Topic: Nintendo Switch --OT--

@Octane Laptops are technically portable, but they're nowhere near as small, convenient, or comfortable as handhelds.

Unless you mean that $700 GPD Win 2 thing, which... nah.

@Ralizah Day 1 purchase for me. I played some on PS4 then balked at the size of the game. So looking forward to taking it on trips with me. Really excited!

Was it just me or the control scheme on the PS4 version of Witcher 3 was kind of poorly optimized? I may look into the Switch version of the performace is good.

The more I play with the Lite the more I like it, makes me regret investing in the OG model.

@Ralizah Yeah, that GPD thing

@Rudy_Manchego Honestly, the sheer scope of the game makes it feel like something I'll never have time for on my stationary platforms. I mean, that's probably not entirely true. I made time for H:ZD, and that was also a pretty big game, but I do play on my handhelds a LOT more.

If I was bothered about performance, I'd play it on my PC at 60fps, but... I dunno. Shiny graphics aren't as valuable to me as being able to play anywhere I want at the drop of a hat. I'm expecting it to be a little rough, but that's OK.

@belmont Here's handheld footage. Not a direct feed, so it won't look as good as playing in person, but it'll give you an idea of what the game looks like:

Word of God says it's 540p handheld and targeting 720p docked. Framerate doesn't look rock solid, but not super choppy, either. It's worth noting that CDProjektRed probably optimized the game further since then.

It'll... be a little rough. It's a demanding modern-gen AAA game running on hardware that's a good deal weaker than anything else on the market. Personally, I think it looks marvelous, given what they had to work with.

I've wanted to check this game out for a while, and now that the developer is supporting the Switch, it seems as good a time as any to make good on that. I especially like that they shelled out for the expensive 32GB cards so that the entire game would be complete on cart.

@Ralizah It is understandable that the game will be toned down and it is OK however I very much prefer to drop the graphics quality, drow distances, shadows and optimize the framerate, controls, load times etc.

Concerning current generation AAA games on Switch... Doom and Wolfenstein were good ports (I used to have both although I sold Doom when I got the PS4 version), they control great and after the recent patches they run relatevely good, especially the latter. Both get a drop in resolution sometimes especially in portable mode but it is not as destructing as in Xenoblade 2 where portable performance is very bad. I have also tried Skyrim but this game is not that demanding performance wise and runs great almost all the time. I would like to try Diablo 3 and Mortal Kombat too but have not yet.

Other "recent" games I have in Switch but not "triple A" in the same sense are the new Sonic racing, Sonic Mania, Dragon Quest S all have good performance. Some indies and retro collections have issues for some bizzare reason.

As for Witcher 3 it seems quite good actually since it is still work in progress. I will definetely check it although I don't really get the 50 pound price tag. 35-40 makes more sense.

So wait... That 24 hour pokémon Sword & Shield livestream showed maybe ten seconds of My Little Galarian Ponyta... and that was it?

Not a complete waste of time and rescources in the slightest

Glad you're enjoying it @KratosMD . Didn't really like DQ VIII myself (The only one I've played) but nice to hear!

I assume the Minor & Major league thing is basically only for lore purposes @KratosMD . I bet there'll be two MAYBE three gym differences between the games.

They probably won't even mention the other supposed leaders at all besides some throwaway comment and l seriously doubt there'll be an actual gym rotation mecahnic or anything either.

100% agree that Game Freak have some exceedingly awful communication skills to boot. All the other blunders they've had doesn't help the reputation of them either.

The livestream could've been used to showcase some battling against exisiting monsters like a Pidgey or something, maybe a teensy bit of the wild areas or something... or hell even the second stages of the Starter pokes.

Just a ponyta variant is rather poor to say the least

Judging by the fact that people have been losing their minds over Dexit for months now... probably not.

@Ralizah Same here. Graphics are great but portable play is more important to me. I would never have sat down for Skyrim if I hadn’t played it on Switch. As long as performance is stable then graphical fidelity is less important.

I was away from my TV today, so instead of progressing in Astral Chain (which I like playing on the bigger screen), I popped in Dragon Ball FighterZ and got a quite a few offline VS matches in, and then returned DKC Tropical Freeze to replay some of my favorite levels.

Sometimes it's nice to go back to older games for a shakeup.

Thought I'd post this... Always found Zero Punctuation's reviews fairly funny but his time with Astral Chain had me laughing quite a bit (Even though I don't know anything about the game in question) with his more negative view on it.

The off comment about his time with fire emblem three houses was good too

Some light spoilers I guess (Not too sure if the spoiler in question was known about beforehand but it sounds pretty obvious to me), a decent amount of cursing and a few more adult (NSFW) references!

