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Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning | 
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| From: Electronic Arts
Category: Video Games
List Price: $49.99
Buy New: $18.93
You Save: $31.06 (62%)
New (39) Used (10) from $17.92
Avg. Customer Rating:  133 reviews
Sales Rank: 490
Format: Dvd-rom
Platform: Windows Xp
ESRB: Teen
Media: Video Game
Edition: Standard
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Batteries Included: No
Age: 12 - 20 years
Operating System: Windows XP
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 0.1 x 0.1 x 0
MPN: 15656
Model: 014633156560
UPC: 014633156560
EAN: 0014633156560
ASIN: B000TD3IA2
Release Date: September 16, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Features:
| • | Undertake a wide variety of PvE quest types related to an army's war efforts, | | • | Based on Games Workshop's popular Warhammer fantasy world. Dominated by force of arms and magic, this world provides a rich setting for hundreds of thousands of players to experience the epic nature of war and the glory of battle. | | • | Join one of six Armies and fight for the Armies of Order (Dwarf, High Elf and Empire) or the Armies of Destruction (Greenskin, Dark Elf, or Chaos). Wage war across three unique battlefronts. | | • | Next generation Realm vs. Realm game system integrating both PvP combat and PvE quests on the same map in support of the greater war. | | • | Engage in four levels of RvR combat |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com
War is Everywhere War is everywhere in Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning (WAR), the new fantasy MMORPG from Mythic Entertainment, the creators of Dark Age of Camelot. WAR features next generation Realm vs. Realm gameplay that will immerse you in a world of perpetual conflict for years to come. Experience the glory of Realm vs. Realm! Declare your allegiance and join hundreds of thousands of mighty heroes on the battlefields of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning to experience the epic nature of war. Enter a grim fantasy world where the armies of Order (Dwarfs, High Elves, and Empire) and Destruction (Greenskins, Dark Elves, and Chaos) collide to determine the fate of nations. Invade enemy lands, besiege imposing fortresses, and sack sprawling capital cities for the glory of your Realm. Wield devastating magic and deadly weapons, battle monstrous creatures, and join your brothers-in-arms in epic Public Quests. Climb the Bastion Stair, carry your Guild Banner into battle, and unlock the secrets of the Tome of Knowledge as you travel the world. Sharpen your blade and prepare to unleash your inner mutation-the Age of Reckoning has begun and WAR IS EVERYWHERE! 
| Key Features
- Realm vs. Realm (RvR) gameplay means you will never fight alone, but as part of an army of allied players sworn to defend your homeland and conquer enemy Realms. Your every action-every quest completed, every battle fought-contributes to the war effort and can turn the tide of battle, bringing victory to your Realm!
- Experience the camaraderie of fighting side-by-side with allied players against otherwise insurmountable odds in groundbreaking Public Quests. These cooperative PvE encounters unfold across multiple stages and allow solo players to experience the glory of RvR.
- Embark on the endless quest to complete the Tome of Knowledge and unlock Warhammer lore, detailed monster information, new abilities and rewards, and major story plotlines. The Tome is also the story of your life in the game, tracking your achievements to share and compare with others.
- Explore massive Living Cities that become more or less prosperous based on a Realm's overall performance in the ongoing war. Navigate a maze of twisting streets, visit the local tavern, explore a dark under-city, and meet colorful personalities in a city full of adventure.
- Advanced guild features give unprecedented control to leaders and members, and make guilds an integral part of the war efforts. Guilds can create unique heraldry, capture and claim keeps, and earn Guild Tactics as they grow in power along with their members.
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Pick your favorite character.
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Battle to the end against rivals.
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Wander through vivid environments.
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| The Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning servers will go live on September 18th, 2008.
