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.
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.
by David Marseilles
on 21 Dec 2008 02:49 Tags: cod5 currents fps wawii wwii
WiiHD's hands are all over Call of Duty: World at War for the Wii. There's a lot to like, but sadly there are some things to HATE passionately as well.
The Really, Really Bad
Friend Codes
Inability to choose a map or other settings in "Find a Match" games (likely the most common kind you'll play given how fraking long it takes to collect, enter, and get someone else to reciprocate with FCs)
Update: Invites from your Friends pop up a display that interferes with your gameplay even if you're in a game. It's almost as annoying as MoHH2's battery warning — the solution to both should have been the same — display a HUD icon to notify, but not interrupt your game. Once you're in a place to do so, you can pause and address the notice. As it is, you can pretty much count on Invites only coming JUST when you're in the middle of a serious and deadly dogfight.
Workaround: create a second profile for when you don't want to interrupted. Of course, your two profiles will have to unlock everything separately and rank up separately
The Bad
Voting to skip a map you don't like requires 50% + 1 (with a minimum of 3). Less would be better
No Comm
Some framerate drops
World War II. Again. If it were all European theatre, it'd be in the Really, really bad column.
Update: Only DM and TDM? Call of Duty should be better than that. Where's CTF and SaD?
Limited Control customization.
Presets for turning speed instead of a sensitivity slider
No bounding box (dead zone) resizing are with 4 presets
Honestly, this would have been acceptable in VERY early 2007. Now it's fraking criminal. Shame on you Treyarch, even beenox did better with QoS, to say nothing of what the PSP port MoHH2 did.
Update: Only a Host can invite to a Private match. If you're invited to one, you can't in turn invite someone else in to help fill it out. That makes Clan wars all that much harder, since the game host doesn't just need one enemy clan FC (and then just let that one player invite the rest), but ALL of them. And what happens with last minute substitutions? Massive game delay failures.
For clan wars, you can still have each clan form a party prior to the beginning of the game. One clan gets all their members into the party, then the game host invites that party host. Still, it's inconvenient.
For regular matches with Friends, it seems pretty inconvenient that invited users can't use their friend lists to supplement the hosts friend list and make there's always a full game going.
The Good
Nice look
The super-confusing single player campaign really captures that jungle warfare "where the frak is the enemy…. OH FRAK, THERE THEY ARE" feel
players blend in easily in multiplayer as well—forcing you to keep you're eyes very very peeled
Fresh FPS. Sadly, its networking lacks a lot of MoHH2's flexibility, but the maps, the weapons, the campaign… WaWii is the whole package, not one of the PSP/PS2 ports we're used to
Weapon selection is good, and their respective strengths are clear from the selection screen
Custom Classes rock and seem well balanced.
Streak bonuses rock. Yeah, they get used against you as much as for you, but they add a nice element to the game. I recommend relying heavily on melee to get the dogs. You can shoot them at a distance, but once they're in your face, pull that knife baby. Surveillance plane: 3 kills, Artillery strike (which can kill friendlies too): 5 kills, Dogs: 7 kills.
You can jump. I spent a good 5 minutes looking for the jump button when I first bought MoHH2 before finally (*gasp*) opening the manual, only to discover that in EA's book, apparently man had not learned to jump yet in the World War 2 era. Activision and my grandpa disagree.
Update: Spawning in TDMs starts you with your team and tends to put you close to your team on respawn. A welcome system.
Update: I never have to use the accelerometer. I do toss poison gas grenades, but I suspect Treyarch used the IR light orientation for the twist feedback rather than the accelerometer, like MoHH2 did with scope zooming. Bad motion controls can really screw an experience, but Treyarch wisely limited them.
The Neutral
You can change button layouts between several preset layouts. This would be in the good column if there were one custom layout option.
No ammo pickups online. You can pick up the weapons of the dead, but even if it's the same weapon you already have, you don't get to combine ammo.
Expect a few updates tomorrow, and feel free to flame my list in the comments.
