The Official Nintendo Wii topic {8 Δεκεμβρίου κυκλοφορία σε Ευρώπη/250?}

[Daredevil]

ax ayth h N..... toulaxiston as ebaze 12xdvd mou fainete oti to wiimote prepei nanai e3airetiko gia na poulhsei h konsola, ektos kai an kanei oso ena ds lite

[panther_512]

Δέν νομίζω ότι παίζει ιδιαίτερο ρόλο για εμάς το τί ταχύτητας θα είναι το drive.

 

Η Nintendo δεν μας έχει συνηθίσει σε loading times, και το έχουν τονίσει ξανά και ξανά ότι δεν θέλουν loadings παραπάνω από 3 δευτερόλεπτα.

 

Είναι πλέο φώς φανάρι ότι όλα τα λεφτά έπεσαν πάνω στο χειριστήριο, αλλά ας κρατάμε μιά πισινή γιά τα specs.

 

Τώρα να δούμε......

[panther_512]

No Haze for Wii

 

According to a FAQ listing on developer Free Radical's Web site, the studio's next-generation first-person shooter Haze will not be coming to Wii.

 

Apparently, Wii's relative lack of horsepower is the reason for Haze not coming to Nintendo's console. As the FAQ states, "There are currently no plans for a Wii version of Haze. Sadly, the cutting-edge technology we're using requires more power than the Wii has available. If we could, we would."

 

Haze, which will be published by Ubisoft, is currently slated for a 2007 release on Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.

 

Free Radical, comprised partly of ex-Rare employees who worked on GoldenEye 007 for Nintendo 64, is the UK-based developer responsible for the TimeSplitters franchise. TimeSplitters 2 and TimeSplitters: Future Perfect appeared on GameCube, and although Free Radical indicated via its FAQ that another franchise iteration would likely be made, it's impossible to say at this time if Wii might see a new TimeSplitters game.

 

Free Radical's Web site and respective FAQ listings can be found here.

[panther_512]

Fusion Tour Brings Wii Sneak Peek

 

Nintendo sent out a press release indicating their dates for the Nintendo Fusion Tour, an annual concert set to travel across America. The press release indicated that a Wii "sneak peek" will be hosted at the events.

 

"Produced by Live Nation, [Nintendo Fusion Tour] will be headlined by Hawthorne Heights and will include up-and-comers like Relient K, Emery, Plain White T's and The Sleeping. In addition, each location will showcase the best new and upcoming Nintendo games, including a sneak peek at Nintendo's amazing Wii console," stated the press release.

 

The press release did not confirm whether or not actual Wii consoles will be playable at the events. However speculative, a demonstration of the games are plausible as Nintendo offered playable demonstrations two months ago at the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles.

 

The tour begins on September 27 and lasts until November 11, nearing the latest possible time the Wii may be released in the United States. Nintendo President Satoru Iwata said the system will be released before Thanksgiving of this year to ensure enough Wii consoles are available by the holiday season.

 

The Fusion Tour schedule is as follows:

 

Wednesday 9/27/2006 - Columbus, OH

The LC Pavilion

 

Thursday 9/28/2006 - Indianapolis, IN

Egyptian Room

 

Friday 9/29/2006 - Detroit, MI

State Theatre

 

Saturday 9/30/2006 - Cleveland, OH

Tower City

 

Sunday 10/1/2006 - Covington, KY

Madison Theatre

 

Wednesday 10/4/2006 - Philadelphia, PA

Electric Factory

 

Thursday 10/5/2006 - Worcester, MA

The Palladium

 

Saturday 10/7/2006 - Pittsburgh, PA

University of Pittsburgh

 

Sunday 10/8/2006 - New York, NY

Roseland Ballroom

 

Monday 10/9/2006 - Norfolk, VA

Norva

 

Tuesday 10/10/2006 - Winston-Salem, NC

The Millennium

 

Wednesday 10/11/2006 - Myrtle Beach, SC

House of Blues

 

Thursday 10/12/2006 - Orlando, FL

Hard Rock Live

 

Friday 10/13/2006 - Atlanta, GA

Tabernacle

 

Saturday 10/14/2006 - Jacksonville, FL

Plush

 

Sunday 10/15/2006 - Ft. Lauderdale, FL

Revolution

 

Tuesday 10/17/2006 - Jonesboro, AR

Convocation Center, Arkansas State

 

Wednesday 10/18/2006 - New Orleans, LA

House of Blues

 

Thursday 10/19/2006 - Houston, TX

Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre

 

Friday 10/20/2006 - Dallas, TX

Next Stage at Nokia

 

