Wii impression thread

[Rainbow Man]

To me Zelda is a beautiful game. Sure there are technical shortcomings I guess but I tend to not notice that while actually playing the game.

I sat looking in awe at the first heart container I gort from the frest temple endboss, it looked so beautiful. I also sat there and just stared at the boomerang when I got it and the same with many of the many beautiful rooms found in the temple.

It's amazing the little gamecube is able to create these impressive graphics. Nintendo has some amazin gartiists working for them.

Peacwe.

 

[Johnny Awesome]

You represent the majority of gamers.



You represent the minority of gamers.

You don't know that. That's just your opinion as well.

 

[Johnny Awesome]

Zelda is quite decent for Cube hardware, probably one of its top titles graphically. But, it is loaded with color dithering, blurry textures, and aliasing of both textures and polys. I am disappointed that it wasn't tailored more for Wii though. Of course that assumes Wii really is capable of noticeably better graphics than Cube. W/O resolution boosts that's somewhat questionable overall (esp for HDTV users). The dithering and texture aliasing are the most annoying issues to me.

Zelda looks like a mediocre Cube game IMO. Games like RE4 and MP2 look a lot better. Even Starfox Adventures looks better than Zelda.

 

[swaaye]

Zelda looks like a mediocre Cube game IMO. Games like RE4 and MP2 look a lot better. Even Starfox Adventures looks better than Zelda.

Well RE4 is far more confined than Zelda, in its environments. RE4 has its issues as well. The same texture swimming cuz of bad mip mapping and much worse dithering due to the nature of its high contrast dark enviros.

I haven't played MP2 (didn't care for the original). I do own both F5 Star Wars games though for additional reference.

I'd say that Zelda is a top Cube title technically. It has an environment that is Oblivion-ish in its expansiveness. It's pretty amazing for a Cube game. But, so what? It's a port on Wii and that's rather boring. Decent gameplay though.

 

[Natoma]

Johnny Awesome,

Zelda is also a hell of a lot longer than any of those games you mentioned. When you're dealing with 1.5GB of storage, something has got to give. Hence my comment regarding the full-sized DVD of the Wii, and the accompanying storage increase leading to better graphics and increased length.

 

[swaaye]

You do realize Zelda was designed for the cube and then ported to the Wii with few graphical improvements? Not to mention the fact that the GC uses disks that are 1.5GB while the Wii uses full DVDs. The textures in Wii-designed games will be far better.

Oh, and the Wii is more than twice as powerful as the GC. Considering no game out there used the GC to its fullest capacity (no, not even RE4), games should look very good on Wii, as long as the sales hold up and developers decide to build games for it. No they won't look like 360 or PS3 games, but then the Wii wasn't designed that way.

I'm not arguing with you. I know Wii is a Cube game. I bought the Cube version for my sis for Xmas and watched her play it. It's basically identical minus widescreen support.

They coulda gone dual disks with Zelda just like RE4 ya know. Still, I don't believe for a minute that storage is a limit on texture quality. It's the Cube hardware's limits and that it's a VERY simple port perhaps running basically in "Cube mode" on the Wii hardware. Some cross ports for PS2/Xbox/Cube were of more obvious quality contast than Zelda. Nintendo went cheap and simple. Even the Wiimote adaptation is rather limited.

 

[Natoma]

There have been games with superior texturing on the GC, but not necessarily artwork. And certainly not as long while maintaining the superior texturing and artwork. I think in the case of the GC, because of the storage limitations, there were things you just could and could not do.

But as I said, the Wii won't have those limitations, so I'm expecting far higher texturing quality in Wii-designed games. And this isn't to say that Zelda isn't a beautifully textured game in and of itself (with component cables that is. Damn blurry composites....)

 

[swaaye]

But as I said, the Wii won't have those limitations, so I'm expecting far higher texturing quality in Wii-designed games. And this isn't to say that Zelda isn't a beautifully textured game in and of itself (with component cables that is. Damn blurry composites....)

480p is a mixed bag with Zelda, btw. You can see the problems (banding/texture shimmer) much easier. But, it is sharper too. It looks like 720(640)x480 on a PC monitor though so it's not really impressive really IMO. The widescreen and sharpness is nice though I suppose. A SDTV CRT w/ component or svideo really looks better though in some ways.

 

[Tagrineth]

They coulda gone dual disks with Zelda just like RE4 ya know.

No.

The problem with dual disks is you're still forced to repeat all the assets you could potentially view on all discs.

In other words, for an expansive game like Zelda: TP, they would have to repeat every single area on every single disc anyway, since even at the end of the game you can return to the earliest areas.

Multidisc usually works best for games that are either highly linear with little to no backtracking (RE4) or cutscene/prerendered video-laden games like artsy RPGs.

While Zelda does have a lot of cutscenes so far (I'm not really that far yet ><), there's no voice acting or prerendering, so I somehow doubt the space savings would go very far at all.

But basically, going from 1 disc to 2 doesn't suddenly double your available data space… it's totally dependant on non-repeatable assets and usually nets surprisingly little extra space. One big example of this is Panzer Dragoon Saga - though it's 4 discs, the first 3 contain every area in the game almost in their entirety, and there aren't really that many cutscenes at all before disc 4 (ending cinematic)... which is where the space savings come into play. The game's only 10 hours long.

 

[swaaye]

makes sense.

