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Topic: Nintendo Switch --OT--

Posts 6,861 to 6,880 of 7,477

LtSarge

@Buizel I'm not that huge on the GBA tracks in all honesty. I appreciate the upgrades but due to how simplistic the track design is, the tracks are still overall rather forgettable.

I'm definitely fed up with the Tour tracks though. Everyone feels the same, there are only a handful that really stand out, such as Amsterdam. But at this point, I've come to the realisation that these tracks are basically padding for these DLC packs. They're easier to add to the game compared to older tracks that have to be remade. So Nintendo is just adding them in order to make it look like we're getting tons of additional content but in reality, most of it is just bland and uninteresting tracks.

LtSarge

kyleforrester87

I liked what we saw of Zelda. I have always wished I could get into games like Minecraft but I don’t really have the time, patience and creativity - but the features included in this game look set to allow even someone like me to get a taste. I know I’ll appreciate them as I played BOTW and had fun with the physics, and this game is really leaning into that aspect.

Of course, the video was just focused on Links new abilities and didn’t touch on what I expect is so much more.

I can’t argue with the fact that it looks and sounds like a 7 year old game on old hardware, but I’m staying optimistic overall.

Edited on by kyleforrester87

kyleforrester87

PSN: WigSplitter1987

Pizzamorg

I'll want to see how it runs in person, but it looks like the mad lads did it. I think we were all convinced that there had to be some kind of trickery with the sky islands, and maybe there is some sort of caching happening off screen or something, but he was able to move seamlessly between sky island and the surface in that trailer, I am impressed.

Otherwise, it looks like more of the same, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing when that same is a game like Breath of the Wild. Things like the Fuse ability are a great meets in the middle solution for people who didn't like the weapon degradation system, and the other abilities suggest there are probably going to be some bonkers community creations over the years post release.

Edited on by Pizzamorg

Life to the living, death to the dead.

kyleforrester87

@Pizzamorg People weren’t happy with the weapon degradation, they could have buffed weapons in response, or got rid of it all together - instead they go with this crazy crafting system. Its creative and gives the gamer the chance to get creative too, instead of scavenging a list of disconnected raw materials and building something through menus at a crafting bench. It’s the sort of feature you’ll see other developers pinch in the years to come.

Edited on by kyleforrester87

kyleforrester87

PSN: WigSplitter1987

Pizzamorg

Agreed @kyleforrester87, would have been easy to go for the cheap pop and just take it out. Instead they built a whole new gameplay system to address the complaints instead, really impressive stuff.

Life to the living, death to the dead.

Ralizah

@Pizzamorg It might be your TV, if you're playing on a 4K set. I've heard some people claim that 30fps titles feel choppy almost to the point of unplayability on their sets, but they have no issue when playing elsewhere, or undocked in the case of the Switch. Some TVs don't play nicely with games running at or near 30fps, seemingly.

Unless we're talking about Korok Forest, which was, yes, judder city.

Being designed for the Switch exclusively, I'm hoping they've ironed out those little problem areas. The game is visually pretty similar to BotW, which was probably a good approach, considering you literally seem to be able to travel seamlessly between anywhere in the sky to anywhere on the ground with visible loading. There's not a massive power boost going from Wii U to Switch, so they have limited system resources to exploit.

@kyleforrester87 At times, BotW felt like Minecraft by way of Skyrim. I feel like the countless videos out there of the insane ways players manipulated the in-game physics must have had a deep impact on the development team, which clearly went the extra mile to make this world as interactive as possible.

And, probably even more than the old game, I expect the game to be designed in such a way as to facilitate player creativity whenever possible. There were so many parts of BotW where there was an obvious, ordinary solution, but also, conspicuously, the elements needed to attempt something more ambitious for a reasonably creative person. The game didn't explicitly direct the player toward these possibilities, but instead allowed them to find the answer for themselves.

It's a vibe you don't really get with any other open world adventure game to date.

Edited on by Ralizah

Currently Playing: Advance Wars 1 + 2: Re- Boot Camp (NS)

PSN: Ralizah

Pizzamorg

Oooo interesting point @Ralizah I have one of those Sony TVs with VRR I use with my PS5 and I just leave the TV in that mode. I wonder if that is causing problems here because BOTW is in such a low framerate? I might try and work out how to turn that off and then see if the game feels better. Not much time now as I'm about to go to work, I'll try when I finish and see if it runs better and check back in.

Life to the living, death to the dead.

