Z101 • Comments

  • Watch Dogs Wii U release touted by retailers

  • Z101 20/02/2013

    This game is a perfect match for Wii U. Reply 0

  • Ubisoft "hurt" seeing Rayman Legends Wii U fans upset at delay, extends new olive branch

  • Z101 20/02/2013

    Very dumb move by ubisoft. The game will sink in sep, because there are other, more high profile releases by then and even the rayman fans will probably not get this game because they are pissed now. Reply +1

  • Spec analysis: Durango vs. Orbis

  • Z101 20/02/2013

    thalesnunesm: "I wish to know how these specs compare to the Wii U's. Not only on paper, but in actual visual gain. I mean, if you put Crysis 3 on PC and consoles side to side, you'll notice the difference, however, if you show any version to the average consumer, he won't know what version is."

    It will be the same with PS4/Xbox3 and Wii U. The graphical differences will be subtle.     Reply 0

  • Wii U's Most Wanted: Criterion returns to Nintendo hardware with enhanced Need for Speed

  • Z101 20/02/2013

    Everyone with a bit of technical knowledge knows that the Wii U is much more capable than PS3 or Xbox360.

    But the graphical differences are not obvious, even the PS4/Xbox3 will not show much graphical improvements over Wii U.

    Before we shout another "oh" and "ah" about graphics there must be a real leap in GPU Design. Perhaps for the next console generation starting in 2018.     Reply 0

  • Wii U graphics power finally revealed

  • Z101 05/02/2013

    The article has many "could be" and guesses and seemingly based on false premise: "Chipworks' shot is still being analysed, but the core fundamentals are now seemingly beyond doubt."

    The GPU is HIGHLY customized. We have not seen such a highly customized GPU since the GameCube, and the GameCube throws out effects the Xbox1 could dream of, although the Xbox1 hardware was more powerful. The GPUs in Xbox360 or PS3 are standard GPUs with only slight changes. The PS4/Xbox3 will have standard PC-GPUs too.

    The Wii U GPU has so many customized functions that you only guess its performance in most situations, this means you can not base your guess on other PC GPUs. Of course this could mean that the Wii U GPU is slower than expected ;-) but that is unlikely. Its probably the other way round: If the customized functions get used they could work much faster than on standard chips.

    From a programmers perspective the Wii U hardware is very interesting, the RAM based design with many caches could be accelerate some functions you need for games like crazy, but you need a little experience for this.

    Don't get me wrong. The Wii U has not the power of a high end pc, but it seems the hardware is very optimized for games and the performance is very good. Unless Microsoft and Sony does some really crazy things with their new consoles (but it seems they both use standard PC components) they should be not much above the Wii U in the graphics department.     Reply -14

  • Face-Off: Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 on Wii U

  • Z101 26/11/2012

    The Wii U CPU is not slower at all. The problem here is that the Wii U has a lower clockspeed than Xbox360 but could runs more operations in a cycle. But todays graphic engines dont reflect this.

    Treyarch obviously only copied the XBox360 engine without much optimisation. XBox360 is the kead plattform for COD games. This is really easy done. Some developers mentioned that it was easy to port their engines to the Wii U. But engines written for the CPU centric XBox360/PS3 only utilize a small part of the power the Wii U has.

    The Wii U system dont focus on CPU like the Xbox360/PS3 with their weak GPUs. There are many more features. First the DSP for audio processing, a complex sound background could take up to 20% CPU on Xbox360, the Wii U DSP does this in higher quality without bother the CPU. The GPGPU does special tasks like AI and physics much faster than even up-to-date multi core CPUs but the game engines for Wii U dont use this features yet, because it will take some time to change a engine to reflect this.

    Next year when all features of the Wii U will be utilised we will see much better results and games that will be graphically much better than the PS3/XBox360 ports.

    Of course the Wii U will never show graphic quality like modern PCs, but neither will do XBox3 and PS4.     Reply +3

  • Nano Assault Neo review

  • Z101 26/11/2012

    Is this review some kind of a bad joke? Nano Assault Neo is a great game, and looks and plays much better than most games in this genre. Most reviewers gave it 80-90%.

    One of the many failures of this review is the part that the reviewer dont know what he is talking about. The Wii had some shooter like this ... but not with twin stick controls.

    On the other hand is the question at the beginning ridicolous. Does we need another shooter? Does we need another soccer game? Does we need another bad written review?     Reply +10

  • THQ clarifies Wii U "horrible, slow" CPU claim, but developer concern remains

  • Z101 22/11/2012

    This is the reason the Wii U has an GPGPU (a GPGPU is much more ready for typical gaming needs as KI and physic as an normal CPU).

    On top of that the Wii U has an DSP chip that could do all the audio processing (the audio processing could take about 30% CPU power on Xbox360).

    On top of that the OS has its own CPU, so the PowerPC is fully available for the games.

    On top of that the Wii U has much and fast eDRAM and developers could do many interesting thinks with that.

    On the other side: The Xbox3 will have more power than Wii U, but if you read the first rumors, not much more. The PS4 will probably even slower than Xbox3, but after the todays news about Sony it is doubtful that we ever see a PS4.     Reply +2

  • Wii U GamePad is 3D capable in Assassin's Creed 3

  • Z101 22/11/2012

    @JohnParry: AC3 Wii U is 3D on 3D-TVs as well. The Gamepad-3D feature is just a little bonus. Reply +2

  • Wii U Premium owners must spend £62.50 for £5 eShop voucher

  • Z101 20/11/2012

    Why is the article trying to get to put a negative spin on what's actually quite a good deal? Reply +1

  • Nintendo Wii U review

  • Z101 20/11/2012

    Sorry but this article is nonsense in many ways. The comparison with the dfpc and "chinese android tablets" are ridiculous and not much more than trolling.

    The Wii U has much more power than PS360 but of course less power than PS4/XBox3, but the gap will be far lower than between Wii and PS360.     Reply -10

  • ZombiU review

  • Z101 18/11/2012

    Great review for an obviously great game for real core gamers. Reply +57

  • What's inside the Wii U?

  • Z101 11/10/2012

    @thedarknight87: Perhaps you don't use USB-Harddrive then but a big SD-Card? SD-Cards are much faster than HD you know? And with Wii U you have the choice: USB-Stick/HD or/and SD-Card. Reply +1

  • A chat about the power of the Wii U with the developer of a Wii U launch title

  • Z101 21/09/2012

    This is an old article about the Tekken producer Katsuhiro Harada says something:
    http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/gaming/news/a392539/wii-u-processing-speed-low-compared-to-360-ps3-says-tekken-producer.html

    This is a new article from eurogamer about Dynasty Warrior Akihiro Suzuki says exact the same thing:
    http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2012-09-21-a-chat-about-the-power-of-the-wii-u-with-the-developer-of-a-wii-u-launch-title#comment-3279811

    It seems the eurogamer article is a fake and made up with parts from the old news. This is already discussed on other websites. Seems to be a "Stephen Glass" like journalism?     Reply -6

  • Z101 21/09/2012

    @Skooch: The CPU is not really worse than the CPU in PS360.

    As Suzuki stated:
    With the Wii U being new hardware, we're still getting used to developing for it, so there are still a lot of things we don't know yet to bring out the most of the processing power. There's a lot that still needs to be explored in that area.
    So he says basically he and his developers has no idea of the real power behind the Wii U at the moment. That is not unusual by developing for a new console.

    Eurogamer stretches his statements because auf the sensationally. Poor journalism.     Reply +3