Wii impressions. Leave your thoughts here!

I have to agree with the statement about 360 and wii.

I think thats the best way to go in my opinion. I have both and it fills all gaming needs. You have the 360 for the graphical games (GOW, Mass effect, Bio Shock) and then you use the wii for the quarky, weird gameplay games. I think its one of the best gaming balances ever.

Every generation you have had systems that are about the same in terms of game play style. I feel that this is the best generation because of what Nintendo has done, given us a secondary console to give us a different type of game to play besides the typical titles on ps3,360.

Having a good PC, 360, and Wii......I think im set for gaming until next gen.
 
quadnad said:
Thats what i did; in my opinion the Wii and PC are perfect compliments. The PC allows you to play all the hardcore PC titles in better visual quality than a 360/PS3, and the Wii gives you the ability to play all the innovative new games (as well as all the decent titles I missed by not having a GameCube).


Stirke out the Game Cube comment, I whole heartedly agree. I wasn't to concerned with the X360 or PS3 because of financial reasons but because I have all of that under the hood right now.

I must say, Rayman really tops of a night of homework and snow shoveling.
 
Well I tried the wii yesterday aka thurday, my boss brought it in, strapped it to the sharp 37inch lcd, and ran it on receiver with surround sound, it sounded and looked pretty dam good. I played zelda before, but never the wii version, I caught on quick, in less than a minute I had mastered the controls, it was really fun too. More tempted to get the wii, but they still need to patch zelda, some people I know encountered some issues with gannons castle not letting you leave, and some sort of branch sticking out of links foot. I was not that far into it, I was in some sort of underwater aquaducts as the wolf form. great 15min, then I had to go back to work.
 
I was gonna post something in here but I couldn't find this thread. Didn't realized it'd been stickied. I'll repost here:

First let me say this isn't instended to be a Wii bash, I'm just listing my personal thoughts. I got hyped up about the Wii and bought one when I got the chance. Everything I write here will be in reference to Zelda.

After spending about 10 hours on it I've got to say that I'm not tremendously impressed. Sure the motion sensing is cool, but it really nothing special. After spending hours trying to get the remote to aim correctly (I got it somewhat close, but it's still not great) and getting through the first two dungeous of Zelda I think I'd rather just stick with the traditional controller. A few notes on just the controls:

-Originally my Wii remote was aiming about 3 feet high. I moved the sensor bar from the bottom to the top of the TV and it helped a bit, but it's still not great. It also seems to be a little slow, but maybe that's just me.

-Now that you can "aim" your bow and arrow sighting in enemies is supposed to be easy...I've spent a good amount of time fidgeting trying to get the crosshair on target. While it's a little faster it's really not very intuitive. As someone said to me "it's more like a mouse than a laser pointer" which is true. I just wish it was more like I saw in all the previews where the guy sighted down the remote to target enemies...the entire system seems rather jumpy too.

-Another thing I don't like, you really don't swing the remote at all, I tried that and it takes longer to attack. Instead you really just shake the remote to and fro. Shaking it from side to side doesn't mean you'll do horizontal slashes, you'll do any kind. Likewise upward and downward motions don't do vertical slashes.

-The button layout on the remote is a bit awkward. I've got to shift my entire hand to hit the 1 and 2 buttons on the bottom, and sometimes to hit the left D-pad button as well.

-The speaker in the remote is absolutely painful to listen to. I ended up turning the volume on the remote to 1, but since the game is designed to hear the remote there are no sword swinging/hitting sound effects now.

There are a few positive aspects though. I love having the two handed controls as I tend to "lounge" when playing the game. Being able to push my left hand forward rapidly for a shield bash is nice, although sometimes it ends up in a spinning attack. Since it's just motion sensing this happens, although I'm getting better at it. I also like the ability to aim with your bow while riding the horse as well, this could turn into something very cool with more effort.

I think it is a neat idea, but really could have used more development to make it really entertaining.

I absolutely hate focusing on things like this but I've finally joined the "they could have made this alot prettier" bandwagon. I've already got a Gamecube, now I've got a Gamecube and a motion sensing Gamecube. Don't get me wrong, I generally focus alot more on gameplay than graphics, and I still do, but when I see games like Gear of War popping out and compare it visually to Zelda (which I really shouldn't do) it's just rough.

