March 21 - March 27

Section: 

This week feels much more like a good solid, Mid-September release list than one from Mid-March. It would be all too easy to drop $500 this week without thinking too hard about it, and still feel like you missed something.

The big news is the launch of the Nintendo 3DS. Along with a sizable, if relatively standard, cadre of launch titles that includes Madden, Rayman, Ridge Racer and the revival of Pilotwings, the 3DS is really the first commercially available technology that provides a reasonable 3D viewing experience without forcing you to wear unwieldy and highly unfashionable glasses. It would be easy to dismiss the 3DS as a cool gimmick with questionable staying power, but I've fallen for that trap from Nintendo before, and I for one have no intention of underestimating them yet again. After all, I figure they've been planning this ever since Virtual Boy.

It would be enough to stop there, but that's just the beginning for a very busy week. On the PC Assassin's Creed Brotherhood makes the leap from consoles, while EA quietly release The Sims Medieval which I had been curious about for all of 15 minutes back in January. Also releasing across multiple platforms and the PC is Crysis 2, which could at least make for a reasonable diversion. Finally, LEGO Star Wars III cashes in on the Clone Wars and Ghostbusters: Sanctum of Slime hits your favorite downloadable service.

A lot to pay attention to, but frankly nothing in the mix that I'm ready to cash in on at this point.

PC

- Assassin's Creed Brotherhood
- Crysis 2
- LEGO Star Wars III: The Clones Wars
- The Sims Medieval

Xbox 360

- Crysis 2
- LEGO Star Wars III: The Clones Wars
- Mayhem

PlayStation 3

- Crysis 2
- LEGO Star Wars III: The Clones Wars
- Mayhem
- PlayStation Move Heroes
- Tomb Raider Trilogy

Wii

- LEGO Star Wars III: The Clones Wars
- Raving Rabbids Party Collection

Nintendo 3DS

- Nintendo 3DS
- Asphalt 3D
- Bust-a-Move Universe
- Combat of Giants: Dinosaurs 3D
- LEGO Star Wars III: The Clones Wars
- Madden NFL Football
- Nintendogs + cats
- PilotWings Resort
- Pro Evolution Soccer 2011 3D
- Rayman 3D
- Ridge Racer 3D
- Samurai Warriors Chronicles
- Steel Diver
- Super Monkey Ball 3D
- Super Street Fighter IV: 3D Edition
- Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Shadow Wars
- The Sims 3

Nintendo DS

- LEGO Star Wars III: The Clones Wars
- Learn Math: Genius Edition
- Playmobil: Agents

PSP

- LEGO Star Wars III: The Clones Wars
- Dissidia 012[duodecim] Final Fantasy
- Naruto Shippuden: Kizuna Drive

Coming Soon:
Shift 2 -- 360, PS3, PC
Portal 2 -- 360, PS3, PC
Duke Nukem Forever -- 360, PS3, PC
L.A. Noire -- 360, PS3
The Witcher 2 -- PC
Red Faction: Armageddon -- 360, PS3, PC

Comments

This is going to be an expensive week for me. But it will be so worth it.

Dominic Knight wrote:

This is going to be an expensive week for me. But it will be so worth it.

Same here - that's a whole lot of stuff tempting me.
Even Sims : Medieval intrigues me somewhat.

The only 3DS launch game that really interests me though is the Ghost Recon game, since it's a turn based strategy game by Julian Gollop (Xcom, Laser Squad, etc).

stevenmack wrote:

since it's a turn based strategy game by Julian Gollop (Xcom, Laser Squad, etc).

Wow, now I'm interested. I didn't know that.

Here's a nice summary of pretty much everything known about 'Shadow Wars', since even Ubisoft doesn't seem to want to admit it exists.

and some piccies:

IMAGE(http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lfea81Om9m1qzpbds.jpg)

IMAGE(http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lfec4zw7O31qzpbds.jpg)

IMAGE(http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lfecptWOT01qzpbds.jpg)

Being a launch game of course it could end up being rubbish, but it's really the only thing that's grabbing my attention from the ones listed above.

I'm with Elysium--a lot of things to pay attention to but I'm not ready to jump on the 3DS bandwagon yet. The only launch title that sounds interesting is Pilotwings. The wallet is safe...for now.

I want a 3DS. But with Nintendo's history with portables, there will be a 3DS lite in 12-18 months with better battery life, and there will be a fantastic portfolio of games in that time as well, and I will be much happier buying that 2nd hardware revision.

Nintendo isn't quite as bad as Apple with the hardware re-releases, but I Apple is the only company that's worse.

Being in the U.S. this week, I had a chance to have five minutes of hands-on with the 3DS and Pilotwings (I assume that's what it was) at BestBuy today. It was awkward and not at all enjoyable. As a migraine victim, the display just doesn't work out for me and the resulting sensory effect is like "having an aura" (fellow migraine patients will know what I mean).

For the 3D to work, you'll have to focus directly onto the particular plane of depth they intended, otherwise you'll experience a blurry or convoluted optical sensation.

