Page 3 • This exclusive 3DS pre-launch event • Gaming • DS • Eurogamer.net

MaxHughes 4 Feb 2011 20:00:02 455 posts
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convercide wrote:Zelda looked great, they've improved some of the textures and the 3D gives it a breath of fresh air. I'd be willing to play through it again in 3D.

Which Zelda is it? (forgive my retardness ^_^) OoT?

Anthony_UK 4 Feb 2011 20:16:40 3,094 posts
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convercide wrote:
Well I went to Birmingham today. The general impressions:

The 3D is pretty good, although prolonged use of it may strain your eyes. Mine felt funny after 45mins or so on the various demo 3DS's.

The submarine game is pretty good, if a tad gimmicky. There's only so much you can do with that premise I suppose.

The racing game (can't remember what it was called) is utter turd. Terrible pop-in and the 3D effect juddered a couple of times when I played and the car seemed to glitch a bit too.

Super Street Fighter 4 looked amazing, however my main concern was in the control. I play a fair bit of the 360 version and pulling off some of the moves using either the D-Pad or stick seemed trickier than normal, and yes as EG stated if you move the 3DS too much the illusion is shattered.

Zelda looked great, they've improved some of the textures and the 3D gives it a breath of fresh air. I'd be willing to play through it again in 3D.

Augmented Reality is pretty weird, if gimmicky again. The 3DS camera scans a card and then creates a game from the card. You'd look a tit attempting to play this outdoors.

Nintendogs and Cats was pretty good, if just Nintendogs with... ...well... ...cats. The graphics were pretty impressive and definitely a huge step up from the DS/DSi.

Oh and guys, get ready for Resi 4 and Street Fighter live action. Yes, it's as bad as it sounds.

Also, the music used in the advert sounds like Boys Don't Cry by the Cure but altered just enough to void copyright infringement.

I'm off to Manchester tomorrow, how long did you actually get to play with it?

neilka 4 Feb 2011 20:22:46 24,025 posts
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Anthony_UK wrote:
I'm off to Manchester tomorrow, how long did you actually get to play with it?

I'm going to guess "45mins or so"

convercide 4 Feb 2011 20:42:26 6,531 posts
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I got about and hour and a half. There's basically 50/60 3DS consoles in a room and you walk around sampling the games.

convercide 4 Feb 2011 20:42:51 6,531 posts
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MaxHughes wrote:

convercide wrote:Zelda looked great, they've improved some of the textures and the 3D gives it a breath of fresh air. I'd be willing to play through it again in 3D.

Which Zelda is it? (forgive my retardness ^_^) OoT?

Oh and yeah, it's OoT.

Deleted user 5 February 2011 10:23:03

Currently stood in the que in rainy Manchester. This best be worth it.

m0dm0use 5 Feb 2011 11:10:55 17 posts
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Any news on how the London event is organized? How many 3DS and how long can or did you stay for?

kdsh7 5 Feb 2011 11:47:50 1,273 posts
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modmouse, well worth going, although I feel we were ushered through everything quite quickly and I didn't get to see SFIV or zelda(gutted)

m0dm0use 5 Feb 2011 14:34:13 17 posts
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So they give you very short time to play and you may not get to play everything on show? I want to use the Mii tool auto make me a mii. Do they have those cards for augmented reality features?

Ignatius_Cheese Moderator 5 Feb 2011 14:44:17 11,104 posts
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Anyone been to the London event already and got feedback on the queuing to get in? Any suggestion of how long before your time slot to arrive?

reanimation265 5 Feb 2011 14:58:23 2 posts
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Yeah they have augmented reality just make sure no one steals the card I was trying it when a lad came up and took the card to show some mates

kdsh7 5 Feb 2011 16:52:02 1,273 posts
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ok, need to clarify because my last post was written in a rush in Nandos.

It took about 18mins to get in after they'd checked everybody's details.

