3DS Discussion

[bluaki]

Regarding 3DS: What about left-handed people?
Plenty of regular DS games left the user write on the touch screen with their dominant hand, then have movement or certain actions assigned to the face buttons for left-handed people and to the D-pad for right-handed people.

By contrast, on 3DS, there's now a joystick which only left-handed people cannot use while touching the screen. Any game that wants to utilize both analog movement and precise touching might have issues with that.

I've heard that the cartridges of the 3DS are the size of CompactFlash cards. It's good that we've reached a point where we don't need optical media to have large capacity, but it says only 2GB maximum at start?
Hopefully the 3DS has several GBs of internal storage. 256MB like the Wii isn't enough, my cheap Chinese PMP has 4GB and it cost $90.

Not at all the size of "Compact"Flash cards. The physical slot for one of those things would take up half of the 3DS's entire size. They're about the same size as DS cartridges with a slight change in shape to prevent insertion in an old DS. The 3DS card reader can read both new and old DS games.

2GB is over half a gig more than Gamecube discs could hold; 16 times the max capacity of common DS carts (not counting the 256MB cart which like two games use). Considering that 3DS is most comparable in specs to Gamecube, this doesn't look too bad, although Gamecube itself was criticized for having lower capacity than ~4GB DVDs that other consoles used. At this point, any form of SDHC (full/mini/micro) can hold much more for a rather low price (my 8GB microSD was $10 even with a couple accessories included)

[Cornwad]

I'm left handed and I was worried about that at first, but then I realized that the touch screen doesn't really seem to be important on the 3DS. From what I can tell, its mostly there for backwards compatibility. Any situation in which you would need the accuracy of the slider, you won't need to use the stylus pretty much.

[bluaki]

I'm left handed and I was worried about that at first, but then I realized that the touch screen doesn't really seem to be important on the 3DS. From what I can tell, its mostly there for backwards compatibility. Any situation in which you would need the accuracy of the slider, you won't need to use the stylus pretty much.

Dual-analog exists on a bunch of gaming systems and many games use them. Left joy + touch may be used somewhat like that.

And a bunch of other possibilities exist. Making up one, consider a 3D first-person game in which you tap the screen to shoot a gun or examine something or whatever. You'd still be moving around with analog while you're touching the screen.

The touch screen is a major feature of both the DS and 3DS. We're not at all going to see it be abandoned by new games, although now with the next system its NEW appeal for developers is decreased and it won't be forcibly used in unsuitable ways as much.

[Turok]

*re-emerge & delurk*

IGN was having this same exact debate on their forum. "lol it's not even PS2 graphics" What gorram PS2s or PS1s were YOU playing?

MGS3DS compared to MGS4
[spoiler][/spoiler]

MGS Peace walker
[spoiler][/spoiler]

Now another MGS3DS shot
[spoiler][/spoiler]

These are launch title graphics, imagine what they'll be able to do later on! @_@

[DededeCloneChris]

So, in a few words, the 3DS has graphics compared to MGS4 or what?

[Turok]

So, in a few words, the 3DS has graphics compared to MGS4 or what?

I 'spose so. Considering the screens. But it sure as hell is better than PS2 or PSP.

Couldn't find a close up shot of Snake from the PS2 version that was to scale. But here's a shot of the PS2 version.
[spoiler][/spoiler]

[SkyMyl]

Let's just remember that in-game graphics and cutscenes are two different things.

...that said, it's pretty amazing to see MGS3DS look as good as MGS4.

[Cornwad]

For the record, I'm pretty sure that Nintendogs + Cats is the only 3DS game from Nintendo that uses the touch screen for gameplay, and it definitely doesn't have heavy use of the slide pad.

[Zero]

I'm ambidextrous, so thankfully the stick placement doesn't hurt me. Though for some games I do feel inclined to use my left hand, so it could be a bit annoying later on.

Most left handed people I know are pretty good about dealing with stick placements though, like for arcade sticks. It sucks, but it isn't unplayable.

[bluaki]

For the record, I'm pretty sure that Nintendogs + Cats is the only 3DS game from Nintendo that uses the touch screen for gameplay, and it definitely doesn't have heavy use of the slide pad.

Nearly none of the revealed games have screenshots from the bottom screen. Look at Nintendo's official site and you'll notice that most screenshots are like this with only the 3DS logo on the bottom: [spoiler][/spoiler]

Starfox 64 has some shown bottom screen that shows only button mapping and doesn't appear to use touch (in its current state, although that honestly doesn't look like the sort of thing they'd tack onto a final game) [spoiler][/spoiler]

One other game with bottom screenshots is Steel Diver, which clearly uses touch: [spoiler][/spoiler]

I can't find any Nintendogs bottom screenshot you're referring to, but the only other Nintendo game with a bottom screenshot on the site is PilotWings, for which I can't tell if it uses touch. [spoiler][/spoiler]

I believe it's mentioned in an interview somewhere that OoT will allow you to use the touch screen to do things like navigate inventory (equip Iron Boots, in particular) while it's generally expected that normal movement is done with the analog slider.

[Silverhawk79]

I'm surprised at how great the graphics look. They look on par or better than Gamecube graphics (or lolWii), which is pretty darn impressive for a handheld. Especially a handheld that looks to retain the same size as the DS Lite. Perhaps Nintendo's next console will be a graphics powerhouse?

[Cornwad]

Yeah, that's what I meant. No game as of yet needs you to use the analog and the stylus at the same time. You may be able to look at the bottom for maps or inventory while moving around with the stylus or even use it for item selection in Zelda, but there is nothing like Metroid Prime when you need to be using both at once. Therefore there is no problem for lefties.

[Neerb]

http://media.ds.ign.com/articles/110/1102159/imgs_1.html

Pics time. Cartridges, game cases, and some prototype 3DS colors: red, blue, awesome purple, and sicknastyawesome orange-bronze. As implied, I'm pretty stoked about the latter two, and I hope they will actually be available on launch.

For those who can't get to the link, the game cartridges and cases look the same as DS ones, but the cartridges have a little nub on the side (like half of the top of a GBA game) so that people won't shove them in their normal DS, and the 3DS cases have the "3DS" logo on the right side (near the opening) instead of on the left (near the spine).

[bluaki]

This is a somewhat weird 3DS; seems slimmer and curvier than the others. Notice especially the headphone jack.



Contrasted to all other 3DSes like:
[spoiler][/spoiler]

[SkyMyl]

That 3DS appears to be on a base, Bluaki. That's why it seems different.