Did the Wii U launch fall flat on its face?

[TrekkiesUnite118]

Right now and pretty much like Gamecube, it won't have much interesting games to play.

The Gamecube had plenty of great and interesting games to play. Only stupid fanboys think it didn't. The Wii U already has one guaranteed exclusive coming out for it that makes it worth owning in my opinion. And that's Bayonetta 2. It's also getting the superior version of Need for Speed Most Wanted and Rayman Legends.

[Gogogadget]

The lack of actual real titles on the Wii U is a bit sad really, so it gets better versions of Colonial Marines (lol), Rayman Legends an Most Wanted... meh.

It looked interesting during the E3 demo, but now? Not so much.

[Thierry Henry]

The Gamecube had plenty of great and interesting games to play. Only stupid fanboys think it didn't.

Too true!

[TrekkiesUnite118]

The lack of actual real titles on the Wii U is a bit sad really, so it gets better versions of Colonial Marines (lol), Rayman Legends an Most Wanted... meh.

It looked interesting during the E3 demo, but now? Not so much.

I see you missed the mention of Bayonetta 2 and The Wonderful 101.

[EclecticGroove]

The only selling point is that used games are not blocked.which really shouldn't have to be a selling point for any console....

As of right now that's not a selling point. It hasn't been confirmed that MS and Sony have added this capability in, and even they have, it has not been confirmed if it's mandatory or simply a tool a developer can/cannot decide to use.

So right now the Wii u selling point is that it's a nintendo system that's finally on par with the 360 and PS3 graphically, and it has a huge goddamn tablet controller.

Of course, the first selling point is bringing it up to systems that are end of life and about to be replaced, and for less money with larger game libraries...
The second selling point is entirely up to a developer to take advantage of it. All of the games I've seen thus far are struggling to find a use for the damned thing that could not have been done on one screen just as well as on the tablet.
The asymmetrical multiplayer someone mentioned is the only use for it I can see being done well, but is absolutely dependent upon the developer to do well... Nothing about the tablet itself inherently improves any sort of game experience, and as a controller it's hardly the most comfortable and enjoyable experience around.

I think the perfect description of the tablet controller I heard thus far is that it's a solution struggling to find a problem to solve.

The only inherent selling point the system has for now that will remain is that it's a Nintendo system (minus GC compat) that can be hooked easier into an HDTV and handle current HDTV resolutions.

All other points either vanish the moment the other new consoles come out, or have yet to be seen if they will actually be an advantage.

[Gogogadget]

I see you missed the mention of Bayonetta 2 and The Wonderful 101.

Not fussed about Bayonetta 2, first one was alright but it's not a game that will make me rush out and buy a system.

The thing with the Wii is, a lot of people told me that even though it's 'underpowered' it made up for it with novel and interesting games... it didn't, not really, and I see the same here, where innovation and enhanced draw distance, better AI and better physics are all over the Xbox 3 and PS4 (or whatever they are called), and the Wii U misses out on those games or gets cut-down versions. I'll buy a second hand Wii U for £50 in about 4 years or so.

[TheSonicRetard]

The lack of actual real titles on the Wii U is a bit sad really, so it gets better versions of Colonial Marines (lol), Rayman Legends an Most Wanted... meh.

It looked interesting during the E3 demo, but now? Not so much.

Nope. The Wii U version of Aliens: CM has been indefinitely postponed.

[EclecticGroove]

The Gamecube had plenty of great and interesting games to play. Only stupid fanboys think it didn't. The Wii U already has one guaranteed exclusive coming out for it that makes it worth owning in my opinion. And that's Bayonetta 2. It's also getting the superior version of Need for Speed Most Wanted and Rayman Legends.

It did have several great games, and more than enough for owners of the system to sink their teeth into... but the vast majority of the "must haves" were from Nintendo or using licensed Nintendo IP.

During that era Sony's PS2 had far...far more games, good and bad, than the GC had, and the Xbox was neck and neck with the system (even with its abysmal market share in Japan).

In the wii era, even with the mammoth sales of the system, it STILL hasn't had the 3rd party support that MS or Sony have garnered.

The wii u looks to have the same trend as Nintendo for 3 reasons.
1) While the wii was last gen specs at the time, they offered a "cheap yet novel" experience that was easy to get into.
2) The current wii u is no longer an easy to get into experience. Instead of "waggle" controls that can be picked up and goofed around with, you now have a much larger controller + touch screen that you have to learn how to use.
3) The wii u still offered "last gen" specs, but this time at a price that is higher than current competitors and likely around the same price as the next MS/Sony systems upon release.

[TrekkiesUnite118]

Not fussed about Bayonetta 2, first one was alright but it's not a game that will make me rush out and buy a system.

The thing with the Wii is, a lot of people told me that even though it's 'underpowered' it made up for it with novel and interesting games... it didn't, not really, and I see the same here, where innovation and enhanced draw distance, better AI and better physics are all over the Xbox 3 and PS4 (or whatever they are called), and the Wii U misses out on those games or gets cut-down versions. I'll buy a second hand Wii U for £50 in about 4 years or so.

I don't see further draw distance and better physics as innovation, they are refinements on what already exists. And there were plenty of fun and interesting games on the Wii. I saw far more innovation on the Wii than I did on the 360 and PS3. While there is a ton of shovelware in the Wii's library, there's also a ton of unique games that you wont find on the 360 or PS3. And no, they weren't all Nintendo games either. There were quite a lot of great games for third party developers, especially Sega and Capcom.

