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Digital Foundry vs Watch Dogs on Wii U

Dicer

Banned
DF basically exists so people can avoid bad ports. If they ignore shit like this I don't know why they should bother covering anything.

That's why they exist at all actually, it's an over critical hyper examination of our preferred choice of entertainment. Yes we live in an era of hyper scrutiny. But there were poor performing games since the dawn of gaming, but there is too much focus on raw performance, and not whether a game is actually good.

Idk, maybe because I have been here from the start looking at things that were barely discernible as to what they were supposed to be, but I just don't get it.

Watch Dogs was a critical turd, and not well liked in general, I just don't see the need for this examination of what's already known as a fairly poor piece of software.
 

Scrabble

Member
DF really didn't need to tackle this one, but they did for hits...

It's a half assed port by a company that even said it was their last effort, no one should be surprised, but here we are, even dragging Xenoblade into it for no good reason, that city section isn't the meat of the game, it's the awesome open world environments that shit all over the city section itself and certainly over watch dogs.

But par for the course, let the trolls pick apart the hardware, and not the half cocked attempt at the port...and then let someone try to justify it with one poorly selected gif.


Good times GAF, good fuckin times, lol.

not everyone that disagrees with you is a troll.
 
not everyone that disagrees with you is a troll.

It's really hard to believe that anyone who states that this port of watch dogs is indicative of the capabiltiies of the WiiU isn't.

EDIT:
I mean, this port has sent to die contractual obligation written all over it.
 

thelastword

Banned
The Wii-U seems to be getting quite a few bad ports, many times worse than that of last gen versions, it's also been out for a while too, why can't the devs get a grip on the hardware?
 

OryoN

Member
This is the real reason here.
Even with this cpu they had multiple ways to beef it up like increasing the clock or use more cores.

Well that's surely another reason. But since we were on the subject of CPUs, let's not act like what the other current consoles have are much more expensive. They may possibly even be cheaper, from a 'per-core' standpoint. So rather than boiling everything down to 'Nintendo pinching pennies again', it's reasonable to think internal development played the biggest role in their CPU choice. Afterall, what's the point of having something a bit more performance driven system if you royally screw your internal teams over in the process?

Seeing the rocky start they had(and described numerous times) in tackling HD development WITH a CPU design and tools they've been comfortable with for over a decade, I'm afraid to even imaging how much more challenging that process would've been with a design and tools that would require some time adjusting to. Yikes... *shudders*

Now that Nintendo has made that HD transition - and with stellar results I might add - maybe they may consider that design switch. But with so many years of familiarity, and tools that matured and evolved over those years, I can't see them throwing that compatibility out the window so easily. They could, but some major restructuring would have to take place internally, and it would - unfortunate - have to begin at a time where Wii U development is finally in high gear(right NOW!), in order for the next transition to go smoothly. Seems like quite a hassle for something that would mostly benefits 3rd-party devs - who won't touch a new Nintendo console anyway.

We're waaay off topic here though, so I think I'll stop here.
(For a while I thought I was in that 'Nintendo seeking lead engineer' thread. This discussion is perfect for that one. )
 
Every game loses a face off to Pc. That isn't the point. The criteria is the same as this port here, so why don't I see you complaining for the same reasons? Low end CPU and over taxed team (or no budget and small team in this case) causes bad framerates in major third party game.

my main complain about the wiiu, is not just the cpu. everything about the hardware is weak, the fact that a nex tgen console is losing to 8 year old last gen console's in running multiplatform games on a regular basis, is unbelievable to me.
 

crinale

Member
I guess not too many engineers have worked on this port.
That being said, Nintendo really did screw up on design choice of WiiU.

Well they have rather huge warchest so they can try again next gen.
 

Crossing Eden

Hello, my name is Yves Guillemot, Vivendi S.A.'s Employee of the Month!
That's why they exist at all actually, it's an over critical hyper examination of our preferred choice of entertainment. Yes we live in an era of hyper scrutiny. But there were poor performing games since the dawn of gaming, but there is too much focus on raw performance, and not whether a game is actually good.
That's literally what Digital Foundry threads are for. Tthe OTs, and review threads are for judging whether or not the game is good.
 

omonimo

Banned
As expected. Free roam etc etc. In any case I doubt Wii U has only some better details in the Aiden sister house and no more. Probably there are a lot of higher setting are present in different area, just DF doesn't give a fuck to going deeper. My suspect eh.
 

