WiiHD is your one-stop shop for hardcore gaming on the Wii.
Hardcore gamers frequently belittle the Wii for its low-power CPU, small storage space and gimicky casual games. Nintendo didn't keep their promise to focus on both hardcore AND casual games, but they did design a control system that is truly next-gen. Rumors of similar controls for PS3 and the 360 tell that tale. Sure, you can accurately control a 3D game with dual analog. You can also communicate in binary, but why would you want to? The Wii Remote rivals the PC keyboard and mouse as a control mechanism for 3D worlds, and it leaves dual-analog as a relic of the past. It can change the way games are played. Hardcore gaming isn't just about distracting ADD patients with shiny gfx, it's about delivering a whole new way of playing.
The Wii's FPS controls have finally been perfected with the release of Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. In November of 2007, Medal of Honor: Heroes 2 brought the first taste of online FPS to the system, and the most customizable controls we've seen so far. Nintendo's focus may be elsewhere, but if you buy, the games will come. The most exciting game on the menu now is The Conduit, a new original IP from High Voltage that promises the whole package for the first time. The Wii has overtaken the xbox 360's 1 year lead and has the largest install base of any console. Talk of most of them being casual gamers is a misnomer—the new casual gamers mostly live in the same household as a hardcore gamers. If developers will finally stop phoning in Wii development and give us complete games, they'll see incredible returns.
This site will follow, document, review, compare and contrast the Wii's hardcore games with your help. There's good news on the horizon. Be a part of it at WiiHD. And leave your casual games at the door.
WiiHD is a huge fan of online gaming, but not just any online gaming. Core gaming in genres like racing, fighting, and shooters. So now we want to do our part to help the core Clan community on Wii make themselves known and increase their membership. We will begin listing notable clans that actively engage in clan wars in games like Medal of Honor: Heroes 2. We will however keep the gates, so not just any clan listing will be accepted. A clan needs to demonstrate viability to be listed
WiiHD is now unveiling a gallery of user created videos from Medal of Honor: Heroes 2 (MoHH2), currently the best FPS on Wii, and the only one with online multiplayer. We'll be doing this for a number of similar games as they come out. If you want your video included, just hit the link above and use the submission form.
by David Marseilles
on 11 Sep 2008 19:42 Tags: civrev currents strategy tips-n-tricks
WiiHD's Civilization Revolution tutorial was fairly well received, so we're going to begin to give you some more pointers to up your game play. If you enjoy this post, let us know with a comment, and we'll consider continuing the series. You can find all Civ Rev Tips, including Civ Rev Tips: James Bond Edition at our new Civ Rev Tips page.
Civilization Revolution is a complex game with different ways to win and many different successful strategies that depend on the civilization you're playing with, the civs you are competing against, and the situation you're in at the moment (as well as obviously, the difficulty level). There is no single strategy that will win you the game every time, especially in multiplayer against real people. There ARE however, some tricks that when used correctly, give you a much needed edge. Although WiiHD plays the DS version, these tips apply to all platforms.
Live for nothing, Or die for something. What's your call?
It's nice that Civilization Revolution is about more than combat. Exploration, Diplomacy, Research and City Management all figure in to a good strategy. But if you're playing a decent opponent, you're going to have to fight eventually. Below are some tips to make sure you fight well and make the most of limited resources. Even as a weaker Civilization, you can make sure combat goes your way by making certain the side with superior forces loses more than you do.
First, it's important to understand combat. Each unit has a base number for offense and another for defense (to see all unit strengths, check out the Units, Buildings and Wonders Guide). Warriors have 1 for offense and 1 for defense. If one warrior attacks an enemy warrior on plains and he isn't fortified or experienced, the battle is a toss-up (depending on the level of difficulty). Beyond that, your base numbers can be affected in many ways. Base facilities like a Wall can give you plus 100% defense. Terrain provides bonuses: hills give you +50% offense OR defense, if a regular unit has to cross a river or attack from a vessel, you lose -50% of your base number. Upgrades are a vital part of combat, and we'll spend most of this edition of Civ Rev Tips talking about them. Fortification provides a defensive bonus, and making armies combines the base numbers and experience of 3 units into a single super powerful unit. Naval support provides an nice attack and defense bonus, depending on the strength of the unit.
