Before I get started, please turn to the Wii U Info and Discussion Thread and then come back here when you are getting ready to buy the Wii U, because I have some must have information on the Wii U before you buy it, and before and after setting it up. After that go to the Official Wii U ID Exchangeto go crazy and all of your fellow Gamespotters who own their own Wii U!

Also...

*I plan on making this a topic on the Wii U forums on here but first I want to get premission from the moderators, so please dont steal my idea*

*This topic is not intended to replace the Wii U Info and Discussion Threador the Official Wii U ID Exchange. Nor is it an extension of either of those two topics.*

*mods (if you give me permission to make this a topic on the Wii U forum, please sticky it*

*Game discussion, hype, news, hate, etc as well as off-topic discussion also should be avoided in this topic*

What you need to know before and after getting the Wii U

Before buying either verson of the console

So, you've decided that the Wii U interest you, and or you believe your family, friends, and or co-workers would really love to make the Wii U part of their gaming hobby. Here is what you need to know Before and after buying. [spoiler]

• The Wii U is the Next Generation Nintendo Console, the successor to the best selling console of last gen, the Wii
• There are two sku's of the Wii U; White and Black
• The White Wii U is the least expensive of the two, costing only $299.99. While the Black, Deluxe, Wii U cost $349.99. Please note that the prices I listed are the suggested prices from Nintendo, retailors are allowed, though arent likely, to set the price above or below the suggested price
  
  • Why does the Black verson cost more? Besides extra memory, it looks far better than the White Wii U and it comes with more stuff, such as; Wii U gamepad charging cradle, Wii U gamepad stand, Wii U console stand, a game (Nintendo Land In America), and a digital promotion program. Which I will discuss a bit later on this post. A whats in the box can be found here and a side by side console comparison (Basic Wii U and Deluxe Wii U)
• Both sku's of the Wii U come with a gray HDMI cable, and they aren't specially designed either so you can use the cable for other devices too. They do not, however, come with a component or av cable even though both sku's have a port for them.
  • If you prefer av or component cables over HDMI or if your tv does not support HDMI cables, you can use your Wii's av or component cable.
• Both sku's of the Wii U support Wii games and controllers. So please dont throw away your Wii controllers or games if you are going to buy the Wii U/ already have it

[/spoiler]

Where can I find the console and how much will it cost?

[spoiler]

• For physical retail stores, click here and then choose the Nintendo that covers your region and their website will probably have a page listing what retailors sell the Wii U. The price should around the suggested retail price that Nintendo has given the Wii U for your country/ contenent

• For Online stores; The online verson of the stores (if they have an online versoon of their store), Amazon, Ebay,.... (I dont shop online, so please help me out by telling me what other online stores sell either verson of the Wii U). Again the price should be the same if not around the suggested price for the console in your area

Word of caution before you buy

• As of the date of this post, the Wii U gamepad (the controller with the touch screen) is not sold seperately. So if you do buy the Wii U, handle with atleast some care and watch your children when they play the Wii U with it and make sure they understand that if they dont handle the controller with care, bad things will happen.
  • If you want to take extra care, buy a screen protector and maybe even a skin/ armor. Doing this will not only help protect your gamepad from breaking, should it be dropped or sat on, but it will also protect the controller from finger prints and scratches
• If buying used, make sure you are buying from a reliable store/ reseller such as Gamestop or the equivalent to Gamestop in your location and if possible, have the store/ reseller comfirm to you in one way or another that the Wii U you are about to buy works 100% the way it is supposed to.
• If you ordered your Wii U online, keep a close eye on its delivery status. The have been reports from the previous console launches of shipments never making it to you because whoever was dilivering it to you stole it.
  • To add to ordering online, if you buy from reseller/ auctioning sites such as Ebay, be wary of very inflated prices and of fake/ broken Wii Us. If the price is below the suggested retail price, be wary that what you see might be broken in some way or is a fake. If the price is way above the suggested price and is indeed real and not broken or fake in anyway, it is not worth the purchase if you have to spend $200 or more above the original retail price.
• Also something else that I pray you already know, the Wii U gamepad and Wii U pro controller will not work in anyway with the Original Wii, the slimmer/ no gamecube bc Wii, and Mini Wii (currently only for Canada)
  • Also, No verson of the Wii is capible or compatible with Wii U games or accessories

[/spoiler]

Setting up your Wii U

Great! So now that you have bought the Wii U and hopefully unboxed it, here is what you need to do to set it up

