Not jealous that USA gets all the teething problems and day one server problems, thanks for being beta testers for the euro release.

However considering it's price is has to be around the same as a game I'd go for a game instead.

Good point, yeah i would go for a game too.

The chances are it will come with at least some charge out of the box. Probably around 50-70 %

Yeah i was thinking that, my 3DS was precharged, i think they do that these days, come to think of it my Ps3 gamepad was precharged too.

I hate screen protectors, no matter what i always get bubbles or dirt trapped under. On a huge screen like the gampads then its going to be a real headache fitting one.

Like other people said you don't really need it, but if it's for xmas then sure get one.

Just to add to what the op said i remember at WII launch there was a huge fight cause the preorder people thought they could cut to the front of the line ( when in fact it makes no difference ), they had to use a security guard to seperate Moms and middle aged balding men.

Just wondering, is anything even open on Sunday in the USA ?

Just read that the Gamepad will have 3-4 hours battery life "depending on what you use it for". Nintendo is being slightly cryptic with this. Does this mean as long as you don't use the screen you will get 4 hours ? Can't really find that much info about it. Just slightly dismayed it needs a 2.5 hour charge. In my home setup that pretty much means i cannot charge and play without extension cables all over the place. I'm also thinking when i unpack this baby i'll have a 2.5 hour wait before i can even use it unless they come pre charged.

What do you guys think of the gamepads battery life and charging time ?

Doubt many places will be open on Sunday, strange day to release.

It's likely that if there is an option to install to HD you will still need the disk to be in the machine. Already been revealed that you cannot just transfer your Wii games via SD card, you can only transfer once.

I'm guessing any HD you use will be formatted in a specific way to avoid piracy ( ie locked to your machine ).

But so far HD is the only real option when you can only add 32gb from SD cards.

But we haven't even played the game ourselves to even judge. Can we really experience the entire game from a video?

Besides, Nintendo Land mainly gears toward casual players. I'm pretty sure the average gamer only touched a few Wii Sports game only once and never touched them again. I know I did.

Most of my friends with a Wii still play Wii Sports, bowling never gets old. Perhaps NL should not be hyped as more than just a tech demo, then i won't have such a problem with the strange quality swings. The question is would anyone pay 60 bucks for it. As a pack in game it's passable, but as a full priced game nope, well unless you are 9 years old, but i think even a 9 year old would rather play Mario.

Err these are the MINI minigames of NL, so of course they aren't as stellar as the main ones.

That's a pretty bad excuse, if it was Warioware i could accept it, but that octopus game is something people will play for 5 mins and never touch again. As for the Yoshi game, well i really don't think that one will be used to impress people, it looks like a ZX Spectrum game, would have rather had LESS minigames than filler that will never get used.

Some people are looking down on the Wii U because of a lack of Ethernet ports. Is this valid?

Hmm dunno really, do not think it's an issue for most people, if it is an issue for people then maybe now is the time to enter 2013 and get a wireless router for 30 bucks.

Yeah i know, but Mario can, that will do, bit of Mario during bloody X Factor, fantastic.

Only one reason for me, i can still play games while my gf watches Desperate Housewives or whatever crap it is she watches. Thats the main selling point afaik.

They look like dodgy Wiiware games. Are these really from Nintendoland ? The quality is soooo different from the other mini games, i don't really care how they play, unless they are the best games on the planet those crappy graphics are not something i want to be a part of.

Dunno but since Ocarina of Time the other Zelda games just don't seem that great. Skyward Sword was ok but not a relaxing experience like the other games. Recently played Ocarina on 3DS and it's pretty much THE perfect game. Generally Zelda kinda peaked like Final Fantasy did.

Bit late really, i love AC games, but i'm not waiting 30 days to play it, should get my copy tomorrow.

Yeah don't think it's happening, release schedule just got leaked and Wii U is not part of it

http://www.gamespot....stersShowSpring

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.

Yeah two monitors sure, multiboxing Wow is not the same thing. Try running two versions of Battlefield 3 on the same login. The point is Wii U is unique that it can render the same thing with two different actions going on. Mario on the tv and Mario with you painting platforms on the gamepad, that's really clever stuff.

