Alex Atkin UK

There is a problem with people claiming "the most powerful console as NEVER won", the most powerful console in the past was ALWAYS the most complicated to write for.

The difference today is that the PS4 is actually the EASIEST console to write for, and the cheapest of the main two.  So the reasons the most powerful consoles in the past may not have been number one, no longer apply.

That said I still think Nintendo will be fine.  The Gamecube was considered a flop by the industry as a whole but Nintendo made profit on it.  The sheer fact even I bough the Wii U purely for the exclusives shows that the still have the pull for those who want those games.

Well, the firmware update could "theoretically" make a difference to frame rate, if it improved disc IO and the frame rate problem was somehow caused by delays streaming in data.  That seems extremely unlikely though as that usually just causes object or texture pop in, frame rate is usually down to the CPU or GPU getting temporarily bogged down.  Its possible that a firmware update could improve game loading speed marginally, if they somehow improve the optical drive performance.  That would be more a case of fixing an existing bug though and unlikely to be a night/day difference.

The speed of the internal memory seems to have zero effect on disc based games (it shouldn't).  I downloaded something from the eShop and had it download and install in the background while I was playing LEGO City Undercover.  The game ran identical to usual and I didn't even realise it had started installing until I tried to go back to the home screen and the whole console just hung, as it was unable to load the UI back in.  I just left it alone and after 5 minutes or so (once it had finished installing) everything was back to normal.

I really don't get why some people think a firmware update can fix frame rate or game loading times.  Frame rate can be improved by GAME updates making the game engine more efficient, load times can't really be changed unless they allowed partial copying of the disc content on the internal memory or HDD.  The speed of loading off the disc is dictated by how they laid out and compressed the data in the first place, not something you can fix after the disc has been manufactured.

It is a very odd decision.  I guess Microsoft figured as it would be similar to Xbox 360 that developers wouldn't care that its a bit of a PITA.

Sony on the other hand learned their lesson with the PS3 and somewhat the PS2, that consoles getting harder to developer for was holding them back and would ultimately kill them if they didn't change.  So they went for the absolutely easiest solution to develop on, while tweaking it just enough so that a competent developer can still get more out of it.

Or at least that is what they SAID they have done, it remains to be seen how it actually works out.

Like I said before, name one console that has EVER had a CPU clock increase via a firmware update other than a portable (which wasn't overclocked, it was actually UNDERclocked in the first place to save battery power).

The Xbox One had its clock speed increased from the "theoretical" specifications, not overclocked, because it wasn't finalised yet.  You test what its safe to clock at once you have final silicon.  If Nintendo WERE able to suddenly bump up the clock rate it would suggest they didn't do that testing before launching the console, which is very VERY unlikely, it will be clocked as high as they considered safe for reliability and that's it. 

Its not like we even know how hot it could potentially run at when executing a fully optimised game, because no developer has maxed it out yet.  Plus, you can't judge how hot the cores are running at based on the outside of the case or the heat coming out of it, as that depends on how much the case in insulated and how efficient the heatsink is.  The heat coming out of my PC doesn't seem that hot, but the CPU cores are still actually running at only 10C short of the rated maximum when fully loaded.  With such a tightly integrated chip as the Wii U, it could very well be that say the embedded RAM is already running at close to its maximum temperature and the CPU cores not, but overclocking the CPU would overclock the RAM too pushing it over the limit.  Its just not that simple.  The reason you can on PCs is because they ARE clocked down from their maximum potential, to fit a specific price bracket, consoles are not - they are pushed as close to the limit as practical because its more cost effective to do that.  The Xbox 360 being a prime example of where they actually pushed TOO hard and long term reliability of the console suffered.

I still firmly believe the biggest issue with the Wii U is its hobbled by only having the optical drive to pull data from, so open world games have high latency when streaming in data.  That and the internal memory is clearly carp (hence the frame drops for downloaded games and slower download speed over an external HDD/memory stick).  Neither of those things can be fixed now, the design is final.

Except motion control sucks for racing games and only games like Mario Kart are any good without analog triggers.  Even playing GTA V I extensively use the analog triggers when carefully navigating between cars.  Now I haven't played Need for Speed on Wii U to compare (I have been meaning to but as I have it on PS3 and 360 I gave up on the idea), but I'm pretty sure the difference is going to be obvious and impair the control scheme.

Like I said, the Wii didn't need the analog triggers as it was focused on motion gaming.  The Wii U on the other hand is meant to be an all purpose console and without the analog triggers it simply isn't.

I still don't get your argument about achievements (not gamerscore, ignore that).  They motivate me to go back to games I might not have played in months or even years, remind me of things I might have missed in that game that otherwise I would have forgotten as you can only tell by booting up the game.  Its the sole reason I have actually collected everything on LEGO Batman 2 and had a lot of fun exploring the game world, where without achievements I might not bother.  Basically, its a competitive element to an otherwise single player game and also reminds me to go back to old games.  How are those things bad for gaming?

I'm really disappointed, you usually have such rational arguments.

Nintendo hasnt used analog triggers since the cube because the got sued by patent squatters.

