We heard rumbles and grumbles about the quality of the graphics in the Wii U version of Mass Effect 3. Now you can see what the world experts in technical comparisons have to say.
https://kotaku.com/bad-port-or-bad-hardware-were-already-hearing-complain-5961467
Folks, go to Digital Foundry at Eurogamer and you will be counting framerates with the best of them.
Here are the key findings.
In cutscenes:
The results are unambiguous. We see a small Wii U advantage over the Xbox 360 in one scene but elsewhere it appears to sit comfortably between the Microsoft platform and the under-performing PlayStation 3 version. In only one area do we see PS3 pull ahead of the Wii U: walking through the hospital in the Citadel, we see frame-rates drop to an alarmingly low level on the new Nintendo console. The beefed up amounts of non-player characters appear to be the culprit here and this does lend some weight to the notion that lack of CPU power in the Wii U does pose some serious challenges for developers.
In action:
… performance remains an obvious concern on the PlayStation 3, while the Wii U and Xbox 360 ran at virtual parity for much of the run of the play. Screen-filling effects work causes noticeable frame-rate dips on the Microsoft platform, but Wii U appears to be relatively consistent – even on the more open, challenging battlescapes of Palaven. However, the final clip demonstrates that you can’t rely on a sustained performance throughout the game. Here, for reasons which elude us, Wii U suffers badly in a relatively simple exchange of fire. It’s indicative of a number of areas throughout the game where the new platform matches or even drops below the performance level of the PlayStation 3 release. Thankfully though, such areas seem relatively sparse in the time we’ve put into the game thus far.
As we and others keep reporting, the Wii U is not a horsepower leap ahead of the Xbox 360 and PS3. It has advantages and disadvantages compared to its half-decade-old competitors. While some may find that unacceptable—what is Nintendo thinking, not making their new console way more powerful?—it also is worth remembering that Mass Effect 3 on Wii U is both a port of a game made for other machines and a day-one game on Wii U. Usually developers can wring way more out of a console in year three or five than they can in year zero. Case in point, well, Mass Effect 3 compared to Mass Effect 1 or, say, Assassin’s Creed III to the first Assassin’s Creed. And remember, Nintendo’s priority has been to push two-screen gaming. The Wii U is doing that in Mass Effect 3 and all its other games. It’s still valuable to see if the Wii U can handle an Xbox 360 or PS3 game (since you might hear that it would have trouble), and that’s what we’ve got here.
https://kotaku.com/the-wii-us-power-problem-5920931
Digital Foundry’s text and video comparison is exceptional. Check it out.
Face-Off: Mass Effect 3 Special Edition on Wii U [Eurogamer]
