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Metro Last Light dev: 'Wii U has horrible, slow CPU' [Up: DICE dev comments]

IBM doesn't care.
Um, okay. Are you really trying to argue this way. You know what I wanted to say. A slow CPU isn't "horrible". The quote also implies its both slow and horrible whatever that may mean. It's a mere business decision after all. Making it sound like "this platform is not worthy for us" is just bad style and sounds arrogant to me.
 
Too bad. Metro: Last Light looks brilliant. I hope this doesn't become a trend with other 3rd party developers as well but if its already an issue I imagine it will only get worse as we move into next gen development.
 
I can't believe a persons enjoyment of a system or its games hinges on how amazing the visuals are. It completely baffles me. Speaking personally, I've had more fun playing AAA Wii games than I ever had playing anything AAA on either of the HD twins.
Good for you!


....graphics and gameplay aren't mutually exclusive though. And I think you're attacking a strawman. I can't remember one thread or one poster that solely based his conclusions of a games enjoyment based solely on visuals and cared nothing of anything else, and I've been here for far too long.

But you arent the first one to use that (poor)argument so I'm not just going after you. It seems to be a growing trend within a subset of diehard Nintendo fanboys meant to counter those people that do feel visuals can enhance their experiences and are disappointed with Nintendo because of their lack of advancement in that area.
 
Can I have Dragon Quest IX or Kirby Mass Attack (my personal GOTY for 2010 and 2011) on great hardware?

yes? there isn't any physically preventing it.
the games would probably look rather drab, given the specifications they were tailored to meet, but with services like XBLIG, Ps minis/mobile, wiiware - essentially digital distibution in general (and on the pc) they can be released and priced accordingly.
 
yes? there isn't any physically preventing it.
the game would probably look rather drab, given the specifications it was tailored to meet, but with services like XBLIG, Ps minis/mobile, and especially digital distibution in general on the pc, they can be released and priced accordingly.
That's silly. Of course those games would be possible (and prettier to boot) on better hardware - that's my point. But guess what? They're DS exclusives. So in this case the reality is that, yes, playing Dragon Quest IX and Kirby Mass Attack is mutually exclusive from great hardware.
 
Is there a CliffsNotes version of this thread.

I've skimmed a bit, but I'm assuming there's a lot of "EDRAM" "GPGPU" "Lazy devs" "Lying devs" "Incompetent devs" with a sprinkle of launch launch launch.

Can you not pretend that there are actually more nintendo defenders in this thread than people (rightfully saying I admit) expressing their disappointment with the specs?
 
Can I have Dragon Quest IX or Kirby Mass Attack (my personal GOTY for 2010 and 2011) on great hardware?
DQ is contingent on who's console is in the lead for the generation.

And I don't consider the DS/3DS to be behind the curb really, as most of the market flocks toward them. But while the Wii may have had the most total sales, the PC/PS3/360 userbase is larger overall.
 
That's silly. Of course those games would be possible on better hardware - that's my point. But guess what? They're DS exclusives. So in this case the reality is that, yes, playing Dragon Quest IX and Kirby Mass Attack is mutually exclusive from great hardware.
i thought you were going in a different direction than that.

that isn't exactly arguing gameplay/graphics are mutually exclusive, more that publisher-platform relations/restrictions (or publisher-audience expectations) can bar some games from certain hardware.
 
Opinions are like assholes. Everyone has one. Personally, this developer is coming across as an unprofessional jackass. Horrible, slow CPU..LOL. A company like Nintendo wouldn't spend hundreds of millions of dollars in R&D to develop a “horrible, slow CPU". I'm just not buying it.

Um. Do you know what an opinion is?

Because a guy whose job it is to make high-performance, extremely attractive video games is someone who is extremely knowledgeable on the subject. If he says that it's a horrible, slow CPU, then his word can be taken as a statement of fact. On its release, Metro 2033 was the most capable graphics powerhouse in existence, unless I'm mistaken, and it remained that way until The Witcher 2.

I find your suggestion that Nintendo would spend hundreds of millions of dollars in R&D a bit nuts, especially in light of a video game console known as the Nintendo Wii, which had a horrible, slow CPU.
 
I don't give two squirts of piss what one developer (who clearly sounds like he has an agenda) has to say. For the past year, we have heard many developers praise the system and never mention this so-called CPU handicap. And btw..there is nothing to 'get over'. I'm not denying that the Wii U will not have a crazy powerful CPU. What I am arguing (knowing Nintendo's history of hardware efficiency) is that it won't be a horrible slow CPU that will drag down overall system potential.

I don't think this developer has an agenda at all! What makes you think that? They've been open about PS3/360 issues as well. Sounds like brutal honesty to me.