Alebrije

Gold Member
This is ironic, how can Ubi expect that WiiU owners get this crap of port and then say WiiU owners do no get thier games so they will just develop dancing ones.

Ubi playing the lazy game as usually.
 
my main complain about the wiiu, is not just the cpu. everything about the hardware is weak, the fact that a nextgen console is losing to 8 year old lastgen console's in running multiplatform games on a regular bases is unbelievable to me.
Yeah, we know that.

You don't own the system, but you act like a digital crusader who has the need to tell everyone how much the Wii U sucks, it's annoying.


"The things you like are shit and I don't wan't you to have fun."
or
"O man, this is so shitty, haha. Look, everyone, look!"

That's all I read when I see your posts in that regard, it doesn't even matter if it's right or not currently.
 

KainXVIII

Member
Welp, ubisoft at its best

tumblr_inline_ncqme7G4RF1rfeea5.jpg
 

zruben

Banned
This is ironic, how can Ubi expect that WiiU owners get this crap of port and then say WiiU owners do no get thier games so they will just develop dancing ones.

Ubi playing the lazy game as usually.

it's like being in a relationship with an abusive girlfriend... you don't want to be responsible for breaking up with her, because she will go crazy and people will judge you. so you just start to don't give a fuck and treat her like shit and wait for her to break up with you. That way, you make a clean exit of the relationship and can make threesomes with your other two hot friends.

it has worked for all third parties on Nintendo platforms. pretty smart if you ask me.
 

Dicer

Banned
That's literally what Digital Foundry threads are for. Tthe OTs, and review threads are for judging whether or not the game is good.

I meant that in a general sense not just DF. I think people worry too much about metacritic and DF and the like in general and probably miss out on a good personal experience because they are too worried about what others think.

I think a game looks like fun, I give it a go...but that's me
 

omonimo

Banned
I didn't see you complaining about how poor the ps4 was as a console with its weak CPU In the assasin's creed unity thread when it was shown to run sub 20fps. How come? The criteria are the same as your tirades in this thread.
Did you really compared the ps4 Unity port how was like per like with the WiiU situation? Seriously? My God. The troll force it's strong in you.
 
Watch Dogs was a critical turd, and not well liked in general, I just don't see the need for this examination of what's already known as a fairly poor piece of software.

80% on the platform that has the most reviews (80 in total) is a "critical turd". You should probably save yourself the headache and just avoid DF threads all together if you're this sensitive about them.
 

onilink88

Member
Even trying to shit on Xeno which actually looks really impressive.

No, it doesn't. Any game that doesn't meet GTA V's (city) standards looks like shit. The fact that most of the time, money, and effort went towards the game's natural biomes (and everything in 'em) is inconsequential to the discussion.
 

crinale

Member
I meant that in a general sense not just DF. I think people worry too much about metacritic and DF and the like in general and probably miss out on a good personal experience because they are too worried about what others think.

I think a game looks like fun, I give it a go...but that's me

This internet you know.. In the world of hyper-bowl many ppl thinks games are either 9/10 or 3/10.
Moreover I don't think an average Joe cares neither Metascore nor DF article..
 

Scrabble

Member
It's really hard to believe that anyone who states that this port of watch dogs is indicative of the capabiltiies of the WiiU isn't.

EDIT:
I mean, this port has sent to die contractual obligation written all over it.

I think the WiiU has already done a good job highlighting the limited capabilities of the WiiU. Just from looking at multiplatform releases, Watch Dogs on WiiU falls exactly in line from what we've come to expect. Remove Vsync and you most likely have a game that performs on par with the ps3 version.
 

maxiell

Member
DF really didn't need to tackle this one, but they did for hits...

