The wii topic

[frogbeastegg]

Anyone else got one?

I'm actually a bit disappointed with my early stroke-of-amazing-luck Christmas present It's the only time I've brought a new console and not had some kind of "Wow! Great things lie ahead!" feeling. I find I'm slowly feeling gutted.

First the general good of the console:
The analogue stick on the nunchuk is nice. Best I've used, to be honest. Very responsive, and it feels right. The part where your thumb rests is coated in a very grippy rubbery substance, so chances of thumb slippage are slim.

It's a dinky little console. Cute.

Wireless controllers means no wires. Yay!

The wii-mote has rumble built in. Nice, considering a lot of other wireless controllers don't.


The general bad:
You can't turn the console off unless you unplug it. Most won't care about this, but as I have the console in my bedroom I do. I don't want power lights on while I'm trying to sleep.

I can't sit down to play. I have to stand up or most of my wii-mote swinging isn't picked up. In the course of a typical working day I walk approximately 5 miles and stand for 9 hours. I don't want to be forced to stand when I'm trying to relax. I've discovered another flaw to this: I hurt my knee two days ago. I haven't been able to play my Wii for two days because standing is painful. So much for the generic console advantage of being able to sit comfortably while playing, and playing while ill.


I have two games: Zelda and the copy of Wii Sports which comes bundled.

Zelda is fine - it's Zelda for heavens sake! Except ... it's all so blurry. Reviews have said it looks like a Gamecube game; my Gamecube was never this blurry. I found that console's graphics to be more than good enough, and still do the occasional time I fire it up. I was expecting minor steps forward in the graphics department, not a big slip backwards.

The more serious issue is the controls. They feel so bolted on and gimmicky. Wave your wii-mote about to initiate sword attacks. Except the result is no different at all to pressing a button. I find I'd rather be using a normal controller, save for when I do a spin attack. Shaking the nunchuk to get a spin attack is the only improvement I've found on the control scheme so far. Aiming projectiles via the wii-mote is not as easy as I'd like, probably because I have to waggle the remote about at arms length in front of the TV before it detects it to put the cursor on screen, a process which sometimes results in the cursor appearing instantly, others in taking precious seconds. The fly in the muddy ointment is that occasionally I find Link doing things I don’t want him to in battle and dying because of it. Like flying over an enemy’s head into an instant death cloud of poison. Meaning I had to repeat several minutes of play to get back to that point because the save/continue point system is still in the early 90's. And then he did it again. This is a far cry from the older 3D Zeldas, where I felt Link was so well under my control I only needed to think of doing something and it was done.

I'm not sold on the wii-mote speaker either; why is having tinny-sounding sword swooshes coming out of the wii-mote classed as better than having proper quality sword swooshes coming from the TV? The result is just odd and a bit tacky.

It all adds up. Ocarina of Time is my favourite game ever. Majora's Mask isn't far behind. I enjoyed Wind Waker, with the exception of the boring sailing, until it got to the awful fetch-quest near the end. I'm simply not getting the same feeling of awe and addiction with Twilight Princess. Everything I like about it is undermined by the blurriness, the controls, and having to stand to play it.


Wii Sports isn't my usual cup of tea; I don't like sports and I don't like sports games. But it came free, and it should be good to play with my boyfriend. It has five games: tennis, bowling, golf, baseball, boxing. Bowling and baseball are mind-numbingly boring. Golf is the least interesting game out of the lot to me, I haven't tried it yet (why bother with golf when there's Zelda?!).

Tennis is the one I should have liked; it's the one I was looking forward to trying. It should have been great, given the motion sensor controls. It isn't. A lot of my swings don't pick up, or trigger the wrong kind of move. Left side control is the biggest problem: I swing on my left and the character stubbornly swings on his right. Tennis is the one which gets all that talk about non-gamers picking up a wii-mote and playing happily in seconds. I haven't won a single game of tennis. I've scored 1 point. In 11 games. In the same time I've watched the ball bounce past my character as I swing the wii-mote futilely more times than I can count.


Not entirely related but still a factor in my end feeling: You can play gamecube games on the Wii. Excellent! I have an imported US gamecube, and there are some titles I never imported. I can play the PAL versions now. Theoretically - none of the shops near me have gamecube titles. Amazon.uk doesn't have the ones I want except as second hand extortionate rip offs. Nowhere has them. I'm talking first party Nintendo titles like Pikmin 2 here.

