Nintendo 3DS

[Neon Ignition]

Hopefully the 3DS's flexi-RRP system will allow it to return to the old model of falling price tags over its lifespan rather than the NDS's rising price model which should help sales maintain. From a hardware perspective it's a really easy sell, for the foreseeable future they're going to be mainly aiming at catching the 120m plus users who bought and loved the predecessor. I know there's the idea that it's a recession and a load of people love cheap iOS titles but that just goes to prove that despite economic hardships there's a large amount of people willing to fork out ?500 on a device that offers barely any improvements on it's forebearer so the 3DS should be an easy sell until it hits the killer app point. The thing is, at the minimum, the negatives against the 3DS are mostly the same one's used against the NDS and Wii when they came out and both exceeded expectations dramatically. Despite the lack of 3D I'm still finding the PSP2 a more appealing proposition however if any handheld struggles this gen, it'll be that and not this.

[yesteryeargames]

Ive had 1 street pass in my small hometown

Im addicted to the fishing AR game atm, this would work really well on animal crossing , The console has huge potential for a perfect animal crossing game

Re-
GAME were told to buy Nintendo 3DS consoles and games from supermarket rival Tesco on launch night to sell them in-store as pre-owned.
This is soo wrong what a bunch of *******

[Flabio]

As long as they're not passing it off as new product then it's not illegal.

Not exactly moral, but not illegal.

[sj33]

Would you expect anything less from a company who's entire business model revolves around screwing over publishers and developers?

[Brad]

Their 3ds console, accessories and games are all more expensive than my indie and you just KNOW that they pay less wholesale. Mind you, Tesco are no better.

[Hazuki]

Has anybody experienced anything like this yet? Was messing around looking at 3d photos and the 3d effect on the menus, with the lights out last night. Was doing this for about 20mins. When i switched the 3DS off, due to being in a dark room, i noticed my vision was strobing badly. It was a bit like being in a David Lynch film. After about 1 min of this, a big white 3DS screen sized rectangle appeared across my vision. Like the after effects of camera flash but far worse. Looking around the room it was hard to see anything else. I closed my eyes to get rid of it, but to my horror it was still there. Just a huge white sheet burnt into my vision. Lasted for about 10 mins, gradually fading away and occasionally coming back, until it was finally gone. Then for about another 5 mins after that, even with my eyes closed, it felt like something was in my peripheral vision and my eyes felt like they were on fire. Not had any other real problems in the previous 5 days of play. **** me up no end.

I've been gaming since the 80's, used to do daft 12 hour sessions on games like FFVII and Resident Evil back in the PSOne days, still game quite heavily now, Wii, DS, Gamecube, 360. Also spend ages looking at LCD screens whilst audio recording. Never had anything like this before. This thing cannot be good for you.

[Party boy]

Maybe you were abducted by aliens! It almost sounds like you were on drugs or something, hmmm...

[Shozuki]

Not sure if Party Boy will allow me to have an opinion , but now that i've had the machine for a few days I thought i'll chuck in my updated tuppence worth.

I must say AR Games is something thats a cool idea and I've been using it to demo the tech to my family and friends, so thats cool. Everything else however is just as annoying as ever, I've given up trying to use 3D when playing any games because simply its impossible not to move the machine slightly when doing certain actions and as you all know the machine needs to be in a precise position in order to view 3D.

My other concern is just quite standard really. i have been addicted to Ridge Racer, but the machines buttons are too small and annoyingly positioned so I find I get hand cramp after 10-15 minutes of use and thus I need to put the machine down.

My overall thoughts are, games that have a similar interface to the original DS i.e minimal button use should be fun to play on this machine and chances are you'll end up moving the machine less so you'll be able to view the 3D better. But for current 'core' style games I dont think the machine is really up to it.

For 3D theres 3DS for everything else theres NGP (I hope!)...

