Wii-U thoughts so far

[Xeogred]

You are not crazy. While there are some great looking games on Xbox, I feel that it suffers from a lot of fog. Games like Brute Force and Morrowind are great examples of that. I feel like Nintendo and other developers took the Gamecube and was able to get a crisp, clear final product. It was not free from such issues though as games like Star Fox Adventures definitely suffers from some fog and graininess. I think that making a gritty, dirty game takes a lot more resources to do than a bright and colorful one. Look at games like Jet Grind Radio on the Dreamcast and Jet Set Radio Future on the Xbox, those looked spectacular still to this day because of the clear cut, simple yet stylistic visuals that stand out.

These games will look good forever. Style > technical power.

[Sload Soap]

You are not crazy. While there are some great looking games on Xbox, I feel that it suffers from a lot of fog. Games like Brute Force and Morrowind are great examples of that.

Difference here being that the Gamecube wouldn't have been capable of running those games at all, fog or no. I think some people are mistaking strong art direction for pure graphical prowess. Metroid Prime is still a very impressive looking game but compared to say Halo 2, where we see much larger and many more objects on screen at one time as well as a far superior draw distance, it loses out.

From my own personal experience Soul Calibur 2 and Splinter Cell had sharper graphics and much faster saving times on Xbox than Cube as did the GTA and Tomb Raider: Legend games when compared to the PS2. I'm actually surprised the discussion has moved this way as there is no contest which was the most powerful 6th gen console.

Back on topic, it's a pretty miserable situation the Wii U finds itself in when Assassin's Creed: Rogue, COD: Advance Warfare, Dragon Age: Inquisition, GTA5, Far Cry 4, Metal Gear Solid 5 and Destiny could be ported but won't be. Is this the last year of third party support for the system?

[casterofdreams]

Man I hope not but if it is what can you do really. Out of the seven physical games that I own, three of them are third party ports. They run very well with very minor bugs. Even though I own them on other platform the off-screen stuff is a cool thing for me.

[Exhuminator]

Is this the last year of third party support for the system?

Unless Smash Bros. sets the Wii U sales on fire, bet on it.

[Xeogred]

Ubisoft seemed to care. But really, I blame marketing with some of these third parties too though (or do we blame Nintendo?). It took me awhile to even realize Assassin's Creed 3-4 were on the Wii U.

It is goofy that everything hitting the 360/PS3 could be on the Wii U, and it's not like they'd really be forced to waste time integrating the gamepad. Who knows.

[Reprise]

Is it me or are third party publishers far less inclined to support struggling consoles anymore?

The Sega Saturn, Dreamcast, N64 and GameCube all struggled and had plenty of third party support, at least compared to the Wii U.

[casterofdreams]

Is it me or are third party publishers far less inclined to support struggling consoles anymore?

The Sega Saturn, Dreamcast, N64 and GameCube all struggled and had plenty of third party support, at least compared to the Wii U.

Maybe in a post COD4 world publishers want big hits or they won't develop. We also have higher costs I guess so the sales it needs to hit to break even is much higher.

[Tanooki]

It's too much of a risk to support a troubled system, that's why that convenient excuse hit the WiiU of 'systems, then games...' was used and abused. It has never happened with a main game maker console before where they had to prove the hardware to get the games but WiiU got snubbed with it. It plays back to the rotten change in designs and tactics in the last generation where it was deemed the right way to go with getting into a hollywood level pissing contest. It's now on disc all about having a huge budget, not much room for failure, hiring actors, using massive production studios to make the games and mo-cap stuff, big musical set pieces, and so on. It has driven it to where with such stunning arrogance you got companies like Square-Enix a year ago calling Tomb Raider a colossal failure because it didn't make them the profits they needed, yet it sold like 3-4M units across 3 platforms (PS3, PC, 360.) No one ever could have called sales like that before that era a failure, it would be a resounding success as often as it would be selling a few 100K was profit and cracking a million+ was insane.

Xeograd is also right too, some of these amazing failures are squarely at times not even budget relating but blindness on how to properly advertise something. I remember when AC3 and 4 came out he mentioned, you never got a peep they were for the WiiU other than a teeny emblem on some TV spots. The other platforms their reps would talk up, you'd get paid ads on game sites, etc but the WiiU was just under the rug. This happened on the Wii too where people would use all too often the line 'if this game sells we will do more in the future...' but other than the occasional media article on IGN or whatever, there would be no true TV based press like PS3 and 360 games got or print either, then these games would sell a 10th of what they projected and future support/projects were dropped or cut before they were started. When you set up a system of failure and are set on causing it, there's little to nothing consumers can do to stop it on the retail end.

Sload -- Probably. The system I just wrote about causing imminent failure of third party games by design has played out again magnificently just like it did on Wii and now on WiiU. It was all sabotage from the get go releasing year old titles, not advertising the games existed, printing small numbers making some of them harder to find, and in some cases poorly porting them so they looked/functioned the worst didn't help with those with 2+ systems making a choice. I hate it, I really do, I'd love to have a line-up on my shelf of 20+ WiiU games right now I'd actively have/had enjoyed but I've got 1/2 that. I think once Project Cars, Bayonetta 2, and a few others at E3 pop it's going to be a third party ghost town. The ideal situation if WiiU was treated with respect by developers would that as long as PS3 and 360 got games, the WiiU would get a port too, and that would have stretched it through 2015 maybe part of 2016 but that's just not the case.

[Xeogred]

http://www.gamnesia.com/news/nintendos- ... AU-P2OlKf0

Random thoughts on a random pick out of that list... I am incredibly excited for Mario Maker. It would be beyond perfect if they could somehow include other "styles" in their instead of just the NSMB look and the classic look. Throw in SMW, SMB2/3, etc, in there and that'd be awesome.

[Exhuminator]

I shall recount two things I experienced last weekend while trying a Wii U for the first time.

Playing New Super Mario Bros. U, I wanted to use the Gamepad to control Mario while I watched the game happen on the Gamepad's screen, meanwhile have my daughter use a Wii Remote to control Luigi on the HDTV's screen. You would think this would be possible, since we were on the same screen in the actual game. But no, no it is not. In multiplayer you cannot use the Gamepad to control one character while another uses a Wii Remote. You both have to use Wii Remotes and the Gamepad is relegated to "additional functionality". If it is possible to actually do this I couldn't get it to work thus it's unintuitive as hell and therefore broken.

Playing Mario Kart 8, I wanted to use the Gamepad as my own screen for the game, and use it for my kart controls as well. I wanted my daughter to use the HDTV and a Wii Remote for her kart view and controls. You would think this would be possible, but no, no it is not. If you play local co-op on Mario Kart 8, you're stuck with splitscreen on the HDTV and the Gamepad. They both show the splitscreen simply mirrored on the two devices. Why the hell would you do this Nintendo? The Gamepad should always show its own racing view. The HDTV should handle the splitscreen for the rest of the racers.

I was not blown away by the Wii U or either of the two games I tried.