Sunday 10/22/2006 - Phoenix, AZ

Mesa Amphitheatre

 

Tuesday 10/24/2006 - Anaheim, CA

The Grove

 

Wednesday 10/25/2006 - Los Angeles, CA

Wiltern

 

Thursday 10/26/2006 - San Francisco, CA

Warfield

 

Friday 10/27/2006 - San Diego, CA

Soma

 

Saturday 10/28/2006 - Las Vegas, NV

House of Blues

 

Thursday 11/2/2006 - Spokane, WA

Big Easy

 

Saturday 11/4/2006 - Denver, CO

Fillmore

 

Sunday 11/5/2006 - Kansas City, MO

Uptown

 

Monday 11/6/2006 - St. Paul, MN

Myth

 

Tuesday 11/7/2006 - St. Louis, MO

The Pageant

 

Wednesday 11/8/2006 - Milwaukee, WI

Eagle Ballroom

 

Thursday 11/9/2006 - Des Moines, IA

Val Air Ballroom

 

Friday 11/10/2006 - Champaign, IL

Assembly Hall-Star Theatre

 

Saturday 11/11/2006 - Chicago, IL

Congress Theatre

 

Any changes to the schedule will be found here.

[panther_512]

Nintendo to Deliver Games Convention Keynote

 

According to the Games Convention's Web site, Nintendo is expected to give a keynote speech next month in Leipzig, Germany.

 

The keynote, called "Wii prove our promise", is planned to take place August 23 and last from 10:15-11:15 AM (4:15-5:15 AM EST or 1:15-2:15 AM PST). No other information concerning specific speakers or discussion points has so far been provided. Whether or not Wii will be playable at the show is also unknown at this time.

 

According to some industry speculation, GC is expected to serve as the platform for new Wii game announcements, and although any number of discussion points regarding Wii could be touched upon - company President Satoru Iwata did note in June that a launch date and price announcement would likely surface in or before September - it seems Nintendo's next console will be the primary topic.

 

The Games Convention, held this year from August 23 through August 27, is Europe's largest interactive entertainment expo. The show's Web site can be found here.

[panther_512]

Kojima Designing Snake's Brawl Stage

 

According to the August 2006 issue of Nintendo Power magazine, Metal Gear Solid Creator Hideo Kojima is designing Solid Snake's stage in Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

 

During Nintendo Power's "Point-Counter-Point" feature, Editor Chris Hoffman noted, "If you want to talk about something big, how about the news that Hideo Kojima, Snake's creator, is designing Snake's level in Brawl? Snake's inclusion means we're not only getting one of the best characters in gaming but one of the best developers as well."

 

Super Smash Bros. Brawl, slated for a 2007 release, is the Wii iteration of Nintendo's popular fighting game. Although details remain scarce, the title is expected to utilize the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection for online competitions, as well as include new roster additions - Pit (of Kid Icarus), Zero Suit Samus, Wario, Meta Knight (of Kirby franchise) and Solid Snake.

 

The official Super Smash Bros. Web site can be found here.

[panther_512]

Relic Not Part of the Wii Crowd

 

In a strange statement from Relic Games, creators of Dawn of War, to Game Industry, the company had this little blurb to say about the possibility of developing for Nintendo Wii:

 

"We make more mature-rated games, and more high-end graphical games, and the Wii is going in a little bit of a different direction; theyʼre not going to play the same game as the 360 and the PS3. You never know - if we came up with something cool we could do it, but right now our plan is not to… You canʼt do the same types of games on the Wii because the power is a lot different. Itʼs a different type of technology. I think it was really smart for Nintendo to break out on their own and do their own thing. The platformʼs going to be really successful."

 

While this does mean that Relic will not be porting Dawn of War to the Wii, although they see it as successful, it doesn't rule out that games from the company won't see a market on the system.

[Cue]

Saturday 11/11/2006 - Chicago' date=' IL

Congress Theatre

[/quote']

 

Αυτό σημαίνει ότι μέχρι τις 11/11 no Wii? :/

[panther_512]

Αυτό σημαίνει ότι μέχρι τις 11/11 no Wii? :/

 

Όχι, όχι.

 

Απλώς η Nintendo θα κάνει μιά περιοδεία για να γνωρίσει στον κόσμο από κοντά το Wii.

 

Το Wii μπορεί να κυκλοφορήσει και τώρα, που λέει ο λόγος.

 

Απλώς θα γυρνάνε τα χωριά για να δεί ο κόσμος και να παίξει με το Wii.

[privateer]

Ναί' date=' είναι πάρα πολύ πιθανό αυτά να είναι τα specs του Wii.

