Hands-on With the Wii MotionPlus 153
Parz writes "In June, Nintendo will be releasing a peripheral called MotionPlus. This small device attaches to the bottom of the Wii-mote and acts as a more sophisticated motion-sensor to the controller as it currently stands. Its goal is to bring greater parity between a user's movements and the animations that they bring to life on-screen. Gameplayer got some hands-on time with the device, and they are extremely impressed."
The MotionPlus will only affect new games; Nintendo has said they have no plans to add support for older titles. Virtua Tennis 2009 will be the first game to support it, and Eurogamer has a look at the game both with and without the MotionPlus.
Swordfighting (Score:5, Interesting)
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Actually, you could go further and really teach Iaido, or Battu-Jutsu on Wii, including many Kata.
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I'm not sure if you're joking or not, but I'm pretty sure that the wiimote isn't even close to being balanced like any real sword (possibly a lightsaber ^^).
To have a control scheme that let's you do "real" sword-fighting (or sword-drawing for that matter) is probably not a good idea. What you can do is get closer than with a gamepad, which doesn't really say much, but it would still be a game kind of control scheme.
Re:Swordfighting (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm not sure if you're joking or not, but I'm pretty sure that the wiimote isn't even close to being balanced like any real sword
So stick the wii remote into an attachment that is correctly balanced.
You could probably set something up for most swords where the wii remotes is just in front hand/gaurd, and then add weight appropriately. As a fencer, I'm confident you could get the balance right for a foil, epee, and sabre. And these are all much lighter and more delicate than a japanese sword (e.g. Katana) so it should be even easier to create something with the correct balance for those.
I'm not sure how well sword fighting itself would work, because of course their is no resistance. However, I think you could still effectively teach or at least practice the forms. And you could probably put together a sword fighting game, that while not entirely realistic, would at least be fun. A little vibration as you execute a beat attack lets you know you've knocked the blade out of line and you extend fully... a double vibration means you've beat and he has counter beat and you need to execute a parry riposte or be touched... it would have to be lenient on which parry... it would have to be simplified... but it could still be fun.
I don't really know much about Asian sword fighting, but what I've seen of Kendo is that like Sabre its mostly strike-hit. Occasionally strike-block/counterattack-hit. Very occasionally strick-block/counterattack-counterblock-strike-hit. And rarely does it go further than that. So if a game even just gave you one opportunity to block/counterblock it would be fairly realistic in that sense.
And in fencing at least blocks aren't 'feats of strength vs your opponent where you stand there blades crossed for 10 seconds grunting at each other'. They are generally brief deflections of the blade that require little strength, and simply knock the incoming blade off 'line', and the moment your opponent is off line, you riposte so its not like you are sitting their holding his blade... its just a quick 'tick' and then your counterattack.
The former feat of strength couldn't really be captured by a bit of audio and vibration feedback, but the latter probably could be, and reality (of fencing) is most the latter.
Re:Swordfighting (Score:5, Informative)
I agree with the earlier comment, leave the learning on the piste. Use the wiimote for what it is, a game. A Kendo or fencing game would be great, but a training tool is out of the question.
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As another fencer, I would have to disagree. There's still too many things that can't be measured with just a wiimote. Wrist angle is the most important, as the wiimote would have no way to verify the wrist was absolutely straight. Body lean, distance between the elbow and body, and foot position are also very important. Simply attempting to teach, or even practice, fencing with a wiimote could lead to poor habits that will be difficult to correct later on. The problems you would create would outweigh any benefit.
I agree with the earlier comment, leave the learning on the piste. Use the wiimote for what it is, a game. A Kendo or fencing game would be great, but a training tool is out of the question.
I completely agree with this.
What's worse is learning how to strike. In japanese fencing arts (perhaps it's the same in western fencing), you don't use the same muscles that people normally use. When it's done well, you can strike a thousand times without being tired, and it's basically the only way to strike effectively with a katana. None of this could be learned with a wiimote, especially not Iaido.
Not because the Wiimote is not precise enough, it sure is, but its form factor is not made for this.
Also, I
ObQuote (Score:2)
Well, you see, you use different moves when you're fighting half a dozen people than when you only have to be worried about ... one.
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There's still too many things that can't be measured with just a wiimote. Wrist angle is the most important, as the wiimote would have no way to verify the wrist was absolutely straight. Body lean, distance between the elbow and body, and foot position are also very important.