Armies are a vital part of combat in Civilization Revolution, but forming the right armies isn't as simple as it might seem. Yes, you can put any 3 units of the same type into an army, and have a unit 3 times more powerful than any of them alone. But what you want to get the most of as few resources as possible is to form armies that have the right combination and concentration of experience and upgrades.
As an example, let's say you make 3 archers at a city with no terrain bonuses without a barracks, and make an army out of them. Then you fortify the army. Once they are fortified, you have a defensive value of 12 ((2x3) +6 for fortification). Your city can be easily taken by a veteran horseman army plus a spy (to disable your fortification), a regular Knight army, and successive attacks of fairly weak units that still manage to do you damage. Now combine 1 elite archer with an engineer upgrade, another with a Leadership upgrade and another with a loyalty upgrade, in a city on a hill, fortify, wall the city, and place a defending spy in your city. You now have a defensive value of around 33. Without even taking into account naval support, you could potentially defeat a regular tank army with that setup. With archers. You could easily take down a single bomber, scoff at un-upgraded knight armies, and fight legions while simultaneously writing the Great American Novel. It's not easy to do, but it is doable, and WiiHD will teach you how if you keep reading.
We told you about Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars for Wii. Now it's time for DS to get some exposure with Mushroom Men: Rise of the Fungi. Featuring an entirely different story line in the Mushroom Men universe, Rise of the Fungi tells you about the early stages of sentience for the races of Mushrooms and spiders and beetles and hornets (oh my!). They are just beginning to seperate into the 4 Mushroom Nations that will be battling it out in The Spore Wars. You're a member of the Bolete Tribe, first facing the challenge of how to survive in a hostile enviornment, and then facing foreign Mushroom Men that aren't as peaceful as you'd hoped.
DS Fanboy got their hands on Rise of the Fungi, so we're going to give you some quotes:
The first level's weapon: the Last Line of Defense, which is a fishhook, a tiny metal rod, and a crankshaft stuck together. That enabled me to fight the Mosquito General somewhat successfully, and then it mysteriously disappeared. Following my defeat of the General, I was sent back through the level to pick up Bits of Food for my mushroom tribe, then onto the next level. To reach the entrance, I had to float down on a leaf parachute. To build this, I had to solve a puzzle (identified by a puzzle icon in the level) in which I arranged a picture of the item out of fragments.
all [enemies] have weaknesses and resistances to certain types of weapons and attacks. When you accost one of these enemies, the non-gameplay screen changes to information about your enemy's HP and attributes. Not listed in the mosquitoes' info: they're huge jerks and it can be hard to hit them with a stick.
Also true in real life JC. The two screens are the main action screen, and the other which is enemy info when you're fighting and inventory when you're not. When you need to swap inventory items, you can quickly hit an icon on the action screen and pull up your inventory for swapping items.
Read the whole thing at DS Fanboy, and catch the full gallery with two vids after the break.
Since last we covered PyroBlazer, there are loads and loads of new screenshots and a second trailer. As was the case earlier, these appear to be purely from the PC version of the game.
Pyroblazer is, as you might recall, a futuristic racer with a comforting series of combat elements. Why are they comforting? Because if you're not faster than the competition, at least you can try to kill them.
We contacted Candella Software to ask about the makeup of the Wii build of the game. They told us the Wii version is borrowing assets from the PC version, modified, of course. This is a little comforting for a game that is coming in PC, Wii and PSP flavors. It wouldn't be the first time a developer developed a PSP game and a Wii game too closely together. The release window for the Wii version of PyroBlazer hasn't been narrowed beyond "next year", but we'll keep you up to date as new information comes in.
If Hillary Clinton had won the Democratic nomination, the question of whom the avid gamer should vote for in the next presidential election would have been easy: anyone but Hillary Clinton. Her Senate history was scattered with failed attempts to regulate games and frequent calls to investigate industry bodies, leaving no question that a new Clinton White House would challenge the industry status quo.
But she didn't win. So who is more hands-off in the race now? Obama or McCain? Hit the break to see excerpts of Edge-online's assessments of candidate's records, but the summary is as follows.
