Nintendo Debut the Wii U At E3 Show in Los Angeles

Posted by James in Nintendo, Technology

Nintendo have débuted their new console, the Wii U, at the E3 games show in Los Angeles this week.

It was widely expected that Nintendo would launch the first salvo in the next generation of games consoles. A Wii 2 console announcement has been expected for a while although, as it turns out, it isn’t called the Wii 2 but the Wii U.

Nintendo’s Wii U console gets HD graphics including 1080p and a multi-core processor, but the main talking point has to be the new controller.

It features a 6.2 inch touch screen in widescreen format, and looks similar to a tablet or an enlarged playstation portable console. It has the usual features you would expect from such a device these days such as accelerometer, gyroscope, camera and rumble feature.

The idea behind the controller is that adding a second, independent screen to the gaming experience will transform the way games are played and interacted with. For instance, creating multiple viewpoints, one on the TV and one on the controller.

The console also supports the standard Wii controllers so you could have multiple players seeing one version on the TV and another player using the controller having a different experience.

 

It will be interesting to see how games developers utilise the new device, expect to see some obvious titles but for us, it will be the ones that come out of left field that will prove most interesting.

Whether it will have the same game changing impact the original Wii had though has yet to be decided. The Wii U will ship sometime in 2012 and will be backwards compatible with older titles.

3D Gaming Comes to Life as Nintendo 3DS Launches in the US

Posted by James in Nintendo, Technology

Nintendo have launched their heavily anticipated 3D gaming console the Nintendo 3DS in the US. Operating without the use of 3D glasses will they be able to pull of the same success as they did with the WII?

On Sunday Nintendo finally made available for sale in the US it’s 3DS console, spoken about for what seems an eternity, you can now have one for around $249.

Nintendo hope that it’s going to shake up the games market like their ground breaking WII console did when it launched, pulling in sales that Sony and Microsoft could only dream about.

How Does the 3D work without Glasses?

The 3DS works without the need for the 3D glasses that the current crop of 3D TV’s use. They do this by using a stereoscopic display (allocating 400 pixels to each eye) and a 3D slider that changes the amount of 3d effect seen.

The stereoscopic display delivers a different picture to each eye. The left eye sees a picture viewable only from a certain angle and the right eye sees a picture only viewable from a different angle (the downside of this technology is that you have to be at precise angles to the device i.e. right in front of it, watching someone else play won’t have the same effect).

Your brain then does the difficult bit and combines the two images into a 3D picture, usually of something sharp flying straight towards you if 3D cinema is anything to go by.

As for if it works or not, I suggest you check it out for yourself but we were surprised here by how well it all comes together. Obviously some games are better implemented than others but the depth of image was surprisingly… well deep. Combined with a smoothness it feels natural and doesn’t become distracting allowing for quite an immersive experience.

The console also comes with 2 built in cameras for taking 3D images and another one on the other side. Unfortunately they are not of a very high quality although Nintendo makes good use of them with some fun apps.

The now obligatory motion sensor and gyroscope are also packed into the small device which react to tilt and motion. This allows for some interesting augmented reality games and some quizzical looks from fellow train passengers.