And another: All games on the virtual console for PAL territories are PAL versions. Huzzah - we got a crappier version of the game the first time around, and can now download a crappy version again, paying more for that 'privilege' than any other territory. There's no option to get a proper 60Hz version even if your TV supports it, and nearly all TVs in the UK now do. Most worrying of all this means that games which didn't reach PAL territories before likely won't come to the virtual console. So no Mario RPG et al for us.


:sigh: So in the end most of my problems really come back to one thing: the motion sensor controls. They don't work reliably, they don't work comfortably, and they feel gimmicky in one out of my two games.

I have tried moving the sensor bar from below the TV to above it, standing closer, standing further back, I've turned down sensitivity, I've turned up sensitivity, I've even tried telling it the sensor bar is below my TV when it is above it and vice versa in the hope that would help. Moving the bar above the TV made a slight improvement, but it also ensures I absolutely must stand to play.

Gah! I’ve got Zelda and I can’t play it because I’ve hurt my knee and can’t stand to use some gimmicky feeling controls I’d rather do without!

[Husar]

I'm sorry for you, not a console gamer myself, I had my doubts about the accuracy of such a control with motion sensors and wireless and so on, it just felt like it wouldn't work reliably. Then again, one would expect it to if it is sold publicly and if your success in games depends on it.
Maybe your controller or receiver has a fault or you need to stand really close to the TV(which also doesn't sound that good, even worse because of your knee). There was also some homepage about TVs broken by the Wii mote because apparently it can slip out of your sweaty hands if you move it around fast, the cord breaks easily and so it can land in your TV, just be careful with it.

[MSB]

Just another bad that was on the news:
The wii's controlers have straps that are too thin. These can break and cause large ammounts damage to anything from TVs to windows should they fly off

[The Wizard]

I don't know what the heck people are doing if the Wiimote gains enough velocity to start flying fast enough to damage something

[Xiahou]

Just another bad that was on the news:
The wii's controlers have straps that are too thin. These can break and cause large ammounts damage to anything from TVs to windows should they fly off

I'm perfectly willing to call BS on the majority of the "my strap broke and my wiimote broke my TV" stories- they don't pass the smell test.

Here's a link to a guy who stress tested his strap- nothing that could be considered ordinary use would break it....

----------------------------------

frogbeastegg, I'm sorry to hear you're having so much trouble, I certainly don't have any of those complaints- maybe I can help some.

First, the "power off" issue:
When you turn the Wii off via the Wiimote, it actually just goes into Standby (yellow light) mode- which allows the wireless networking to stay active for the WiiConnect24 feature. The idea with WiiConnect is to download updates, ect while you're away from your Wii. But from what I can tell this functionality isn't implemented yet- so leaving it on standby does nothing other than generate heat it seems for now. To turn it off properly, you have to hold down the actual power button on the Wii until the LED turns red. If it's the small LED light that's bothering you this probably wont help too much.

"Tinny" sounding wiimote speaker:
Yup, it's sound quality isnt the greatest. Some people think it's because it's a cheap speaker, I tend to think it might have something to do with the limitations of bluetooth... Either way, I prefer to just turn down the speaker volume- I like to be able to hear it faintly still, just not so loud that it drowns out the better quality stereo/tv. If you can't stand it at all, you can just turn it all the way down.

Wiimote pointer functionality:
I have almost no problems here- it goes where I point it. I recently purchased Elebits, which is extremely pointer intensive. It involves grabbing objects and furniture with your "capture gun" and flinging them around as well as zapping tiny elebits by pointing at them and pressing a button. I generally play sitting down, with the only exception being when I'm swinging my arms around like an idiot- which I can't do as well sitting down.

You can diagnose ALOT of problems through the sensitivity screen in your Wii settings. Keep in mind that the sensor bar isn't a sensor at all- it simply broadcasts IR light from transmitters on each end of the bar. The wiimote uses those signals as markers to determine it's position.

So, if you go into the sensitivity settings you should see two white dots on the screen. Move the wiimote around and make sure that you always have two dots as you point it at different parts of the screen. If you don't have two dots, your sensitivity is too low. If you see more dots, either your sensitivity is too high or you're getting interference from another IR source.