I'm the poster you responded to, and you are right; the Wii couldn't possibly be the primary teacher.
But I wasn't really thinking it could replace joining a club / taking lessons. I was more thinking of it as a teaching aid... where on
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So, you're saying that I can't use the Wiimote to check whether Thibault really cancels Capo Ferro?
Damn, all the time wasted on studying my Agrippa...
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"reminds me a bit of the Guitar Hero debate, should it be made into a teaching tool?"
That is not a debate, that is just idiocy. Guitar Hero controllers teach you as much about playing guitar as a steering wheel bolted to a subway seat teaches you about driving. The difficult part about playing guitar is not learning how to hold the instrument.
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http://www.guitarrising.com/ [guitarrising.com]
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"reminds me a bit of the Guitar Hero debate, should it be made into a teaching tool?"
That is not a debate, that is just idiocy. Guitar Hero controllers teach you as much about playing guitar as a steering wheel bolted to a subway seat teaches you about driving. The difficult part about playing guitar is not learning how to hold the instrument, which is all the guitar hero controller can teach you. And don't say it teaches rhythm, what the game requires you to do is not the same timing as the actual guita
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That would be a description of holding a full-sized, six string guitar that doesn't produce any sound.
Guitar Hero is like playing Burnout with a toy-sized steering wheel that has no force feedback. And possibly AI-controlled accel\brakes if you're not feeling charitable.
And yes, for those willing to learn, it does too teach rhythm (as does DDR, EBA...), although GH d
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"Guitar Hero is like playing Burnout with a toy-sized steering wheel that has no force feedback"
Pressing buttons and flipping levers on a real guitar does not produce any sound, if it happens to have any buttons or levers. Nothing that you do on a Guitar Hero controller helps any part of playing guitar, none of the skills is transferable to a real guitar, and nothing you do relates to actually producing sounds on a guitar. It's like playing Burnout with a toy sized steering wheel which does not turn, but
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Wouldn't you need one Wiimote in each hand and one on each foot?
I am interested in using motion sensors such as the Wiimote as a learning aid for katas, and I wonder if any work has been done on this.
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There is a program going on at my university to teach Taiji using the balance board and wii removes. Friend was working with them, hacking the Max-MSP code to read from the balance board. Dunno how much further it's gone, but I know she had a deal with the instructor to record Taiji jian form once the motion plus was released.
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You would be much better off doing it yourself. The accelerometers themselves are about the size of two short grains of rice for two axes and you read them by pulse width or something like that. You can get the radio module they used in the Cybiko pretty cheaply (and it's easy to implement) or you could use a PDA with USB hosting and a gadget board or similar for maximum ease of implementation. The WiiMotes are gigantic. There IS a wireless nunchuk from Nyko called the Kama, I have one and it is fantastic f
Re:Swordfighting (Score:5, Interesting)
I personally was looking forward to (and was dissapointed by a lack of) first person shooting control schemes.
With the swordfighting, one major problem is that if your on screen sword hits another sword, there's no force feedback to stop your wiimote. You'd swing through, your sword on screen would stop.
I suppose they could make it realistic and have both swords break, but people want movie sword-fighting, not real sword fighting. There are workarounds you can think of, but until nindendo comes out with a wii-motion-stops-your-hand-in-midair attachment, it's never going to feel quite right.
The FPS control scheme I don't know why it's not being used much. Lack of imagination? they don't think there's much of a market for FPS on the wii?
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FPS is a hard core genre. That's not the Wii's core demographic.
With the swordfighting, one major problem is that if your on screen sword hits another sword, there's no force feedback to stop your wiimote. You'd swing through, your sword on screen would stop.
Just make the controller buzz.. oh yeah, there's buzz patents.. no can do. The whole value of the Wii system is that it's arbitrated reality. The player wants to believe in the fiction, so they ignore the differences between reality and the alternate reality displayed on the screen.
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FPS is a hard core genre. That's not the Wii's core demographic.
That's just a bunch of marketing buzzwords. A game can ONLY target a "core demographic?" I don't think so. Reguardless of the average wii owner, there's still a huge number of wii owners who play games besides wii fit. I've never been exactly clear as to what "hard core" mean when referring to gamer types, it seems to just be people who play a lot of games. I don't see why you have to play a lot of games to enjoy FPS, especially not if the controls are right.