It's a half assed port by a company that even said it was their last effort, no one should be surprised, but here we are, even dragging Xenoblade into it for no good reason, that city section isn't the meat of the game, it's the awesome open world environments that shit all over the city section itself and certainly over watch dogs.

Xenoblade isn't even out yet, how do you know how well it plays?

The idea that somehow a Digital Foundry article about this was made for hits is really bizarre. It's interesting to see how well the Wii U can handle an open world game, a technical challenge that is exactly the kind of thing Digital Foundry should be looking at.
 

StevieP

Banned
Did you really compared the ps4 Unity port how was like per like with the WiiU situation? Seriously? My God. The troll force it's strong in you.

It is? I'd say that the criteria are th same or similar but the team doing unity got significantly more budget and Time and were more familiar with the ins and outs of the hardware. The results were similar in regards to over taxing the CPU and framerate. And yet for some reason ninjablade wasn't all over that thread trolling.
 

omonimo

Banned
It is? I'd say that the criteria are th same or similar but the team doing unity got significantly more budget and Time and were more familiar with the ins and outs of the hardware. The results were similar in regards to over taxing the CPU and framerate. And yet for some reason ninjablade wasn't all over that thread trolling.
How many games run like Unity on ps4? How many games runs like WD on WiiU? Seriously?There is nothing in common here, what you did it's just a salty provocation.
 

Crossing Eden

Hello, my name is Yves Guillemot, Vivendi S.A.'s Employee of the Month!
I meant that in a general sense not just DF. I think people worry too much about metacritic and DF and the like in general and probably miss out on a good personal experience because they are too worried about what others think.

I think a game looks like fun, I give it a go...but that's me
Well that's an entirely different discussion altogether. >.>
 
Ports need time to use the strengths on the Wii U - Third parties are not willing to give up such time - crap performing games come out - people don´t buy shit - Pub "look at this shit sales" - repeat

There are examples of ports that perform better and exclusives are a joy to watch and play so I think it is not that easy to say Wii U is weaker than PS360.

An exclusive B-tier game is better for the Wii U than a shit port, Wii got plenty of those that helped build a great library.
 

Hoo-doo

Banned
Yeah but don't act like that's not the main purpose and that they don't do articles just for that purpose.

Didn't they do analysis on every single other version of the game? You're suggesting they should've just skipped the Wii-U version because the results came back as terrible? That's not how these things work. Excluding Wii-U from this performance analysis would have raised more eyebrows than this article did.

Also, the Xenoblade gif is kind of odd, even last-gen GTA4 and GTA5 blow that cityscape out of the water in every conceivable way. It's possibly a stellar RPG, but it's silly to act like it's blowing minds with it's visuals.
 

Exile20

Member
How many games run like Unity on ps4? How many games runs like WD on WiiU? Seriously?

Really what point are you trying to make?

That the Wii U is not as powerful as PS4 and X1? Okay point taken. Can we move a long or should we discuss how Powerful PCs are more powerful than the PS4 and X1?

It is a bad port so people should avoid it. Simple.
 

StevieP

Banned
How many games run like Unity on ps4? How many games runs like WD on WiiU? Seriously?There is nothing in common here, what you did it's just a salty provocation.

Maybe it's the language barrier again, but you seem to be misunderstanding my point. Which is calling out the silly tirades of ninjablade with a nearly analogous example. except that this is a low budget port, not a major sku focus
 

omonimo

Banned
Ports need time to use the strengths on the Wii U - Third parties are not willing to give up such time - crap performing games come out - people don´t buy shit - Pub "look at this shit sales" - repeat

There are examples of ports that perform better and exclusives are a joy to watch and play so I think it is not that easy to say Wii U is weaker than PS360.

An exclusive B-tier game is better for the Wii U than a shit port, Wii got plenty of those that helped build a great library.
Games which runs better on WiiU are mostly for their 'limited'nature of the genre. Platform, racer, area scripted, surely benefit of the ram and the gpu. But free roam in this platform will never beat the ps360 rig. Too many bottleneck.
 

omonimo

Banned
Really what point are you trying to make?

That the Wii U is not as powerful as PS4 and X1? Okay point taken. Can we move a long or should we discuss how Powerful PCs are more powerful than the PS4 and X1?

