Today on Scribblenauts: I was flying around with my Imp wings, carrying my Flame Thrower when I decided it was time to take off my Monkey Suit. I had just Started a Rain Shower by Coaxing out a Shy Shaman with a Boom Box and a Photographer when I came across a woman laying on the ground beside the Flaming wreck of a sunken boat. After using a Fire Extinguisher on the Boat and turning it into a Flying Boat, I realized the woman was DEAD, but wanted to be reunited with her Loved One. I simply made her a "Live Dead Bridesmaid" and she sailed off into the Sunset with the Happy Marketer.

The End.

Cool

Another preview saying that the Wii U pad screen can look better than your TV screen.

1up said:

The real advantage to the GamePad, however, is the fact that the game looks much better on its smaller screen. I don't know if it's the flaws being obscured by the pad's screen when they're shown more clearly on the higher-performance LCD of an HDTV, or if it's simply a benefit of the pad's lower resolution requiring the system to render fewer polygons, but the game plays noticeably smoother on the GamePad screen. The stiffness of the characters doesn't come across as readily, and the compactness of the visuals makes the environments seem far more beautiful and detailed.

I read ages ago when looking for a decent HDTV for Wii that a smaller screen was better. There was this study that showed that with a smaller screen your eyes can visualise everything more easily and clearly. I had this effect when playing Twilight Princess on a small 14" TV near launch where it looked super sharp - relative to the blurry low res textures on a large TV screen. I eventually worked out that putting your TV in 4:3 mode for Wii 1 worked, my theory was that the screen was smaller so easier for your eyes to visualise the whole picture according to the theory I read. Turns out that Wii has anamorphic widescreen that stretched the image to make it widescreen. So natively 4:3 is where it's at for Wii 1 if you want the best quality.

Anyhow, the smaller screen could make ugly games easier on the eye in off tv play on Wii U. I think it will only benefit 3D games though.

Sonic Transformed reviews

Nice update today GG good stuff! Can't sleep  I want my Wii U!

Rayman looks incredible as ever!  I hear a day one demo for Wii U too now!

Xbox Next XBW mag news

Editor in chief Dan Dawkins told CVG: "Xbox World has been at the cutting edge of Durango coverage for over 12 months. Unless something really dramatic changes, everything we reveal in our penultimate issue will be revealed long before E3 in June."



According to the mag's final 'exposé', the next-gen Xbox - which it speculates is likely to be called simply "Xbox" - will introduce Kinect 2.0, use Blu-ray discs and feature directional audio, a TV output AND input, 'innovative controller' and - at a later stage of the console's life - AR glasses.



Current codename 'Durango' dev kits boast a CPU with "four hardware cores, each divided into four logical cores" and an impressive 8GB of RAM, XBW reports.



Xbox World has used the Microsoft leaks and industry sources to come up with a 3D mock-up of what it expects the next-gen Xbox to look like.




"We built ours with the same glossy face and patented VapourMG magnesium alloy Microsoft uses for its Surface tablet, and modelled the silver band after its new 'Wedge' touch keyboard and flexible Arc Touch mouse," it writes. "The future will be black, sharp and curved."



To read the full 8-page feature, buy the latest issue of Xbox World online

Seems Futures' mags are going down and spilling PS4 and Nextbox details left right and centre.

Polygon said:

The most magical element of Nintendo's new Wii U console is powered by a relatively mundane piece of technology.




Second-screen gaming, the ability to view full maps, menus or even play an entire game on the 6-inch screen built into the WIi U's GamePad, is made possible by a special form of WiFi.



The technology, co-developed by Nintendo and wireless and broadband communication giant Broadcom, marries run-of-the-mill WiFi with a power bit of proprietary software to create a two-way stream of low-latency, high-definition video and controls between the WIi U and its innovative GamePad.



That complex suite of software is designed to mitigate interference and smooth video signal and communication speeds, said Dino Bekis, senior director of Wireless Connectivity at Broadcom.



The technology is built on top of something called WiFi Miracast, which Broadcom first developed last summer. It's a system that is specifically designed to deal with interference issues while maintaining liquid fast two-way communication.