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Hard Core... as in Blood & Gore... not petting kittens and riding ponies, the Wii is generally (if not always?) targeted at whole-family orientated stuff, killing Nazi/Gargoyles/Aliens doesn't really fit in.
Big difference between "hard-core genre, and hard-core gamer
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the Wii is generally (if not always?) targeted at whole-family orientated stuff,
no. Not always.
Manhunt 2 ...
House of the Dead: Overkill
Tenchu: Shadow Assassins
Alone in the Dark
Brothers in Arms: Double Time
Madworld
Resident Evil 4
Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles
No More Heroes
Mortoal Kombat: Armageddon
Driver: Parallel Lines
Escape from Bug Island
Call of Duty: World at War
Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Double Agent
The Godfather: Blackhand Edition
Target Terror
There's lots of blood&gore and more coming to the Wi
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All that said, a title like Resident Evil 4 or the new Metroid Prime in my opinion show the Wii to be an EXCELLENT platform for FPS and hard core games.
Technically resident evil 4 wasn't an FPS, it was an over the shoulder, but you're right basically.
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RE4 proved that the Wii controls were vastly superior than a standard gamepad for aiming, when done right... in the same sense that a mouse is superior to a gamepad for some types of games. Developers promptly learned nothing from that example, though.
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You think you can't make a casual FPS? I think they said the same about racing games 'til Mario Cart.
Add a dash of luck, give the underdog some powerful goodies and up the challenge for a "good" player and you're there. Now add that the controller sure makes for a very different experience than the usual keyboard/mouse FPS setup and you're at casual gaming.
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Now with The PS3 trying to tailor to casual demographics with a game in Africa, I'm thinking this game should have a similar vibe.
So basically, you're riding Yoshi, traveling through these exotic locations, and the player point
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They already have a nerf gun one too.
Saying FPS is "hardcore only" is ridiculous.
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I don't have the sales figures but it does show that the Wii accepts almost any game.
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Everything I heard is that it did rather poorly, which is unfortunate (I don't like the Wii, but I do like games that try and push the edge like MadWorld tried)
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Oddly, the week before I rented "OneChanbara Bikini Zombie Slayers" for the Wii, which has very similar gamplay to MadWorld, and which also has over the top violence and gore, and found it to be the most fun I've had on the Wii for months. I intend to purchase that one. Interesting how two games can play so similarly, yet feel entirely different.
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The Wiimote already has vibration, and it even buzzes when your pointer crosses the border of onscreen elements like buttons and scroll bars. Thanks for trying, though.
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FPS is fairly rare (in part because third parties are fairly afraid to make any investments into Wii games that can carry more than a well-made flash game or a really badly made core game) on the Wii but not completely nonexistent. While The Conduit (big, hyped up title) isn't released yet some people liked Medal of Honor Heroes 2 (not released in Europe as far as I can tell) for having 32 player online multiplayer, Metroid Prime 3 is pretty much a must-have on the system despite almost feeling closer to Hu
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The thing is, _Link's Crossbow Training_ has some first person shooter ``ranger'' levels which are very well done and a lot of fun (I enjoy the game so much I make Wii Zappers out of wood and give them to co-workers and friends along w/ used copies of the game) and most of the highly-acclaimed games have made excellent use of the Nunchuck for movement:
- Metroid Prime: Corruption
- Super Mario Galaxy
- Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
- Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition
- Cal
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I'd add to this list Okami. While not designed solely for wii they make excellent use of the wiimote controls. It is the first game I've played on any platform that as soon as I finished I started the game over. I've probably spent 180 hours on those two games alone.
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My first inclination is to have the swords clash on the screen, with a red spark or something, and the first player that immediately pulls his sword back in the opposite direction gets a slight initiative advantage.
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Yeah. I bought Dragon Quest Swords: The Masked Queen and the Tower of Mirrors for that sake --- it's a lot of fun, though short, w/ almost painfully cute monster graphics, but one can't block w/ the Nunchuck (have to toggle into shield mode --- one doesn't use the Nunchuk as a shield 'cause they use rotation which apparently only the Wii Remote provides), and there's only one opponent w/ a sword (the final boss) and one doesn't get to fence w/ him, just strike when one has a chance, block when possible
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Of course for a local multiplayer game you could attach a stick to the end of your wiimotes, but then whats the point of having the wii in the first place?