And yeah, the 360 changed gaming with that carp, into a steaming pile of homogenous garbage. Well, except cross game chat. Which is nice, but does not advance gaming in the slightest. Miiverse integration also serves that purpose rather adequately, and goes beyond whats possible with just voice chat.

How is that a good excuse?  Clearly Sony, Microsoft, nVidia, numerous others have gotten round that problem (or paid a license fee).  You don't just drop a feature as important as that if you don't want to be considered a cheap kiddie console.

As for Miiverse, how is that even close to cross-game chat?  Pause my game, wait 6 seconds for it to load, post a message, go back to the game, nothing like being able to just continue chatting verbally with friends regardless of who is playing what game.  Does Wii U even tell you when you received a new message? 

Its just all too slow, cumbersome and is mostly designed for drawing.  Its extremely painful for me to write (in general not just on Wii U) never mind draw.  I agree it has some merit, the people who CAN draw make awesome use of it, but for me its utterly useless.  If I want to discuss a game its far too limited, I come here where I can make HUGE posts if I want and reach FAR more people.

As for achievements, I take it you are one of those people who believed they "ruined gaming"? 

How has adding something, which games already had (a list of specific tasks to complete), but making it something you can compare against your friends, a bad thing? Sure, its annoying when you cannot get certain achievements because they are time limited (online stuff particularly), but that is more the case of bad design than inherent in the system.

I agree that Microsoft have made a mockery of the 360 over the last few years by focusing too much on video services, tying things behind Gold subscriptions and too many adverts.  That does not however alter the fact the 360 launched some features I (used to) use all the time.  The only reason I stopped is that my friends aren't really gaming much these days.

I think the latest Eurogamer article hits the nail on the head really.  They sound a LOT like me, who spends far more time marveling at the details in the game world than playing the missions.  http://www.eurogamer...er-from-america

Its why I think if its done well I will love Watch Dogs more than this.  The idea that you actually have a choice, to be good or evil, and the world changes around that.  GTA has always been a passive story and perhaps it IS time to change that.

October 1st!

i get the freeze when playing certain wii games (wwe 13) and Ducktales. i haven't tried Youtube yet. the only fix is unplug it which really worries me and hurts my feelings. i wouldn't sweat it too hard, the PS2 froze horrendously in the early days

You shouldn't need to unplug, you just hold the power button on the console until it forces the power off.  The feature was added in the Spring update.

Works perfectly as I already have OpenWRT on my router, thanks. 

It seems quite a few people must be doing this as I got hits from all over the world.

I suspect they will have to update the 3DS firmware to bypass this at some point though as I'm sure if too many people do it then it will mess up the StreetPass relay function at the hotspots we are spoofing.

I still don't get why anyone would be stupid enough to think you can compare games that have engines which have been written specifically with the PS360 architecture in mind, with 7 years or so experience by those developers.  Then there is the Wii U that is completely different to any other platform architecturally and so those engines aren't close to designed around its strengths.  They are effectively being hacked to function to the bare minimum necessary to release the games.

Its already been mentioned Shin'en were finding new ways of optimising their engine as they went along, but didn't actually bother to do it as they didn't need to. 

A third-party porting team aren't going to have that knowledge, they are rushing to get the code running "good enough" for a deadline.  They don't have the time to go into that kind of detail.

“The Wii U GPU is several generations ahead of the current gen. It allows many things that were not possible on consoles before. If you develop for Wii U you have to take advantage of these possibilities, otherwise your performance is of course limited. Also your engine layout needs to be different. You need to take advantage of the large shared memory of the Wii U, the huge and very fast EDRAM section and the big CPU caches in the cores. Especially the workings of the CPU caches are very important to master. Otherwise you can lose a magnitude of power for cache relevant parts of your code. In the end the Wii U specs fit perfectly together and make a very efficient console when used right.”

Lazy ports are doing none of the above, because its not worth it unless the sales will be high enough on that platform to offset the cost of optimisation.

Wii U ports may improve if engine developers take that platform into account as they tweak the engines for next-gen, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

Still, the fact that crappy ports run as well as they do with so little TLC suggests the Wii U is considerably above current-gen specifications.  Its no PS4/XB1, but its not awful either.

I can't wait to get this, judging by the size of the battery housing in the GamePad and the size of the official internal battery seems like Nintendo made it deliberatly small just to suck more money out of you for extra accessories, oh look we all know Nintendo do it, Wii Motes are £35 new, they are more expensive than PS3/360 controllers which are about £28-£30 new, THEY ARE ONLY HALF THE FRIGGIN CONTROLLER you still have to buy the Nunchuck which ontop is about £14 AND THEY ARE LAST FRIGGIN GEN!

Its not though is it, the Wiimote + Nunchuck are still current technology for the Wii U.  I agree that its seriously overpriced though, you should AT LEAST get the nunchuck included for that price.

Pretty sure you will be able to format it in Disk Management on Windows 8.  You just need to delete the partition on the drive (if there is one) and then create a new one as the Wii U probably messed up the partition table.

Would a Y cable be able to replace the A/C adapter for an external HDD that normally needs one for power??

No, full sized hard drives use a lot more power than laptop sized ones which come in self-powered units.

Downloads run quicker if you use an external HDD of any kind though, internal memory is slow.