If anything, it's overly positive PR that is usually agenda driven. Of course developers making a game for the Wii U will be as positive as possible about the system! You could point to weaknesses in every console ever made. For example developers were praising the power of the PS3 in the early days, but it ultimately came out that it had bottleneck issues. It seems totally believable that in an effort to keep power consumption at a minimum (a goal Nintendo has been public about) the CPU might be slower/less powerful than the HD twins.

I'm sure the CPU is as powerful as it can be to keep the machine in line with Nintendos low power consumption mandate.
 
Because they thought it would be a good idea to make the console run off a potato.

Nintendo's insistence on low TDP means nothing to gamers and for gaming. Why they keep pushing is beyond me.
Theoretically, modest production standards = less production costs = devs are more able to survive on less sales.

Helping developers survive is good for gamers. Of course, there are factors that allowed this gen to survive anyways like well-known companies getting bought/merged with others. If Sony didn't have non-Playstation money they would've sunk hard.

Gamers wouldn't appreciate the manufacturer of hardware they own going belly up. No more hardware support, 1st party support, or 3rd party licensing.

360 turned out better, but MS had losses in the initial months/years that Nintendo would never have settled for. Their game development would suffer.

Wanting to remain profitable is not greediness; it's a necessity. Currently, Nintendo is banking on software to profit for them. Combined with the current economy being bad for everyone, less money for them = less future content for gamers.

The Power of Snap said:
Except the snes was capable of having genesis ports.
Both SNES and Genesis had the occasional struggle with arcade ports. Imagine where we'd be if Nintendo and Sega let 3DO and Neo-Geo dictate what they were supposed to make. :p
 
I'd swallow this wholesale were it not for other devs like Harada, who initially made the same comments on the CPU, putting out an amazing product for launch, with the same amount of time available in which to do it. The scope of the projects are different, to be sure, but considering when the Metro project was folded on Wii U, it could be that they could have made it work and just didn't have the manpower to look deeper into it, nor the time to wait for a dev kit revision that may have corrected it since their last look at it.

I don't think his comments are 100% invalid, since thoughts like this have to come from SOMEWHERE, but I know there's enough variables that make it tough to claim they are 100% valid, as well.

But by all means, people on both sides of the discussion can jump the gun to their heart's content.

What I'm not understanding is why would the metro developers be kept in the dark like that??

So did Nintendo just do a bad job communicating with third party developers to the point they were led to believe specs that weren't true or indicative of likely final specs? Which led to developers like Metro's believing the console not to be up to snuff and costing them 3rd party support in the process? Or did Nintendo possibly indicate final specs and Metro's developer still came to such a conclusion?

Either way Metro's developer having this opinion(one shared by others already) indicates at least some issues Nintendo has either on the hardware side or with their communication with third parties.
 
Um, okay. Are you really trying to argue this way. You know what I wanted to say. A slow CPU isn't "horrible". The quote also implies its both slow and horrible whatever that may mean. It's a mere business decision after all. Making it sound like "this platform is not worthy for us" is just bad style and sounds arrogant to me.
It is when you're trying to port a CPU intensive game to it.

It's horrible for their purpose. Could they do it? Absolutely. Would it be a massive headache? Absolutely.

It's not about arrogance, it's about hardware that underperforms for specific purposes. The WiiU isn't a console that's meant for bite-sized, Android-like gaming, it's supposed to be Nintendo's forray into 360 and PS3 territory, yet it doesn't have the hardware to compete with them.
 
I find your suggestion that Nintendo would spend hundreds of millions of dollars in R&D a bit nuts, especially in light of a video game console known as the Nintendo Wii, which had a horrible, slow CPU.

The Wii CPU was an overclocked Gekko taken directly from GameCube. Completely different scenario this time around.
 
Even though I don't doubt the validity of his statement, especially since it's been said several times before, his comments do basically say that they're too "lazy", resource strained, to work with the system's strengths to get the job done. Assassin's Creed III, though certainly not the best looking 360/PS3 game, runs with complete parity to the other versions and the fact that the other 3rd party launch titles don't do the same exposes the fact that not enough effort was put into those titles, crappy CPU or not.

At least they were honest. If they weren't going to be able to do the job right with the resources they had, then so be it. I rather they not bring out the product than it be terrible.
 
Why would anyone consumer have a corporation's best interests at heart? Besides your money, Nintendo or any corporation don't care about you.

Corporations want to keep you happy so that you keep giving them money. It's essential for businesses that trade in luxuries such as entertainment.
 
Both SNES and Genesis had the occasional struggle with arcade ports. Imagine where we'd be if Nintendo and Sega let 3DO and Neo-Geo dictate where they were supposed to make. :p

I don't think Sega would have cared. They were blowing away the competition with their own arcade hardware.

