From the Game Informer review of the hardware:

The most drastic change is the new HDMI port on the back. Through this the Wii U supports up to 1080p resolution and surround sound (six-channel PCM linear output). There is no optical port so users will have to run an HDMI cable from the Wii U to a compatible receiver and from there to the TV if they want full high definition and surround sound. Otherwise, you can run analog stereo sound out of the standard AV multi out. Just because the system supports surround sound doesn’t mean developers have to fully use it, however. Setting a great example, Nintendo only pumps stereo sound out of the two front speakers in New Super Mario Bros. U instead of going full surround. Even in games that support 5.1 surround like Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge, I had to go into the settings to turn it on. Don’t count on surround being fully implemented in Wii U games and always double check the settings before jumping into them for the first time.

Cheap fucks, Nintendo really is lame. I can tell after looking into it most  games don't support it, ans mostly because they all do 5.1 DD and would a huge pain in the ass to switch to PCM in ported software. Nintendo however has no excuse other than they don't know whats important and they are fucking cheap. I'm not even going to bother hooking up hdmi to my stereo, because its extra electricity for no reason when %99 of the games won't even bother. The more I see about Wii U the unhappier it makes me I might end up selling it after all.While it still has high value.

My Nintendo ID is Dvader, add me!

Bear I wish you would sell it...I'm tired of listening to you bitch and moan.

i am in the middle of mario. Just hit the menu button and now i am here, so cool.

Well its mario... yay i guess.

im playing zombiu and the scariest thing happened, i cant control it while inverted?!?!? i play every game inverted, since i started gaming. For some reason the placement of the analog stick has rewired my brain and now it doesnt function as it should. It is the freakiest thing ever.


and yes zombie face is awesome. i took some pics, share me yours edge. Btw add me.

edgecrusher said:

So far the Gamepad doesn't add anything to COD..maybe in the campaign they use it for better things.

Yeah I think the campaign will use it more, but forget about that, try it with IR, I want to know if the same sublime controls from BLOPS Wii carry over. WIth that game all I had to do was fasten the turn speed in the options and it was golden.

robio said:

I went ahead and kept one of my Wii U's. I'm regretting it though. For whatever reason, my Wii U cannot connect to my wireless router. Coincidentally I cannot perform a system update on my Wii either, though I can still use Netflix on it, so the internet itself is not a problem. After spending 2 hours on the phone with Nintendo even their tech support gave up on me. So I pretty much have a nice black brick in my living room capable of letting me create Mii's.

Sorry bro. I'm sure you can resolve it, somehow.

Dvader said:

I have two wii us! So which do I keep?

Scan one with ultrasound for us.

edgecrusher said:

Graphically, this game is definitely a step up. Not sure if it looks better than the other versions, but as GG said last week it is very vibrant and colorful compared to past games. But in a good way..the colors really make the guns and things in the background stick out. Very happy with it. Now, on to Zombi U.

Where's that gif:

The system has much more eDram so you should get a higher image quality if coded right on Wii U.

edgecrusher said:

My girlfriend wanted to get two Wii U's for her nephew and daughter's boyfriend, both of whom didn't pre-order. She came with me to Gamestop this mornig and managed to get two spare black Wii U's that they had as non-preorders. How fucking lucky did she get?

GGs getting upset! You guys are just proving that you don't read the updates. The Senior VP of marketing for Nintendo confirmed that there are more Wii U units for day one then there were of Wii 1. He also said that you would be able to walk into a store day 1 and find it on the shelves. He also said that there would be regular replenishment of units to stores. They have been building this thing for ages in factories. This was said in the past 2 weeks. Gamestop confirmed that Wii U software pre-orders were double the level of Wii 1's launch.

_Bear said:

It's like I figured too, most of the games don't even support 6 channel PCM it's all Dolby Pro Logic II Nintendo cheaped out . I'm not happy about it either but I knew. I guess if the games are brilliant I can live with it, but it still sucks. Everything Nintendo does is backasswards.