Nintendo have made an effort with this event, some people may cringe at the Streetfighter playfight (which I actually thought was well choreographed) and the Resident Evil corridor of doom, but they didn't take up that much time and serve as a nice way of lightening the mood before what is just us sitting in front of a booth. The girls were very hospitable as well, and did their best to direct people round.

The first room was darkened and there were a lot of 3DSes around set up in a little cubicles which were clever because it meant that people had to approach the 3DSes had on. Each section of the room has a different game running, but identifying which game was playing where was a little tricky in the popular sections because you couldn't see the screens. But it was never a problem finding a 3DS to play. As i mentioned I was really disappointed I never got the chance to try SFIV or Zelda, and I was with a mate who got to try SFIV but didn't see Zelda either, so I'm not sure whether Zelda was actually in London.

The next room was an open it room where people could try some of the smaller releases like Raving Rabbids, Nintendogs, and watch rolling demos of Mario Kart, Metal Gear, Sky 3D videos, and play with the the 3D cameras and Mii generation tools.

I was ushered out of there around 11:17, so the whole experience was about an hour.

As for my opinions on the 3DS - it's a really nice piece of kit. The 3D is just an effect though, it doesn't add anything to the gameplay, but it's a fantastic effect to have. It is like magic seeing it for the first time, you wander up to it, and without any adjustment, you see 3D imagery popping out/into the screen. I do wonder whether people will get bored of it though, for example, if you're on the train, and you're tired, will you just switch to 2D mode to relax your arms from holding it in the correct position and reduce the strain on your eyes? Switching the games into 2D mode via the slider does show that in terms of graphical grunt the machine appears to be underpowered, but you do forget all of that in 3D.

Pro Evo could be a system seller, it looks bloody fantastic. Shame that the bottom screen wasn't used at all in the demo though.

ibenam 5 Feb 2011 17:38:47 3,508 posts
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Just been to the Manchester event: my thoughts are

No queuing involved for me, i though the streetfighter playfight was cringeworthy but also strangely great!

I got a picture taken with "Ken" & "Ryu"!

On the actual 3DS my eyes couldnt adjust to the 3d at all apart from maybe Streetfighter.

Although some of the other "3D" objects there were stunning ;-)

!

Overall i was slightly underwhelmed - as long as the NGP has a decent price point im going for that!

mal 5 Feb 2011 19:11:20 29,326 posts
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And just back from London here.

The event was pretty well done, apart from the girl who kept talking about our 'mys'

The 3DS hardware seems pretty solid with the polished surface quite nice in your hands. All the buttons apart from the d-pad fall easily to hand. I loved the analogue nubbin though - for me it feels half way between a d-pad and an arcade stick, except it does analogue as well. I found it easier to pull off shorykens on it than on a small d-pad like the NDS has. Graphically it looked a little better than the PSP, but not amazing. It's maybe real PS2 quality, which isn't bad in such a compact handheld.

The screen's fine. Outside of the 3d camera (which works, but it needs better lighting than we had there) it's purely a gimmick in all the games I played, but I found that when I first picked the unit up, I naturally held it at the right distance to see the effect. In practice there are multiple OK zones as you move in and out - there were two I could comfortably use, my natural position and one closer. It was tricker to not hold the screen at an angle though, I found, but I guess that's something we'll learn.

It switched between 2d and 3d with a slight blip, but it was quite possible to change it mid-game. I was slightly surprised that the '3d' lamp didn't go out in 2d mode, but instead it works to tell you that 3d is available, which thinking about it is more useful.

I think we will get reports of it causing people headaches. Initially I found it quite intimidating, having to control the d-pad and the screen and the buttons and hold the unit in the right place(s), but then that may have something to do with the game I played first.

First I went for Kid Icarus, and I'm fairly impressed. It controls well, you've seen how it looks from the videos (the only playable levels were the two you can see on t'internet). I've no idea how I beat the end of first level boss, since I was spending more time concentrating on how to hold the unit that I was actually focusing on what I was doing, but button mashing was enough for the level 1 boss.

