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Chronicles

E3 2010 has 18 chronicles

  1. E3 2010 E3 Inside Look: Nintendo 3DS

    Player Chronicle -- Posted on Jun 27 2010

    By Andrew Gassen
    June 20, 2010

    Nintendo had quite a showing at this year's E3. From hardcore titles such as The Legend of Zelda and Metroid, to the casual titles like Wii Party, many feel that Nintendo delivered the goods. While the 3DS was announced before E3, it was definitely the most intriguing aspect of Nintendo's lineup, and lucky for you, I got a hands-on demo of the mystical new device.

    It appears very similar to the existing DS lineup, albeit with a few very important differences. First of all, the unit now has an analog-ish slide pad, which felt very similar to the PSP's analog nub. The location is much better, however, and the surface has a lovely indentation for your thumb. It still lacks the feel of a conventional analog joystick, but it's much better than not having one at all. The unit carries a bit more weight than the existing DS, but it's not too bad and actually makes the unit feel more solid.

    The 3DS features a front facing camera and two rear facing cameras, and one of the demo's I played utilized all three. In this particular demo, you use the cameras and the integrated accelerometers/gyroscopes to find and shoot spaceships. The kicker, though, is that the environment you're navigating is the actual environment seen by the cameras, except with rendered overlays of enemies. It was pretty neat, if slightly disorienting.

    Now, I'm sure you're all wondering about the actual 3D part of the 3DS. Well, there's good and bad. The good: it works. The bad: sometimes it works too well. The 3D is adjustable, which is a good thing. You can go from plain ol' 2D to "extreme melt your face" 3D, but for most demos on display, the sweet spot was somewhere in the middle. The 3D could get blurry and jittery, especially with a lot of action on screen, but usually one could find a sweet spot. Except in the Resident Evil demo, that was a nightmare. I'm still dizzy from watching it. It's important to note that none of the demos (aside from the augmented reality spaceship shooting) were playable, so it's difficult to tell if the graphics rendered were in-game or not. If they were, we're in for a treat. The Metal Gear Solid demo looked superior than the PlayStation 2 title, and the Resident Evil demo looked phenomenal.

    Overall, I'm a bit skeptical at this point. With no in-game, playable demos shown, I'm afraid the 3D is more of a gimmick than anything else. In fact, I'm more excited about the upgraded hardware than I am the 3D capability. I'm afraid of the types of quick cash-in titles we're going to see for this handheld, but after having a Wii and DS for several years, I suppose I'm used to it. Until Nintendo shows me something playable, I have to stick with a "Meh" as my initial impression. But it sure is shiny.



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