Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

@OorWullie
Don't think so.

This is what happened with LA Noire. The base game fits on a 16gb cart (hence the 13.7gb file size). Certain content or stages are removed to provide a base game in a playable state less than 16gb. Because that is the base game, that is the size listed on the eShop initially.

The remaining content (10-15gb worth) is added via update file day one. Eventually they will fix the E shop listing to reflect the entire file size after the update, as they did with LA Noire. Right now the number listed probably matches the file size on the cartridge, ignoring the "update" even though it's really just patching in the missing content that was removed to shrink the file size.

Which if you think about it makes sense because the game is pretty large. This has a lot more cinematics and voice work than DOOM, so it wouldn't make sense to have a smaller file size than the single player content of DOOM did.

There's always the possibility I'm wrong but, I don't think I am.

@Ralizah
Played Gal Gun 2, and dude... the game is really freakin fun! Like, surprisingly so. I set the motion controls to always be on, and it's amazing! I thought it would end up being OK at best, but no. This game is genuinely fun as heck

@Grumblevolcano Wolfenstein 2 doesn't have a multiplayer mode though.

@JaxonH Can you play L.A. Noire without the ''mandatory patch'' though?

@Octane Yes to an extent. I don't know if anybody tried to see how far they could get without dl'ing it though.

@JaxonH Nuh-uh. I've got no beef with anyone being excited for any games (except maybe 1-2 Switch, I hated that game for a while out of sheer disappointment).

And I wasn't mocking anyone about the games being talked about. While I'm not personally over hyped for those rpgs, for example, I am interested in all of them and they're very welcome additions to Switch's library.

I was actually genuinely hyping the (slim) possibility that these publishers know something we don't about the post-E3 schedule, but I was also acknowledging (in the brackets) that from semi-bitter experience of the recent past, there's really no justification for such an optimistic expectation.

You and I both know that Switch has done well so far, but that sales aren't much different from 3DS sales for the same period in its lifetime, only this time there's no home console alongside it, just the 3DS (which has held up better than expected, granted). So it could be argued that Nintendo haven't actually gained much ground with the Switch, or maybe even losing market share.

My hope was that Switch's second year was going to be bigger than its first, but so far it's looking more like it's just taking up the Vita slack and could lose momentum amongst the consumers who were starting to consider coming back to Nintendo.

Lots of nice games are coming, but still very little of the western-style blockbusters. Repeating myself from another thread, Switch is crying out for a few GTA/Watch_Dogs/Assassins Creed/Far Cry style games. I don't expect them to have been released yet, but the continued absence of any such announcements is disappointing, and mildly worrying, to me. There is no point (that I can see) for studios to be withholding such announcements, so the fact that even Ubisoft haven't put any more cards on the table (correct me if I'm wrong, but their offering has so far been limited to M&R:Kingdom Battle, Rayman (port) and Just Dance) is starting to hack me off.

So when Dark Souls gets mysteriously delayed (as you have discussed, some might say, cynically, yourself) and Wolf2 takes the forced download route (understandable, maybe, but still disappointing), I start getting slightly fed up with it.

But I'm just griping at the situation, no-one here.

Just beat Bayonetta 2 on Hard difficulty, and whew what a game. Such fun action combat and it's even better than Bayonetta 1, which I also really enjoyed.

@JaxonH Fantastic! Glad you were open-minded enough to try it. I played the previous one, Double Peace, on PS4 expecting a novelty fanservice game and went away really enjoying the gameplay, humor, art-style, and replayability (TONS of different endings for the various girls). I played my digital copy for 45 minutes or so on a break (why the heck didn't this unlock at midnight?!), and it's definitely different so far in terms of being less of a pure arcade game. The portability is fantastic, too. I'll probably end up playing this one a good deal more just because of the convenient form factor of the Switch.

Does the full gyro work okay, then? If so, I'll have to try it out. The "zoom in and gyro aim" method isn't perfect, but it beats the pants off of pure dual analog. I absolutely love how much of a thing gyro aiming has become for Switch shooters!

@gcunit
Think that's a tad pessimistic. Sales of Switch are nowhere anywhere close to the Vita. I'm pretty sure it's doing more in Japan alone than Vita was doing globally. It's really hard to have a bigger second year then one of the biggest years on record. So the question is does it really matter if it's not as big as it first year? All that's really saying is the second year wasn't as good as one of the biggest years ever. Which isn't really making a statement at all. It's the statistically likely outcome. That aside we don't know what this year is going to entail yet- they're not going to release a Zelda sized game every three months. If this year is going to be big, it's going to be big because they release a couple big games in the second half of the year.

