Wii U information drop set for pre-E3

thelazyone on 13 Jan '12 said:

just give us the spec's.

The rest can wait !

TheRandyNinja on 13 Jan '12 said:

i just hope they dont hold back with the specs. if there smart they would release a true next gen console and hit the market before the rest.

Sentinator on 13 Jan '12 said:

Thank you! Now if you can confirm Fortnite is on Wii U? I don't care if its exclusive I just want to play epic games.

svd_grasshopper on 13 Jan '12 said:

nintendo don't usually give out specs for any of their hardware, do they?

B_G_G on 13 Jan '12 said:

Seriously, stop linking to that leaked specs 'story'. I've never seen an article on CVG get its credibility so utterly destroyed IN THE DAMN COMMENTS.

WHERESMYMONKEY on 13 Jan '12 said:

The three things nintendo should do with the wii U and to grab another huge chunk of market share before MS and PS even get started.

1) Don't hold back on the specs. Give us a playable version of the unreal demo from a few months back
2) make it a compariable price to the current crop of consoles. ie pull another game cube. make it £250.
3) For the love of god don't sacrifice quality from 3rd parties like you did with the wii. yes get third party support and lots of it But for the love of god don't open the floodgates again Shovelware killed the wiis credibility and it never recovered.
3) sort out your online look at Live but do it better
4) announce a new zelda or metroid as a launch window game. Bring back Eternal Darkness.

Sentinator on 13 Jan '12 said:

^ It was actually partly the shovelware that did Wii in. Stupid devs. People couldn't tell what games were good compared to the amount of average or garbage games out there. As for the online I think if Activision or EA say its on par with PSN and Xbox Live it probably is. They would know I think.

MD1500 on 13 Jan '12 said:

Sad to say, but if a system is successful, Shovelware is guaranteed.

Just look at the PS2 or the Android marketplace. On any popular system, the gems stand out because they're floating in a sea of turds.

However, if nobody buys the shovelware, it doesn't become an issue. Simple.

thelazyone on 13 Jan '12 said:

But everyone is buying shovel ware,

look just dance 2?

even ur mum bought that!

gmcb007 on 13 Jan '12 said:

^ It was actually partly the shovelware that did Wii in. Stupid devs. People couldn't tell what games were good compared to the amount of average or garbage games out there. As for the online I think if Activision or EA say its on par with PSN and Xbox Live it probably is. They would know I think.

Ubisoft ruined the Wii's credibility from the gaming community with the several hundred party/sexist/simulator games. Does anybody remember their E3 conference when they were actually pleased to announce a new line up of shovelware that all ended in 'Z'. *shudder*

ste hicky on 13 Jan '12 said:

Ubisoft's output put me off the company full stop, even in HD land. Everyone moans about Activision, Ubi are my pet hate, Acti are at the level of Valve compared to what Ubi have delivered in the main on the wii.

from Party Babyz (yeah, I remember that all right) to ghost recon on rails they've consistently been poor and i dread them undermining another Nintendo console with their wares next time.

I hold them entirely responsible for the wii's image as a magnet for s**te, they were one of the most trusted 3rd party devs on the format, brought on board at the prototype stage and let Nintendo down badly. The killer is that Ubisoft have made more money off the Wii this gen than any oher format out there so the incentive for them to deliver quality isn't there.

Posted this a few days back but some new Wii U footage here with a first look at the panoramic Tokyo street demo that ran behind closed doors at E3.

Quick note, the Zelda, Garden and Street Demo's were all done on first gen dev kits with the majority of hardware features turned off before E3, This is not the finished product though i still think Zelda smokes anything i've seen yet on the market. That f**king lighting is too good: http://hicky-hsgameview.blogspot.com/20 ... video.html

Sentinator on 13 Jan '12 said:

Actually I've never seen that footage before now. Is that you in the video hicky? I thought the camera trick with the cars was interesting. Looking at this the controller looks more and more like its more expensive than the freaking system. I hope Nintendo don't do a Sony and announce a £400 + price tag.

As for Ubisoft I like Far Cry, Ghost Recon and Assasins Creed but Ubisoft couldn't even seem to take their own Wii games seriously. Personally I don't think Wii U will have the same problem because I can't see casuals jumping on board with this. There is no way this will take off like Wii did.

ste hicky on 13 Jan '12 said:

me? nah man. i ain't that connected.

I think people are underestimating the power of brand here, there'll be more than enough casual gamers on board next time, i'm pretty certain of that.

The pad allegedly costs buttons to make, there's no on board processor and all data is handled by the console.

as for the hardware: it's far more powerful than any of the demo's from E3 and the idea of an Elder Scrolls with merely the level of mapping and lighting in the Zelda HD demo makes me drool frankly as it would visually rape Skyrim.

The Wii U could fix ESV's broken UI too, you could have all shouts and spells on the touch screen removing that s**t d-pad work around where time freezes on 360/PS3. (the worst UI in the history of videogames)

anyway, it'll destroy Zelda HD in real time by all accounts with John Carmack saying last week he wouldn't regard it as late to this gen, rather early for the next.

now, i know people will write me off as the blind Nintendo fan but i've done enough digging and this is gonna be a nice piece of kit that will eclipse this gen quite easily if dev feedback is to be believed.

