I thought the dock and such was silly.
Now I don’t think I’ll ever buy a non portable dedicated console again.
Now I don’t think I’ll ever buy a non portable dedicated console again.
Suffice to say, been having a blast catching up with old favorites and new games. The backward compatibility enhancements (higher FPS and upres'ing) really put into perspective just how little gaming has progressed generationally, which makes these games that much more enjoyable.
The Switch is an amazing device (own two - one modded and one non). While the availability of games increases daily, its performance will always remain the weak point.
That^ and its horrible controllers. The XBX controller is sublime.
Honestly I don't care that much about performance any longer, graphics were mostly good enough 10 years ago. Modern graphics looks better when you put them side by side, but the graphics 10 years ago was good enough that you easily get used to it. The current switch has problems running 10 year old high end graphics, yeah that is a problem, but the switch is 5 year old hardware, if they made a new switch with modern hardware it should be able to run all those games smoothly.
I remember being wowed a couple years ago by each successive release of Mass Effect that I worked my way through. ME:Andromeda may have been a bit of a dumpster fire, but the graphics were pretty as hell.
Then I played Control, and it blew my socks off.
The recent Alien game was also stunning.
Frame rate is another story and definitely an issue with the Switch, mostly BECAUSE they try to push the graphics too far. Mario Odyssey runs at 60fps. It's not as good as what my PC and monitor can display, but it's...okay. Too many games can't keep 30fps because they just had to put more shadows and polygons for no good reason. Still, for the most part I have just as much fun with it as I do with PC games. I have both just for variety. I use an Nvidia Shield TV when I want to play the PC games on the couch.
Looking forward to the Steam Deck though. Being able to play Monster Hunter Rise's PC version in a form factor similar to the Switch will be quite nice.
> The difference is nights and day...and I don't care one bit.
You used these 2 sentences back to back.
Tbh it's just you not caring about graphics whole lot, but can see the difference. To say that they're interchangeable is kinda hilarious because they're objectively better on PC, consoles than on Switch. You, yourself said so and the whole point in this thread was that of "how graphics definitely improved over the last 10 years" and not a subjective opinion of you not caring (which is fine but invalid in this conversation). Also, one can easily notice graphical differences between games that are released now and 10 years ago.
I find for most games that the PS controllers and XBox controllers are interchangeable, but not that they are indistinguishable.
Games did improve a lot and maybe all someone needs is to stay off gaming for a bit to notice the difference because the changes are less ground breaking and more gradual.
If you look at Nintendo first party titles they are not even trying to compete in graphics. Nintendo is just always spot on when trying to make games for the age group they target.
There are a handful of Switch games that reach 60 fps, so it has a ton of promise, but a 2.0 release would certainly be great.
That’s very dependent on the game.
Playing a racing game at 30fps is horrible. Playing Mario games 30fps. Is fine.
There is no category of games that would not improve in playability from 30 to 60 fps.
Not trying to be argumentative here. As mentioned upthread, I own 2 Switch consoles and the difference between 30 and 60 fps when running the same or similar games are stark. Perhaps i'm more sensitive than others.
I have 2 switches and I really can’t pick up Xbox or PS anymore. Except my dying wait for elden ring.
But yeah. I think minimum 60fps but depending on the game 30 is fine especially if it’s super fun.
Basically if the game is fun, no one cares. If the game is not fun then they look for random excuses as to why.
Note: I'm not saying they wouldn't be better at 60. Rather Im saying they were multi-million unit sellers and made lots of people happy playing them and yet they were 30. So being 60 is not a requirement for being good.
Not that everything modern falls into the latter category. Some are both 100x the graphics power and also beautiful. But I would submit, not more beautiful in proportion to the additional effort put in. We're well into diminishing returns on the graphics front at this point. Great games can run on the Nintendo Switch. Heck, great games can run on the XBox 360.
Kinda like PC's back in the day with Max Payne 1 against Unreal 2 engine games. MP looked far more realistic due to a vastly better artwork on textures.
Can you get used to it? Yes. Eg. Skyrim is still atmospheric, but graphically it is nowhere near what today's games offer. I'd say that one don't even have to look at games that are 10 years old and modern games side by side to see the difference. Someone getting used to older graphics is that person adjusting themselves to what they're presented, and not an objective observation and games today objectively look better even when they aren't compared side by side in my opinion.
It's not like we couldn't tell back then that Final Fantasy 7 didn't look like real life, we just didn't care because it was so much fun.
People still play chess. Realism isn't everything.
Maybe on console, friend. Not on PC.
> The XBX controller is sublime.
As long as it's not the Xbox Elite, which fails like clockwork.
As for the controller - no one should be paying 150 USD for what amounts to a couple of plastic addons on an already overpriced controller. Compared to the Switch's controllers, they are sublime. Compared to PS4/5's, they are superior but relatively comparable.
nazi things aren't cutesy
It’s exactly what I thought of reading it, which is why I reacted to it. The relation is that it’s a direct reference to the nazi concept.
> Given that you are offended by it, why don't you go back even further a call out slavery and racism in colonial times?
Like here? I do and have for decades. But if you need it for whatabouting to take seriously that referencing nazi ideology should not be part of a reasonable discussion about games, great, we’ll expand the discussion to include that. Nazism directly referenced American slavery, genocide of American Indians, and racist history generally as inspiration and prior art for their program.
