Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

@Ralizah
I take it you still have a v1 Switch? The battery life improvement is massive. It actually makes portable binges viable. Lile 5 hrs on max brightness and volume and wifi for AAA games.

Tabletop is so good though. I used it tons for MH Rise. And Sniper Elite 4. Aiming with split joycon as God intended.

I thought the v2 was a good upgrade in and of itself. If you're getting the battery life from that and the OLED/speakers/kickstand/64GB/LAN that's a pretty big step up.

2022 could be one of Switch best years

@gcunit
It’s not even a real Cruis’n title.

It’s Fast n Furious port where there was a licensing issue and they just changed the name. So it wasn’t developed as a Cruis’n game, and the team that made it wasn’t even the same team.

@Wavey84
It’s good for more than just Nintendo exclusive gamers. A very large portion of the fanbase owns at least one other console, but simply prefers the hybrid advantage whenever it’s an option. It’s good for them too.

I can almost guarantee Nintendo isn’t doing VR. And while I understand it has its fans, it’s a money sink far too few care about to be viable. Even Sony couldn’t make it popular. Even Valve with a new Half Life couldn’t make it popular. I’m not trying to rag on it- I had a mind blowing experience with my two VR headsets… for the first two weeks anyways. Then I realized it’s best experienced like a theme park- something you do once every few years for fun. If you’re into it I think that’s awesome but you’re definitely gonna have to look elsewhere for that.

I would, however, be in favor of stereoscopic 3D. I totally agree with the experience on 3DS and I felt the exact same way. But again, it seems we are in the minority because most people hated it and turned it off. Hence the 2DS, which was Nintendo’s final concession to the fact too few cared. I think it would be a gobsmackingly awesome experience on a 720p OLED screen. But I also know it’s just not going to happen.

We’ll get a generational leap around base PS4 level, but, likely with the advantage of DLSS which should help it produce images reasonably comparable to current gen and allow for 720p-1080p 60 FPS options more frequently. They won’t be as good as current gen, but with diminishing returns in perceived visuals, it’ll seem close enough to the average consumer.

I doubt they’re going to do anything crazy this next gen. They’ve finally found their place in the market, which means doubling down on what’s working. Nintendo may seem like they don’t listen but they do. Switch was a course correction with numerous fan complaints addressed- from region free to an HD capacitive screen, online based accounts and a snappy OS. They know good and well people like the Switch and just want a more powerful version. And I feel confident that’s exactly what we’re going to get.

@JaxonH
You speak of VR as if it's over and done with. The next Oculus is rumored to be on the near horizon, and I was under the impression that the Oculus 2 is doing pretty well for itself.

Anecdotally, my one group of friends plays VR games almost nightly. I'm still not sold on it enough to warrant such an expensive purchase, but from what I hear there are more and more devs making games for the VR platforms.

I don't think VR is the future of gaming.

The people who like it really love it. But most people aren't interested, don't want to wear a visor every time they sit down to relax and play a game, you can't lean back and relax with it on, many games require a more active stance preventing couch potato gaming, and it's only really good for games designed around it.

My brother used to say the same thing. He would go on and on about how VR is gonna take over, and he genuinely loved it. Binged on it for like a year. But then he got tired if it and moved on.

It will remain a niche. It's not going anywhere. We'll always have it moving forward, but it will continue to be a smaller subset of gaming at large, serving a small but dedicated fanbase. I know ppl who are super into it want to believe it's the future and it's gonna go mainstream, but if that were true it already would have. 115 million PS4 owners and PSVR only sold like 5 mil, and that was on the hype of VR and its untold potential.

I don't mean to sound like I'm bashing something some people love. I know when you're extremely passionate you want to defend it. I get it. I say this with all due respect. But VR will never be more than a tiny niche. There's a reason MS and Nintendo aren't pursuing it. Even if they made headsets fully wireless and it came free with a system, I still think most ppl, after trying it for a few weeks and being genuinely impressed, would then move on back to normal gaming. It's just not a good replacement for most people. But, there is that subset that loves it and actually sticks with it long term. If that's you, you'll continue to be able to do so. There's a large enough base that I do believe it's sustainable, it just won't get much beyond occasional big games tacking on a mode here and there.

VR's a novelty. It always has been. It's cool to just have virtual reality for the sake of player immersion but it was never going to replace traditional couch gaming by a long shot

I looked up to see if people in 2021 were still calling VR the future, and they in fact, are. Which is incredible. I guess as long as its not a thing yet, it can always be the future to tech articles! In 10 years, maybe it will still be the future of gaming! Because it hasn't happened, we can always pretend it will eventually.

"Future of gaming" pfft. It's the future of gaming the way Dippin' Dots is the future of ice cream.

