred gamertag before I do because the system is based off unique Friend Codes and not unique gamertags like the 360 is.

Thinking it through slightly more, I know they mentioned each person in your house would have their own Mii in the Miiverse, so it sounds like a new unique Friend Code would be generated for each and stored in Nintendo's servers. This of course means to play as your Mii you'd have to be connected to the internet, though perhaps they could have some offline play mode where you can still play as your Mii and once you've got internet again it would upload all your progress. Like if you take the Wii U with you on a road trip so your kids can take turns playing on the GamePad, their progress could still be recorded offline, and when you get back home and turn the Wii U on again it would automatically upload the progress they made while offline.

This is all speculation of course, and I hope it's somewhat similar (if not exactly the same) to how I'm describing.

Can i run the same game twice on my pc ? Nope.

Wait, what? You must really not know a thing about hardware.

Most aftermarket/off the shelf graphics card these days support 2 monitors - that's 2 separate displays. Laptops have HDMI out for instance that lets you extend your display to a TV or another monitor as well. If you're counting, that's 2 displays at once on a laptop.. hell laptops have been able to do this for years and years, and at resolutions higher than the GamePad's. And don't forget the DS had two screens with different pictures being shown on both, plus touch on one. Nintendo has the whole multiple screen thing down by now, without a doubt in my mind.

"It's crazy because the game is running in full HD [on the television], we are streaming another picture on the GamePad screen, and it's still 60 frames per second. And the latency on the controller is just 1/60 of a second, so it's one frame late. It's crazy, it's so fast. It's almost instant. That's why it responds so well. So it can be used as a real game-design thing."
http://www.nintendol...160_of_a_second

And as someone else mentioned above me, there IS support for 2 GamePads at once, just no launch games make use of it as far as I'm aware.

As for running the same game twice on a pc.. I multibox WoW with my account and my brothers account on my computer with no issues. Multiboxing is where you play multiple different accounts at once (read: the game itself is running multiple times), either on one computer or multiple computers.

Why do you all care so much?
It's not out for 20/32 days yet.
You have no idea how good it looks yet.
Are you going to trust companies like EA and ubisoft not to lie to you by showing you bullshots?
Wait for it to be in your hands before you argue over it being a graphical potato or titan.

Go to bestbuy together. or gamestop and play it with each other. Then discuss it in the shop!

We care because we're gamers and the first word in "video game console" is video - what you see presented matters and in 2012 we should definitely be seeing really nice graphics.
I've played it already, as have quite a few people, so we actually do know how good it looks. I'm also a software engineer so I know when a new system is released, there's a learning curve both on development and optimization of the system. What we're seeing with these first games aren't the best graphics that the Wii U can do - with that said though the graphics are impressive as it stands.

What do you add to the discussion beyond questioning those in the discussion as to why they're in the discussion?

Good point. That's the most logical reasoning yet for why there might not be friend codes on the wii u.

There WILL be friend codes on the Wii U, Nintendo's President Satoru Iwata answered this in June:
"We’re not completely getting rid of Friend Codes, but a function of the “Miiverse” will simplify the process of making friends with another user in the platform by eliminating the need to input Friend Codes."
http://www.nintendo....20606qa/02.html

This coincides with what he previous said in January:
"Nintendo will now allow personalized accounts for its next home console, which will allow multiple users per system. Online profiles will no longer be system-based. "We will also be able to construct and offer the [personal account system] by combining a variety of different services and content," Iwata said.

Really, what I described in my post above sounds like it might be really close to reality.

I'm doubtful I'll get this because Forza Horizon is amazing - it has a huge collection of cars, has a vast amount of upgrades and tuning settings, has full car customization, has an auction house where you can sell your customizations/buy others, supports a force feedback wheel, 1080p, it has a very refined physics engine, has full online multiplayer but not only that it actually integrates other friends (and apparently some of their friends as well) race results right into your game. After I compete in a race it'll actually tell me who my closest "Rival" is, a lot of times its this same guy on my friend's list who's a bit better than I am so it lets me challenge his best time - and if I beat it I get more money. It's also free roam and you can do whatever you want, this is not a repeat of the last Forza game where you just choose a track - you actually go to where you want to go and race whoever you want to race.

