Showing posts with label months. Show all posts
Showing posts with label months. Show all posts

Key Details on Wii U Storage Solutions

♦ by Unknown Wednesday, 14 November 2012 Monday, 5 November 2012 Thursday, 1 November 2012 Wednesday, 31 October 2012 0 comments

For months we've known that Wii U will support various storage solutions in addition to the variable internal storage that comes with different system bundles (8GB and 32GB at launch). Nintendo has now provided more details on SD card and hard drive support, plus even shed some light on how much space the system's OS will take and more. Thanks to NeoGAF user cvxfreak for translating all of the details from the last second Japanese broadcast.

The OS Space

When buying a Wii U, gamers will be able to choose between the Basic bundle, which comes with 8GB of internal storage, and the Deluxe bundle, which comes with 32GB of space. By default, due to formatting, the Basic system will have 7.2GB of free memory and the Deluxe will have 29GB. From there, though, the Wii U's OS will take 4.2GB of space. That's about half of the Basic's storage, not counting any expansion through hard drives or SD cards.

Nintendo also specified that New Super Mario Bros. U is approximately a 2GB download. Nintendo Land ranks around 3.2GB. That means Basic system owners can't download both Mario and Nintendo Land to their internal storage without running out of space. Something to keep in mind.

USB Hard Drives

By default, and barring an update that Nintendo says is coming in the future, Wii U will only allow one USB drive to be connected at a time. These drives cannot be disconnected while Wii U is powered on, and the system will support and read up to 2TB of storage.

Drives that will be used by Wii U must be formatted by the system's Data Management system, meaning you can't use the drive with a PC. However all data can be moved internally and externally through Wii U's OS.

Drives that require more than USB 2.0 connections might not work properly with Wii U. Drives that have two USB connectors will work, however.

SD Cards

Wii U will accept SD cards, but their use is limited. PC, Wii Virtual Console, WiiWare and Wii saves can be stored on these cards, but Wii U save data cannot.

Rich is an Executive Editor of IGN.com and the leader of IGN's Nintendo team. He also watches over all things WWE, Resident Evil, Assassin's Creed and much more. Follow him on Twitter, if you dare!


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Peter Molyneux's Curiosity Now Available

♦ by Unknown Wednesday, 14 November 2012 Monday, 5 November 2012 Thursday, 1 November 2012 Wednesday, 31 October 2012 0 comments

After many months of speculation, famed game designer Peter Molyneux's Curiosity is now available on the iOS app store.

Gamers have known for some time the basic premise of the app. Curiosity presents gamers with a gigantic cube made of of many millions (or perhaps billions) of smaller cubes. Participants worldwide can chink away at the cube block my block, cooperating to reveal what's underneath each layer.

But... what the heck does this actually mean? And how does it work? Let's take a look...

This is the first screen you see when you fire up the app. It's wholly white, which obviously blends right in with IGN's page background. It also already sets up the mysterious, high-concept mood:

The stark white screen stays until you tap it. Apparently Curiosity takes your initial tap as a "yes" to the stark question above. You're next told how many people before you have downloaded and fired up Curiosity - a surprisingly powerful and compelling way to get both the cooperative and competitive juices flowing. I was the 335th person to try out Curiosity:

The cube has many layers, but getting to the center won't be easy...

What's more, only one person will get to hit that final block and see what's actually there. I certainly hope they choose to share what they see with the world...

After this enigmatic and oddly compelling into... we're finally here! On the cube itself! So... now what?

You can swipe your finger to rotate the cube, or pinch two fingers to zoom in and out. Zooming in reveals sections that other users have chipped away at that aren't visible from a distance. It's neat to see them slowly materialize.

Users are already beginning to clear away sections of the cube in an ad-hoc form of self expression:

Each layer of the cube promises to have something new underneath. A new color, a photograph, a painting... something that will satisfy each players', well... curiosity. But for now it looks like each side of the cube just has a blue-green layer underneath.

But let's get down to brass tacks. How does curiosity actually work? Blocks are deleted simply by tapping on them. Gamers start with a set amount of coins. I wholly expected to be charged a coin for each block I deleted. I expected them to refill slowly over time, and perhaps be charged real money for extra coins. But it turns out Curiosity actually does the opposite.

Each block you delete earns coins. If you delete blocks rapidly in an unbroken burst of play (work? participation?) a coin multiplier begins to tick upward. At first each block deleted just earns you one coin. But then two, three, and on upward with no upper limit that I could find.

This is a supremely interesting design decision because it means you're earning exponentially more coins the longer you play in one unbroken chunk. A user that deletes 1000 blocks a few at a time will only have 1000 coins. But a user that breaks 1000 blocks in a single chunk could earn 50 times that much currency.

But... what are these coins actually spent on?

The chisels, bombs and firecrackers in the menu above make you a more efficient block clearer for a limited time by allowing you to clear more cubelets with a single tap. These power-ups range in price from a few thousand coins up to 3 billion for the diamond pickaxe. What's a little more interesting is that even accessing the stats menu costs coins - 100, to be precise. Inside, you can see how many cubelets remain on the current layer of the cube, how many users are participating, how many cubelets you personally have cleared and plenty more.

Interestingly, the outer layer of the cube contains 100,000,000 cubelets just on its own. All of which must be cleared one by one. Anyone want to crunch some numbers and figure out how many total cubelets are contained within the cube, if it is solid all the way through?