Next I went for Dead or Alive Dimensions. It plays fine with the analogue nub, and the way the bottom screen shows you the combos as you execute them is an interesting way to train in-game (I believe you can also tap them to do them, but I found that awkward in the heat of battle). Looks quite pretty, but not DoA2U levels pretty. Some minor 3d clipping issues where the overlay text overlaid something that was supposed to be closer than the overlay I think, although I only saw that once so I may have imagined it. The jump from 30fps to 60fps when you switch off 3d is really noticeable, although I was still able to beat the game in 3d (I think it was configured to a really easy difficulty).

Next I played a bit of RE - not the proper one, the port of that arena type one. Probably the most technically proficient game there. Controlled okay (though every game there used completely different controls, annoyingly) and might be fun, but it's not my sort of game.

Next, Street Fighter. I didn't notice the static backgrounds. As I've mentioned above, I love the analogue nubbin for this game. I've gone from meh to likely purchase on this one.

Next, the AR card demo, which was pretty cool. It invoked a shooting game which was quite fun and it told you your completion time at the end which would give it some replay value. The 3d model tracked your movements very well - the only problem being the join between model and camera was a bit noticeable due to the camera struggling in the light.

Then the Rabbids game which was a bit pap. The only levels they had were a couple of very average 2d platformer levels (except they were in 3d!). If it's only got platformer levels I'd say guaranteed turkey. Big surprise, huh.

Then Monkeyball. I was quite surprised you could leave the 3d on in tilt mode, which was playable, but more of a faff than it needed to be. It's the first Monkeyball game I've played on a device with tilt, and it was okay but not as precise as stick controls. Luckily you can choose that control method instead of tilt on the 3ds. I only tried the maze mode, but all the other modes seem to be present and correct.

After all that I was done, and I headed home. I'm glad I went even though I'd forgotten how much of a faff the venue was to find. I'm no closer to putting in a preorder, but it's a worthy successor to the DS line, even if it's not earth shatteringly new.

ielisdave 5 Feb 2011 19:33:59 1 posts
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For those asking you can show up anytime during the previous half hour slot and just present your ticket to the people at the door. They'll give you a wrist band and tell you to wait until they call you. Then your magical journey will begin ;-D

Phattso 5 Feb 2011 20:07:04 27,426 posts
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Is Pilotwings playable at all? It's all I care about and might not bother going if it's not on show.

ibenam 5 Feb 2011 20:15:45 3,508 posts
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Pilotwings was on show at Manchester

Here i the ones i remember being on show:

Zelda OOT
Resi
Pilotwings
PES
Ridge Racer
Lego Star Wars
DOA

Phattso 5 Feb 2011 20:17:41 27,426 posts
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Nice one, cheers!

Pirotic Moderator 5 Feb 2011 20:28:44 20,644 posts
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None of the games really grabs me, I expected to be loving Pilotwings but for some idiotic reason they've decided to use the 3D to put the playable character infront of the screen which is pretty hard on the eyes. IMO 3D should only be used to add depth to a scene rather than trying to make something pop-out, was a blurry mess.

Then again these things are pretty subjective right? so maybe I just have weak eyes or something.

/dangles weights from his eye-lids in preparation for the release date.

mal 5 Feb 2011 20:43:23 29,326 posts
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Having anything in front of or behind the actual screen is going to be harder to focus on, but different people have different experiences. I find the images tend to pop into 3d automatically if I've got the screen in the right place.

I didn't see OoT, Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiidge Racer or Lego SW at London, though there were a lot of pods so I may have missed some.

neilka 5 Feb 2011 21:10:19 24,025 posts
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London had Lego Star Wars III in the middle of the room, Zelda was first on the right as you walked in but was continuously occupied by FAIRY LOVING BASTARDS

mal 5 Feb 2011 21:43:35 29,326 posts
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Ah, by the time I'd leisurely ambled into the room, only the far end units were free, and luckily the first one I picked was Kid Icarus. Shame that game has nintendo production values, not Sega. If it was the latter I'd be all over it big time.

ibenam 5 Feb 2011 22:27:21 3,508 posts
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oh and btw anyone who was at manchester today at the 4 pm showing - jesus take a shower and put some decent clothes on!