[spoiler]

• Hook the HDMI cable to the Wii U and tv, plug in the Wii U's power adapter, plug in your Wii U gamepad power adapter to the charging cradle (if you got the deluxe Wii U) if you wish to charge your gamepad after it dies
  • the power adaptor comes with both basic and deluxe Wii Us, and you can hook the power adaptor straight to the controller if you dont want to use the charging cradle

• No need to wait to get started, the Wii U gamepad is pre-charged so you can get right to it with setting up and playing your Wii U
• As of this post all brand new, never used before, Wii U will require a day one firmware update. Dont worry, you dont need the update to play Wii U games or Wii games, but you will need it if you wish to download games, play online, make use of 3rd party applications such as Netflix or youtube, browse the web, use Nintendo TVii (coming to Japan at launch on Dec 8th, America sometime in december or next year depending what websites you use to get your gaming news, and Europe next year), and Miiverse as well as set up your Nintendo Network ID
  • Touching on Nintendo IDs, they are currently locked to the console of which you make your account on. So if your Wii U bricks, breaks, or if you return your Wii U and then eventually buy another, you will have to make a new ID. Although, if your console bricks/ breaks, you can send it in to Nintendo for repair or to get a new Wii U and they will transfer your account and all of your account information for you

[/spoiler]

Day one patch, please read this atleast

[spoiler]

Something to be critically aware of when updating your Wii U with the day one patch or any patch/ firmware update. If you have a slow internet connection, the day one update could take more than a single hour, some have reported that it took their console 5 hours to update, but that could have been because of slow connection, limited bandwidth, and or Nintendo survers being over ran by user traffic. Please, DO NOT TURN OFF YOUR CONSOLE, not even if the update takes all day. More than likely the update will finish installing. If you do turn off your console, please expect it to brick.

Here is how you can avoid painfully long firmware updates/ bricking when updating if turning off console. When the Wii U informs you that there is an update available, just press no (I forget what exactly the 'update later' button says. But basicly by choosing the dont update now/ update later option, your Wii U will allow you to go ahead and play your games and the update will install later/ in the back ground.

[/spoiler]

Playing the Wii U and using its OS. What you need to know:

[spoiler]

• The OS is more so than not, kinda a slow. No it isnt just you or your Wii U, it is every body.
  • Dont worry though, Nintendo is aware of the OS slowness and are working on speeding it up
• Parental Controls: Parents, you can control how your children communicate and interact with the online community (including Nintendo's social network Miiverse), as well as control what games they play and can download (I think) and control what they can view on the internet browser
• Nintendo TVii currently is not available (the icon is there, it looks like a tv) and wont be until sometime in December/ next year depending upon where you live. Unless you live in Japan in which you will be able to use Nintendo TVii as soon as the day one patch finishes. If you wish to know more about Nintendo TVii, go here (Wii U Info and Discussion Thread or Nintendo's website)
• Miiverse: It is part Nintendo's new online service/part of the Nintendo Network. Its kinda like twitter/ facebook just without people complaining about life and posting inappropriate images. Its amazing and you should give it a try. If you are worried about seeing inappropriate content or illrelivent content, dont fear since Miiverse is heavily, possibly even strickly moderated.
  • If you see a post that is offensive, explisit, and or illrelivent to the game community that you are looking at, you can report that post as a violation to the "administrators"
  • For more about Miiverse, go here or here
• The Internet Broswer, its not the best broswer in the world. But it is the best available for consoles and it can do so many things. All you really need to know is that it is very fast, it works with html5 (youtube works!), and it is easy to use.
  • Flash player doesnt work though, but with most websites turning away from using flash player, this shouldn't be a problem.
  • For more info regarding the internet browser, go here
• The eshop; Its Nintendo's new online store, that of which has been on the 3DS almost since the 3DS launched. But the Wii U and 3DS's eshops are different from each other (for now). For more on the Eshop, click here

[/spoiler]

What about memory expansion?