[Hazuki]

Or just maybe, there's the possibility that the health effects of 3D need more research, and that especially on a small screen, and in a dark environment, its not good for your eyes/brain. I also forgot to mention that i woke up this morning with my left eye feeling badly strained, and both eyes as dry as a bone. Interesting, that's mentioned in the manual's health warnings section. My eyes also seem to be trying to translate flat 2D images into 3D now, which feels odd. I'm also having trouble focusing on text as i'm typing this, yet never had any problems before. After 5 days fairly heavy play, i can say with confidence that its def having a detrimental affect on my vision. There's no way i'm ruining my eyesight and spoiling gaming for myself, just for some added depth, no matter how good it looks. I reckon we're going to be seeing a lot more problems/health complaints cropping up over the coming months. I can certainly see this putting people off the machine, and being a huge problem for Nintendo. Just glad the 3D can be turned off completely, Nintendo need to be shouting about that from the roof tops.

Just for the record, i don't do drugs, they're for muppets.
If this kind of thing can happen out of the blue after 20mins, i hate to think what would happen with an extended session on something like Zelda in 3D!

[yesteryeargames]

Anything in moderation is fine, people who decide to play when feeling tierd are asking for eyestrain and fatigue trouble. I usually play the 3ds with the slider half way up and no longer than an hour ive not had single headache. I had slight eyestrain the 1st day i used it but thats because i was using the slider at the very top without any breaks.
Im used to glasses 3D on my TV so my eyes might be better trained to the 3d effect than most.

[Dogg Thang]

The 3D has been pretty hard on my eyes too. I would have my doubts as to how good this is for the eyes.

When I think about it logically, the 3D presents a real problem for the eyes. If the actual screen is 35cm away from the eyes, your eyes have to focus that distance for the image to be crystal clear. But, due to the 3D effect, your eyes are fooled into seeing past that (as it seems to be mostly depth here). So, let's say that's only a bit, like 37cm. You're then focusing beyond the actual screen you're looking at, and so the image will lose clarity, so your eyes try to pull it back into focus. So, because of the discrepancy, your eyes have a real fight basically trying to focus on two different distances at once.

[abigsmurf]

The worst thing for 3D is when I have to refocus going from far to near.

For example in Pilot wings my eyes keep refocusing heavily (to the extent where I can actually feel them doing so) automatically whenever I glance at the rocket pack guy for positioning. Guessing it's bad with him because he's closer to the camera than the other vehicles and you need to focus heavier on his positioning. This is also possibly why most people need to turn down the 3D in Pilotwings.

In films they use focus to prevent you shifting your view back and forth like this. As the 3DS isn't powerful enough for good depth of field effects, it could end up being a wider problem.

[JSR]

The worst thing for 3D is when I have to refocus going from far to near. In films they use focus to prevent you shifting your view back and forth like this.

Mostly it's because the movies are 2D, and the cameras don't have a super wide focal range. Not to mention to direct the viewer to what they want them to view at any given time (that's the beauty of the 3DS, you choose what to look at, as it is all in focus).

I think you will adjust to the 3D in the 3DS. I don't find what you describe a problem at all. I suspect that's because I'm used to seeing 3D on a monitor. In the beginning it was straining, but after a while, your muscles get stronger. You are after all using muscles you almost never use in your daily life.

[Party boy]

I think, if anything, one of the biggest issues is the distance from the screen, in the cinema you'll probably be 'infinite' focal lengths away, so it won't have as much effect on your focus, certainly if the effect went back into the screen it'd still be infinite focal lengths away.

I'm sure Nintendo will have done their research, and the games testers for the various games will have hammered the 3DS more than most if not all of us ever will (in terms of hours per week). I think it goes without saying that looking at a bright screen at close quarters in a dark room isn't going to do you any favours though. I've had something similar with an energy saving light bulb in my bedroom, the length of it meant it was in a direct line of sight, whereas a normal light bulb wouldn't be and it left an 'after image' for a while.

I saw on another forum a former drug addict comparing the 3DS to drug addiction, and the negative health issues associated with the latter, as if being a former drug addict made him an expert on optometry...

[abigsmurf]

Media create sales for last week:

PSP | 51.095
3DS | 50.710

Ouch.