I didn't get why everybody loved Dave The Diver. The setting and the atmosphere were awesome, the characters too, but there was nothing really interesting about the gameplay. Both the diving and the restaurant management / serving gameplay was mediocre.
@Troopage Also, if you are in marketing, and maybe responsible for social media specifically, then you care about these seemingly small things, because that's your job.
I promised myself that I would never forgive Nintendo for the handling of the Joy-Con issues. And here I am.
I still think we shouldn't forget it.
The Switch launch was a different time. Wii U was a disaster, despite Nintendo really trying. I loved my Splatoon and MK8, I loved the "off TV play", I loved what they were doing for releasing old games for decent prices, and so on. I loved finally playing Nintendo games in HD. I don't know how healthy Nintendo was back then before the Switch launch, but it looked like another flop would have been too much maybe. I really, really wanted them to succeed.
I still respect them, but the Joy-Con thing was just too much. Note that in the US, they had a replacement program for faulty Joy-Cons much earlier than elsewhere in the world. So, for us it was more painful.
My story with emulation is that I downloaded BotW, tried it an an emulator, got blown away. I very quickly bought a Switch and have been spending steadily ever since. Also, my kids grew up on Nintendo games. So, maybe it isn't so black and white, and good vs evil?
Nintendo should go against X and hopefully they will. I mean, the fact that Grok can draw Mario means that it uses copyrighted works in it's training data.
It's amazing that they make you pay extra for the stand, a freaking piece of plastic that probably costs them next to nothing and was gratis for a vanilla PS5.
But if you compare it to a gaming PCs, it might be OK. If you buy a serious NVIDIA GPU, just for gaming, it's insane.
We live in a recycle culture, where almost everything is a remake or reissue or rework or at least a sequel that plays it safe. Although hopefully people are getting tired of that by now. For example, I've given up on Marvel, I've even given up on Star Wars. With these, the other problem is the extreme dilution, where there is just 10x more "content" out there than it should.
But with this game, it might be OK. I think it's a minor game for Nintendo that most people never played. Why bother designing new levels when for most people it is new anyway, while others might buy it for the nostalgia, and also may have long forgotten all the actual puzzles anyway.
The Dr Mario mobile game was awesome. I played against others online and it was a thrill. It was never officially available in my country, so I had to hack my phone to play it with a VPN and whatnot.
@The_Pixel_King They released some extremely detailed patch notes for Splatoon 3. I guess it's about sharing information as needed. Pikmin 4 is not even out, so I don't really think that the actual fixes really matter much to anyone, except maybe reviewers if some serious issues have been fixed. With Splatoon, people badly need to know if some weapon stats change, etc.
When the Switch came, I loved Nintendo and was enthusiastic about taking part in "saving" it. The Wii U may have been a disaster financially, but actually I was a fan. Off-TV play worked great. There were some fantastic originals like Splatoon, Pikmin 3, MK8, etc. The ability to play older generation games for reasonable prices was great. It was a company that was trying and somehow was still failing.
I can't forgive them for what they did with the Joy-Cons. I just can't force myself to buy another pair of these controllers that probably have the worst ratio of price to quality / reliability ever. (And around here, drift repairs were NOT free.) So my Switch has become this console that has these partly broken controllers, which is probably one of the reasons we play it less.
Besides, I don't think there is reassuring information about newer Joy-Cons actually being fixed or at least better? Besides some obscure interview somewhere with some engineer?
The endless milking of Wii-U re-releases at high prices (and expensive ports of ancient games that are practically for free on all other platforms) is also becoming too much. And maybe it's just me, but I don't care much about their current first party releases (compared to Wii U). I no more feel the magic of experiencing Splatoon or BotW (which is technically a Wii U game). Note that I don't play much on other platforms anymore either. And I also don't think that PS innovates that much anymore either. While MS probably never did. But PS + MS at least came up with decent consoles in this latest generation: games load fast, the consoles are quiet, compatibility with the older generation(s) is great, especially compared to Nintendo.
In another "make or break" situation, Nintendo could break as far as I'm concerned. They have cashed in on all my goodwill. I don't feel compelled to go with them anymore.
I'm an online shooter noob, or rather, a non-player mostly ignorant of all this, but I'm curious: how do they decide what to adjust and how much?
From gathering a lot of "telemetry" data from real gameplay? From user feedback (processed and interpreted very carefully)? From a crazy amount of in-house testing going on continually? All of this?
1. Splatoon 3 devs are extremely open about what was wrong and what they have fixed, which is nice. Honesty is good policy, and if a player was struggling from one of the bugs, and they are so invested that they read these lists, then they will now know it was fixed. This is the best you can do as a dev.
2. With this many fixes, they are surely introducing new bugs. They just added tons and tons of new or modified code to the game, and no way can they do that without messing something else up here and there. I'm not sure how development works at this scale, but maybe this was indeed an early release. This looks like that QA is probably where it should have been months before release.
@StarPoint This. These aren't bugfixes, they are adding new things. If anything, it looks impressive that they didn't have to fix anything, or maybe they just don't talk about that...
@Ventilator I was thinking that creating all the models, animations, and polished gameplay is probably an insane amount of work. 2K would start from scratch, no? The FIFA series is basically the same game that has been updated for decades. My gut feeling is that there is no way to catch up with that in a matter of one or two years. I know PES is in bad shape currently but at least they have a lot of experience, and many things to build on. And all this speculation ignores the problem of all the licenses for the teams, leagues, and players.
Konami? I do not think there are any other viable options if they want to build a big football game their fans are used to. Starting from scratch seems to be impossible to me, it would never get released, and/or would be light years behind expectations.
It sounded like a somewhat interesting concept, until I learned that the features actually get found one by one. It would be interesting to see whether they can build something around, well, most features really not being there.
Or there could have been an unstable game world, where features randomly get lost, and mostly nothing is really working. The way it is, it is not that different from other games that drip-feed features to you as you progress. They just made that pretty regular idea more in-your-face here.
Since DVD-RAM is rewritable many times, a DVD-RAM drive+disc isn't that different from an external drive (flash drive, or SSD, or HDD), in which sense it isn't all that surprising that it works.
