Nintendo jumps and stomps! First to start major announcements for E3
Nintendo filled the lull of the Sunday before E3 -- typically slow with rehashed quick posts of news for most video game journalism. Rather than wait until its Tuesday keynote, Nintendo decided to jump the gun last minute, with details about new Wii U console, including several finalized product specs of the Wii U controllers. The news beat Microsoft and Sony as the first to wow with their console news, coming today.
Now simply called the "Wii U Gamepad", it has been polished down and made thinner, placing joy pads and buttons inward in off-set locations as to help with the ergonomics, adding handgrips on the bottom, making it slightly wider. But all these also make it similar to that of a traditional modern game controller / joy pad. The thumbsliders similar to what was on the Sony PlayStation Portable have been switched for analog thumbsticks, providing support L3 and R3 button presses as well, similar to Playstation and Xbox 360 joypad sticks. There has also been an update with more sensitive motion and gyroscope sensors rounding out the typical video game controller specs.
Game Over! Giant Robot has the video game culture art you crave
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While getting ready for the E3 Expo I decided to stop by Giant Robot in the Los Angeles Japanese cultural district of Sawtelle. There, Giant Robot Owner/Publisher Eric Nakamura was hosting a show of video game culture influenced art.