Wii U Observations

[directhex]

So, launch day console.

I haven't had a chance to play any actual games yet (not with the baby around), but I've had a tinker with the interface and the hardware.

• The charging cradle is great. I love the design of it. It's got little wheels to slide the pad into position, and a really forgiving angle on where the gamepad needs to be placed for charging to work.
• The first OS update took an hour to download and install. On 76 mbit DSL. Utterly inexcusable.
• "usernames" for online accounts? About bloody time!
• Prices on the eShop are ****ing MAD. £55 to download ZombiU. £55. £55. £55.
• You can't play Virtual Console games on the gamepad, or with the pro controller. Considering the Wii U has no Gamecube controller ports, this means you can only play your VC games with a Wii Classic Controller plugged into a Wii Remote, and that's bloody stupid. The thing would be tens of times better if it supported this.
• The hardware feels great. The gamepad is surprisingly comfortable, and is a good weight - heft without being too heavy
• Despite media reports, it has no LoveFilm support. It has a LoveFilm icon by default, which loads a placeholder saying "update this app to enable LoveFilm" - there is no update. Netflix works though.
• The transfer of saves etc from Wii to Wii U is bloody arduous and tedious, but it does work. And has the cutest progress bar in history. Especially annoying: 2GB maximum size of SD card used for the transfer.
• Miiverse desperately needs a generic community for Wii U, not tied to a game. It doesn't have one.
• Menus are super slow to transition. The OS has a gig of RAM to play with, there's no excuse for this.
• Much like the PS3, and unlike the 360, background downloads need to be manually installed.
• Only some apps can be transferred to & played on the gamepad. No Wii (e.g. virtual console) games. Not the Youtube app.
• The Youtube app seems to skip the last few seconds of videos
• No TVii support at all yet. That said, setting up the gamepad to act as a TV remote was very easy.

[Terbinator]

I know it's a meme in itself, but this will bomb if they don't get their bottom in gear.

Super-slow menu and no background installs? Something my 360 did correct from day-0 7 years ago. It seems they're commonly suffering from hard locks as well reading around - one of which is triggered by ejecting the disk /facepalm.

How's the friends list integration/social things compared to the 360?

[directhex]

Super-slow menu and no background installs? Something my 360 did correct from day-0 7 years ago. It seems they're commonly suffering from hard locks as well reading around - one of which is triggered by ejecting the disk /facepalm.

Oh, yes! I've hard locked it twice so far, without playing any games

How's the friends list integration/social things compared to the 360?

I'll let you know when I have any friends on my friends list! It searches by username though, thank $DEITY.

[directhex]

ZombiU is an unforgiving, brutal game.

[jonathan_phang]

Really wanting to pick up the Zombi U package for myself, but trying to hold off - the wife is dropping big hints about maybe getting it for Christmas. Did you get any other games for it? Enjoying the game? The above could be both positive or negative

I held the pad in a GAME store and was surprised by the ergonomics and weight. More comfortable than I would have thought.

Really with they had some killer first party title out at release. This things is made for Mario, Zelda and Metroid. Am I disciplined enough to wait and not get a console now? Probably not

[Rob_B]

Had a play in HMV today, Rayman looked pretty nice but that was the only game that had a demo installed

[directhex]

Really wanting to pick up the Zombi U package for myself, but trying to hold off - the wife is dropping big hints about maybe getting it for Christmas. Did you get any other games for it? Enjoying the game? The above could be both positive or negative

It's clever. Extremely so. By forcing you look down at your hands all the time - for lockpicking, inventory management, etc - it purposefully destroys your peripheral vision and makes you more vulnerable. Whilst you're looking through your inventory picking which grenades to equip, a zombie sneaks up on you and eats you. Did I mention the one-bite-kills mechanic? One bite and your survivor is dead. And whilst your next survivor can go back and hunt down his predecessor for his loot, only your predecessor remains - i.e. if you die carrying a bunch of cool loot, and die again trying to get the loot back, then the loot is permanently erased from the game.

Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuutttttttttttttttttt..... at no point does the game feel unfair. Your failings are your own, not the fault of the framerate or controls or other unfairness - it's cruel, but your failings are your own.

[jonathan_phang]

Excellent. Liking the dying mechanic. Reminds me of Diablo when you had to make a run back to where you died so that you could get your old loot. Read a number of reviews and it generally seems to have been reviewed well. Either way, I don't stand and fall on the numbers, and am quite liking the survival horror part of it.

[DanceswithUnix]

Thanks for the hint about the Wii Classic Controller. If I ever want to play my Wii mode R-Type download again I will need one of those, despite having 3 gamecube controllers, a Wii-U pro controller, wiimote controllers with nunchucks and of course the pad that comes with the Wii-U. Sigh.

Zombii-U sounds great fun, think with small kids in the house it might not be a good idea though

My launch day download was a couple of hours, seemed bottlenecked at Nintendo as even my rubbish 2Mbit broadband connection had capacity to spare during the download.

[directhex]

LovefilmU shipped today. It's not bad, although the on-screen keyboard is silly sluggish