Also, if you couldn't tell, Forza Horizon is already out and it's getting amazing reviews. I'm enjoying the hell out of it.

I ain't neva said they won't be. Just the most logical reasoning I've read yet to "prove" there won't be.

There is no logic to proving there won't be when Iwata and Reggie have already stated on numerous occasions that there will be.

I concur.

Do NOT change what I said in a quote, who taught you manners? That's rude and disrespectful.

What part of Iwata's STATEMENT "We’re not completely getting rid of Friend Codes" makes it sound like he's IMPLYING there are friend codes vs. STATING there are friend codes?
What part of Reggie's STATEMENT "There are friend codes" sounds like he's IMPLYING vs. STATING?

Need for speed got excellent reviews I so want this but will wait to see how the wii u 1 is going to be.

The deciding factor for me will be if NFS:MW offers enough difference from Horizon to be worth it. If it turns out to be unique, I'd get it for the Wii U because I'd rather have more games for a new system than one that's likely to be replaced within a year or two. I guess we're in the same waiting boat to see what the reviews are in a few months when it's released for the Wii U.

If you have an Xbox 360 and like arcade style racing games, since you're thinking of getting NFS:MW on the Wii U, I'd highly recommend getting Forza Horizon for the 360.

The part where you leave out the surrounding texts, and change their words.
Iwata: past systems used friend codes
Reggie: not ready to disclose.

Reggie: http://www.nintendol...t_theyre_better
"but it's not the existing friend code system"

Iwata: http://www.nintendo....21025qa/03.html
" In addition, for our past platforms, users had to exchange a number called a "Friend Code" with each other to build a Friend relationship, where data could be transferred between two specific devices."

I NEVER changed their words - learn to read. While you're learning to read, you'll also discover this thing called "context clues", the links to the pages I and others provided already detailed that it's a friend code system though not exactly the same as what existed prior. I'm not going to quote a whole Q&A session, the excerpts I provided were taken completely in context and I never misconstrued them to mean anything else.

Does Forza have cops like MW? cuz the funnest part of Need for Speed Most Wanted is all the cops

The game as a whole is about street racing at a car festival called Horizon, so it only makes sense to not have cops as you can focus on driving, exploring, beating records and ranking up. Forza Horizon's rank up system is near entirely based on doing things illegal, so having cops would contradict that system.


"Forza creative director Dan Greenawalt joked, “There are two things you don’t want at a festival: rain and cops.”"
http://www.ign.com/a...ress-the-ladies


With that said I dont know if just having cops chasing you is enough of a difference for me to want NFS:MW, I guess it adds another layer of "things to do" but just trying to escape cops doesn't sound as fun to me as it does to a 12 year old.

A racing game without cops OR at least some turtle shells sounds painfully boring and like a massive waste of money, racing is fun but occasionally it takes a good 20 minute police chase to break things up abit and when you finally escape you get that "Im such a bad ass" feeling that i dont think i could get from driving in a circle at a hillbilly hoedown festival

"Hillbilly Hoedown" = YeeHAW we gonna have us a good time tonight with a 20 minute police chase! We r teh badasses cuz we press da gas button n drive around avoiding cops for 20 min YEEEEHAWWW!

Seriously though, a 20 minute police chase sounds painfully boring and like a massive waste of money.

You'd have to play Forza Horizon to understand the way multiplayer competitiveness has been tied in, and by the way the open road map itself has (iirc) over a hundred miles of roads, both paved and dirt, that can be driven. The map is nothing like a nascar oval track, it's set on roads of Colorado. The festival has music with 3 different radio stations depending on what you like to listen to, with tons of skills and races to do.

You're being quite insulting. Perhaps you should calm down while writing your replies.

Implying is what people do when they don't give a straight answer.

What's insulting is having someone quote you and then change what you said - even just a single word - that's what's insulting.

"Some journalists say it's fine to "improve" quotations as long as the meaning isn't changed. Others argue that the practice is dishonest."
http://www.ajr.org/Article.asp?id=1340
You didn't improve my quotation, you changed the meaning, and that dishonesty is insulting. I don't appreciate having what I said modified and used as a quote that I didn't say.

