- Created By James
The Hybrid Rainbow #3: Gunbuster
Man, I hope I don't have to start all these posts with apologies for not posting for so long ... but I'll do my best to get these out every one to two weeks from here on out. ...3D done right?
You might have read our latest News Nugget about the next handheld Nintendo platform, the tentatively-named Nintendo 3DS (I do want to clarify that, according to Nintendo, players won't need special glasses - I think that was a typo 
).
At the moment there's a great deal of speculation about this system and not a great deal is known. The information below comes from an attendee who was digging for information at the Game Developers' Conference:
- The system has two screens, just like the DS, but they are bigger and higher resolution. I’m sure most of you could have guessed that, but the interesting part is that the gap between the two screens is negligible. Developers will be able to use them as one giant screen. At the very least, this will allow for some awesome cutscenes. It also has some potentially cool gameplay potential, with developers shifting the action from dual screen to single screen depending on the situation.
- The next Nintendo handheld has an accelerometer. I blame the iPhone for this. Everything has to have an accelerometer now. Yesterday I bought a sandwich at the Moscone Center and it had an accelerometer in it.
- The dev kit is similar in power to the GameCube. Developers that worked on GameCube or Wii games will find it easy to create with. I found this information unusual. The DS successor is rumored to use an Nvidia Tegra chip, while the GameCube and Wii have PowerPC CPUs and ATI GPUs. The people familiar with the dev kit made it sound like there wasn’t much of a learning curve on the new system. I have to admit that I’m not familiar enough with Tegra, but I imagined developing for a system-on-a-chip platform to be different enough from developing for a CPU/GPU system. It could be ignorance on my part or maybe the DS2 uses something other than Tegra.
- The developers I spoke with will be finished with their games before the end of the year. The Nintendo DS is still going strong and the company could delay the next handheld’s release if it wanted to, but it looks like an E3 2010 announcement and a late 2010 release.
I think these comments are nothing too revolutionary. I have my doubts about the hardware performance capability, except that it's possible the system could share an API with GameCube and Wii.
The biggest point here is probably going to be the 3D display, although I imagine Nintendo have other as yet unannounced elements in the pipeline for this system.
Apparently the 3DS will be backwards-compatible with previous DS games, which is also pretty good. I just wonder if existing owners will want to upgrade to this system. It does seem though that, unlike the DSi, the 3DS is basically like a "DS2" - that is, it's a true successor to the DS rather than simply being a new form factor.
I never bought the DSi, mainly because I wasn't very interested in its extra features, but also because I have a DS Lite - the DSi didn't really offer me anything extra that was worth the cost.
But I'm pretty interested in the 3DS. What about you guys?
Initial Final Fantasy XIII Impressions
I'm only maybe four hours into Final Fantasy XIII, but I thought I'd give some initial quick impressions (this may or may not be of use if anyone is still thinking about whether or not to purchase this).
- One of the biggest criticisms has been about the battle system. The complaint goes something like "You can get through the entire game just by constantly tapping X". This is somewhat true in the first two hours or so, because the game progressively introduces you to new battle mechanics. So far I'm enjoying the battle system. Difficultly ramps up gradually as new elements are introduced. It's very fast-paced and relies heavily on the Paradigm system. So far, I'm liking it.
- It's early, but the story is so-so. It has a political element, but so far isn't as interesting as FFXII. They've thrown in a few convoluted elements that, to me, don't seem to work very well. But my mind might change as I progress.
- The characters are great and are generally quite distinctive. I actually like Lightning a lot - she reminds me of Cloud, except that her angst is, in my view, far more understandable. I pretty much loathe Vanille, the weird and almost offensive Japanese schoolgirl stereotype with the Australian accent. At some points I think she almost single-handedly ruins the atmosphere.
- Speaking of the above, voice acting is generally superb. Honestly, it's far better than most of the other voice-acted FF titles and it's marginally better than XII. I'm actually really pleased with the quality in this area (except for, again, Vanille - but this is more a criticism of her character than the acting quality).
- Another common criticism seems to be about linearity. There are no overworld maps or wide open exploration areas in XIII (that I've come across anyway), but this is largely the same as Final Fantasy X. The only major difference seems to be that there's an absence of towns or "hubs". In past games these were used to progress the story and to buy/sell stuff, upgrade stuff, etc... these processes are now handled by save stations, negating the physical need for a "town". Do I miss exploring towns? Not so far, because the game's pace is such that you are never really left with the need to explore - the game moves you forward briskly and through a multitude of different settings.
- The art design is incredible and the in-game graphics are breathtaking.
- The musical score is also, so far, incredibly solid.
I may post a full review of this once I'm further in, given that my current feelings are likely to change quite a bit (and I hope some of them do, especially the negative impressions).
Who else owns FFXIII? I'd love to know what you think about this game - maybe post your thoughts in the comments box. I'm assuming that this will be a big title for our community, given the number of Final Fantasy fans we have around. Maybe if you have written a review on your World, you can link to it in the comments section - I'll then write up a post on here with links to those reviews.