[spoiler]

• Since buying a Wii U, basic or deluxe, does not give you a huge internal or external hard dirve, it is reccomended that if you plan on using the Nintendo Eshop, to buy yourself some sort of external device to extend your consoles memory
• The Wii U is compatible with most external hard drives and memory devices. (The Wii U has usb 2.0 ports)
  • There seems to be no limit to the memory size of the hard drive. It can be 100GB, 350GB, 600GB, or even something crazy like 1 or 2TB
  • Nintendo Recommends external hard drives that are usb 2.0 and that have their own power adapter rather than drawing power from the console to opperate. If the hard drive you plan on using requires power from the console, Nintendo then reccomends using a twin usb cable (the end with one usb plug goes into the hard drive and the one with two usb plugs goes into the console
    • Nintendo says that external hard drives that use usb 3.0 should still be able to work with the Wii U since usb 3.0 is bc with usb 2.0. But, they cannot, however, ganruntee that the hard drive will function properly.
  • Flash drives will also work, but Nintendo reccomends against using that form of external memory
  • SD cards will not work, however. The SD card slot on the front of the Wii U is currently only there for the Wii U's "Wii Mode"
    • Wii U supports up to 32gigs of SD

• Warning regarding external memory
  • The Wii U will format the entire memory device, and delete any and all content saved on the hard drive before using it with the Wii U
  • It would be nice if someone could comfirm this, but it is also said that once the Wii U formats the hard drive, it can not be used on another console or PC without being reformated again, deleting all Wii U related content on it

You might wonder why in the world would you need to expand your memory? Because most if not all downloadable versons of retail games are very large. Taking up only a few gigs to something as large as Tekkin which takes up 17 gigs. If you bought the basic Wii U, dont even think about downloading retail games games without first getting yourself atleast 100 gigs of external hdd.

[/spoiler]

I currently have two computers that I use for pretty much everything, with limited gaming being around Minecraft and a chat client program that alot of people seem to think is a game.

Something that should be noted is that both computers are prebuilt and were bought at Costco.

Computer One (the oldest):

• Windows Vista Home Premium
  • Service Pack 1

• Manufacturer: Gateway
• Model: SX2800
• Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q8200 @ 2.33 GHz 2.34 GHz
• Memory (Ram): 4 GB
• System Type: 64-bit Operating System
• Internet provider: Verison
  • Fiber Optic (Fios)
  • 2 Computers via either net/ and 2 consoles (360 and Wii) and 1 portable (3DS) are hooked up to the router wirelessly
  • Fios Router is-
    • Verison branded
    • Actiontec MI424WR Rev. 1

• Fuller specs coming soon, just need to figure them out.
• Other things to note about this computer:
  • Java Script is broken/ can not update
  • The SD card slot does not work
  • DVD drive sometimes has trouble opening
  • hasnt been properly cleaned recently

Something that should be noted Java script isnt broken, its just really old, Im guessing its not really broken since Minecraft works (though barely, especially after the Minecraft verson 1.3.1 update)

Computer Two (Newest) specs coming soon.

"Let's Play" is a term used on video sharing sites (such as youtube.com) by 'Let's Players,' they are people who record themselves playing through video games. Generally from the very begining of the video game's story to the end of the game's story. Yes, this does sound just like a regular "play through" or a video guide of how to beat a game, but what makes Let's Plays different from regular play throughs or gaming guides is that these videos have commitary (usually live, meaning that the commitary is recorded at the same time that the game play is being recorded). The commitary in Let's Plays are often humorous and entertaining. They also might often entertain and thrill you so much that you might even want to buy the game that the LPer is playing yourself. If the LPer is doing everything correctly, watching the Lps should be as natural as having a good time with friends or maybe it will be even more natural than that. If the LPer is dedicated to what they do, they will generally stick to a daily/ bidaily uploading schedual. Sometimes even a weekly one. If the LPer is popular or has been LPing long enough where they know what they are doing, sometimes they will do 2, 3, or even four different game LPs at the same time!

Let's Play Blog!

My Wii is broken, Fallout New Vegas is cancled for now, and I have nothing to Let's Play, so my channel is on hold, though the videos are still tghere, enjoy them please!

Let's Play Star Wars Rogue Squadron III Rebel Strike; ep.final - Triumph of the Rebellion

Star Wars Rogue Squadron III: Rebel Strike bonus episodes! (One and two)

Episode 39 of Let's Play Fallout New Vegas

Hello fellow gamespotters and youtubers/ LPers. I am Gamingclone and this blog here will be where I provide you guys with updates to my Let's Plays. Maybe even personal updates, who knows! Please read threw everything and click the links to my videos and my channel/ playlists to be entertained!

I started Let's Playing on 9/3/2011 and will continue for hopefully a long time! Now go and enjoy my Let's Plays!

Please enjoy my Let's Play!

My youtube Let's Player channel

Games that I am currently Let's Playing

Fallout New Vegas (cancled)(?)