[TheSonicRetard]

What makes you so sure the WiiU version of rayman legends will be the supreme version? I wouldn't be surprised if Vita cross-play is in the PS3 version.

[TrekkiesUnite118]

What makes you so sure the WiiU version of rayman legends will be the supreme version? I wouldn't be surprised if Vita cross-play is in the PS3 version.

They recently announced that they are adding in exclusive content for the Wii U version, and an online mode that will be released for free in April for Wii U owners only.

http://kotaku.com/5985274/rayman-leg...wii-u-in-april

[EclecticGroove]

I don't see further draw distance and better physics as innovation, they are refinements on what already exists. And there were plenty of fun and interesting games on the Wii. I saw far more innovation on the Wii than I did on the 360 and PS3. While there is a ton of shovelware in the Wii's library, there's also a ton of unique games that you wont find on the 360 or PS3. And no, they weren't all Nintendo games either. There were quite a lot of great games for third party developers, especially Sega and Capcom.

The reverse of this is true as well however. There's tons of "meh" games on the ps3 and 360, but a whole slew of games you can't get on the wii. But the one thing that is also true is that ANY game on both the wii and either ps3 and 360 is a superior version on the system that is not the wii.

As for innovation, I agree, but I saw nothing innovative about the wii, and even less about the wii u. That doesn't mean there were not fun games, nor innovative games, but the systems themselves had little to do with it. The wii had several great games that used the controller well, and had many more that they made no difference at all or even suffered for them. (The move and kinect have the same issue, as will, I'm sure, the wii u tablet).

[TheSonicRetard]

The online mode is also in the other versions. Releasing the challenge mode early is Ubisoft's concession to angry WiiU owners. The exclusive content you referred to is one dungeon in challenge mode.

That doesn't point to a supreme version, however.

[TrekkiesUnite118]

From how they described it's not just 1 dungeon, it's an exclusive setting for new daily challenges. So it's not just one exclusive level as you are trying to pass it off as, it's a unique and exclusive game mode for the Wii U version's daily challenges.

It's unique exclusive content that is significant enough to make it the definitive version if you ask me.

[MrSega]

What makes you think that current x86 derivative hardware is any more expensive than brand new, proprietary architectures? The other guys are more than welcome to develop brand new and more efficient processors, but to think that x86 is any more expensive to the end consumer, with the market already being saturated & cheap as fucking hell to buy for, is just questionable. The burden of legacy support is carried by the OS that runs optimized on the modern CPU+IGP/APU. There are more options now for GPU's to run code through open and flexible APIs, or using new open standards.


Again, I just don't see where you're coming from with it being "Cheaper" to sink money into R&D on brand new tech, that competes with well established, cheap as hell, high performance x86 derivative setups.

ARM Instructional Sets are equally similar to RISC(since RISC was designed by ARM Corp back in the late 80s). They offer a way more cost efficient, lower price CPU performance because they divide each microprocessor but can be modified and altered unlike x86. ARM is WAY cheaper than x86 and offer the same performance via off-the-shelf variants. This is why I have optimism regarding Nvidia's Denver and Boulder lines.

You seemed to have forgotten why Dreamcast was so much more easier to code than PS2 and Gamecube and why NAOMI's Arcade line lasted so long, SH-4 itself had a unique design. It could overclock and still keep costs down. x86 is pretty unethical at overclocking and most of the time your averaging a limit in processing performances.



In regards to graphics, AMD is WAY too overrated. In layman's terms, their GPU's are crap. It's basically a rehashed never ending cycle of customized GPU cards with slightly different instructions and variants. Both R8 5770 and R9 6770 are pretty much identical.

Nvidia's approach is alot more economical than AMD's currently. Most of its line of GTX's are far superior in power and performance and its mid range GT series has a much Yes, there's a more bang for your buck, but you are getting a less costly performance.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-...M.77110.0.html



And Imagination Tech, who lead the early days of the GPU market during the late 90s and of course designed Dreamcast's Power VR 2 has introduced the world to " Real Time Ray Tracing". This tech has been inaccessible since its inception in 2006(used only in films like Avatar and RANGO), but IM thanks to acquiring Caustic Graphics,Inc in 2009, its only taken them 3 years to develop the first RTU card. Which is capable of full 3D and ulitized Brazil 3.0 a.k.a Open RL 3.0(Exclusive to Imagination Tech)

http://www.brightsideofnews.com/news...00-boards.aspx

The pricing for the first model R2100 is cheaper than Nvidia's Kelpler and will be even more affordable that AMD's upcomming Radeon 8450 "Tahiti" GPU.


These cards are superior to the PC market with R2100 capable of up to 50 million rays per second(equal to 3.5 billion polygons per second) on just 4GBs of built-in RAM and uses a build in "Caustic Visualizer 3D rendering engine. For just under $800 its quite a steal for UNREAL 4 like visuals.

Even Id Software Executive Producer John Carmack states its potential in a comment:

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/...-tracing-card/


In conclusion, I would point out that we are moving back to the days of cheaper ISA CPUs and to the days where graphics were getting better. How far a leap on a technical standpoint remains to be seen and only a few tech R&D brands want to go forward. I see strong potential in Caustic, IM now has the ability to surpass AMD in 3D accessibility.