Nintendo Wii U

[originalbadboy]

Current gen games are not going to be an issue for the WiiU that's for sure, and in all honesty it has enough power to create some decent games. I think people might be expecting a little too much of next gen games, they are not going to look or play that much better. Yeah they will run in 1080p at 60fps (hopefully) but other than some fancy new effects you are not going to see the sort of difference from previous gen to current gen.

I suspect most next gen games will probably run on the WiiU just in 720p and maybe at 30fps, whether devs port the games over or remains to be seen. I don't think the first couple of years are going to be a problem, and as time goes on more and more devs are using middleware engines such as UT anyway. These engines are pretty scaleable.

The thing with the Wii was it really didn't have enough grunt to do most of the current gen games justice, not to mention the laxck of HD. I don't think that will happen with the WiiU.

[originalbadboy]

It doesn't bode well if devs are not bothering converting current gen games to the console. How slow will it be in comparison to next gen xbox/ps if devs are saying it's currently slower than 360/ps3?
Wii U really will struggle against the new consoles, it's looking like the Wii all over again.

This has been stated before many times, but I really cant see how its technically possible for the WiiU to be worse than current gen machines, thats just plain silly. The CPU may well not be top of the range, the memory bandwidth may be lower, but then on the other hand the GPU is a good 7 -8 years newer than current gen machines.

Regarding devs not bothering to put current gen games on the machine, considering half the launch titles are current gen games (new and old), I think its safe to say thats not an issue.

Its about using what hardware you have to the best of its abilites, in that regard it doesn't really matter if the CPU is slower.

[MartyG]

Why don't you use a HDMI switch? Some of them even auto switch these days...

Yup, they're not expensive and there's no quality loss. I bought one of these recently, which gives me four extra HDMI sockets on the TV: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...ls_o05_s00_i01 - it auto switches to the relevant channel when a device is turned on.

[dvdx2]

Honestly I can't see an issue here it's already running zombi u, black ops 2 and assassins creed 3 quite convincingly.People are forgetting that this is a launch machine with early understanding with the hardware

yes but 2 of those games are already running with ease on old hardware.

if the wii u is comparable to xbox - ps3 quality, whats it going to look like when the next xbox /playstation come out

[gambit6613]

What i find totally baffling is you get someone from THQ saying that the Wii U is very slow and all the rest, but then on the other hand you have Gearbox and Ubisoft saying that the Wii U is plenty powerful. I think it depends on just how much time a developer can dedicate to making using of Wii U's capabilities.

[Shozuki]

What i find totally baffling is you get someone from THQ saying that the Wii U is very slow and all the rest, but then on the other hand you have Gearbox and Ubisoft saying that the Wii U is plenty powerful. I think it depends on just how much time a developer can dedicate to making using of Wii U's capabilities.

Yeah, I mean all the ports are pretty bad so far, but hopefully things change. That said it won't matter in a year anyway - it'll just be another machine for Nintendo stuff again..

[Brad]

This has been stated before many times, but I really cant see how its technically possible for the WiiU to be worse than current gen machines, thats just plain silly. The CPU may well not be top of the range, the memory bandwidth may be lower, but then on the other hand the GPU is a good 7 -8 years newer than current gen machines.

Regarding devs not bothering to put current gen games on the machine, considering half the launch titles are current gen games (new and old), I think its safe to say thats not an issue.

Its about using what hardware you have to the best of its abilites, in that regard it doesn't really matter if the CPU is slower.

It's thought to be based on the R700 which is actually 4 years old. It's better than 360 and ps3 of course.

If I drop the clock speed of my PC by 1GHz it makes zero difference to, probably, 80 or 90% of my games. If I halved the RAM speed then it might; probably would; I dunno. Point is, most PC games - and probably most modern games for any system - are not bound by CPU speed, they're limited by GPU. Even games that fully utilized the Cell, like Uncharted, did so in order to reduce the GPU load for the most part I think. There are some games however that are going to be sensitive to CPU and RAM speed.

