Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

@Anti-Matter Asking JaxonH why he likes gyro aiming is like asking Anti-Matter why he likes six pack abs... he just does. Alot! 😛

Hahaha this was great

@gcunit
Is gyro aiming like on Pokemon Let's Go ?

Gyro makes it a lot easier to precisely adjust your aim.

At least for me.

Although, when done wrong they can be infuriating.

@gcunit
Lol

@Anti-Matter
Gyro aiming uses subtle motion movements to fine tune aim. The Wii was onto something, but it never reached its proper potential because the Wiimote lacked a right analog stick, so devs often forced the player to turn the camera with motion controls, which doesn’t work well. Now that we have a more modern system with two analog sticks and Gyro aiming which doesn’t require a sensor bar, The player can turn the camera with the right analog like normal, and even do rough, general aiming with the right analog, but utilize motion to dial in the aim, which is much faster due to the larger range of motion mapped to player input compared to the tiny, 15mm radius of an analog stick. Which results in better accuracy, quicker response times and more repeatable results.

Sony has now perfected the gyro technology by adding a magnometer which, like a compass, uses the magnetic field to keep the orientation calibrated without drifting. This was the final hurdle to overcome with regard to the technology. It’s still 100% in most games which use right analog for camera and only use motion to fine tune aim, but for games which use Gyro to imitate pointer controls such as super Mario galaxy and Pikmin 3, the pitfalls of gyro are apparent for all to see. Hence the need to recalibrate with the R button every 30 seconds. Hopefully Nintendo adds a magnetometer for the Switch 2 controller.

@NintendoByNature
I feel like... I hit these dry spells where nothing truly amazing is releasing. Good games, sure. Even great games. But sometimes I will go six months without a game releasing that truly grabs me and gets me excited every time I play it.

Like, Hyrule Warriors AoC. I think it’s a great game. I do. But it just doesn’t excite me. Spiderman Miles Morales and Demons Souls. Both great games. Exceptional even. Buuut... they just don’t excite me. I don’t feel enthusiastic about getting off work to dig in. Yet we’ve had three games back to back to back that do exactly that- Pikmin 3, Sniper Elite 4 on Switch, and Immortals Fenyx Rising on Switch. And a large reason for why these games play so well on the switch is precisely because of the utilization of Gyro to enhance the experience. Like, Sniper Elite 4 is a great game regardless, but I flat out I’m not interested in playing it without gyro. The fun is lost without it. It really is. The fun comes from zooming in and sniping somebody using Gyro aim so you really feel like you’re the one aiming, rather than fighting with a stiff, rigid control stick. I think Immortals would still hold up without it, because it’s not as prevalent, but it’s still used frequently enough that it would be sorely missed if it was MIA (as it is in other versions).

Anyways, regardless of that aspect, I guess what I’m trying to say is this is one of those rare games that really gets me excited to play- it’s one of those rare games I’ll probably... no, not probably... will certainly play through to completion. It’s easily the best new game I’ve played all year, and is for sure one of the top 3 Ubisoft games I’ve ever played (other 2 being Trials Rising and Kingdom Battle, though Rayman Legends, Splinter Cell Blacklist and Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag are noteworthy contenders)

With regards to Immortals: it's the reference to Bayonetta combat that holds me off and I'm afraid the gameplay loop gets old soon. That tends to happen a lot with Ubisoft games: a lot of fun for the first 1/3rd of the game, and then it becomes a repetitive chore. With BOTW that hardly ever felt like that. I always wanted there to be more.

Besides that, this forum's game topic title hurts my eyes so much that I have trouble checking in there

@JaxonH intereting, so is that the way the Gyro aiming work in Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild? and could work in Metroid Prime 4?

@toiletduck
Its essentially the same game loop as Zelda. So, if BotW got old for you, then ya, this probably will too. But if BotW didnt get old, then neither will this. Especially since it's much shorter than Zelda.