From the tech and business perspective, it's an amazing how little sense this makes. DVD-RAM failed bad, and Wii U owners not only didn't want or ask this, they probably never even noticed that the feature existed. I wonder how much Nintendo invested into this.
Splatoon 2 and 3 might be an antithesis of this though, because I felt that Splatoon 2 was released despite not improving enough on the first, and the same is likely to happen with Splatoon 3. Now Splatoon 2 could have been another Switch re-release and DLC instead, as far as I'm concerned. Splatoon 2 is just the same thing again, but a few percent better than the first.
IMO it is kind of sad, Splatoon was a very significant new Nintendo franchise: bold, fresh, and successful I guess. And they are not treating it accordingly to how valuable the franchise is, they milk it too much without investing enough.
Isn't it possible that Nintendo can't currently release an MK9 that would be significantly better than MK8? I mean, the Wii U was significant because it was the first HD Nintendo console. And because of HD, many Wii U games represented a significant leap, at least in terms of graphics. The Switch isn't a very significant leap over the Wii U. Maybe with a next generation?
Now, what else contributes to a game's quality other than graphics? Content? Content wise, MK8 is a pretty well rounded out game already, especially with all the DLC and the improvements for the Switch release. An MK9 that trumps it in the content department might not be realistic.
Then there's polish and gameplay. Again, I just don't see how Nintendo could make an MK9 that would clearly top MK8 in these aspects.
And that could be the reason of not pushing it? Simply not being able to raise the bar to the extent they would prefer to for a new entry in the series. Same for Pikmin 4 vs 3, and probably others. (Also, everybody is super happy to pay full price for ports, remakes, etc., so why bother with new major games at all?)
Another option could be to stop playing safe, i.e. come out with an MK9 (or Pikmin 4, etc.), that is not just a new entry that is bigger, better, and more polished, but actually a change of directions with some risk taking. If you think of it, that is what they are doing with Zelda, i.e. each Zelda game brought new ideas, new art styles, new elements, etc. MK is mostly "evolving" with each new entry, while the Zelda franchise takes more risks, maybe.
@Xenobound94 It was an experiment. The time limit may have coerced a lot of people to buy the game instead of postponing it all the time. Nintendo are now counting the money, and figuring out whether or not it was worth it financially. If it worked with enough people, it is a success, and it is more likely that things like this may happen again.
@Crono1973 Meanwhile, with MS and Sony, your last gen games just work on current gen, and they also work better. In the case of MS, I think you are even able to play a lot of very old games, no need to repurchase them, etc. And I know that Nintendo couldn't do this with Switch and Wii U even if they wanted to, as the two platforms are entirely incompatible, discs vs cards, and all. Still, it s*cks that Nintendo thinks I should play full price again for a new version of something with minimal improvements. I also suspect that it is taking at least some of their focus away from creating something original.
Overall cost of ownership of a Switch is sky high compared to especially XBOX but also PS, if you look at an "average" gamer who would want to play some platform exclusives, but not necessarily at launch. On every other platform, these games cost a fraction of the launch price a few months after launch, and with XBOX you get a pile of games for free with Game Pass.
Nintendo has its name and history, has a unique hybrid platform, and some very strong franchises. But they are not shy milking as much any out of these unique benefits as possible.
I think the "sane" way right now is a Series X + Game Pass, in terms of cost vs what you get. If you don't insist on any exclusive franchises, or handheld, etc.
This whole deadline thing was an experiment. Nintendo keeps their game prices high even for old games, and customers generally accept this. That's their default strategy.
But I think the figured that people are waiting for (mild) sales on their games, postponing buying games that they are somewhat interested in. So, they tried something different this time, trying to force these people to purchase. The question is, how many of us bought this game earlier than planned? Or maybe some of us even bought it this way, while they could have been postponing the purchase indefinitely...
So they tried this, and they are now analyzing the sales results on the one hand, and the sentiment (how people feel about it) on the other. If it is a success, they might do it again, or in a slightly different manner. It's all about squeezing money out of us, which eventually is kind of okay, they are an enterprise.
GPUs are selling like hot cakes, so much that you can't really even buy them, at least not for anything close to "normal" price. Yes, crypto mining contributes to that currently, but still.
On the tech front, I 100% disagree with you. Things like ray tracing and global illumination are not "effects", they are tried and true base technologies that have been used in non real time graphics (e.g. CGI and animated films) for a long long time. They are about mimicking actual real light better. Right now, GPU and video game technology is actually at a big turning point, and is just getting interesting again, at least for me, and for those who understand a bit more about graphics than just resolution. We are just starting to see actually realistic lights and reflections thank to RT and GI, etc. And you can buy a relatively affordable PS5 or XBOX Series X to witness it without going bankrupt, and also get a lot of quality of life improvements over the previous gen. On the PC front, you can max it out, as usual, but GPUs are just way too expensive there, so it's really just for the very rich.
I'm also not a huge graphics dev tech wizard but my impression is that before RT, to get decent lighting in video games, developers had to deal with many complex and messy inferior methods. RT will make it easier for developers (I think) to get realistic or good looking lighting, reflections, etc., so development will be more streamlined and take less resources, so games can get finished faster, etc.
The downside is that current gen consoles are not that extremely powerful, and the new tech needs very powerful hardware at the moment. In the new PS5 Spider-Man or in Control, what you get is great reflections on mostly flat surfaces. There's a lot of room for improvement, so the tch is really just starting as far as I'm concerned. But I'm sure we'll see the best dev teams max the hardware out in the next few years, and the next gen consoles (I mean PS6 and friends) will be a big leap as usual.
With all that said, I fully agree with those who say that computer graphics is not just about tech, and despite the comparative limitations of the Switch hardware, BOTW on Switch is one of the finest examples of video games graphics overall, by just, you know, looking beautiful. Of course, it would be amazing to see what the BOTW graphics devs (and art directors and artists, etc.) could do with many times more powerful hardware, but that is just not the Nintendo way. Modders may understand their tech, but art direction and aesthetics not that much.
@quigtendo Yeah, I guess that you are a more typical customer, and it makes financial sense for Nintendo to cater to you and not me.
On the longer term, being an ***** to your most loyal fans, those who were with you in the hardest if times, might also bite back somewhat. Again, my key point is that I have simply lost most of my sympathy for them.