It is a bad port so people should avoid it. Simple.
WiiU it's not as powerful as ps360 in different scenario, that's the real problem.
 

StevieP

Banned
Games which runs better on WiiU are mostly for their 'limited'nature of the genre. Platform, racer, area scripted, surely benefit of the ram and the gpu. But free roam in this platform will never beat the ps360 rig. Too many bottleneck.

You forgot about the whole v sync removing frames per second thing
 

omonimo

Banned
Maybe it's the language barrier again, but you seem to be misunderstanding my point. Which is calling out the silly tirades of ninjablade with a nearly analogous example. except that this is a low budget port, not a major sku focus
I understood your point but blame ps4 cpu for the Unity mess when the same give tons of problems in different pc rig. It's seem unfair to me, if I have understood right.
 
Really what point are you trying to make?

That the Wii U is not as powerful as PS4 and X1? Okay point taken. Can we move a long or should we discuss how Powerful PCs are more powerful than the PS4 and X1?

It is a bad port so people should avoid it. Simple.

yea, the problem is, it's not even beating 360/ps3.
 

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
Really what point are you trying to make?

That the Wii U is not as powerful as PS4 and X1? Okay point taken. Can we move a long or should we discuss how Powerful PCs are more powerful than the PS4 and X1?

It is a bad port so people should avoid it. Simple.
I actually think it's unfair to label it "bad port".

They've done as good a job as possible in bringing Watch Dogs to PS3, 360, and WiiU. Sacrifices were made. Without knowing more about the way the game is engineered it's difficult to say if they could even drop settings far enough to allow for a smoother frame-rate. Is it even possible that the game they've made could run at a smooth frame-rate on such hardware? There's only so much you can scale back.

The game wasn't made with the Wii U in mind.

yea, the problem is it's not even beating 360/ps3.
Those versions don't use v-sync which should make a difference in terms of performance. All three versions run poorly.
 

StevieP

Banned
I understood your point but blame ps4 cpu for the Unity mess when the same give tons of problems in different pc rig. It's seem unfair to me, if I have understood right.

Unity isnt a shining example of technical prowess on any platform but it's most definitely CPU limited. The ps4 (and X1) have low end CPUs compared to pretty much any game capable pc and it definitely affects the game. The framerates are similarly low. You can easily see by I used it as an example, even if it's not perfectly analogous because watch dogs wii u certainly isn't a primariy sku and was probably budgeted accordingly. The port team actually did a good job given what they were likely provided with. It isn't broken either, so I wouldn't put blame on the devs here.

Edit; no, the ps360 versions definitely wouldn't run the same as they do with Vsync on
 
I hope no one pulled the trigger after reading 'the wd wiiu release' thread where people tried to convince others it was indeed an excellent port lol.
 

Hugstable

Banned
my main complain about the wiiu, is not just the cpu. everything about the hardware is weak, the fact that a nex tgen console is losing to 8 year old last gen console's in running multiplatform games on a regular basis, is unbelievable to me.

Reading something like this makes me feel like Watch Dogs on Wii U matters not a single bit to you, you only care about the fact that you can use it to say shit like this, especially when everyone was expecting a crappy port from this game. How this port was gonna turn out has been obvious for the longest time now, and it's definitely not an indicator of how every Wii U game is.
 
I actually think it's unfair to label it "bad port".

They've done as good a job as possible in bringing Watch Dogs to PS3, 360, and WiiU. Sacrifices were made. Without knowing more about the way the game is engineered it's difficult to say if they could even drop settings far enough to allow for a smoother frame-rate. Is it even possible that the game they've made could run at a smooth frame-rate on such hardware? There's only so much you can scale back.

The game wasn't made with the Wii U in mind.


Those versions don't use v-sync which should make a difference in terms of performance. All three versions run poorly.

I was talking about multiplatform games in general seem tun worse.
 

Exile20

Member
yea, the problem is, it's not even beating 360/ps3.

I actually think it's unfair to label it "bad port".