Aer0Smith360 on 13 Jan '12 said:

"There is no way this will take off like Wii did."

I agree, with Nintendo still to give the WiiU a proper annoucement this new controller will probably bump the price of the system WAY up!

@ste hicky thanks for the link of WiiU at CES. Im still alittle apprehensive of Nintendo's new machine due to the lack of games/annoucements but as @Sentinator says i VERY much doubt the Casual Wii User's will jump over and upgrade.

What will make it even more confusing for the casual market is that Nintendo has got a sleeker version of the Wii, minus the gamecube compatibilities, the newwer "Family Edition" of the Wii looks identical to that of the WiiU! Why bring a newer model out when they have the new console ready somepoint this year round June?

Shall just have to, like others, wait till Nintendo themselves release proper info regarding this mysterious machine.

charliecheswick on 13 Jan '12 said:

Saw the Tokyo panorama demo over on IGN,very cool. Is it me or is the Wii U console at CES much bigger than the one shown at E3? Looks almost 360 size in length,to me. Will be nice to see some real gameplay footage other than the tech demos shown so far,hopefully some will begin to sneak out in the next couple of months. Also,would be good to hear who's on-board from the major developers. If Valve,Epic and Rockstar bring their big-hitters to Wii U,that'd surely be a draw for the type of gamer Nintendo want to draw back ( plus,i wouldn't need another console *rubs hands* mwhahaah ). If the console launches in Japan around Sept/Oct,will we have to wait until next year for Wii U?!? Dagnabbit,so many questions to be answered. Still,i'm very excited for Wii U,day one for me.

Sentinator on 13 Jan '12 said:

Well I've been going off what I know. The idea seems catered towards core gamers or people interested in the technology. The reason I wasn't blown away by Wii U at E3 is because it seemed to me like a DS you can play at home. I just felt the idea they were showing had been done before. It seemed so underwhelming compared to DS, Wii or 3DS. Now watching that CES footage you can see there is stuff Nintendo didn't cover (which has definitely raised my interest).

It all stems back to the main idea behind it. Its something that seems to have been done before. Combine that with the lineup of core games they have and it just doesn't seem to me like casuals will buy into it. DS and 360 have proven both casual and core games can co-exist but the main idea is more like its been done. The reason DS and Wii took off like they did is because the ideas were so original at the time. I have no doubt this will be a success for Nintendo but I think it will mainly just rope Nintendo's fanbase back to them.

Aer0Smith360 on 13 Jan '12 said:

@Sentinator hmmmm you make a lot of sense....I too didn't like the way Nintendo showed of the WiiU at E3, it seemed to me that the NEW controller was for the Wii but then came the game montage at the end then understood what they were showcasing.

Judging by what that controller can do, maybe more, is still unclear but you may be right about the older fan base jumping on the Nintendo band wagon again.

charliecheswick on 13 Jan '12 said:

Fear not,Sentinator! Ste Hickey makes a great point about Wii being a strong brand,people think of it as a family console and in the main,they're right. With the little bits of info coming out,i think Nintendo are onto another winner with Wii U. The app store and e-reader function ( if true ) will appeal to the casual type and will allow the console to be used often,even when not playing games. You can bring your Wii remotes and your balance board with you ( the balance board is about a million apps waiting to happen ),no need to buy anything other than the new console. I don't think your casual will be intimidated buying Wii U,they'll kinda know what they're getting if they upgrade from Wii and if the tech demos are anything to go by,there's going to be a lot of marketing towards the casual/family/Wii consumer anyway. It'll do well,i'm sure of it.

Darkwun on 13 Jan '12 said:

@Ste thanks for the vid! Wanted to know what that Tokyo demo looked like for so long! That's me sold on a day one purchase now. I still have my doubts, but that won't mean I won't love my new Wii U... just worry about future Nintendo choices!

But everytime I see someone spin that controller in a virtual environment I just can't help but think " Exclusive Condemned 3 with reaaaaaaally in depth FBI scanning! Please!" I'd sell my son for this. This is what happens when a 5 year old beats me on Smash Bros. With Jigglypuff.

Cogglesz on 13 Jan '12 said:

Hopefully it is rocking that 3ghz quad core cpu, it might not seem much to people but my computer was 2.8 quad core and i clocked it up to 3.1 and it has never once went above 80% while gaming, with msn, firefox and the media player with 2 monitors, 3 seems like a great speed for multitasking on consoles, just hope the GPU can be as good.

notaMONGBRAIN on 13 Jan '12 said:

3xpowerpc 470 broadway 2 cpus running between 1.6ghz and 2.4ghz 96mb of edram custom gpu and a dsp.. all SOC SYSTEM ON CHIP

ether a big pool of gddr3 or 2x ram pools 1 fast ram, 1 gddr3 ...

CLOCKSPEEDS MEANINGLESS WIIU CORES ARE VASTLY SUPERIOR TO THE INLINE ZHIT IN PS3/X360

out of order and 5 instructions per clock and huge bandwidth edram...OR A POWER7 MAYBE...

El Mag on 13 Jan '12 said:

Yeah now you mention it I reckon you could be onto something there.

s**t, I meant "on something" sorry, my fault.