(Completed) Star Wars Rogue Squadron III:RS (?)

Coming Soon

Has yet to be determined

**Latest episode**

(from all Current Let's Plays)

Let's Play Star Wars Rogue Squadron III Rebel Strike; ep.final - Triumph of the Rebellion

We did it! The Imperials have been defeated and the Rebels get down and party with the ewoks. (this scene I cut out of the video because it was a movie scene)

Let's Play Fallout New Vegas; ep. 41 - Smooth Skin

I make it to the top level of REPCONN and have a nice chat with a dumbass and Jason, the leader of all the Ghouls are REPCONN.

**featured episodes**

(From all Let's Play series)

Let's Play Star Wars Rogue Squadron III Rebel Strike; ep.6 - Deception at Destrillion

Let's Play Fallout New Vegas; ep.36 -PIZZA HUT!!

Preview of Star Wars Rebel Strike Rogue Squadron III

33rd Episode, titled "18 seconds"

**List of all my Playlists**

My Fallout New Vegas LP playlist

My Star Wars RS III: Rebel Strike LP playlist

**Updates**

Here is where my latest updates will go.

2/22/2012

First 2 bonus epiodes for Rogue squadron II are up now!

[spoiler] Edit! Yes, I have seen the debut trailer for GTA V and I loved it! It seems like it has answered some of my concerns. [/spoiler]

1.) I would start a topic in SW about this, but it has already been done and I dont want a topic of mine to die before it evens starts.

2.) First, before I start, I would just like to say that I have played and beaten GTA IV (360) and GTA IV Liberty City stories [The lost and the Damned, and ballot of Gay Tony] (360). I've also played, though never beaten, GTA SA (PS2) and some GTA game for the PSP.

3.) If you want to avoid a wall of text/ rant that really has little to do withwhat I want in GTA V, the just skip to paragraph 6. I've numbered them for your convience.

4.) Anyway, I loved GTA IV. The way the cars got damaged, the physics, the voice acting, the cut scenes, the wide variety of vehicles, the city, and the size of the game. Simply amazing. But, it was just lacking too much of what originally brought GTA asa franchise to its highest point in my book.

5.) What I mean by lacking is in terms of content, is what really made GTA SA a 10 for me (though I have yet to rate it on here). The content is everything to me. In GTA SA, not only could you take a toe-truck and toe away a vehicle, but you could also swim under water, fly airplanes (I dont mean helicopters either), get tat-toos, do missions with taxi cars/ ambulances/ fire trucks/ and cop cars, do special things with the car if it has hydrolics, turn the radio off, buy a wide variety of clothes, etc etc. To sum it up, you could almost do anything. But in GTA IV, you cant fly air planes, toe-trucks cant toe, no tat-toos, no missions in taxi's or fire trucks or ambulances except for cop cars (and even that is really limited), dull clothing and not enough buildings that you can actually enter, etc etc. Out of all the things that they should had put into this game, another Air port is a given, even if you still cant fly airplanes. They should had still of added it. Anyway, Im done with my rant

6.) Now onto what GTA V needs inorder for me to want it/ buy it instantly and give a instant good score.

7.) The game needs more vehicles! GTA IV had alot, but now its time for them to add even more! The game needs a much MUCH larger selection of weapons. Give me some pointless weapons such as brass nuckles and crow bars. A even larger map! Sure, GTA IV had a pretty large map, but now, GTA V needs an even bigger map. More buildings need to be walk-inable. And as for the buildings that you cant enter, they should atleast try to make them look 3d reather than nothing but a texture on the side of a building. More airports please! I say atleast 2 large airports and maybe a small one. Alsosomething that goes hand in hand with airports... AIRPLANES. We need lots of them, just like we need lots of vehicles. Oh! and please, they have to be fly-able. I dont care if they are realistic or not, all I know is that I want to fly airplanes again. Bring back the ability to do special missions for taxi's/ ambulances/ and fire trucks. Also, the game needs cars with hydrolics again. A realitively pointless feature found in gta sa, but I still loved it. My next point goes with a larger map. The games needs country side, or atleast woods. Basicly, more non-urban/non-industrial areas. Kinda like the country side in GTA SA. A really big thing that I want GTA V to have is real cheats. Granted, I didnt really mind the cell phone as the method to input the cheats, and save them. Since inputting cheats with the ps2 or xbox remote sometimes proved to be inpossible if the said remote was old and worn out. But what I mean by real cheats is that they need to bring back the flying cars cheat, the better weapons cheats, the rediculous cheats such as the one that turned everyone into clowns, the cheat that deactivated the cops, etc etc. I want those cheats back. Thats one reason why whenever I get to rate GTA SA, Im going to give it a 10. And the last thing that the game needs, it needs to be less serious, more funny, more... I want to take a break from the story and mess around and have a blast...