I will say that as a game Twilight Princess has not dissappointed at all, it's a ton of fun and is every bit as deep and well developed (if not moreso) than every other Zelda game I've played. My only concern is (personally) once I'm done with TP what will be left to keep me my Wiimotions flowing? Metroid Prime? Not really. The first was great, the second was meh, and the third...who knows. Mario? For me probably not.

On the flip side I've heard stories of people having an absolute blast with them and I believe that Nintendo really is accomplishing their mission of bringing in the casual gamer, the one who is intimidated by having 47 buttons on a controller and who can just pick something up and have fun. For the hardcore though I'd say the Xbox 360 (imho) is the best option right now.

I'm debating on whether or not to keep mine. It is fun, but I'm thinking an Xbox might be more my style. Dunno yet though. I'm thinking I'll either end up selling it or trading it for a 360...
 
kabob983 said:
I was gonna post something in here but I couldn't find this thread. Didn't realized it'd been stickied. I'll repost here:

More or less my thoughts exactly.

Wii is fun and all, but a lot of things fall into the "what the hell were they thinking" category. The speaker remote is definintely one of them. I'm sorry, if thats the best they can have it sound, then don't put the "feature" in at all. It really feels like an idea by upper management that just didn't work but they insisted on having it in anyway. This, combined with the lack of optical out (something we saw on ps2 and xbox) is a little insulting as a consumer considering we know they're making money on every console they sell even at launch. It definintely feels like they skimped on these to maximize profits.

I also agree on the button layout comments...1 & 2 are down there for nes type games where you hold it horizontally, ok, but more often than not the controller won't be held that way so please give us something else to work with.
 
since Nintendo don´t take any license fees from the third party developers they must do profit on each console...

As for aiming how is the lightning in your room? I use trackIR and any lightning towards the sensor bar can of course mess with the tracking.

It´s also always better to have the sensor bar rather a bit above then under you... So not surprised it works better with it on top of your television.

But it looks like we will be waiting to march before we get the Wii in europe :p. Just gotten a 360 I don´t feel like I am in a hurry....

Though if you are new to console gaming... I just tried playing fps games (f.e.a.r) with a gamepad. Bloody unintuitive and just about impossible... I am wondering if I should really scrap the idea of playing fps games on the Xbox 360 or if it´s worth 2 months in a Sibiria training camp to be decent with it...
 
oqvist said:
.. I am wondering if I should really scrap the idea of playing fps games on the Xbox 360 or if it´s worth 2 months in a Sibiria training camp to be decent with it...
The women in Siberia are smoking hot :)
 
Spaceman_Spiff said:
This, combined with the lack of optical out (something we saw on ps2 and xbox) is a little insulting as a consumer considering we know they're making money on every console they sell even at launch. It definintely feels like they skimped on these to maximize profits.
I fail to see how this is an issue when it doesnt need a digital out at all to do ProLogic II...

The games sound fantastic in PLII, btw.

and just what the hell is wrong with making profits on something youre selling? If Sony and MS could do the same, they sure as hell would.
 
I don't like the Wii, the original name was cooler but now its sounds dumb. The controller is wierd, theres motion in the games now and controller, you can move the sword or w/e it has. Its alot slower than my computer (lol my specs pwn Wii), its still doesnt support dvd movies and HDTV format, not even 720p. Overall the Wii sucks IMO and im not a nintendo fan.
 
2fast4all said:
I don't like the Wii, the original name was cooler but now its sounds dumb. The controller is wierd, theres motion in the games now and controller, you can move the sword or w/e it has. Its alot slower than my computer (lol my specs pwn Wii), its still doesnt support dvd movies and HDTV format, not even 720p. Overall the Wii sucks IMO and im not a nintendo fan.

I hope that was a sarcastic post, lol
 
I wouldnt be suprised if Microsoft already has motion sensor inputs in the works for the next gen xbox. I Microsoft has some exprience with gamepad and joysticks for the computer they even made a motion sensor gamepad a while back that was fairly decent.
 
after a little over a week of owning my Wii.

I love it. Im waiting for my component cables but thats ok. It looks OK on my 2405fp and the gameplay is fantastic. Im spending time playing games with my FAMILY for once. instead of by myself yelling at 12 year olds on the internet.