I think a lot of pretty standard features of gaming were probably dismissed as novelties when they were first introduced to the market, so I don't necessarily buy the notion that it'll always stay this small, niche thing. I think, with the right push, and, frankly, with one or two huge games to drive adoption, it could absolutely blow up.

I could honestly see Sony making a bigger VR push soon once it becomes evident that the PS6 just won't be that much more impressive than the PS5, and once GamePass has matured to the point where Microsoft is eating big time into Sony's market share. Sony is going to need something to differentiate itself, and while they have a pretty sweet crop of first-party games brewing (for their fans, anyway; Spider-Man, TLOU, etc. don't really do much for me), their games don't have the industry shaking quality that Nintendo's most popular games have.

@JaxonH Yeah, I'm still on the V1. With that said, I also have a Lite for handheld use, so I'm hesitant to invest in hardware that's almost exclusively focused on improving the portable side of the Switch. We'll see.

@Giancarlothomaz Not watching the video, but I'm gonna have to disagree that 2022 is already better than 2021. 2021 is giving me MH Stories 2, new(ish) Ace Attorney games, SMT V, MH Rise, Advance Wars remakes, a new 2D Metroid... that's a damn hard act to follow. It's like a year scientifically designed to appeal to me. I'm excited for BotW2, of course, and Mario + Rabbids 2, but otherwise it's going to take a lot to one-up this year for me.

It was only a few days ago I was made aware that a new Melty Blood game was happening

How did this slip by me

I love Melty Blood

Man it's such a good year for Fighting Game fans

2022 is greater than 2021 just means "I have very basic tastes in gaming, what is video game that sold less than 3 million copies?"

I don't dismiss VR entirely, but I just got so sick of people hyping it up to such ludicrous degrees, just so 3 giant tech companies combined can't even hope to come close to the success of...the Kinect. Honestly I feel like it would've done better if arcades were still a popular thing. Because VR in arcades is a thing, and that makes more sense for a wide audience than expecting them to invest in VR headsets as they are right now.

@Wavey84 I never got PSVR for myself but I have cousins elsewhere that got the headset along with their PS4 and got to play Resi 7 in VR as well as Batman Arkham VR

Resi was really cool but honestly it's not something that would make me drop what I was doing and blow my money on the gear necessary to play that experience again. I'm more than fine just playing the game with a regular controller. It's scary enough on its own

I love VR and all, but it'll be the future of gaming once it stops giving epileptic people seizures.

@HotGoomba What proportion of the paying gaming public experience epilepsy?

@JaxonH That’s more or less my own sentiment, people around me argue that VR’s eventually going to make normal video games obsolete but I just don’t see it that way. I feel like there should be games that have options to play in VR but not as many VR exclusives. And as you said playing games in VR is from experience quite taxing physically, even for people in reasonable shape. Swinging your arms, standing constantly, and possible backaches, among other things.

Joy Cons, and the Wii Remote are a bridge between normal games and VR games in that you can use normal analogue controls and controls sticks in conjunction with motion controls. But that’s all it needs to be. A bridge.

@Wavey84 1 - if you think the next gen switch will provide Xbox One x on a portable prepare for disappointment (too much power would heat like hell and drain battery like speedy gonzales)

2 - for me VR has a big handycap as it does not allow you to play confortable aka laying down on the sofa (same thing for Wii style controls)

Haven't watched the whole video, but around 6:43 this guy presents a long-term joy-con drift fix, and does so quite persuasively.

Basically, a small piece of card, inserted beneath where the thumbstick unit sits, provides some reinforcement to the base of the thumbstick unit and prevents the base moving away from the stick.

I don't need to try this yet, but it's another useful option to know about.

Edit: lol, looks like the story is already on the home page.

@CactusMan Exactly. Things like motion sickness are very easy to aggravate, whereas sitting on a couch playing games is more or less harmless to the average human being.

There are some things that VR would be a game changer for, like driving games. I have a wheel, pedals and a chair and though I have little interest I am aware that using a headset for first person driving with that setup would be very immersive. But sometimes too immersive is not good.

And you’re right. Games with fixed cameras or isometric graphics just don’t work.

ULTIMATE NITPICK: I am actually kind of annoyed that the Switch OLED model changed the shape of the Switch's box.

This affects nothing in any meaningful way. But for some reason it bugs me. lol

@Wavey84
What I played on my friend's Oculus (I think it was the Oculus...maybe it was a Quest... it was standalone?) was really cool. I don't think it's the future of all gaming, but I think VR is gonna expand quite a bit more. I would also wager many of its critics haven't even tried it. (Be honest, people! lol)

Also, quick thing that makes me believe some of you guys don't really have a clear picture of where current VR headsets are (the cordless ones): you can totally play it sitting down or even lying down on your couch, depending on the game, of course. My friend plays this one minigolf game just lying down on his couch.

@gcunit idk at least three?