Topic: Is the Wii U The Best Console of All Time

Which is an interesting perspective given your rage against PC gaming on the previous page. PCs got cross-generational support for all of last generation, they've got it throughout this transition, they'll get it throughout this cycle and they'll get it into the next one. And because I have a mid-range GPU that has just about double the performance of the PS4's GPU? I want to play the best version of those games I have access to. So as I said on the previous page before you fanboyed out... I don't see any reason why the PS4 is a better platform than my PC is. I have no reason to buy a PS4 or XBOne.

And again, despite all that. Despite the fact that I have objectively the best platform to play games on. Despite the high texture resolution, 1080p, full 60fps glory I can play the most anticipated games in. I've still had more fun and am more excited for what's on the Wii U. Which I think is enough for me to say that I believe the Wii U is the best gaming platform out right now.

hahahahahaa what is a "B-level video games console"? there are levels now? man some people are so far up their own you know what, they don't even realise how silly they sound......

@puncher don't A-grade games make an A-grade console? why does a B-grade console with B-grade games get an A-grade rating from you? are you simply thinking that because 4 is a greater number than 3, the PS4 is better than the PS3? because it doesn't work like that!! the PS4 doesn't get a head start because the PS3 was good.

I anticipated all of these snarky opportunist comments, that's why I said 'that I have access to.' I don't have the time to build a PC, maintain it, nor even space to put it. As is the case for many people. I also don't want / don't have time to deal with weird issues relating to a variety of technical things.

Not to mention that I'd rather have access to Sony's first parties than whatever Blizzard churns out.

And I disagree with the assertion that PC versions are better than their console counterparts. I don't want to deal with potentially bad ports on last gen, but that doesn't mean extra frames / graphics settings will improve those games. The game's content is the same in most versions, frame rate, resolution, and other graphics settings are just the window through which we experience that content. The PS4 makes a fine window for me.

Art, and I need you to understand this, does not work that way. It's subjective by nature. If you prefer Wii U to PC then you should understand why this is such a nonsense-bonkers statement.

of all time is stretching it just a bit.

I'm sorry but you're wrong. Art is subjective for sure but I wasn't talking about art at all. All I was saying was that the PC is objectively the best platform to play these games on if the game is available for it. And because for the most part these three platforms are great for the games that they all have in common? The PC must therefore be the best of the three. If you don't want to spend that much, don't want the "effort" or if you're really into the few exclusives that there are then that's cool. I can perfectly understand it. However there is no question that if you have a PC you're getting a better version of GTA, Far Cry, Batman, Tomb Raider, Dragon Age etc, etc

But again, that bit about me thinking the PC is better than the PS4 has absolutely nothing to do with my actual point. A point which I suspect wouldn't be any different if I did own a PS4. That point being that despite having what is objectively the best of the three big very-samey platforms this gen I still enjoy my Wii U more. That is a subjective opinion for sure, the other view was not.

So you're OK with one paywall but not another. For valid reasons, but it's still a paywall. I wouldn't say that the PS4 is an undesirable product, clearly it is, but the reasons you're arguing for it are not universally true. You don't need to buy a PS4 to play any of the games you mentioned. It's all a matter of cost/performance compromise. Some are fine with the lowest cost and lowest performance option, which is buying them for PS360. Some want the highest cost and highest performance option, so already have a gaming PC to play them. Others, like yourself, want the middle option, the best visuals and performance that $400 can buy. You've put a price ceiling on your entertainment and that ceiling is your choice alone.

Which is the best platform to play Dragon Age: Inquisition? There are 3 answers, not one. My answer is different from yours, which is why I value the Wii U more highly than the PS4 right now.

Well, I wouldn't phrase it that way myself. I mean, middle implies ~50%~ and games certainly don't look that much better on high end PCs. Texture quality can only do so much and the resolutions are the same most of the time (and the occasional 1080p v 900p is rather hard to even distinguish). Consoles also offer a tailored experience; developers will adjust things to run optimally for 1-4 million on PS4, being a single hardware preset, but for .5-1 million on a functionally infinite variety of PC layouts? Most devs are either unable or unwilling to make sure X game runs great on the different types of graphics cards, etc, etc.

Which is the best platform to play Dragon Age: Inquisition? There are 3 answers, not one. My answer is different from yours, which is why I value the Wii U more highly than the PS4 right now.

I would agree with your point there, that there is no objective 'best' version of anything.

This is tangential at best, but watching let's plays I learned that Inquisition's fog effects are rendered once per graphics card. So if you have a 4 card PC setup it renders those effects 4 times over, turning otherwise ambient areas into weird fog soup that obscures ones vision in select areas of the game. Kinda weird.

But when you have 2x or more power to throw behind the thing you can push beyond any particular poor optimisations. Driver updates paper over most of the bad performance in the same way that patches and firmware updates do on consoles. And if you understood how PC gaming actually worked you'd understand that there aren't an "infinite variety" of setups. There are effectively only two, AMD and Nvidia. Most people are playing games on Windows and if you're playing anything high-end you're using an AMD/NVidia GPU.

Anyways, there is no questioning the objective fact that PC gamers who are willing to invest in mid-to-high end hardware get a better experience. With a game like GTA5 (which I still need to pick up) where all versions are pretty well optimised it's obvious. Looking at the numbers the PS4/XBOne versions have a 30fps/1080p target which they stick to reasonably well. On my PC though looking at similar benchmarks I can expect 60fps/1080p which is clearly better. The highest spec systems are going upto 90fps/1080p or 30fps/4K which if you have the gear would be impressive indeed. We can argue about which platform is better value until the cows come home. There is no "correct" answer to that question. However what is clear is that PC gamers are indeed getting a better experience.

And how many console games run an optimal perfectly smooth 60fps or even 30fps? Not that many. Most console game developers aim for better graphics not stable high framerates. I get a smoother run on PC games with massively shorter loading times(2 seconds on PC to 20 on console isn't uncommon, even installed on SSD drives).