Nintendo Roundtable 2 – Open-book notes from the event!

The Ghost Recon Online team takes the stage first.

• “Ubisoft believes in Nintendo’s ability to redefine entertainment.”

• Touch pad gameplay breakthroughs and Always On online services are discussed.

Team based shooter. Think, then act

Clancy = Plausible blockbuster geo-political setting

The Ghosts = elite, toys, critical missions

Focus on Intel, Battlefield Communications.

• Touch screen of Wii U is shown selecting weapons and navigating maps!

• 3 different classes, each with different abilities.

• Assault (Ability: Blitz), Recon (Ability: Oracle), and Specialist (ability: AEGIS Shield)

• The Wii U controller is the “most exciting thing in Ghost Recon Online”. Called “Crosscom 2.0”. Intel gathering and action commands similar to a real soldier’s device.

• Interactive tactical map allows scrolling and visualization of friend/enemy positions, setting of attack beacons to coordinate teammates, etc. Looks cool.

• Perk system: Drone (each player has a personal drone as you progress that gets an overview of the battlefield, recognizes the enemies and flags them on the tactical map.

• Next up: an exclusive multiplayer live demo

• Adrian Blunt (producer) and Samrat Sharma (designer) take the stage next.

• Samrat: Feels “fairly intuitive “

• Drone is shown flying on controller screen now during gameplay, which allows the player to both continue controlling the character and fly the drone simultaneously.

• ONLINE SERVICES:

  • Working with Nintendo to make this “as online as possible.”

  • A few peeks at services online early in the process: stats system that maintains a persona; you can log into your account on Wii U to maintain your progression.

  • Friends list, friending people online.

  • Compare through ranking, challenges.

  • Still parental controls just to keep it safe when necessary.

• The “Ghost Feed”. New device remains on even if it is off or the TV is watching broadcast or something else. You can track achievements, etc. even as the television is being used for something else.

• As you are playing, you are not only competing against the people which are online, but you are also watching your friends’ stats and such.

• More to be revealed in the coming months.

• Come by the Nintendo booth to see more about this.

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• Ubisoft Montpellier — “Killer Freaks from Outer Space”

• Exclusive for the Wii U.

• “Redefining FPS Competitive Multiplayer”

• Little goofy looking alien things eating a human arm; Saw gun slices them apart.

• STORY

• A big wad of pulsating pus has travelled through space and time and has now arrived in London. It is spawning hordes of evil, nasty, flesh-eating freaks. There are a wide variety of said freaks, but the only ones shown today were the little ankle-biting (quite literally) annoying little freaks.

• No one listened to you as you frantically prepared in your paranoia for this inevitable alien war.

• CONTROLS

• This is what brings the FPS to the next level.

• Darren Boyd (?) main character. You are a bit obsessed with shooting things, and with all these aliens, it’s sort of open season for you.

• Control is slightly buggy in this early state.

• He is playing directly on the new Wii U controller screen using the gyro controls. Every movement he makes in real life is translated to the game.

• Looks like it may be tiring. “Spatial gameplay.” Clearly this requires a decent amount of radial open space, sort of like with Kinect or the 3DS AR stuff.

• “More Immersion through controls.”

• Accelerometer feature moves the character much faster if your movements indicate the need to do so automatically. This makes 180-degree turns much more reasonable.

• Jetpack + guns, controllable only because of the new controller’s flexibility in design.

• Two aliens kinkily spanking one another in the back of one building, lol.

• A new way of playing FPS. More accuracy when needed and more immersion.

• Now, we will see another way to play.

• 1 vs 1, local multiplayer

• One of the two showcasers is playing with a Classic Controller.

• “Real-time enemy director”

• Player 1 is playing a classic FPS game style. Nothing’s there for him to shoot, however, until player 2 moves around in a top-down view of the battlefield (zooming in and out, etc.)–who plays as an alien commander–sets out to eradicate the human race by placing hordes of enemies to try and stop the player. Select a freak on the left side of the screen and set it to send it at the opponent. As Player 1 deals with the chaos Player 2 has created, 2 can watch all of the action from his top-down tactical perspective.

• Deeper — New fun with the new controller (gyro, accelerometer); spatial gameplay

• Wider — Real-Time Enemy Director (RED) system

• ASSASSIN’S CREED

• Expand the franchise and add new features that can only happen on this console.

• Powerful multi-core architecture and large memory capacity are perfect for the AC development team.

• New console fully supports graphical shaders. Compatibility with their engine and assets as a result, so reusal of assets is possible.

• Experimenting with controller:
  – Persistent on-screen map

  • – Interactive Database

  • – Fast weapon selection

  • – Alternative puzzle

  • – Eagle vision/sense

• Developers will experience immediate familiarity with APIs

• “This is just the beginning.” Dedicated team working hard to ensure the AC experience is optimal on this console.

• Q&A

• Wondering about the use of two controllers on the same TV.

  • Cannot share that yet.

• Wondering about why the killer freaks look sort of like Raving Rabbids. Is this because they’d like to see the RR kill someone? (laughs)

  • Just a lot of the same people who worked on the original RR games. After you work on a brand for long enough you sort of want to blow them away. (laughs)

• Question about Ghost Recon.

  • Friends lists and etc., is it game-specific or systemwide? No answer yet.

• Ghost Feed being persistent–what type of security for account data will be provided?

  • Expected PR answer.

• Ghost Recon online service allow for cross-platform play?

  • Cannot say yet.

• Strafe with one stick and zoom with the other stick.

• Ghost Recon Online for PC is a free-to-play game. Any idea on what will be happening here for Wii U?

  • Cannot say yet.

• Any other games in development?

  • Cannot say yet.

• Comment on the power of the Wii U hardware as compared to other consoles.

  • Too early.

• Cost-wise, how does this affect the production of a game?

  • Additional costs are mostly creative.

• What’s it going to take to get the rest of the development community enthused, as well as consumers?

  • Very few designers have learned about the new hardware. However they are really excited, and lucky. Everyone is really excited.

• Killer freaks: concerns about the control system being exhausting for the player?

  • They are working on this, but the accelerometer already does a good job of reducing the amount of movement necessary if you wish to sit and play.

• Can Ghost Feed alert someone as they are doing other things?

  • He will take note. 😉

• Killer Freaks team: Clearly a core game; showed local multiplayer mode.

• Can you play without a TV? Also, what kind of range?

  • No answers on range yet, but yes, there is some functionality about being able to turn off the TV and still play the game.

Thanks again to Nintendo for this opportunity to participate in such an exciting event.  Stay tuned to DigitalChumps for more coverage of Killer Freaks from Outer Space, Ghost Recon Online, Assassin’s Creed, and all of the other upcoming software for Nintendo’s future console!