Topic: The Nintendo Switch Thread

@TheBigBlue
Yup.
Take a look of Hotel Transylvania 3 gameplay.

Hi Fi Rush is awesome, my 2nd favorite release this year.

@old-dad
It can be considered for your personal pick. But for the "official" GOTY, ports, remakes and remasters do not qualify. And... rightfully so. Otherwise the same games would be perpetually re-nominated year after year every time they get a new release, which wouldn't really be fair toward new games. Not that the official title holds much merit anymore, as the Keighly Awards are all AAA sponsored marketing and propaganda for PS and Xbox.

Metroid Prime has long stood as one of my favorite video games of all time (though Metroid Prime 2 is better), and Metroid Prime Remastered is easily the best game I've played this year, and not just this year, but one of the best games I've ever played period. That hasn't changed. The game was an all time fave before, and it remains an all time fave now. In fact, it's cemented as an all time fave even more now being remastered with flawless, modernized controls and graphics.

Fire Emblem Engage is really good, as is Octopath Traveler II, Trails To Azure is, I presume, just as amazing as Trails From Zero (haven't played it yet because I want to import a completed save from Trails From Zero before starting), and I've had fun with Kirby Return to Dreamland and Bayonetta Origins. But none of those are playing in the same league as Metroid Prime Remastered- not even Fire Emblem or Octopath. The only game I've played this year that remotely competes with Prime Remastered is... Metroid Fusion on NSO+

@JaxonH Oh i can agree with everything you said and reasons have merit. I just understand for millions of gamers these will be brand new games, Metroid Prime and Baten Kaitos have been stuck without a re-release since gamecube.

Probably should have a another category for those games but like you said it really doesn't matter except for fan boys and maybe developers.

@old-dad
A new category would be a good move, but there's so much wrong with how awards work that would only be scratching the surface. I'll spare you and everyone else from another one of my long winded rants against the current video game awards paradigm. Suffice it to say it's best to ignore them entirely and trust word of mouth among like minded gamers.

On this week's episode of Battle with the Backlog. I discovered that Mato Anomalies is a bust. I like the art, the soundtrack, the characters, and the rpg mechanics. Unfortunately, the hacking mechanic feels more like guesswork and a chore. It's also a gatekeeper to story progression. So...no thank you.

Also, this past weekend reconfirms that I do not like the original release of RE4. I'm too accustomed to being able to move while looking down iron sights. Having a control scheme that locks you in place while looking down iron sights does not add tension. It adds frustration.

And RE0 is still poo poo as well.

All in all, three more for the trade pile.

@Magician that's a shame to hear. Oh well we've all played our fair share of mediocre games and sometimes maybe even enjoyed them to a certain extent ( looking at you Sea of Solitude! ). In regard to Re4 i'm on the complete opposite side of the fence. I feel the tank-like controls up the intensity of the battle encounters and makes you more overwhelmed with terror as a result of enemies flooding in from all directions. Even though i found this game to be superb at what it does being more action focused and all, i still prefer re remake over it due to it's more methodical and suspenseful nature. Re0 i have nothing to say about, but i've heard really negative criticism towards it.

@JaxonH lol you 2 funny, gonna guess most enjoy your little rants. I watch or should say listen to awards show is for new trailers or possibly interviews. Usually GOTY means little to me and in 2022 it was clearly not Elden Ring.

@Magician That sucks to hear about Mato Anomalies, still wanting to give that a shot at some point this year.

Neat little interview about decapolice on noisy pixel

https://noisypixel.net/decapolice-level-5-intended-professor-...

@old-dad
That's actually a pretty decent interview. Helps that I'm mega excited for Decapolice (not sure if that's also a play on Decapolis, a city in Roman times)

Interviewer: This is your first detective scenario, isn’t it?

Hino: I think the reason why the Professor Layton series is so popular is that it tickles the intellectual curiosity of adults. The starting point for this project was that if we could combine Level-5’s expertise in creating RPGs with the image of a narrative mystery, we thought it would be interesting.

Interviewer: Well, it is a detective RPG that tickles our curiosity, like the Professor Layton series, but it also sounds very interesting because it seems so unique.

Hino: The truth is, at first, we were going to use something like “from the staff that brought you Professor Layton,” or “The successor to the Layton series is here!” or something like that as an advertising point.

@JaxonH Yeah I'm pretty excited about any news I can find on this. Decapolice, Dredge and Totk should take up most of my year considering the backlog I have now lol.