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Tennis? (Score:3, Insightful)
Man, I would like them to rerelease the golf and bowling with support, so it actually works.
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Indeed. That and a new Star Wars game.
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They work well when I try them, with golf the important part is to have an actual golf stance, otherwise it's hard to judge the force required. Yeah, some people figured out how to play couch potato golf but that's missing the whole point.
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I would like them to rerelease the golf and bowling with support, so it actually works.
I agree. Just tried bowling again last night after a few months away led to me forgetting how inconsistent its input is. What a frustrating experience it can be.
I do expect them to update the rest of the Wii Sports to support the MotionPlus. But I'm also glad that tennis, even if it's from a 3rd party, will be the first supported sport since it's the one Wii Sports game I play by far the most.
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In my experience, the input is just as inconsistent as you make it. I can (on good nights) bowl in the 250 range, but if I start losing my form, I degrade down into the 190's. An inexperienced player (with the same Wiimote) tends to throw below 100.
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In my experience, the input is just as inconsistent as you make it. I can (on good nights) bowl in the 250 range, but if I start losing my form, I degrade down into the 190's. An inexperienced player (with the same Wiimote) tends to throw below 100.
My point (that I didn't make well) is that the same roll/motion can have very different results with the least possible change in aim. If I aim 2 "steps" to the right and 2 "degrees" to the right (ie. RIGHT-RIGHT-A-RIGHT-RIGHT) my ball will Brooklyn. If I add just one step or degree to the right (ie. RIGHT-RIGHT-A-RIGHT-RIGHT-RIGHT or RIGHT-RIGHT-RIGHT-A-RIGHT-RIGHT) it misses the headpin to the right. Every time. The granularity of the game is far too coarse. True, in retrospect, this is a critique of th
Obligitory (Score:4, Funny)
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/11/13/ [penny-arcade.com]
The Wii MotionPlus is an expansion device (Score:5, Interesting)
You know.. I was all ready to hate them for not making the new sensor backwards compatible with older games, but then it occurred to me that it says that the new motion sensor hooks into the base of the existing Wiimote. It may simply be that the connection there for peripherals/nunchuks doesn't allow the new sensor to supercede the existing Wiimote movement sensors.. that may be why only new games will be able to make use of the extra information.
Of course we could then always argue that Nintendo should have re-designed the Wiimote from scratch with the new sensor embedded if that's the case. If so, I would hope that they do, because there are a lot of existing Wii games that would benefit from the extra sensitivity.
Re:The Wii MotionPlus is an expansion device (Score:5, Insightful)
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Sounds great! Is the output from the new accelerometers in an easy-to-decode format so it works on Linux with libwiimote [sourceforge.net] and similar software?
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This thing isn't on the market yet, so who knows? But I'd be surprised if it wasn't. All the other things you can plugin have had the data streams reverse-engineered by various wiimote libraries.
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Actually, it uses a 3-axis gyroscope. Accelerometers can only measure movement, but the gyros can measure position. This is why you had to use a lot of "waggle" on wii games: the accelerometers couldn't tell the difference between flicking your wrist and an arm movement. The gyros can.
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2008/08/wii-motion-sensor.ars [arstechnica.com]
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I completely disagree, the motion sense on the wiimote is not that hot, it's pretty notchy and sometimes I miss things in Wii sports tennis because I'm setting up for a shot (I like to actually move my arms) and the wiimote decides I've made a swing when I'm clearly making a setup. Older games could DEFINITELY benefit HUGELY from an improvement in accuracy. Too bad they won't be able to because Nintendo didn't make the wiimote just a tiny bit smarter.
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the motion sense on the wiimote is not that hot, it's pretty notchy and sometimes I miss things in Wii sports tennis because I'm setting up for a shot (I like to actually move my arms) and the wiimote decides I've made a swing when I'm clearly making a setup.
Indeed. I've lost count of how many times I'm winding up for a forehand and Wii tennis decides I just tried a backhand.
I know "pro" Wii players will advise to stop making full body movements and just use wrist cheats, but I play Wii tennis because I love the game of tennis, not because I want to get a high score at a video game. I have very high hopes for the MotionPlus to bring the real game indoors when it's snowing or raining outside & I can't hit the real court.
