My impressions of the WiiU, based on these Games I played:
AC3, Your Shape Fitness 2013, Ravin Rabbids, Rayman Legends, ZombiU.
First of the
controller:
Smaller than I had imagined. Gaming seems comfortable with the button-layout. Games play well with it and just based on my feelings it weighs way less than my wired 360-Controller.
Display responds well to touch. Also really sharp, but, also based on my feelings, the PS Vita Screen is still "sharper".
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My impressions of the
tablet-implementation:
To me, just based on the Games I played today, it totally feels like a gimmick. Everyone said "You could use it as a menu, maybe have the second player play something on it or use it as an inventory." And in the Games I played, yeah... it was like that. Compared to the innovation that the WiiMote or to some extent even Kinect brought us, it just doesnt feel like the tablet is catering to me, as a Gamer. It may be nice to have some map down there or change the inventory on the fly, but to me it also felt strange.
When I play PC or use a pad, I know all these buttons and keys and I dont need to look at them.
When I used the tablet to see something on the map in ZombiU, like the location of Zombies, I first had to look down, see "Ah, there is a zombie 10m to my left", then look up again and see it is already biting me. It doesnt seem like a long time has passed from looking down, then looking back up but... maybe I am not used to it right now. It still feels strange to do that. I would rather have the map in the upper right corner right now, than looking at the tablet.
It was just my impression. Hope others have some different experiences.
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Graphical capabilities:
Sorry to say that, but I was really looking forward to ZombiU and at least the Demo at the GC really looked BAD. Not from the textures and the effects, they were alright, but the aliasing was like hell. It really looked like an upscaled Wii-Game and I still dont know why. I wish i had taken a photo of it. ZombiU at least to me, didnt look "Next-Gen" just because the aliasing ruined everything...
Really sad after I played it, since I was really looking forward to it (and the gameplay was really fun too!!!!!)
The other Games also... look like 360/Ps3-Games, but not better. I am 100% sure you can easily port them 1to1 to a 360/Ps3. And even then they wouldnt be considered "graphically impressive".
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Final impressions and my take on the view, just after coming back:
As I stated before. The Tablet isnt something "innovative". It just feels to gimmicky for me as a Gamer and even though I really dont like to classify groups of people I think Nintendo didnt think of the Gamers, when they made the pad, but on the "casuals". People like my little sister or my gf.
And because of that I am really sad to see that I guess this was really expensive for the development department and makes the WiiU expensive. Graphically the Games I played are just Ps3/360 Games and I can buy them at 150-250€ here in Germany. I wouldnt "need" a WiiU.
And that makes me kinda sad. When Sony and MS will announce their consoles maybe next year, for next christmas and offer better graphical capabilities, then what will the 3rd-Parties develop for the WiiU? They wanna do some downgraded ports?
I am kinda scared, that the WiiU then will face the same 3rd-party situation like the Wii. "Casual" Games for the WiiU, the "big blockbuster" games for MS and Sony.
WE will have our great Nintendo-Games, but what I am scared of is, that the WiiU will be a Nintendo-console without that many great third party titles....