Topic: Unpopular Gaming Opinions

@Dogorilla I doubt they'll just make another console exactly like the switch, given they tried that with the Wii U, and you saw how that turned out.

I'm not being completely serious when I say this, but part of me does look at modern gaming and think Nintendo can just never upgrade at this point tbh. If you really pay attention to most AAA gaming companies, their output is laughable compared to 10-15 years ago. Putting out as few games as possible seems to be the priority at this point. I don't care how pretty 4K BOTW3 would be, I'm not waiting 6 years after 2022 for another 3D Zelda. Even the switch (ha) to one singular HD system has had its downsides for quantity (not quality and I'll die on that hill), I don't want it to get worse.

If Nintendo had gone to (and succeeded) at a more advanced, traditional console instead, would we have even gotten half the cool games from last year? Would Suda feel another No More Heroes would have the chance to make its money back? Would SE feel obligated to make non-AAA games like Neo:TWEWY or most of the HD-2D games? Would we get a remake of Famicom Detective Club? Would we have gotten a new Warioware? Would the updates for Animal Crossing have taken only the same amount of time? If the answer any of these would've been "no" it invalidates any good from trying to make a "more modern" system, just so Nintendo could largely just get a handful of mediocre open world action adventure, live service, hero shooter...moba battle royales or whatever the **** the current trend is now (and that's if Nintendo's lucky).

also new consoles cost money so I'd rather not lol

@kkslider5552000
The problem with the "lets not release new hardware" mentality is that tech the spec always improves along an exponential curve. And not everyone brought the console at the exact time you did. Or took care of it as well/have the same tolerance for wear/had the same batch luck as you did. With the console model of hardware where you sell the same spec throughout the life of the console the gap between the spec of what you're selling and the spec of what you could sell grows over time. By a lot.

There are over 100mill Switch consoles out there and probably not many people who have more than one Switch. That's a huge number for sure. However some proportion of those people are going to start looking elsewhere eventually. Whether that's Steam Deck, PS5 or some other as of yet unknown product. Hell some people will just move on from gaming entirely and will be replaced by new gamers who will look at the market with fresh eyes. And the longer Nintendo doesn't release new hardware the less attractive the Switch starts to look compared to the competition

Hell, I've been one hell of a Nintendo fan over the years. Pretty much always going to be buying their new hardware whatever it is. But for me, between what's happening in the portable PC space and Nintendo's recent moves in relation to 3DS and Wii U eShops? .... if there's no Switch revision in the next couple of years I'll probably just buy into Steam Deck. And I've already decided that I'm not going to buy multi-platform games on Switch anymore

Also, probably unpopular opinion, the announcement that they're shutting down Wii U and 3DS eShops? As bad a move as it is I feel like it makes NSO a much, much easier sell. The argument from the NSO naysayers has always been that they'd rather buy it outright. Well you didn't own it either, you were just paying a rental fee for as long as they want to keep the servers on. They can pull the plug on either model, one's just more honest about it

I mean, yeah its very obvious that not actually releasing new hardware would be suicide from a business perspective. Gotta keep interest up, gotta at least have at least a foot in modern technology at some point. I just hate the sacrifices that have come from that with every fiber of my being.

I do have to wonder what happens to the traditional console release model in the future. The last major advancement in this space will probably be the move to SSDs, but even that... it improves the play experience, but there's nothing really wowing about it. Which is about how I feel about the new consoles in general.

New consoles have always primarily sold themselves on the potential for enabling new gameplay experiences, but I just don't see how that's going to be possible going forward. 4K looks nice, but the upgrade isn't nearly as massive as the move from SD to HD was. And there's no point in dumping even more resources into putting even more pixels on screens when AI can upscale an image for you with a fraction of the processing power and almost no visible loss to image fidelity.

I alluded to this before, but I'm excited to see the move sideways to new technologies as the hardware advancement arms race loses steam.

There'll always be advancements. It's just that no one will usually know what form they'll take until they happen. People always say how they can't imagine things getting better each generation, but then the next gen comes up and things change massively. I also don't think console gens are dead, at least unlike other people on these forums who very much think they are.

@Ralizah TBH, I think its just one of those things that we have to wait and see.

I don't no were they will take it ether, but thats evolution I guess.

Xenoblade X has a fantastic soundtrack.

It's probably unpopular from the perspective of IGN, they called the game's soundtrack "noise". But having said that I hate NLA's day theme too, it's pretty deplorable.

@TheJGG This probably follows in line with popular opinions sooo,

IGN is crap.

@TheJGG I like some of X's music, but some of it just isn't to my taste.

I'd have said the NLA day theme is better than the night one, although they're both kinda ruined by those grunty vocals.

The battle and exploration music is much better though and going into overdrive is an absolute banger.

