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| MiiVerse, Nintendo's online software |
First off some info on the WiiU. Adding friends has always been a pain in the ass for Wii and 3DS owners, but now nintendo has (finally) integrated a proper online software that allows you to add friends based on your nintendo network ID that you set. You can add actual people using ID's but both parties need the other ID in order for this to work so you cannot see incoming requests of ID's which is useless for adding strangers online. There is however another way to add friends much easier in terms of random people you encounter, through the MiiVerse. You can search for users by typing in names and they will actually get requests to be your friend, I haven't heard anything about quickly adding friends during online games or through some sort of recently played option but I will find out when I get my own WiiU. Apparently the MiiVerse is like Nintendo's own facebook of a social gaming hub, which sounds exciting and fresh compared to UI's and lists.
Another thing to note is that a lot of features wont work right away, you have to download a day 1 software update that will make most of the WiiU's features unlocked. Media stuff such as Hulu and Youtube wont be added till around Christmas, but Netflix is up and running. Voice chatting is pretty neat but I don't know exactly who you can video chat with, if it's with all your registered friends then it seems pretty cool to me.
The consolse's online store is well implemented and allows for retail purchases of games. Web browsing is nicely delivered as well.
The console appears to have a few complaints across some departments but overall it's pretty awesome for the first of the next gen consoles.
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Onto the Pro controller, this sleek and sexy piece of hardware is the upgraded GC,PS3,Xbox controller that doesn't steal either setup but creates its own. The controller is charged like the PS3, the button layout has both analog sticks on the upper section rather than alternated like Xbox and GC. The analog sticks themselves are the same size as the GC thumbstick, and also have the same directional angles, which is smaller than the Xbox and PS3 sticks. Overall they "feel" better than any controller thumbstick to date. The buttons feel nice and D-pad is situated very shallow onto the controller and doesn't protrude as much as other controllers, but are still easy to feel without looking at them. The most noticeable change is how shallow the triggers are, they feel more digital, like buttons shaped to triggers; make that the second most noticeable thing, the controller is the lightest of all current controllers. Overall I really like the controllers design, the sleek glossy black shape feels great to touch and I cant wait to play some Ninja Guidan with it.