I'll go back later this week to try again and verify I wasn't just having a bad day today. Also because they have an iPad 2 down there and I wanna see, if an upgrade would be justified.

Luggage wrote:

Being in the U.S. this week, I had a chance to have five minutes of hands-on with the 3DS and Pilotwings (I assume that's what it was) at BestBuy today. It was awkward and not at all enjoyable. As a migraine victim, the display just doesn't work out for me and the resulting sensory effect is like "having an aura" (fellow migraine patients will know what I mean).

For the 3D to work, you'll have to focus directly onto the particular plane of depth they intended, otherwise you'll experience a blurry or convoluted optical sensation.

I'll go back later this week to try again and verify I wasn't just having a bad day today. Also because they have an iPad 2 down there and I wanna see, if an upgrade would be justified.

I had the opposite experience, but perceiving and enjoying stereoscopic 3D is a very personal affair.

I've had a 3DS preordered for a while, but I was strongly considering using the money for something else. 15 seconds into my 5 minute Pilotwings session cemented my purchase.

My experience using the 3DS at GDC was great. That being said, it really does suck that this cool technology doesn't work for everyone.

Stele wrote:

I want a 3DS. But with Nintendo's history with portables, there will be a 3DS lite in 12-18 months with better battery life, and there will be a fantastic portfolio of games in that time as well, and I will be much happier buying that 2nd hardware revision.

Nintendo isn't quite as bad as Apple with the hardware re-releases, but I Apple is the only company that's worse.

Hopefully it also comes with a price drop.

I don't necessarily need it cheaper. Maybe a pack in game or something? I just want a little better battery life than what this first offering is giving, and a lot bigger library before I jump in. Sure I could play my DS games on it, but I can still do that on my Lite, for like 15 hours at a time.

Stele wrote:

I don't necessarily need it cheaper. Maybe a pack in game or something? I just want a little better battery life than what this first offering is giving, and a lot bigger library before I jump in. Sure I could play my DS games on it, but I can still do that on my Lite, for like 15 hours at a time. ;)

My Lite's battery life seems to have diminished. I was off yesterday and played Pokemon Black for an obscene amount of time, and had to charge it twice. Sometimes it was left on during Homefront matches, but still.

K-Mart is selling any launch games at a $25 discount when purchased with a new 3DS. I'm hoping I can get there early enough Sunday morning to get one. I'm really hoping demand in America, especially at K-mart, isn't that high.

I wasn't planning on grabbing one, and after PAX East and Amazon's lightning deals my wallet is going to hurt, but God dammit, I can get two $40 games for $15 each, making them both together cheaper than they would be individually.

I plan on grabbing the Ghost Recon game and Steel Diver.

Blind_Evil wrote:
Stele wrote:

I don't necessarily need it cheaper. Maybe a pack in game or something? I just want a little better battery life than what this first offering is giving, and a lot bigger library before I jump in. Sure I could play my DS games on it, but I can still do that on my Lite, for like 15 hours at a time. ;)

My Lite's battery life seems to have diminished. I was off yesterday and played Pokemon Black for an obscene amount of time, and had to charge it twice. Sometimes it was left on during Homefront matches, but still.

After how many years?

garion333 wrote:
Blind_Evil wrote:

My Lite's battery life seems to have diminished. I was off yesterday and played Pokemon Black for an obscene amount of time, and had to charge it twice. Sometimes it was left on during Homefront matches, but still.

After how many years? ;)

I believe I got this Lite in 2008. I had a replacement plan with Best Buy for $20, and I got the system replaced twice due to the shoulder buttons becoming unresponsive.

While the battery life thing sucks, I heard on a podcast yesterday that there are instructions for how to replace the battery in the manual. That gives me hope for upgradeable batteries, PSP style. I'm also an iPhone 3GS owner for about 18 months, and when playing anything with 3D models that thing is sputtering to 10% life in about an hour, no lie.

I was able to play around with one today along with Pilotwings and Street Fighter. I was EXTREMEMLY impressed with the visuals and the sleekness of the product. If youre on the fence, you should go for it. If you do, dont buy pilotwings. Just...its like watching the worst show on the nature channel with your grandpa lol

Blind_Evil wrote:

While the battery life thing sucks, I heard on a podcast yesterday that there are instructions for how to replace the battery in the manual.

That's the thing about lithium batteries. Their capacity shrinks by a percentage every year regardless of how or whether you use them... although I've read that running them all the way down and charging them up shortens their life more than anything. Behaviors that extended the life of NiCd and NiMH batteries shorten the life of lithium ion and lithium polymer ones.

Reports I've seen on lithium batteries say to keep them as fully charged as possible... and even then they'll lose a percentage of remaining capacity (amp-hours) every year.

On the bright side, I have replaced the batteries in my original fat DS (aqua Nintendogs edition) with little fuss, so doing the same with your later unit shouldn't be that much of a problem.

Hans