The combat is fantastic. Way better than Zelda. That's what I'm trying to say. I'm not saying the game is like Bayonetta. It's not like Bayonetta. I'm saying the game is like Breath of the Wild, but with actual good fast paced combat. It does the slow motion thing if you dodge last second (although, Zelda did that too so...).

Immortals Combat

Also, while most Ubisoft games do drag on, most people who've beat it are praising it for not dragging on, describing it as the first "non-Ubisoft" Ubisoft game in years. It doesnt have the fluff. In fact, I think the game is half the length of Assassins Creed Valhalla. They took the less is more approach, so as to not out stay its welcome.

@Giancarlothomaz
Not just Zelda BotW, but Resident Evil 5, Resident Evil 6, Resident Evil Revelations, Resident Evil Revelations 2, Saint's Row 3, Saint's Row 4, Metro 2033, Metro Last Light, Assassin's Creed III, Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, Assassin's Creed Rogue, Sniper Elite v2, Sniper Elite 3, Sniper Elite 4, LA Noire, Doom, Doom Eternal, Doom 64, Ion Fury, Duke Nukem, Wolfenstein 2, Wolfenstein Youngblood, Fortnite, Overwatch, Paladins, Immortals Fenyx Rising, Borderlands, Borderlands 2, Borderlands The Pre-Sequel, Alien Isolation, Crysis, Daemon X Machina, Hellblade Senua's Sacrifice, Okami HD, Panzer Dragoon, Skyrim, The Outer Worlds, Monster Hunter Rise and it's used in many other games (Splatoon 2, Arms, Pikmin 3, Mario 3D All Stars, Luigi's Mansion 3, etc), but in a less traditional sense (such as Splatoon 2 not fully mixing analog with gyro for Y-axis). And yes, it will certainly be used in Metroid Prime 4. Otherwise we riot 😂

@JaxonH thanks, I'll check out the vid. Yeah, BOTW never gets old for me... I can probably start a new playthrough tomorrow and get sucked in all over again. I'm positive I'll give this a go somewhere along the line. I have so much to play though, that it's not necessary for me to pay full price for a game that will probably cost half in a few months time.

@toiletduck
Totally understand that. I'm sure itll be $30 by March, give or take. But... Monster Hunter Rise will be releasing around that time, and hot off the back of Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury, Bravely Default 2 and Persona 5 Strikers (among other titles which could release around that time frame, such as SMT3, SMTV, No More Heroes 3, etc). Next year is gonna be so packed- the onslaught begins in about 60 days time! But, I'm sure there will be a gap at some point, making a good time to squeeze it in. The season pass has 3 notable expansions coming spring 2021, so you'll have the benefit of having all the content released by then.

Well, I'd totally written off Gods and Monsters (I'm not using the other title, lol), but if it's that good, @JaxonH , I'll be sure to snag it at some point.

@Ralizah
I had too. When I saw the leaked Stadia footage, I said to myself, "well, looks like I'm writing this one off". But in spite of that, the game has made a believer out of me. I've never been more wrong about a game in my life, I dont think.

I'm almost confident you would love this game.

could Nintendo be planing the revival of the Metroid franchise, during the TGA 2020, with this?

@JaxonH How is the performance when undocked? It's an open world game, so I'm expecting some level of fuzz, but if it's like Xenoblade DE/XC2 where it's not really viable undocked, then I'll probably just play it on PC.

@Ralizah
screenshots from work yesterday

screenshot from at home yesterday

As you can see, it's pretty impressive. Definitely not native res like BotW, but a far cry from disasters like Outer Worlds or Xenoblade in handheld. I'd say it looks about on par with Dragon Quest XI S. And it doesnt have any severe performance issues in handheld mode, either. All in all I'm very impressed with this game on Switch. Particularly handheld mode.

edit
@Ralizah
I took this screenshot at work just now, a minute ago. Had to turn the lights off in my office though due to screen reflection

@JaxonH And again this shows what's possible when a game is designed for Switch from the beginning. Though... we'll see if that saves Doom Eternal.