One problem I had was when I played seated on my sofa with my coffee table in front of me.... I had left my game cases on the coffee table in front of me, and noticed that my pointer was jumping all over the screen- what was happening was that the IR light from the sensor bar(I use mine under my TV) was reflecting off of the plastic game cases and confusing the wiimote- this was apparent under the sensitivity menu, as extra dots showed up whenever I tilted the Wiimote downwards. The solution, obviously, was to remove the game cases. I've occasionally had similar problems with drinking glasses, ect being in the way- but it's not problem now that I know what to look for.

Hope this helps some- let me know if you have any other questions.

[Kekvit Irae]

Not entirely related but still a factor in my end feeling: You can play gamecube games on the Wii. Excellent! I have an imported US gamecube, and there are some titles I never imported. I can play the PAL versions now. Theoretically - none of the shops near me have gamecube titles. Amazon.uk doesn't have the ones I want except as second hand extortionate rip offs. Nowhere has them. I'm talking first party Nintendo titles like Pikmin 2 here

Looks like you need someone to help you with finding imports.

If the Wiimote gets you down, buy the standard controller at any gaming shop.

[frogbeastegg]

Wii-mote flinging

Ditto. I don't believe any of those stories. My wii-mote's strap is solid, and the wii-mote is light enough that I doubt it could damage my TV even if I threw it with all my puny strength.

If it's the small LED light that's bothering you this probably wont help too much.

Alas, it is the red light. In a dark room it's surprisingly disturbing.

Wii-mote speaker

So much for my tentative hope I was missing something which made it into a good feature instead of something which seems bizarre. Oh well. Maybe in the future. For now I'll leave it turned down quite low, it's alright when it's like that.

Elebits

Oooh - is it good? I have my eye on that one. It's out here at some unstated point in 2007, which probably means February or later. Nintendo do something wonderful, and do a near-simultaneous worldwide release – then leave Europe dragging behind on games. As usual. Disappointing, moreso as they were doing games releases for the gamecube/GBA with less than a month of lag at one point.

If you see more dots, either your sensitivity is too high or you're getting interference from another IR source.

Ah ha! It was picking up the room's main light and treating it as another source. The light is not centrally hung (idiots who modernised this Victorian house had all kinds of silly ideas about where to put things) and is positioned to my left as I stand in front of the TV. I have to play with the room in darkness except for my reading light above my bed, and I still have to stand.



Testing out my solution to the light problem led to a Wii-sports filled evening with my boyfriend, sharing the single Wii-mote and taking it in turns to play. I'm terrified by how good he is at the boxing! I always thought him harmless. Turns out he's Muhammad Ali reborn. He loved it, and says we will have to get an extra Wii-mote and some other two player games. I'm thinking of the Wii play pack, and possibly Rayman.

Myself, I'm still not a fan of Wii-sports. It's sports. Tennis was alright though, and the whole experience improves considerably when the controls work. The automatically adjusting difficulty level is unique in my experience - it actually works! When you win a match your next is noticeably harder, when you lose it's a little easier, and the step up or down is never too big. Give me a game based on something I like and Good Things could happen ...

Looks like you need someone to help you with finding imports.

The thought had crossed my mind. I have been plotting. You should have mail soonish.

If the Wiimote gets you down, buy the standard controller at any gaming shop

I could hook up my wavebird or standard gamecube controller, so forking out for extra controllers is thankfully not necessary. The hitch is that Wii games don't give you the option to use standard controls, just as virtual console and gamecube games don't let you use motion sensors. I can see Nintendo's point in not allowing this; motion sensor is the big selling point of the Wii, and without it the console is open to direct comparisons to the PS3 and xbox360. .

[Xiahou]

Glad I could help some.

The sensor bar is really an interesting creature imo- people have already discovered many ad-hoc substitutes for them, including modded remote controls or even candles to transmit the needed IR signal. There are already 3rd party sensor bars cropping up on the Internet that run on batteries instead of needing to be plugged into the console. Hopefully we'll see adjustable length ones someday to help those who have freakishly large TVs.

When you say you have to play standing, is it because the pointer functionality doesn't work when seated? Obviously, WiiSports is pretty much designed to be played standing, but I always play Zelda(which is awesome) and Raving Rabbids seated without any problems. If so, make sure it's all the way out to the edge of whatever your tv is sitting on- so the signal isn't being blocked from the angle you're seated at.