Great console, best $250 i spent.
 
Langly said:
after a little over a week of owning my Wii.

I love it. Im waiting for my component cables but thats ok. It looks OK on my 2405fp and the gameplay is fantastic. Im spending time playing games with my FAMILY for once. instead of by myself yelling at 12 year olds on the internet.

Great console, best $250 i spent.

I agree. Im a married man with 3 kids. Me and my kids love playing this. I havent gotten into a gaming system this much since the SuperNES and N64.

My wife is starting to get mad because im spending more time on Zelda than I am spending time with her. The kids love monkeyball, rayman and Wii Sports.

Im excited about the virtual console. I cant wait for the really good games to come out. Like Final Fantasy 3, Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, GoldenEye, etc....

Even my father is getting a kick out of madden 07.
 
lithium726 said:
I fail to see how this is an issue when it doesnt need a digital out at all to do ProLogic II...

The games sound fantastic in PLII, btw.

and just what the hell is wrong with making profits on something youre selling? If Sony and MS could do the same, they sure as hell would.

I hear an immense difference between the wii and the 360 doing full digital surround.

As far as cost, that knee jerk argument doesn't fly because the other products in its market are initially sold at a loss. That business model is its comparison, so in that sense value is interpreted differently. Can you honestly say the speaker in the remote is at all quality enough to be in a $250 electronics device? Thats my main point, they skimped in certain areas and still priced it too close to the 360. It should have been $200 without wii sports.

oqvist said:
since Nintendo don´t take any license fees from the third party developers they must do profit on each console...

You pay $5 for a couple hundred kilobytes of data on a nes game from vc, $8 for a couple megs, and $10 for under 100 mb. Does this cover all their costs and mean they can sell each console at a huge loss? Not necessarily, but it proves that your conclusion does not follow your premise. You also ignore first and second party revenues that come from having a customized platform to develop for.
 
Spaceman_Spiff said:
I hear an immense difference between the wii and the 360 doing full digital surround.

As far as cost, that knee jerk argument doesn't fly because the other products in its market are initially sold at a loss. That business model is its comparison, so in that sense value is interpreted differently. Can you honestly say the speaker in the remote is at all quality enough to be in a $250 electronics device? Thats my main point, they skimped in certain areas and still priced it too close to the 360. It should have been $200 without wii sports.
*shrug* If everyone jumped off a bridge, would you? Why should nintendo sell at a loss just 'cause everyone else does?

The speaker does kinda suck, but its not very annoying (IMO) when you have the volume turned down and the other speakers turned up (with surround sound, of course). I would like a little better, but its livable, quite honestly. It blends in nice enough with volume and immersive sound.

I used to feel the same as you do about Wii Sports. But after buying the system, playing it, and reading everyone else's opinions on Wii Sports and the console as a unit, I honestly feel that Wii Sports was required to sell this console in the states. Otherwise, they would have to rely on launch games (at $50 a pop) that (mostly) don't exploit the controller and are as much fun as Wii Sports canbe out of the box. I honestly think that Wii Sports was needed to sell this console and make people think it was fantastic out of the box.
 
lithium726 said:
eaker does kinda suck, but its not very annoying (IMO) when you have the volume turned down and the other speakers turned up (with surround sound, of course). I would like a little better, but its livable, quite honestly. It blends in nice enough with volume and immersive sound.
.

Yeah, it kind of hurts my ears if its up too loud, it sounds really bad-- but if you turn the volume on it down so that its not shreaking its more than bearable.
 
Zelda was awsome. Before i started the game i knew it would be awsome. When i was playing the game i was like "man this is awsome". After i was done playing I was like "man that was awsome".

Red steel, not so much. it needs a patch. that little red dot can be difficult to aim with. Infact aiming in Zelda wasnt much better, i just recently got my bow so, im just learning how to aim with it. its fun, but the 1:1 movement (IE the area you point at on your screen is the area your crosshair will be) is annoying, it needs to be exagerated. so that you aim further to the left to get your crosshair on the left of the screen. basically i want to lower the sensitivity.

