Factor 5 CEO criticizes early Wii graphics

In an interview with IGN magazine, Factor 5 CEO Julian Eggebecht criticized developers of first generation Wii games agreeing that the graphics are sloppy.

IGN: “Resident Evil 4 was a beautiful GCN title. Rogue Squadron was doing things at launch that developers still haven’t done on Wii. Why do you think that is? Are studios getting sloppy on Wii?â€?

Julian: “Yes. I’m so disappointed knowing exactly what the Wii can do — and I still think nobody knows it better than we (no pun intended) [laughs]. I really have to say, boy, am I disappointed!â€?

This interview came as a breath of fresh air to me as I read it. I still remember getting flamed by a fellow Wiinintendo.net reader on my first post when I criticized Call of Duty 2’s graphics. The person made a point of saying that the Wii wasn’t meant to be a graphic power house like the XBOX 360 or PS3 and he’s right, its common knowlege that the Wii is a souped up Gamecube. But honestly the Gamecube had some beautiful games. In fact I would say some of them really out do most of what we’ve seen on the Wii so far graphically speaking.

Here’s to you, Mr. Julian. I applaud and welcome your criticism of first generation Wii titles and fully agree. I still remember the first game I played on Gamecube, Rogue Squadron II. It was breathtaking then and I still think it’s a great looking and fun game now.

Now check out some beautiful screens of actual game play from a few of my favorite Gamecube titles..

Rogue Squadron II :

Rogue Squadron II

Prince of Persia, The Two Thrones:

Prince of Persia

Resident Evil 4:

RE 4

Source: Joystiq & IGN



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  • http://www.shanoboy.com/ shanoboy

    For any of you wondering, yes those screens are all from the Gamecube versions! I made sure of that while picking them.

  • http://www.shanoboy.com shanoboy

    For any of you wondering, yes those screens are all from the Gamecube versions! I made sure of that while picking them.

  • http://Www.GameTrailers.com/ MLS

    Good post. Agreed.

  • http://Www.GameTrailers.com/ MLS

    Good post. Agreed.

  • http://Www.GameTrailers.com/ MLS

    Good post. Agreed.

  • http://Www.GameTrailers.com MLS

    Good post. Agreed.

  • http://www.wiinintendo.net/ José Colina

    I totally 100% agree…

    Besides.. have you noticed that (besides some exceptions), only first party games for gamecube looked cool? I mean, Nintendo Games were with those vivid colors, so no realistic graphics and all that.. but still.. thay had some kick-ass graphics compared to other GC titles like, let’s say, Splinter Cell Double Agent (god those graphics sux!!)…

    For god’s sake.. Luigi’s Mansion had better graphs than some of the latest GC titles.. and can anyone forget Waverace Blue Storm?

    That’s what I hate about people that say that Gamecube sux because it’s graphs.. I say.. have a look at RE4, Zelda TP, and all Ninty games.. they rock!!!

    Just because developers are lazy and make only ports, and don’t focus on studying the GC graphic processor, that doesn’t mean that the thing sucks…

    And well, we’re still yet to see the Wii’s true potential.. Oh the laughes I will throw at people’s faces when Wii’s true power is unleashed with the new Zelda Title…

    Oh the Irony!! xDD

  • http://www.wiinintendo.net José Colina

    I totally 100% agree…

    Besides.. have you noticed that (besides some exceptions), only first party games for gamecube looked cool? I mean, Nintendo Games were with those vivid colors, so no realistic graphics and all that.. but still.. thay had some kick-ass graphics compared to other GC titles like, let’s say, Splinter Cell Double Agent (god those graphics sux!!)…

    For god’s sake.. Luigi’s Mansion had better graphs than some of the latest GC titles.. and can anyone forget Waverace Blue Storm?

    That’s what I hate about people that say that Gamecube sux because it’s graphs.. I say.. have a look at RE4, Zelda TP, and all Ninty games.. they rock!!!

    Just because developers are lazy and make only ports, and don’t focus on studying the GC graphic processor, that doesn’t mean that the thing sucks…

    And well, we’re still yet to see the Wii’s true potential.. Oh the laughes I will throw at people’s faces when Wii’s true power is unleashed with the new Zelda Title…

    Oh the Irony!! xDD

  • dr

    if julian’s so disappointed in the current crop of wiiware why the f doesn’t he come back to developing for N and show us what he and factor 5 can do?

    only then will i forgive him for the heresy that was rogue leader and for his betrayal of nintendo and the fatherland.