They've done as good a job as possible in bringing Watch Dogs to PS3, 360, and WiiU. Sacrifices were made. Without knowing more about the way the game is engineered it's difficult to say if they could even drop settings far enough to allow for a smoother frame-rate. Is it even possible that the game they've made could run at a smooth frame-rate on such hardware? There's only so much you can scale back.

The game wasn't made with the Wii U in mind.


Those versions don't use v-sync which should make a difference in terms of performance. All three versions run poorly.

When I say bad port, I mean it is a bad port regardless of fault. I am not blaming Ubi or Nintendo. It is a bad port to buy, period.
 

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
I don't. I suspect ps360 version would run the same with vsync. But probably ram it's not enough to have it.
They could do v-sync - it's just triple buffering that might be an issue (especially on 360). Although double buffer v-sync at 20 fps, while choppy, might be better than the tearing mess they have. With the motion blur it would at least be pretty consistent. I mean, people can still play OoT which was 20 fps. :p

When I say bad port, I mean it is a bad port regardless of fault. I am not blaming Ubi or Nintendo. It is a bad port to buy, period.
Ah, I see. Yes, it's a bad version of the game. I thought you were insinuating that the work on the port was of poor quality when we can't really prove that to be the case.
 
my main complain about the wiiu, is not just the cpu. everything about the hardware is weak, the fact that a nex tgen console is losing to 8 year old last gen console's in running multiplatform games on a regular basis, is unbelievable to me.

Because YOU won't fucking do it

Putting the strong PC port aside, we'd pin the Wii U version down as the console version to opt for
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-sonic-all-star-racing-transformed-face-off

it's only the Wii U rendition that actually feels like a proper Ninja Gaiden title worthy of the name.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-ninja-gaiden-3-on-wii-u-face-off

Overall, it's clear that the Wii U offers up the definitive version of the game as imagined by its creators
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-rayman-legends-face-off

How does the Wii U stack up against Xbox 360 then? To put it simply: very favourably. In fact, while it's difficult to nail down a 1:1 comparison due to the game's chaotic nature, similar sequences actually suggest slightly faster overall performance on Wii U. Coupling a slightly higher frame-rate with the elimination of screen-tear results in a smoother experience overall.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2014-bayonetta-wii-u-face-off

The Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii U versions hold up equally well against each other and feature the same high-quality assets and effects work as their PS4 and Xbox One counterparts,
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2014-child-of-light-face-off

On the other hand, there are no surprises with the Treyarch-developed Wii U version of Call of Duty: Ghosts, which opts for the same 880x720 resolution as Black Ops 2 and is also joined by the inclusion of 2x multi-sampling anti-aliasing. Of the three console editions, this version comes the closest to matching a native 720p presentation, with the more cleanly defined edges providing a boost in sharpness over the 360 and PS3 versions.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-call-of-duty-ghosts-face-off

As it turns out, the engine shows marked improvements in its optimisation for all platforms, though the others fall short of the crispness afforded by Nintendo's console.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-splinter-cell-blacklist-face-off

Criterion Games has used the Wii U to conjure up the definitive console version of Need for Speed: Most Wanted
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-need-for-speed-most-wanted-wii-u-face-off

It's a great turnout for the Wii U from the off, with a native resolution that matches the 1280x720 output on 360's and PS3's (with Sony's platform stripping just two pixels from the top). It also offers up a direct match for Ubisoft's post-process anti-aliasing method on those two consoles, which is equivalent to the standard quality AA setting on PC.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-assassins-creed-3-wii-u-face-off

All three console versions render in 720p [Update: Frozenbyte has now confirmed dynamic resolution scaling on PS3 and 360 to sustain frame-rate vs. locked native resolution on Wii U]
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-trine-2-face-off

Regardless, the video tells a fairly straightforward story - performance remains an obvious concern on the PlayStation 3, while the Wii U and Xbox 360 ran at virtual parity for much of the run of the play. Screen-filling effects work causes noticeable frame-rate dips on the Microsoft platform, but Wii U appears to be relatively consistent - even on the more open, challenging battlescapes of Palaven
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-mass-effect-3-wii-u-face-off

everything about the hardware is weak
everything

In before moving goalposts
 
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