@SThompson Simulating thousands of characters at once is exactly the sort of thing that's easy to use multiple cores for. I'm sure they will support plenty of cores.
That said, because the game presumably has to run on slower processors, I would assume the simulation will actually be simple enough that it won't take up that high a proportion of processing time. Unless it has some option where the number of Sims in your city scales with your CPU power? Or the number who are 'accurately' simulated, or something like that.
I'm not that impressed with tens of thousands btw. This isn't SimSmallTown! It should have hundreds of thousands or millions of individually simulated people :) Maybe next processor generation...
@Angel Mass Yes the voice acting in this trailer is crap. (Placeholder voice work? Maybe? Am I being too optimistic?)
On the other hand, it looks pretty low-rent, so maybe it didn't have top-notch voice talent in Japan either.
I haven't heard anything about the game at all. There must be people here who played it in Japan... Did it come out on both platforms there, too? For obvious reasons I don't think this is going to be a shining example of the 3DS's strengths (*cough* straight port), but aside from that and the terrible voices, is it any good?
@Nintendo Tim E3 is probably also why Ubisoft aren't allowed to show any Wii U features/footage in their trailer...
Keeping as much as they can under wraps until a single main release at E3 makes sense to me. Otherwise the E3 thing will be like, oh yeah knew that, knew that; so the only thing we didn't know turns out to be a Street Fighter x Tekken port or something.
@(Unverified) There are no class-action lawsuits in the UK.
As for the general story, frankly, did anybody reading this site still have money banked with Game (in the form of preorders or whatever)? I can believe that 'regular customers' did (and it sucks for them, obviously), but if you read Joystiq, you should've known this was coming for months.
The other part of this lesson is - wtf was anybody paying for preorders? You preorder something from Amazon, you actually get it, plus they don't charge you until it ships. With paid preorders it's like, you're paying for the privilege to promise to pay them money? How does that even work? Never understood why anyone would do that.
Also gift cards - a bit more understandable, but even when the company doesn't go bust, these tend to expire after a year or two if you don't get around to using them. Terrible idea.
@Faceless Troll Yeah, then we just add 250ms of lag to OnLive's servers... :)
Seriously, I agree faster touchscreens would be nice - although that won't help the major problem with touchscreen controls, being that they're usually shoehorned onto games or genres that weren't designed for them. But when a game actually has been designed purely for touchscreen use, having that touchscreen more responsive will be nice.
@OnToGloryReturns Third party content sold great on DS and (at least in Japan, figures elsewhere are harder to find... as are most of the games) is selling great on 3DS.
It sells less well on Wii than on PS3 and 360, but the difference is not near as much as you'd imagine (some time ago I counted the million-selling third party titles on each platform, I think Wii had around 25% fewer or something like that).
So anyway - third-party content has done relatively poorly on GameCube (which was a relatively unpopular system) and on Wii (where it was impossible to port games from the other two platforms). With Wii U, it should become easy to port games, so the question is whether it turns into another GameCube (easy to port but nobody bothers because it's not a very popular system) or whether it is successful enough to gather a big third-party audience.
@Tomatoboxer How I hold my system while playing Elite Beat Agents:
On a table.
:)
I think that's probably why they put a stand in for this. And you know, it's cool, I can play it on a table...
I wasn't going to get this because I really dislike touchscreen aiming controls (no problem with touchscreen controls overall like the Zelda games or whatever, just using it as a poor alternative for a second analogue is what I don't like). It's clear that the controls are terrible, but the reviews are surprisingly positive despite that... maybe I'll consider it after all.
Sega canceling games, cutting jobs in US and Europe to restructure [update: SOA statement]
Mar 30th 2012 4:46PM (Joystiq)Nice.
The life of a Sim in SimCity
Mar 28th 2012 5:22PM (Joystiq)Simulating thousands of characters at once is exactly the sort of thing that's easy to use multiple cores for. I'm sure they will support plenty of cores.
That said, because the game presumably has to run on slower processors, I would assume the simulation will actually be simple enough that it won't take up that high a proportion of processing time. Unless it has some option where the number of Sims in your city scales with your CPU power? Or the number who are 'accurately' simulated, or something like that.