I haven't got to spend much time on Elebits yet (just the tutorials and the first level), but what I've seen looks neat. The motion control is really something in game- you can grab objects and toss them around, move them up, down, left, right, or even forwards and backwards by pushing/pulling the Wiimote towards or away from the screen- neato. The level I played consisted of me basically trashing my room (lifting boxes, over turning tables, opening and emptying closets, ect) in my search for elebits. When you collect a certain amount of them, you can power devices (ie: your TV, toy car, ect), which in turn flushes out 'power' elebits. Collect enough of these guys and the weight that can be manipulated by your capture gun goes up. Towards the end of the level I could move most objects in my bedroom, that was when I really had the place trashed searching for the last few buggers- looked like a hurricane had been through.

[lars573]

I'll be waiting for the release of Super Smash Brothers: Brawl before I get a Wii. Twilight princess does not a console sale make for me.

[Reverend Joe]

Every time I hear "Wii", I think "penis."

Who the hell names a gaming system "Penis"?

[Motep]

That is one hell of a rant!

[MSB]

Every time I hear "Wii", I think "penis."

Who the hell names a gaming system "Penis"?

The people who made Wii obviously.

[doc_bean]

Every time I hear "Wii", I think "penis."

Who the hell names a gaming system "Penis"?

This is a rather strange phenomena, since wii,wee,we,wi or whatever doesn't actually mean 'penis', yet almost everyone immediately associates it with the male member. Still a horrible move by Nintendo though.

Froggy I'm glad you're having fun with your Wii now, I imagine it can be really annoying when it doesn't work properly...

[Fragony]

Fragony eyes his 360................ 'you absolete piece of trash! Dinosaur!'

I simply love the Wii, have yet to get my own but a friend was more lucky. Maybe tomorow...........

Wii bowling is the best thing ever. Wii don't need graphics. No idea what you are talking about frog, the control is amazing, nothing gimmickry about it, pure ace.

[frogbeastegg]

I didn't think 'penis' when I heard 'wii'. Now I will. Thanks.

Moving swiftly on,

When you say you have to play standing, is it because the pointer functionality doesn't work when seated?

If I don't stand the pointer isn't detected at all. If I sit on my bed I appear to be classed as too low down. If I sit on the chest of drawers which is a foot higher than my bed I'm classed as too high. Thing is, in both positions I'm aimed right at the TV, so there shouldn't be a problem. It's very finicky indeed about where it will or will not pick up the pointer. My having a small TV probably doesn't help ... but still, it doesn't make sense to design a small low-graphics console at a cheap price, then do a Microsoft and require people to have an expensive big TV to get it to work decently.

No idea what you are talking about frog, the control is amazing, nothing gimmickry about it, pure ace.

In Wii-sports the controls are natural and fitting. In Zelda they are gimmicky. Zelda is a port of a gamecube game with motion sensor functionality bolted on, and it shows. Nintendo really should have tried harder

[edyzmedieval]

I didn't think 'penis' when I heard 'wii'. Now I will. Thanks.

That made me LOL hard.

Meh, I'm not really interested in Wii. I'm hyped about PS3.

[Xiahou]

If I don't stand the pointer isn't detected at all.

TV size really shouldnt have any bearing on the pointer being detected- the sensor bar doesn't know what size your TV is. The only ramifications I can think of is that a bigger TV will cause movements to appear to cover a greater distance on screen than they would on a smaller screen (if that makes any sense).

Again, I'd try to move the sensor bar out away from the TV to the edge of whatever the TV is sitting on to see if that helps. How far away do you play? I think the recommendation is 3-10ft...

In Wii-sports the controls are natural and fitting. In Zelda they are gimmicky. Zelda is a port of a gamecube game with motion sensor functionality bolted on, and it shows. Nintendo really should have tried harder

As you say, the Wiimote functionality was clearly bolted on- but I still prefer it to using a Gamecube controller. Most of it operates traditionally, but I love the pointer aiming and the nunchuk flick spin attack is also very welcome. I don't really use the traditional attack all the much- mainly jump attacks and spin attacks. To each their own though.

[Marius Dynamite]

Well, Its Christmas soon and the consoles are all coming out again. Its time for me to decide which one I want.

I feel I should stay loyal to Sony. I loved the Playstation and went for the
PS2 instead of the Xbox because of that. I wasn't dissapointed with the PS2 and from what I played of Xbox, it wasn't greatly superior nor inferior. I never even considered a Gamecube because I have no interest in any of the kind of game which are made for it.

