Ever since Nintendo's E3 this year and the unveiling of ZombiU I've been wanting to play that game. It seems to offer an unique experience and showing what the new GamePad can be used for. I've always thought it looked good, but not as good as a next gen game could or should look like. At Gamescom this week they released a new trailer and I realized that the game looks like a good PS360 game - not great, but good.

How come that it doesn't look better than the average PS360 game? People have said that PS360 games didn't look all that great at the start of this gen; it takes a while to get used to to the new hardware, developers are inexperienced, they still have time to polish the game to make it look even better - the explanations goes on and on and on.

Well, first of; PS360 games weren't all that pretty back in 2005/2006 because developers had never developed games in HD. And now, in 2012, we can't simply blame the graphics on that any more; Ubisoft have developed lots of games in HD, so they're not inexperienced. It's true that the hardware is still new - but I'm sure they could have gotten better graphics.

I'll tell you what; this is about how good the game will look when it is released - and it's supposed to look like that, and it's not because it's new hardware. It's because it's a new IP on a new hardware. Ubisoft ain't about to throw away money on a risky game on an untested console. They have stated that they won't invest too much in WiiU in the beginning; they have adopted a wait and see strategy, and that's why there isn't too much money behind this game and thus it's not gonna look any prettier.

I think, if this is a success, we'll see some really nice graphics in the sequal. It'll be way in to the next year before we see any true next gen graphics.

The Gamescom trailer

I believe you're right as well. It's:

1) a new IP
2) on a new console
3) That's a Nintendo console.

I disagree. HD developement is not that huge of a deal, it's simply a higher resolution. Also, developers had tons of HD experience before PS360 with PC games. Furthermore, Ubisoft and "wait and see" approach? About 8 Ubisoft launch window games would like to have a word here. Games look better as a generation expands because of the

a) experience that developers gain with that specific hardware (limits, unique features, weaknesses, strengths)
b) engines that get improved to use all the hardwares unique feature sets
c) growing userbase leading to potentially higher sales leading to higher investments taken

You only take c) into account but that's really only a part of the picture.

Yes, Ubisoft has come out in force for the WiiU - but there is no AAA game exclusive to the WiiU from 3rd parties yet - not even from Ubisoft. And lots of those games might get ported later on. But yes, all of your points are valid and true, but I still think it could have looked better.

I read around the internet that Wii U has not enough shaders.

Anyway, even if developers has a lot of experience in HD development, Wii U is rumored to have a different architecture but nobody has reported how much. Let's take in consideration Nintendo tweaks. That's about GPU, while for CPU is rumored to be Out-of-Order (OoO) which needs to be developed for and not only porting. But iirc CPU is for physics and AI instead of graphics.

Hopefully at Nintendo Christmas, I mean, Fall Conference we'll see first party games using more of the power of the cons...

...What the fuck I'm talking about? Wasn't gameplay more important than graphics? And weren't we happy with Wii graphics? Why are we discussing this?

We were happy with GameCube graphics. Anything more is heresy.

Nintendo is making you happy with Wii U launch games.

I feel like there's been a (very) slight improvement to ZombiU's graphics since E3...
The zombies look (a bit) more crisp...
I'm pumped to play this game...