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Wii U: 3. Still a generation behind?

I'm hoping I'm wrong in what I'm about to say. Because the Nintendo lover in me can't take witnessing another Nintendo system fall behind Microsoft and Sony. Wii may have broken records and sold a ridiculous amount of units. But in the long run in terms of it keeping up with the competition and holding everybody's attention, Wii somewhat failed. Okay, I'm being modest. It straight up failed. But I have this horrid feeling the Wii60 is going to be graphically on par with the Xbox 360.

A tech demo was shown, which looked pretty damn impressive. But nothing about it really edged it over the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3. Although it will take a full game and not a demo to really make a graphical comparison to the competition.


All of the third party titles which were revealed to be releasing for the Wii U were running on either an Xbox 360 or a PlayStation 3. We all know that when it comes to graphics, third parties always push Nintendo's systems more than Nintendo do themselves. So the first party crap shown at E3 is not and will not be indicative of what the Wii U is capable of. Still. In light of all this, I can't shake that the Wii U probably won't be much more powerful than an Xbox 360. All I keep hearing about is that Wii U has more RAM. That doesn't tell me a great deal other than it has more RAM. And with my limited tech knowledge, if the system does indeed have more RAM, it may have something to do with the console itself streaming to the WiiPad. I really don't know. But word is that IBM's chip inside Nintendo's not so little white box is an offshoot of the chip which powers IBM's super computer, which shamed humans on Jeopardy. It'd be funny if it happened to shame Microsoft and Sony too. It'd make a nice change.

It's going to be difficult to get a gauge on how the system stands up to the 360 and PS3 until we either get direct comparisons on a multi-format release, specs surface or we get a sneak peek of an all new HD, graphically whored out, built on the ground up by a third party game for Wii U. The Wii U officially being on par with an Xbox 360 would not fill me with confidence, because this would mean that once again Nintendo are still a whole generation behind graphically. And they're pretty much fucked if Microsoft and Sony announce a new system next year. Microsoft and Sony are both at that console cycle mark where they could push a few more years out of their systems, especially if Nintendo haven't pushed the boat out graphically. But they would be more than in line to release something new if they chose to, because their systems have been out for over 5 years now. However I suspect both companies will instead just rip off Nintendo's controller next year for their existing systems - which would equally be a spanner in the works. Albeit on a smaller scale than an all new console.

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