noname2200 said:
True, the Wii has more of everything than even the X-Box, but I'm highly sceptical that it's three times more powerful than the X-Box was. In fact, from what I've read, it's better than the X-Box in some ways, and weaker in a select few areas. Here. "Our second source echoed that assessment of the Wii's graphics chip, comparing its fixed-function design to that the Gamecube, saying that it was "basically pretty similar" to Nvidia's seven-year-old GeForce2. "A dev support guy from Nintendo said that the Wii chipset is 'Gamecube 1.5 with some added memory,'" our second source told us. "I figure if they say that, it must be true."
Our second source went on to explain that the "Gamecube 1.5" moniker, while accurate, doesn't mean that gamers won't see graphical improvements on the Wii. "There are three main differences which will result in graphics improvements. One, the increased memory clock speed, from 162 megahertz to 243 megahertz, means that it is easier to do enough pixels for 480p mode versus 480i. Two, the enhanced memory size of the Wii gives much more room for image-related operations such as anti-aliasing, motion blur, etc. The performance to these memory systems from the graphics chip is also improved. So full-screen effects and increased texture usage seem likely as a result.""
My conclusion: the Wii has enough stuff under the hood to get us the games, but it's hardly a graphical powerhouse. I'm perfectly fine with that: as I said, I still go back and play old games on a regular basis, so graphics take a big backseat in my book. And besides, as you yourself have shown, the Wii is quite capable of putting out the eye-candy when the developer wants it to. But it does us no good to overestimate its graphics.
As for the AI issue, you may well be right. I'm simply echoing what I've heard from others, since my knowledge of how software works is sketchy at best. If you're correct, and if the Wii's CPU is good enough to give me the smart AI I crave, then I take back what I said about that. But I stand by my comment that damn few developers devote as much attention and energy to AI as they should, no matter what the platform.
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That bolded part alone makes me doubt the second sources opinion. The majority of Gamecube games supported 480p. The Gamecube was just as capable as the X-box. Factor 5 can speak from experience. Rogue Squadron 2 and 3 were going to be ported to X-box on a single disc but they couldn't get the game running on X-box hardware.
I've said this in the past and I will say it again. The reason developers are having issues with the Wii hardware are because they never bothered to learn the Gamecube hardware. Few if any third party developers built game engines that were built from the ground up on Gamecube. The Gamecube, like the Wii was riddled with shoddy PS2 ports. Quite a few developers have been quoted complaining about how the Wii can't do certain effects that the Gamecube is capable of do their ignorance of the architecture.