Also played the demos for Process of Elimination as well as GrimGrimoire. Both are going on the watchlist, waiting for a deep discount, as I won't be there day-one for either. Process of Elimination is basically Clue but...complicated. Which is cool, but not $50-cool.

Looks like Remnant From The Ashes actually turned out pretty well!

Gameplay starts around 3:30 fyi

Dang I had forget about Remnant, looks incredible on Switch ! Trying to decide physical or digital now lol.

So, I went ahead and ordered the Rokid Air AR Glasses and already got them. Viture Ones aren't shipping til May, and Rokid is announcing a new pair tomorrow night so they had these marked down from $500 to $319, plus $37 for the USB-C dongle dock for Switch so that it can output a docked image to the glasses in 1080p.

I gotta say... I'm impressed. I had high hopes for these, and already kinda knew what to expect, so it wasn't that much of a shock, but I guarantee if I tried these without any expectations I'd be blown away. They work really well.

I will say, the screen size isn't quite as large as I'd expected. I'd calculated it should match a 75-80" TV from my viewing distance to my current 55". In reality, I'd say it's more like a 60-65". Still bigger than my actual 55" TV though, from a distance of 6.6 feet. And it's way more immersive.

It almost feels like... VR? But without actually being VR? Or maybe it's like... looking at the 3DS screen with 3D turned on, except it's not actually 3D? Idk. Just something about it makes you feel like you're immersed into the world. Oh, I know. It feels like being at the theater with 3D glasses, but it's not actually 3D. But it kinda feels 3D because of how the screen is projected in front of you. It's seriously cool.

The built in speakers are decent too. Watched a YT video with Samus Returns music that was panning left to right and ya, the sound adds a lot. The bass is lacking but aside from that, they do the job. I do have higher expectations for the Viture One speakers though since they partnered with Harmon and are touting it as quality sound. I did throw in my planar magnetic IEM earbuds though and that really seals the deal. But I prefer to just use the glasses without earbuds cause it's way more convenient.

It's hard to capture the actual image you see, so instead I'll capture the mini-1080p OLED screens in the top of the glasses that gets reflected and light bent by mirrors to make it appear farther away...

@JaxonH this is gonna sound odd but I have no frame of reference sooooo…they don’t hurt? (that image is slightly painful to look at but it’s been a long day) Any issues with pulling the image into focus?

Oh how is JoJo?

@TheBigBlue
It's definitely a luxury purchase. But it's a nice luxury purchase, I'll just say that. I did my hour walking back and forth today wearing these connected to my phone, so I could see the video in front of me while I paced for exercise, but could still see through the glasses around the image so as to not run into the wall. I think they're gonna bring some nice unanticipated benefits.

@Ryu_Niiyama
I assume you mean hurting your eyes? No, they don't. I did spend quite a bit of time testing out the focus wheels just to see how perfect I could get it. I found if I start zoomed in all the way on both eyes, then close my right eye and notch the left down til the left side of screen comes in focus, then close left eye and notch right down til right side of screen comes in focus, that pretty much nails it. Then I keep both eyes open and make micro adjustments on each eye forward and back to dial it in. Once I figured out the trick I can do it pretty quick now, though I plan to just leave it set from now on.

That image isn't actually what you look at- that's just the source image. It gets bounced around and the light gets bent and hits mirrors so it hits your eyes with parallel light beams tricking them into thinking the image is farther away (and much larger)

The reason eyes struggle to focus on images close is because the angle of the spread of light entering the eye is greater, and thus your eye has to bend the light straight. When things are father away, the angle between beams entering the eye is miniscule, thus no hard work for the eye to bend. So they leverage that fact by pre-bending the light with fancy mirrors to straighten it out before it enters your eye, so your brain perceives it as a few feet in front of you, and your eyes don't struggle to focus on it. It's all very fancy sciency stuff. I don't understand the half of it, but I do know it works as intended.

Btw I haven't played JoJo in a while. It just got a recent DLC update. Haven't been able to stop playing Metroid ever since Prime released. In fact, I just made it to Metroid Prime at the very end of the game using these glasses. It was awesome

Legend of Zelda series producer Eji Aonuma, has stated Legend of zelda Tears of the Kingdom gameplay will change it world
https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/zelda-tears-of-the-k...

Just threw down on my next import order. Fatal Frame Mask of the Lunar Eclipse is the focus of the order. I'm also gambling on a couple horror visual novels. Both have few to no impressions online. And sprinkle in some action, some rpgs, and an adventure game. This should be fun.

I do love to gamble.

Nintendo mentioned Advance Wars for the first time since the Direct:

Hopefully the release date stays intact.