aspro said:

Looking at Sony's annual report, they outsold the 360 last year but still came short in lifetime sales. I would have thought it the other way around.  Still very close.

Sony and Nintendo seem to be committed to games, but their finances are shaky. I know Nintendo is like a cockroach (in that it can survive the apocalypse), but Sony could bolt at any time.

There was a Nintendo Gamer article, financial analysis, which said even taking a loss like Nintendo did recentely, every year of the same magnitude, the company would last 40 years just based on the cash they have stashed away over the years.

"Check this out for a completely not boring financial fact about Nintendo: Nintendo has £6.7 ($10.5) billion in the bank and, even if making big losses every year, that considerable nest egg would keep the company going until 2052. That's, like, 40 years away."

robio said:

This really makes me wonder if we'll see a PS4 in 2013. Sony cant take a hit on a new console and the Vita. Given Vita's sluggish sales the second they can lower the price you know they will, but how deep of cut can they then make it? Plus when they were losing money on the PS3 they had a fairly in-demand PSP helping to prop them up. That situation may not exist with the Vita this time. Scary time to be Sony.

If they got into dire straights it wouldn't cost them that much to just drop Vita. The gaming biz is Sony's best market though so if things got really bad they might just firewall SCE's gaming division as a separate company or something.

GamesMaster review scores – August 2012

• Project Zero 2: Wii Edition – 89%
• Diablo III – 86%
• Heroes of Ruin – 77%
• The Ratchet & Clank Trilogy – 78%
• Dr Who: The Eternity Clock – 55%
• Inversion – 74%
• Resistance: Burning Skies – 80%
• Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode II – 77%
• Gravity Rush – 93%
• Batman Arkham City – Harley Quinn’s Revenge – 80%
• Deep Black Episode 1 – 61%
• Blood Forge – 51%
• Dragon’s Lair – 62%
• Joy Ride Turbo – 77%
• Starhawk – 84%
• Datura – 43%
• Outlaws of the Lost Dynasty – 59%
• Velocity – 79%
• The House of the Dead 4 – 83%
• Pixeljunk 4am – 88%
• Block Factory – 40%
• Bird Mania 3D – 25%
• Inchworm Animation – 80%
• VVVVVV – 90%
• Summer Challenge Athletics Tournament – 62%
• Game of Thrones – 62%
• Tera – 73%
• Hitman Sniper Challenge – 80%

FAMITSU SCORES

Max Anarchy (Anarchy Reigns) (PS3/Xbox 360, Sega): 9 / 9 / 9 / 9 - (36/40)


Sekaiju no Meikyuu IV: Denshou no Kyojin (Etrian Odyssey IV) (3DS, Atlus): 9 / 9 / 9 / 8 - (35/40)


Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Future Soldier (PS3/Xbox 360, Ubisoft): 8 / 8 / 9 / 9 - (34/40)


Tousouchuu: Shijou Saikyou no Hunter-Tachi Kara Nigekire! (3DS, Bandai Namco): 7 / 7 / 7 / 7 - (28/40)


Danball Senki Baku Boost (3DS, Level 5): 8 / 9 / 8 / 9 - (34/40)


Dokuro (PS Vita, GungHo): 8 / 9 / 9 / 8 - (34/40)


Toriko: Gourmet Survival 2 (PSP, Bandai Namco): 8 / 8 / 8 / 7 - (31/40)

Dvader said:

edgecrusher said:

Seems like the Wii U is basically this gens Dreamcast, as in a nice step up over current machines but not quite up to new tech. That's not necessarily a terrible thing.

The Wii U wont be a step up on current machines while to me the DC was the biggest leap in graphics consoles have ever had. I was never more shocked at graphics in my life till I saw NFL2K and Sonic on display.

A radeon 4870 GPU is a step up from 360 and PS3.

And there was rumors that the Wii U gpu was actually beyond the 4870, possibly as high as a 5850 which is WELL beyond what the old machines can do at its highest levels.

I'm not saying it will look like Soul Calibur compared to Tekken 3...but then again, neither will Xbox or PS4.

Hey quick question. Has anyone here purchased Dragon's Lair in the past 10 year in any of the various ports that have been released? I just noticed that GameMasters reviewed it and I can't help but wonder who the hell is still buying it?

robio said:

Hey quick question. Has anyone here purchased Dragon's Lair in the past 10 year in any of the various ports that have been released? I just noticed that GameMasters reviewed it and I can't help but wonder who the hell is still buying it?