I'm not that impressed with tens of thousands btw. This isn't SimSmallTown! It should have hundreds of thousands or millions of individually simulated people :) Maybe next processor generation...
Unchained Blades going to 3DS and PSP as a digital release
Mar 28th 2012 5:15PM (Joystiq)Yes the voice acting in this trailer is crap. (Placeholder voice work? Maybe? Am I being too optimistic?)
On the other hand, it looks pretty low-rent, so maybe it didn't have top-notch voice talent in Japan either.
I haven't heard anything about the game at all. There must be people here who played it in Japan... Did it come out on both platforms there, too? For obvious reasons I don't think this is going to be a shining example of the 3DS's strengths (*cough* straight port), but aside from that and the terrible voices, is it any good?
Assassin's Creed 3 for Wii U puts the Animus, weapons in your hands
Mar 27th 2012 3:50PM (Joystiq)E3 is probably also why Ubisoft aren't allowed to show any Wii U features/footage in their trailer...
Keeping as much as they can under wraps until a single main release at E3 makes sense to me. Otherwise the E3 thing will be like, oh yeah knew that, knew that; so the only thing we didn't know turns out to be a Street Fighter x Tekken port or something.
Assassin's Creed 3 for Wii U puts the Animus, weapons in your hands
Mar 27th 2012 3:46PM (Joystiq)Oh come on, be nice, the kid didn't act like an arsehole like so many do.
I +1d him, not because it really deserves a +, but it didn't deserve that many minuses just for being spelled wrong.
277 GAME stores shuttered, 40% of workforce let go, gift cards suspended
Mar 27th 2012 3:41PM (Joystiq)There are no class-action lawsuits in the UK.
As for the general story, frankly, did anybody reading this site still have money banked with Game (in the form of preorders or whatever)? I can believe that 'regular customers' did (and it sucks for them, obviously), but if you read Joystiq, you should've known this was coming for months.
The other part of this lesson is - wtf was anybody paying for preorders? You preorder something from Amazon, you actually get it, plus they don't charge you until it ships. With paid preorders it's like, you're paying for the privilege to promise to pay them money? How does that even work? Never understood why anyone would do that.
Also gift cards - a bit more understandable, but even when the company doesn't go bust, these tend to expire after a year or two if you don't get around to using them. Terrible idea.
Hands-on with LA Noire on a tablet with OnLive
Mar 24th 2012 6:23PM (Joystiq)Yeah, then we just add 250ms of lag to OnLive's servers... :)
Seriously, I agree faster touchscreens would be nice - although that won't help the major problem with touchscreen controls, being that they're usually shoehorned onto games or genres that weren't designed for them. But when a game actually has been designed purely for touchscreen use, having that touchscreen more responsive will be nice.
Darksiders 2 will be a 'day one' Wii U launch title
Mar 23rd 2012 8:03PM (Joystiq)Third party content sold great on DS and (at least in Japan, figures elsewhere are harder to find... as are most of the games) is selling great on 3DS.
It sells less well on Wii than on PS3 and 360, but the difference is not near as much as you'd imagine (some time ago I counted the million-selling third party titles on each platform, I think Wii had around 25% fewer or something like that).
So anyway - third-party content has done relatively poorly on GameCube (which was a relatively unpopular system) and on Wii (where it was impossible to port games from the other two platforms). With Wii U, it should become easy to port games, so the question is whether it turns into another GameCube (easy to port but nobody bothers because it's not a very popular system) or whether it is successful enough to gather a big third-party audience.
Kid Icarus Uprising review: Uplifting
Mar 23rd 2012 6:26PM (Joystiq)How I hold my system while playing Elite Beat Agents:
On a table.
:)
I think that's probably why they put a stand in for this. And you know, it's cool, I can play it on a table...
I wasn't going to get this because I really dislike touchscreen aiming controls (no problem with touchscreen controls overall like the Zelda games or whatever, just using it as a poor alternative for a second analogue is what I don't like). It's clear that the controls are terrible, but the reviews are surprisingly positive despite that... maybe I'll consider it after all.
How the power of 700 goes into one Epic Mickey 2
Mar 23rd 2012 6:12PM (Joystiq)It sounds like that, yes. This isn't quite the only game that happens with (Zumba Fitness?) but it's got to be pretty rare...