As for Ubisoft, I mean, we just got South Park from Ubisoft today. Which clearly shows they're looking to bring other, current games to the system. On top of Rayman, on top of Mario Rabbids, Star Atlus or whatever that game is they announced (Monopoly, Uno, Just Dance). It takes time to develop games and everyone was reluctant with this system. Nobody thought it was going to succeed. They literally had a couple games for the launch year and then they were ready to back off and never support the system again. That was everyone's plan. But the Switch completely bucked expectations and now all these companies are caught with their pants down after a successful year 1. Only now, are they fully on board. Yeah it sucks- it means we have to wait, but it doesn't mean they're never going to support the system. It just means they're late to the party because of their lack of confidence. And they are losing money as a result. And they know it.

But, there is actually reason for them to withhold announcements. There is. Nintendo announces almost everything big in their directs. I think 80% 90% of the biggest games we got from third parties, were announced by Nintendo, and/or were announced after other versions. That's just a fact. Not really sure where that mindset is coming from saying there's no reason for them to withhold, when that's exactly what they've been doing since the day the system launched.

Dark Souls is still coming. Five years from now when we look back nobody's going to care if the game released 60 to 90 days after the other versions. Might be aggravating now (and it is), but that doesn't suddenly spell doom for the system. Wolfenstein does force a download. And I agree it's aggravating. But again, the game is still coming.

Ya, it could do with some more western blockbusters... that would be great. If it doesn't... well... So we don't have Call of Duty on the switch... ok. Guess people who want to play it will just have to play it somewhere else then. People who want to play it portably will just have to do without. Those big mega block buster games are in 3 year development rotations, mind you. Expect at least 1-2 years for full backing from time of commitment (which was likely 6 months ago for most developers), and in the meantime, smaller projects and ports with a fast turnaround (which is exactly what we're seeing).

As for whether Nintendo gained anything from going hybrid or not, fact is they were irrelevant in the console space for decades anyways, and the handheld market was indeed shrinking. So they don't have to gain anything, just establish a stable platform that's not going to continue shrinking. That's the real gain. Finding a permanent place in the market that will grow rather than shrink. But as they said, they are greedy and they are still selling 3DS alongside of it, still making games to keep it going. So they've gained a lot of ground actually. They've got the hottest system on the market and a handheld pushing 80 million sold. That's a lot better situation than they were in five years ago.

We are getting a lot more games now than last year. And all the support now is actual permanent support and not just "here's a game or two for launch year then we're out". We see the polls from developers with a massive spike who are actually making games for the system versus this time last year. We see the spike of interest is only 3% lower than the interest in developing for PS4. That means more and more games are coming and going to be coming. But it doesn't mean E3 is going to come and 57 titles are all going to be announced at once. It means we're going to get a couple announced in the spring and a couple at e3 and a couple in the fall. It's a gradual increase. Going to look at E3 and compare it to the spring and it's not really going to look any different. Except maybe one or two more games. And then you are going to look at the fall and it's not going to look much different than E3. Just one or two more games. But those one or two more games add up, and before you know it, we're a couple years into the lifespan and it's getting 3-4x as many games as it was during its launch year. Stop stressing that Call of Duty in Assassins Creed hasn't been announced. With or without them, we'll get plenty others. We will see GTAV. Do you think they brought LA Noire but they're not going to put their biggest moneymaker that is already known to be able to run on the system? Come on.

@Octane
No, it doesn't, but I wasn't comparing to DOOM with multiplayer, I was comparing to DOOM singleplauyer only. DOOM single player only was larger than this Wolfenstein 2 file size. And that was with basically no cut scenes and no voice work.

@Ralizah
I honestly don't think I could play it and stay interested without the gyro. It's just that good. I tried it using gyro only when you zoom in but I didn't like it. I need to be able to aim quickly even when I'm not zoomed in. When you turn it on full gyro it works just like any other game with gyro. And it's really refreshing because I feel like I haven't experienced something like this since Sin and Punishment 2. An on-rails shooter with motion. It's a blast

gcunit doesn't understand the new normal for Nintendo announcements. Major AAA games have several times already been announced literally 3 or less months before release nowadays on Switch, and certain big time titles are very clearly going to wait until the last 1/3 of the year, because that's how AAA games tend to work.

