Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

@NintendoByNature How is BioShock? I hope it isn't STILL downloading, considering it's been nearly eighteen hours by this point....

@Tyranexx I havent had a chance to play as of yet since it finished DL'ing over night. I should have some time tonight though.

@Ralizah
It’s unbelievable. After Bioshock I was worried The Outer Worlds wouldn’t have gyro, but it does!

Not only that, but FULL 1080p docked / 720p handheld? Am I dreaming?

Virtuos’ talent is beyond reproach. It’s not even up for debate anymore. Panic Button couldn’t even get Hob running beyond 720p docked / 540p handheld, meanwhile Virtuos has The Outer Worlds running at maximum resolution? Even XCOM 2 runs at higher res than Hob.

I think it’s telling all the Switch ports are now coming from Saber and Virtuos. And aside from DOOM Eternal, there really isn’t anything coming from panic button anymore.

This gives me hope they might patch in Gyro to Bioshock though. A ton of people hit up their Twitter, so they HAVE to know the insane level of demand.

@JaxonH I've said for a while that Panic Button is overrated. They just made a strong impression before anyone else with the spectacle of getting DOOM 2016 running on a handheld. But they had to sacrifice a LOT to do that.

Anyway, those resolution targets seem WAY too high if the game is going to run smoothly. I'd be worried if Virtuos didn't already have a reputation for good-to-excellent Switch ports (I think Dark Souls had some sort of sound quality issue, but I've yet to hear of any of their ports running poorly).

If they can max out The Outer Worlds' resolution on Switch with gyro and a solid 30fps... I mean, great, but I don't understand how that's possible, lol.

This year is hurting my wallet, man.

@NintendoByNature Awesome! Looking forward to some impressions!

@Ralizah
I think if textures are reworked and dynamic res is used for performance chokepoints (which is totally fine when it’s coming from full 1080p docked / 720p handheld), it’s possible. I mean, the game didn’t look that intensive on other platforms. Not compared to a lot of other AAA stuff, anyways.

@JaxonH I think it's to do with next gen, next gen complicates 3rd party support but it seems both Saber and Virtuos believe Switch still has a future for 3rd party support even after the new consoles come out.

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2020/05/witcher_3_port_spec...

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2020/05/feature_xcom_2_coll...

Pretty sure I've predicted it already but I think Saber's going to port Cyberpunk 2077 to Switch.

@Grumblevolcano
Ya honestly, at this point I think they are too. At the very least it’ll come later next year. Or early 2022. But I think it’s coming.

I'm grabbing outer world's at some point this summer. Some time after origami king.

With quality this high from Virtuos, the bar has been raised. Expectations have been raised. Witcher 3 made us rethink what was possible. But this latest batch of games has confirmed it.

@JaxonH @Ralizah To be fair to Panic Button, every time the OS update, I'm sure they're adding more and more APIs and performance controls for developers to use behind the scenes. In fact, we know that's the case, for one at least, boost mode. So optimizations possible today may not have been possible three years ago at launch. The good news is, if Nintendo's doing that it helps open up more and more doors for what can be ported.

@link3710
I mean, they do add gyro so I’ll given em that, and DOOM and Wolf 2 did get an update that made them look noticeably better. But still.

As a corridor shooter with the frame rate slashed in half in a very scalable engine using Vulcan, I struggle to reconcile how they topped out at 720p docked / 540p handheld when Virtuos’ Outer Worlds is hitting 1080p in an open world game, Sabre’s Witcher 3 hit the same 720p/540p without slashing framerate, in an open world and without as scalable an engine. I think we’d see a better DOOM Eternal if someone else was handling it.

That said, I’m still excited to see how Doom Eternal pans out.

Yeah, Virtuos is awesome. Really hope that Dark Souls 2&3 are future ports.

Let's not pile too much praise on the Outer Worlds port until it's actually been delivered. 'Targeting' in a pre-release press release is one thing, delivering in the actual game in your hands and on your TVs is another. And maybe there's some compromises being made that we don't know about. Draw distance & pop-in, texture detail, lighting effects, load times, NPC & vegetation count... all things that could be an issue for the sake of 'targeting' those resolutions.

And in further fairness to Panic Button, I'm pretty happy with the Rocket League port.

Dont forget doom was in the early years of the switch, we are 3 years later now so there is much more possible.
I have High hopes for doom Eternal, Panic Button can do it Im sure of it.
Outer worlds is a must buy for me, that portability is a must for me.

Fair enough. Rocket league does look good and at 60fps (though at first, it had that same low res issue too, and as I recall, wasn’t fixed until Psyonix did so).

I think after seeing Bioshock, Borderlands and XCOM 2, it’s a little easier to believe Outer Worlds will be good.

They're absolutely going to be paring down vegetation, textures, draw distance, etc. on Switch. They SHOULD. It's a weak platform. I'd much rather have a version of the game that is less visually detailed but is sharp and still looks good.

Pretty sure Xenoblade was the first Nintendo game special edition to get a vinyl, I wonder if this'll be the new standard going forward so like BotW 2 getting a vinyl.

I prefer the CD approach of before but at least it was vinyl + download code so the download code will get used.

Honestly don’t think anything Xenoblade CEs do will be standard. We’ve seen hardcover artbooks hundreds of pages long, USB drives, art cels, vinyl records, steelbook cases... none of these things have become standard, and most havent even used in one other game release at all.

I have the NA collector edition, but ordered the Australian CE after my EU orders were cancelled. That has a CD and steelbook. Then the UK edition came in stock for 3 min and I ordered it just 2 days ago. Cause, why not. I’m not big into vinyl but it’s still gonna be rare and unique and I collect all things Xenoblade. I also hear they are making a Melia 1/7 scale statue. Which will fit nicely next to Mythra, Pyra and my preordered KOS-MOS Xenoblade 2 edition 1/7 scale statues for display.

What I need is, that dang Manado key ring that was included with standard copies on Amazon UK. If anyone gets one of those things and wants to sell it, let me know. Can’t find them on eBay at all aside from one stooge trying to charge $100.

Heh, I got one with mine from Game, too, @JaxonH.... Sadly, keeping it, though