PixlBit

Also notable in the press release, there's no mention of Game Boy Advance virtual console games, surprisingly.

Tested this out today. Found a 50 dollar 1-year XBLA card, and the deal even worked with that. 3DS prepaid cards were covered, too.

This is the mic I have. I use it for PB & Jason, and now it'll be used for this.

As far as the one-hour shows that will be in the future, the format and sound will work close to this, our prior PlayBit. We'll record direct feed game video and sound, and capture my own audio with my mic, then merge them together.

It was a direct feed from the Xbox 360, with the audio replaced by an in-room mic. Before, we've used a webcam to capture what was on screen. I'm going to check out and see how it did in a moment. Have any thoughts on the performance? Would we have been better off recording it and uploading it for a smoother video?

I'm looking at it now, I'm pretty happy with what I see. Anyone else have some feedback? For recordings, I'll be mixing direct audio from the game with a vocal recording, but for live broadcasts, we'll probably have to operate like we did here.

There might be a way for us to upload two separate audio channels, but that's stuff we'll have to look into before I can say it can be done. I know audio was the roughest part of the PlayBit.

We had a pretty good turn out. We appreciate everyone stopping by. We're going to be looking to do more live-stream playbits of advance review copies in the future.

My personal hope is to have an hour-long or so regular event each week, like my podcast, available for people to watch at any time. During other time periods or special events, I'll probably do a few hours of live broadcasts as well. Naturally, as the device worked so well, it will be used in many of the big future playbits. No more watching a webcam feed of a TV screen! Hooray!

Forgot something important everyone: You can somersault in this one. Run one way, turn sharply, and jump. Love it.

More than what Nick suggests, often the larger media outlets do get hands-on time with these units away from everyone else. My twitter feed during the show suggested many sites were posting hands-on Wii U impressions since before the doors of E3 opened. I don't really mind that preferential treatment, the bigger media places have earned a place in the gaming community and have large devoted followings. What irks me about it is that this exhibitor deal keeps people like PixlBit, and other small outlets from even getting a shot at experiencing the new controller.

Perhaps Nintendo will crack down on this issue, but I can't be too sure. We'll see what happens tomorrow.

My impressions were slightly more negative. I plan to pick it up upon release, but I didn't feel like it had the same spirit in it New Super Mario Bros. Wii does. Granted, Rayman Origins is an incomplete demo.

Don't get me wrong, it was still a lot of fun.

Best game I've seen so far? Undoubtedly, just for the charm.

I didn't get the chance to see it on the show floor today, but I did get to see Bastion, an awesome indie title. I'll be working on some quick audio impressions of that pretty soon now that the floor is closed.