Wii U: The good news and bad news after more quality time with Nintendo's new console

M

M.D

Member
MOD EDIT: If you want a quality thread, enforce quality discussion. Whining about trolling, potential or otherwise, from the onset = ban.

GamesRadar
The Wii U is supposed to be out this year. It's never going to launch post-Christmas, so that means we're four months at most from launch. But having played it at Gamescom, I'm not convinced it's all coming together as coherently and convincingly as you would hope for a console so close to being released into the wider world. So let's look at a few key areas and the good and bad examples seen at Gamescom.

Graphics compared to PS3/360


The good news: Everyone wants to know how the machine's shaping up against its peers. I can confirm visual quality has improved tangibly in ZombiU. Having played the E3 demo at an event in London a few months back, the difference is evident in the new Buckingham Palace level. The edges of the characters are no longer razor-sharp, movement seems more fluid and the game now looks about on par with a modern Xbox 360 title.

But a cross-platform comparison is what you want, right? Well get this: Assassin's Creed III is up and running on the Wii U. I watched a PR rep play the Battle of Chesapeake Bay section (the one with the ships from E3) and was initially impressed. Dynamic shadows and wave effects make for a very organic game world. It's busy, dramatic… the console runs it with relative ease. At least on first glance…

The bad news: The PS3 version was playing beside it – and the difference is night and day. Right now, PS3's version of Assassin's Creed III is, simply put, better. Even gamers without my robot eyes would be able to see the difference.

Smoother edges, better frame-rate, more detailed textures… it's akin to the kind of difference we used to see in multiplatform games when the PS3 version would look shaky in comparison to Xbox 360 release. It could change before release of course, but that's how it is right now.

The hardware


The good news: It seems that the GamePad's screen doesn't need loads of processing power to get it working in tandem with the on-screen action. Case in point: Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, which will apparently feature a five-player mode, with four players on the TV in split-screen and another on the GamePad. That's mighty impressive and we can't wait to see it in action.

The bad news: We saw Wii U units crash more than once during the show. Granted, we're looking at unfinished and therefore unstable code, but we saw the hardware freeze up during Rayman (which was rock-solid and finished-looking last time we saw it), to which the PR rep said 'it's been doing this all day – I think it's overheating or something'. That's a little concerning – it wasn't even that hot in the room. Assassin's Creed also locked up and had to be reset. Could just be a pre-release bug, of course. Could be.

More bad news in the shape of controller lag. I played Rayman Legends with the new Pro Controller (the one that looks like an Xbox 360 pad) and it was fine – as good as you'd expect...

..yet for the Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing Transformed demo, I was told that the hardware keeps being revised. As if to prove the point, the Pro Controller I used to try the split-screen two-player mode was reportedly a new wireless version, although it was being powered by a cable running from the machine as it doesn't have on-board power yet.

To make matters worse, this new controller iteration only works within about three feet of the console right now – and the input lag on it was dreadful. The GamePad's input response was fine – so there's something wrong with this version of the Pro Controller. It will not be like this at launch, I'll tell you that for nothing, but why is it still like this now?

How finished is it?


The good news: The Assassin's Creed 3 demo ended with the PR rep saying "That's the Wii U version, you can play the PS3 version on the showfloor and the Vita game is at the back of the room. Release date is October 31 for all versions." So I asked: "Is that Wii U as well?" to which he replied: "Er… that one's TBA, I think". What do you reckon - a little tongue slip revealing an October release for Wii U, or just a flustered PR forgetting about a staggered release schedule?

The bad news: If it is meant to be launching in October or even November, there's a lot to be done if it hasn't been fixed already. Any of the above can be put down to unoptimised code running on hardware which hasn't had its specs set in stone. No problem, that's the way pre-release gaming is. But surely things as fundamental as the hardware would be tied down by this late stage? Should developers still be unclear whether the GamePad will feature rumble or not? Sonic Racing dev Sumo Digital still don't know. They told us so.

This was admittedly a collection of third-party showings instead of super-slick, ultra regimented demos from the Big N itself. But in terms of how the Wii U is being presented to the press so close to launch, the overall impression I took from the show is that the machine isn't quite there yet. And at this late stage that's a bit worrying.
Click to expand...
 
Someone played the WiiU at gamescom, this opinion will be turned directly into fact by gaf somehow.
 
Maybe the writer is new to the industry, but this is typical for hardware launches. Even developers get final hardware late in the cycle.

This is Nintendo, they know what they're doing.
 
The bad news: The PS3 version was playing beside it – and the difference is night and day. Right now, PS3's version of Assassin's Creed III is, simply put, better. Even gamers without my robot eyes would be able to see the difference.
Click to expand...

This is how the Wii U version looked at E3 when I saw it at the Nintendo booth. So, nothing has changed since then.
 