I wouldn't get a Wii for a few reasons. One, it seems like a gimick (SP?) similar to Eyetoy was for PS2. Two, I don't like the games I see for it. Three, I don't have enough space in my room to fully express myself in a sword game. :)

Wii seems like a rich, 30 year old persons thing who has a large TV, young children and a large living Room. Even this person probably wouldn't play it incredibly much.

So anyway, back to my problem.. Xbox 360 or PS3.

PS3 has been delayed a few time already right? Whens its release in the UK? March 2007? and its 425 pounds Sterling? I heard games will be £70 aswell? Is that true?

360 is £279 and more or less the same in every other way except with a smaller HDD? I got my first 'real' taste of the 360 in my friends today with Gears of War. It owns, no doubt. I think I might get that now? Which would be best and for what reasons? (Don't say the Wii :P)

P.S. I love using the R1 and the Xbox equivelant and the Analogs for shooting games. Its very fun and better than the Wii sticks.

[Grey_Fox]

Erm...

Aren't the PS3 and Xbox 360 twice the price of the Wii? Wouldn't that make them "rich man's" consoles?

You don't really need to swing your arms around, you can just move your hands and use wrist action to do everything for you...

[Xiahou]

You don't really need to swing your arms around, you can just move your hands and use wrist action to do everything for you...

Yeah, you can really just swing your arms as much as you want to. For most games I think it actually gets a little tiring to make full swinging motions- especially when wrist flicks work just as well.

The only games I still regularly make something close the full real-world motions for are in WiiSports- baseball (when at bat), and bowling.

[doc_bean]

Meh, I'm not really interested in Wii. I'm hyped about PS3.

Meh, so far it's graphically inferior to the xbox360 and some launch games had serious issues. It might become worth owning in a year or two.

[Lehesu]

It would have to be much better than the 360 to justify a 200 dollar price hike over the 360.

[Fragony]

Meh, so far it's graphically inferior to the xbox360 and some launch games had serious issues. It might become worth owning in a year or two.

Mixed bag, some look better on the 360 and some on the ps3, not firsthand knowledge of course. But, the ps3 also plays all ps1 and all ps2 games, can't wait to play flawed gems like Killzone and Shadow of the Collosus without the framerate issues that kinda killed them.

[doc_bean]

Mixed bag, some look better on the 360 and some on the ps3, not firsthand knowledge of course. But, the ps3 also plays all ps1 and all ps2 games, can't wait to play flawed gems like Killzone and Shadow of the Collosus without the framerate issues that kinda killed them.

I haven't heard of any improvements in framerate. I did hear that ps2 games look worse on an hdtv with a ps3 compared to hdtv+ps2.

They still have some issues they need to work out.

[Fragony]

Did improve considerably when the ps2 took over from the ps1, I expect nothing less from the ps3, would be really really stupid.

[Papewaio]

http://www.wiihaveaproblem.com/ ... seems to be more then an urban myth of straps breaking.

As for annoying red lights... wouldn't bluetac over it solve that problem...

[Xiahou]

http://www.wiihaveaproblem.com/ ... seems to be more then an urban myth of straps breaking.

As for annoying red lights... wouldn't bluetac over it solve that problem...

Nah, I already knew about that site- most of the pics there are clear or likely fakes.
I would call this an example of a clear fake.

Im not saying that someone can't or hasn't broken the wrist strap by behaving like a maniac and actually broke something with it- it could happen, I just dont think it happens very often at all.

[Papewaio]

They acknowledge at the site this one seems iffy... I could understand a screen or a speaker covering being punctured.

It seems that it isn't the thick part of the strap that is breaking, it is the string bit that attaches to a Wii.

I agree that it is highly unlikely to happen but a small chance times a large number of uses = a number of times it can happen.

So sheer large number of consoles sold and a few incidents will happen.

Universal rule of product design:
No matter how foolproof the product is, nature will breed a 'better' fool.

[BDC]

You think Zelda for Gamecube is worth the effort? Never played a Zelda game before, worried it might a bit too kiddy and silly puzzle heavy. I prefer my RPGs heavy and full of blood...

[Fragony]

Zelda ain't no rpg, and yes it's puzzle heavy and kiddie. Love it or hate it, only one way to find out.