Monster Hunter 3 (Wii) Catch-All

ELewis17 wrote:

I picked up the demo from Gamestop on Friday. It seems kinda cool. My one gripe is that it looks terrible. It looks like an early PS2 game. My Wii is pretty old, and has never successfully downloaded an update, so maybe that is my problem. Does the demo look passable, or even good, for everyone else?

It's been a while since we've had a PS2 version. The last few have been on PSP. Believe me, compared to PSP graphics and controls the Wii looks wonderful.

ELewis17 wrote:

I picked up the demo from Gamestop on Friday. It seems kinda cool. My one gripe is that it looks terrible. It looks like an early PS2 game. My Wii is pretty old, and has never successfully downloaded an update, so maybe that is my problem. Does the demo look passable, or even good, for everyone else?

I disagree, I think it looks pretty for a Wii game. The only gripe I have graphically is regarding the blurriness of the player character models. The monsters are highly detailed and very well-animated (particularly Rathian), and the vistas are pleasant. I've been playing some mid-gen PS2 games (including MH1) lately and this looks way better than most. Better than FFXII for sure, which is a late-life title.

I was pretty quick to pooh pooh the graphics til I realized I have a few 360 games that are way uglier (hi Tenchu Z!)

It must be something with my system. It almost hurts to look at, and the text is quite difficult to read. I came to this thread surprised that no one else had mentioned it. It looks nothing like the videos I've seen online.
I'm going to look into how I can update my Wii (SD card maybe?). It must be four years old by now, and hasn't successfully updated in almost that long.

ELewis17 wrote:

It must be something with my system. It almost hurts to look at, and the text is quite difficult to read. I came to this thread surprised that no one else had mentioned it. It looks nothing like the videos I've seen online.
I'm going to look into how I can update my Wii (SD card maybe?). It must be four years old by now, and hasn't successfully updated in almost that long.

I have a launch Wii too, don't have any such issues. I've been staying updated though, do you not have a wireless network or is it something wrong with the system's wireless?

ELewis17 wrote:

It must be something with my system. It almost hurts to look at, and the text is quite difficult to read. I came to this thread surprised that no one else had mentioned it. It looks nothing like the videos I've seen online.
I'm going to look into how I can update my Wii (SD card maybe?). It must be four years old by now, and hasn't successfully updated in almost that long.

Are you playing it at 480i or 480p?

The Wii starts the update process, but hangs somewhere along the line. I have a hard time blaming my home network because it hasn't worked at any of my last three residences, and all three had different configurations. The wireless works because I just let my uncle into my town in Animal Crossing over the weekend. Plus I've DLed a half dozen games from the Wii market thing. The extent of my troubleshooting has been to turn off the system and do something else, so its not like I've really tried to make it work very hard. Mostly because I have not felt like I've missed anything in any updates until, possibly, now.

@AG- I'll check when I get home. I imagine it is set to the default (assumed 480i), but I'm not sure.

ELewis17 wrote:

I picked up the demo from Gamestop on Friday. It seems kinda cool. My one gripe is that it looks terrible. It looks like an early PS2 game. My Wii is pretty old, and has never successfully downloaded an update, so maybe that is my problem. Does the demo look passable, or even good, for everyone else?

It looks good for a Wii title. I mean you are limited by 480p, but the areas and effects look good. It's funny it reminds me alot of Guild Wars.

ELewis17 wrote:

I picked up the demo from Gamestop on Friday. It seems kinda cool. My one gripe is that it looks terrible. It looks like an early PS2 game. My Wii is pretty old, and has never successfully downloaded an update, so maybe that is my problem. Does the demo look passable, or even good, for everyone else?

No the demo is from the pre-release build from the Japanese version and I've heard the final version looks better.

I really wanna try this game out but I really don't have the time, so it's probably going to slip away on me... I would have picked up the demo a couple days after it came out if the stupid clerks didn't insist I pre-order.

Some very awkward, somewhat related news from Kotaku

"Snake's list of mortal enemies appears to have gotten a bit longer, as the latest issue of Famitsu reveals that upcoming PSP game Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker will feature a surprise crossover that we certainly didn't see coming.

According to early details from the Japanese magazine, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker will feature beasts and bosses from the Monster Hunter series. That's right, Snake and his fellow cooperative Snakes will be taking down giant Wyverns like the Tigrex and lesser creatures like Velocriprey in addition to attack helicopters."

Kojima's mad genius warms my heart.

mrtomaytohead wrote:

No the demo is from the pre-release build from the Japanese version and I've heard the final version looks better.

Well good to know! I figured that it had to be something like that.
I did get my Wii to update today. Nothing was different from the past 20 times I've tried to get it to update, but it worked. I have not had a chance to pop in my demo disc and see if it made any difference though. But knowing this I really doubt it.

cyrax wrote:

Kojima's mad genius warms my heart.