There is a longer term effect from current decisions. I feel that part of the success for the PS4 was due to PlayStation giving all they got to turn around problems with the PS3, and then making it go out with a bang, with the likes of Last of Us at the end of the lifecycle of PS3. It's about gaining goodwill. On the other hand, MS is still suffering from some incompetent decisions long ago, even if they are really really trying hard to please gamers. The platform is not just about the hardware and the games. It's about what people think. And I think the Nintendo are behaving as a**holes... towards Wii U owners at least.
Before the Switch, Nintendo was practically on life support. I really wanted them to succeed with the Switch, I was a fan and I loved my Wii U.
Since on the games front, Switch is primarily a Wii U port machine (or at least for me and on the first party front), I feel burned, and I feel less and less sympathy for Nintendo. I'm considering an XBox + GamePass as my next primary platform, with which MS is giving tremendous value. Nintendo is basically the exact opposite: milking gamers as much as possible with the least possible effort. Full price lazy re-releases with minimum added value, but just a tiny little bit content or improvement added to the games so that people who played them on the Wii U can feel left out. Honestly, Nintendo is saying f*** you to people who stayed with them in the mess that was the Wii U. I'm replying f*** you to Nintendo.
I have two problems with the game and the 10 score.
One is that the game is a slap in the face for Wii U owners who have already bought this once for full price. You know, MS and PS are right now making all your existing PS4 and XBox One games work (and work better) in the new consoles. They are addressing this crucial customer pain point, while Nintendo just cynically grabs your money for the same thing a second time. I really hope that with whatever hardware Nintendo are releasing next, they will be just forced to follow the lead of MS and PS in this.
The other is that it seems the whole world is getting too crazy about re-releases in general, be it video games, music, often also films. Since the re-releases work is considered a masterpiece (often only in hindsight), and nostalgia is so warm and cosy, critics feel compelled to give 100% scores. The end result is that we are getting copies of works (maybe with a certain extent of polish) instead of real new creations, and we are even hyped into being happy about it.
From the moral side, this also means throwing your money at all the publishers and rights holders, without supporting actual creators, I mean the real people who work on making a new game or new music release, etc, happen. (OK, I know that there is a little bit of new content in this one, but it's not that great according to the review.) So, basically, you just make the rich middleman even richer, and those who should actually get (most of) your money get even less, or nothing.
I wonder if it ever came to anybody's mind at Nintendo to maybe think about rewarding Wii U owners as opposed to practically constantly "punishing" them. I mean, we held out during the worst times, invested in their failed hardware, bought their games. What do we get? Not much new to play on Switch (in terms of 1st party games I mean), because of the sea of full price re-releases of Wii U games with minimal upgrades. Upgrades we will miss out on if we resist paying full price for something we played before in a 95-99% identical version. I know it's not trivial, but really, maybe, they could just try to come up with something where Wii U owners could feel just a little bit rewarded, for a change.
It's amazing how Nintendo is able to capitalize on the Wii U's failure by selling all these old games at full price.
I have to say it's kind of unfair towards those of us who stuck with Nintendo in the Wii U era. I bought a lot of the major first party games for the Wii U, including Pikmin 3. I'd really, really love a Pikmin 4, as well as my kids. Instead, we get these full price ports with maybe minor improvements all the time. And I get that this is fine for everybody who skipped the Wii U, and works fine for Nintendo. Just not for us.
I can't back this with numbers and I haven't researched this, but I'm starting to feel that the Wii U was a richer console in terms of quality original first party games than the Switch is.
This might be somewhat off-topic, but looking ahead, XBox is starting to look promising. Especially for people who also have a gaming PC or a current gen XBox, Game Pass is just amazing value. You can buy a game once or get it via Game Pass and play it on your current and next-gen console and your PC. Also, their controllers work very well with PC, and they seem to have amazing hardware designs.
With both Sony and Nintendo I feel that they have been getting somewhat lazy lately, or at least pretty conservative. Both just keep doing what has worked before, not taking risks, and not improving anything substantially. Iterating, re-releasing, remaking, the safe stuff. The press also encourages this in the gaming industry, but also in music, and probably elsewhere. When something "iconic" is re-released from the distant past, it is sure to get close to 100% scores from critics. Too bad it took no risks, it has next to zero new creative value, and is generally just stuff that we've seen, played, or heard before.
And it is a bit scary that this regressive approach is so damn profitable. It's just not right, creating new things should be valued more.
@GoblinKing86 Thanks for the insight. It's a complete mindboggle how much the definition of mindboggle can differ for different people. To each their own I believe, but I definitely can't justify more than one Switch. And to solve my problem with Animal Crossing, we would need one Switch per family member to enable everybody to fully enjoy the game.
Should I buy this game if I'm filled with dread because of the one island per Switch thing? We are a family of five, all of whom might want to play. We have no plans to buy a second Switch.
I've talked to an official local reseller about this, and they say that the current official replacement sticks don't have the problem anymore. I don't know if this is reliable information.
Can anyone who've had the replacements for long enough comment?
I'm growing away from my Switch. It's a funny thing, I actually loved my Wii U and I wanted Nintendo to rise with the Switch, which they did. I don't care about them anymore. Switch has an extreme total cost of ownership, and Nintendo left us in the dust with the hardware issues. **** them.
It sounds philosophical, but it is actually fully trivial if you think of it. Still interesting to think about. We don't see objects, all we see is light entering our eyes. In the case of video games, the objects or beings we see mostly don't even correspond to anything that exists physically (unless they are copies of real-world things). They are images sent to our brains via light. And the light is real. Light is the medium that connects the game to the player.
Even more trivial: anybody who ever dealt with graphics, or, really, anybody with working eyes, knows how dramatically light(ing) can change how the very same objects look.
The Switch is the most premium (expensive) console at the moment if you look at total cost of ownership, simply because the 1st party titles are freaking expensive and their prices never go down (compared to all other platforms where new titles start to have deep sales within months). The Joy-Con is also an expensive controller.
And I also agree that Nintendo's first party titles have a unique appeal, and I did buy in to this premium platform. BUT then the customer care should also be up to par. This issue should be handled with very efficient free repairs all over the world, not just America.