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I was all ready to hate them for not making the new sensor backwards compatible with older games
How should they go about it?
I theorize that the library I've used to program the wiimote with (cwiid) reflects what the wiimote sends over bluetooth. If that is the case:
The games are written to expect a number between 0 and 255 for each of the three accelerometers. How do you backwards-compatibly make the game make use of a wider range of numbers?
You can do fixed-point arithmetic, putting the past-the-dot bits somewhere else in the bluetooth packet and round them off to the nearest eight-byte value. Wha
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Not by that much, really. Just thinking out-loud.
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If they redesigned it from scratch, they still couldn't make old games support it. The Wii does not really have the ability to inform a game about new features that the console might offer. As for why it was easier to not redesign it, they did do a good job making the Wii remote extendable. The Nunchuck port is I2C, and the Wii remote can be directed to talk to many I2C devices connected to that port.
I think if the new device were just accelerometers, as the other poster believe, they would be able to place
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The Nunchuck port is I2C, and the Wii remote can be directed to talk to many I2C devices connected to that port.
The old stillborn Philips CD-I also had I2C ports, allowing you to chain 1P, 2P, etc, controllers together. (Or was that the 3DO?)
No plans to support older titles (Score:5, Informative)
Read: It's a near impossibility to support older titles. It would be nice to head over to http://hackmii.com/2009/02/why-the-wii-will-never-get-any-better/ [hackmii.com] and find out why; specifically:
Re:No plans to support older titles (Score:5, Interesting)
My first reaction was: why would that be unlikely/impossible? If the MotionPlus simply made the 'mote more accurate, then there would be no need for software support on the Wii (via a new IOS-version).
But what the MotionPlus probably does is add a second gyroscope to the Wiimote and send the data directly to the Wii. The Wii would then be able to determine the orientation of the Wiimote more accurately by comparing the data of both gyroscopes. Any other setup would automatically give backwards-compatibility (but it seems like it wouldn't work).
Can't wait for the next step: 3 BT receivers to triangulate the position of the wiimotes. I'd love to get rid of that barely-functional sensorbar setup.
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But what the MotionPlus probably does is add a second gyroscope to the Wiimote and send the data directly to the Wii. The Wii would then be able to determine the orientation of the Wiimote more accurately by comparing the data of both gyroscopes. Any other setup would automatically give backwards-compatibility (but it seems like it wouldn't work).
The original Wii controller does not use gyroscopic sensors. It uses accelerometers, which measure gravity and changes in velocity (not changes in position). The big problem with the Wii controller was that a programmer could (approximately) measure the orientation, but only if the controller was not moving. The MotionPlus is different because the gyroscopic sensors can measure orientation regardless of the velocity or acceleration of the controller. Once the orientation is known, then the accelerometer
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It's uncertain.
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The nunchuck port is just a fancy I2C socket, and the remote can be directed to address any chip attached to it, which is what lets the various drum kits and guitar controllers each be unusable in other games. As for what it adds, any gyroscope would be an upgrade over the plain 3 axis accelerometer that is in the remote. A 3 axis gyro, with the values accessible at the same location as the nunchuck's accelerometers, would be very nice.
amit.lzkpa (Score:1)
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Unlikely, people won't use peripherials that seem too dorky and nothing is dorkier than a whole suit.
Breakthrough? Maybe not! (Score:1, Funny)
While this is amazing technological achievement, it doesn't compare to what I've discovered! Get this: real life tennis! The motion sensing capabilities of real rackets AMAZING! It's like the racket follows my hand EXACTLY.
Re:Breakthrough? Maybe not! (Score:4, Insightful)
And it requires a fairly large court (which you usually don't own and have to rent) and human opponents near you and doesn't come with computer assistance that can make anyone feel like a world class player.
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Seriously though, OP, did you really think you were being original with this? After 100 posts of "stop playing FPSs and pick up a paintball gun, nerds", 1000 posts of "Damn you young whippersnappers and your electronic golf" and 10 000 posts of "you know you can't play real guitar just because you play that game, right?", you'd think the normies would have given up on us by now. Now excuse me as I go back to my d
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Wow, REAL LIFE tennis. I wish I thought of that joke 20 years ago, before kid's PSAs, always the leading innovation in humour, were making it.
