Reggie spills the beans: Nintendo's next-gen tactics + DS nip-tuck

Hmmm... Also, if they decide to take away the GBA slot, you won't be able to unlock hidden content, as with Advance Wars: DS.

#49 - Nick.

"It seems Nintendo hasn't learnt all their lessons" is in context of not supporting HD-video. Which is widely seen as a bad move by gaming press and our commentors.

"A less podgy, slimline" DS might be in order! The DS is hardly the most visibly appealing portable device!

These are my (and other's) opinions. This is a blog, we say what we think.

The final quote about senior officials is just that, a quote.

Anyway, thanks for your feedback!

I used to think Resident Evil 4 on the Gamecube had the best graphics in a game...until I plugged my 'Cube into my new 50" DLP Samsung TV. Then I realized they weren't as I thought. There isn't much anti-aliasing so everything looks pixelated. However, I also realized that Metroid Prime 1+2 have phenominal graphics once you go to progressive scan. Hats off to Retro Studios.

I think the 'Cube was almost perfectly matched for a 640x480 progressive scan display. Only a few games game it slow-down issues (Madden 2005 comes to mind) when too many objects were on-screen. Revolution's cpu is poised to be about 10 times more powerful than the Gekko in the GC now and the video chip should be atleast 5 times more powerful so with only 3 times the resolution (720p) to fill, Revolution should have the power to make games on par with the other systems.

I'm hoping 720p is an 'option' on games just like progressive scan is now. Most of the 'Cube games I own support progressive scan. On Revolution, even if they just do a stretch with hardward anti-aliasing and dithering, they will look good in 720p. Not as good if the games was designed for 720p natively but still an improvement. Just look at the old console emulators on today's PC's. The graphics look better because the hardware is doing "smart" stretching and smoothing and blending.

Hopefully Gamecube games on Revolution will also have some anti-aliasing and dithering turned on through the emulation. Also, the slowdown on some FPS games and others like Madden will hopefully disappear as well.

Since a wired version of the Revolution controller was demoed at the TGS on a Gamecube...it seems that Revolution is really just Gamecube 1.5...

Honestly though, that new controller is going to be the shiznit. I just hope hi-def is an option I can choose to use. Heck, release 2 versions of Revolution, one with hi-def output for $50 more and one without. Guess which one I'll buy?

Honestly, you haven't played Madden on the GC until you've gone progressuve scan and wide screen. Yes that and some games support the widescreen ratio. Now you can see sideline to sideline. There are alot more progressive scan enabled games than people think. One I own didn't list it on the box but sure enough I hit 'B' when it booted and game me the option. What alot of those games don't take advantage of is the wide-screen ratio. It does make racing and FPS and football games better.

Another thing to remember is that Nintendo's 1st party games usually take full advantage of the hardware. All Nintendo made games support progressive scan. Hopefully since the hardware will be capable of progressive scan that they will also push to hi-def capable games.

I hope the term 'not supporting HD' really means 'not requiring HD' but somehow I think it's just wishful thinking.

Interestingly enough, the last set of Twilight Pricess screens Nintendo released were in much higher resolution than 640x480...nibble on that.

What I see is that all of you are complaining about "no-high definition" for NR. But why don't
you use your imagination; playing 5m away from a
TV is getting old; my point here is that one day
in the internet I saw our REVOLUTION with a
BUILDED-IN "PROJECTOR" (I am not sure if it's a trick for making fun of us).

Let's say BYE to the TV and the"eyeball cancer"
(don't take it serious about the cancer, it was
just a joke).

Nice points Lou D.

I was also hoping that N's non-HD stance was more along the lines of not requiring HD, rather than not supporting it at all. This simply makes a lot more sense, although I can't imagine why a game company would decide not to bother with a progressive scan mode in this day and age.

The non-HD thing does bother me a little, but not as much as Sony's decision not to bother with a unified online service.

"Sean - 2009 is the deadline."

Yes it is. And its also the 6th deadline they have come up with.

Each previous deadline has been pushed back and pushed back because of difficulty pushing customers to DTV/HDTV. Its just not happening the way the FCC and electronics manufacturers want it to. In the most recent iteration of the deadline they left open the option to push it back again and they most likely will as they have in the past.

Also, just to clarify. The "deadline" really has nothing to do with HD. Only that transmissions must be in "Digital" format which could still be in 480P as apposed to HD. So even after the deadline, lots of broadcasters will still likely be broadcastingin 4:3 rather than widescreen and in 480P rather than 720P or 1080x.

Having said that, of course I wish Nintendo would support HD as well but in all likelihood, I wouldn't use it for the first couple of years.

I also want them to support it so anti-nintendo assholes can't use it as an excuse to bash on the Rev. which is exactly what will happen. I like nintendo but they leave themselves open to negative marketing by the competition and it hurts their sales.

Whats with everyone its only HD it not the end of the world I cant afford a HDTV and thats what nintendo trying to do to make it a console so everyone can afford aswell as the richer people.

They actually gave a reason for the no HD: load times. In my book, that knocks it up from 'completely idiotic' to 'stupid, but consistent'.

I don't think i'm getting a new tv in the next err.. ten years?

It's easy to bash Nintendo for not including HDTV support, but Slashdot has just reported that the Xbox 360 is not fast enough to support good graphics, HDTV support and 60 FPS all at once. You can choose two of them, take your pick. Project Gotham Racing won't support full HDTV resolution (they'll upsample the smaller picture to HDTV, essentially cheating when claiming they support HDTV), *and* it'll run at 30 FPS!

Frankly, the time doesn't seem ripe for consoles to support HDTV. It increases loading time, decreases FPS and increases development cost. I'd rather have a good-looking, fast-loading, 60-FPS-running car racer than one that supports HDTV no matter what the costs.

wow, LKM, just almost exactly wut i was going to say lol. its true that processing for HDTV takes significantly more power. and are/were we happy with the games that we have now that dont support hdtv? i think so... this isnt such a big factor; games can be fun w/o hdtv. until gpu's can get better at producing hdtv ouptut at a much faster wait, id say we suck it up and go with the faster alternative.

if you add up all the time you've wasted on load times (excluding 1st party nintendo games which dont ahve load times; especially for xbox, ps2 users [including me]) wut would it equal? that could be a BIG number.....