Is the Wii U Nintendo's supergrafx?

well if you want it might be nintendo's dreamcast >_>

 

Nah, at least Dreamcast had something magical about it. The Wii U doesn't interest me at all, not one tinny bit.

 

The one thing i'm interested in the WiiU is the case. The design is really nice to hold and when you can buy them for next to nothing they will make excellent semi-made handheld portables to mod with. At the moment, we only have the "case protectors" to use as a mold (and i'll be using in a few weeks as such). As to the WiiU console, nope, no interest in it either, just a gimmick.

 

I don't think so.

It's only been 3 months. Shit takes time. Developers need time to acclimate and learn the system.

I remember when the PS3 came out, all multi platform games were major fail on it. They looked terrible (The Darkness 1 for example has no AA, worse textures, no motionblur and only runs at HALF the resolution of 720p. 960x540. Where as the 360 version has all of those @720p). Some exclusives like Genji at launch were said to look like PS2 games.

Obviously yeah it's not super more powerful than the other platforms. But you know, my Gaming PC is most likely already more powerful than Durango and Orbis. I doubt either of those platforms will outperform my PC and for the first few years I bet you won't get games that look any better than most do on PC already right now. (Let alone with High-end forms of Anti-Aliasing. I bet you as the generation goes on, developers will forgo hardware based AA in favor of shitty Software solutions just like they did this gen. HELL even the UE4 Elemental demo only ran at 1080p30FPS W/FXAA on a GTX 680. )


Do I wish Nintendo had made the Wii U bigger?(I mean look at the thing and what it puts out for it's size) Absolutely.

But Nintendo really isn't trying to compete with Sony or MS. They have their own demographic and it's FAR from overpriced considering the RIP OFF the 360 was at launch for 400$ and don't get me started on the PS3 at 600$. Remember "PS3 has no games?" for the first 2+ years? And it turned out to not be anywhere near as powerful as it was touted to be. I didn't own more than 3 games for the 520$ I spent on my first Phat PS3 until ~2010.

And the PS3 and 360 both only have a very small amount of actually UNIQUE to the platform games at launch. Most either were already out on older consoles, or another rivaling console or PC.

I've already got 4+ games on my Wii U in the first 3 months. And I could not be more excited for many of the games to come. I was excited about Rayman, but well FUCK Ubisoft Execs on that one.


The logic ANYONE uses to bash the Wii U literally makes 0 logical sense that i've seen so far. "Oh the CPU doesn't have as many Ghz as the 360/PS3. IT SUCKS" Yeah well my old Pentium 4 has more Ghz at stock than my Core i7 and guess which is more powerful?

What i'd RATHER be worried about is the 1.6Ghz AMD CPU in Orbis/Durango. In the PC space AMD CPU's have been nothing but crap in comparison to Intel in the last 4 years. Single core effeciency has been terrible too. So these Jaguar chips better be a real piece of work.

Honestly I hope Nintendo comes out with a 2nd model WiiU that is bigger and beefed up. Unlikely. But it would certainly help. I don't understand the need for "Tiny tiny tiny!"
At all.


To quote WP

The Wii U is very far from a modest improvement. 22 times the amount of RAM is not a small improvement. Nintendo land for a launch title looks far better at 60FPS than any game i've ever seen on the PS3 or 360 running at 30FPS despite only running at 720p. The detail to the world is leaps and bounds over what the Wii could do.

The only thing a Wii could do that the Wii U has done . Is NSMBU in a very simplified and scaled down form. The Backgrounds(Especially these),texture quality and lighting are far superior to NSMBWii. But for whatever god forsaken reason. They used the same Character models. Hence people throw a fit.

But I digress, the Wii U is FAR from perfect. And there are things that piss me off about it(Quite a few actually). But is it too expensive? A modest improvement over it's predecessor? Is it doomed to fail?

I don't think so.

If I were Nintendo, I would just junk the first design and make a new one that isn't the same size as the Wii basically. Make something comparable to the 360 or PS3 Phat. Beef up the hardware, improve the streaming video tech for the gamepad(Chroma subsampling and macroblocking is not a good thing) and put in a better screen on the gamepad as well.




Many promised or planned exclusives didn't happen on the PS3 or are still in development hell on the heels of the platform successor of their successors. Yet it seems to have done fine.

 

People who have the Wii U, I don't see much to it. Honestly a big waste of cash right now, and I wasn't blown away by it like the Playstation 3 and 360 did.