(actually in a good mood today)
yes, tennis is fascinating (Score:4, Insightful)
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I feel like I'm persevering through a massive drought until the next zelda game.
Okay, when's the new Wii Zapper coming out (Score:2)
and what will be the pack-in for it?
William
(who want something w/ the weaponry variety of Ghost Squad and the targeting variety and excellent interface of Link's Crossbow Training and the fluid switch between first and third-person of Quantum of Solace)
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Uh, what? Why would you need a new Zapper? The current one [nintendo.com] is adequate (there are numerous other options as well.) Mind you, it won't work with the motionplus, because you need the nunchuk to have full zapper functionality.
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Because the Wii Motion Plus has a pass-through to accept a Nunchuck, but most (all?) of the current Wii Zapper designs won't work w/ a dongle in place (I've got a wireless Kama Nuncuck replacement and had to make a Wii Zapper to use it in pistol mode) --- and IME there're a lot of times when the control of the Wii Zapper isn't quite fine enough to get perfectly centered on target w/o some twitching, so if the Wii Motion Plus would allow more precise targeting a new Wii Zapper would be welcome.
William
a worry (Score:2)
"Every round that begins with a ritual: you have to calibrate the controller by pointing it at your player on the screen. Persons, teams, and nations have their pre-game hakas and so forth, but the benefit here is not psychosomatic. The MotionPlus must know precisely where it is before it can work its magic."
This might mean that using the wii motion plus in a newer game like Red Steel or Zelda would not work. You would need to periodically recalibrate it during the game, and that would defeat immersion.
Why not save this for the Wii2? (Score:2)
If I were Nintendo, I would have saved this for the next-generation console they will have to release in 2-3 years. Everyone knows peripherals don't sell, especially ones that don't add much to a game.
As it is, it makes the already heavy Wiimote downright clunky.
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That's why the ps3 is known for such great uses of motions as Lair, Warhawk?
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The accelerometers that Sony crammed into their traditionally-styled controller a few weeks after the wii-mote was revealed?
And like the other AC said, Lair... Warhawk...
Too easy.
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...you've lost me as a customer and no, I won't be buying a Wii again.
How many were you planning on buying?
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I've purchased one, had it for 7 months and sold it. Played Super Mario Galaxy and Zelda, the system simply did not compete (in my eyes) with the 360 and PS3 it shared a TV cabinet with.
You played just two games on a system before giving up on it?? I also don't see it competing directly with the other systems any more than the Wii competes with the games on my iPhone. The 360 and PS3 have better graphics, Wii has better input. They're not mutually exclusive.
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No, I named the 2 games which appeal to the single player demographic, maybe Okami as well but that has been completed on the PS2 and Madworld isn't getting rave reviews either.
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the system simply did not compete (in my eyes) with the 360 and PS3 it shared a TV cabinet with.
So...you wouldn't have bought another one anyway, so they didn't lose a customer now, did they? Unless you're saying that in the event some must-have game comes out for Wii, you now won't purchase one that you otherwise would have because they were, like, holding out on you.
Bollocks. I read your (poorly argued and spelled) post. You wouldn't have bought another Wii anyway and you're just looking for more reasons to (needlessly, since nobody cares) back up that decision. Now run along and play Halo like
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I'll bite,..
Please point out the spelling mistakes, I try to make my posts at least pass the grammer nazi test and I'd be curious to know where I apparently failed.
Halo is a terribly over-rated game, please don't associate my posts with it again.
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"lazyness" should be "laziness"
"implimented" should be "implemented"
"seggregate" should be "segregate"
Halo is a terribly over-rated game, please don't associate my posts with it again.
Fair enough. Please don't make uninformed statements about the habits of traditional gamers.
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Secondly, the Wii motion plus is rumoured to be a 20$ item or included with several upcoming Wii motion plus games, so how can it go from being 'too expensive' only a few years ago to being a 'throwaway item' now?
In the same way that a DVD burner can go from $150 to $20 in a few years time, or RAM that cost you $80 a couple of years ago is now $20. Technology becomes cheaper over time.
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I realise the Wii is still highly defended on slashdot, since we like to defy the norm here but having been an owner of a 360, PS3 and a Wii in the past 12 months, I can assure you that if you're a 'traditional' gamer rather than a party or social gamer, that little white box is a nasty, overhyped little fad and I look forward to it going where it belongs and what it's being sold as.
the system simply did not compete (in my eyes) with the 360 and PS3 it shared a TV cabinet with.