Call of Duty: World at War is rated M for mature due to 1) Blood and Gore, 2) Intense Violence and 3) Strong Language. As such you can't buy it at retail unless you are 17 or older.
Call of Duty: World at War (WaWii) is getting the full preview from users who've gotten their hands on the game. Wondering what the online offerings are and how they work? Keep reading.
Options for getting into a game are "Find a Match" or "Private Match"
There are 8 maps
Large Maps are Asylum and Cliffside, Medium maps are Castle, Hangar, Makin, and Upheaval, Small maps are Dome and Courtyard
You don't get to choose your maps in "Find a Match", they appear to be randomly chosen. To skip one you don't like, at least half the players gathered must choose to do so. =(
You can customize a lot options, including which map you want, in private match. More details when we have them.
Early reports are that Friend Codes are Not required for private matches =)
WiiHD remains skeptical and awaits more information however
It is still unclear how you get other players into a private match, so you should remain skeptical too
Update New reports indicate that the only conceivable way to get people into your private match, is through your Friend List — which is Friend Code controlled.
Update one user from callofduty.com claims (based on 2nd hand information) that after a random match, you can send friend requests from a list of recent opponents, a la Mario Kart Wii, in addition to adding via Friend Code
Update: so far there is no corroboration for the idea that you can add someone without a FC. WiiHD is investigating and encourages skepticism with all things related to FCs. Update: On further inspection, WiiHD can find no such option. Until someone with firsthand experience explains it, we're assuming it's bogus.
Leaderboards can be found under the "Barracks" moniker, and there is a locked mode called "Create a class" for custom class creation
For Create a Class, you choose a Primary weapon, a sidearm, a primary grenade and a special grenade and 3 perks
Match modes are "Bootcamp" (TDM for people under level 8 only), "TDM", "Free for All", "Hardcore TDM" (a locked mode, presumably just for vets), and "Veteran" (also locked at the beginning)
We'll update this when we know more about the Private Match setup.
Special thanks to zzzpwned and garththecat for sharing the info. Special thanks to MetroidCrime and the best Wii gaming forum for bringing it to WiiHD's attention. There is user gameplay footage after the break.
Once upon a time, players of EA's PSP port, Medal of Honor: Heroes 2 (MoHH2), labored under the assumption that every major shooter thereafter would be better in every way than MoHH2. Why wouldn't it be? Yes, MoHH2 got a lot of the fundamentals right, but it was still a PSP port made on a shoestring budget by a team that had never developed for a console before. Those MoHH2 players were wrong.
WiiHD has delayed reporting one of the more depressing details of IGN's most recent preview of WaWii (World at War Wii), but the time has come to bite the bullet. Instead of the 32 player online multiplayer offered by MoHH2, or even the 16 player multiplayer offered by the PS360 version of WaW, IGN indicates that WaWii will have 8 player online. Also, the online vehicle mode Treyarch was so proud of will not be present in WaWii. Finally, no Wii-Speak either (more Nintendo's fault than anyone else's).
Following that news, Nintendojo is reporting (Thanks KeiKong) that Activision and Beenox will be putting a 4 player online multiplayer component into the Wii version of Quantum of Solace—the same number of players available in QoS's offline multiplayer component. This compared to the 12 player online multiplayer component in the PS360 version.
So what improvements are being made over MoHH2? The Call of Duty 4 engine is being used. It was also Treyarch's excuse for dumbing down coop-options for WaWii. WiiHD is grateful that an effort is being made to make Wii games look better than PS2 games. But we never asked for our gameplay to get watered down. WiiHD exists as a conduit for opinion promoting excellence in gameplay, and in these announcements, we are extremely disappointed. So we've put the kind of effort into this post's graphics that Activision has put into the Wii feature set.
Update: Vampheric did not do the collection work for his lists, he just copied them from elsewhere without crediting the original creator, so he is no longer credited for it. FullMetal at CallofDuty.com seems to be the origin of most of the list. The lists in this post have been updated to reflect FullMetal's work, his graphical guide has been added, and his weapon's guide, which is both more complete and better sourced, has been posted.
