Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

I like the little built in stand this comes with

Welp, so much for playing Switch anytime soon. Past few days Switch connection has been very bad and the only device to be like that. How bad you may ask, well it's taken over a day and SMTV Safety mode isn't downloaded yet (I figured given SMTV will be my first SMT game, I start on either normal or casual and decrease difficulty if need be) which means it stands no chance about the gigantic BDSP day 1 patch or playing any games online.

You have this problem as well?

I seem to have a Russian roulette when it comes to Switch download speeds. Sometimes a game will download at a normal pace, others I basically have to leave it going all night to download just a couple of gig. Sometimes if I have Bluetooth headphones synced or third party chargers plugged in, it just seems to stop the Switch downloading anything entirely. It is really odd.

And this is the only device that behaves this way, so it is something to do with my Switch hardware like the wireless card or something to do with NSO, rather than on my end.

I've never had issues downloading on Switch, be it wifi or wired (current OLED is wired, Lite is wifi, and OLED is wifi when playing handheld). I get 35 mbps on Switch in the test screen, and only get 25 mbps on Steam when actually downloading. Maybe it's less when actually downloading, Idk. But if it is slower, it's not a disaster or anything. I downloaded over 2 TB of games to my OLED in a few days.

However, if a game is suspended or being played, that can bork or even stop your downloads depending on the game.

The Safety Difficulty is like 3 MB. So you've got a serious issue, either a suspended game, or, you're too far away from your router, or, something else is hogging all your bandwidth, such as someone downloading on another device or streaming 4k Netflix, etc. If you've had Switch for 4.5 years and never encountered this, then something clearly changed. I just downloaded Pokémon Brilliant Diamond so, it can't be eShop servers unless it's a very recent issue (like, within the last day) and if that's the case it should be resolved soon.

I'd delete the connection and re-create it, make sure nothing else is hogging bandwidth (windows updates in the background of your PC, streaming, other consoles, etc) and make sure no games are suspended on Switch. Might also check your microSD and make sure it's not a write speed issue from going faulty (unlikely, but still good to rule out).

@JaxonH its decent.

Game Awards nominees are being revealed on Tuesday.

@Pizzamorg @JaxonH I know why it's happening but I can't solve it. Switch keeps connecting to 2.4GHz rather than 5GHz, usually restarting the Switch when it connects to 2.4GHz makes it connect to 5GHz but that doesn't work anymore.

@Grumblevolcano
If your router has separate names for them, delete the 2.4 Ghz from your Switch's memory. If they're both under the same name, and it's handled automatically by your router, then there's nothing you can do to stop it. It switches if the signal gets too weak.

Thing is, if 5.4 is getting too weak it has to Switch, and 2.4 can't even handle 3 MB, then something is borked with your router's signal strength. Perhaps interference from a new device from a neighbor.

Try going into your router settings and changing the CHANNEL of the 5.4 Ghz signal. And maybe even the 2.4 Ghz. Can download an Android app, WiFi Analyzer to see the signals around you and what channels they're on. Then you can pick a better one.

Switch also can't detect channels that are over 100. And I've found 50 or less is even better. Perhaps the router is switching the channel automatically. Might be time to go digging in the router settings via your browser (or app if it's a rented router)

@Grumblevolcano i hope and expect Monster Hunter Rise and Metroid Dread is nominated for GOTY 2021.

Game Awards nominees, heh.

Monster Hunter Rise, Metroid Dread and Shin Megami Tensei V are the 3 best games I've played this year, and all 3 land somewhere in my all time faves list. But games on Nintendo platforms have to fight twice as hard for recognition, barring Zelda and Mario games (which seem to be the only ones the masses and journalists are willing to concede on for token Nintendo nominations).

And so, none of them will be included for GotY save perhaps Metroid Dread, and that will only be as a nod due to Keighly harassing Reggie over it- it won't actually win.

The Awards have, more and more over the years, become biased toward the marketing machine and big AAA games focusing on realism (bonus points if its chock full of cinematics).

Games like Deathloop or Forza Horizon 5 will win (and they'll definitely include Returnal and Ratchet due to their obligatory 2-3 Sony exclusives being nominated each year). But honestly, it'll probably be Forza since Microsoft hasn't had an exclusive win in many years. And, I can't disagree it's a phenomenal game. I do actually think if any other game should win, it should be that one. I just don't personally think it's better than Monster Hunter, Metroid or SMT.

As soon as I saw journalists saving face with Death Stranding and TLOU2, pretending the games were flawless masterpieces simply because they were too prideful to admit the hype machine led them astray, and then seeing those efforts reinforced at the Awards as if to prove they were "correct", I knew any semblance of fair and unbiased recognition had gone right out the window.

Of course, I started questioning how fair and unbiased the Awards were long before that. DKC Tropical Freeze wasn't even nominated for best soundtrack in 2013. Thats a crime. They nominated Transistor Transistor Child of Light, but not DKC TF. Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate didn't even win best mobile game in 2015. That went to Laura Croft Go. Absolute madness. Monster Hunter World should have won GotY in 2018. It's a far better game than God of War. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 didnt even get a nomination in 2019 (it released past the 2018 deadline, then got ignored in 2019, for soundtrack, for RPG, for everything). And Fire Emblem got ignored to the point the fans had to vote it in as the best "as voted by the fans" game. It's the only way it could actually get recognized. Persona 5 on PS? Automatic GotY nominee. SMTV on Switch? Doubt it'll even get an RPG nomination. It's just a complete joke.