@link3710
Ya, Immortals was clearly targeting Switch from day one. There's no possible way they could have downgraded a 9th gen AAA open world game of this magnitude to get it to not only run on Switch, but run fairly well and look this good. It seems clear to me this game was targeting Switch first and foremost, with other platforms simply upgrading from that baseline, as opposed to the familiar "target the most powerful system as the baseline and then downgrade".

And that's how every game should be designed. Because then every game could be made to run on Switch. Judging by the other versions, it doesn't seem to have held the game back in the slightest. And given the Switch version seems to be outselling all other versions combined on Amazon, Idk why they wouldn't want to.

You have the people who'll say "YA BUT other platforms have more competition", to which I'd say Switch has had plenty of competition. Be it Pikmin 3, Sniper Elite 4, Hyrule Warriors Age of Calamity or Doom Eternal, there's lots of other games vying for attention. To which they'll say, "YA BUT most those games are ports, so people probably already played them". Which I'd then point out we're talking about the SWITCH platform and games vying for attention within the SWITCH fanbase. And then they'll likely say, "YA BUT they still probably played them on other platforms", which I'd respond with, "if you're suggesting Switch gamers also play games on other platforms, then you're admitting the other games releasing on other consoles are vying for just as much attention from Switch gamers as anyone else, AND YET... the Switch version of Immortals is still dominating".

So there's no weaseling out of it with slick arguments or justifications- Switch has established itself as a platform that can sell serious software, to the extent that, more and more, we're actually seeing it consistently outperform other versions. As long as the port is good, and there's reasonable marketing to let people know about it... Switch versions will sell. And the more time goes on, the bigger the install base grows, the more this truth becomes obvious.

We have crossed over into the dawn of a new era! Moving forward in a post-Switch world, we're only going to see 3rd party support grow. It may take generations before they fully recapture the majority of the market, but the process has begun. Switch has triggered a domino effect that can't be stopped. So many gamers have now tasted the sweet nectar of hybrid gaming, and they want more. Like with gyro aiming, they can't go back. They've been unplugged from the Matrix. And once you discover the truth, the world you knew can never be the same again.

10 years from now, we'll be there. We'll reach Zion- a hybrid land where 3rd party games flow like milk and honey. Where the hardware has advanced far enough to reach parity with 8th gen consoles. Where DLSS upscaling provides us with 4k images while docked, and 1080p images on the go, without choking the life out of the precious battery. A land where gyro has been perfected with magnometers, and joycon drift is all but a distant memory. Where HD rumble is utilized in every game as other platforms have adopted the technology.

Am I saying we'll be able to cross save with any platform for any game? No... I'm saying when we're ready, we wont need to.

@JaxonH I'm not so sure about 4K DLSS being standard. 4K DLSS requires native 1080p, something that's still pretty rare on the switch. Though, well at least see well over 1080p for all games, so that's a plus.

@link3710
In 10 years time?? I'm not talking about Switch, I'm talking about the hybrid we'll have 10 years from now. That's 2 more generations ahead of where we are today.

If we can't hit native 1080p docked for 4k DLSS and native 540p handheld for 1080p DLSS two generations from now, we've got serious problems! Of course, I'll be immensely disappointed if they aren't leveraging Nvidia's DLSS technology by then. It's the perfect solution to running games viably on a less powerful hybrid.

@JaxonH Thanks for the screenshots. It seems like the game holds up fairly well technically, which is awesome. It'll definitely be a Switch purchase, in that case. I'm sure it runs much more impressively on PC/PS4/whatever, but, honestly, if I'm tethered to a TV, I want it to be for a game that just clearly needs all that horsepower. Like Cyberpunk 2077, a game so detailed and graphically advanced that the PS4 version is starting to sound rather compromised, like the Switch port of The Witcher 3.

The good thing about being patient with Ubisoft games is that, without fail, prices drop like a rock after a few months. Which is why I don't buy any of their games at launch, with the exception of Mario + Rabbids (and that was so good that I'll buy the sequel on day one as well).