 

I'm with Vosse.

I think if this time next year we haven't got some system shifters then we can start dwelling about the consoles future. I think it's going to take time, this is the first time Nintendo have released a HD console and they even said it takes more time to make the games. I loved the Wii - it had some awesome games that worked on their own merits and based around the limitations of the host system.

I really didn't get along with my Wii U for at least a month after launch, most of the games were pretty sub-standard and lacking excitement, something clicked though as I played Nintendo Land and Tank Tank Tank! - The system is really fun and has tonnes of potential that is as of yet, untapped.

 

Yeah, blown away by Pre-rendered footage of games that turned out to not even look anywhere near that good? (The PS3. Killzone 2 looks good. But no where NEAR as good as the pre-rendered video. Same thing with Motorstorm )

Remember when they promised 1080p games? Yet most games could BARELY run at 720p. Metal Gear Solid 4 runs at anamorphic 1024x768 and spent a lot of time dipping down to 20FPS. (ESPECIALLY in MGO.
http://www.eurogamer.net/videos/digitalfoundry-metal-gear-online-analysis I played this game for 1000+ hours. And I cannot tell you how much pain and how many problems the framerate issues in MGO2 caused)

Most first generation PS3/360 games were nearly PS2/Xbox games in high resolution with Bloom lighting.
http://oyster.ignimgs.com/ve3d/images/00/85/8508_perfect-dark-zero-20060222023223600.jpg
https://lh3.ggpht.com/-Q4qOonlaXmY/...Wk/FgpAD-LNMwk/s1600/tomb-raider-legend-2.jpg
http://image.gamespotcdn.net/gamespot/images/2007/298/reviews/940567_20071026_screen001.jpg
(Though there were a few that stepped it up.)

Look at Hitman Blood money in the recent HD collection. Sure as hell doesn't look like a 360 game does it? More like an Xbox game in high resolution(Is same release that came out on the 360 in 2006)
http://playstationgang.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/10105hitman_blood_money.jpg


I'd say the impression is more to the fact of it just being high resolution. Or all the pre-rendered goodness, I know I was wow'd by the original Halo 3 and original PS3 trailers.

I remember when they showed Halo 3 off for the first time and showed first shots of the game.
http://www.ewallpapers.eu/w_show/halo-3-1920-1080-2789.jpg
http://0.tqn.com/d/xbox/1/0/4/K/halo3screen5.jpg

And then this was the final product
http://www.gamerzines.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/halo3_logo.jpg
Surely a big improvement in many areas over Halo 2. But it didn't look anywhere as good as the previously shown shots or the Reveal trailer.





If you get wowed by the Graphics of Orbis/Durango when they are revealed. Welcome to PC gaming 2+ years ago for the lighting/effects quality and 6+ years for being able to output in 2 million pixel resolution playable without issue.


That is, if it isn't pre-rendered. (Hai Sony)



The problem with people is they keep judging the Wii U compared to all Previous generation consoles that weren't even it's previous generation counterpart's rivals(And systems it surpasses visually. Even if only a small bit so far). And never to it's previous generation counterpart. The Wii U is behind graphically by a generation. So what?, since when do most people ever care about graphics? When a lot of people always claim to value gameplay more. Yet you judge the Wii U by it's graphics? If you actually valued graphics, you'd be playing on PC(Any console game that has a PC version is the one I buy). And not be playing Sub-720p games on a 1080p TV.(Less than 50% resolution)



(Which reminds me. Before dmcevil May Cry's release. People who saw it running on PC would say "It looks next gen almost!" Yet, the game is pretty much the same and even slightly worse in some minor areas http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-dmc-pc-face-off )


If you actually care about gameplay, you'd actually ENJOY the Wii U. Games like ZombiU,NSMBU and Nintendo land more than prove that.

At least Nintendo didn't use bullshit-pre-rendered footage and pass it off as gameplay.



Give it more TIME for developers to acclimate and we will see. Criterion is one to watch for example
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-need-for-speed-most-wanted-wii-u-behind-the-scenes

I can name at least 5+ games I am looking to pick up in 2013 for the Wii U.

Pikmin 3
MH3U
Wonderful101
Dragon Quest X
Wind Waker
Game&Wario
Lego City Undercover
NFSMW:U

 

The biggest problem with the Wii U is that the current user base of Wii customers don't see a reason to upgrade, the majority of wii owners fall into two groups:

Group 1 Consists mostly of all the Moms and Dads that bought the system as a family console, mainly due to wii sports, they never really bought other games and as a result the machine lost there interest a few months after they got it, the console is now ether sitting under the home TV and forgotten, or at your local pawn shop (and most likely selling for next to nothing)

Group 1 Wont buy a Wii U as the original wasnt much of a investment for them.

