i agree alot of people on here kept saying the wii is a gc only overclocked then spewed out ign's guess at the specs which was NOT released by nintendo. when and IF nintendo releases the specs of the system i think every naysayer will be like omg its that powerfull? and btw the gc was over 650mhz and ninty officially said the wi was 2 to 3 times faster. so we have to wait and see the graphically georgous games within two years is my guess from 3rd party dev's

I don't agree at all. I have several Wii games I think look fantastic, and a long way beyond GC gfx already. And I watched my mate play RE4 on the Wii - and it looks real ugly to my eyes (esp. compared to other titles I have been played).

Some examples:

 - Sonic & Secret Rings: some truly mind-blowing gfx in the levels. Lovely textures, animations, lots of geometry, 60fps frame rate. Pity about the game :P

 - Red Steel: crappy frame rate (in places), but excellent level design, lighting & textures (in places). The hangar level especially stood out to me (looked really awesome), and the dojo in Japan is mind-blowing. A real demonstration of what the Wii can do graphically. Pity the game and controls lacked polish.

 - Rayman: it may have "cartoony" graphics, but they are crisp, well textured, well animated - and look great. Probably never really pushes the hardware, so its a hard one to argue.

 - Harry Potter: even with the "odd" lighting model, the amount of geometry thrown into some of the scenes is very impressive. Looking down the grand staircase with all those animating portraits, characters, moving geometry - and no frame rate drop - looks very impressive. Same for wandering around the main banquet hall.

...

All in all, I have been pretty happy with "1st-gen" Wii titles. Now I'm just waiting for someone to marry polished Wiimote control with improved visuals (including extra effects), and a strong game design... and I'll be happy.

It's just a thread title no big deal. The article was called "Why does Wii graphics look like crap?" I wasn't trying to make the a flame thread. Anyone who has seen me post before knows I like the Wii more than any of the other systems. But I want a 360 too. (I have to get the new Naruto)

Personally, I like gaming consoles for gameplay and game experience. Other than virtual reality, the next best thing is 3d graphics + the wiimote/nunchuck experience. The focus of game developers for the wii I think is for the algorithms to make the best gaming experience, instead of focusing on graphics. If I want graphics, I might as well just get a pc with an awesome video card.

How many publishers produced games for the Wii using their best development teams?
How many publishers produced games for the Wii using above average veteran development teams?

The fact of the matter is most publishers did not anticipate the Wii being a popular system and devoted below average (often rookie) development teams to developing (porting) games; low quality "young" development teams will always have a difficult time taking adequate control of the underlying hardware of an unfamiliar architecture without guidance.

Over time companies with the technical skill of Factor 5, id, and Epic Games will start to really unlock the potential of the Wii and people will look at games like Far Cry: Vengeance and wonder how it performed so poorly without doing something (far) more impressive.

Shams, you're full of it. There's no way in hell the games out right now for the Wii are a long way beyond the gamecube's graphics, espeacaily the games you listed. There's nothing wrong with the Wii's graphics but come on... Lets not take the for more than what it really is.

No,Soriku,Level 5 is the one developing WKS.

I've been ponderring this issue since the Wii launched. I don't think that it's just developers not expecting the Wii to be successful and so the games were rushed. We're getting games that haven't been rushed now that still look PS2 quality.

I'm leaning more to it simply being 3rd parties aren't used to programming for the GCN/Wii style GPU (which uses TEV's instead of pixel shaders). Yes I know the Wii is essentially the same as the Gamecubes architecture but how many 3rd parties actually spent time making an impressive exclusive on the Gamecube? Companies like Nintendo and Retro of course only programmed for the GCN so the Wii's TEV's are second nature to them and as expected Mario, Smash Bros., and MP3 all look excellent and show the Wii's power.  Factor 5 did something almost historic by taking the Gamecube nearly to its max at launch so they know a little about what the Wii can do with a 50% higher clock speed, more than 3 times as much RAM, and twice the TEV's (even if they weren't working on any games for it until recently).

I forget which Wii graphics article it was, but one pointed out that the big boost in the Wii's graphics comes from doubling the number of TEV's. However, it said if you don't know how to take advantage of 4 then you're not going to be able to take advantage of 8 and trying to would only cause problems since the Wii's GPU isn't fast enough to compensate. So essentially untill the 3rd parties learn to use TEV's the Wii is a Gamecube to them.  Capcom is one of the few that did make a major effort on the cube but that was years ago, I doubt that team is still together or even mostly at Capcom these days.  Even more so I doubt more than a few have been put to work on the Wii.

My guess would be most 3rd parties are not yet convinced they need to learn to master the Wii's unique architecture. Like many "hard core" gamers, they're progressing through the 5 stages of Wii Grief. First they ignored the Wii. Then they got angry at the Wii for interrupting their graphics obsession and ruining their industry. After that they decided they would make a deal, a few crap ports and casual games if the Wii left them alone. Now I think they are enterring depression, woe is them the Wii is winning and will destroy the industry to make Nintendo money, why bother doing anything on it. Soon they will accept the Wii for what it is and learn to use it's capabilities to the fullest. Of course that means we won't see those 3rd party games until next Christmas.

Brawl and TP should be on that list of good looking games. I expect next year we'll see some games with better graphics.

...because fanboys need something to troll about to make themselves feel better about how Wii is creaming their favourite system in sales.