Deleted user 5 February 2011 22:39:58

thanks to coverside and mel for their comprehensive reviews of the event and the 3ds as sadly I couldn't make it and was hoping that more folks on here would be doing more of the same (maybe tomorrow) - I guess i'll just have to pre-order and make my mind up when I first give it a go. Hope Sony release a price for NGP before this is released though, if it's competitive it could really shift the tides for me.

mal 6 Feb 2011 01:49:06 29,326 posts
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Weird that you had problems with the AR demo. I lost sight of the card once during the game and it bleeped at me but had it back within a couple of seconds. I won't claim it's going to revolutionise gaming, especially if all the puzzles are as repeatable as this one was, but the fact it gives you a completion time at the end does make it something of a game. Better than Wii Sports boxing then.

Good point about the Resi load times. What's that all about on a cartridge based system?

Agreed about the text in Kid Icarus - I didn't read any of that because it was always out of focus with whatever I was looking at. But then, it was the first game I played. Given I was able to play Monkeyball in tilt mode with 3d towards the end (although I wouldn't recommend it) there it seems practice does help your eyes get used to the 3d effect used. I've seen 3d barrier screens like this a couple of times before, but not for this long, and not where you're busy playing a game at the same time as watching the screen.

xandaca 6 Feb 2011 04:36:56 433 posts
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I was pretty unimpressed with the 3DS overall, although I don't like 3D in cinemas either as the effect just feels intrusive and unneccessary. I had hoped it might have more of a tangible effect in the gaming medium, but no such luck. I first tried it on Killzone at last year's Eurogamer Expo and loathed it (the 3D made it look like the gun had been surgically attached to the bottom of the screen, whereas in 2D the innate artificiality of the FPS gun is subdued) and as much as I like Nintendo and am always willing to be proven wrong with new tech, the advantage of losing the glasses is offset by the fact that moving the handheld too much causes the image to blur and splinter. It's worse in some games than in others - the AR games weren't too bad on that front, perhaps receiving extra care because they require so much movement - but Pro Evo, the game where the 3D effect was most impressive when it worked, was painful to look at if the angle was even slightly off.

So my assessment? If you like 3D in the cinema, you'll probably like it on the 3DS. Just make sure you have steady hands. I should say that despite my initial worries, I don't see the movement blur being such a big issue on trains or buses now - the blur isn't too bad going up and down, as will be the case on most transport, but at its worst going side to side. It'll be annoying for sure, but not devastating.

One more thing: for all the people praising Kid Icarus here, did I miss something with the controls? It seemed to me that on the flying section (the only one I got to play before being escorted to the less impressive second room), the only option was to move Kid with the analogue nub, fire with the buttons and move the cursor with the stylus, an unbelieveably cumbersome combination which only feasibly allows you to do two of the vital three at once. I hope I simply missed something (there were no signs explaining any of the games' controls, which I found very annoying in the case of Pro Evo and Street Fighter) but that system was basically unworkable as I found it.

mal 6 Feb 2011 13:43:40 29,326 posts
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I never got round to trying out the pad controls - I just tried out tilt mode with and without 3d. It's more comfortable with 3d off for sure, and I wouldn't recommend anyone try it with it on - you have to make sure the screen is level is pretty much perpendicular to your eyes at all times. I was just making the point that my eyes were quick enough to readjust after fucking it up when I played that, so if I'd played Kid Icarus at that point I may not have had a problem with the subtitles.

I wouldn't expect the lighting in many living rooms to be much better than the lighting in that second room (I remember what a disappointment PS2 eyetoy was in my living room), but like I say it worked okay for me. The cards were simple colour printouts on paper but the colour reproduction looked okay. I think you went later than me. Being simple paper printouts maybe they got more and more manhandled as the day went on, causing problems for later visitors.

Deleted user 6 February 2011 14:31:43

3d's sounding a bit of a mixed bag from posters here.

This exclusive 3DS pre-launch event • Page 3