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Product Description
War is everywhere. Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning will immerse you in a world of perpetual conflict for years to come. Experience the glory of Realm vs. Realm! Declare your allegiance and join hundreds of thousands of mighty heroes on the battlefields of Warhammer. Enter a grim fantasy world where the armies of Order and Destruction collide to determine the fate of nations. Invade enemy lands, besiege imposing fortresses, and sack sprawling capital cities for the glory of your Realm. The Age of Reckoning has begun.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 128 more reviews...
 WoW killer- No, but it is better in many respects. September 16, 2008
140 out of 151 found this review helpful
This review is of Beta and of the first 2 days of release, there are some fine reviews further down and I suggest you check them out!
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Let me start out this review saying I am addicted to MMO's.I was in beta for Ultima Onlina, Everquest, Anarchy Online, SWG and WoW. I then went on to play each MMO for several hundred hours if not days. I played WoW for at least 20-40 hours per week for 4 years. My characters averaged 40 days played. That being said (not to brag but to say I know WoW), here is my review of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning.
If there were any times that you played an MMO and thought that, something was missing... I am sure that the folks over at Mythic Entertainment thought the very same things. As the torchbearers for RVR or Realm vs Realm battle they understand how to do an MMO right from the beginning. What Mythic did was to build a game where the player vs player was not an afterthought to keep high levels occupied, instead it IS the game. After you are slightly acquainted with the interface you are then thrown head-long into battle. War is all around and they mean it. This game is about fantasy WAR and not about phat lewt, (although there is that sorta, more on this later).
Another feature that is built in is the amazing Tome of Knowledge. If you ever downloaded addons for WoW for use as a record keeper then you will know how this feature works. The really cool part is that this tome is utilized as a bragging tool and it also unlocks character titles. It keeps a record of the number of mob x you have slain, the number of sales to merchants and so on. You'll have to see it to completely get the power of this tool.
Another great feature is the open group system. Being I am almost 40 years old and have 2 kids of my own, the last thing I want to do is log in and be begging for groups with pre-teen jerks angry at the world because some girl turned them down for a date...etc. How the open group system works is there are areas you may be running through and need to kill "X" monster. Well just run into that area and do a group lookup. You will see who is there what step they are on and bam! you can join them. You don't even need to talk to them "omg roxx0rz!".... As long as you participate in the quest and don't just stand there then you'll get the quest done. Which leads me to the final cool feature;
Public Quests (PQ);
Public quests are there to help you complete quests that require a group. Basically same as the open group system except that these quests have several stages and you did not have to have this quest before you came to the area. You can join in at any point in the chain and depending on how much you contribute to the final boss section then the better the loot and experience. So you could walk away with a healing potion or the Sword of 10000 truths. Whatever you get it WILL be usable by you! That's a huge difference from WoW.
So why all the WoW comparison? Many people will say that this is WoW 2.0. I will have to disagree with that. Let me explain it this way. If you are into playing first person shooters. And say, you are looking over the barrel of your gun. Is Gears of War a Wolfenstein 3D ripoff? Well that viewpoint (looking over the barrel), comes directly from one of the first 3D shooters ever (Wolfenstein 3D). Mythic has the same sort of complaint against it. "It is trying to be like WoW too much". To be honest WoW took alot from Dark Ages of Camelot which was the MMO pre-wow. The look of the orcs comes directly from Games Workshop which is where Warhammer comes from. If you are playing an MMO would you rather the players playing not have an idea how to play or would you rather everyone could play pretty well on their own. Being that mostly everyone coming to Warhammer has played an MMO before it is a benefit to everyone that Warhammer has a "similar feel" to all other MMO's that predate it.
The game allows for massive customization of your character. You can customize it internally. Meaning you can get abilities and skills that are more about power on the field of battle and less about the glowing codpiece of doom. The graphics are at this time (just after release) moderate and do use DirectX 10 to some extent. They are scheduling to allow people with ubermachines to ramp the setting up soon. Just realize though when you get 200 people on the field fighting, you may not wish to be able to count the nose hairs on each player, instead blast them first and count nose hairs later.