The whole Switch concept could be generalized to phones and tablets. When Switch was just a rumour, I was kind of hoping that it would not even be an actual device, but Nintendo would team up with Apple and create something that allows you to attach Joy-Con like controllers to iPhones and iPads.
I say Apple because 1. It would probably be a nightmare to try and support all the million Androids. The more limited iPhone + iPad lineup is more realistic. 2. iOS devices have insane raw power, especially their CPUs. They are comparable to average to good laptops. And that power is not really tapped by anything today, really.
But I also have to admit that it would be somewhat clunky to always mess with your iPhone and controllers, and there may be an important incoming call while you play, etc.
@Ralek85 Ray-tracing is great, it is the first really relevant technology in games for a long while. You know, lights and shadows and reflections that start looking realistic and are finally not all "fake."
On the other hand, ray-tracing is currently very power hungry, so I don't see it appearing in a handheld / hybrid (i.e. Switch Pro or Switch successor) for years and years. I'm even skeptical about the kind of ray-tracing we will get in PS5. It currently needs a high-end desktop GPU on PC.
Me, I can't see myself buying probaby any multiplat 3rd party AAA games for Switch (or Pro, or Switch 2). Sure, playing an AAA game on the toilet might sound enticing, but the compromise in graphics is too much for me. And most multiplat AAAs I don't find exciting anyway. Maybe-maybe ray-tracing can change this in the future, Control looks sexy on PC. I mean on a PC that is worth as much as several of my internal organs.
The Switch will stay relevant for me as long as there are games like BOTW 2, and new quality indies like Celeste or Hollow Knight or Stardew Valley or INSIDE, etc.
Honestly, I like the graphics of all of the above titles more than most AAAs. Graphics is as much about artwork and aesthetics and style as "image quality" and tech. 4k is totally stupid for a home console for most, you (most, normal people) just don't have a TV that is big and close enough for 4K to make any sense at all vs full HD. Personally I'd be okay with 720p even, my TV is a little bit far away.
Ray-tracing could make or break PS5 for me: if it is good enough, I might get interested. Otherwise, I'll be a late adopter, just like I was with the PS4, and will only go for a PS5 when there will be lots of great games already, for great prices.
@Moroboshi876 Both time and money are resources. Somehow "hardcode" gamers pretend that time isn't a resource, and the more time they can spend, the better. I'm actually afraid to buy and/or start any "big" games, as I'm not sure I'll ever have the time to finish them.
I also don't have unlimited money, but money doesn't matter all that much, up to certain limits: new AAA games are kind of expensive for me, so a new AAA game must really be very compelling for me to buy it. (Same with all the Nintendo AAA games that remain expensive forever.)
The last game I finished was another short game, Inside. I loved it, it was beautiful, fun, and surprising, and it was for free. And it didn't eat up too much of my time. Checked all the right boxes.
With Untitled Goose Game, it looked so much fun that I just had to buy it at launch. It has become one of those games that I buy and my kids play, at least so far.
Comments 63
Re: Get Ready For More 'Dave The Diver' Games In The Future
I didn't get why everybody loved Dave The Diver. The setting and the atmosphere were awesome, the characters too, but there was nothing really interesting about the gameplay. Both the diving and the restaurant management / serving gameplay was mediocre.
Re: Random: Kit And Krysta Pull Back The Curtain On Nintendo's "Controversial" Switch Teaser Photo
@Troopage
Also, if you are in marketing, and maybe responsible for social media specifically, then you care about these seemingly small things, because that's your job.
Re: Surprise Surprise, Devolver Digital Is Excited For The 'Switch 2'
I promised myself that I would never forgive Nintendo for the handling of the Joy-Con issues. And here I am.
I still think we shouldn't forget it.
The Switch launch was a different time. Wii U was a disaster, despite Nintendo really trying. I loved my Splatoon and MK8, I loved the "off TV play", I loved what they were doing for releasing old games for decent prices, and so on. I loved finally playing Nintendo games in HD. I don't know how healthy Nintendo was back then before the Switch launch, but it looked like another flop would have been too much maybe. I really, really wanted them to succeed.
I still respect them, but the Joy-Con thing was just too much. Note that in the US, they had a replacement program for faulty Joy-Cons much earlier than elsewhere in the world. So, for us it was more painful.
Re: Nintendo Slays Switch Emulator Ryujinx
My story with emulation is that I downloaded BotW, tried it an an emulator, got blown away. I very quickly bought a Switch and have been spending steadily ever since. Also, my kids grew up on Nintendo games. So, maybe it isn't so black and white, and good vs evil?
Re: Nintendo Is Reportedly Targeting AI-Generated Mario Pictures
Nintendo should go against X and hopefully they will. I mean, the fact that Grok can draw Mario means that it uses copyrighted works in it's training data.
Re: Nintendo Announces New Switch OLED 'Super Mario Bros. Wonder' Bundle
For a second when reading the headline, I thought it was about the next gen Nintendo console.
Re: Soapbox: Sony's Insane PS5 Pro Price Highlights The Delicate Balance Nintendo Must Strike With 'Switch 2'
It's amazing that they make you pay extra for the stand, a freaking piece of plastic that probably costs them next to nothing and was gratis for a vanilla PS5.
But if you compare it to a gaming PCs, it might be OK. If you buy a serious NVIDIA GPU, just for gaming, it's insane.
Re: Video: Mario Vs. Donkey Kong Side-By-Side Graphics Comparison (Switch & GBA)
@LEGEND_MARIOID
We live in a recycle culture, where almost everything is a remake or reissue or rework or at least a sequel that plays it safe. Although hopefully people are getting tired of that by now. For example, I've given up on Marvel, I've even given up on Star Wars. With these, the other problem is the extreme dilution, where there is just 10x more "content" out there than it should.
But with this game, it might be OK. I think it's a minor game for Nintendo that most people never played. Why bother designing new levels when for most people it is new anyway, while others might buy it for the nostalgia, and also may have long forgotten all the actual puzzles anyway.
Re: Video: Mario Vs. Donkey Kong Side-By-Side Graphics Comparison (Switch & GBA)
@OorWullie
The Dr Mario mobile game was awesome. I played against others online and it was a thrill. It was never officially available in my country, so I had to hack my phone to play it with a VPN and whatnot.