Obama sees a need for regulation but believes the industry should regulate itself. That sounds okay, but he promises that if they fail to self-regulate, his administration would do it for them. This is precisely the kind of rhetoric Hillary Clinton (along with McCain's friend Joe Lieberman) was using while her record was becoming littered with all those regulation attempts.
McCain, in yet another stance he doesn't share with his supporter Joe Lieberman, says game regulation should be up to parents, not government.
There are some quotes on VP picks as well after the break, and we're looking for the video of McCain using Medal of Honor: European Assault music against the composer's wishes.
Eluan has been hard at work on Quake Wii, making a number of improvements. There's something of a changelog after the break, but the most interesting thing is that users are reporting much greater mod compatibility.
The new release has a big increase in mod compatibility (ive just noticed.) I have tested out [everything] from weapons to bots, and they work [beautifully].
(except for a quick reduction of framerate in a thick strip on the top of the screen using some mods, like bots.)
What does this mean? It means a massive library of quake mods could soon be yours for the asking. Hundreds and hundreds of maps and tweaks could turn Quake Wii into one of the longer-lasting games available on the system.
Excellent news. Discussion of networking elements is still taking place, and there are even dreams of Quake 2 and 3 dancing in developers' heads.
"You want to know about the publisher, don't you?" Rob Nicholls, the game's designer, asked when he saw my media badge. He had effectively read my mind and answered in turn. "We're not ready to officially announce anything, but things are in the works. Look for the word in the coming month."
Over the past few weeks, Nintendo Wii Fanboy has repeatedly noted the oddity of publisher choice being a teaser. They failed to note why, instead making it sound like some sort of off-the-wall decision by a developer that might not know what they're doing. It's valid to note the oddity of the situation. It's very strange not to explain why publisher choice is SO important. So WiiHD will.
Not every publisher can bring their own online network to the table and completely ignore Nintendo's backward FC system (should the need arise). EA has already done it (the need did arise). One presumes Activision could, were they so inclined. If Nintendo were to publish it, obviously they could make any exceptions to their current rule-set that they wanted to (and no one would be happier than WiiHD if Nintendo suddenly went reasonable on us) , but it would be unprecedented.
A game like this, unlike some others, NEEDS a sane lobby system. So far, Nintendo has refused to make that sort of system a part of their Wi-Fi Connection network. So if you want it, you need a publisher willing to provide it, or you need Nintendo to make a BIG change.
Outside of features, one of the reasons this game had been so hyped is that basic game decisions (such as not including the letter "Z" at the end of the title) were made without publisher interference. If a publisher is getting signed now, they still have plenty of time to ruin the game. This consideration favors different publishers, since EA and Activision are often too big to be bothered with quality (especially on Wii). Capcom would be an encouraging choice on the quality front.
If HVS pulls a rabbit out of their hat, and manages to present a publisher capable of providing a full feature set and not ruining the game, it would be about the biggest news of this game's life-cycle. It might also guarantee The Conduit will become one the best games of the Wii's entire lifespan and launch a new franchise as well elevate HVS to the top of the Wii developer ladder. The wrong choice could make The Conduit forgettable and a source of buyer's remorse.
The stuff Wii Fanboy would probably expect to be a publicity tease, like the online feature set, are directly tied to the publisher decision. If you dig back through some earlier interviews, you'll find HVS discussing publishers in relation to feature questions that they couldn't yet answer. Do you want lobbies? Do you want solid communication options? Do you want good matchmaking? Do you want a decent ranking system? Then you care how HVS makes THIS decision. It could be the most defining decision of the game.
And there's more.
"We're going to ship with a full single player campaign and both offline and online multiplayer. We're also working with Nintendo now on getting LAN play working [via system link]."
Off-line multiplayer? Splitscreen has been denied in the past. Did they re-assess that decision? Is the offline some sort of cooperative play with rails or quasi-rails? Or might this be off-line vs? Keep your fingers crossed.
Finally, not content with what they've already got, HVS used their PAX demoing to aggressively solicit feedback from gamers so they can make the most of the next 6 months:
Nicholls admitted that there was much tweaking to be done. "We've been drilling normal [non-media] gamers to get a feel for what works and what doesn't," he said. "We're looking to make the controls not just functional but fun, too." And drill he did. I listened intently as he polled the gaming public about their experience with the game and listened carefully to the feedback, especially the negatives. Without dismissing a single criticism, Nicholls made note of the problems and rewarded gamers' honesty with buttons and shirts.