I am beginning to get the feeling this this is a much more mature players game and less for the kids to show off in. It's like that Nivia for Men commercial, " they got to see me, I got to attract them somehow". Being there isn't a huge glowing customizable look it may be off-putting to some that feel they NEED to have a glowing sword. The artwork in this game is amazingly real and very beautiful.
Final thoughts, the look of this game is one of realism and is very close to what tabletop Warhammer players would find appealing. You can play greenskins that are crude and really fun to play, or be a serious Von Helsing type character that looks like a swashbuckling hero. Either way you should have no problem finding something you like among the 20 classes.
Hope to meet you ingame!
Exactly what I needed September 24, 2008
37 out of 39 found this review helpful
Mythic knows how to run a successful MMO. They make the big, hard decisions. When class balancing and fun was at stake, they cut four classes in order to both balance the races, but also because the classes weren't up to snuff. And when all six capital cities were being problematic, they took out four of them and will release them as free content later.
Coming from Dark Age of Camelot, a game that unbearably belongs to the first generation of MMOs, Mythic decided to take the Warhammer lore and craft a game that they know best: realm versus realm. Warhammer Online (WAR) takes everything they tested, tried and made work from DAoC and pushed it forward into a new generation. Writing this review is tricky, because on the surface WAR is like most MMOs out there. But it's the details and the small things that make it something completely different.
Let's start with the way the game is set up. From the beginning, PvP is important as one of the first quests you receive will be to complete a scenario. In this way, WAR emphasizes its committment to more than PvE. In fact, a PvP'r could spend his or her time entirely PvPing and level all the way to the endgame. It helps that scenarios are constantly running and chances are you'll be in one before you know it.
The distinction, though, is that if you don't really care much about PvP, there are other opportunities. Firstly, literally hundreds of quests are out there, each with rewards that are specific to your class, meaning you won't be doing a quest for a nice axe that you, a healer, can never use. The zones begin as approximately 80% PvE content, 20% PvP. As you continue through the zones and into different tiers, that percentage will change, but there will always be PvE content.
One complaint I hear all the time is "I don't like PvP," which usually means...I don't like to be ganked by people twenty levels higher than me when doing a quest. Don't blame you, which is why the PvP system in 90% of the WAR servers is perfect. PvP only occurs on your terms, by entering a designated zone. Stay out of those zones and you won't have to worry about that pesky Bright Wizard. What about balancing in the zones? I don't want a level 40 PvP'r heading into a level 1 zone and laying waste to everyone. Don't worry, if someone enters a PvP zone too low for them, they are turned into a chicken.
Then there are the dungeons, all made to be completed by a small group and not some bloated raid. And with each dungeon being split into wings that should take 1-2ish hours to complete and having armor sets, there's plenty of fun content to be had.
But that's not all. Spread throughout the entire game are approximately 300 (according to developers) Public Quests (PQs). These PQs are areas within each zone that are open to everyone of your side to participate in. No matter whether you're grouping with someone or not, you'll contribute to the various stages of these areas (stages that range from killing a number of things, fighting a boss like a dragon or destroying urns) and, when the PQ is over you roll on a loot bag. What makes this work even better is that each loot bag will have a piece of equpiment that your class can use, guaranteed.
Additionally, there's a bar that tracks your story chapter's PQ progress and awards you three different items (usually a potion or talisman, followed by equipment and then a weapon) as you progress through three tiers.
Awards abound at every turn, even in PvP as you are tracked separately by your PvP level. At certain levels, or renown ranks as they're called, you'll have access to not only powerful equipment but also renown skills that will help you in both PvP and PvE. But let's not stop here; each of the race pairings have zones that are grouped into tiers, with tier four being the high content. Each zone has PvP areas with towers and, as you progress into tier two and beyond, keeps. Both sides (Destruction and Order) can take over a keep and, if your guild is high enough in rank (more on that later), you can capture a keep in your name.