An industrious GameFaqs user, Vampheric FullMetal has put together a list of perks and weapons expected in Call of Duty: World at War. We've filed this under rumor, since the list isn't completely sourced and we lack links, but most of it reeks of truthiness, so we're passing it on. FullMetal Claims the italicized perks and weapons have been confirmed. You be the judge.
Perks
- Juggernaut (Confirmed by Treyarch in interview)
- Martyrdom (Confirmed by Treyarch in interview)
- Stopping Power (August issue of Xbox Magazine, thanks shawn12390!)
- Deep Impact (August issue of Xbox Magazine, thanks shawn12390!)
- Flack Jacket [Allows the player to survive heavy grenade impacts/blasts.] (Confirmed by GameSpot)
- 'Mid clip M1 Reloading' (Confirmed by "computerandvideogames" article, thanks MaTtKs1! And also Gameplay Footage)
- Sleight of Hand
- Extreme Conditioning
- Steady Aim
- Bandoleer
- Iron Lungs
- Sonic Boom [adds the ability to spread a deadlier & vaster sea of fire, thanks pr1ck for the idea]
- Last Stand
- Monkey [Climbing trees, thanks GirlsHateMe]
- Frogman [Faster Swimming, thanks GirlsHateMe]
- Play Dead [Ability to fake death, thanks GirlsHateMe]
- Crouch Sprinter [Allows you to sprint while being in crouch position/cover, thanks GirlsHateMe]
- Banzai [Allows you to draw, charge & use your melee weapons alot faster (even when sprinting), providing more damage to the enemy, thanks GirlsHateMe]
Vehicle related perks
- "Extra armour" [This makes each vehicle stronger ["Juggernaut" perk for vehicles]
- "Lightweight tank/vehicle" [This gives each vehicle the ability to go very fast but on the other hand you'll be more vulnerable. ["Extreme Conditioning" for vehicles]
- "Mechanic" [Repairing vehicles (to a certain extent), thanks GirlsHateMe]
- Chameleon [Adds vegetation foliage to your tank for camouflage concealment]
- Lubricant [Faster tank turrent movement]
- Machine Gunner [Adds a machine gun to any vehicle that can be fitted with one]
- Tank Commander [Allows infantry to be spawned next to you your vehicle so you can provide them cover/a lift]
- Optics [Interior tank view for zoomed and more precise targeting; "Red Orchestra" style]
- High-explosive (HE) Round [Does more damage to infantry and has a higher blast radius, good for taking out groups but is weak against tanks]
- Armour-piercing (AP) [Does more damage to tanks but is weak against infantry]
- Dragon [Adds a flamethrower to your tank but other rounds are disabled]
What are perks? They are player customizations that let you add certain skills to your in-game self, creating a custom class of soldier. Perks were a very popular part of Infinity Ward's hit Call of Duty 4, so Treyarch has wisely chosen to keep them in World at War. In addition to an equally unsourced Weapons list, there's a CoD4 perks trailer FullMetal's visual guide to confirmed weapons is after the break, to help you get an idea of what Treyarch is shooting for.
Courtesy of Games Convention at Leipzig, we've got new footage for Call of Duty: World At War. More than 4 minutes of gameplay. Naturally, from the 360 version. Regardless, the single player campaign has a really nice look to it. The idea of jungle warfare can sometimes dredge up super-depressing Vietnam era memories shaded by slightly post-Vietnam era movies. But Treyarch's rendering looks to strike just the right note. Not dreary, but still gritty. Action packed and full of ambushes. Environments full of ambushes, and as we mentioned before, AI designed to take full advantage of that environment.
Now it's time to cross your fingers that Wii doesn't lose out on any more of the game's feature set.
Update: Apologies, the offline co-op is not on-rails. One player has full free-moving control, and there is a second aiming reticule for a second player who is at the mercy of the movements of the first player.
Ok, so they slighted Wii. Not exactly new territory for us. What really puts a craw in WiiHD's hide is that they won't admit they slighted Wii. Read this excerpt:
First, we have teams of engineers that have investigated online co-op for the Wii, and it simply is not physically possible with the Wii hardware and the engine we have running on the platform. The graphical accomplishments of CoD:WW utilize more of the system resources available on the Wii than other games in order to look as good as it does.