Didn't they come out with one on the Wii a few years back?

There was a French 3DS XL event and this is pretty cool news.

Notice that DS games look stretched on 3DS and VC games too? Well we know that the 1:1 pixel mode will make them look perfect and on a bigger screen. But I was worried that 3DS games would appear stretched on 3DS XL but the previews suggest otherwise.

http://www.bamarenlive.com/2012/06/test-nintendo-3ds-xl.html

- the screen looks good, very good
- while the image looked worse on a DSiXL than on a DSi, it's not the case here. 3DSXL pixels look as defined as on 3DS.

- the screen seems very luminous

- 3D effect is more comfortable and more immediate

- the analog stick is more convenient to use, no need to bend your thumb anymore

Other impressions:

- The screens are HUUUGE!

- DS games will get a "third life" on the bigger screen.

- The 3D effect is easier on the eye and nicer to the look.
- The technology behind the 3D might have been improved on the XL model. (To confirm)

- They think there's some kind of "filter" at works here because the pixels appear "rounded."

- "The XL is so much more comfortable to hold than the original 3DS that we have to ask what the hell has Nintendo been doing in R&D with the original model." (Paraphrased)

- The difference might be small, but the buttons felt well placed and of better quality.

- The circle pad appears bigger. (To confirm)

- Surprisingly light for its size.

- 3DS games will gain new life from the XL.

- Speakers and sounds doesn't appear to have improve. (Was in a noisy room, to confirm.)

- The XL is an upgrade on the 3DS from almost every single point.

More:

Huge screen

Better viewing angle
3D effect looks better/more effective/more natural

2D mode looks better than regular 3DS

Image looks better/softer (they assume there might be some filter but not sure)

The grip (round corners) fit nicely

Unit fits better in hands (they wonder if it should've been the main design in first place)

Unit is lighter than they expected

There's a coat in the unit (not fully matte) that gives it a "deluxe plastic imitating metal" look

Not sure at the sound as the room was quite noisy

Sounds like the filter might get rid of the 'no anti-aliasing in 3D mode' many 3DS games have.

JUULAR!

gamingeek said:

edgecrusher said:

Retro Studios should have something amazing looking on the Wii U. They always push the graphics.

That may be what's taking them so long, in fact, to show off something.

They have no experience with HD systems, this will be their first go at it. Wait till their 3rd Wii U game, then you can see what they can do. Remember Rogue Squadron? Then after that Factor 5 doubled the pixels and put the entirety of Rogue Squadron into a co-op split screen in Rebel Strike.

Mrk my words.....RETRO STUDIOS 1ST WII U GAME WILL LOOK INCREDIBLE!!!

gamingeek said:

They have no experience with HD systems, this will be their first go at it. Wait till their 3rd Wii U game, then you can see what they can do. Remember Rogue Squadron? Then after that Factor 5 doubled the pixels and put the entirety of Rogue Squadron into a co-op split screen in Rebel Strike.

Yes, and it was absolutely stunning.

Foolz said:

Yes, and it was absolutely stunning.

Bad example, those guys are nuts. Plus it's a space based game with a black spere as a background. They also had input into the actual GC hardware with their MosysX sound system and they were a platform exclusive developer who just came out of nowhere with a stunning looking game. The point is, as good as the launch game looked, the sequel was technically much better.

LINK

Julian Eggbrecht, the president of Factor 5, talks about a lot of really cool things in his 15 minute interview. I'll mention a couple of them now.


1) The Rogue Leader engine was about maxed out with Rogue Leader. Lighting was maxed out, Tie count was maxed out, etc...

Factor 5 scrapped all of Rogue Leaders code and began coding around the forest level in Rebel Strike to improve over their Rogue Leader engine.


They reached a point where the game looked better than Rogue Leader, but not by a whole lot, so they began to research new lighting techniques. They saw light scattering as something to be used next gen, but one of their coders came up with a GameCube implementation over the Christmas holidays and they put it to work with amazing results. Julian basically admits that Rogue Leader looks like crap when compare to the realism that light scattering provides.


