• 9Apr 07

  Graphics!

  Since the 2nd generation of consoles was released, we have become accustomed to getting better visuals and sound out of our consoles with each successive generation. It's just the nature of the beast. As technology progresses, the game industry takes advantage of these advances, benefitting gamers everywhere. With one notable exception in this generation, that is still the case. The power of the 360 and the PS3 promise to push development budgets into the stratosphere in order to take full advantage of all the sophistication under the hoods of these bad boys. With 1080p and up to 7.1 Channel audio, these systems push the envelope of gaming realism. The Wii, as everybody knows, has taken a different take. It uses tech from the previous generation for visuals and audio, in favor of placing all the console's innovation in the controller. The sales of the Wii seem to substantiate the claim that visuals don't matter at all, but the problem for the Wii is that the developers have run with the assumption that the Wii's graphical capabilities should not be pushed in any way.
  
  Look at Rogue Leader for the GameCube. This game launched with the Nintendo's lunch box back in 2001, and in 2007, it's still one of the best looking games out there. I find it odd that only one other game in the Cube's lifespan, RE4, even came close to challenging RL's graphical superiority. If the Wii's 2-3 times as powerful as the cube, then why don't the games look 2-3 times better. Sure, next-gen AI is great, but Wii owners need SOME good looking games. Instead a lot of the games that are already out or coming out soon look like PSP games that have simply ported over with alternate control methods, with no thought given to utilizing the power of the Wii (such as it is). Some flagrant perpetrators of this graphical laziness are EA (MoH: Vanguard, The Godfather: Blackhand Edition) and Ubisoft (pretty much every game they've developed for the system thus far).
  
  Come on, guys. How hard would it be make these games look like they belong on the Wii? Get off your asses!
  • Posted Apr 9, 2007 9:14 am GMT
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