Re: Nintendo Updates Pikmin 4 To Version 1.0.1, Here's What's Included
@The_Pixel_King
They released some extremely detailed patch notes for Splatoon 3. I guess it's about sharing information as needed. Pikmin 4 is not even out, so I don't really think that the actual fixes really matter much to anyone, except maybe reviewers if some serious issues have been fixed. With Splatoon, people badly need to know if some weapon stats change, etc.
Re: Nintendo Wins "Switch Joy-Con Drift" Class Action Lawsuit
When the Switch came, I loved Nintendo and was enthusiastic about taking part in "saving" it. The Wii U may have been a disaster financially, but actually I was a fan. Off-TV play worked great. There were some fantastic originals like Splatoon, Pikmin 3, MK8, etc. The ability to play older generation games for reasonable prices was great. It was a company that was trying and somehow was still failing.
I can't forgive them for what they did with the Joy-Cons. I just can't force myself to buy another pair of these controllers that probably have the worst ratio of price to quality / reliability ever. (And around here, drift repairs were NOT free.) So my Switch has become this console that has these partly broken controllers, which is probably one of the reasons we play it less.
Besides, I don't think there is reassuring information about newer Joy-Cons actually being fixed or at least better? Besides some obscure interview somewhere with some engineer?
The endless milking of Wii-U re-releases at high prices (and expensive ports of ancient games that are practically for free on all other platforms) is also becoming too much. And maybe it's just me, but I don't care much about their current first party releases (compared to Wii U). I no more feel the magic of experiencing Splatoon or BotW (which is technically a Wii U game). Note that I don't play much on other platforms anymore either. And I also don't think that PS innovates that much anymore either. While MS probably never did. But PS + MS at least came up with decent consoles in this latest generation: games load fast, the consoles are quiet, compatibility with the older generation(s) is great, especially compared to Nintendo.
In another "make or break" situation, Nintendo could break as far as I'm concerned. They have cashed in on all my goodwill. I don't feel compelled to go with them anymore.
Re: Splatoon 3 Version 2.1.0 Is Now Live, Here Are The Full Patch Notes
@Will808 Amazing morning coffee read, thank you.
What is "Bias top-down"? I can't even seem to be able to google this, I think I get a lot of out-of-context matches.
And how of earth do developers define or measure "fun"? You know it when you see it?
Re: Splatoon 3 To Receive New Update This Week, Here Are The Full Patch Notes
I'm an online shooter noob, or rather, a non-player mostly ignorant of all this, but I'm curious: how do they decide what to adjust and how much?
From gathering a lot of "telemetry" data from real gameplay?
From user feedback (processed and interpreted very carefully)?
From a crazy amount of in-house testing going on continually?
All of this?
Re: Nintendo's Next Switch Game Trial Has Been Announced For Online Subscribers
I hope this is serious because it would be an awful joke.
Re: Tetris Effect: Connected Receives Another Update On Switch, Here's What's Included
@KorGonia Sounds like a developer's mistake then, they probably forgot to update the update version number somewhere.
Re: Splatoon 3 Version 1.2.0 Is Now Available, Here Are The Full Patch Notes
Two somewhat opposing thoughts:
1. Splatoon 3 devs are extremely open about what was wrong and what they have fixed, which is nice. Honesty is good policy, and if a player was struggling from one of the bugs, and they are so invested that they read these lists, then they will now know it was fixed. This is the best you can do as a dev.
2. With this many fixes, they are surely introducing new bugs. They just added tons and tons of new or modified code to the game, and no way can they do that without messing something else up here and there. I'm not sure how development works at this scale, but maybe this was indeed an early release. This looks like that QA is probably where it should have been months before release.
Re: Random: Splatoon 3 Streamers Sneak Adult Content Into Online Matches
@Fizza About how ingenious it is, this is technology that existed for 90+ years. Blue screens are the exact same concept. Wikipedia article linked.
I guess it takes something like five clicks to set up in the streaming software.
Re: Splatoon 3 Launch Day Patch Detailed Ahead Of Game's Release
@StarPoint
This. These aren't bugfixes, they are adding new things.
If anything, it looks impressive that they didn't have to fix anything, or maybe they just don't talk about that...
Re: Mario Strikers: Battle League Version 1.1.1 Is Now Live, Here Are The Full Patch Notes
@KindofaBigDeal
I'm a goalkeeper IRL (amateur, in water polo) and sometimes I also feel I need a software update like this.
Re: Random: People Are Getting Pretty Worried About Splatoon 3
@thinkhector So, your idea is to make Splatoon 2 next to useless for all the people who bought it for $$ because there is a new game coming?
Re: FIFA Will Work With Other Developers To Launch Brand New Football Games
@Ventilator I was thinking that creating all the models, animations, and polished gameplay is probably an insane amount of work. 2K would start from scratch, no? The FIFA series is basically the same game that has been updated for decades. My gut feeling is that there is no way to catch up with that in a matter of one or two years. I know PES is in bad shape currently but at least they have a lot of experience, and many things to build on. And all this speculation ignores the problem of all the licenses for the teams, leagues, and players.
Re: FIFA Will Work With Other Developers To Launch Brand New Football Games
Konami? I do not think there are any other viable options if they want to build a big football game their fans are used to. Starting from scratch seems to be impossible to me, it would never get released, and/or would be light years behind expectations.
Re: Random: An AI Broke Tetris On NES, And It’s Compelling Viewing
@Chocobo_Shepherd You mean Facebook?
Re: Nintendo Confirms Switch Digital Deals Promotion To Follow E3 Event
@SonOfStayPuft
It's on sale pretty much all the time:
http://psprices.com/region-de/game/1732051/mario-rabbids-kingdom-battle
http://psprices.com/region-gb/game/1732052/mario-rabbids-kingdom-battle
http://psprices.com/region-us/game/1713582/mario-rabbids-kingdom-battle
Re: Missing Features: 2D Is A New Switch Platformer With All Of Its Features... Well, Missing
It sounded like a somewhat interesting concept, until I learned that the features actually get found one by one. It would be interesting to see whether they can build something around, well, most features really not being there.
