Wii-U thoughts so far

[RyaNtheSlayA]

If anybody wants to add me on Nintendo Network I'm GoldfishRT

[s1mplehumar]

If anybody wants to add me on Nintendo Network I'm GoldfishRT

I'll add you after I update Netflix, Ryan.

My username: Eronnicus

[Octopod]

I sent you two request.

I'm Octopod on there.

[sevin0seven]

^something tells me were going to need a thread for Nintendo Network..

[Cronozilla]

I picked mine up today, did the ultra-huge update, thankfully it only took about 30 minutes.
And, so far, I like it a lot.

This is the least janky launch console I've ever gotten, and considering how complex this junk is, that's impressive.

My only beefs so far is, the system needs to be updated so items in the menu load faster ... while systems stuff loads very fast (Even while running games), things like Mii Maker do not. Getting back to the actual Wii U menu is also quite slow. I imagine that'll get faster.

And, Nintendo's restrictions on Network ID names did become a roadblock for me ... they, apparently, include Copyrighted words as unacceptable. I tried using Cronozilla ... but it rejected it, contacted Customer Service, it turns out, "Zilla" is potentially a copyrighted term ... so ... no go. It doesn't give you a "can't use that it's copyrighted" error either, which was confusing.

But other than that stuff ... which is actually fairly minor, the system has been really great so far. The games I got are good (Nintendo Land and New Super Mario Bros. U), the controller works awesome, and is ultra comfortable. I didn't get the pro controller, though. The range in my house is astounding, I can use it on the second floor which, in a straight line distance through walls, is probably about 30 feet. The screen on the gamepad is really nice, the touch is excellent, much better than anything in the DS or 3DS lines.

Tangent about graphics:

One thing I keep hearing people say ... and I don't know if this is just to downplay Wii U coming out because they don't like Nintendo or they just really want a new PlayStation or Xbox or something ... but this system is nowhere near on par with current consoles, it is significantly more powerful.

When playing Nintendo land, for example, I can see that there's a 1080P image being rendered with full lighting and shadowing and all sorts of shader effects and then the gamepad screen is being rendered independently. The shadows are different, the aliasing is different. The aliasing on the TV image, is indeed being rendered (not blown up to) at 1080P, you can tell based on the artifact size. There is NO flickering shadows or draw distance issues either. This is just not something 360 or PS3 can do, graphically. They don't have the video memory or graphical horsepower necessary.

So far, the only technical limitation I've really seen is ... the slowdown going back to the menu could be due to the 2GB system memory space and you have to wait for the internal flash memory. And if that's the case ... that isn't a big deal, you can get around the user experiencing that kind of slowdown with clever streaming techniques, which I'm sure Nintendo is fully aware of.

I guess what I'm saying is, no other console available has graphical capabilities in this range. I think the only reason why it doesn't look as impressive (though the presentation is much better in person than in videos) I think that's not because of graphical limitation, but maybe a threshold we've reached in fidelity.

Anyway, my Nintendo Network ID is Cronoxilla (see?).

[Octopod]

I've been playing Sonic Racing online and the match making seems to be pretty good to me. The matches are not filling up but I imagine that will change pretty soon. Fun game too. I am really liking it.

I agree with cronozilla's spoiler tag there. Graphics aren't the end all be all for me by any stretch but man this stuff looks good.

[RyaNtheSlayA]

Call of Duty BLOPS II's matchmaking works just fine. Played a few rounds...

but yeah, I'm going to need that ethernet adapter.

Not sure how I feel about the friend system:

If you add through friends-list, the other person has to add you.

If you add through Miiverse, it sends a request.

Why can't the Friends List app send a request?

[WallCrusher]

stuff

Very insightful and good to know. Glad to finally read something that isn't all doom-n-gloom like on some other forums I've been looking through.

[EvilRyu2099]

I think I'm going to hook mine up on tuesday.. Hopefully GoTigers9999 or Iori9999 isn't taken by then.. Leaning towards Sonic Racing All Stars and Tekken Tag 2..


Edit: this actually seems like a console that would excel in Shmups.. Let's hope developers doesn't neglect Nintendo like they did PS3 or Wii for that matter..

[SamuraiMegas]

Im hoping for SamuraiMegas as my name... The copyright thing is weird.