• 30Mar 11

  3DS hardware- First Impressions

  Since I ordered mine from Amazon, I had to wait a day to get my 3DS. That is fine. Amazon threw a ton of credit at me and a couple accessories and I ended up getting 6 games at launch(well 2 with my system and then 4 more after when my credit was applied to my account). Ready ot be happy with only getting Pilot Wings or Super Street Fighter IV, I was more than happy when I was able to get more games. Anyway, lets get into the good stuff.

  Hardware - It is a mirrored coated finger print grabber. I am already waiting for the next revision in hopes they put a matte finish on it. This bugged me about my PSP and not it is annoying me with my 3DS. Needless to say, I am getting a skin for it as soon as possible.

  It comes with a power cord and a cradle. You can charge it by plugging the cord directly into the unit or cord into the cradle and then put the 3DS on the cradle. Can be played while charging in either configuration.

  It has the normal DS human interface with an added analog circle pad above the +pad. Volume slider on the left side of the base. New features besides the obvious circle pad and 3D are the 3D slider, home button and the SD card slot. I guess the SD card slot isn't new to all DS users, but I never got rid of my launch day DS.

  The circle pad is similar to the PSP's analog nub. It is, in my opinion, very much improved though. The size is decent. It is concave, so your thumb is held in place. It is rubber so it grips your thumb better. It has good placement on the unit. It has a decent amount of resistance. It isn't super loose or overly stiff. It is just right. I can't wait to see what the NGP counters with.

  The 3D slider lets you decide your comfort level of 3D and if you want ot only game in 2D. Some may never use 3D after a few days of it, some might have to have it cranked to max. This little slider I think is the saving grace of the entire 3DS platform. Some people are sensitive to 3D media and some may not care about it at all. Letting the player decide is great.

  The home button takes you back to the main 3DS menu. There you can do very little else right now, but come May you will be able to look up hints and such on the 3DS browser. It is similar to the Xbox guide button and Sony's home button on the PSP and PS3 and not unlike the Wii's home button.

  Software(included with the 3DS) - I haven't played with all the packed in software with the 3DS, but I have played Face Raiders. In Face Raiders, you take a picture of your face, a friend's face, your dog's face...just about any face! Once taken, the face will be morphed onto a 3D face and fly at you and you will have to shoot the faces before they destroy your room. The game's backdrop is wherever you are. Holes will appear in your room and your walls will be filled with holes. This is great fun.

  Mii Maker is where you make your Mii, from scratch or from a picture. It is pretty much the same as the one from the Wii, but you can now use a photo and your face will be Mii'd in seconds. Mine looks pretty close to me. My wife's and mom's...not so much. Still a lot of fun. You can also make QR codes for your friends to scan so they can have your Mii over the internet.

  Mii Plaza is where I am guessing you get other Mii's through Street Pass. There is also a fun little RPG like game called Find Mii. You unlock new stuff for your Mii characters and spend coins. There is also a puzzle game that I haven't played yet in there.

  The Augmented Reality cards I was really excited for, but I have yet to play with them. Lame, I know. But thems the breaks. Tomorrow I will probably break them out and have some AR fun.

  The rest of the software on the 3DS is normal fare. There is a music player, a voice recorder, camera that shoots 2D and 3D pictures. One cool feature is the activity log. It logs your steps and your play time. I like these tracking devices. It is one reason why I love Steam so much.

  For a first gen of hardware, it is pretty solid. There are things I would change, but it has hit the ground running and I can't wait to see what future titles will come out for it.

  • Posted Mar 30, 2011 8:09 pm GMT
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• 16Dec 09

  Broken games and Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks

  What did you get on Black Friday? I heard about Left 4 Dead 2 being $35 at Best Buy. I was even more happy when Amazon had it for the same price, free shipping and no tax. I planned on not getting L4D2 since it was going to be more of the same and more like an epansion. I enjoyed the first one, but I had some issues with the way Valve treated the 360 gamers. But for $35 I would give it a shot. I should have saved my money. It was like they sat around on chairs made from the piles of money from the first game thinking about what made the game fun. Then they took those ideas and threw them out of the game. Online is still broken. I love laggy games when only 2 people are playing CPU characters. Gears 2 had some lag issues on Horde Mode, but at least the game looked good. Hey lets gather 13 cans of gas to get out of the Mall where they just so happened to leave 13 cans of gas laying around. Seriously, the experience was just rather bad and I didn't enjoy myself one bit. I am glad I am getting $37.50 trade-in credit for it from Amazon.

  Call of Duty:Modern Warfare 2(For the rest of this article and beyond it will be called CoD4 2) is no doubt a good game. When it works. I am already a level 70 and have put a ton of time into the game. But the match making is still borked. The Javlin glitch is fixed, or so I hear. But now we have unlimited ammo Ground War matches. It takes forever to get in a match some night and don't ever plan on playing with 6 people and not get dropped during lobby merges. I love this game, but it is broken. Amozarte you are awesome!

  Why do we put up with games like this? In the case of CoD4 2 for me is that when it works, it usually is a lot of fun. I have no excuse for L4D2. That was just a terrible game in my mind.

  I got the new Legend of Zelda for the DS. Yes I know it is more of the same. But the puzzles are different and I like tooling around in the train a lot more than the boat. There is something so charming about going around Hyrule and blowing that whistle and taking people all over the map and finding those rabbits. The music is great and the HUD clean up is a vast improvement. I would say the best update is that Link will roll with a quick double tap than the broken draw a circle from Phantom Hourglass. I am almost done with the first four dungeons and have only scratched the surface with all the sidequests. It is up there with Mario and Luigi 3 for game of the year for me. Not handheld, but all consoles.

  Great year for gaming. Borderlands is one of the best 360 games I have played this year.

  • Posted Dec 16, 2009 9:02 pm GMT
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• 6Sep 09

  Blast from the past!

  This weekend I went across Michigan and visited the beautiful St. Joesph and Benton Harbor area. My aunt and uncle live there and have for many years. This was the first time my wife and them have been around each other and it no been a family emergency. It was nice. We played a board game called Stop Thief. it is old than I am and tons of fun. Basically you and up to three others chase around a computer controlled invisible thief.

  I got my replica Lancer back from my uncle. He made a gun rack for it. It is awesome and I will be posting pictures hopefully soon. He painted a couple pieces of wood black and then bloodied it all up and bolted an arm underneath where the gun mounts. It is slick.

  He also gave me an Atari 2600 and 27 games. Sadly, no paddles or joysticks. I am on the hunt for some cheap controllers. This is a personal item I have wanted for many years. My uncle and late father used to play it all the time. Now with my dad gone, it is one more piece to hold on to him with. I don't care if this thing doesn't even work. The memories it brings back are priceless.

  Anyway, I had an awesome weekend. Tons of fun all around.

  • Posted Sep 6, 2009 6:48 pm GMT
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