Dreamcast was the first time they put their arcade hardware for console use. Amazing ports everywhere.
 
What is Metro and why should I care about it?

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Truthfully, all I expect out of the Wii U is to be able to run PS360 quality games with textures at least 25% better, 720p, and 4xMSAA. With any actual effort, this should be a perfectly achievable goal. It's still disheartening to hear that a dev would just give up on the system like this though.
 
What is Metro and why should I care about it?
I've read the book (Metro 2033) and its excellent, great atmosphere, writing and setting: world overrun by mutants, people have retreated into the underground tunnels. The story takes place in the Metro of Moscow and you follow a sort of Odyssey of a young guy, Artjom, who has formerly not left his "home" station. Didn't play the game but was somewhat disappointed when it turned out to be a shooter. Could be still very well worth checking out, especially if you like shooters with a certain atmosphere.
 
I don't give two squirts of piss what one developer (who clearly sounds like he has an agenda) has to say. For the past year, we have heard many developers praise the system and never mention this so-called 'horrible CPU'. And btw..there is nothing to 'get over'. I'm not denying that the Wii U will not have a crazy powerful CPU. What I am arguing (knowing Nintendo's history of hardware efficiency) is that it won't be a horrible slow CPU that will drag down overall system potential.

The person with the agenda is you!

The WiiU CPU has supporting evidence that it is horrible, thus the dev is speaking the truth!\
You have no right to attack him just because you don't like it!
 
I can't believe a persons enjoyment of a system or its games hinges on how amazing the visuals are. It completely baffles me. Speaking personally, I've had more fun playing AAA Wii games than I ever had playing anything AAA on either of the HD twins.
That depends on the individual and their standards. Sure gameplay > graphics BUT visuals can create and cater to gameplay through immersion, larger more interactive worlds, etc. Bring the player into the environment via enhanced visuals.

More is more and less is not more. Its not about how many polygons you can put on-screen, no, but its how you arrange those extra poly's to enhance the experience.

More power is a must for the medium to progress.

Nintendo will do what it does but 3rd parties looking to expand the experience for the end-user will focus on hardware with more power. At least Nintendo has a strong 1st party.
 
Over a decade? DS didn't come out until '04 or '05, did it? Gamecube was very powerful.
Not to mention the DS was a logical step up in power. Nintendo's handhelds had been lagging their consoles by two gens at that point (and still do). The Wii was the first console to go for the low power deal.
 
"It will be one of the best looking versions because they've got more Ram, they're late in the cycle, so they've got this really great processor,"
- Brian Martell, Gearbox Software.


Video Source

so who's right?
 
Generic FPS? Really? Have you played the game?

Because saying "you're better off with Fallout 3" doesn't really work. The two games are worlds apart.

Don't worry about mentalfloss, he's been having a meltdown all over the shop over Wii U news for the past few days, poor kids taking things badly and flailing about like a three year old who didn't get a sweet at the shop.
 
What I'm not understanding is why would the metro developers be kept in the dark like that??

So did Nintendo just do a bad job communicating with third party developers to the point they were led to believe specs that weren't true or indicative of likely final specs? Which led to developers like Metro's believing the console not to be up to snuff and costing them 3rd party support in the process? Or did Nintendo possibly indicate final specs and Metro's developer still came to such a conclusion?

Either way Metro's developer having this opinion(one shared by others already) indicates at least some issues Nintendo has either on the hardware side or with their communication with third parties.

It's possible that the "target specs", which no platform maker ever meets exactly, were all they had at the time of the project's cancellation that said the CPU would improve, because newer kits weren't yet in hand. They likely just decided they couldn't wait any longer and never took a 2nd look at any changes to the kits. Bail out on making a launch title too soon (albeit for necessary reasons in their case) and unless you're wasting time looking at new kit revisions instead of making the games you DIDN'T cancel, that opinion is not going to be based on the most current details.

We could have a Cell situation, where it IS powerful but requires new steps to draw optimal performance from it that the team isn't familiar with, as opposed to the much more documented 360 chip or any modern PC-grade CPU.

There's a LOT of possibilities. And since this fella at 4A decided not to expand upon his statement in any factually meaningful way, it leaves too much unsaid to take wholly at face value.

There is SOMETHING wrong with the CPU, but until someone talks at length about it, no one is gonna know what that is. Any follow-up reviews with Harada in his prior CPU comments should net some good details.
 
"It will be one of the best looking versions because they've got more Ram, they're late in the cycle, so they've got this really great processor,"
- Brian Martell, Gearbox Software.


Video Source

so who's right?

I'd like to give Wii-U the benefit of the doubt, but Gearbox has a pretty shitty track record when it comes to giving performance comments. They were one of the few developers who actually said the Wii would be able to run UE3. :lol
 
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