  • dr

    if julian’s so disappointed in the current crop of wiiware why the f doesn’t he come back to developing for N and show us what he and factor 5 can do?

    only then will i forgive him for the heresy that was rogue leader and for his betrayal of nintendo and the fatherland.

  • dr

    if julian’s so disappointed in the current crop of wiiware why the f doesn’t he come back to developing for N and show us what he and factor 5 can do?

    only then will i forgive him for the heresy that was rogue leader and for his betrayal of nintendo and the fatherland.

  • Soiden

    I only see the RE4 screen :o

    You have a point, but I have one, too.
    It’s known that console don’t show even 50% of its maximum power with the first games, and the last ones show nearly 100%.
    Apply that fact to today. Last GC games [Let's say, RE4 and Zelda TP] use 95% or more of the GC power [Graphically talking], meanwhile Red Steel, Zelda TP Wii or, uhmmm, Excite Truck, only use 30% or 40% of the Wii power [Not a fact, but I estimated].
    Considering that the Wii has 1.5x the GC’s power, it sounds very logical to me to see the same, or even a little minor, graphics on Wii and GC, today.

    It’s only matter of time. Besides, it’s well known the Wii isn’t selling 4000000+ units for the graphics.

    Later someone will criticize the X-Box 360 because its controller doesn’t have any motion recognition.

  • Soiden

    I only see the RE4 screen :o

    You have a point, but I have one, too.
    It’s known that console don’t show even 50% of its maximum power with the first games, and the last ones show nearly 100%.
    Apply that fact to today. Last GC games [Let's say, RE4 and Zelda TP] use 95% or more of the GC power [Graphically talking], meanwhile Red Steel, Zelda TP Wii or, uhmmm, Excite Truck, only use 30% or 40% of the Wii power [Not a fact, but I estimated].
    Considering that the Wii has 1.5x the GC’s power, it sounds very logical to me to see the same, or even a little minor, graphics on Wii and GC, today.

    It’s only matter of time. Besides, it’s well known the Wii isn’t selling 4000000+ units for the graphics.

    Later someone will criticize the X-Box 360 because its controller doesn’t have any motion recognition.

  • http://reefinyateef.blogspot.com/ reefinyateef

    F-Zero GX is visually impressive, even moreso when you see it in motion.

    I think that the Wii graphic potential is ‘good enough’ The Cube is technically more powerful than a PS2 and people don’t seem to mind its graphics. I’m hoping that this holiday season the developers will get comfortable with the hardware and start harnessing the Wii’s potential.

  • http://reefinyateef.blogspot.com reefinyateef

    F-Zero GX is visually impressive, even moreso when you see it in motion.

    I think that the Wii graphic potential is ‘good enough’ The Cube is technically more powerful than a PS2 and people don’t seem to mind its graphics. I’m hoping that this holiday season the developers will get comfortable with the hardware and start harnessing the Wii’s potential.

  • http://www.shanoboy.com/ shanoboy

    Soiden, sorry you can only see the RE4 screen. I host all the images on my posts using my personal website and its bandwidth so I’m not sure whats up with that.

  • http://www.shanoboy.com shanoboy

    Soiden, sorry you can only see the RE4 screen. I host all the images on my posts using my personal website and its bandwidth so I’m not sure whats up with that.

  • Will

    So does this mean we can expect something new from factor 5……

  • Will

    So does this mean we can expect something new from factor 5……

  • http://www.j3d.com.au/ Josh

    I just finished playing RE4 on my Wii and it’s by far the best game I’ve played on a Nintendo system in some time. And yes, compared to all the Wii games that have come out so far it was much, much more enjoyable than the whole lot put together. If Wii games continue to be the bore-fest (eg TP) they all seem to be I’ll just go and borrow all the old GC games from my friend.

  • http://www.j3d.com.au Josh

    I just finished playing RE4 on my Wii and it’s by far the best game I’ve played on a Nintendo system in some time. And yes, compared to all the Wii games that have come out so far it was much, much more enjoyable than the whole lot put together. If Wii games continue to be the bore-fest (eg TP) they all seem to be I’ll just go and borrow all the old GC games from my friend.

  • wiiboy101

    wii isn’t for graphics what utter crap 3rd party’s just wont stop with this total horse crap the wii was designed for the current gen in mind and to leave the x360/ps3 dead as consoles thru taking gaming to a new place a fresh start 3d motion/3d mouse……

    wii can do anything ps3 x360 can do wen done correctly and – HD………..

