Tech analysis site Digital Foundry has taken a good hard look at Need for Speed: Most Wanted Wii U which developers Criterion said was the definitive version of the game. The publication says that “Criterion has made good on its promises to deliver a more visually rich version of the game for Wii U owners.” Digital Foundry also says that while the game isn’t an overwhelming advance, the tweaks the team have made are both numerous and well-considered. You can read Digital Foundry’s full analysis right here.
In summary, this ranks as the version to get if those points can be overlooked. The conversion is a sound one, and GamePad features are well-implemented and useful – if not all absolutely essential. Many are luxuries, such as the ability to hop into any car immediately, which ultimately make exploring Fairview a much easier experience. Meanwhile, the inclusion of off-screen play brings this version to life in a way no other release can at this time. When considering the mixed quality of ports that have hit the Wii U so far, this ranks among the stronger and most committed efforts to cater for its strengths – a tradition we hope will long continue.
“A tradition we hope will long continue”
Amen.
amen
still 30 fps though :(
More stable and consistent than PS3 and 360 versions. The framerate is nice.
I have the game and it looks unbelievable , the lighting at night time is jaw dropping with the reflections. The game is jaw dropping and you can see many things than you don’t usualy see on PS360.
Wow just read the comparison , there is your proof Haters. Wiiu version is inbetween Console version and Maxed out PC version. With the off screen play this game looks intense on the gamepad. Like , really stunning.
We told the haters ”the only reason Darksiders 2 doesn’t look better is cus they’re not trying and they had early dev kits” etc etc , but they wouldn’t listen.
What happens when a developer puts just a little bit of effort into his Wiiu version ? It ends up like this and destroys the PS3 and 360 version whilst offering a next gen plethora of unique features. EXPOSED.
Its good that U like it but it´s not a “destruction of the other versions” it´s a solid and respectable jump which shows that the Wii u is more capable than the other consoles.
nothing more nothing less
P.S. Does it tear ?
Does it tear ? You mean screen tear ? nope not at all. and it is a ”destruction” where games like Tekken on PS3 and 360 looked say 3% better , Need for speed most wanted U looks 50% better.
Pretty much everything has been improved on the Wiiu version , the textures looks massively better.
OK if there is no screen tearing then I can understand why it doesn´t look “leaps and bounds better” than the 360 game because Vsync is a performance hog for consoles. But i personally prefer a tear free, steady and respectebaly better looking image over a much better look that tears and drops all the time.
Yeah. Wiiu version looks better in everyway. The lighting , draw distance , textures and particle effects make a huge difference. When playing it on TV or Gamepad it looks like an Xbox 360 game on Crack. very impressive for an early Wiiu game. What happens when people make games from the ground up ? NFSMWU probably isn’t even using half of the Wiiu’s potential . Games need to be coded from the ground up to do so.
Compare an Early 360 need for speed game with Halo 4 , for example.
You know with Wii U it´s a bit different than with the other consoles. As you most likely know the other consoles achieved the so called “quantum leap” over their predecessors.most of PS3´s and Xbox 360´s graphical improvments were because of advancement in software. Back in 2005 there was no unreal Engine 3 and no developer experience plus both consoles were beyond the PC´s capabilities. Wii U is a different story because lack of advanced engines and a quantum leaps are not present so normally it should be possible to instantly use the full Wii u power after the regular “getting used to new hardware”. But because it´s a very custom hardware it´s not so easy to do like I said. You can be pretty sure that 1st party games will look gorgeus but next gen 3rd party games might end up being poor ports as a results the Wii U´s custom hardware and its difference to the PS4/PC architecture. Also there is the “lazy devs” case which gives my prediction a higher chance of being true.
But let´s hope everything comes different and lenjoy the games ! :)
The way the architecture is built on the Wii U is more closer to the PS4 or a modern computer, than an Xbox 360 or PS3. The newer systems rely more on the Graphic Card and less on the CPU.
V-sync, AA (Anti-Aliasing), framerate, so many things to account for when making a game while taking into consideration the power of a console.
i am a bit dissapointed that the wii u doesn’t run all games at 60 fps
Just you wait until The Wonderful 101.
>comparing a console released last year to 8 year old consoles
Yes it looks good but the game is pretty poor overall gamplay wise, shame really :(
It’s a pretty fun game to play. I do think it did drop people a bit in the deep end.
45 to almost 60 fps. Now that am awake, dude you show up here to hate just because the Wii U has a better game than the ancient PS3 and Xbox360. Those machines were great in their time, even when the Wii still smashed them to smitherines; it is okay my friend wait patiently the xbox720 with continous online, Kinectimals Kinect 2 camera always onyour personal Space shall be revealed soon. Let nintendo take the lead in generation 8, when they do good things always happen.