They gave straight answers in that there will be a friend code system - how many times do we have to go over that? What they haven't detailed is whether there is a gamertag-esque system that lets you actually choose your own handle or not. What they said were statements affirming a friend code system - they were not implying there was one.

Let me help you.


Stating someone has a car:
He takes his car to work everyday.

Implying someone has a car:
He takes a car to work everyday.

See the difference? One says "his", which means he owns it. The other says he takes a car - and while that could be implying he owns it, it could also be that he's renting it or its someone else's that he's borrowing.

Reggie and Iwata did not imply that there is a friend code system, they stated there is one. Hopefully you can see the difference and stop editing my quotes, because what I originally said was correct and how you edited it was not.

i agree. There will be codes but not the same way as you stated. Some people ....

If you're referring to my assumption on how it would work, in that your nickname or gamertag would be shown to friends but friend code would be shown to everyone else - yes that was just an example of how I imagine it could end up being.

Yah the way i said that was kindof confusing.But i do agree with your theory i wont be suprised.

If they wanted to retain the privacy aspect that long, random friend codes provide, it's definitely one way of accomplishing it.

I'll be happy with whatever it ends up being so long as I don't have to give out a 12-16 digit random set of numbers that are difficult/a hassle to remember. I'm sure just like Sony and Microsoft copy things from Nintendo, Nintendo looks at how Sony and Microsoft do things and they'll try and go the best route while being slightly different. Nintendo likes to pride itself on being innovative so who knows what hybrid friend code/gamertag system they might have come up with.

Switched my vote to Trine 2, it's looking amazing and it gets Goblin Menace included as well. When interviewing Frozenbye (developer and publisher), they made this statement that sparked my interest:
"Three people will be able to play together locally, online or a combination of the two; for example, two players can play on one console while another can connect to the same game via the internet. It's designed to be easy drop-in, drop-out multiplayer and several controller types — “Nunchuk and Remote, or the Pro Controller, or the Classic Controller” – can be used. Fans of other consoles may also be pleased to hear that Wii U could have some sort of achievements system afterall, possibly known as “accomplishments” as has been rumoured in the past, though what form it takes is unknown. “I'm almost 100% sure that there will be some type of system.”"

http://www.nintendol...g_with_nintendo

Thats one problem with these old games. They still want and arm and a leg for them. I mean come on there digital downloads of old games people have already played a million times.
Thats kinda why some people just get them on the pc with emul..

Now if it was me i would have the games pretty cheap. $1, $2, $3. I believe more peole would buy even if they didnt know what it was because it was cheap and they would say ahh what the hay its only a $1.
Now i been on the 3ds eshop and some of those games are around $7-$12 which is a little to much for me to try out an old game i might not like.

Yeah I have 2x Sega Genesis 6button controllers, 4x N64 controllers and 4x gamecube controllers that I use for my emulators, it's nice being able to run it on my laptop and hook it up with HDMI to my TV and play it on a big screen.

I already traded in my Wii a little while back so I'm excited to get the Wii U in so I can play all my Wii games again.

If its going to be powerful and be a graphics power house people will shell out 500 for it like they did for ps3. I would not be suprised if the next xbox and ps3 are min 450. Remember as time goes on things get more expensive not cheaper look at the automobile industry prices go up every year.

Not true in the computer world - look at laptop prices 10 years ago compared to today. Technology and manufacturing improves, and prices go down. Look at the cost of a LCD TV from 5 years ago to today.

It doesn't really matter what Sony releases, I'll never buy another Sony product in my life. Their name is spoiled as they continuously get hacked and CC information has been stolen repeatedly. I have no friends on PlayStation, they all have an Xbox 360. But most of us are in agreement that we're moving towards the Wii U - and hoping that there's enough multiplatform and exclusive games released for it so we don't have to pay another $300, $400, $500, perhaps even $600 for the next Xbox. Will it happen? I imagine we have at least a year to see how much support and games it gets, and if it's just as dead as the Wii has been.. I guess we'll be hopping on over to the next Xbox afterall. But again, our hope is to not have to spend the money twice just to play the games we want to play.