Wii-U thoughts so far

[ZeroAX]

Why do you even care? We KNOW that once the next gen starts this console will be underpowered compared to them. It doesn't really make a big difference in the long run, cause you don't buy Nintendo consoles for the graphics.

Are you trying to prove that it's superior from the current gen consoles, to justify someone buying a Wii U when he already owns a PS3/360? Because you don't need to do that. People don't care about that. They care about the exclusive games.

[BurningDoom]

Why do you even care? We KNOW that once the next gen starts this console will be underpowered compared to them. It doesn't really make a big difference in the long run, cause you don't buy Nintendo consoles for the graphics.

Are you trying to prove that it's superior from the current gen consoles, to justify someone buying a Wii U when he already owns a PS3/360? Because you don't need to do that. People don't care about that. They care about the exclusive games.

I'm not trying to prove it's superior. I was trying to say it's not inferior. Someone else said it was going to have crappy ports like the Wii, and I'm saying that's not the case. Then I was told to back it up.

[RCBH928]

The irony that we are talking over the quality of graphics... in a retro gaming forum. Seriously? I personally DGAF about graphics, so...

because unless this console brings something new , why would I pay full price and add it to my collection?

If I will buy a new console for $400 I sure want the best graphics available . I dont want to add another "SIMILAR" game console to my collection.

Thats why most people will either buy a ps3 or 360. You dont hear people going crazy after ps3 and then going crazy again for the 360...its the same damn thing for the most part.

[ZeroAX]

This is new. Apparently in Europe there will be 2 Premium Wii U bundles. One with Nintendo Land and one with ZombiU

http://www.zavvi.com/10639054.html

(yes that's 520 dollars, but at least our taxes are included xD)

This is interesting. Has Nintendo ever bundled a 3rd party title at launch before?

EDIT

lol, since I posted this they raised the price by 26€, what the fuck?

[ZenErik]

Why do you even care? We KNOW that once the next gen starts this console will be underpowered compared to them. It doesn't really make a big difference in the long run, cause you don't buy Nintendo consoles for the graphics.

Are you trying to prove that it's superior from the current gen consoles, to justify someone buying a Wii U when he already owns a PS3/360? Because you don't need to do that. People don't care about that. They care about the exclusive games.

I'm not trying to prove it's superior. I was trying to say it's not inferior. Someone else said it was going to have crappy ports like the Wii, and I'm saying that's not the case. Then I was told to back it up.

I don't doubt that the Wii-U will often have nicer looking ports, but it'll likely be akin to a Xbox or GCN port compared to a PS2 port from what I have seen. Then again, I have not seen it in person.

Now I know the tablet controller will add some cost.. Though probably not as much as some people think. The screen isn't even high res or multi touch. Remember that the lower end Xbox 360 was $300 back in 2005. And the $300 low end Wii-U will be only slightly more powerful in 2012? Pricing seems a bit high. And yes, I know the original 360 didn't have built in WiFi and a few other things hat the Wii-U does.

I don't think anyone is really bashing the Wii-U. I plan on getting one regardless of whether its' graphics are truly "next gen" or not. It's going to have some good looking and more importantly FUN games for us to enjoy.

[elmagicochrisg]

This is interesting. Has Nintendo ever bundled a 3rd party title at launch before?

At launch, I don't think so. But there was the SFII bundle for SNES later on...

[ZeroAX]

This is interesting. Has Nintendo ever bundled a 3rd party title at launch before?

At launch, I don't think so. But there was the SFII bundle for SNES later on...

Yeah I know about later on (and a Monster Hunter 3 bundle for Wii, tons of bundles for the DS with different games), but I don't remember a game getting such a high profile package/promotion treatment (bundle at launch). Hope this bodes well for 3rd parties on the Wii U

[dsheinem]

The whole point of this is that someone said that Wii U ports will be crappy.

I'm not buying that it's gonna have crappy ports. Sounds like unsubstantiated Nintendo hating to me.

How about I turn this around, then. Do you guys have anything to show me to support that it's gonna have crappy ports?