Wii sports was fun. yes its true you can be a slouch and just make some basic hand movements to swing or w/e, but, if you want to have fun with it, you will.

oh yeah and im thinking about trying to manually remove the in-remote speaker, it really annoys me. its loud and the sound quality is terrible. again a patch needed.

but thats another upside, finally nintendo is online. kinda scary actually, it jumped on the wireless G access point without password or anything, and connected itsself. i would assume its on DCC net so how its able to avoid my router security is kinda, un nerving.
 
MrWizard6600 said:
oh yeah and im thinking about trying to manually remove the in-remote speaker, it really annoys me. its loud and the sound quality is terrible. again a patch needed.

Do you mean replace it? Seems a tad extreme to remove a speaker you can mute... :confused:
 
didnt know you could mute it. next time i get a chance ill go look around in the options for that....
 
MrWizard6600 said:
didnt know you could mute it. next time i get a chance ill go look around in the options for that....

Haha, yeah most people didn't know that (so I've read). Just hit the home key then go into remote options. There is also a meeter for each remote showing how much battery is remaining, quite useful.
 
What do you people like so much about Zelda? I played for a little while but couldn't get over the blurry graphics and gameplay. Since then I started playing a trial of WoW and am have a hell of a lot more fun. For an RPG, MMORPG WoW seems like the best. I use my 360 to play Gears of War, FEAR, Prey and Kameo while downloading HD movies.

Some people seem to love Zelda on the Wii but I don't get it. No crisp graphics and no chance for 5.1 sound. How can that be immersive?
 
cb9fl said:
What do you people like so much about Zelda? I played for a little while but couldn't get over the blurry graphics and gameplay. Since then I started playing a trial of WoW and am have a hell of a lot more fun. For an RPG, MMORPG WoW seems like the best. I use my 360 to play Gears of War, FEAR, Prey and Kameo while downloading HD movies.

Some people seem to love Zelda on the Wii but I don't get it. No crisp graphics and no chance for 5.1 sound. How can that be immersive?
No system is going to be crisp over a composite cable, period. Im playing in 5.1 sorround sound, I dunno what youre doing wrong. Shit, my gamecube is very crisp over an Svideo cable, and I expect the same from the Wii over a Component cable.

Why do people love Zelda? Because its a fantastic game. Sorry you cant get past the graphics to see that.
 
Exactly how are you playing 5.1? Everything I've read says the Wii doesn't support s/pdif and I can't find one on my Wii.

If you're using the red and white rca cables you are most certainly not playing in 5.1.
 
cb9fl said:
Exactly how are you playing 5.1? Everything I've read says the Wii doesn't support s/pdif and I can't find one on my Wii.

If you're using the red and white rca cables you are most certainly not playing in 5.1.
ProLogic II. Yes, it is a sorround mode. The Wii is not putting out stereo sound over those R/L cables, there is special encoding and decoding involved in PLII. If you dont believe me, run a pure stereo source through a PLII upmixer and then run a source meant for PLII through the upmixer, the one encoded for it sounds worlds better. I recommend comparing an N64 game to a Cube or Wii game.
 
The Wii does NOT support digital 5.1. It supports a 6 year old pseudo 5.1 standard.


http://wii.ign.com/articles/733/733464p7.html

Q: Does Wii support Dolby Digital audio?

A: No. Wii does not feature an optical output and therefore no support for the Dolby Digital surround sound standard. Like GameCube, Wii's audio output consists of left/right analog channels that simulate surround sound using the Dolby Pro Logic II matrix. Most, if not all Wii games will run in Dolby Pro Logic II. That noted, due to the increased storage capacity of Wii discs and in turn the ability for developers to include less compressed audio files, games on Nintendo's new generation system should sound crisper than those on GameCube.
 
I never said it supported digital 5.1. I said it supported 5.1. IE, 5.1 channels of audio. Who the shit cares how it is done as long as it is done? It sounds great on my system, thats for damn sure. It's no less 'immersive', to quote you, if its digital rather than analouge. I do have a 360 and a PS2 (which does have some DD and DTS games), so i'm not talking out of my ass here.

Last time I checked, Dolby Digital 5.1 is older than even PLII, so what is your point? My old Sony reciever can do both DD5.1 and DTS5.1 and can only do ProLogic1.
 
Well, I don't know how many people are still intrested to hear, but I figured I would post my little "Hey Wii's are fun" story....