So ya. Grab some popcorn for the announcements. And a shaker of salt for the winners.

I believe Rise is on average the highest reviewed Switch game of this year, so if any Switch game makes it into the GOTY conversation, I assume it has to be that one. I guess Dread is like the “trendier” choice, but I’d be surprised if that takes up a slot, as I see that as much more niche than MH is when taken outside Nintendo audiences.

@JaxonH I'm honestly expecting Metroid Dread to win and the nominees being something like:

• Monster Hunter Rise
• Metroid Dread
• Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart
• Death's Door (indie pick, last year had Hades)
• Resident Evil Village

The 6th I'm not sure about. While FH5 would totally be a good fit for GotY, racing games always get snubbed. SMTV would also be a very good fit for GotY but with how many reviews seems to basically follow the infamous IGN review I'm not sure it'll be nominated. Bunch of others seem possible.

Maybe Halo Infinite given there's lots of rumours/leaks about multiplayer shadow drop tomorrow?

I think Forza is the best reviewed game on average of the entire year, if that isn’t included then it is just nonsense. I think Psychonauts is the token indie used rather than Death’s Door. Deathloop and It Takes Two are for sure going to take up two nomination slots.

I think the nominees will be

• Returnal
• Resident Evil Village
• Psychonauts 2
• Metroid Dread
• It Takes Two
• Forza Horizon 5

Returnal will no doubt be the winner. Honestly though, this year's potential nominees are filled with a lot of the type of games that are great but wouldn't get nominated most years in favor of the bigger name AAA titles (save for RE of course). Kinda nice to see more variety.

Personally, the best game I played this year was the ME: Legendary Edition but given that is technically a rerelease my top five is probably:

1. Monster Hunter Stories 2.
2. Life is Strange: True Colors.
3. Biomutant.
4. Monster Hunter Rise.
5. Far Cry 6.

SMT V may sneak into my top 5, but it is too early to say yet.

I played a lot of good games this year, but I'd say it's a 3-way tie for my GotY. If I absolutely had to rank them it would be as follows:

1a Monster Hunter Rise
1b Metroid Dread
1c Shin Megami Tensei V

@Pizzamorg
I don't think they go by MC ratings as a rule. It's just that, as imperfect as they are, there is correlation between higher rated games and those more likely to be nominated.

Forza Horizon 5 is like Metroid Dread. It's in a taboo genre for the masses. But I still think racing genre is generally not frowned upon as much as, [gasp] a 2D Metroidvania (well, Metroid, not metroidvania).

You didn't play Metroid? Or just didn't like it? I highly recommend it if you haven't.

Monster Hunter Stories 2 is exceptional. I just didn't like it as much as Rise. But it's still one of the year's best.

I also think Neo: The World Ends With You deserves at least a nomination for RPG of the Year. Throw Monster Hunter Stories 2 in there as well.

Psychonauts 2 will certainly be the "indie" wildcard.

Kinda wild if they don’t use the review consensus for the basis of the nominations. Submitting a worse reviewed game in the place of a better reviewed game (on average), would surely just show what a farce all these so called ‘awards” are? I think Forza, on average, is the best reviewed game of the year by a significant margin, if it gets snubbed because it is a racing game then what is even going on lol.

No interest in Dread for me - brutal difficulty + platforming + stealth + aimless bumbling around + puzzles,, I couldn’t think of a worse combination.

I dunno whether I think Stories is a better game than Rise, but with Rise’s lack of a proper end game, I spent a lot more time with Stories 2 because there was meaty endgame to engage with and I felt like it had more meaningful updates than all of Rise’s ***** sticker quests. Stories kept me coming back long after I finished the campaign, so I have to rank Stories 2 higher.

Oh and if I was using rereleases, the Switch port of Dusk would be for sure on my top five as well. Lucky for Nocturne too, as if I did included rereleases, I’d rank it as the worst game I played released in 2021 lol.

@Pizzamorg Forza Horizon 3 was reviewed higher than most of the GotY nominees for Game Awards 2016 and all it was nominated for was Best Sports/Racing (which it won).

I think the second highest, on average, is It Takes Two but that came out early in the year so I wonder if people will forget about that when it comes to award season.

could we have informations regarding Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild 2 at the Game Awards 2021?

Since when is Phsychonauts indie? Granted, it's never been a series I've been particularly interested in, but the original seemed to be a pretty prominent platformer back in the day, and the new one is backed by MS.

Granted, I think the nominees will end up being something like RE: Village, Metroid Dread, Returnal, Ratchet & Clank, & Forza Horizon 5.

I'd love to see Tales of Arise get a nod (which it probably will in the RPG category) too.

It also depends on how rigidly they apply their fairweather rules on re-releases/older games. Last year they nominated Among Us for a few things even though it wasn't a 2020 release (nominating it simply because it got big), I think Persona 5 got a second chance with the Royal re-release (even though they ignored Xenoblade: DE), & they padded out the fighting game category with re-releases like Mortal Kombat 11: Ultimate Edition. Keeping that in mind it's entirely possible they upend a category with something like the Mass Effect remasters.