 

Θα διατηρήσω όμως τις επιφυλάξεις μου μέχρι να δώ αυτά τα specs σε πιό αξιόπιστα site από το Μax console.[/quote']

 

*UPDATE* The dev mailed us and said he was shocked to see all these cries of 'fake', so he provided some more info to show he's not bluffing...

 

Broadway CPU

 

Broadway is Wii's CPU. Broadway functionality and specifications are as follows.

 

• Operating speed: 729 MHz

• Bus to main memory: 243 MHz, 64 bits (maximum bandwidth: 1.9 gigabytes/sec)

• 32-kilobyte 8-way set-associative L1 instruction cache

• 32-kilobyte 8-way set-associative L1 data cache (can set up 16-kilobyte data scratch pad)

• Superscalar microprocessor with six execution units (floating-point unit, branching unit, system regis

ter unit, load/store unit, two integer units)

• DMA unit (15-entry DMA request queue) used by 16-kilobyte data scratch pad

• Write-gather buffer for writing graphics command lists to the graphics chip

• Onboard 256-kilobyte 2-way set-associative L2 integrated cache

• Two, 32-bit integer units (IU)

• One floating point unit (FPU) (supports single precision (32-bit) and double precision (64-bit))

• The FPU supports paired single floating point (FP/PS)

• The FPU supports paired single multiply add (ps_madd). Most FP/PS instructions can be issued in

each cycle and completed in three cycles.

• Fixed-point to floating-point conversion can be performed at the same time as FPU register load and

store, with no loss in performance.

• The branch unit supports static branch prediction and dynamic branch prediction.

• When an instruction is stalled on data, the next instruction can be issued and executed. All instructions

maintain program logic and will complete in the correct program order.

• Supports three L2 cache fetch modes: 32-Byte, 64-Byte, and 128-Byte.

• Supports these bus pipeline depth levels: level 2, level 3, and level 4.

Reference Information: Broadway is upward compatible with Nintendo GameCubeʼs CPU (Gekko).

 

Hollywood GPU

 

Hollywood is a system LSI composed of a GPU and internal main memory (MEM1). Hollywood is clocked at 243 MHz. Its internal memory consists of 3 megabytes of embedded graphics memory and 24 megabytes of high speed main memory.

 

Hollywood includes the following.

• Graphics processing unit (with 3 megabytes of eDRAM)

• Audio DSP

• I/O Bridge

• 24 megabytes of internal main memory

• Internal main memory operates at 486 MHz.

Maximum bandwidth between Hollywood and internal main memory: 3.9 gigabytes per second

• Possible to locate a program here

Reference Information: Hollywood is similar to Nintendo GameCubeʼs Flipper and Splash components.

 

External Main Memory (MEM2)

 

Wii uses 64 megabytes of GDDR3 (MEM2) as external main memory. Like internal main memory, MEM2 can be accessed directly from Broadway and the GPU at high speed and has a peak bandwidth of 4 gigabytes/sec. Programs can also be placed in MEM2.

 

Reference Information: Nintendo GameCube ARAM is used as auxiliary memory for the DSP. The CPU and GPU did not have direct access to it.

[panther_512]

Ναί, είναι πάρα πολύ πιθανό αυτά να είναι τα specs του Wii.

 

Θα διατηρήσω όμως τις επιφυλάξεις μου μέχρι να δώ αυτά τα specs σε πιό αξιόπιστα site από το Μax console.

[panther_512]

Rayman Raving Rabbids

 

Ubisoft shows what Wii can do. Gorgeous new screenshots complement a wealth of new details about the ambitious new generation action-platformer.

 

Nintendo fans still wondering if the company's upcoming Wii console will be kind to action-platformers can likely put their fears to rest. Not only does Super Mario Galaxy look to be one of the hottest entries into the Big N's lucrative franchise yet, but publishing giant Ubisoft is planning what could very well be the most ambitious Rayman game ever conceived - and it's coming to Nintendo's new system. Actually, that's something of an understatement. Rayman Raving Rabbids, which is developed by Michel Ancel and team (the same folks behind not only Rayman 2, but the cult hit Beyond Good & Evil and more recently, King Kong), is being designed first and foremost for Wii, which is the lead platform; the other versions for current and next generation consoles are ports.

 

Why start with the Wii version and go from there? According to a recent Nintendo Power interview with Ancel, it's because he was so impressed with Nintendo's innovative new controller. He reportedly tested the device out and was simply blown away. Ancel said to the magazine: "We believe in the Wii and building gameplay around the controller." With this in mind, the team set out to revolutionize the Rayman franchise - not simply with flashier graphics, which incidentally Raving Rabbids does sport - but with a control scheme so radically different and enhanced that players would not want to leave Rayman's world. A lofty goal, yes, but Ancel is no game design amateur.