I think I have to go back to before the Gamecube/GBA era to find a Nintendo era that the Switch era matches up well with. Quality is there at the expense of less games. Since owning both a Nintendo console and handheld for their specific era, I've never felt they were compromising quantity to maintain quality. It's crazy to think that in the time it's taking to even see a trailer for Metroid Prime 4, Retro Studios back then was able to assist development with Metroid Prime Hunters as well as develop/release Metroid Prime 3 in 2.5 years. Advancing technology feels like it's hindering development.

While that is true, it is also true that generational leaps are getting smaller each time with more incremental upgrades, rather than bold steps. What this does mean, however, is if the Switch successor jumps right to this current generation, the leap is going to feel like one of the most astronomical in gaming history. You imagine if all you know is 720p rough 30 fps and then suddenly you have like 1440p 60 or something. It'll blow your socks off.

Also, it is worth mentioning the leaps also feel smaller, because it feels like consoles are finally starting to catch up. I feel like this new generation of consoles have shown the viability for the console for really the first time, in a long time. For pretty much every generation before this one, there was really no comparison between the experience of playing a title on PC versus a console.

But if you can now spend 500 quid and play games in 4k 60 fps without all the faff that comes with PC gaming at times, I'd have to assume for a lot of consumers that'd be a lot more tempting than trying to find a likeminded PC, which is likely to probably be more expensive (unless you're savvy with your parts finding and can build itself) for minimal comparable gains.

I feel like eventually, console generations will be defined by a console’s gimmick over power to differentiate itself from other consoles, and past systems.

Something like the Wii U is actually exactly what I want from the Switch 2 or whatever. The Wii U was backwards compatible with all Wii games and controllers but the GamePad was a big new addition that enabled a lot of new game ideas... in theory. In practice it was too important to the usage of the system, so when it turned out that most players didn't see the point of it, the console's image couldn't really be salvaged.

If the Switch's successor has some new gimmick that has as much potential to be revolutionary as the Wii U GamePad had, but without being as intrusive for people who just want to play normal games (and developers who want to make them), it could be a success. But finding that balance would be difficult.

I'm I the only one that thinks nintendo is like the best at doing gimmicks? I mean come on every other console that try'd pretty much failed, or at least phased out.

The wii's gimmick was motion, ds gimmick was a portable gaming, 3ds gimmick was 3d (Though that one kinda sucked) the wii u's gimmick was again on the go gaming, but you could play a console without taking up a whole tv, on top of the touch screen (Even though this bombed) and the switches gimmick is all of that, but you can switch your screen's controllers into actual controllers if you had a grip, or just free style with both your hands.

I don't think sony or Xbox has even touched the amount of gimmicks nintendo has, and most of the time, the real gimmick of there consoles is more power, if you can even count that.

@Snatcher
The only gimmick from XBOX was Kinect, a perfect version of Eyetoy from PS2.

The Best thing from Kinect XBOX 360.
I have to dance like this from Dance Evolution XBOX 360. 😆

@Snatcher Nintendo knows how to do weird ****. They've honed their craft ever since the NES, with ROB and the Zapper which together actually somewhat saved video games as a whole since they were marketed as toys rather than games, enticing people who had been burned hard by the crash a few years prior.

Also, people may say their gimmicks are dumb and stupid, but every time their competitors (PS and Xbox) attempted a similar thing to what Nintendo were doing at the time, it usually backfired. Move and Kinect were blatant attempts to cash in on what the Wii did (another console people said would suck beforehand funnily enough) while Playstation's attempts to combat the DS with the PSP and Vita, while having great games, were crippled by weird data storage choices and the general feeling of 'Why not just get a DS?'.

I've been saying this for a while now, but Nintendo's gimmicks are what makes Nintendo... 'Nintendo'. And if they can find a way to make the next gimmick after the Switch to be even better, I don't think it would be too surprising after everything's that' happened before.

@Pizzamorg
The same has been true of every gaming console when compared to PCs near launch. I think the PS4/XBone was about the closest console launch we got to having PCs look competitive on price/performance. And the 360/PS3 gen extended out for so long that by the end the gap between PCs and Consoles was comically huge. But outside of that, consoles have always been pretty competitive

The same would probably also be true of the PS5 if it wasn't for the outlandish component prices currently. A "mid tier" gaming PC can run rings around a PS5. Problem is a "mid tier" GPU costs a good 5x as much as it an equivalent tier card would have three years ago so building a new PC for gaming right now is just dumb.....

Also sitting on the fence of this hardware power argument. There are diminishing returns for spec. 4K means less than HD etc, etc. But there are still advancement to be had.

In the case of the Switch but, raw spec isn't as important as some of the low hanging fruit they could tackle. Faster storage, HDR, VRR. Easy wins. But even a slight bump in performance would allow games to hit resolution and frame rate targets more consistently. Maybe some more AA, a bit of DLSS, maybe even 1440p. Doesn't have to be dramatic jump to be a significant improvement

The trying to copy and backfiring thing is so true! Every single time they have try'd, it just does so much more poorly.

But your post pretty much sums up what I'm trying to say, and its all soo true! Nintendo's trademark is left field ideas at this point.