Maybe you don't like it, but it's hardly as black and white as you try to make it sound. A lot of people enjoy it, and not just grandma. I can definitely be included in the 'traditional gamer' category and my Wii gets plenty of use. There's more of a market than you give it credit for.
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Maybe so but I play single player games for a great storyline, I play my PC and PS3 extensively.
The wii caters for the casual, party casual crowd with very very few games for a regular single player gamer (Mario and Zelda aside)
The controller is downright infuriatingly inaccurate and I honestly present to you, just how many bloody Wii games can be clocked, simply by putting the controller in the dryer on a spin cycle? (seriously!)
There's little to no element of skill in using it and that translates to a lac
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Please don't give me 'the tech wasn't available' or 'the tech was too expensive at the time'
Okay I won't tell you the uncomfortable truth that you don't want to accept. Unless that sentence counts.
Firstly, Nintendo was making a profit on the Wii hardware from the get go! They should've put it in even if it reduced that margin, other manufacturers make a loss out of the gate.
Up until this generation, no they didn't. Microsoft lost money on the XBOX, because they believed the urban legend that all console m
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Should we sell x minus y fully functional Wiis, or x fairly functional Wiis and get our foot in the door of more households?
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How is 20$ individually, 10$ in a bundle (the bundled version costs a bit more than the unbundled one) a throwaway item?
How is 20$ NOT a throwaway item when a game itself is 50 or 60$ US?
How is 20$ compared to a 250$ US RRP for the product such a huge increase that it simply wasn't an option at the time, it's only 8% more, they make up money on the games anyhow.
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they make up money on the games anyhow.
So you claim above that nobody but grandma and little Billy play it, but now you claim they're making money on games. Which is it?
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Why I'm replying to an AC, I don't entirely know, your post is mostly invalidated around here without a username as it is in most peoples eyes.
How is it that you can ask me to find the value of each individual component when we know the SUM of the addon itself is 20$ ? That answers all the relevant information required.
Furthermore, you take the oppourtunity to bash the Xbox 360 on a completely unrelated topic (which I don't deny, if you were smart enough to see my slashdot history, you'll see I've been a lo
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Are you taking the piss here or something?
You link to 'gyroscope prices' this is like linking me to newegg.com/blurayreaders and insisting that's what it costs to put the bluray in the PS3.
This is a mass purchased product, it's not sold as a toy like the ones you've linked
(the individual gyroscopes I'm referring to) and again the motion plus is TWENTY DOLLARS
and gyroscopes have been around for years, I mean really, we KNOW it's 20$ - what, was the tech inside the motion plus 25$ before? 250$? is the conte
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I doubt very seriously that the M+ is going to be worth it. If many games even take advantage of it, most of them will also certainly be designed to function well enough without it (or else the developer is cutting out a large portion of their market.)
But that said, you have to wonder how long the Wii would have been delayed had they chosen to include these capabilities from the start. Even if it only added $20 to the system, it could have added months of development and testing. Timing on the release of
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Maybe you should look it up, then, because that's exactly what it means.
http://dictionary.reference.com/dic?q=parity&search=search [reference.com]
2. equivalence; correspondence; similarity; analogy.
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bring greater parity between a user's movements and the animations
You keep using that word... I do not think it means what you think it means.
It comes from the french word pareil [typepad.com], which means "same".
The whole idea of a parity bit is to make sure the data is the same.
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Look at the parity operations in more detail. The only reason parity bits are even or odd is that we are limited to 2 values - if bits could hold 4 different states, parity operations would still work, but they would result in a parity "bit" in 1 of 4 states, not just even or odd.
Even better - look up the old serial communications protocols, with parity set at even, odd, mark, space, or none. As the wiki [wikipedia.org] points out, one-bit parity checks are only a special case of a crc check, wiich can use from 1 to an
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Some things to note are
GlovePIE which is the software that allows you to configure the wiimote's functions was written but a leftwing nut there isn't any other way to describe him. If you're in the Military or from Israel you can't use it, see the EULA for more.
There is also another helper application called PPjoy and it doesn't work in vista64 so you're out of luck there. PPjoy controls the thumbsticks.
In my case I've