Crap. In 7 days Rayman Legends is out and I still can't choose between Splinter Cell Blacklist and The Wonderful 101.

Glad to hear you made it okay Steel. Floods like that are no fun.

And in other news I'm cringing at Layton 7. That just doesn't look right at all. Curse mobile gaming and all it's done!!

Wii Users Game Under podcast has a Wii U blowout this week, with hands-on with Wonderful 101, Pikmin 3, Gayman Wario and Earthbound.  We trucked in a special nintendo correspondent.

travo said:

Choose GTA

GTA chose to require an 8gb install.

aspro said:

Wii Users Game Under podcast has a Wii U blowout this week, with hands-on with Wonderful 101, Pikmin 3, Gayman Wario and Earthbound.  We trucked in a special nintendo correspondent.

Really looking forward to hearing the section on this.

Played a lot more Crysis 2, good game getting better. Still feels a little like a group of FPS fans set out to make a game, seems like too much ticking boxes. Great controls though, nice visuals. Design is getting a bit better. Vehicles are in, Halo esque tank controls. Seems like a solid game for the most part. Could use some more personality though. And I've only fought two enemy types so far? My biggest problem with the game is that most battles are ranged, they can see you and shoot you from miles away so you're often being hit and wondering who and where they are shooting you from. That is actually one of my biggest problems with some FPS, like Black or Red Steel for instance.

Thankfully I finally got a scoped scarab so I can zoom in and give the bastards a taste of their own medicine.

EDGE mag reviews

Saints Row IV (PS3/Xbox 360, Deep Silver): 8

Splinter Cell: Blacklist (PS3/Xbox 360/Wii U, Ubisoft): 6

The Wonderful 101 (Wii U, Nintendo): 6

Rayman Legends (PS3/Xbox 360/Wii U, Ubisoft): 9

The Bureau: XCOM Declassified (PS3/Xbox 360, 2K Games): 6

Killer is Dead (PS3/Xbox 360, Deep Silver): 6

Divekick (PS3 PSN/PS Vita PSN, Iron Galaxy): 6

Digital Foundry Splinter Cell Blacklist face off :

All manner of trade-offs are made to make sure each version streams data fast enough to its respective hardware, with the 360's campaign mode divided across two discs - the second containing an optional 3GB HD texture pack install for the "best possible visual experience." Meanwhile, the PS3 version enforces a mandatory install of 7.9GB that takes around 25 minutes to complete, compensating for the slow read rates of its optical drive. Without any such installs to worry about, largely due to its limited built-in storage, the Wii U version is by far the quickest to set up.

After installing patch 1.1.0 on each console, we can get the ball rolling with our 50-strong quad-format 720p comparison gallery, plus the suite of head-to-head videos below. Interestingly, the Wii U version puts its best foot first by producing a full 1280x720 internal framebuffer, backed up by 2x multi-sample anti-aliasing (MSAA). This is an astonishing feat given that Splinter Cell: Conviction ran at just 1024x576 for its PS3 and 360 releases three years ago, and shows great proficiency in the Toronto team's handling of new hardware.

As it turns out, the engine shows marked improvements in its optimisation for all platforms, though the others fall short of the crispness afforded by Nintendo's console.

Taken from an image resolution standpoint, the Wii U version is no doubt the reigning king of its domain, where unlike the Sony and Microsoft platform releases, it achieves a full 720p with v-sync always engaged. As a result, it's Nintendo's hardware that gives us the clearest and most integral image of the three, while the 360 and PS3 versions trail behind with sub-HD presentations, with the PlayStation 3 coming off as particularly blurry.

But there are gripes to consider before jumping in bed with the Wii U version. Most significant is the degradation in texture quality, the muddiness of which matches the 360 release without its HD texture pack install. Surfaces can look flat compared to the game running on PS3 and 360 with full installs, and the lack of any similar optional install on Nintendo's platform means pop-in flares up while in wide outdoors areas. Curiously, in terms of sheer playability, Sony's hardware achieves the most consistent frame-rates during combat, with 360 taking middle ground here, and the Wii U suffering from more regular dips to the low 20s, perhaps explaining the omission of split-screen gameplay.

Looking purely at the console trio, there's no denying that tearing on PS3 and 360 is overbearing in this case, though these have been optimised with fast loading times, and higher quality assets missing from Wii U. The pristine presentation of this Wii U version is a major plus meanwhile, and extra GamePad features such as off-screen play and an intuitive grid system for selecting weapons are considerable, tangible pluses.

However, the Wii U's lower frame-rates, patience-testing loading screens and occasional freezing issues can't be ignored either, meaning we'd advise caution before buying this version. It feels rushed to market in these respects, and until a worthy patch arrives, the contest must be narrowed down to PS3 and 360 - a stalemate that itself can only be broken via your preference for either visual fidelity or performance.

Not entirely sure I can go with DF this time, because the only way the PS3 and 360 versions acheive a higher framerate is by dropping v-sync and having very ugly, visible screen tearing. Not having a HDD install is a plus for me, I don't want mandatory game installs clogging up my HDD. Shame about the textures, this is obviously not a hardware problem considering NFS U - Ubisoft Shanghai need to get a handle on it.

So the PS3 (lead platform) has better textures, because of a mandatory install, but because of decreased resolution and upscaping ends up looking "blurry" anyway.

All versions sound a little messed up to some degree, and with the PC news in the updates eh.

Amaterasu cosplay  

Samus

cardboard bits attached to a lycra outfit I think    You can see the wearer's legs.

edgecrusher said:

travo said:

Not that many. I maybe take one long trip per year...and by long I mean traveling from Southern New England to Northern New England. Most of the time I just do local driving.

Leasing a car might be for you then.