RR529

@LtSarge, the city tracks from Tour don't require any less dev time than the other retro tracks, as the vast majority of them (like Coconut Mall, *Maple Treeway, Waluigi Pinball, etc.) were already remade in Tour. They're all just fancy upscales from that game, no matter what their original origin was (not that I'm complaining).

Even the few tracks that have premiered in the DLC first, arrive in Tour within a month or two after the fact, so even with those they're probably still using the Tour version as a base & upscaling (and just giving MK8D first dibs so their core fanbase can have something "new").

Currently Playing:
Switch - Blade Strangers
PS4 - Kingdom Hearts III, Tetris Effect (VR)

Ralizah

@Pizzamorg I feel like a lot of expensive TVs ruin stuff with post-processing nonsense. We experienced that recently when we went to a rich relative's house and tried to watch the finale of The Last of Us. To our dismay, some sort of motion smoothing effect was on, and it made the show look bizarre, so we had to dig through menus trying to find a way to turn the effect off. It helped, but other stuff was clearly happening in the background, as other programs felt... off as well.

We have a 4K OLED, but it's very much on the cheap end, and we've never had an issue with it.

Currently Playing: Advance Wars 1 + 2: Re- Boot Camp (NS)

PSN: Ralizah

Ralizah

Kodaka's spiritual successor to the Danganronpa series is looking pretty awesome.

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Edited on by Ralizah

Currently Playing: Advance Wars 1 + 2: Re- Boot Camp (NS)

PSN: Ralizah

RogerRoger

@Ralizah That first shot, and the last two as well, proving how important good lighting can be. Those are some of the prettiest Switch shots I think I've ever seen!

"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."

PSN: GDS_2421
Making It So Since 1987

HallowMoonshadow

Raincode is looking very pretty @Ralizah and like Rog there's some great lighting there too. I hope it delivers when it releases!

.... And comes to other platforms eventually so not only I can play it but there's no doubt some bells and whistles (or even just a higher resolution) to make it look even better!

Previously known as Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy
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"You don't have to save the world to find meaning in life. Sometimes all you need is something simple, like someone to take care of"

Pizzamorg

Ralizah wrote:

@Pizzamorg I feel like a lot of expensive TVs ruin stuff with post-processing nonsense. We experienced that recently when we went to a rich relative's house and tried to watch the finale of The Last of Us. To our dismay, some sort of motion smoothing effect was on, and it made the show look bizarre, so we had to dig through menus trying to find a way to turn the effect off. It helped, but other stuff was clearly happening in the background, as other programs felt... off as well.
We have a 4K OLED, but it's very much on the cheap end, and we've never had an issue with it.

The VRR mode is needed to access the 120 fps modes on things like God of War Ragnarok, it isn't the same as stuff like motion smoothing (which I agree belongs in the bin). Although weirdly switching off the VRR mode did seem to fix the problem in this case. I guess because BOTW is generally in a low framerate all the time, VRR just makes it all the more obvious how juddery it looks. The problem hasn't gone away, it is just better hidden like when you play in handheld mode.

Life to the living, death to the dead.

Ralizah

@Pizzamorg Oh, I know. Just saying: more often than not, those sort of features tend to detract for me. On PC, I've found using tools like Rivatuner to limit the framerate often work better to eliminate issues with screen-tearing than turning on Vsync in games.

Glad you found your culprit!

@RogerRoger Agreed. The gorgeous lighting and strong use of color are going to help this punch above its weight on the hardware.

Actually, in general, those elements tend to be far more important to me than how many triangles are on the screen when it comes to finding a game attractive or not. Take the most impressive tech demo in the world, but give it bland colors and lighting, and you've lost me on that aspect of the experience.

@HallowMoonshadow It probably will. Kodaka addressed this in an interview recently:

"We talked about potentially making it multiplatform before, but this (Nintendo Direct) announcement made me realize the effect of narrowing it down to one platform. It would be a different story with an AAA title, but there are so many AA and A titles that it would get buried if it were multiplatform. It was Spike Chunsoft who made the decision to make it Switch-only, and I think it was a wise one. …if we made it multiplatform, it would certainly be buried and lost."

Source: https://nintendoeverything.com/master-detective-archives-rain...

Switch exclusives get more attention by default, and Nintendo's powerful marketing can help to sell the games faster, as seen recently with (initially) Switch-exclusive Triangle Strategy versus the multi-platform Octopath Traveler 2 in terms of sales.

But once the window of time has passed where the game is new, there's no value in keeping the game exclusive. At that point, a second launch on other platforms makes sense.

Third-party exclusives are broadly a thing of the past in a more permanent sense.