So I won one last night in a drawing on my military base to buy one. I took it back to my room and opened it up. Everything seemed so small. I guess it should be. Anyways, I started taking stuff out and it started to look like an ancient chinese puzzle. I finally located the actual console and stand and was a little relieved. After located the Wiimote and RCA/power cabled, I was ready to start plugging stuff up. But I still had a shit load of misc, kinda important looking things left over on the side. I busted out the English instruction booklet (one of about it seemed like 50 diffrent manuals, each seperated by language) and started figureing out what was what. I soon realized the only extra thing I needed to do, was to find the sensor and put it in front of the TV at the bottom. No biggie.

Sweet, I'm ready to fire this puppy up. I made sure everything was pluuged in and turned it on. By now, the "new" smell from the box is starting to fill the room. I swear Nintendo must do this to stimulate excitement. If there is ever a "New Console" smell for car interiors, I'm buying 50 cases. I turn it on and stand in front of the TV with the Wiimote like I'm prepareing to do battle with whatever mythological thing jumps out of the TV. I see a little warning message which obviously wasn't important enough for me to remember, and then it asked me to set up the Date/Time. My little Wiimote shuddered a little and before I knew it I was pointing it at the screen setting the date and time. Now, this was weird. The control you have seemed just weird....to me anyways. But I can certainly tell you I was grinning ear to ear. After I got everything setup, it was time to throw in Wii Sports (I would have gotten another game or 2, but our PX didn''t have any). I was sitting at the "Home" screen and was so excited all I wanted to do was play Wii Sports. I put it in, and let it fire up. Those of you who have a Wii and have played Wii sports will understand what I mean when I say, "It sounded like Mario type music, but not." I really don't know how else to describe it. Anyways, I started pointing around and decided to try boxing first since I saw it on The Daily Show. It takes a little getting used to, but before I knew it, I was throwing all kinds of punching and laughing my ass off.

Some of my friends came over and we took turns. We finally realized we can play 2 player games with 1 wiimote (Bowling anyways). All of the games that we played have a little tutorial on how to use the Wiimote. By the time you go through all 5 games, you have a pretty good idea of how the thing is going to react to what you do. Very smart Nintendo. After a couple hours of gaming, we ventured into the "Mii" section where you can create custom avatars. I gotta be honest, I was a little bummed at the lack of depth you have to create avatars, but it was still good enough to create a likeness of me and 3 of my friends. It also told us while online you can put your Miis on other peoples consoles and such. I didn't pay much attention cause my Wii won't be going online until I get back to the states (bandwidth sucks out here).

After about a good 3-4 hours of playing (with the Wii itself telling us to take a break every 45 min - 1 hour I would guess) it did start to get a little repetative. At least for the night. I'll be playing it some more tonight, but at first glance, I had a blast. Alot of people are saying its more fun then the PS3, but I think that's due to a couple reasons. 1, its a new concept, and it works pretty good. The power glove was a new concept but it sucked complete shit. This actually works and makes you feel like part of the game. 2, there are alot more people who can play these types of games with the wiimote and do the motions, then some of the more hardcore gamers who have the reflexes of a coked out mongoose. I think because of that, its more friendly and more easily accepted.

Bottom line, its fun. And for the price, it makes you feel like you made a wise decision.
 
lithium726 said:
I never said it supported digital 5.1. I said it supported 5.1. IE, 5.1 channels of audio. Who the shit cares how it is done as long as it is done? It sounds great on my system, thats for damn sure. It's no less 'immersive', to quote you, if its digital rather than analouge. I do have a 360 and a PS2 (which does have some DD and DTS games), so i'm not talking out of my ass here.

Last time I checked, Dolby Digital 5.1 is older than even PLII, so what is your point? My old Sony reciever can do both DD5.1 and DTS5.1 and can only do ProLogic1.


The PLII on the Wii doesn't make it any less immersive, because IMO, games in general don't take great advantage of Dolby sound engineering. The surround sound implementations in games has never been anything special (EAX).

But I hope you are not trying to say that a matrixed surround sound like Pro Logic II is anywhere close to a discrete 5.1 surround sound like Dolby Digital 5.1 or DTS. Again, I don't think the Wii's sound system puts it at any kind of disadvantage, hell I don't really notice the sound coming out of the speakers, over friends talking shit during a match of Wii tennis or when we are hunting Rabbid Rabbits.
 
hardwarephreak said:
.

