5. The Console
I admit I'm not a power gamer, but I know enough about CPUs, GPUs and RAM from building and maintaining a few gaming rig PCs and a HD Media Center that at first glance the technical specifications of the Wii U seem almost miraculous. The GPU is physically bigger than the multicore CPU and she only has two gigabytes of RAM. That said an X-Box 360 only had half a gig of RAM and that fared well. True this only a quarter of the RAM found in a PS4 or X-Box One but compared to the specifications of the Wii this is a huge leap. If a PC were to have similar specifications to a Wii U it would probably have a hard time doing much of anything, but a PC is designed to do a multitude of things whereas games consoles are still essentially designed and built with one aim in mind; gaming. That said these days games consoles are simply another component in our multimedia lives, and one of the first criticisms laid at the Wii Us door is it's supposed inability to compete in this arena. Not so, assuming one already owns a PC to store your multimedia one can actually stream media to the Wii U without hacking the system and invalidating the warranty. Not only does the console come with Lovefilm, Netflix, an internet browser that supports MP4 and pdf formats and a dedicated YouTube program. One can, using Playon or Plex, access a variety of TV and stored music and video that can be viewed on your TV or of course the Wii U Gamepad itself. Which segues nicely into...