But keeps are also treated like PQ areas, being populated by NPCs and a very strong leader that also supplies equipment. Fighting into a keep can turn into epic encounters, with siege weapons, rams to break down the keep's walls, boiling oil for the defenders to pour onto wouldbe attackers, places for ranged attackers to unleash devastating spells and arrows...it's quite a rush to be involved in one, especially as both sides start to get more aggressive, calling in reinforcements to help.
And as the game progresses, these types of battles become more common. Which is a huge difference from the elephant in the room, World of Warcraft. WoW crafts a similar structure, with two side duking it out...but it was never meant to be a truly PvP-centered game in the way WAR is. From the very beginning, you are immersed in this warfare, from the very first level all the way to the end and beyond.
And all of this is before you get into how many bars/levels there are to tackle. Sure, the game is capped at level 40 at launch, but that's not taking into consideration that each chapter of PQs has a bar with loot associated to it or that there's 80 renown ranks that will take a lot of PvPing to hit, or that your guild actually levels up to 40 based not on how many members you have in your guild but on their accomplishments, a system that benefits both small and large guilds. Guild ranks are actually important as they provide you with a ton of abilities, from being able to carry benefit-providing standards to having a guild vault to access to guild auctions, crafting vendors, quick flight paths to the dungeons, the ability to take keeps, etc.
There's just so much here, so many shinies to grab your attention. And it's all tied into the Tome of Knowledge, a large compendium that tracks everything you do from quests to accomplishments to titles, etc. It's so indepth that you have to wonder how Mythic pulled it off. And pulled it off, they did. WAR is a monumentous game that feels as relevant and genre-shifting as WoW did when it came.
So, there you have it. A very rambling review that didn't even touch on half of what the game has to offer (did you really want to be here for another century?), but will have to remain incomplete. Because, here's the thing. Even when you strip away all the little details, the leveling and all of that junk that I spent forever typing about, what we find is...this game is fun. And diverse. And it's just what I wanted and needed from a MMO.
A Better Comparision with World of Warcraft WOTLK September 17, 2008
35 out of 41 found this review helpful
Note: You will not understand this review unless you have played World of Warcraft (WOW) and know the game well.
Updated: Dec 2, 08
------------------ Graphics ------------------
Graphics are beautiful, colorful skies and atmosphere, though more realistic earthly colors than WoW. You can color your own gear with dyes. Character creation has many different hairstyles (braids, free flowing, locks, short cut, bald, ponytail, bifurcated) and effects (ie glowing eyes, tattoos, scars).
------------------ Game Mechanics ------------------
PVP:
Enter BGs from LV 1-40 anywhere, anytime through a button on your menu. After the BG, you will resume whatever you did before you left for the BG. You gain EXP, $, and titles for PVPing in battlegrounds. You can PVP your way to LV 40 without PVE-ing. Every 10 levels (tier) you will PVP in completely different BGs. So you can't play the same BG again unless you are in that tier (ie WSG only accessible from LV 1-10). If you are low level, WAR will level you up for the BG temporarily (ie from LV 4 to LV 8). If you are 10 levels above a person you're trying to gank, you will be turned into a chicken (ie Unlike WOW, a LV 70 can gank your LV 10 arse forever).
Public Quests: Random PQs go on in all zones. Just enter the scene and fight. No raid OR party needed. If you participated enough, you will get extra bonus points on your /random roll and have a higher chance to win loot.
Leveling: Built-in Quest Helper mod directs you to quest destinations on minimap. Keyboard mapping, NPC trainers, Buying/selling, AH, and movement is similar to WOW with a low learning curve. However, WAR is laggy, requires polishing, and melee/spell actions are not as instant as WOW.
Server types:
Open RvR (Realm vs Realm) meaning PVP - very little safe spots like WOW's PVP.
RP (Role play) - Serious reputation, do not take lightly. Much more intense RP than WoW's RP servers.
Core (normal servers) - Predetermined PVP areas like WOW.