Or there could have been an unstable game world, where features randomly get lost, and mostly nothing is really working. The way it is, it is not that different from other games that drip-feed features to you as you progress. They just made that pretty regular idea more in-your-face here.
Re: Random: Did You Know The Wii U Can Burn eShop Games To Discs?
Since DVD-RAM is rewritable many times, a DVD-RAM drive+disc isn't that different from an external drive (flash drive, or SSD, or HDD), in which sense it isn't all that surprising that it works.
From the tech and business perspective, it's an amazing how little sense this makes. DVD-RAM failed bad, and Wii U owners not only didn't want or ask this, they probably never even noticed that the feature existed. I wonder how much Nintendo invested into this.
Re: Talking Point: Should Nintendo Do More DLC For Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Or Just Release Mario Kart 9 Already?
Splatoon 2 and 3 might be an antithesis of this though, because I felt that Splatoon 2 was released despite not improving enough on the first, and the same is likely to happen with Splatoon 3. Now Splatoon 2 could have been another Switch re-release and DLC instead, as far as I'm concerned. Splatoon 2 is just the same thing again, but a few percent better than the first.
IMO it is kind of sad, Splatoon was a very significant new Nintendo franchise: bold, fresh, and successful I guess. And they are not treating it accordingly to how valuable the franchise is, they milk it too much without investing enough.
Re: Talking Point: Should Nintendo Do More DLC For Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Or Just Release Mario Kart 9 Already?
Isn't it possible that Nintendo can't currently release an MK9 that would be significantly better than MK8? I mean, the Wii U was significant because it was the first HD Nintendo console. And because of HD, many Wii U games represented a significant leap, at least in terms of graphics. The Switch isn't a very significant leap over the Wii U. Maybe with a next generation?
Now, what else contributes to a game's quality other than graphics? Content? Content wise, MK8 is a pretty well rounded out game already, especially with all the DLC and the improvements for the Switch release. An MK9 that trumps it in the content department might not be realistic.
Then there's polish and gameplay. Again, I just don't see how Nintendo could make an MK9 that would clearly top MK8 in these aspects.
And that could be the reason of not pushing it? Simply not being able to raise the bar to the extent they would prefer to for a new entry in the series. Same for Pikmin 4 vs 3, and probably others. (Also, everybody is super happy to pay full price for ports, remakes, etc., so why bother with new major games at all?)
Another option could be to stop playing safe, i.e. come out with an MK9 (or Pikmin 4, etc.), that is not just a new entry that is bigger, better, and more polished, but actually a change of directions with some risk taking. If you think of it, that is what they are doing with Zelda, i.e. each Zelda game brought new ideas, new art styles, new elements, etc. MK is mostly "evolving" with each new entry, while the Zelda franchise takes more risks, maybe.
Re: Nintendo Thanks Fans For Celebrating Mario's 35th Anniversary
@Xenobound94
It was an experiment. The time limit may have coerced a lot of people to buy the game instead of postponing it all the time. Nintendo are now counting the money, and figuring out whether or not it was worth it financially. If it worked with enough people, it is a success, and it is more likely that things like this may happen again.
Re: Reminder: Super Mario 3D All-Stars Leaves The eShop On March 31st
@Crono1973
Meanwhile, with MS and Sony, your last gen games just work on current gen, and they also work better. In the case of MS, I think you are even able to play a lot of very old games, no need to repurchase them, etc. And I know that Nintendo couldn't do this with Switch and Wii U even if they wanted to, as the two platforms are entirely incompatible, discs vs cards, and all. Still, it s*cks that Nintendo thinks I should play full price again for a new version of something with minimal improvements. I also suspect that it is taking at least some of their focus away from creating something original.
Overall cost of ownership of a Switch is sky high compared to especially XBOX but also PS, if you look at an "average" gamer who would want to play some platform exclusives, but not necessarily at launch. On every other platform, these games cost a fraction of the launch price a few months after launch, and with XBOX you get a pile of games for free with Game Pass.
Nintendo has its name and history, has a unique hybrid platform, and some very strong franchises. But they are not shy milking as much any out of these unique benefits as possible.
I think the "sane" way right now is a Series X + Game Pass, in terms of cost vs what you get. If you don't insist on any exclusive franchises, or handheld, etc.
Re: Reminder: Super Mario 3D All-Stars Leaves The eShop On March 31st
This whole deadline thing was an experiment. Nintendo keeps their game prices high even for old games, and customers generally accept this. That's their default strategy.
But I think the figured that people are waiting for (mild) sales on their games, postponing buying games that they are somewhat interested in. So, they tried something different this time, trying to force these people to purchase. The question is, how many of us bought this game earlier than planned? Or maybe some of us even bought it this way, while they could have been postponing the purchase indefinitely...
So they tried this, and they are now analyzing the sales results on the one hand, and the sentiment (how people feel about it) on the other. If it is a success, they might do it again, or in a slightly different manner. It's all about squeezing money out of us, which eventually is kind of okay, they are an enterprise.
Re: Reminder: Super Mario 3D All-Stars Leaves The eShop On March 31st
@Moistnado Amazing idea. So that those who felt pushed into the purchase by the deadline can get a second, much bigger slap in the face. Won't happen.
Re: Video: This Is What Zelda: Breath Of The Wild Looks Like Running At 8K With Ray Tracing Enabled
@Real_Obsi
GPUs are selling like hot cakes, so much that you can't really even buy them, at least not for anything close to "normal" price. Yes, crypto mining contributes to that currently, but still.
On the tech front, I 100% disagree with you. Things like ray tracing and global illumination are not "effects", they are tried and true base technologies that have been used in non real time graphics (e.g. CGI and animated films) for a long long time. They are about mimicking actual real light better. Right now, GPU and video game technology is actually at a big turning point, and is just getting interesting again, at least for me, and for those who understand a bit more about graphics than just resolution. We are just starting to see actually realistic lights and reflections thank to RT and GI, etc. And you can buy a relatively affordable PS5 or XBOX Series X to witness it without going bankrupt, and also get a lot of quality of life improvements over the previous gen. On the PC front, you can max it out, as usual, but GPUs are just way too expensive there, so it's really just for the very rich.