 

 

Ubisoft jumped headfirst into Rayman Raving Rabbids immediately after work was completed on King Kong. Ancel amassed a large team and began the process of recreating the Rayman universe for a new generation of gamers. Of course, the core of this new title is an advanced and fundamentally new control configuration, which is made possible by the motion-sensitive functionality of the Wii-mote. But the team needed a new Rayman adversary to which a storyline could cling, and so it banged its collective head and came up with… evil bunnies?

 

If you're scratching your head, you're probably not alone. One doesn't often conjure images of bunnies when they think of evil nemeses. However, Rayman's foes are no ordinary evil bunnies. The crazed critters have lived their lives underground for years, all the while planning an attack on the world above, and they're deadly in numbers. As Raving Rabbids begins, the war has started and Rayman himself has become a prisoner of the enemy. Luckily for the limbless hero, the bunnies have no idea who he is, or that he is capable of single-handedly mounting a rebellion. Ancel revealed that the setup is inspired by the movie Gladiator, and that eventually Rayman himself will grow in popularity, challenging the leadership of the Rabbids' grotesque emperor. To do this, Rayman will need to take part in more than 70 contests and entertain the bunnies. For instance, the character may need to run races on animals, fight in the arena, dance, or even engage in first-person-style plunger-shooting challenges.

 

 

Popularity seems to be a key goal in Raving Rabbids. As the character becomes more recognized by the (admittedly) insane community of bunnies, he is able to unlock items and customize his jail cell. According to Ubisoft, players can deck out the cell and give it a unique style. "Go punk, pop, rock or hip hop and use your funky dance moves to outwit the bunnies," the studio states in an official release about the game.

 

Ubi has really capitalized on the potential of the Wii-mote. In one challenge, the character must steer a warthog through a race and to do so players turn the controller on their side and simply turn left and right, gesturing forward to pick up speed. This design is very similar to the setup in Excite Truck for Wii, by comparison. Rayman can swing chained cows around. To execute this bizarre move, players simply hold down the B trigger and swing the remote around, increasing momentum; when the B trigger is depressed, the cows take a ride. And in another entirely different mode, the action switches to a first-person view and the Wii-mote becomes a reticule aim, to which Rayman can fire plungers. Hordes of evil bunnies fill his screen, so it won't be difficult to find something to shoot at.

 

Rayman Raving Rabbids will also boast an offline four-player multiplayer mode in which gamers can take part in various trials, presumably against each other. As for compatibility with Nintendo's WiiConnect24 service, the chances are not likely, mostly because Ubisoft is still waiting for the specifics of the network from Nintendo.

 

The new screens featured in today's article are representative of the Wii version, which is the farthest along. Although Nintendo's console is not as powerful as Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3, it does have an edge over the current generation, and Ancel believes that Ubisoft will be able to deliver a beautiful experience. "We did a lot of good looking games on this generation of graphics processors," he explained to Nintendo Power. "The Wii hardware is more powerful than those, so that's good enough for us." The team is concentrating less on polygonal benchmarks and putting its artistic foot forward for Raving Rabbids, and the in-game shots really do speak for themselves.

 

[kostacurtas]

and the in-game shots really do speak for themselves

In-game real time γραφικα ειναι αυτα; :-?

Ειναι πολυ ωραια...

[kostacurtas]

Nintendo To Sony's Tilt Controller: Been there, Done That

 

This is an EGM scan from 1994:

 

 

Looks like the Super Nintendo had a controller that sensed tilting motions! While this wasnʼt made by Nintendo, it did exist for a Nintendo platform.

[kostacurtas]

Nintendo To Show Off 5 New Games

 

The upcoming Leipzig Games Convention sounds like it is going to be quite the show for Nintendo. While we have to wait until late August for the show to begin (23-27), it is looking to be worth the wait. We reported on the title of Nintendoʼs event earlier (Wii Prove Our Promise), and now information is coming in about what the keynote will contain.

 

The official magazine Nintendo of France has announced that Nintendo is planned to show off 5 brand new Wii titles at the event. It is unknown if these titles are direct from Nintendo, or are 3rd party offerings. Based on the story so far, these will most likely end up being Nintendo first party titles. Unfortunately, there is no information on anything else regarding these new titles.

 

Nintendo's LGC event is going to be big, I wonder what other announcements we can expect from the event!