((light scattering simulates light as it pours through the atmosphere and bounces off of particles and such))



2) The water in Rogue Leader was finished in a day and a half, and they were NOT pleased with the results. It was basically Battl for Naboo's water with some bump maps over it.


The water in Rebel Strike simulated real water phystics in real time using the Flipper graphics chip. The water takes into account wind and currents, and reacts accordingly.

(( In the video, youll see wind blowing across the water and the watter flattening out in certain areas instead of always having waves.))



3) They can now push 20,000 particles on screen, and actually reach this number on Yavin IV when blowing up imperial ships.


4) They found a trick to simulate pixel shaders on the GameCube, but it did take a bit of work. Julian said he's convinced that anything tha XBOX can do, the GameCube can too with enough work.

Another interview

PGC: What graphical effects are being implemented in Rebel Strike that we haven't seen before in Rogue Leader?



JE: We have a much more detailed landscape engine, which was really needed for the ground levels. On top of the pure ground, though, we also came up with a completely new outdoor lighting technique. In very simple terms, we are simulating how light gets bounced around in the atmosphere as it hits dust, the ground, and other bits in the atmosphere. This so-called light scattering gives our outdoor levels a big jump in visual realism. We are using it also for the co-op Rogue Leader levels set in atmospheres and they look so much better. Bespin is quite a stunner and finally looks close to the movie shots. We were never happy with the way Bespin turned out in Rogue Leader. Another landscape detail that did get addressed is the water. In Rogue Leader we used a simple texture, but this time we are simulating water physics and applying these in realtime with complex shaders.



Our indoor-engine also has nifty tricks up its sleeve: We simulate glows in a much more movie-like fashion, and we have quite accurate shadow-casting. One very cool detail is real-time IK (Editor’s note: Inverse Kinematics are a way to generate character animation.), which enables the main characters to step realistically onto anything on the ground – dead stormtroopers, for example. It just kicks out one more of the annoying non-realistic video game stereotypes of characters not taking steps correctly and other details in the environment.



Finally – of course we think our forest and vegetation engine is quite nice. Endor was the first thing we tackled and everybody was surprised with what we were able to squeeze out of the GameCube.

JE: We will have the whole Rogue Squadron game in Reble Strike, including the Rogue Leader missions, on one disc. And that does also include 30 minutes of DVD-quality movies in our proprietary DivX format. Rebel Strike is the first opportunity for Star Wars fans to see many favorite scenes from the original trilogy in a digital video format, and it makes the wait for the DVDs certainly tougher.

Eggebrecht also said their Wii engine could do anything their PS3 engine could

And that their Wii game would blow people away technically. To me the best looking Wii games are Metroid Prime 3 or SMG2 but they are 60 FPS, if you halve the frame rate you can get twice the detail. Nintendo does 60 FPS in a lot of games because they care more about fluidity of gameplay.

Also:

Resident Evil 4 was a beautiful GCN title. Rogue Squadron was doing things at launch that developers still haven't done on Wii. Why do you think that is? Are studios getting sloppy on Wii?

Julian: Yes. I'm so disappointed knowing exactly what the Wii can do -- and I still think nobody knows it better than we (no pun intended) [laughs]. I really have to say, boy, am I disappointed! They all have finally figured out, five years into the hardware's life cycle, how to do at least basic shaders and a rim light, but that's what everybody does. But I still don't see enough bump and normal-mapping, if any. I still don't see enough post effects, although you would have insane fill-rates with Wii. I don't see any of that. I was digging out Rebel Strike the other day and was looking at it, and we had some people who were visiting ask, "Why isn't anybody else doing this on Wii?" And I am at a loss. I really am.

link

So yeah, Factor 5 are an exception rather than the rule. Shame they went down.

Most of the Wii U games at E3 were 60 FPS and hardly prioritising graphics, P100, Pikmin 3 etc. The rest were ports from 360 code except what - ubisofts Lyn engine which ran Red Steel 2? The Montpellier team are not great at graphics either other than BGE. I thought RAGE looks pretty great on 360, I would like to see what someone like iD could do on Wii U. Of course they won't touch it with a pole because of 'the market'

edgecrusher said:

Its too bad Crytek won't let Crytek UK make Timesplitter's 4 as an exclusive Wii U game using the Crysis engine and just push it to the max.

Don't forget that Crytek UK is developing Homefront 2 right now. Maybe they need a Kickstarter...