I'm also not a huge graphics dev tech wizard but my impression is that before RT, to get decent lighting in video games, developers had to deal with many complex and messy inferior methods. RT will make it easier for developers (I think) to get realistic or good looking lighting, reflections, etc., so development will be more streamlined and take less resources, so games can get finished faster, etc.
The downside is that current gen consoles are not that extremely powerful, and the new tech needs very powerful hardware at the moment. In the new PS5 Spider-Man or in Control, what you get is great reflections on mostly flat surfaces. There's a lot of room for improvement, so the tch is really just starting as far as I'm concerned. But I'm sure we'll see the best dev teams max the hardware out in the next few years, and the next gen consoles (I mean PS6 and friends) will be a big leap as usual.
With all that said, I fully agree with those who say that computer graphics is not just about tech, and despite the comparative limitations of the Switch hardware, BOTW on Switch is one of the finest examples of video games graphics overall, by just, you know, looking beautiful. Of course, it would be amazing to see what the BOTW graphics devs (and art directors and artists, etc.) could do with many times more powerful hardware, but that is just not the Nintendo way. Modders may understand their tech, but art direction and aesthetics not that much.
Re: Switch Is Now Nintendo's Second Best-Selling System In The US, In "Tracked History"
@quigtendo Yeah, I guess that you are a more typical customer, and it makes financial sense for Nintendo to cater to you and not me.
On the longer term, being an ***** to your most loyal fans, those who were with you in the hardest if times, might also bite back somewhat. Again, my key point is that I have simply lost most of my sympathy for them.
There is a longer term effect from current decisions. I feel that part of the success for the PS4 was due to PlayStation giving all they got to turn around problems with the PS3, and then making it go out with a bang, with the likes of Last of Us at the end of the lifecycle of PS3. It's about gaining goodwill. On the other hand, MS is still suffering from some incompetent decisions long ago, even if they are really really trying hard to please gamers. The platform is not just about the hardware and the games. It's about what people think. And I think the Nintendo are behaving as a**holes... towards Wii U owners at least.
Re: Switch Is Now Nintendo's Second Best-Selling System In The US, In "Tracked History"
Before the Switch, Nintendo was practically on life support. I really wanted them to succeed with the Switch, I was a fan and I loved my Wii U.
Since on the games front, Switch is primarily a Wii U port machine (or at least for me and on the first party front), I feel burned, and I feel less and less sympathy for Nintendo. I'm considering an XBox + GamePass as my next primary platform, with which MS is giving tremendous value. Nintendo is basically the exact opposite: milking gamers as much as possible with the least possible effort. Full price lazy re-releases with minimum added value, but just a tiny little bit content or improvement added to the games so that people who played them on the Wii U can feel left out. Honestly, Nintendo is saying f*** you to people who stayed with them in the mess that was the Wii U. I'm replying f*** you to Nintendo.
Re: Review: Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury - A Superb Mario Adventure With A Bowser Bonus
I have two problems with the game and the 10 score.
One is that the game is a slap in the face for Wii U owners who have already bought this once for full price. You know, MS and PS are right now making all your existing PS4 and XBox One games work (and work better) in the new consoles. They are addressing this crucial customer pain point, while Nintendo just cynically grabs your money for the same thing a second time. I really hope that with whatever hardware Nintendo are releasing next, they will be just forced to follow the lead of MS and PS in this.
The other is that it seems the whole world is getting too crazy about re-releases in general, be it video games, music, often also films. Since the re-releases work is considered a masterpiece (often only in hindsight), and nostalgia is so warm and cosy, critics feel compelled to give 100% scores. The end result is that we are getting copies of works (maybe with a certain extent of polish) instead of real new creations, and we are even hyped into being happy about it.
From the moral side, this also means throwing your money at all the publishers and rights holders, without supporting actual creators, I mean the real people who work on making a new game or new music release, etc, happen. (OK, I know that there is a little bit of new content in this one, but it's not that great according to the review.) So, basically, you just make the rich middleman even richer, and those who should actually get (most of) your money get even less, or nothing.
Re: Talking Point: So, What Are The Chances We'll See A 'New' Nintendo Switch In 2021?
@Dr_Corndog
I was searching for "missing" on the page to see if anybody had already used this joke.
Re: How Much Faster Is Super Mario 3D World On Switch Compared To The Wii U Original? This Much
I wonder if it ever came to anybody's mind at Nintendo to maybe think about rewarding Wii U owners as opposed to practically constantly "punishing" them. I mean, we held out during the worst times, invested in their failed hardware, bought their games. What do we get? Not much new to play on Switch (in terms of 1st party games I mean), because of the sea of full price re-releases of Wii U games with minimal upgrades. Upgrades we will miss out on if we resist paying full price for something we played before in a 95-99% identical version. I know it's not trivial, but really, maybe, they could just try to come up with something where Wii U owners could feel just a little bit rewarded, for a change.
Re: Rumours About Pikmin 3 Coming To Nintendo Switch Intensify
It's amazing how Nintendo is able to capitalize on the Wii U's failure by selling all these old games at full price.
I have to say it's kind of unfair towards those of us who stuck with Nintendo in the Wii U era. I bought a lot of the major first party games for the Wii U, including Pikmin 3. I'd really, really love a Pikmin 4, as well as my kids. Instead, we get these full price ports with maybe minor improvements all the time. And I get that this is fine for everybody who skipped the Wii U, and works fine for Nintendo. Just not for us.
I can't back this with numbers and I haven't researched this, but I'm starting to feel that the Wii U was a richer console in terms of quality original first party games than the Switch is.
This might be somewhat off-topic, but looking ahead, XBox is starting to look promising. Especially for people who also have a gaming PC or a current gen XBox, Game Pass is just amazing value. You can buy a game once or get it via Game Pass and play it on your current and next-gen console and your PC. Also, their controllers work very well with PC, and they seem to have amazing hardware designs.
With both Sony and Nintendo I feel that they have been getting somewhat lazy lately, or at least pretty conservative. Both just keep doing what has worked before, not taking risks, and not improving anything substantially. Iterating, re-releasing, remaking, the safe stuff. The press also encourages this in the gaming industry, but also in music, and probably elsewhere. When something "iconic" is re-released from the distant past, it is sure to get close to 100% scores from critics. Too bad it took no risks, it has next to zero new creative value, and is generally just stuff that we've seen, played, or heard before.
