New PS3/Nintendo Wii, gaming in general

[Louis Dias]

well, the 360 and ps3 are giving you the same games you've always played, except with more of everything:  more detail, more enemies, more effects

atleast the PS3 added a gyro to it's controller, however, at a loss of rumble

I'm a little miffed with the Wii's graphical power which is just a bit more than the original Xbox

having said that, I play my Gamecube on a 50" widescreen and I do find it good enough so the Wii will look marginally better

I am holding out for a future update to 540p output for the Wii...

having said all this, the Wii's controller interface seems to make these old games fun again and that's why I'm buying it

I have a PC (with a Gamecube controller attached to it) for any other kind of gaming experience I desire, hi-def or otherwise...

[Louis Dias]

November 19 for the Wii in the USA.

[Louis Dias]

I agree but you can't blame a brother for asking for a wee (pun intended) bit more bling bling on the A/V side...

[Louis Dias]

Well, I expect alot of 1st year Wii games to be nothing more that Wii-makes, with a couple of exceptions (Red Steel).

GT Pro Series is a Japan only GC game with Wii-mote steering added on and released worldwide.

FarCry is an unreleased GC build again with Wii-controls added on.

So the graphics you will see are GC graphics in most situations...not that the GC is bad, it's not.  But again, this is supposed to be "next-gen".

Most of these games were developed on 729MHz hardware.  No one knows the true speed of the final hardware, I'm guessing a 325MHz GPU and bus with a 975MHz cpu by Miyamoto's statements of "many times faster than a Gamecube" just the other day.

Nintendo is known for releasing better devkits over a console's lifespan...so will see what future Wii games bring to the table.  I for one am happy about the new controls and the fact that pretty much every game will support 16x9 480p.

Regarding 480p...I think it's more of a marketing term rather than a fixed resolution limit.  How can Nintendo release a PAL game in 480p (60fps)when the PAL standard is 576p (50fps)?  Yet most games run at 30fps (frame doubled).
So I definitely see a potential 540p option via a firmware upgrade in the future.  Also, 540p will upscale nicely on a 1080(i/p) capable HDTV.  If the GC could handle "480p" then the Wii should have no problem doing "540p".
Looking at games like Pokemon Battle Revolution coming out in Japan where the ingame characters look like CGI renders, I definitely see potential in games make specifically for the Wii from the ground up.

[Louis Dias]

MskoDestny wrote:

I wouldn't expect the graphics to get much better. The Gekko gets about 1125 Dhrystone MIPS at 485 MHz. Even if it scaled linearly with clockspeed you'd still end up with only about 2261 MIPS compared with 6400 MIPS for a SINGLE core in the 360 CPU combine that with a GPU that has no support for programmable shaders and you end up with a system that is completely incapable of producing "next-gen" graphics even at 480p. I'm sure there will be some improvement over the current crop of games, but there's no reason to expect any miracles.

Well, I already see lots of bloom lighting and smoother frames on Wii demos.  Whether the lighting was done in hardware or software, I don't care.  Either way, it's something the Gamecube didn't have and now the Wii does.  In the end it's all about the games and actually playing Madden on the Wii looks to be alot more fun than on the 360 or PS3.  Same goes for upcoming games like Battalion Wars which was fun on the GC but looks like a natural fit on the Wii.

If I want hi-def graphics, I have my PC.  I just look for fun games from a console and the ability to not have to be crowed around the TV.  I get this now from my GC on my DLP 50" (via my GBA player on the GC).  I'm just upgrading it to the Wii and the fun will continue.

My desire for hi-def graphics is me just being a graphics-whore.  It is not my "need".  Heck, I currently play Fire Emblem:The Sacred Stones (a GBA game) on this same 50" screen and I don't complain about the graphics.  It's about the games.

People are slowly tiring of the same old games.  How many FPS games can a person play before he/she is ready for something else?  Atleast the Wii makes the aiming more involving and natural at the same time.

Changing the way you play does change how you enjoy it.

[Louis Dias]

I hate to brag!

http://www.fiero.nl/forum/Forum6/HTML/045694.html

ps, Wii disks are silver like DVD's but my DVD player didn't like it either...

ofcourse, I haven't tweaked the POT on my modded qoo yet...
probably because I'm not a pirate, just like homebrew stuff...like AROS on GC!

[Louis Dias]

I played Excite Truck and the graphics were alot better than any Gamecube racer I've ever played.

I think complaints about Wii graphics on some games is because lazy developers just recompiled GC builds for the Wii with no graphical updates.  And it looked great on a 27" widescreen LCD and even my female acquaintance enjoyed Excite Truck as a non-gamer.

It seems PS3's are having HDMI issues:
http://www.joystiq.com/2006/11/17/ps3-hdmi-doesnt-like-you/

[Louis Dias]

I have a Samsung HDMI DVD player and I don't have any issues connecting it to my Samsung 50" DLP.  This is just another quality issue for Sony.  Yes, you can work around it but it's an annoyance.  Sony made a big deal about Blue Ray and HDMI and you'd think they'd get their {bleep}e straight especially with all the quality issues the PS2 and PSP had.

[Louis Dias]

Well, I played Madden on MY Wii last night...

I don't know...  Maybe the progressive scan cables I have on order will show some skin textures better.  Overall, as it stands, I'll say my Madden '05 (yes 05 not 06) on the Gamecube in progressive scan has better textures than Madden 07 on the Wii.

However, the lighting is ALOT better and the graphics in the stuff that doesn't matter such as the crowd, camera crews on the sidelines and stuff.

Now when I first got my progressive scan cables for the GC and played Metroid Prime is when I noticed what a difference those cables can make.  That's what really makes textures shine on the GC.

So I will reserve final judgement until I get my cables from Nintendo which were backordered as of last week.

Also, the animation is alot better and I never saw any framerate drop that the GC version has.  I should try playing my GC version on the Wii via the composite cables to make a better comparison...and see if the Wii hardware eliminates the framerate drop on GC games.

As for playing it with the Wii controllers, it took a full game for me to get used to it.  On offense, it's great.  On defense, I got to read the manual on how to play the defensive line better...but that's no different than me playing it on the GC.  There are alot more defensive options then selecting a defender with the pointer and telling that defender what to do (as in an individual audible vs. a team one).

Oh, and I got to play alot more of Excite Truck, and let me tell you that game is fun as all HFIL!!!

Speaking of Dragonball Z:Budokai Tenkaichi 2
Beautiful game...however, I may have to switch to the GC controllers for playing it...or atleast got throught the tutorials better.  But DBZ fighting at it's best!

I also bought GT Pro Series to get the wheel. Haven't tried it yet.  

I'm also stil in the 1st village on Zelda.  Just got the fishing pole.  Generally I'm way to busy to be posting here and am having so much fun instead of {bleep}ing about which system is better.  I'm only posting because I'm at work now...LOL!

All 3 are good systems.  I see no reason to pay that kind of money for a PS3 with Sony's quality control track record.  The 360 is a great system but I don't support Microsoft as a rule and it's still a power hungry loud biatch.  Nintendo just made another quality product.  Sure it just feels like a slight upgrade with a fancy new controller right now...but we'll see how much more power future dev kits unlock.  Even if they don't - it's still a boat load of fun and that's good enough for me.

Wii Sports Bowling and Excite Truck FTW!  (And I generally don't do racing games...)  Try them and tell me this system ain't going to be fun!  Don't just watch screenshots or video reviews.  Watching sucks, playing rules!