Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

But that is a fraction of the expected battery life of the same games on the OLED edition or even the 2.0 Switch - more pertinent points of comparison because you can’t buy a new OG Switch in the shops anymore and haven’t been able to for some time.

In general I do agree with you - anything over 2 hours between charges is “good enough” for a device like this. I don’t think I’ve ever personally run up against my Switch battery running out.

I do however continue to differ with you in that think that it’s very marked that articles on the Steam Deck so far have glanced over the issue of battery life whilst articles on the Switch prior to launch (let alone forum discussions!) quickly focused heavily on it as a reason the console would fail. Some of that is just good marketing from Valve and the different nature of the specific market they are targeting, the types of specs they’ve already publicly released etc.

I think they’ll have a lot of success with the Steam Deck because it looks like a great device.

Ultimately though I think that success will look like Microsoft’s success with the Surface in that the real success will be lower spec third party devices following in its wake. Some of those will be awful - or at best OK (and few professional reviewers or enthusiasts will ever use those over the high end flagship from Valve themselves) but those are the devices that could sell hundreds of millions of units.

Ok, let's talk battery life.

Wii U gamepad was a massive problem for me. Constantly having to plug it in, so I bought the extended life battery that pushed it to 6 hrs.

Original Switch wasn't great, and it did die on me a number of times, but it was usable. Most heavy games could push 3 hrs (like Zelda) which isn't ideal but, it worked.

As soon as v2 Switch released I was on it, as were many others. 4.5 to 5 hrs as a baseline minimum for even the heaviest games on max brightness? That is more like it.

2 hrs, on the other hand, is much different than 3 or even 2.5. I own a GPD Win 2. Getting 120 minutes on a game isn't fun. And I'll be the first to say, 2 hrs doesn't cut it for me. That's one of the main reasons I don't use my Win 2 anymore (that and no gyro).

Thankfully, because this is a more powerful system that gets low battery life on higher settings, you can optimize here to push that to 3 hrs for heavy games. Instead of 720p, run 600p. Go 30fps locked instead of 60fps. And keep settings on low. Maybe dim brightness a tick or two. You learn the tricks of the trade being a low spec gamer. The Win 2 didn't have much room to optimize because games were already running at the lowest framerate and settings. Steam Deck has some room to negotiate, even if it's just to squeeze an extra 45 minutes.

If Portal 2 gets about 4 hrs at 60fps, then many of the more demanding games will be in the 2-3 hr range. But that's just the reality of handheld PCs. These games are not designed to run in low power state like Switch. You're lugging a literal PC around as a handheld and the power draw will be exactly what you'd expect.

So while it can run anything for the most part, if you pick and choose games with settings optimized for low spec systems that at least maximize battery life consumption, you'll probably get more mileage. That's how I did it with Win 2 (though it’s lack of gyro really led to me sticking with Switch in the end, it’s still a great clamshell machine for Dolphin emulator- a portable GameCube and Wii).

@JaxonH Speaking of battery life, I'm assuming this thing has to run on X86 right? Doesn't that usually mean 3-10x the power draw of a game that's running on ARM?

I've got two Nintendo Switch Game Vouchers sat on my account and I'm toying with the idea of Skyward Sword HD despite hating OoT/MM/TP, but enjoying Wind Waker a bit.

It's that or Mario Golf and everyone seems to say that's crap too 😂

@Haruki_NLI
Mario Golf is fun. The course designs are more realistic like Wii Sports but it's great fun.

Skyward Sword is better though, imo. It's a must-own. Watch the Digital Foundry review for all the improvements.

@link3710
I don't know the ratio, but games built for PC have high power draw. On my Win 2, stock power is 7 Watts, similar to Switch handheld. You can increase it to whatever you want- I made profiles for 8W, 10W, 12W and 15W. And many games on that device, like Fallout 4, needed 15W to run, even at low settings. And that destroyed battery life and it got super hot, so I never used those high power settings.

But this device is using new architecture that's much more efficient, and, it runs up to 15 Watts. Which means it can actually run those big AAA games and still get 2-3 hrs without burning your hands (in fact, IGN says the handle area where you hold it doesn't get hot at all, which is amazing).

So ya, to run modern AAA games you need 20 watts or more on Win Max, but 15 should be ok with lower settings and resolution. Which for most APUs isn't feasible without insane battery use and heat output. But thanks to newer Zen architecture here it's actually able to do 15 Watts and actually get more than 70 minutes playtime.