And it is a bit scary that this regressive approach is so damn profitable. It's just not right, creating new things should be valued more.
Re: Gallery: See How Much Better Xenoblade Chronicles Looks On Switch
How does the Switch version compare to playing the original in Dolphin in HD?
Re: Random: Stephen Fry Is Somewhat Perplexed By Animal Crossing: New Horizons
@GoblinKing86 Thanks for the insight. It's a complete mindboggle how much the definition of mindboggle can differ for different people. To each their own I believe, but I definitely can't justify more than one Switch. And to solve my problem with Animal Crossing, we would need one Switch per family member to enable everybody to fully enjoy the game.
Re: Random: Stephen Fry Is Somewhat Perplexed By Animal Crossing: New Horizons
Should I buy this game if I'm filled with dread because of the one island per Switch thing? We are a family of five, all of whom might want to play. We have no plans to buy a second Switch.
Re: Switch Named Most Fragile Product Of The Year By French Consumer's Association
I've talked to an official local reseller about this, and they say that the current official replacement sticks don't have the problem anymore. I don't know if this is reliable information.
Can anyone who've had the replacements for long enough comment?
I'm growing away from my Switch. It's a funny thing, I actually loved my Wii U and I wanted Nintendo to rise with the Switch, which they did. I don't care about them anymore. Switch has an extreme total cost of ownership, and Nintendo left us in the dust with the hardware issues. **** them.
Re: Sakurai Discusses "Drawing Light, Not Objects" In Final Famitsu Column of 2019
It sounds philosophical, but it is actually fully trivial if you think of it. Still interesting to think about. We don't see objects, all we see is light entering our eyes. In the case of video games, the objects or beings we see mostly don't even correspond to anything that exists physically (unless they are copies of real-world things). They are images sent to our brains via light. And the light is real. Light is the medium that connects the game to the player.
Even more trivial: anybody who ever dealt with graphics, or, really, anybody with working eyes, knows how dramatically light(ing) can change how the very same objects look.
Re: Nintendo Comments On How It's Handling Joy-Con Drift
@MrJed You mean yours is still in the warranty period? So far, I think that official free repairs have been confirmed for America only.
Re: Nintendo Comments On How It's Handling Joy-Con Drift
@BeefsoundMagnus It's very annoying.
The Switch is the most premium (expensive) console at the moment if you look at total cost of ownership, simply because the 1st party titles are freaking expensive and their prices never go down (compared to all other platforms where new titles start to have deep sales within months). The Joy-Con is also an expensive controller.
And I also agree that Nintendo's first party titles have a unique appeal, and I did buy in to this premium platform. BUT then the customer care should also be up to par. This issue should be handled with very efficient free repairs all over the world, not just America.
Re: Nintendo Comments On How It's Handling Joy-Con Drift
@KitsuneNight Are there free repairs in UK?
Re: Android 10 Now Supports The Nintendo Switch Pro Controller
The whole Switch concept could be generalized to phones and tablets. When Switch was just a rumour, I was kind of hoping that it would not even be an actual device, but Nintendo would team up with Apple and create something that allows you to attach Joy-Con like controllers to iPhones and iPads.
I say Apple because
1. It would probably be a nightmare to try and support all the million Androids. The more limited iPhone + iPad lineup is more realistic.
2. iOS devices have insane raw power, especially their CPUs. They are comparable to average to good laptops. And that power is not really tapped by anything today, really.
But I also have to admit that it would be somewhat clunky to always mess with your iPhone and controllers, and there may be an important incoming call while you play, etc.
Re: Rumour: Nvidia's New Tegra X1+ Chip Could Make Switch Performance "Up To 25% Faster"
@Ralek85 Ray-tracing is great, it is the first really relevant technology in games for a long while. You know, lights and shadows and reflections that start looking realistic and are finally not all "fake."
On the other hand, ray-tracing is currently very power hungry, so I don't see it appearing in a handheld / hybrid (i.e. Switch Pro or Switch successor) for years and years. I'm even skeptical about the kind of ray-tracing we will get in PS5. It currently needs a high-end desktop GPU on PC.
Me, I can't see myself buying probaby any multiplat 3rd party AAA games for Switch (or Pro, or Switch 2). Sure, playing an AAA game on the toilet might sound enticing, but the compromise in graphics is too much for me. And most multiplat AAAs I don't find exciting anyway. Maybe-maybe ray-tracing can change this in the future, Control looks sexy on PC. I mean on a PC that is worth as much as several of my internal organs.
The Switch will stay relevant for me as long as there are games like BOTW 2, and new quality indies like Celeste or Hollow Knight or Stardew Valley or INSIDE, etc.
Honestly, I like the graphics of all of the above titles more than most AAAs. Graphics is as much about artwork and aesthetics and style as "image quality" and tech. 4k is totally stupid for a home console for most, you (most, normal people) just don't have a TV that is big and close enough for 4K to make any sense at all vs full HD. Personally I'd be okay with 720p even, my TV is a little bit far away.
Ray-tracing could make or break PS5 for me: if it is good enough, I might get interested. Otherwise, I'll be a late adopter, just like I was with the PS4, and will only go for a PS5 when there will be lots of great games already, for great prices.
Re: Untitled Goose Game Developer Reveals The Cheeky Name They Almost Used
@Moroboshi876
Both time and money are resources. Somehow "hardcode" gamers pretend that time isn't a resource, and the more time they can spend, the better. I'm actually afraid to buy and/or start any "big" games, as I'm not sure I'll ever have the time to finish them.
I also don't have unlimited money, but money doesn't matter all that much, up to certain limits: new AAA games are kind of expensive for me, so a new AAA game must really be very compelling for me to buy it. (Same with all the Nintendo AAA games that remain expensive forever.)
The last game I finished was another short game, Inside. I loved it, it was beautiful, fun, and surprising, and it was for free. And it didn't eat up too much of my time. Checked all the right boxes.
With Untitled Goose Game, it looked so much fun that I just had to buy it at launch. It has become one of those games that I buy and my kids play, at least so far.