Broadcom and Nintendo then teamed up to create a more solid system for the Wii U to GamePad connection.

"It has very low latency, very high-definition quality, all coupled with solid interference mitigation technology," Bekis said. "What we did with Nintendo is very much targeted at their platform. The foundation, or the building blocks of the technology, is the constant of 'How do I deliver low latency, high quality video from one end point to the other over varying conditions with a lot of potential interference and non-line-of-sight issues?'"

While the official specs for the Wii U's GamePad say that it will operate properly at a distance between 8 inches and a bit more than 26 feet from the console, Polygon found that we could get quite a bit more out of the connection. And set-ups in rural location could close to quadruple that distance.



Pawling, a town of 8,400 nestled in upstate New York's Harlem Valley, is a haven free of many interfering radio frequencies. Residents of the town struggle to get cell phone service and FM or AM radio broadcasts. The small population also means there's not a very high density of radio frequencies in the area.



That's bad for making cell phone calls, but great for extending the usefulness of the Wii U's GamePad.



In Pawling, we found that you could use the GamePad well outside the 26-foot recommended range of the device.



It worked in adjoining bedrooms, bathrooms, outside, in an office, up stairs, at a distant kitchen table and even in the boiler room amidst furnaces and massive oil drums.



Placed outside, we were able to play New Super Mario Bros. U on the GamePad's screen while nearly twice the recommended range from the television.



Bekis wasn't surprised to hear that we were able to greatly extend the range of the device in frequency-quiet areas.

Tests in the lab were able to maintain connections between the Wii U and the GamePad at more than 100 feet, he said.



So why does Nintendo say it only reaches 26 feet?



Essentially, the game maker wanted to include a worst case scenario for users of the Wii U.



"They have to make sure that it will operate in all of these different environments," Bekis said. "If you're in an environment that has a lot of different (WIFI routers) running simultaneously or other interference, you won't get the same range."



So Nintendo created a range that their studies showed would reflect the experience of "99.9 percent of all users," he said. "We've done many multiples of (Nintendo's suggested range), but Nintendo's perspective is that they want to guarantee a flawless user experience."



And it's possible that even that longer range could be extended.



While Bekis was clear that Nintendo hasn't talked about the idea of using repeaters or range extenders with the Wii U and GamePad, he did say that the technology supports their use.



"I don't think this has been something that has been discussed in a lot of detail," he said. "But the technology would allow it."



The Wii U using a special form of 802.11n WiFi that could include a few neat surprises.



The only issue that would have to be dealt with, and Bekis said it's absolutely fixable, is any latency that a repeater might add to the system.



With such a system, a GamePad could be used anywhere in the home.



Bekis also confirmed that the system can support two GamePads connected to the same system at once.



"There is nothing that would prevent that from working," he said.



Broadcom also is responsible for the Wii U's tech for connecting to the internet, use of Bluetooth and even the NFC functions that Nintendo has been strangely quiet about.



Near Field Communication is a technology that would allow the Wii U's GamePad to communicate with something that has a special chip built into it.



While support for the tech has not been officially announced for the game, a leaked internal demo video for Rayman Legends showed the technology being used to bring characters into the game by placing toys on the console's GamePad. The effect appeared to be similar to what Activision's Skylanders uses.



Bekis said he expects Nintendo plans to announce more details about the tech's use after the console's launch.



"Nintendo has been relatively quiet about that," he said. "NFC has been a part of the system, but I think that it's a 'Watch this space' kind of topic," he said. "I don't know what they will dream up, with respect to using that technology. I can see a lot of opportunities for them to take advantage of it. I think that's an area that still has to be fleshed out."

Wow, the pad actually has a range of 100 feet with no interference, Polygon went out to a small town with no radio interference to test it, found it works at 50 ft. Nintendo gives a 26 ft range to be conservative because of interference etc. Extenders and repeaters could be used in the future, a third party could release it, the range could be huge if that happened. Polygon has videos in the article too, check it out up top.

HUEVOS GRANDES