Nintendo announces the "3DS" with no need for glasses

Hmm... Out of that list, I'd get Professor Layton. But otherwise, wait for the other highly anticipated games.

Nintendogs and Cats!

Dominic Knight wrote:

Hmm... Out of that list, I'd get Professor Layton. But otherwise, wait for the other highly anticipated games.

Those games have a good rep but I cannot stand puzzle games that aren't, uh...like..action oriented?

Tetris, Meteos, Lumines, Tetris Attack that sort of thing I like. Sudoku, Layton, Puzzle Agent, some of the harder point and click adventures I don't because I get frustrated quickly and end up cheating my way through 50% of the puzzles.

Maybe I'll be playing Pokemon B+W for the first couple months, I'd be okay with that.

Blind_Evil wrote:
MisterStatic wrote:

FWIW, I just preordered a couple of these at the local Gamestop and the manager said release date has been moved to June. I have not seen this announced anywhere else. But then again, I have not looked that hard.

That would suck, but I haven't seen or heard that anywhere else.

Maybe this will help ease your mind. We'll all find out January 19th.

Hmm, not thinking about it I was sure this would be a day one purchase for me. Now that I see that none of the titles currently for launch are must plays, maybe I'll wait. We'll see what NOA and its partners have to offer us. I hope hackers will make it easy on me. I'm spoiled with the convenience of having to only carry one cart around, no CD's, no box games with the exception of consoles...hard to go back.

3DS has 3-5 hour battery life

That may be a deal breaker for me on the initial hardware.

Dyni wrote:

3DS has 3-5 hour battery life

That may be a deal breaker for me on the initial hardware.

Wow. Not surprising, but that's the kind of compromise you make when you ramp up what your handheld does. Makes it much less portable than the DS. Hugging my DS Lite and XL right now.

Damn. That might make me wait for the 3DS "lite" or "Sp" or whatever they call it, 18 months later or so, with double battery life.

Dyni wrote:

3DS has 3-5 hour battery life

That may be a deal breaker for me on the initial hardware.

I assume the battery life will be short based on how high you have the 3D set. Ah, well, I'll still buy it on launch day.

For me the 3DS was never terribly compelling. My ears perk up at the words "new Nintendo handheld", but otherwise I would not be interested in this. I think I'll also be waiting for the inevitable SP version that has better battery life. The DS on its own is just too useful to throw that kind of money at the system and when my XL is already a great experience for playing a huge backlog of DS games.

3 hours minimum? Well that's two hours longer than my iPhone running a game...

Still, it's a little concerning. More from the standpoint of "wonder how soon they'll upgrade it" then "I need more than 3 hours life." Frankly 90% of my handheld gaming is done in bed or on the John.

Dominic Knight wrote:
Dyni wrote:

3DS has 3-5 hour battery life

That may be a deal breaker for me on the initial hardware.

I assume the battery life will be short based on how high you have the 3D set. Ah, well, I'll still buy it on launch day.

I wouldn't have thought so, it'll take about the same amount of power to drive the gpu and the display regardless of where you have the 3D slider set. The GPU still has to compute and draw the same number of pixels on the screen, irrespective of whether the display is 2D or 3D.

DanB wrote:
Dominic Knight wrote:
Dyni wrote:

3DS has 3-5 hour battery life

That may be a deal breaker for me on the initial hardware.

I assume the battery life will be short based on how high you have the 3D set. Ah, well, I'll still buy it on launch day.

I wouldn't have thought so, it'll take about the same amount of power to drive the gpu and the display regardless of where you have the 3D slider set. The GPU still has to compute and draw the same number of pixels on the screen, irrespective of whether the display is 2D or 3D.

Not having to figure out what the pixel is supposed to look like in the second screen could save a huge amount of time if all the CPU has to do is call the value on the other screen, compared to having to recalculate the value based upon a new viewing angle.

My decision is getting much easier. One of the best things about the DS was its sleep mode, when you closed it. If the battery life is really that short (I travel enough), then as a user I wouldn't feel safe that my system would wake from sleep. Really, worrying about my progression because of hardware limitations is one of the worst things for a handheld user like myself. I still remember the GBA, and to some extent my cousin's GB, never lasting just that little bit more so I could save. It even still happens to some extent with the DS, but that's more user error I'll admit.

Man, it's going to be so hard to hold out and wait for the inevitable revision (with better battery life).

This launch lineup is insane.

cyrax wrote:

My decision is getting much easier. One of the best things about the DS was its sleep mode, when you closed it. If the battery life is really that short (I travel enough), then as a user I wouldn't feel safe that my system would wake from sleep. Really, worrying about my progression because of hardware limitations is one of the worst things for a handheld user like myself. I still remember the GBA, and to some extent my cousin's GB, never lasting just that little bit more so I could save. It even still happens to some extent with the DS, but that's more user error I'll admit. :P

I was gonna say... I've left my DS on but closed for a week and a half before it started asking for the charger. I don't see why you'd assume that the 3DS doesn't have a similar feature.

Also, the DS's charger is about the size of three matchbooks stacked on top of each other. If the 3DS's is a similar size, I'll have no problem toting it in a pocket to wherever.