Group 2 Similarly to group 1 got the system, played a bit of wii sports, got bored of it,But didnt want to spend more money on the console, so they went online and noticed they can mod it and load 100s of games on it trough USB loader, and are currently in pirate console heaven.

Group 2 Wont buy a Wii U as you cant mod it yet, but when you can they will probably get one asap as its a great invest.


Sure there are hardcore gamers, that arent in ether group, but if you have a look at the puny game adoption ratio on the Wii, less than 1.2 games sold for every wii console,you can see how this can be a problem for them.

PS I think of the wii as a polar opposite to the dreamcast, lost of units sold, with very low game sales figures vs lots of quality games sold, with few consoles.

 

I would love to buy a Wii U, but money right now, yeah, not in my favor I think right now it really just doesn't have games, remember the 3DS when it came out? It had a few, but nothing spectacular. Now it has a whole lot and a release schedule that looks better than any other console right now. Once we see developers using hardware correctly, and see innovation with the gamepad, I think it will start selling a lot.

 

The Wii U will eventually do just fine, once the Big N comes out with a few AAA titles (which they always do for any system) like SSB, Mario Kart, a new Mario game, Metroid, etc, it will sell enough to be respectable. And let's be honest, if the PS4 and Xbox 720 are less than $400 at launch, I'd be shocked, so they'll have price going for them.

Will people buy a Wii U just for Bayonetta 2? Probably not, but when the new Super Smash Bros game comes out, system sales will skyrocket.

 

I also agree with Vosse
Bought the system on launch, played and finished the New Mario Bros. Waiting for Pikmin 3, Fire Emblem, and the rest.
There are things I totally dislike on the Wii U as well, like the compulsory use of the pad. Controller Pro should be the main way of controlling the console and all games.
I don't think I will be buying any games that are available on other systems, like Mass Effect or Assassin's Creed purely because it's cheaper on PS3.

Still, I hope things will work out for the Wii U

 

I agree, I'm not bothered to upgrade, I enjoyed the Wii for a period of time but the novelty which quickly worn off. Still fun with friends but Kinect is more fun for party games. Lack of exciting titles was the biggest disappointment. Do I want to spend money on more of the same? Definitely not Mr Nintendo. I wish Nintendo was more like it was during the SFC period, it's too bland now. I played way more my Gamecube.

Where are the pilotwings, starfox, fzeros? Remaking Wind Maker is commandable but 'been there done that' what's next? Nintendo needs to innovate, it's resting on its laurel, it's sad to see.

My biggest issue at the moment with next gen is I don't feel my PS3 and 360 have reached the end of the line. It's going to take a hell of a value proposition to make me upgrade to next gen.

 

I own one and while I like it I think biggest issue is not enough games really take advantage of the system. After I beat nsmbwiiu all I had left to play was tekken tag 2 and some wii games I just got. Nintendo land was a taste and I love Netflix on the thing but throwing a launch of ports from last year to make up for lack of new games was a huge mistake.

Another is that the system looks too similar to the wii and a good amount of people don't know the difference. Plus the wii was popular with casual crowd and kids cause of ease of use and price. However, tradeoff was it had horrible software sales cause it turned off gaming crowed.

The U.S itself is spending a little less since certain tax rates have gone up causing people to spend less. If Nintendo can figure out how to get the games out fast enough and make ones that can only be played on that system they have a chance. Don't be surprised if ps4 and next Xbox perform poorly due to price and the economy.

 

To me the Wii U is like the 64DD at the moment. Lots of potential but it's not being used. It's been mentioned already, but what the system needs is more games. There's two, maybe three games out there worth buying. And I think Nintendo needs to market the thing better as well, like mentioning they have their own "social networking" with Miiverse.

 

It was a very ill-timed release: a console with uninteresting hardware and lame library, unless yet another recycled New Super Mario Bros and yet another game where you hit zombies are really exciting to you. Overall, a disaster of a system so far.

 

When I was a teenager looking for better graphics I always had the Final Fantasy effect on me.

Ps1 came out and Final Fantasy VII/VIII blew it all up. The opening of FF VIII still amazes me.
Than the PS2 come out and FFX was beautiful, it was gorgeous, major improvement.