But I hope you are not trying to say that a matrixed surround sound like Pro Logic II is anywhere close to a discrete 5.1 surround sound like Dolby Digital 5.1 or DTS. Again, I don't think the Wii's sound system puts it at any kind of disadvantage, hell I don't really notice the sound coming out of the speakers, over friends talking shit during a match of Wii tennis or when we are hunting Rabbid Rabbits.
No, discrete is better. That guy was saying there was no way to play in 5.1 sound though, which is just plain wrong.

I can hear lots of sorround stuff coming out of my back speakers in zelda. I guess it depends on the quality of your reciever or something, Im running a Denon AVR-1905.
 
lithium726 said:
No, discrete is better. That guy was saying there was no way to play in 5.1 sound though, which is just plain wrong.

I can hear lots of sorround stuff coming out of my back speakers in zelda. I guess it depends on the quality of your reciever or something, Im running a Denon AVR-1905.

Yeah, the rear is definitely there. Matrixed surround isn't horrible, I mean I have about 200 Laser discs that were all Pro Logic, so it couldn't have been that bad :D .

My point about the Wii is, sure 5.1 discrete would have been better than matrixed, but it hasn't detracted from my playing experience one bit, and I don't think it will.

I'm running a Pioneer Elite VSX-36TX. But I have been eyeballing either the new Pioneer Elite VSX-84TXSi or the Denon AVR-4806CI. Denon has always made some really, really good stuff, and I have a relative that works a supplier for Denon so they get a rediculous discount (40% off). Decisions, Decisions... :D
 
lithium726 said:
No, discrete is better. That guy was saying there was no way to play in 5.1 sound though, which is just plain wrong.

I can hear lots of sorround stuff coming out of my back speakers in zelda. I guess it depends on the quality of your reciever or something, Im running a Denon AVR-1905.

EDIT: I stand corrected, good receivers will decode it in 4 channels if they support it:

Dolby Surround/Pro Logic is based on basic Matrix technology. When a Dolby Surround soundtrack is created, four channels of sound are matrix-encoded into an ordinary stereo (two channel) sound track by using phase shift techniques. A Pro Logic decoder/processor "unfolds" the sound into the original 4.0 surround—left and right, center, and a single limited frequency-range mono rear channel—while systems lacking the decoder play back the audio as standard Stereo.
 
hardwarephreak said:
My point about the Wii is, sure 5.1 discrete would have been better than matrixed, but it hasn't detracted from my playing experience one bit, and I don't think it will.
Agreed.

I'm running a Pioneer Elite VSX-36TX. But I have been eyeballing either the new Pioneer Elite VSX-84TXSi or the Denon AVR-4806CI. Denon has always made some really, really good stuff, and I have a relative that works a supplier for Denon so they get a rediculous discount (40% off). Decisions, Decisions... :D
yum. wanna hook me up? :p I love my Denon.

edit: ^^ to above, thats for the first prologic. its like, 20 years old and pretty much sucks.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolby_Pro_Logic#Dolby_Pro_Logic_II

II and IIx are both 5.1 standards. IIx can do 6/7.1 as well.
 
I just started reading on this WII and all the reviews on this have me a bit interested... Would like the black Wii though.

Do you have to buy the nunchuks? How exactly does it work. I'm overseas and won't be back till the 9th. Itchy to pick one up...
 
MC FLMJIG said:
I just started reading on this WII and all the reviews on this have me a bit interested... Would like the black Wii though.

Do you have to buy the nunchuks? How exactly does it work. I'm overseas and won't be back till the 9th. Itchy to pick one up...

One nunchuck/wiimote combo comes with the Wii. Beyond that you can purchase wiimotes and nunchucks separately.
 
Cool, thanks....

Interested in the wii sports... hopefully more party games come out.
 
MC FLMJIG said:
Cool, thanks....

Interested in the wii sports... hopefully more party games come out.

Well, there is monkey ball, raving rabbids, wii play (arriving on Dec. 8th for the EU), and warioware (i think slated for a january release) which are all chock-full of mini-games.
 
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