AGAIN, how does that make me a fanboy? And how am I insulting? And I can tell you're new here.

Very aggresive replies, i have just as much right to post as you do. There is a difference between discussing with someone and just barking at them. You come up with very few actual facts. What does "this is not Microsoft" have to do with anything ? How is that even an answer ? you know damn well that the Wii U needs extra power to render twice. This thread is about if the WII U will have better graphics than Xbox/Ps3, does is even matter though ? Yes it is slightly more powerful, but it needs a good chunk of that power to do what it does best, dual screen gaming. That was my point, you chose to ignore that. You also chose to ignore the gamepad charging issue. I actually used a Wii U at E3, did you ? I actually asked how the gamepad works at E3 to which i got very little reply. I bought a Wii U on good faith due to brand loyality not due to the information given.

Oh, so I'm a fanboy because of what I said? Grow up. It's not like I'm saying "NINTENDO IS GODLY AND CAN DO WHATEVER THEY WANT SO STFU!" Nintendo's tech team built the console around the GamePad. They designed each component to run with the GamePad. It's ALL customized for the best. Do you think they would overlook something as simple as how CPU intensive 1 GamePad is? Let's not forget that the system will be supporting 2 GamePads in the near future.

No you're a fanboy due to your insulting replies, tone it down and i may be able to have a reasonable discussion with you, why are you getting so upset anyway ? Very unfriendly attitude to someone new to the board.

And here's something YOU forgot. The Wii U is built for the GamePad. Do you think Nintendo would have built a system and the controller separate? The Wii U will have plenty of power to use. This is Nintendo we're talking about, not Microsoft.

Is this forum just fanboys ? Really it will have plenty of power to use will it ? How do you think the Wii u renders two things at the same time, magic ? Show me another system that can stream two fully rendered screens of different things. Smartglass does not do that, it's simple menu systems nothing more. Vita does not do that either. Can i run the same game twice on my pc ? Nope. Regardless of the rude fanboy replies Wii U still needs to render two things at once, that is CPU intensive. This has nothing to do with Microsoft. I'm buying a Wii U cause it looks fun, i would be a complete idiot to buy one for better graphics though, especially when Nintendo really don't want to give out any details of what is inside the machine or how anything works. Show me one piece of information that states what the gamepad is running with. Does it have any internal memory ? Does it need software ? How long will it be usuable when charged ? It's released in 18 days and those details are still not available. I'm really hoping that on the 18th people do not start posting "omg the gamepad only has power for two hours" because atm i have no idea, it's the one detail Nintendo will not disclose an it's a pretty damn important detail.

I have bought Nintendo consoles all my life, i will continue to do so, i love Nintendo games, i dont really need Nintendo machines to be powerhouses but i can also afford to buy multiple consoles so i can play the games i want, if i need a powerhouse i will buy one.

Rofl yeah that's why i bought a Wii U, i'm a traitor, don't be so insulting. I like Nintendo products, but i know what i'm getting and do not delude myself. You just came across as a fanboy and totally ignored everything i wrote in my post. I'm quite happy to own a Wii U and an Xbox 720, are you ???

There is a big difference with Wii U and Xbox/PS3. The Wii U needs power for the streaming to the gamepad. The gamepad has nothing to render what you see, it's all streamed. That means the GPU is pumping out two different images at the same time, this is something you all forget. The added ram and stronger gpu simply offsets the cycles needed to render on two screens at similar resolutions, it's basically double the work. This is why there is no support for two gamepads, the power is not there to render on three screens. Wii U will always have this problem. It's likely you will see heavy graphically taxing games not really using the gamepad that much, perhaps a map in Zelda or something like that but not two screens running in full resolution with the same amount of polygons. Also when Wii U does start to produce games that seem slightly better than Xbox/Ps3 it will be irrelevant because Xbox 720 will be out, Nintendo just fail at producing consoles that are not obselete after a year every single time, this is the same case again.