It's not even like it will take much to get a good chunk of that type of AAA game. Big western publishers are making so few games nowadays that if we get a few, a few is plenty by modern standards.

@JaxonH Sure enough! I thought gyro disabled stick controls, but they apparently don't. And full gyro is so fast and responsive! This is definitely the way I'm playing now. Good shout.

...this is the first game I've seen that maps the gyro controls to the left joycon, though. This is going to take a bit of getting used to.

@Ralizah
Ya I'm still getting used to that.

You can remap the buttons however you want though. I changed the shoot button to ZR, with the vacuum still set to ZL. You can change to the right analog for aiming, but I left it as is because I don't want to have to remove my finger from the right analog when I zoom in and out

Yes, this is common knowledge. It even says "manji" clearly in the picture I posted. I was trying to make a joke. Maybe it didn't come through the way it did in my head. ;P Sorry for any misunderstandings.

Looks like Nintendo Life ads are promoting Monster Hunter World...

I'm gonna have to give a spiel on South Park. This game is quality, and it looks and runs perfect on Switch. Some of the humor is actually funny too- its not all crude (though some of it is).

Let me put it this way. if this game can sell me on it, given I'm not a fan of the show, I think it can sell pretty much anyone if they play it for themselves. It feels just as high-quality as Mario Rabbids. I'm really impressed. It's so ridiculously funny- all these kids dressed up in cardboard suits to make themselves have Viking helmets and spears and they're beating each other up like a gang war out in the street, then three or four kids bring out this giant cardboard dragon they made, and they're riding on the back of it, then a car drives by and everybody gets out of the road and waits, then they go right back to playing.

It's like the entire game is a bunch of kids playing make-believe. Tbh it's a breath of fresh air.

@Grumblevolcano
Couldn't tell ya. Been using AdBlock on this site for a long time because the ads they run freeze the pages up to where I can't type anything, and even if I am lucky enough to get 2 sentences typed in 5 minutes from all the stuttering and freezing, the page will then suddenly get an error and reload, and I lose everything I typed.

So ya. Adblock it is.

@JaxonH My only problem with South Park is the title of the game and having it displayed for my kids to see. I don't want to have to explain what the game is or about the show. If I play it I would have to open and close like 10 games to knock it off the home screen. I don't really like them seeing Doom either tbh.

@Spoony_Tech
Ah, I see. I can appreciate that (although the title does make sense as written, so it doesn't necessarily have to be interpreted in a foul manner, in fact I didn't even make that connection until it was pointed out to me, just because it made sense as it was, and makes more sense in game given the kids fracture into 2 groups).

So your kids and you all share a Switch? Have you thought about getting them their own?

March NPD results are in!

Hardware wise, the PS4 was the best selling console, while the Neon Switch was the best selling SKU. XB1/XB1X drove hardware revenue growth too. Strong results all around yet again!

Software wise, Kirby Star Allies debuted at #4 and had the strongest debut in the franchise's history!!! It had a 90% better debut month than the previous record holder, Kirby's Nightmare in Dream Land.

Software Charts:

1. Far Cry 5
2. Sea of Thieves
3. MLB The Show 18
4. Kirby Star Allies
5. GTA V
6. CoD WWII
7. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
8. Ni No Kuni II
9. NBA 2K18
10. Monster Hunter World
11. Super Mario Odyssey
12. Zelda Breath of the Wild
13. PUBG
14. Rainbow Six Siege
15. A Way Out
16. Assassin's Creed Origins
17. Dragon Ball FighterZ
18. FIFA 18
19. Splatoon 2
20. UFC 3

Bayonetta 2 also had a nice hold in the individual Switch chart.

https://www.resetera.com/threads/npd-march-2018-far-cry-5-1-s...

@JaxonH Yes but then my wife would kill me lol. It will happen at some point and Pokemon might be the reason why.

I wish there was a way to hide M rated content all together on the Switch. They can't play them but wish they couldn't even see them.

@IceClimbers That's pretty great to hear about kirby. Even if it's too easy for some, I just love the aesthetics they put into each game, I'm happy to hear it did well.