It's not just about graphics but I play my Wii on a a decent spec 100hz 32inch TV (1080p) and SMG2 looks great! Plus because they concentrate more on gameplay the frame rate is often near rock solid 60fps with no screen tearing. Anyone with either HD consoles will be aware of the issues of maintaining 30fps and minimising screen tearing.

To me Galaxy 1 & 2 looks much much better than anything on GCN. Galaxy 2 has fantastic Wii graphics imo. So for me theres no question that the Wii is more powerful than GCN.

Considering that OpenGL 1.3 (defined in 2001 I think it was) already had dot3 texture combining, that would make doing diffuse normal mapping trivial, and I would be AMAZED if the Wii couldn't do it.

Anyway, normal mapping has so many forms. Most games today implement some kind of virtual displacement (done in a pixel program) to make bump mapping actually look 3d. The Wii has no chance of that sadly, but an environment map for specularity added to simple OpenGL 1.3 dot3 mapping will still look pretty decent.

Real time shadowing with shadow maps? Well OpenGL 1.4 had that as part of it's spec around 2002. The Wii MUST surely support it then. Of course they won't be able to do any of the multi sampling on shadows that can be done on newer hardware, but they can make a good shot at it.

I think the real killer for the Wii is no floating point texture support, so that that means true HDR is out of the question. HDR is really what makes games like Uncharted 2 shine IMO.

Yeah, Ubisoft, wii sucks, you shoudn't develop for it, why don't you cancel just dance 2 and make a much more expensive hd version, since you hate wii so bad?

The wii is more powerful than the gamecube..

the wii is about as powerful as the original XBOX

Thank you. I was going to post some images from the Rogue Squadron games myself, and wondered why no-one else had, yet. Glad to see there's at least SOMEONE who remembers just how great these games looked.

The last paragraph seems quite relevant here. If he's an artist, he will likely know the specifics of what needs to be downgraded from the best quality possible in 3D, i.e. lower res textures, lower poly count, etc. and that will form the basis for his impression of the Wii. He is not going to care about the tech specs, only about how much detail he has to leave off the final assets, so to him, the Wii might as well be at the same level as a Gamecube.

It's such a shallow attitude.

I am not following your logic there. Where did the guy say anything like that?