How many people here really expect or care if Wii U gets the multi platform titles? Or if they are the best version? I wouldn't. At this point I would assume that the ps3 and 360 versions will be better. Devs have had the kits for years. Exclusives can be coded to WiiU's strengths so there's no point getting hung up about it. Batman Arkham City stutters on WiiU? Get it on Xbox then.

[gambit6613]

I think all the poor and what seem to be rushed ports of old games have probably done the Wii U more harm than good. This is just lazy publishes trying to cash in on Wii U launch.

[originalbadboy]

yes but 2 of those games are already running with ease on old hardware.

if the wii u is comparable to xbox - ps3 quality, whats it going to look like when the next xbox /playstation come out

I would imagine AC3 is pushing the hardware pretty much 100% .. So you say with ease I say not so much. Its no different than when the 360 first came out. PDZ looked like an xbox game, and for intends and purposes it was. You are talking about games that are at the end of a generation and pushing the current hardware to the limits.

[originalbadboy]

Yeah, I mean all the ports are pretty bad so far, but hopefully things change. That said it won't matter in a year anyway - it'll just be another machine for Nintendo stuff again..

You keep saying that, and yet I have not seen a single review which states that the WiiU version of Batman for example is unplayable due to its frame rate. I suspect there may be other things going on that is pulling the performance down, such as peolpe downloading stuff in the background for example.

So its not ALL the ports .. Stop making up crap.

[Shozuki]

You keep saying that, and yet I have not seen a single review which states that the WiiU version of Batman for example is unplayable due to its frame rate. I suspect there may be other things going on that is pulling the performance down, such as peolpe downloading stuff in the background for example.

So its not ALL the ports .. Stop making up crap.

I also keep saying to watch the Giantbomb quick look and/or listen to the podcast, they quite clearly mention it many times plus you can also see it for yourself. It's also all over the NeoGAF forums by owners of the console and game. It's obviously a brilliant game and clearly serviceable on the WiiU but simply not as good as the PS3/360 versions. Which is all i've been saying.

[originalbadboy]

I also keep saying to watch the Giantbomb quick look and/or listen to the podcast, they quite clearly mention it many times plus you can also see it for yourself. It's also all over the NeoGAF forums by owners of the console and game. It's obviously a brilliant game and clearly serviceable on the WiiU but simply not as good as the PS3/360 versions. Which is all i've been saying.

No you have been saying that ALL the ports are rubbish ... not the same thing. As stated I am not convinced that its the actual port thats causing the problem but rather possibly the console needs a 'tweak' here and there in the background. Time will tell.

[gambit6613]

I also think its fair to say that Mass Effect 3 has been ported rather badly, it clearly isnt as stable on Wii U as on Xbox which is just typical for EA rushing something out in 6 months just for the sake of it, they really should have put the Mass Effect Trilogy on Wii U that would have made a lot more sense and would easily have sold a lot more than just ME3. But these for me dont matter as i wont be getting them.

What i am pleased with is that both Blops2, AC3 and Sonic Racing appear to have been developed specifically with Wii U in mind. But i dont class these as ports as all 3 are new games on other consoles.

[Shozuki]

No you have been saying that ALL the ports are rubbish ... not the same thing. As stated I am not convinced that its the actual port thats causing the problem but rather possibly the console needs a 'tweak' here and there in the background. Time will tell.

Yes indeed all the ports of games from other systems are worse on the WiiU, not entirely sure why you can't accept that really. Whether it's because the ports are rushed, whether it's hardware - who knows? I did say I hope to see things improve.

[Brad]

There is no precedent for a console being tweaked by the manufacturer to fix framerate hitches in a game is there?

This is just like the PS3 ports of Xbox 360 games back in the day and we shouldn't worry about it. Anyone here desperate to play Mass Effect 3 or Batman and not got a 360 or PS3 of PC but are getting a WiiU next week?