Yeah. Unfortunately I don't like his games as much as his mad-scientist bent.

Also, Brimley would have to shave the mustache to get the cheese dust out.

ELewis17 wrote:
mrtomaytohead wrote:

No the demo is from the pre-release build from the Japanese version and I've heard the final version looks better.

Well good to know! I figured that it had to be something like that.
I did get my Wii to update today. Nothing was different from the past 20 times I've tried to get it to update, but it worked. I have not had a chance to pop in my demo disc and see if it made any difference though. But knowing this I really doubt it.

If I were you I'd try and find some way to see the game on your TV before purchase, through clandestine means if necessary. While the final version probably does look better, I doubt it looks that much better. This is probably a case of one, two, or both things I notice a lot in people that don't play Wii or PS2 games often: They are remembering too fondly how games last-gen looked, and they are playing on an HDTV, which is going to make non-HD anything look kinda poopy. I think I've said it elsewhere in this thread, but I wish I'd kept my old 32 inch CRTV for my Wii, but alas.

The first PS2 game I played after about an 8 month period of 360 only stuff (during the great Wii drought of 2008) was Shadow of the Colossus. Amazingly built game, but damn was it ugly.

This is the first game I've preordered in a long time.

Put me down as a MH newbie looking to hunt some monsters with gwjers.

About the resolution, I saw on neogaf that people say the widescreen mode is actually 360P and 4:3 is 480P so whoever was having the blurry text issue should try 4:3 mode (if they are widescreen).

I'm runnign widescreen in the demo and it looks fine to me.

The hype is getting it's grip on me.

Not to beat a dead horse about the graphics or anything, but...

(from Kotaku)

Basically, head of Nintendo Japan Satoru Iwata said during a roundtable that MHTri's visuals impressed Nintendo so much that it put pressure on the team currently working on Zelda to improve their own graphics.

Also, I just watched a Japanese gameplay video. At one point a player ran onto a monster's back and started MINING. Got ore and whatnot. Crazy.

OK. But at least I didn't post the Giant Enemy Crab...

OK, that's just really rude. I can understand going out to kill a monster, but stopping to MINE it while it's still alive? That's an insult. It's OK for a monster to die angry. A monster shouldn't have to die sad.

That said, there were more than a few times when I jumped onto Lao-Shan Lung's back (What a Lao-Shan Lung might look like), dropped a present, and jumped off. A big barrel-shaped present with a sparking fuse.

The awesomeness of the monser design demands you spoiler-tag that picture

I was actually just kidding <,< that stuff is all over the advertising.

Also, if you value your sanity, stay the hell away from the GameFAQs board for this game!

Well, GameFAQs boards in general, but this one especially. I've never seen so perfect a dichotomy of idiocy and arrogance.

I really should get to this demo soon. At this point, the game will be out before my copy of the demo is out of its packaging.

Well Blind Evil beat me to it. Was going to post the Kotaku article about how the graphics apparently are the best on the Wii. Still haven't pre-ordered yet, but the bundle with controller on Amazon is kinda tempting with the $10 gift card.

GIANT ENEMY CRAB.

...Sorry.

That makes me wish they'd left the bow in for MHTri.

The crab fishermen commercial makes so much more sense now.

I find myself oddly interested in this game even though I've never played a Monster Hunter game before. Do you guys think it's worth it for a newcomer to the series to check it out?

JayBent wrote:

I find myself oddly interested in this game even though I've never played a Monster Hunter game before. Do you guys think it's worth it for a newcomer to the series to check it out?

If you can check out the demo, it's a good idea.

I've probably played it for 5 hours, a stupid amount for a demo. I really dig it. My only experience prior to the MH3 demo was with the second PSP game. I beat the tutorials, struggled with the controls, got frustrated at the first real boss and quit. Since falling in love with the demo, I've bought MH1 for PS2. MH3 is a much more polished game, though it is hard to say why.

Just understand that these games are hard, more like a monster hunting simulation than a character-action game. Don't expect any pushovers. And get a classic controller if you don't have one.

It's one of those games where I love it, but I can totally see why other people would hate it.

Do I have to pre-order the game to get the demo? Or can I just go and pick it up?

JayBent wrote:

Do I have to pre-order the game to get the demo? Or can I just go and pick it up?

Depends on how that particular employee feels.

LobsterMobster wrote:
JayBent wrote:

Do I have to pre-order the game to get the demo? Or can I just go and pick it up?

Depends on how that particular employee feels.

Ahhh, OK. Gotcha. I'll have to try and get my hands on the demo tomorrow, see how I feel about it.

It's supposed to be free. My store had them in a little display on the front counter for you to take.

Some stores were reported as trying to require a pre-order. They are wrong.

Hope your nearby store is a good one.