@JaxonH I assume you meant titles that would take 15W on other systems? Power draw is power draw, you're not going to be able to reduce battery usage without drawing less power.

Still... we shall see. I'm not buying that this thing won't have abysmal battery life (or you know, randomly explode on planes) quite yet, at least until we see how it performs out in the wild.

@JaxonH I got Skyward Sword. Didn't know DF did a look at it. They've not touched Switch games since...blimey. DOOM Eternal a few months late?

@link3710
A lot of power can be wasted based on design of the architecture or motherboard as it travels around to the various components. Drawing 15W won't necessarily result in the same performance across devices. A more modern chip design can result in better performance at the same power draw, or similar performance at a lower power draw. And certain power draws can maximize efficiency.

Deck should get much better bang for buck, meaning comparable results to my Win 2 without drawing as much power, meaning longer battery life and less heat.

But there's no getting around that modern games still require a lot of power. And I'm not expecting more than 3 hrs for any AAA game, even at 600p 30fps low settings.

But not all games are modern AAA, and many should see 4-5 hrs battery life, maybe more for some. Specifically focusing on those not on Switch or those that see unsatisfactory performance on Switch, games like Tales of Symphonia HD, Trails of Cold Steel 1/2, Ys VIII and Ys IX, Persona 4 Golden, Portal, Portal 2, Half Life 2, Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines (which is KB/M but totally playable with Steam Controller, and thus the Deck), Dragon Age Origins and Dragon Age II, Wolfenstein New Order, Dark Souls 2, Vanquish, Ultra Street Fighter IV, DmC, DQ Heroes 1/2, Alan Wake, Dishonored, Batman Arkham Asylum/City/Origins, Fallout New Vegas and 3, Star Wars KotOR, Rayman Origins, etc)

Games I expect to see 2-3 hrs battery life (hopefully closer to 3 using tricks of the trade), including those on Switch that would benefit greatly from more powerful hardware, would be The Witcher 3, Monster Hunter World, Trials Rising, Cyberpunk 2077, Gears 5, Gears Tactics, Doom, Doom Eternal, Wolfenstein 2, The Outer Worlds, Death Stranding, Horizon Zero Dawn, Days Gone, Red Dead Redemption 2, Halo Master Chief Collection, Mass Effect Legendary Edition, Borderlands 3, Metro Exodus, Titanfall 2, Batman Arkham Knight, Code Vein, Scarlet Nexus, Resident Evil 2 Remake, Resident Evil 3 Remake, Resident Evil VII, Resident Evil VIII, DMC 5, Dragon Age Inquisition, Control, Sekiro, Nioh 1/2, Tomb Raider Trilogy, Bioshock Trilogy (no gyro on Switch), Dark Souls 3, Deus Ex Mankind Divided, Yakuza Like a Dragon, Street Fighter V, Nier Automata and Replicant, Forza Horizon 4 and 5, Final Fantasy XV, Darksiders 3, Hellblade, etc.

Games I would likely play on Switch given the performance to battery life ratio being more appealing would include MH Stories 2, Ori Blind Forest, Ori Will of the Wisps, Hades, Dragon’s Dogma, Resident Evil 4, Resident Evil 5, Resident Evil 6, Resident Evil Revelations, Resident Evil Revelations 2, Sniper Elite v2, Sniper Elite 3, Sniper Elite 4, Borderlands, Borderlands 2, Borderlands The Pre-Sequel, Assassins Creed 3, Assassins Creed 4, Assassins Creed Rogue, Wonderful 101, Civilization VI, Life Is Strange Collection, Life Is Strange True Colors, Trails of Cold Steel III, Trails of Cold Steel IV, SMT3 Nocturne, Persona 5 Strikers, Darksiders, Ni No Kuni, Ni No Kuni 2, Dark Souls, Valkyria Chronicles, Valkyria Chronicles 4, Pillars of Eternity, Burnout Paradise, Need For Speed, Cuphead, Final Fantasy X/X-2, Final Fantasy XII, XCOM 2, Dragon Quest XI S, Dragon Quest Builders 2, Bayonetta, Okami HD, Catherine Full Body (only Classic is on Steam anyways), Divinity Original Sin 2 (better controller controls), God Eater 3, Daemon X Machina, Metro 2033, Metro Last Light, Skyrim, etc.