Star War: The Clone Wars (you know, the other definitive Lightsaber game for Wii that doesn't use Motion Plus) showed off some lightsaber-duel footage at Leipzig. Grab it after the break.
At first blush, WiiHD likes The Force Unleashed's duel mode better. It could simply be that these were convention goers playing the Clone Wars demo rather than programmers who knew all the ins and outs of the game, but Force Unleashed looked to be more dynamic. We'll of course keep an open mind as more footage comes out.
The Wii's library has taken extraordinary leaps and bounds since last year, especially in the 3rd party category. But that shouldn't keep us from hoping for more. There are some great games out there that Wii hasn't gotten a shot at yet, and Wii Wish is where WiiHD (and you) can document those great titles.
Today's featured title is Mirror's Edge. A First Person Action Adventure title, Mirror's Edge has a highly versatile gameplay model that allows you navigate the finer gradations of your environment with more freedom than most games. As we've talked about before, more photo-realism begs for more freedom of movement—and Mirror's Edge seems poised to deliver just that.
You are Faith, a loving sister looking to secure your sibling's freedom from an evil regime. Right now you're acting as a message runner for the criminal element, since Big Brother watches all conventional communications. In the course of playing (running), you'll be subjected to a game interface that really tries to immerse you in your environment, not just with effects and lighting, but with visual feedback of your actions. You'll see your arms and legs pumping, hear your lungs laboring and you'll see realistic recoil when you make a landing.
In fact, seeing this game is believing (unless you're prone to motion-sickness). Hit the break for some video, tell us what you think, and then describe the game you wish were coming to Wii. Don't hold back either, swing for the fences.
Nothing crazy ground-breaking. The game has been in development since Casino Royale, so they claim the quality is higher than most Licensed games that rush to meet a movie release date. Here are some quotes. The full interview is linked below.
Quantum of Solace will follow the story of the film. In fact, one of the reasons we went and visited the sets was so that we could take reference photos so that our environments can look as identical to the film as possible. We've also got some scenes from Casino Royale in here, which play out as flashbacks throughout the game. The game is called Quantum of Solace, so we wanted you to get straight into the new stuff from the first level. There are also some levels that show scenes that are not from either films, but are part of their stories.
Daniel Craig was actually the most reluctant [to be in the game]. He's a big gamer himself and didn't want to be in a poorly made licensed game, so we sat him down and let him play an early build. He loved it and came back to us to say "Okay, I'll do it." Since then he's been a very important part of making the game what it is. We try to get him to give us feedback as much as possible, but he is obviously a very busy man. We'll send script drafts to him to check over, so he's been been involved with that aspect too.
A gallery is after the break, conspicuously lacking in Wii screens and video.
The once exclusive XBLA title, Pirates Vs Ninjas Dodgeball, is now coming to… WiiWare? It doesn't look like it. Looks like it will be a retail Wii title. In addition to the XBLA content, the Wii version does at least get two exclusive modes: Story and Challenge.
In addition to being able to play as Pirates and Ninjas, there are two other known team type: Robots and Zombies. There's three last unnamed team types, which WiiHD couldn't find reference to in the 360 materials, but it's unclear if any of these three will be exclusive to Wii or not.
The Wii version promises "up to eight players", but does not specify online play. The XBLA version promises 8 players for their online mode, so is this a clue the Wii will be equipped with a similar online mode, or is it just a mistake or botched language?
We'll just have to wait and see. The game is due out this winter. It's not exactly on WiiHD's Most Wanted List, but we're withholding judgment since it could be fun. Wii screens and XBLA video after the break.
Where are you suppose to install the hombrew channel? what website I know the steps but I didnt...
(by Amauri Rodriguez (guest)13 May 2010 22:58,
posts: 2)
I've been a PC gamer for more than a decade. Last console I owned before Wii was an NES. It's a...
(by David Marseilles (guest)05 Apr 2010 21:34,
posts: 8)