    WII CPU OVER 20 MILLION TRANSISTORS (XBOX 1, 9 MILLION EMOTION ENGINE, 12 MILLION)ITS ALSO COPPERWIRE SILICON ON INSULATOR AND MICRO EMBEDDED DESIGN GAMING OPTERMIZED 4x the processing bandwidth of xbox 1s celeron…

    front side bus xbox 1 133 mhz 1 gb bandwidth

    front side bus wii 243mhz plus peak 4to1 compression = 7.7+ gb bandwidth

    hollywood gpu custom tile rendering,virtual texturing high bandwidth large edram catch buffer real time at processing decompression data compression texture compression 16 stage real time shader blender 8 layered textures

    huge procesing bandwidth difference to xbox 1 gpu

    1t sram-r 100% effective high speed die embedded ram clock balanced gddr 3 ram

    1t sram 2x 64 bit mem buses gddr3 single 32 bit dualchannel bus

    access ram abillitys thru flash drive

    wi = a 480p polished locked x360 FACT

  • wiiboy101

    wii isn’t for graphics what utter crap 3rd party’s just wont stop with this total horse crap the wii was designed for the current gen in mind and to leave the x360/ps3 dead as consoles thru taking gaming to a new place a fresh start 3d motion/3d mouse……

    wii can do anything ps3 x360 can do wen done correctly and – HD………..

    WII CPU OVER 20 MILLION TRANSISTORS (XBOX 1, 9 MILLION EMOTION ENGINE, 12 MILLION)ITS ALSO COPPERWIRE SILICON ON INSULATOR AND MICRO EMBEDDED DESIGN GAMING OPTERMIZED 4x the processing bandwidth of xbox 1s celeron…

    front side bus xbox 1 133 mhz 1 gb bandwidth

    front side bus wii 243mhz plus peak 4to1 compression = 7.7+ gb bandwidth

    hollywood gpu custom tile rendering,virtual texturing high bandwidth large edram catch buffer real time at processing decompression data compression texture compression 16 stage real time shader blender 8 layered textures

    huge procesing bandwidth difference to xbox 1 gpu

    1t sram-r 100% effective high speed die embedded ram clock balanced gddr 3 ram

    1t sram 2x 64 bit mem buses gddr3 single 32 bit dualchannel bus

    access ram abillitys thru flash drive

    wi = a 480p polished locked x360 FACT

  • sENPAI

    soiden, 95%? RE4 was using 80-85% and thats its best looking game.
    really, though, why doesnt F5 come back? they should have never pulled a “rare” (betraying nintendo is to be cursed in a way that hinders your ability to be a competant developer until the time of return) yes, one of the launch titles, rouge squadren still holds its own against RE4, and those were polar opposites in terms of system age, the problem is lazy devs, the wii should have had 3rd party games looking like the conduit AT LAUNCH (RS did look pretty good, but not as good as the conduit) but they dont feel like paying a little extra money for a good game, if nintendo had never made the wii remote, i promise you that the wii games would look miles better, cashin’ in is what people think they can do with the wii, and it shouldnt be stood for, nintendo needs to actually put something behind that “seal of quality” which seems to have lost its meaning. I have news for you ps3 dudes, it matured WAY too early, and i doubt the graphics will get better than k2, at most, you will just be seeing bigger areas, and an actual reason for those stupid load times. 360 wont go much farther either, it will hit the ps3 level and stop.

  • sENPAI

    soiden, 95%? RE4 was using 80-85% and thats its best looking game.
    really, though, why doesnt F5 come back? they should have never pulled a “rare” (betraying nintendo is to be cursed in a way that hinders your ability to be a competant developer until the time of return) yes, one of the launch titles, rouge squadren still holds its own against RE4, and those were polar opposites in terms of system age, the problem is lazy devs, the wii should have had 3rd party games looking like the conduit AT LAUNCH (RS did look pretty good, but not as good as the conduit) but they dont feel like paying a little extra money for a good game, if nintendo had never made the wii remote, i promise you that the wii games would look miles better, cashin’ in is what people think they can do with the wii, and it shouldnt be stood for, nintendo needs to actually put something behind that “seal of quality” which seems to have lost its meaning. I have news for you ps3 dudes, it matured WAY too early, and i doubt the graphics will get better than k2, at most, you will just be seeing bigger areas, and an actual reason for those stupid load times. 360 wont go much farther either, it will hit the ps3 level and stop.