------------------ Story ------------------
Warhammer has 25 years of history, since the 1980s. The history is very well developed and linear. You can read your own history and lore as it develops while you participate in quests (menu option -"Tome"). This is similar to WOW's "Achievements" system.
------------------ Music ------------------
There is very little music. Most sounds are ambient, background noises, yelling.
------------------ Raiding ------------------
I have heard that there are instances, but I don't know enough to comment.
------------------ Social/Guild ------------------
No lack in player base, however there is a dearth of public chatting overall. Most chatting is within the guild. Guilds gain exp points and level up as the players in the guild level. Guild taxes allow you to tax your guild members on all their loot a % amount.
------------------ Opinion ------------------
If you enjoy PVP, buy the game. WAR has many, many opportunities dedicated to PVP in many different BGs. WAR has more PVP opportunities and BGs that are unique and exciting. Also, WAR is fair unlike WOW and its disadvantages to one side, most notably the Horde and AV, and also with the new Strand of the Ancients where Alliance has a slight advantage to the game.
There's a new behemoth on the MMO block September 19, 2008
14 out of 15 found this review helpful
INTRO
Let me start by saying I have been playing MMO (massively multiplayer online) games since the original Everquest was released in the 90s. I've seen many games come and go, and I've seen many fail. It is my belief that this game is destined to succeed by epic proportions!
NOTE: This review is based on gameplay in the beta up to and including the first 2 days of release. It does not cover high end content.
GAME PLAY AND PRESENTATION
The world of Warhammer is not new. It has actually been around longer than Blizzard's World of Warcraft. And, much like WoW was at its release, it is exciting to see the Warhammer world take shape as a multi-player game. Warhammer Online has a comfortable (and very customizable) interface. Players coming from other MMOs will feel immediately comfortable with the game mechanics, and the visual feedback is intuitive and easy to navigate. Some noteworthy additions are quest locations shown right on your map, a dual targeting system (that keeps your last friendly target targeted for you healers out there), and several inventory management improvements over other games (for example, your quest items no longer take up space your main inventory slots - they have their own tab). Graphics and sound are very good - as would be expected in today's game worlds. And the atmosphere exudes WAR!
PLAYER VS. PLAYER
Warhammer was built from the ground up as a PvP (player vs. player) game. Having played WoW on a PvP server, I was a bit concerned about this aspect of the game - I like the occasional PvP battle, but I hate getting "ganked" when I'm trying to just level in the game. I was pleased to find out that, even though WH is PvP to the core, it is presented in such a way that the PvP doesn't become a hindrance to the game play, but it instead becomes an integral part of the experience. First, the fear of some super high level character coming by and annihilating you with one shot is removed, as any high level character going into a low level zone will be turned into a chicken that can only do 1 point of damage. Second, much of the game world is only PvP by consent: you have to say you want to participate (or attack someone else that is participating) to be flagged for PvP. Third, there are battlegrounds - explicit PvP zones - where you can join in the carnage by simply clicking a button on your screen. Don't feel like battling? Don't click the button!
Another major part of the game experience is RvR (realm vs. realm), in which you can choose to participate in massive battlefields that include such wonderful excursions as laying waste to entire enemy cities. Being able to take part in a massive war with hundreds of real players is an exciting prospect! Of course, there are plenty of rewards for participating in battles, so the desire to participate is even higher.
PICK A SIDE
From the second you enter WH, you are very aware that the world is at war. You can choose to create characters on the good side, or the evil side. And let me say - the evil side isn't the "little bit" evil side, but more the "stab you with a knife and eat your puppy while you bleed" evil side. Either side you pick, you will find a wide selection of classes to pick from. And each race has a very uniquely presented atmosphere that doesn't look like any of the others. It is interesting to note that neither side has the exact same classes, so you will be a unique force on the battlefield.