You’re point?
It’s georgous and smooth. I’m not a fan of racing games, but it was so pretty, I enjoy playing it, even if I’m crashing ever 30 seconds.
I second that.
If the game is built to run at 30fps, works fine at 30fps and bad below 30fps.
If the game is built to run at 60fps, works fine at 60fps and bad below 60fps.
in other words, it doesn’t matter while the fps are stable at 30 or 60.
I just ordered it on amazon yesterday (for 20 less). I hope it’s good, because I decided to get this instead of Lego City, Loogy’s mansion, and monster hunter. I still plan on getting them in the future, but still.
whats loogys mansion?
You know, Loogy? That’s how his name is pronounced, right?
No. <.<
“Loogy” XD
I’m never gonna get that image out of my mind now…
You could of taken the Chuck norris approach like like I did and buy all 4 of the suckas :P
Tis. But i’m a bit too stingy to even concoct such a plan.
lol. Fair enough :) I just save money all the time for games. It barely affects my day to day budget by just saving £10-30 . Like at e3 2011 I started saving for Wiiu and by launch day I bought A ZombiU bundle with about 5 games !
Another thing is. i’m kinda overwhelmed with 4 games :S . I have to get Lego City out of the way. Then Luigi’s mansion 2 and then I have Monster Hunter and NFS to play online and offline for months to come!
Once all of that is out of the way , I need to get Tomb raider and Bioshock before the likes of Pikmin 3 and wonderfull 101 launch.
There not enought courners where i live :P
To be fair and honest, Need for Speed: Most Wanted U is THE CHUCK NORRIS of racing games on the U right now.
Indeed it is. And the Nissan GTR – Egoist is the Chuck norris of automobiles!
Most Waned is an awesome game but not better than MH3U. You made a mistake.
Digital Foundry.
If it’s got framerate drop, it’s not fun.
Good to know its a good port but seriously, the whole idea of Digital Foundry is laughable, just play the fucking game, it’s the video game equivilant of going wine tasting, just drink it.
So I guess you don’t understand the purposes of food critics (just eat it!), beta testers(just play and approve it!), health inspectors (just clean it next time!), university scorers (just attend it!), and some stock analysts (just invest in it!). Is that fair to say for the likes of you?
I always thought a videogame’s graphical performance was comparable to an organistation’s health and safety conduct.
It’s Dragon, he’s a fucking idiot.
That’s fucking stupid, and you have no idea what you’re talking about.
All the stuff you listed are TESTERS, things that make sure the thing is the way its supposed.
Digitial Foundary, takes what already exists, and is available to the public, and just focuses on framerate, and texture pop.
It’s like if i bought rotten food, ate it, then having some inspector come up to me and say “that food was rotten you know”.
Or, it’s like wine tasting, an incredible stupid waste of time, where people just swill wine in their mouth, spit it out, and spout over analyistic bullshit about something so trivial, and not worth talk about, let alone in the tone that its done.
That’s what Digital Foundry are, looking at it, saying “oh well for 1 second, the framerate dropped. You didnt see it, but our fancy machine did, so dont buy it”. Fuckin stupid.
Some people like to know if their steak is undercooked or overcooked before they buy it.
But how will they know? Undercook for you is not undercook for others.
Good morning everyone rising on the pacific northwest. Good afternoon to the GMT regions and Good evening Japan, China and the rest of Asia. Let us not forget salutations my friends :).
Sickr did you pick the 4th blogger already?
“Meanwhile, the inclusion of off-screen play brings this version to life in a way no other release can at this time.”
Hello fanboys everywhere, butthurt because the PS3, xbox360 even PC cannot have offscreen play. In fact I am calling it now, digital foundry are xbots, you can tell from their tone and biased leaning towards a certain air of pomposity that emanates only from the KINECTIBOTS.
True, their arrogance can be seen from across the universe…
Well stated commander. Did you see the ease of development tools acquisition nintendo has put in place for iOS developers for the Wii U? It was at the GDC. Game Developers conference. Enjoy the weekend.
You know off screen play is not so precious for everyone and DA PC HAS DA BEST FRAMERATE.