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy

His review of Dad of Boy is pretty good, too. I like how he lampoons Sony's tendency these days to make games where the cameras cling to the backs of the characters.

PS: The Fire Emblem jab is... not inaccurate. There's a TON of unique dialogue to read each time you first explore the campus in a given month.

Speaking of Astral Chain, I think I just started the final main story chapter. I'm not even all that well versed in more skill based action games, but I've been playing it on Pt Standard and It's been a great time so far.

@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy @Ralizah Yahztee's E3 videos are worth a watch too!

So I have a very odd but pervasive issue with the Switch Lite.

It's not save data sharing, or game sharing, or buttons, or analog sticks.

It's this damn screen.

Apparently the colour temperature is warmer, and this is also true of the revised Switch, meaning its actually more accurate than the original model I have, where the blues are more vibrant because the screen is "cooler" in colour.

But when I was playing Sonic Mania on my Lite, I got to the Puyo Puyo boss battle in Chemical Plant and....yikes. I cant see the difference between the Green and Yellow Puyo, or the Blue and Purple ones.

This isn't an issue on my TV (I have it colour adjusted slightly) nor is it an issue on the admittedly less accurate Switch OG screen, because it's cooler. But on Switch Lite, with its more accurate colour balance and temperature....means that any game without a colour blind mode is now harder to play for me than on my original Switch.

This is a very me issue, as I'm colour blind, but man, it's kinda rough.

So I got sent the Witcher 3 on Switch early and have managed to put a couple of hours in. Note I do have the PS4 version and put about 11 hours into that so have played both.

Not sure what I think of the port to be honest. The cut scenes look good and being in small indoor environments are ok but it feels ver soft and fuzzy when out in the world. Handheld is worst but the tv is not much better. On the plus side, it is buttery smooth and the sound is excellent. I am not one to complain about graphics as they are not my thing and I could be playing pre-day one patch but this does feel slightly like an inferior version. I played some of the other ports like Skyrim and Doom on Switch and did not feel like that but this one feels slightly off.

Still a marvel it runs at all and I know this is the only way I will get through it but be warned I have a feeling this may come up in reviews. On the other plus side, install size for the first patch is only 3.2gb with physical cartridge which is pretty small.

@Rudy_Manchego So it has a big patch... So much praise for "having all game in card". Meh physical games don't really exist anymore.

YS VIII is larger than I thought but I am at a point where the story is more interesting and the stupid jokes have stopped. There are performance issues on some indoors area so I can't reccomend it if you have the PS4 or Vita versions but surely go ahead and get it if you have no other version.

I got "worse that death" a 2d survival game for ~6 pounds since it had a launch discount. The big Final Fantasy sale is still live but I may get some games some other time. I have them on the Vita but I really want them everywhere!

Eh. Handheld play is the only reason to get it on Switch unless you don't own any other modern platforms. I get why some people don't like playing big, cinematic games on a handheld, or in handheld mode, but it has never bothered me, personally. If I dock a game, it's usually just because I'm near a TV anyway, and because of the performance benefits of doing so.

A friend of mine is getting this version, so I'm going to wait and see what his copy looks like. With that said, I do hope enough people buy it to make the port worthwhile: it's only the second game on the system to ship with a 32GB card, and the first game that did this never even launched overseas. It seems like CDProjektRed did everything imaginable to get it running well on the Switch. I've heard lots of Switch owners say they'd be willing to accept reasonable compromises to play big third party games on the system. Well, here you go.

Anyway...

I'm about 40 hours into DQXI S now, and really loving it! The game is so consistently charming. No matter what you do, every town, every room, etc. has something to find, something rewarding to uncover, and it makes exploration an absolute delight. The QoL updates take away the few grumbles I've heard from other people about other versions. The music is just terrific with actual instruments. I'm not sure if it's my favorite RPG on the system to date, but if not, it's just a few steps off.

@belmont I guess the patch is big but to be honest, for third party games this is tiny and I believe it might be language packs from what I have read.

@Kidfried Well to be honest, I bought it so I could play handheld. I know it is a large and cinematic game but I do badly struggle to play 100 hour games in front of my TV. I am just over half way through AC Odyssey and at 50 hours and I have been playing off and on since July. This is because I steal the TV here and then but the Switch I can steal more time here and there. As @Ralizah said, the reason to play it on Switch is for portability and I am happy to compromise I just feel that possibly the compromise is more than that of other ports. The game is still the game so quality is there and it clearly not a cheap and easy port and I think this is the best chance I would have if finishing this behemoth.