The Wii is so overrated it's not even funny

[Imran Siddiqui]

I think after Sony's price of the PS3 came out, they were doomed to 3rd place.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Asher
Perhaps because they're too enamored with their new toys to be objective.

They probably haven't played their consoles in weeks...

Sadly true, since it's a couple hundred miles away.

[Asher]

The guy in the article makes points I've tried to make here even before the Wii came out.

As all of the current games have shown, the Wii control is a novelty item more than a revolution in the video game industry. It is not accurate enough and the Wii hardware itself is not powerful enough to fully immerse players into the world, which is kind of the point of this kind of control scheme. The Wiimote is the uncanny valley of control schemes.

While many people are immediately enamored by such a "fresh" interface (note: these people clearly have not been to an arcade in 10 years), the freshness fades and what you're left with is a collection of immensely dull games that all rely on a gimmick for their gameplay. When that gimmick is gone, just what do you have? Nothing. Which is precisely the Wii's problems.

Notice how no one in this thread is bragging about the Wii software sales last month. They got absolutely raped by the 360. Yes, lots of people are loading up on the Wiis because of the "fresh" controls and the relatively low pricepoint, but they are not going to be heavily utilized. They're going to have a lot of units out there, perhaps even beating Sony at the end, but I guarantee you in terms of game sales, the Wii is going to end up in third place.

The 480p argument cannot be discounted. More and more people are going to HDTV. Let me say this as someone with a 42" HDTV: the Wii looks like ass. Even the console menus are affected by aliasing that make you feel like you're playing a retro game. The best looking game by far on the Wii, Zelda, still looks awful. It's a bit blurry, the textures are awful, objects have lots of sharp/square edges, etc. It looks like, and it is, a "last-gen" game. If that looks comparatively bad now, how bad will it look in 2-3 years when the HDTV penetration is massively high?

The Wii has set itself up for a very strong start, but it won't be able to sustain the momentum and it certainly will never push a lot of software.

I bet you when Halo 3 comes out this year, that title alone will sell more than all Wii games combined.

[Kloreep]

You do make good points Asher, even if you hit a little over the mark sometimes. As LOTM says, I don't think Nintendo would be unhappy with second place after the Gamecube's sales.

Personally, I'm inclined to agree that the 360 will be #1 this generation. Its HDTV capabilities will indeed only get stronger as time goes on and more people get them, and the 360 beats the PS3 in pretty much every aspect right now, with a few exclusives the only saving point I can see for the PS3. Doesn't mean the Wii won't do well, though; it seems set to bring Nintendo back from the dismal Gamecube days. After all, pretty much all the Gamecube has is exclusives; the Wii will have exclusives and a novel control scheme that sets the console itself apart from the others, a unique property the Gamecube could not offer.

Whether the Wiimote will be a novelty or a revolution, we'll see. I'm inclined to think it will be somewhere in between, paving the way for more accurate devices. I was also disappointed to learn that the Wiimote does not possess actual 3D positioning, but even an air/gesture mouse is still a step forward from analog sticks in my view, helping bring consoles closer to the standard the PC mouse set many years ago. As for how it's been put to use, I'd blame that more on the developers at this point. Substituting gestures for buttons is indeed a crappy way to go about it; what needs to happen is freer ranger of motion in the program so that Wiimote motions are actually mimicked. Whether that will happen, we'll see. It took quite a while for the 360's graphical capabilities to be shown off, but now we're gotten Gears of War. Hopefully the Wii will start having such breakthrough games as well.

[Asher]

Welcome to Apolyton!

[laurentius]

I too found out that playing with wiimote wasnt as fun as I had expected. Sure I wasent used to the controls etc but frankly it was too much of an effort to fap my hands for a long time. Me and my Chinese console posse got tired quicky at the akward controls and crappy wario micro games. After about 4 beers and 30 minutes we switched back to GC and PS2.

So yeah, the magic is definately wearing off. The more effort people have to make to move their characters in a game the less enjoyable it is after a while.

[Kuciwalker]

Sure I wasent used to the controls etc but frankly it was too much of an effort to fap my hands for a long time.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Kloreep
I was also disappointed to learn that the Wiimote does not possess actual 3D positioning

Yes it does.

[laurentius]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker

Sure I wasent used to the controls etc but frankly it was too much of an effort to fap my hands for a long time.

Thats not a word? Oh thought it was

uhh how about whipping? Whisking? Waggling? finding a correct translation for this action is surprisingly hard. But for example in this one game where these rabbits keep coming at you you have to perform certain move with your hands similar to like you were uh milking a cow or something...

[snoopy369]

Originally posted by laurentius
So yeah, the magic is definately wearing off. The more effort people have to make to move their characters in a game the less enjoyable it is after a while.

But it's much more energetic and good exercise

[laurentius]

yeah well I dont play console games to get exercise. I go to swimming, to the kendo or to the gym to to get some. To me console gaming should be physically effortless fun.

[Asher]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
Yes it does.

It's only approximate, rather than accurate. If it was accurate you could use it as a laser pointer.

[Kloreep]

Originally posted by laurentius
So yeah, the magic is definately wearing off. The more effort people have to make to move their characters in a game the less enjoyable it is after a while.

If you want a marathon gaming session, perhaps. Myself, I'm excited at the prospect of moving more than my fingers.

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
Yes it does.

As Asher says, it's not completely accurate. It has no way to actually triangulate its location, so a game trying to use it for positioning in 3D space is basically just getting a very good guess based on what it does sense (IR from sensor bar + motion detection are the two main ones I believe?).

An air mouse is still great though.