Perhaps I wasn't clear enough? I'm saying the lower battery life increases the chances of your system shutting off before there's a chance for a recharge. Geuss there's a good reason it ships with a dock. People might be more likely to just sit it down there whenever they get the chance. I usually don't charge something unless it's in the red, one bar, etc; or planning ahead for a long ride.

Blind_Evil wrote:

3 hours minimum? Well that's two hours longer than my iPhone running a game...

Still, it's a little concerning. More from the standpoint of "wonder how soon they'll upgrade it" then "I need more than 3 hours life." Frankly 90% of my handheld gaming is done in bed or on the John.

Which iPhone do you have? I can jump on a plane for a cross country trip and listen to MP3s while playing Angry Birds or Civ Rev for hours.

3GS.

The games I'm playing are a bit more taxing than Angry Birds or Civ.

*froths*
*faints*
*puts up link*
Paper Mario 3DS trailer [cam]

cyrax wrote:

*froths*
*faints*
*puts up link*
Paper Mario 3DS trailer [cam]

So I finally just realized why Mario looks so silly in Paper Mario games. He doesn't move his hands from his side so he runs like some dopey kid that never learned to run or something.

cyrax wrote:

*froths*
*faints*
*puts up link*
Paper Mario 3DS trailer [cam]

Excellent.

Is that a remake of the n64 game? It was so long ago I just can't remember.

Looks good either way. I'm glad to see the series turn based again, Super Paper Mario was kinda assy.

Resident Evil: Revelations / The Mercenaries 3D - Stage Show Nintendo World 2011

0:40 - Revelations Trailer
9:30 - Revelations Gameplay
14:20 - Mercenaries Trailer
19:30 - Mercenaries Gameplay

Revelations looks impressive technically. Ugh, second person perspective.

cyrax wrote:

Ugh, second person perspective.

You see yourself from the enemies' viewpoint?

You'd have to aim your character to shoot at your view. That'd be trippy.

*Legion* wrote:
cyrax wrote:

Ugh, second person perspective.

You see yourself from the enemies' viewpoint?

You'd have to aim your character to shoot at your view. That'd be trippy.

That was done during one of the boss fights in Zelda:Phantom Hourglass. I don't think it would work for the whole game, though.

Slacker1913 wrote:
*Legion* wrote:
cyrax wrote:

Ugh, second person perspective.

You see yourself from the enemies' viewpoint?

You'd have to aim your character to shoot at your view. That'd be trippy.

That was done during one of the boss fights in Zelda:Phantom Hourglass. I don't think it would work for the whole game, though.

Ooh, good memory! I barely recall that.

Nosferatu wrote:
DanB wrote:
Dominic Knight wrote:
Dyni wrote:

3DS has 3-5 hour battery life

That may be a deal breaker for me on the initial hardware.

I assume the battery life will be short based on how high you have the 3D set. Ah, well, I'll still buy it on launch day.

I wouldn't have thought so, it'll take about the same amount of power to drive the gpu and the display regardless of where you have the 3D slider set. The GPU still has to compute and draw the same number of pixels on the screen, irrespective of whether the display is 2D or 3D.

Not having to figure out what the pixel is supposed to look like in the second screen could save a huge amount of time if all the CPU has to do is call the value on the other screen, compared to having to recalculate the value based upon a new viewing angle.

No it won't really matter. There might be a tiny bit of extra over head in doing 2 separate matrix transformations for the 2 viewing angles but it'll be pretty negligible in the face of the power need to drive the display itself. It's always drawing 800x240 pixels and it doesn't really matter if half are showing the right image and half are showing the left or if they are all showing the same image.

The lesser battery life on the 3DS is likely entirely down to the fact that the display is drawing nearly 4 times the number of pixels compared to the old DS (256x192).

I'm gonna say 3DS launch in March confirmed if that's an accurate translation. I can't read Japanese, so who knows.

Iwata: 3DS shipment for Japan this FY (through March 31) will be 1.5 million. The remaining 2.5 million will head to the rest territories outside Japan.

http://jp.wsj.com/IT/node_168287

Tested.com suggests that the 3DS battery life situation A) isn't as bad as people think and B) is not the result of the 3D effect, but suspects the always-on WiFi capabilities.

Here's a comparison chart they posted in the article.

Platform Capacity Claimed battery life Charge time
Nintendo 3DS 1300 mAh 3DS games: 3-5 hours. DS games: 5-8 hours 3.5 hours
Nintendo DSi XL 1050 mAh 4-5 hours (highest), 9-11 hours (medium), 13-17 hours (lowest) 2-3 hours
Nintendo DSi 840 mAh 3-4 hours (highest), 6-9 hours (medium), 9-14 hours (lowest) 2-3 hours
Nintendo DS Lite 1000 mAh 5-8 hours (high brightness), 15-19 hours (low brightness) 3 hours
Nintendo DS Fat 850 mAh 10 hours 4 hours
GBA SP 700 mAh 7-10 hours (high brightness) 3 hours
PSP Go 930 mAh 3-6 hours 2-3 hours
PSP 3000 1200 mAh 4-6 hours 3 hours
iPhone 4 1420 mAh 10 hours video time. Less for Infinity Blade. 2-3 hours