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When we went hands on with DOOM on Nintendo Switch we were rather impressed with what we saw, albeit getting such a technically impressive game on the system is clearly a challenge. Demo events had attendees playing in portable mode to accentuate the technical achievement, though left some questions about whether docked play would bring any change.

Based on Bethesda's feedback to Glixel, docking the system won't make a huge difference. Regardless of how you play it'll be 30fps - largely as expected - and there'll apparently be no core resolution bump. It's reported that graphics rendering is the same docked and undocked, so the game will still be at 720p when docked; that, presumably is the target when in portable mode. When pixel counting Digital Foundry reckoned it was outputting below a native 720p on the portable; it's possible that the resolution is dynamic in order to secure a solid 30fps performance. When docked we hope it'll utilise the extra resources to hold at a solid resolution, but time will tell.

It also answers another enquiry that was doing the rounds, whether there'd be support for motion controlled aiming - that won't be included, which isn't hugely surprising. It's also confirmed that the 9GB multiplayer download with retail versions is due to the size of the cartridge - only the solo campaign can fit on the 16GB carts being used. It's our understanding that theoretically 32GB carts are available, but the costs and volume may not suit Bethesda. So far DOOM joins NBA 2K18 as a game that requires a mandatory download to a microSD card with a retail purchase.

We're looking forward to seeing more of DOOM in action on the Switch and seeing how it fares when docked. It'll undoubtedly be one of the most intriguing releases on the system later this year.

[source rollingstone.com]