Ok, you keep shifting around your major claim (before it was about the enthusiasm about graphics in media coverage and now it is about the actual quality of the ports) but I am trying to keep up.

A couple of things here.

1) I expect graphics in Wii U ports of existing gen games should/could be close to if not (in some cases) better than their PS3/360 counterparts. I don't doubt that the hardware is likely "there" to do so. HOWEVER, the Wii had potential to produce "best ports" of PS2/Xbox games but often didn't due to the inclusion of waggle controls (e.g. Metal Slug Anthology, Okami) or B-teams working on porting engines and producing uglier graphics on the Wii. That said, graphically there are bright spots like Silent Hill Shattered Memories or RE4, both of which look better on Wii.

2) Again, following the similarity positioned Wii, I expect the Wii U to get watered down ports of PS4/Xbox 720 games. There's a long history of that this generation. It almost certainly won't have the specs to keep up, and for the majority of its life it will likely be the ugliest current console on the market.

3) Several early reports on ports of PS3/360 games are not looking good. Some games are reaching parity, others are looking worse. Developers are saying that the Wii U is "maybe even better" than the 360/PS3. I've yet to see many ANY reports talking about how much BETTER a Wii U port of a current gen game looks. See:

http://kotaku.com/5943073/batman-arkham ... the-wii-u-

http://www.vg247.com/2012/08/17/wii-u-g ... says-sumo/

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012- ... 0-versions

4) The quality of graphics in ports have zero bearing on whether I would want to purchase a Wii U.

[isiolia]

I'm not trying to prove it's superior. I was trying to say it's not inferior. Someone else said it was going to have crappy ports like the Wii, and I'm saying that's not the case. Then I was told to back it up.

Imagine if, for the current generation, the Wii launched in 2005 instead of the 360, but the hardware that was released was all the same.

Personally, that's the kind of thing I see with the Wii U. Like the Wii compared to a PS2 or XBox, the Wii U seems to be a step above the current systems. If nothing else, it can do what they can plus power a GamePad.

In the short term, I would expect the Wii U to get ports that are a step above the PS3 or 360, just like I would expect the Wii version of a PS2 game to have greater potential. But, to a fair point it does seem like Nintendo isn't shooting much higher than current gen. They confirmed that first party games thus far are 720p native. I've yet to find something straight from the devs that Black Ops 2 is 1080p native - they say it runs in that, but they could mean upscaling. Quite a lot of the commentary from Digital Foundry and such, for their hands-on, has been mixed at best (the Third Party Transitions section here for example).

What it looks like to me is that the system is heavily geared to supporting the GamePad (and perhaps the social network stuff). For example, half of the RAM is "system" memory, half of it is "game" memory. Even with that, it's still 1GB of RAM for games (albeit, apparently, relatively slow RAM), twice (or better!) than what the PS3 or 360 have available.

But, again, that's the current generation. Relative to the next generation, it seems likely that the Wii U will be significantly underpowered, especially when directing a decent portion of system resources to the GamePad. Without seeing what's next for MS and Sony though, it's hard to say if it'll be so far behind as to be a Wii-peat (*chuckle*) of the current gen, or be more akin to the GCN/XBox/PS2 where they all get something similar enough.

My money is more on Nintendo getting left in the dust again, but I also think that the year+ they seem like they'll have being the most capable machine on the market will prove to be very beneficial in attracting developers.

[noiseredux]

Imagine if, for the current generation, the Wii launched in 2005 instead of the 360, but the hardware that was released was all the same.

this is how I see it as well. A few pages back Dave posed a question about if there were Wii games that looked like they couldn't run (visually) on PS2/GCN/Xb and I found that intriguing. Especially the GameCube part. I'm curious about games that were released on both GameCube and Wii (Twilight Princess, etc) -- did the Wii versions actually look any better?

I've stayed out of this thread's original question, but since I'm posting here I might as well just say this. The Wii is the only console this gen I bought new instead of used. And I own two of them. Yet I have zero interest in the Wii-U. Of the two of us, my wife is the bigger fan of the Wii console, and she has confirmed that she has no interest in "upgrading" to the Wii-U either.*

*This has nothing to do with graphics, and I promise I'm not trolling.