8.)To really sum up my wall of text, GTA V needs to be more like GTA SA (cept with better graphics) and less like GTA IV. Oh, and I would love it if the entire game is avialable from the start. No more of this... The lost and the Damned and Ballot of Gay Tony nonsense (although i really enjoyed them more than the main GTA IV).

Poor title I know, but anyway

I am always floating around the GS forums. Just about 24/7, you'll find me here. Im mainly here because I like to read rumors and leaks on SW before GS picks it up. I first made my account last year for some reason I dont really remember. I started to use my account again because of Nintendo's E3 press confrence. On the week days, I'll usually be on alot since i have 3 classes all in a row that use computers, so I will use that time to come here. On the weekends, I wont be on much. I might show to see if any new leaks/ rumors have popped up on SW, but other than that, dont expect to see me post in any heated topics.

I mainly use the Wii and DS discusson forums. So yeah, I guess you can call me a sheep. But now, I try my best to keep my obvious biasness hiden when in topics discussing 360 or PS3 games. The way I do that is by keeping my post sort and not worth quoting or I dont post at all. You will also find me on SW and OT and sometimes you'll see me dropping in on Legacy Platforms. But other than that you wont see me on any other forum. And believe me when I say that you wont see me starting any topics that are hyping games or systems. I might post a topic about an article or a review if no one else has done so, but, I havent done that yet and I dont seem to be on when news happens. Im basicly saying that I only post in topics and that I have yet to start a single topic.

I usually avoid topics that are baiting users or a certain batch of users. I will also avoid troll topics (aka I dont troll)and topics that have no business in the forum that they are posted in. I will also avoid topics about religion/ science. Usually at least.

But anyway, you guessed it, Im here alot.

Ever since the early years of my life I have been into gaming. My first game console was the Nintendo 64 that we got around 1996 or 1997... I think. Naturally, my first real video game experience came from SuperMario 64. Ever since the N64, I have gotten every Nintendo home console released, which includes NES (yard sale), N64, GC, and Wii. I have yet to get a SNES. I own most of Nintendo's handhelds, except for Game Boy Sp, some of the game&watch games, virtural boy, another game boy system that I cant think of, and the DSi and DSi XL.

As those of you reading this are already thinking, I am a dedicated Nintendo fan. Though, I am not a blind fan boy. I loved playing games in the PS1 at the Fire station that my grandfather would take me to, sadly they got rid of it :( I also greatly enjoyed the games that I played on my friends PS2 and PSP and xbox. My friend also had one of Sega's systems but he never played it. I have never played the PS3 except a few times at the store, Im sure I would like some of its games if not all. But I haven't get the time or the money for the PS3. Now I have played the xbox 360, but only because my friend leaves his Xbox 360 slim at our house. Yeah you could say I am lucky, but the only games he has for it is Fable II, some of the Halo games (including Reach), Finial Fantasy 13, and Assasins Creed 1&2. I'll admit I havent played any of those games except of the Halo games (which I dont particularly enjoy). But I do enjoy watching them. One of these days I will get around to playing some of PS3's and Xbox 360's games and I am sure I will have fun, but not today.

I usually play my Wii, but then again I have been so busy that I havent played any game except for some basic flash games on my piece of crap PC in the past few months. I plan on getting back to it one of these days. I really enjoy motion control, I have Wii motion Plus. If I ever get a PS3 I will see if I cant get Move. Im going to say right now that at this current time, I see no fun in Kinect. And something else to remember is that since my friend is the one who own the 360, he says he will never get Kinect and neither shall I, since I can not afford $150. Also my bed room is usually dark and small meaning that Kinect will not be able to work in it.

The games that I really enjoyed on the NES was cours, the Super Mario World games, on the N64 it was Super Smash Brothers and Super Mario 64, on the GC it was SSBM and Luigi Manson and Super Mario Sunshine, on the Wii it is currently SMG 1&2 and Mario Kart Wii and SSBB. Now on the none Nintendo consoles, my favorite game is Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PS2 and xbox) simply because I like driving around running over criminals and hookers and doing the flying car cheat.