Zelda has little voicework and very little FMV (if any). The textures sure aren't high resolution at all so they can't be all that large either. And there's not some huge deluge of musical variety...

 

[Johnny Awesome]

Johnny Awesome,

Zelda is also a hell of a lot longer than any of those games you mentioned. When you're dealing with 1.5GB of storage, something has got to give. Hence my comment regarding the full-sized DVD of the Wii, and the accompanying storage increase leading to better graphics and increased length.

I realize that. I'm not criticizing the Wii hardware. I'm just making a statement about the reality of Zelda graphics = not great IMO. The reasons are immaterial to me at this point. It just makes me want to get the Cube version instead of spending $310 on a Wii with extra controller.

 

[Crayon]

This Wiimote of mine is positivly chewing up AA batteries. I've turned off the buzzing and lowered the volume and it still spits them out after maybe 10 hours of use. It's the poorest battery consumption I've seen in any similar device.

On the other hand... I've been buying cheap generic batteries. I'll give some Energizers a try this week and report back on my results.

 

[Corwin_B]

This Wiimote of mine is positivly chewing up AA batteries. I've turned off the buzzing and lowered the volume and it still spits them out after maybe 10 hours of use. It's the poorest battery consumption I've seen in any similar device.

On the other hand... I've been buying cheap generic batteries. I'll give some Energizers a try this week and report back on my results.

There's a charging station for Wiimotes coming soon :
http://gear.ign.com/articles/751/751651p1.html

 

[_xxx_]

My overall impression after 2 weeks: they should have kept the name "Revolution" instead of Wii. Never had so much fun gaming (Doom2 back then in 94-95 being the only exception).

My mother (she is 57, never touched a computer in her life and never had a slightest bit of interest in gaming, rather the opposite) asked me if she can come over and play some tennis and bowling while I'm at work! That after a brief demonstration of Wii-Sports and her playing it for 20 minutes. She also said "good that I don't have this at home, I think I'd never get out again".

I'm dead serious guys.

And to the gfx-bound guys: just get yourself the PS3 or XBox360 or whatever and stop bitching here. This console is NOT about gfx and frankly, I couldn't care less.

 

[_xxx_]

This Wiimote of mine is positivly chewing up AA batteries.

Just get rechargable batteries, that should be a no-brainer.

 

[Johnny Awesome]

And to the gfx-bound guys: just get yourself the PS3 or XBox360 or whatever and stop bitching here. This console is NOT about gfx and frankly, I couldn't care less.

This is a Wii impresssion thread. That even includes graphics.

 

[Cheezdoodles]

And to the gfx-bound guys: just get yourself the PS3 or XBox360 or whatever and stop bitching here. This console is NOT about gfx and frankly, I couldn't care less.

impressions of an console includes both graphics and gameplay.

You represent the majority of gamers.

Have you done a statistically representative poll about graphics?

If nobody cared about graphics, then why arent we still playing on our PSOne?

 

[Johnny Awesome]

Exactly. People are kidding themselves if they think that gamers aren't drooling over the FFXIII preview videos or MGS4 previews or the possibilities that a new Halo 3 or Ninja Gaiden 2 might bring. Gamers LOVE great graphics. To exclude them from discussion would be silly.

We've established now that Mom loves to play Wii for a couple of hours here and there. But does she like to play Wii consistently for a whole year? More importantly, will she buy a system for herself and spend money on games? That's the question that will be answered over the next year for Nintendo. If the answer is yes then Nintendo can kick serious ass. If the answer is no ....

 

[Nexiss]

Exactly. People are kidding themselves if they think that gamers aren't drooling over the FFXIII preview videos or MGS4 previews or the possibilities that a new Halo 3 or Ninja Gaiden 2 might bring. Gamers LOVE great graphics. To exclude them from discussion would be silly.

The following quote applies just as much to what you've said right here:

Have you done a statistically representative poll about graphics?

While you might find that your assertion that gamers care about great graphics is sound (and I wouldn't disagree), it's not clear to me that you have any sort of empirical backing for this yourself. If we wanted to problematize this, we might ask what exactly constitutes a "gamer"? Is it someone that plays games? Is it someone that plays a certain number of hours of games a week? What number might that be? What exactly does it mean that a gamer "loves" great graphics? Further, what constitutes great graphics? Then maybe we could proceed and try and get something statistically significant which may or may not back up this assertion.

We've established now that Mom loves to play Wii for a couple of hours here and there. But does she like to play Wii consistently for a whole year? More importantly, will she buy a system for herself and spend money on games? That's the question that will be answered over the next year for Nintendo. If the answer is yes then Nintendo can kick serious ass. If the answer is no ....

The implication here seems to be that because gamers love great graphics, Nintendo is reliant upon "Mom" for support because they will not get it from gamers.
Even if we were to conclude that gamers love great graphics that does not lead necessarily to the conclusion that gamers then won't buy a game that doesn't have great graphics, or, of course, that they will necessarily buy a game that has great graphics. Certainly I think that the success of the Game Boys over the years are suggestive in this regard.

 

[fearsomepirate]

This is a Wii impresssion thread. That even includes graphics.

Except this is a thread for Wii impressions from people who have bought the console or played it extensively for the purpose of giving people who are looking for one an idea of what to expect. Impressions of the graphics from having played the games are good, especially if you can say something more than "The graphics look last-gen." This isn't a thread for repeating public tech info ad nauseam.