PLAYER VS. ENVIRONMENT
Although WH has been built from the ground up as a PvP game, it also provides ample content for those days when you just don't feel like PvPing. The PvE (player vs. environment) content contains much of the same look and feel of many other MMO games: plenty of quests to complete and creatures to slay, many dungeons to explore, and even a limited tradeskill implementation. Besides these normal experiences, PvE content has been extended in ingenious ways. For example, players can participate in PQs (Public Quests). Simply walk into an area where a PQ is occurring, and you will be notified of what is going on, what needs to be done, and how long the players in the area have to complete the tasks. There is no need to talk to anyone, or group up with random people. Just walk into the area and you are automatically part of the quest. As you participate, you actually build up influence points - a kind of currency that allows you to purchase special items from a vendor in a nearby town or outpost. Running the quest a few times usually ends in an enjoyable experience, as well as some new loot (and that's why we play these games, right?). But, to make the PQ system even more interesting the player is rewarded by participating more. At the end of the quest, [x] number of players will receive a special loot bag containing goodies - the system will automatically roll for each player to determine if they win. Players who helped the most will receive a bonus to their roll, increasing the chance they will receive some goodies.
CONCLUSION
Overall, I was extremely pleased to get an invite to the beta for Warhammer Online. I am enjoying the game's unique presentation to an increasingly competing market. There are plenty of new aspects to WH that makes it stand out among all of the other games out there today, and that will certainly help to spark a renewed interest to those that were starting to get bored with the "same-old" offerings from other games. If you are totally 100% against the idea of PvP, then this game might not be for you. But, for everyone else - even those that only casually enjoy PvP games - this one is a keeper!
Welcome change of focus in the MMO genre September 18, 2008
20 out of 23 found this review helpful
Warhammer Online is all about the RvR (Realm vs. Realm or another way of saying PvP). The game is broken up into Tiers that represent a block of levels for a player (ie. Tier 1 is levels 1 - 10, Tier 2 is 11 - 20) and each Tier is filled with both RvR content and more traditional PvE content. The forces of Order and Destruction are in a constant battle to control each zone, which gives your side bonus in the form of things like reduced prices at Merchants.
There are large areas made specifically for RvR with capture points as well as a keep that must be assaulted and controlled in each RvR area. Taking these keeps pushes your side much closer to taking control of the zone, but you also help the WAR effort with almost everything you do, including participating and winning Scenarios (similar to battlegrounds in WoW except more varied and more PvP oriented).
My favorite scenario so far is one where a single artifact must be picked up and held on to. Killing enemies while holding the artifact nets your team greater points than without and while you are fighting to protect the artifact carrier, the other side is working to bring him down ASAP. Definitely leads to some intense battles.
Outside of the RvR content there are the awesome Public Quests. They are almost like mini-raids, that anyone can join in and at point and participate. They are generally structured into increasingly difficult stages. At the end everyone who participated gets to roll on bags of loot, where those who contributed the most get bonuses to their roll. In addition to the bags, each group of PQs has Influence rewards that are chosen when you get enough Influence, which you gain from participation in the PQ it itself, so you are guaranteed an item eventually. These can be lots of fun and are a nice change of pace from the standard quests.
The Tome of Knowledge is a great addition to the game as well. It's basically a quest log on steroids. Just about everything you do in the game is tracked and you receive acheivements from completing various activities. These achievements yield experience and can also yield titles for your character or even items you can wear. There are even achievements for things like fighting in RvR with no armor, or clicking on yourself 100 times.
Not only do characters level, but guilds do as well. Everything you do in-game contributes to your guild's rank, which gives you perks like a guild bank, guild auction house, and even a standard that you bring to battlefield where you can unlock stat bonuses for using the standard. In addition, the major cities in the game have levels as well. Completing quests in the city among other things will increase it's rank and allow your guild to use some of the bonuses it's earned, as well as unlocked more city PQs and instances.
The launch has been moving along pretty well and considering the starting point, it will be great to see how the game grows in the future. Definitely recommended for any MMO fan that enjoys battling it out alongside their fellow players. Where games like WoW focus more on the PvE content, WAR focuses much more on the RvR and it shows.