Walmart just randomly sent me an email saying they dropped the price of my Switch OLED pre-order by $50

This was a backup order for the neon unit before I secured the white from Target. But now I may have to go with this one

@JaxonH That is some luck right there lol

I remember Walmart also randomly upgrading some orders for the PS5 Digital Edition to the disc consoles for no reason and they didn't get charged the extra money

I can't stop playing Zelda Skyward Sword. This game is incredible!

Mind you, I'm smack dab in the middle of my Monster Hunter Stories 2 playthrough, a game I feel is every bit as good as Rise, and Rise is among my favorite games ever.

So it says a lot that Skyward Sword has gripped me so hard I struggle to go back to MH Stories 2 right now. It has some older design, but holy cow, it's just so good! It's SO GOOD.

I waited 10 years to play this game properly, and it feels like the wait was worth it. I love Breath of the Wild, and I'm not sorry they updated for formula. But man do I love the older Zelda approach.

I'm flabbergasted at how much fun I'm having with this, using motion controls, split joycon. It took a bit to acclimate. Once I got to the Deep Woods past Faron Woods, that's when I noticed I had really gotten the hang of it and wasn't struggling with wrong inputs nearly as often.

Play Zelda Skyward Sword. And play Monster Hunter Stories 2. These games are just so gosh dang addicting.

@TheFrenchiestFry
Walmart... holdin it down for us gamers 😎

Okay, I posted about this in the TWEWY thread but like... this game is so freaking good. Y'all really should check out the demo if you haven't yet. Difficulty settings unlock immediately after the end of the demo (which is good because the game on normal is too easy), and there's been a pick up in enemy difficulty too. I'm starting to have to observe their behavior and attack during openings, instead of just mashing.

...I'm also expecting for certain things to happen that'll jack up the difficulty shortly, but I'm gonna keep that sort of spoiler to myself, even if it's just a theory.

(For anyone who didn't hear, Squeenix accidentally leaked full retail digital copies of the game today to people who preordered on their website, so I've been busy playing that).

@link3710
That's what I've been saying!

Neo: The World Ends With You is excellent. And there's a free demo alongside the Monster Hunter Stories 2 demo. Both incredibly good games- there is no excuse for not sampling these delectable morsels of gaming goodness 😀

@JaxonH I think I should A chance.

jornalist Jeff Gruff state that Metroid Prime Trilogy on Switch is done, but Nintendo is holding on the release of the game to concide with Metroid Prime 4 release.

https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/metroid-prime-trilog...

God not this crap again.

Can we ask him what next week's lottery numbers are?

"insiders" have been claiming exactly that ever since the Prime 4 restart in January 2019 so this isn't something new. Just something that can't be proved or disproved because Prime 4 is MIA.

Much like how the Switch Pro can't be proved or disproved.

@Grumblevolcano
And there’s a reason for that. It’s probably true. Same for the “Switch Pro” which was really slang for “new, more expensive revision with OLED, which might have more to it”, and that was just announced. Leak confirmed. Though the “might” wasn’t for a Pro, but the successor, something we suspected before it was even revealed. The problem with leaks is the information is usually correct, but the assumptions placed on that correct information can often be wrong, and info about two independent products can be intertwined and wrongly assumed to be the same.

Jeff Grubb is not some gossiper. And neither are most of the other people who have spoken on this either. And they’re not “insiders”, they’re insiders. People who legitimately and genuinely have inside knowledge. It doesn’t have to be proven or disproven. It’s not a science project. He’s just sharing information for fans who want information. It’s not magic, it’s human communication. People make games, and people have contacts within multiple facets of the gaming industry. Those people talk and communicate. Information works it’s way out.

Of course the endless baseless cynicism as if human communication is some kind of crystal ball clairvoyance will forever be directed toward anyone who says anything. It’s as if people are personally offended, scared that some Nintendo fan on the Internet might get their hopes up in vain. God forbid one iota of information leak out.

So apparently there are rumors floating around that the September 2021 announcement for the Persona 25th projects will be a remaster of Persona 4

Arena Ultimax on modern platforms

@TheFrenchiestFry
Eh… it’s a game I’d buy. But not the game I’m really wanting from them. That would be Persona 4 Golden on Switch- they could bring P5 also, or a remaster of P3, but just give me the fourth one and I am happy.