Makes no sense, since LPCM is not licenced its free to process, they can just stick on the disc, have you connected it via HDMI audio to your receiver or are you passing it through an optical or something from the TV? I don't think it makes sense to have 6 channel sound for NSMB U though, it's a 2D platform game, I don't see how 6 channel sound makes sense in that instance. It should be all right for future games, instead of compresing the audio for Dolby Digital devs can just put it uncompressed on the disc right?

edgecrusher said:

I'm a few hours into Zombi U, and you know what? I'm really liking it.

Nice impressions, keep em coming.

Dvader said:

im playing zombiu and the scariest thing happened, i cant control it while inverted?!?!? i play every game inverted, since i started gaming. For some reason the placement of the analog stick has rewired my brain and now it doesnt function as it should. It is the freakiest thing ever.



and yes zombie face is awesome. i took some pics, share me yours edge. Btw add me.

Are you saying the game does not allow you to invert the sticks or that even with the controls inverted you cannot play that way because the right stick is on the top? Because if it's the former I wont touch the game at all. Can you play okay without the sticks being inverted, does that feel more natural?

Cloudberry Kingdom was supposed to be a Launch Title for the Wii U e-shop, but was delayed by Hurricane Sandy. I've been looking for it since yesterday, but just found this out today. Looks to be the Wii U equivalent of Super Meat Boy. As it is made by a Manhattan based developer, I hope the game gets out soon and does well!

Guys if you are getting a bad picture quality from Wii U on your TV or monitor:

Eurogamer said:

However, there is some unwelcome news - specifically that the HDMI output is locked to limited-range RGB only, with footage from all games we've captured thus far revealing absolutely no information in the 0-16 or 235-255 areas. Many digital displays - PC monitors in particular - don't operate correctly with limited-range RGB, giving washed out colours principally defined by blacks being more grey-like in nature. This is something Nintendo really needs to address as a matter of urgency - it's the most basic of omissions, something that Sony and Microsoft resolved to everyone's satisfaction many, many years ago.



Bizarrely, for a console launching when digital video standards are established and mature, many users may well find that they get a more vibrant picture by using the legacy component outputs.

Would the LPCM sound have something to do with this if a lot of info needs to pass through the one HDMI output with 6 channel sound and picture? Whereas with other systems there is a separate optical out? I don't know anything techincally, just speculating.

Eurogamer on the Broswer:

An internet browser is supplied, which offers a fairly decent level of functionality for a console app - it manages to cope with most of the higher-end features we cram into a Digital Foundry Face-Off article (movie thumbnails apart) with the comparison zoomer working just fine, and it even handles our videos, something which Internet Explorer on Xbox 360 notably omits. Even the old Uncharted 3 60FPS video plays back at full frame-rate, better than running the same vid on many PCs. YouTube works just fine and 1080p video decoding is supported, even if the browser itself isn't running at the same high resolution.

Nice for videos, unexpected.

Dvader said:

Of course it lets you invert, I am saying the stick placement has fried my brain, its short circuited. I am playing non inverted, it feels more natural but every once and a while I still go back. So I dont feel in control at all. It is the freakiest thing. Thankfully this is a really slow paced game, I dont know if I can play a shooter on this.

Are you sure you haven't ultrasounded your brain one too many times?

BTW ZombiU is pretty damn cool. It feels like being in a real zombie movie more than any game I have ever played.

Oh another bad thing, last night I played for about 4 hours after i had charged the pad all the way. By the end of my play the red light for charging already came on. Pathetic battery life.

I sent Edge a message, which is basically swap note though to access it I think you have to go to miiverse which will take forever, rather than a message icon popping up on screen like every other system. Not sure cause no one has sent me a message.

Oh and the webcam is really good quality I was just trying it on myself watching me on TV. Great feature for those who use it. Basically this console is all over the map, cool ideas mixed with really bad ones.

Anyone do the Wii transfer yet. In the instructions it seemed to say its going to delete everything from my Wii? Is that true?