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The Nintendo Wii goes on sale on Sunday, November 19. Thanks to the inclusion of the simple--but infectiously fun--Wii Sports game, the Wii is the first console in recent memory that lets you have fun straight out of the box. Still, there are a few key Wii accessories you'll want to pick up to maximize your Wii experience--especially if you're buying it as a gift.
Extra controllers: Like all recent consoles, the Wii ships with just a single controller (well, one two-part controller: one Wiimote, plus one nunchuk). But the real fun of the system is playing the head-to-head Wii Sports games such as tennis and boxing. To do so, you'll need at least one extra set of controllers--and again, that's one Wiimote ($28.99) plus one nunchuk ($12.99). The Wii supports as many as four, but just the one extra controller set should suffice--at least for Christmas morning.
Rechargeable batteries: The Wiimote takes two standard AA batteries. They're included--with the Wii, and with the sold-separately version of the controller mentioned above--but avid players may find the juice draining pretty quickly, especially if they keep the nunchuk attached (it draws its power from the Wiimote). Instead of buying an endless stream of costly AAs, consider investing in a set of rechargeables. You can score a charger and four rechargeable nickel-metal-hydride batteries for less than $25.
GameCube controllers: The Wii is fully backwards compatible with the Nintendo GameCube, but there's a catch: to play the GameCube games, you'll need a GameCube controller ($15.99). You can even go wireless with the Nintendo WaveBird ($59.99). If you already have a GameCube, your existing controllers will work just fine--just plug them in to one of the four ports underneath the flip-up panel on the Wii's topside. GameCube controllers should also work with the Wii's "Virtual Console" games--which saves you the trouble of having to buy a Classic Controller.
GameCube memory cards: One other annoyance when playing GameCube games: your progress can only be saved to GameCube memory cards, not to the Wii's internal memory or to an SD card (we're hoping Nintendo fixes this with a future firmware update). Like the controllers, your old GC cards will work just fine--there are two slots right next to the GameCube controller ports. If you don't have any onhand (and you want to save your games on GC titles), you'll need to spring for a $26.90 (2GB) memory card.
Wii Points: One of the big attactions of the Wii is its Virtual Console, which lets you purchase classic games that originally came from the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), the Super NES, the Nintendo 64, the Sega Genesis, and the TurboGrafx16. By the end of 2006, at least 30 titles should be available, including Donkey Kong (NES), Super Mario 64 (N64), and Sonic the Hedgehog (Genesis). To purchase the downloadable titles, you'll need to use a Nintendo currency known as Wii Points (similar to the Microsoft Points on Xbox Live), which currently have an exchange rate of 100 points per U.S. dollar. You can buy Wii Points directly through the console's online store, or use prepaid cards (2000 Wii Points) available in various denominations.
SD card: If you're close to filling the Wii's built-in 512MB of storage with your Virtual Console games, you can always expand your available space with an SD card. Nintendo sells its own, but any run-of-the-mill card will do. Fairly spacious 1GB cards are available for less than $20--even less with mail-in rebates--and they'll work in plenty of other gadgets as well.
Wireless access point: In addition to the downloadable Virtual Console games, the Wii offers online "channels," including news, weather, and even an Opera Web browser (head-to-head online gaming is said to be coming sometime in 2007). You can get online for free via the Wii's built-in Wi-Fi. To do so, of course, you'll need a nearby wireless access point or router. Alternately, you can plug the Nintendo Wi-Fi USB Connector into any nearby PC on a wired network, and the Wii--plus your Nintendo DS--will be able to use it to get online instead.
Component video adapter: The Wii doesn't have the graphical horsepower to handle high-def graphics, but it can do DVD-level 480p video, which will look considerably better on large HDTVs. To see the Wii's games in 480p, you'll need Nintendo's proprietary component video adapter, which should run about $20. |
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