And PS3 come out and FFXIII come out and meehh.. It's a little bit better.

Besides all the games today are the same shit, FPS with super human abilities.
So I hope the WIIU gets more attention because at least it didn't focus on the same recipe of game, it tries to innovate.

Take a look around all the improvements, that Physix trailer showed what? Borderlands 2. It's just stupid, people try only to achieve new graphics on FPS.
To me it's all the same shit since Duke Nuken.

One more rant, people talked about how pretty Journey is... this is not even close to the boom Okami, Shadow of Colossos and FFX were on PS2.
The graphics are pretty mediocre.

PS3 and the 360 failed in innovation. I'm hopping the WIIU does the trick in it's own possibilities like both Zeldas on the WII and the Metroid games did very well on the WII.

 

In most areas the final Killzone 2 is actually better than that pre-rendered video. Weapons 3d models and sound (the E3 2005 demo sounds like Killzone 1), helghast soldiers, fire effects, combat immersion (sound specially), not to mention the darker and gritty look. We can all say that pre-rendered video had larger areas, insane smoke effects, smooth 60fps motion, but in the end, the final game looks and plays incredible. See for yourself:


Watch it in 720p of course.

I'm suspect to say this, as i like the series, but i think Killzone 2 is one of the most amazing games on this gen. Not just graphics, but also art style and special effects. While Killzone 3 is graphically even better, it lost some of the dark look that made Killzone 2 so amazing.

As for Motorstorm, i'm with you. That video was way too much. Still the sequel to the original game, MotorStorm Pacific Rift, is such an amazing racing game. I consider it, by far, the best racing game on the PS3 alongside Wipeout HD. It's so challenging and addicting.

The problem i see is lack of focus. I don't understand how someone approves a game with so many technical issues. 720p 30fps should have been the standard this gen. If it's not running like that, they they should have toned down special effects or something like that. The problem i see are game devs trying to show the exact same thing on PC and consoles. There's also lazy ports just to make some money.

I don't have nothing against Nintendo, but i think they made a mistake calling it Wii U. Nintendo sold tons of Wii's to the so called casual gamers. For those people, i guess the Wii U doesn't look like a new console, specially when the design is very similar. Maybe they thought it was some sort of tablet add-on. Nintendo aimed yet again for the casual gamers, but now they are playing games on iphones and ipads.

As for the Wii U "judgment", almost everyone criticizes it because of the lack of games. It's as simple as that. No console can survive with lack of software. The whole Rayman Legends rage is because of that. Nintendo can milk Super Mario Wii U as much as they want, yes it's cool, but it's nothing much different from the game on the regular Wii. It's not something that will make people buy a new console. Plus i think the whole Zelda Wind Waker "HD remake" sounds a bit like a desperate move. Curiously most people that hated HD Collections, saying it was a easy way to make money, are now the ones loving the idea of a Wind Waker in HD.

Still i don't consider the Wii U behind technology wise. With all multiplatform games released / planned for it, i think it matches the current gen. The difference is that the current gen has a insane catalog of games worth playing, for cheaper prices.

 

I'll be honest, I know a lot of people say this just to say it, but truly, graphics don't matter to me anymore. We've reached a point where even the worst looking games look absolutely fine. If all we're doing is focusing on graphics, all it's going to do is raise development costs which means less innovation and creativity, even worse than it is now. So in that regard, I think Nintendo had the right idea going for slightly improved current gen tech with additional RAM.

At this point I think developers need to focus on performance instead of graphics. I want a game with smooth 60 fps without screen-tearing or texture pop-in, not a photo realistic slideshow that will be lucky to do 20-30 fps. I find it laughable that Sony is trying push 4k TV's when most media right now doesn't even support true 1080p. Crawl before you walk Sony.

The Wii U controller doesn't bother me, and I say this as someone who hated the Wii remote and motion controllers in general. The tablet interface has great potential, think Dreamcast VMU only much better technology. As long as developers think of it as an additional screen and not another controller, I see no issues with it.

My main problem comes with the games, or lack thereof. I'm not exaggerating when I say there is literally nothing on the Wii U that interests me. Not even the Wind Waker HD remake is enough to convince me. And it doesn't look like it's improving anytime soon. I also think the system is overpriced for what it offers.

 

Just for the record, this is technically true but one must remember that half the U's RAM is reserved for the OS. Games only get 1GB.