Edited on by Ralizah

Currently Playing: Advance Wars 1 + 2: Re- Boot Camp (NS)

PSN: Ralizah

RogerRoger

Ralizah wrote:

Actually, in general, those elements tend to be far more important to me than how many triangles are on the screen when it comes to finding a game attractive or not. Take the most impressive tech demo in the world, but give it bland colors and lighting, and you've lost me on that aspect of the experience.

Quoted for truth. Lighting can make or break a game with borderline graphics. I've always appreciated when something that can't manage bleeding-edge detail or high-resolution textures knows it, and so instead doubles down on decent lighting or a vibrant colour palette. Thinking back over the (admittedly limited) experiences I've had on Switch, it's always been those kinda games which've impressed me the most, but it's also been true of several PlayStation budget games and indies, as well.

As much as I might occasionally rag on the Switch for being "a toaster" when it comes to certain multi-platform games, I'm still in awe of what a decent developer can do with its ageing hardware. I suppose that exposes where I should be directing my sarcasm!

"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."

PSN: GDS_2421
Making It So Since 1987

Ralizah

@RogerRoger It is pretty amazing to think that Nintendo is still hanging onto Wii U-levels of hardware grunt in 2023 and is only now starting to slip in terms of being the runaway winner of the generation. Shows you just how far a good concept and a strong slate of games will carry you (sort of the opposite of Microsoft right now, I think; they have really strong hardware, but very little to show off with it)

Thankfully, leaked specs suggest the successor will be a device whose output grunt will be somewhere between a PS4 and Xbox Series S. Probably closer to the bottom end when undocked, I imagine, in order to control thermals and battery life. Still, more than enough for the majority of modern games.

Edited on by Ralizah

Currently Playing: Advance Wars 1 + 2: Re- Boot Camp (NS)

PSN: Ralizah

RogerRoger

@Ralizah The handheld factor aside, I think Nintendo have always realised that software strength matters a lot more than hardware power. Heck, the PS2 was the weakest console of its generation, and then of course there's the Wii, which wasn't exactly pushing limits when it came to multi-platform games, and often needed a bespoke, downgraded version developed for its outclassed stats (a version which, in the early days at least, would then invariably get itself ported to the PS2).

At least the Switch can run most modern multi-platform game without cutting too many features, if any. I tried the Sonic Frontiers demo recently and sure, it looks atrocious on Switch when compared to my PS5 version, but it's still Sonic Frontiers, and that's worth something.

Didn't realise there'd been leaked specs. Given how capable the PS4 remains, it'd be real impressive if that's a possible performance target. Good to see that they're gonna preserve portability, at any rate.

"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."

PSN: GDS_2421
Making It So Since 1987

KilloWertz

@RogerRoger What multi-platform games the Switch can run depends on the game and also how much effort the developer/publisher is willing to put in. I can understand why some have completely skipped the Switch as it is likely a very expensive and time consuming undertaking that hopefully will no longer be an issue.

PSN ID/Xbox Live Gamertag: KilloWertz
Switch Friend Code: SW-6448-2688-7386

RogerRoger

@KilloWertz True, I guess. Must be why the Switch has become an "also" console; most folks seem to have either a PlayStation or an Xbox, or a powerful gaming rig, and then also a Switch. But at least it's cool that, if the will is there on the part of a developer or publisher, it's been a viable option.

"We want different things, Crosshair. That doesn't mean that we have to be enemies."

PSN: GDS_2421
Making It So Since 1987

Ralizah

@RogerRoger I tried the Sonic Frontiers demo out of interest, since I heard so many bad things about it, and thought it looked... fine. Undocked on an OLED, at least. I imagine it looks bad on a 4KTV. Also helps that I don't have another version of the game to compare it to. I could play this version and be happy with it.

Yeah, while Nintendo has played to its own corner of the market for a long time to varying degrees of success, the Switch has inherited the legacy of and consolidated multiple sub-communities that were alienated when Sony fully embraced the push to make Playstation a Western-oriented, blockbuster-driven gaming brand. It also consolidated the existing fanbase that had fractured between their own home console and handheld hardware lines. Even once Nintendo is 'playing with power' again, I don't think a ton of Western multiplats will make the jump, since the engaged player base will largely spurn those experiences in favor of third party experiences that are increasingly being ignored on Xbox and Playstation.

With this third-party advantage in terms of Japanese games and indies, Nintendo platforms can maintain their distinctiveness without becoming mere ghettos you visit when you want to play a first-party title, which is how a lot of their post-SNES home consoles were.

Edited on by Ralizah

Currently Playing: Advance Wars 1 + 2: Re- Boot Camp (NS)

PSN: Ralizah

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