So, there you have it. A first look at Curiosity from Peter Molyneux's new studio 22cans. The app is both absurdly simple and wildly complex. It's very silly and yet oddly compelling. Perhaps most unusual of all, given the current state of the App Store, is that Curiosity is an entirely free download, with no In-App-Purchases in sight. Yes, the entire experience is 100% free, from top-to-bottom.

Is it a video game? A piece of interactive art? To me, it feels like a commentary on mass cooperation. With millions upon millions of cubes to break, there is no getting to the center without cooperation on a massive scale.

Curiosity also makes me think about the human desire for self expression. The cube's grey face has no instructions in the same way that a canvas of wet sand has no instructions. No one tells you to write your initials in the sand with your finger. Or draw something considerably less benign and more vulgar, if that's or disposition. But it still spontaneously happens, regardless. We all want to leave our mark on the world, even if it is fleeting.

And so it is with Curiosity. Gamers don't need to be told to communicate using the surface of the cube. It just happens. And like messages written in sand, Curiosity's very nature ensures that any message left is fleeting. It will be washed away by the actions of other users, replaced with a new layer of the cube and new engravings.

Until the center is reached, at least. After that... who knows?

Spot something especially memorable on the cube? Add it to our user-powered gallery of curiosity sightings!

Justin is Editor of IGN Wireless. He has been reviewing mobile games since the dark days of Java flip phones. You can follow him on Twitter at @ErrorJustin and on IGN.


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Spider-Man's Sidekick Gets the Spotlight

♦ by Unknown Wednesday, 14 November 2012 Monday, 5 November 2012 Thursday, 1 November 2012 Wednesday, 31 October 2012 0 comments

A few months back, we learned that Spider-Man was getting a sidekick. Later, we learned that his name was Alpha and he was a total douche. Now, beginning in February, writer Joshua Hale Fialkov and artist Nuno Plati will do their best to change our minds about the character in a new 5-issue mini-series from Marvel.

Fialkov, who recently wrote a spectacular back-up tale in The Amazing Spider-Man #692 with Plati (not to mention that he writes the always rad I, Vampire at DC), told USA Today, ""He was a freak and then he became famous, and now he's infamous and powerless essentially as far as the world knows. He's that creepy kid who used to be on a sitcom when he was 5."

We'll meet up again with the depowered Alpha before his mini-series in The Amazing Spider-Man #700, the events of which will lead directly to the Alpha mini-series. "It's a classic Marvel situation where you've got a kid with power who is making some wrong decisions," added Spidey overlord/editor Stephen Wacker. "That's an inherently dramatic story, watching someone screw up and learning along with them and seeing how they change."

Alpha will move to a new city -- Pittsburgh, PA -- in Marvel's further efforts to spread their heroes, particularly of the spider variety, outside of New York. Why Pittsburg? "Look, any way I can ingratiate myself back to my hometown city and somehow inspire a free trip and free Primanti Brothers sandwiches, I'm 100% behind," joked FIalkov. "It's actually a city about reinvention. It's a city that has transformed itself over and over and over again."

As for Alpha's levels of super-douchery, Fialkov told the paper, "I genuinely believe that Alpha is not a [jerk] like everyone says. He literally is just us. The tragedy in his life is that he was given this great gift and then it was more or less taken away from him. So let's explore what that means and what that does to a kid."

For more on the new Alpha mini-series, head on over to USA Today.

Joey is IGN's Comics Editor and a comic book creator. Follow Joey on Twitter @JoeyEsposito, or find him on IGN at Joey-IGN. He loves superhero pets so hard.


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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #15 Review

♦ by Unknown Wednesday, 14 November 2012 Monday, 5 November 2012 Thursday, 1 November 2012 Wednesday, 31 October 2012 0 comments

Tom Waltz and Kevin Eastman have been dragging more and more classic TMNT characters and elements into the new series in recent months. Issue #15 throws Leatherhead into the mix. Though the book hardly needs another villain at the moment, Leatherhead nonetheless enjoys a solid introduction into this new continuity.

The writers briefly establish Leatherhead's origin as another of Baxter Stockman's out-of-control experiments before shifting back to the present. The Turtles are currently searching for a new base of operations, which seems like another unnecessary addition considering how recently they moved into April's antique shop. In any case, issue #15 winds up offering a fun little blend of intrigue, horror, and levity. In the case of the latter quality, Splinter is given the opportunity to stop being so dour all the time and bond with Casey Jones. As far as horror goes, the creators offer up a cool sequence that sees Leatherhead stalk the Turtles in the shadows.

That fight sequence is expertly rendered by Andy Kuhn. While Kuhn's facial work is a bit bland compared to Dan Duncan's, his work is packed with kinetic energy and enough light and shadow to really pop off the page. The series continuously sets a higher visual standard for IDW's licensed comics.

One downside to this issue is a familiar complaint with the series -- it more or less requires readers to have read the April O'Neil micro-series one-shot to fully appreciate the events within. I understand that IDW is paying homage to the classic Mirage series by resurrecting the micro-series format, but in many cases these stories would have been better served by being integrated with the main book. After eight one-shots, maybe it's time to give it a rest and focus squarely on this series.

Jesse is a writer for various IGN channels. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter, or Kicksplode on MyIGN.


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