Unfortunately I didn’t have time but I will take some time off to watch it later…
But obviously it sounds excellent…
Dude, come on -__-
For a second overlook my Sony drone, xbot bringing back to reality ways. Do you think digital foundry respect Nintendo’s history? What about the fact that nintendo every generation makes games that have the highest replay value, seconded only by Capcom, SquareSoft not square-Enix, HudsonSoft and maybe EAs older FIFA games. When was the last time you played halo 2 or Crysis 2? Hard rain, tekken 3?
I know some times my comments are dynamically radical, but seek the truth and everyday sense in my comments not the hook line and sinker :).
“Hard rain” You mean Heavy Rain?
Well well well…
Looks like some haters are going to shut up.
Looks like some developpers will have to find better excuses.
This is a good day. Thank you Criterion, for doing your job like professionals.
EA just said “NEVER!!!”
Yes, I am fully aware that this is published by EA -.-‘ But do you think they will stop their excuses?
I’m just saying that Criterion today and Square tomorrow (with Deus Ex) are making the others’ excuses sound more hollow by the hour ^^
gosh darn it! I ordered this from Origin when it was $29.99 a week ago and it’s still not on my doorstep. oh well, i got the bargain and it’ll come one day.
They probaly “forgot” about your order only to get your money…
Origin = The origin of the new corrupt digital monetary theft program…
Dude i think you’re right lol. Last mail of the week came in right now and still no sign of need for speed.calling the bank rn
I’ve ordered Most Wanted U on Glyde.com earlier this morning and it should be in my mailbox at around next weekend.
Moral of this game: why play, when you can look at it…
“GPU bottlenecks on PS3/360 aren’t as much of an issue on Wii U, though there are occasions when the older consoles manage to pull ahead.”
That above is another quote from digital foundry. I had to put it there so as to make this point resonate with all and override the liberal it’s just an opinion poison. To disintegrate the conservative one track perspective of not seeing intelligence but relying of brute and fear of intelligence. The GPGPU is a design that has most developers confused, it handles complex graphical computations, while also being a second tier CPU. In simple terms the Wii U has two CPUs. The intelligent design of the Wii U’s CPU and GPGPU being on the same integrated board or chipset if you would like makes it very efficient and easier to cool. Criterion have only barely managed to make the GPGPU take the burden of complex graphics generation from the Wii U’s CPU. imagine what will happen when developers like Nintendo’s EAD, Capcom, Namco Bandai, Retro studios, Monolith, Mistwalker, Criterion, WB, TT, Activision ( I dislike this but they too) etc, fully realize and figure out how to use both the Wii U’s CPU and the CPU in it’s GPGPU at the same time. My comment ends here, enjoy the weekend with family and dance my friends.
Dude, as i read ” imagine what will happen when developers like Nintendo’s EAD”, my mind went so deep into wonderland!
Yes, the next Mario and Zelda will be historical.
GPGPU is NOT like a second CPU. While using that feature which is theoretically posible with every Graphics processor you split the instruction into many parts which get executed by the so called stream processors. the thing is with Wii u this would ojly make sense at 720p rsolution because of its RAM. Wii U´s memory has a purpose that is different to the other consoles because it´s used as a data pool mainly. the thing is is when you go with a high resolution it will probably put too much strain on GPU7 and memory bandwith is very critical while using GPGPU. Also this is something that IS GOING to take a big bite of GPU7´s available horsepower.
Take into very serious consideration that the Wii U’s Chipset is custom built here. With parts that are not even known yet. Made by people way smarter than digital foundry nit pickers or lazy devs. Your contribution is sound and welcome :).
You almost sound smart with that comment…
Just joking with you :P
:)
I ply NFS more than monster hunter and Lego city. While I love this game this nfs on the wiiu is addicting
Good.
I think that´s very nice for U bit ii rather stick to the PC version because I prefer the analog triggers over analog sticks.
Uh?
I mean that i think it´s nice that the Wii U gets treated like it deserves to but i prefer the PC version over the Wii u version because of the analog triggers. As far as I kmow it´s possible to use the right analog stick for the acceleration.
Comparing apples to oranges much?
NOPE. I just said i prefer analog triggers for acceleration. :)
Your one of those people that hate on nintendo no matter what they do. even when they do good things you just complains. You can use the analog stick to control your speed.
Playing this on the gamepad is beautiful, feels good, and is very fun.
I really want this game. It looks Gorgeous!
You dont know or understand how much better the game is until you use the assited driver. My nephew was over yesterday, He is 3 and all he knows how to do is accelerate. He loves cars though so i put the game on, gave him my pro controller and showed him how to accelerate and i sat on the couch behind him and steered the car. It was amazing because he was having so much fun, and i was as well. Wii U wins
isnt this a old game, i would rather just save up for a new game
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