It's the Wii's fault. It's Nintendo's fault. It's anybody else's fault. And "teams of engineers"? You'd think they brought in an army of specialists before scrapping the idea. I doubt that.
The fact of the matter is that if they wanted to include online co-op, they could have. It very likely would have involved decreasing the level of graphical output for that mode, which is why he qualifies just how impossible online co-op is by saying "with the … engine we have running." The intent of this paragraph is clearly to leave the impression that the feature could not be accomplished, even though he states the key to including that feature—less graphical fidelity (just as we discussed before) for that mode in particular.
So why not tune down the graphics for an online co-op mode? Even a 2 player online co-op mode? Because it's more work, and it isn't worth it to Treyarch. More specifically, the extra work isn't worth it for Wii. The Wii platform has come a long way in a year, after all, COD4 and the talented Infinity Ward couldn't even be bothered to make up an excuse as to why they didn't care about us. I believe their exact statement when asked about a Wii port at the time involved chortling and snorting Dr. Pepper from their noses.
But Wii, and Wii owners, are still not given the respect other consoles get by default. Treyarch would have you accept their say-so that they Wii just isn't good enough for a full feature set and sit down and shut up. If you do, developers won't change their treatment of you. They'll be happy to make money of you, but as appears to be happening with EA and their second Godfather, they'll focus on the other systems, and think about tossing us the scraps later, because we're willing to take the abuse.
WiiHD doesn't want you to flame anyone. And if a nice little on-rails offline mode makes you happy, please feel free to be happy. But don't accept half-lies as the truth. Not demanding excellence is the surest way not to get it. As proof of how much loving Wii gets, hit the break to see the whooping 2 Wii screens released thus far and a description of the WaWii offline co-op. Of course Treyarch cares, just not enough to take a few more snapshots.
"JD", a community manager for Treyarch, has confirmed that the Wii Version of Call of Duty, World at War (WaWii), will feature only 2 player offline co-op, rather than the 4 player online co-op found in the PS360 versions. In a prior interview with Joystiq, Treyarch told us this:
But, [the Wii Version] will be the exact [same] experience except for the changes that we need to make for the controls and everything else. (emphasis WiiHD's)
"And everything else" seems to encompass quite a bit. We warned you not to count on a full feature set for WaWii until you actually see it with your own eyes.
As for a reason why the Wii won't be getting 4 player online co-op, JD claims that they opted for more impressive visuals, and in the process had to sacrifice the feature set. The specifically cite DX9 shader tech for the impact on online play.
How's that for a tradeoff? Everyone wants games on Wii that look better than PS2 titles, but is it worth it to sacrifice features? Do you really think Treyarch was stuck here, or is their inability to strike a balance between graphics and features just evidence that Wii is still getting the short end of the stick? Would 2 player online coop have been doable? Would a co-op version with DX9 turned off have been possible?
WiiHD doubts Treyarch really went to the mattresses for us. What do you think? Hit the break to see the email exchange that revealed this information.
In an interview with Joystiq, Treyarch rep Mark Lamia spent a fair amount of time talking about the Wii version of the game, sometimes unprompted. He must be aware that CoD3 wasn't the bundle of joy we were hoping for. He claims CoD5 will be better because 1)There's no PS2 version, so the team on Wii is focused on it's capabilities alone, 2) they've had a two year time frame to work on it unlike the one year they had for COD3 as a launch title for PS3 and Wii, and finally 3) this one's online, unlike CoD3 Wii which had no multiplayer of any kind.
Anyone feeling trusting today? WiiHD isn't. Their excuses sound reasonable enough, but they're going to have produce something impressive before we offer up our fragile hearts to be ripped out, thrown to the floor, and crushed by Mexican hat dancers. Again.
Via Joystiq | Permalink
Where are you suppose to install the hombrew channel? what website I know the steps but I didnt...
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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...
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posts: 8)