To make matters worse, this new controller iteration only works within about three feet of the console right now – and the input lag on it was dreadful. The GamePad's input response was fine – so there's something wrong with this version of the Pro Controller.
Click to expand...

There is no way they would release it with it working within only 3 feet.
 
Complaining about hardware crashing is kind of silly. That happens all the time with demo hardware that's on for hours, and hours.
 
I can't really take issue with anything he says about what he saw at Gamescom, but to transmute that into a statement of how it portends to the execution or quality of the impending launch is stupid. We don't know anything about the launch until Sept 13.

And what's worse is that this man is meant to be part of the gaming press. He KNOWS the launch details are not out there, he KNOWS more will be revealed on Sept 13... and yet he chooses to write an article about what Nintendo showed at Gamescom as though that has anything to do with it. He's either making ridiculous inferences or he's trying to create click-bait.

edit:
As for the hardware bugs - he essentially says "this devkit pro controller obviously has a few issues and won't launch like this, but why is it like this?" -- umm, because its development hardware and you're playing mid-development games, god knows what date the SW builds are, at a European event that Nintendo doesn't really care about
 
Heavy said:
This launch is feeling like it's quite rushed more and more as days go by, like they're doing their damnedest to get it out before xmas.
Click to expand...

hardware launches always go like this. Yes, they are pushing to get it out before Christmas, why wouldn't they?
 
I'd be shocked if Nintendo released a console in a broken state. They're generally very good at creating stable machines.
 
This is surprising in anyway. It's obvious the hardware isn't ready and the software being first gen isn't going to blow anyone away. Think launch X360 titles.
 
Heavy said:
This launch is feeling like it's quite rushed more and more as days go by, like they're doing their damnedest to get it out before xmas.
Click to expand...

SniperHunter said:
seems like the console is being rushed to launch.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I'm getting the same feeling. It doesn't make any sense though, the Wii is 6 years old and would obviously need replacing sooner rather than later from a technical standpoint. The 3DS was the same thing which just baffles me how Nintendo dropped the ball so hard on new system launches lately.
 
Either the writers of this is 13 or he should know that demo crashing is nothing to go into too much.

Its not exactly like the WiiU hasn't had a lot of units around, plus they make it sound like its one system doing it.

That controller also isn't a finalised product.


This is Kotaku style 'MUST TYPE UP STUFF' news story. Am moving on, everyone else should too.

The final part is just silly. Nintendo will have completed the hardware now. Creed isn't finished, but thats normal.


All of these things can and should be discussed, but not in such an amateur way.
 
pakkit said:
I'd be shocked if Nintendo released a console in a broken state. They're generally very good at creating stable machines.
Click to expand...

Of course they won't. They live and die by their consoles and something like controller lag or three feet play radius would be very bad press.
 
Move over, there are no legitimate points here. If what he describes as "bad news" won't be fixed at launch, then we'll talk, for now it is just unfinished hardware and software not working as intended.
 
lol at the bans

I thought AC3 looked better than the ps3 version, I donbt have the time to google that now, but I will do it this evening if i remembver
 
If you want a quality thread, enforce quality discussion. Whining about trolling, potential or otherwise, from the onset = ban.
 
it's akin to the kind of difference we used to see in multiplatform games when the PS3 version would look shaky in comparison to Xbox 360 release. It could change before release of course, but that's how it is right now.
Click to expand...

Ok then, Let's compare how long the PS3 was in Dev's hand compared to wiiU.

It wont change for a a year or two.
 
Pre-release hardware acts like pre-release hardware. Stop the fucking presses. It's like.. of course it's not final. Because it's not final. Devkits crash. This happens with every console up until release.
 
I still stand by my opinion that I'll see for myself and these hugely varying comments from the field don't mean anything to me.
 
AC3 impression is potentially the most worrying IMO. That's a very complex game that I imagine stresses the hardware the most on all fronts. The thing is though, demos on these shows are usually months behind what's being really worked on for the final release. It would not be surprising that they just reused E3 demo for this showing.
 
THE NO LIFE KING said:
I'm not liking what I'm reading about the controller lag.
Click to expand...

Its obviously a problem with that controller. The main pad works better than fine.

The pro-controller was obviously a problem. I'm personally not going to worry when Nintendo had the controller which also features a touch screen working fine :p Nintendo was fine with the Wii and its multiple contollers.

A controller not working outside 3 feet of the console? Likely has some connectivity problems, in no way can I see this being at launch. It'd be worse than amateurish.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Back with more Bad Switch 2 news.
2 3
113
3K
Tams replied
Bad news about Kotaku...
18
529
KiteGr replied
Digimon Time Stranger - Reviews Thread
News  2
63
375
Fbh replied
Crystal Dynamics hit with new layoffs
News  2
76
659
RetroGamingUK replied
Steam and RioT games hit with DDoS attack
News 
7
178
Pejo replied
Top Bottom