Except if you use it on the PC. My Xbox Series controller keeps randomly dropping connection and it reports two different battery levels to Windows 10 ("50%" and "Critical"), which are both wrong, so you'll have to replace the batteries without being prompted unless you want it to die at random during a game. This is a widely-known issue, but Microsoft has done nothing to fix it: https://github.com/NiyaShy/XB1ControllerBatteryIndicator/iss...
I usually game at 3440x1440 @ 120hz and I don't find it jarring playing the Switch. I love it for what it is :)
Before, I had just a PC, and I found myself never playing the graphically simpler games (if I’m sitting at my PC, I might as well be playing an intensive game), but now I can play the mechanically simpler games in bed with the switch!
Even the motion controls add value: In games like DOOM, it's pretty cool to effectively have the portable Switch display as a "window" into the virtual world, and move the Switch around for aiming. I'm usually not a fan of motion controls, but that "aiming with the window" thing feels natural, and like something I might do anyway even if it didn't have an effect (like leaning your body into curves when playing a racing game).
Nintendo exclusives don't hurt, either. But Xbox and PS have exclusives, too.
Nintendo - Putting Play First
In my experience, at Pokemon release events in Japan and in the United States, the majority of attendees lining up are adults, most under 30.
Planting the seed early and reaping rewards for the entire life is definitely what works for them.
Nintendo's top-tier exclusives, and a constant focus on end-to-end user experience.
The PS4/Xbone (and even, to an extent, the 360/PS3) have so much jank when it comes to playing a game on them.
My experience with The Last of Us Part II basically consisted of inserting the game, waiting nearly 25 minutes for it to install, going through that entire process again, twice, because there was a smudge on the disc, then waiting another 20 mins to download a 10GB patch, only to load up the game and sit through hours upon hours of boring-as-fuck intro content before I saw a single zombie.
With Super Mario Odyssey, I put the game in, downloaded some optional 50MB patch in about 20 seconds, then started jumping around collecting coins and throwing my hat at everything.
They just "get it" in ways that Sony and Microsoft don't (or at least, haven't "got" since the original PS2/Xbox era).
I fundamentally disagree. There are some great games for the switch out there but they are absolutely hampered by Nintendo's outright refusal to provide modern features. Animal crossing was a lovely game except for the fact that it didn't support more than one island meaning either me or my girlfriend had to skip it. the "visit your friends island" experience is reminiscent of the late 90s in online gaming. Their support for peripherals has lead to this [0] being considered a reasonable solution to voice chat.
That's before you get into the whole ninetendo switch online + expansion pack.
[0] https://www.gamesradar.com/reactions-to-nintendo-switchs-ter...
Nintendo don't "get" online gaming in the way that the other two seem to. The ROM hack of Melee made by one guy famously has better online than Smash Ultimate does.
They are the only company still serving up the classic experience, though.
Heh, I actually disagree again here, but not quite as strongly. PlayStation have absolutely hit it out of the park on "classic experience" over the past few years. their remakes/remasters have been absolutely stellar (Tony hawk's Pro skater/spyro/crash bandicoot) and really hold up well in modern terms. Their single player games in the last few years (god of war, uncharted, sekiro) are nothing short of outstanding. They may not all be your cup of tea but I think it's fair you can say that about some of the Nintendo family of games too.
Xbox has a few home runs in the same category. The Ori games are absolutely incredible, and having recently come away from Metroid Dread _very_ disappointed (really poor story pacing, overly predictable plot, and horrific instadeath mechanics) I would choose ori and the blind forest/will of the wisps over the more recent Metroid games.
It's just that on the Switch, in almost all cases you just put the cartridge in the console you're in-game within seconds.
For Xbone/PS4 (and I'm assuming this is worse on the new consoles), there's a whole arduous process to go through before you can play the game. As someone who no longer has the time/energy to pour into gaming like I used to, this hour long wait before playing a game just makes the whole experience not worth it.
Contrast that to my ps4 experience and it is a world away. Takes at least a minute to get to home screen, then there's usually gigabytes of updates to download. Sometimes it might be _hours_ before I can start the game I wanted to play.
I'm not sure if the latest generation of xbox/ps have solved this. Combimed with the supply issues of the new generation consoles, I've not been too keen on getting one because my switch has sufficed
> in almost all cases you just put the cartridge in the console you're in-game within seconds.
This is true for some games on switch, however my experience is that many games suffer from extremely long loading times even compared to PS4/Xbox one. The ps5s loading times for games are orders of magnitude quicker; power on to in game in Spiderman miles Morales is less than 30 seconds. I've spent more time than that staring at single loading screens in Smash Bros, Metroid Dread and breath of the wild.
> this hour long wait before playing a game just makes the whole experience not worth it.
The hour long wait does happen occasionally, but it's not like you actually need to do anything during that time. You can do that and come back that night, and a month later the game will still be playable without updating.
I have both systems now, and enjoy my Switch, but I still prefer the 3DS. I hope whatever the Switch successor is goes back to adding a backwards compatibility mode.
Contrast that with, say, Sega, who never found their footing with the Sonic franchise ever since the late 90s. Sonic games were developed by whatever developers happened to be available -- sometimes American or mixed Japanese-American teams; and the design ideas from the first few games that made them so great were lost once new hardware generations came along that couldn't use the original engine code. Sonic went a whole console generation (fifth generation, Saturn era) without a new full game in the main series, and the games featuring him after that have been a real mixed bag. (No, Adventure 2 is a mess. The controls are some of the most slippery imprecise shit in the 6th generation.)
Developing for a Nintendo system is not for everybody. It's like being a Mac developer only more so: you have to write software that integrates smoothly with the hardware and contributes to the grand narrative of the vendor.