At some point console leaders have to put price point ahead of graphics.. Hardware tech is advancing so fast , the latest tech is always super expensive.
I think Nintendo is just ahead on this , if the others want to blow them out of the water with high tech gfx ect, their units I think would cost too much for the average joe..

Thats not to say they wont out perform, they are still in development and will have more options and slightly cheaper prices, but I dont think it will be the 2x to 4x better thats beings rumored.

Its possible wii u will be treated like the WII, thats unfortunate but I did enjoy the wii, and ill enjoy the wii u. Nintendo exclusives are always a lot of fun anyway. By the time the next consoles come up ill be able to get one of those too if I want to.. I had the ps3 and wii. So all the comparison stuff is a non issue for me.. I like wii u because I like nintendo games, hainvg games like ZombieU and BO2 are just icing on the cake.

First gen WII wtf

That would be the first Nintendo Wii (first gen - non hd) the Wii U being their second Hardware unit with the Wii title.. why was that not clear?
Anyway, I think those scenes are real time in game shots for the reasons already stated.

Those look great but they are all obviously from cutscenes.

You must be used to first gen Wii Graphics, those are easily real time shots. If you look at them you can tell
the geometry is not super high poly, what is making those scenes so great are first and foremost scene design,
then beutiful high res textures, finally some good shaders for lighting and shadows.. I see nothing that had to be
pre rendered.

I think Sacrilegium will show the WII U off. Its cross platform but I think its texture quality and effects will outshine the XBOX and PS3 versions. If you go to the site
the screenshots I think must be PC , and I would bet WII U will most closely hit the PC quality compared to the other consoles.

If the Gamepad was optional that would defeat most of the purpose of the Wii U being original. Sorry but I disagree with your opinion.

I wasnt speaking of the tablet controller in any of my post.  Just wiimotes and the pro controller

Hm,

I agree a little, there are logical choices for pro controller, super mario bros u was one of them and who knows why its not supported but, games that have a focus on motion control cant be expected to support non motion based periphials. ( like nintendoland )

I think the person complaining that they had to keep wii motes has nintendos intentions backward. If they plan on using similar controls on WII U (and duh, they did) it was very thoughfull to allow the old wii motes to work on it. Those who upgrade from Wii to Wii-U arent forced to buy mutiple controllers again. They could have spent some cash making a pro type controller that could double as a pointing device but perhaps they thought it would have looked to weird or somthing, however I dont think theres anything stopping third party controller developers from making such a controller.

At the end of the day, I think its going to be a pain to have so many different control options for one console. Even though they are all great in their own way. I like my WII U, I dont have the pro controller yet, and dont plan to buy one until they price is lower or third party models are cheaper.

My ematic wii motes with motion plus have to be resynced/paired each and every time I change from whe wii u menu to a game, or from a game to the menu.. Now THAT sucks. Nintendo told me they dont support third party controllers when I emailed them asking for any advice for the problem. So again wii motes cost a ton if you want official nintendo models and nunchucks.

Black ops2 and Zombie U have local multiplayer for the boys, and mario isnt anywhere to be seen in them. I think the mario bros U might change their mind. The coin battle local multiplayer is pretty fun.

you are making the Wii U constantly push extra juice to that external HDD

That is 100% wrong. It cannot bully the WiiU USB port to give it more power, please read my last post over again.

In regards to a USB HDD causing damage to the WII U. It wont happen, the WII U will already be able to supply all the USB ports with the required USB 2.0 power, and no more than that even if the HDD wants more, it wont get it.

That is why Nintendo warned against single USB drives without external power, if they need even a little more power than what USB 2.0 is designed to deliver they could fail. You cant pull more power through the nintendo system than its desined to supply to it. Thats the power brick and other components in action. Drives that reliably pull less than or up to USB 2.0 compliant power draw will work just fine.