The Outer Worlds' First Expansion Comes To Nintendo Switch Next Week

Oh cool. So um, does it actually run well now?

Seems like a weird thing to not mention in the article, but - how much will this expansion cost?

I’m excited, I enjoyed the game (on switch, nonetheless) despite its obvious shortcomings. Ready for the DLC! What does GC strategy mean?

Sweet! Was hoping we’d get the dlc, but was worried we’d get cut out.

@FluffiestP1llow Runs about equal to Fallout 3 on 360, which is fine by me.

I stopped about 7 hours in. Need to go back.

@Dm9982 it looks and plays a lot like fallout 3, which is a good thing. I've been playing this in handheld mode and it runs fine. Not the greatest looking game, but I actually find the stiff animation present in all versions more offensive than the low res graphics. Regardless, the game is fun and the writing is good. They have created a very cool world here.

Still mad that they never patched it. Stuck in the final area on XBox and can't play the expansion without starting the whole game over

Got this on sale a while back, but pokemon still has its hooks on me.

@Dm9982 oh really? Cool ill probably pick it up. I just remember how it launched terribly and didn't get patched for a long while.

@FluffiestP1llow Yeah it was like Witcher 3 and the Rez was ultra low and blurry at launch, but both have been patched to reduce that. And both are great on Switch.

Can't wait! I enjoyed the main campaign very much and would love to see some old friends again (and possibly make new ones!).

I was really interested in getting this game one Switch, but I held off because everyone, their uncle, cousin, girlfriends and personal secretaries were saying it ran like trash on Switch and was an all around bad port.

Has this been fixed in post-release updates?

@Heavyarms55 I never noticed it running like trash, as much as it just got a massive visual downgrade at first - which ticked a lot of people off I guess. Regardless it does run fine now. It’s not quite on par with Witcher 3 on visual and performance, but not far off.

If you played Fallout on 360 and that experience was fine for you, then Outer Worlds on switch is on par with that in terms of visuals and performance.

@Dm9982 That doesn't sound bad at all. People were making it sound like it chugged, was full of glitches, had massive frame drops and was uglier than earlier PS2 titles. And I mean I saw a lot of people just ripping the Switch port to shreds.

I saw some release footage, I'm very tolerant to graphics if it means I can play on the switch (immortals fenyx and Witcher 3 are both games I bought on switch) but outer worlds seemed inexcusable. I know some patches happened, but have they been enough? If they have, I might eventually pick it. I was very interested in this game

I loved this game. That's the best part of the Switch. The variety of titles. You got first party Nintendo, indies, old school classics and AAA, all in hybrid excellence.

It's not a pretty game on the Switch by any stretch of the imagination. While it can look almost decent on occasion, most of the time it's undeniably ugly. But you know what? It didn't bother me. It actually runs pretty well, all things considered, and I never had a problem with combat.

However, as a role-playing game with meaty choices and consequences, it's excellent and is worth playing for that reason alone.

@mjharper $15 alone, but you can buy the season pass for $25 as well.

@Heavyarms55 It may have at launch honestly, I’m not sure. I bought it at launch, but didn’t begin to play it until a month or so later. Plays fine now to me though, and, in hand held, looks and runs like a 360 Bethesda/Obsidian title.... maybe slightly “blurry” (like a dream sequence) at times. But it’s been smooth on frames thus far.

If it wasn't for my inbox history, I forgot I even picked this up.

@FredsBodyDouble Lol, I understand that statement. I love the Fallout, Elder Scrolls, and Outer Worlds series and gameplay, but honestly, the people’s faces, to me, are far more off putting than low res or even frame drops, lol! They’ve always just looked off to me. shrugs

@dux check out the parch up review of switchup on youtube to see the difference before and after the patch. The game has been improved pretty well!

Is it free? It reads like it is.

Love love love this game! Can’t wait to jump back in didn’t realise they were doing expansions

Can someone give me an honest feedback about this game running on the Switch?
I don't mind having graphics downgraded but I've heard that on this game they are really bad.
But I've also heard that there was a patch that fixed most of the issues so I'm just curious if it's worth to purchase it now.

The game is frequently so cheap that I can recommend picking it up. I paid full price at launch and wasn’t salty. The graphics weren’t the best (allegedly), but they were playable and the art style was good. The writing and world building is first rate, and they’ve built characters you actually care about. I haven’t played it since they’ve improved it with the patches so I am excited to go back ans replay with the DLC and the improvements

@tourjeff I don’t have any other console to compare to, which means i didn’t have any other platform to play it on. It was one of the best, most engrossing games I’ve played in ages. I played docked and honestly I was so scared it was going to be a crap port but it was fine. And you can get the physical for £22 in the UK atm

@quigtendo thank you for the feedback.
I also only have the Switch to play games and was fine with Doom and Wolfenstein.
So I guess this one is on the same level.
I found some cheap ones too but can't buy from the UK anymore as on the top of that they will charge import fees - thanks to Brexit.
I'll keep an eye on other Amazon sites though.

@tourjeff Here’s a honest review, if you got along fine with Doom and Wolf on Switch, AND you like Fallout/Skyrim style rpgs, then you’ll love this. It performs better than Wolf did, closer to Doom (loved it on switch.

Edit - Keep an eye on eshop, it drops to $20-30 range often.

@tourjeff oh this is interesting, I’ve been really keen on playing Wolfenstein but worried about quality. May give it a go finally, price depending

@quigtendo you're going to enjoy it. Action non stop.
There were some parts that gets really busy so the graphics take a hit, however, I know there have been some patches since I played so I can only assume things improved a bit. If you find it cheap it's worth getting it.

@Dm9982 thank you, just ordered it from Amazon.
€25.00 which seems reasonable to me.

Hmmm, it's cheap to buy on Amazon right now. If it wasn't for Mario 3D World and the new Switch, I'd definitely be interested. Dammit.

@tourjeff

I don't think its as bad as say, Wolfenstein 2 on Switch. Its muddy overall, but picture resolution stays OK. I can't say it looks good, but its fully playable with framerate mostly sticking to its target. One initial big issue in the earlier version was the extremely slow texture loading, it was like Cyberpunk on Xbox One, you could stand in front of a muddy signpost and wait for 10 sec before the details loaded in. Its much better now. Still plenty of pop-ins, but that annoyingly slow load ins seems to be fixed. I have played the newest version for 15 hours or so and Id say its a fully enjoyable experience now.

@tourjeff I finished the whole game (~40 hours), and it runs fine. There's a bit of a weird and very quick swap between low poly and high poly character models when switching areas, but that's about it. Never had any frame rate issues or major bugs either.

Does the base game work yet?

@Moistnado look at all the other replies . It does.

@Heavyarms55 The Switch version got dinged at release because it sacrificed a lot of visuals to run compared to the more powerful consoles. I would say it ran on the lowest PC settings with a lot disabled at first compared to high or better on other consoles. They patched it around when I bought it and it plays fine except of some pop-in when you are full out running (which was rare for me to do). I would say that it is running on medium with some options disabled or low with things turned on now for Switch.

I am looking forward to the expansion. The delay means that hopefully any bugs are resolved, and I really enjoyed the game. Still need to complete the game on the hardest settings at some point.

@FluffiestP1llow TBH even the launch the reviews were way worse than actual performance - I had it pre-ordered and was like “oh, no” when the reviews came out but then actually playing it everything was fine and it never froze or anything on me.

The patch did improve how the sky and plants look tho, it’s an improvement

@ROBLOGNICK the new switch?

@tourjeff honestly the graphics ran fine even before the month 2 patch - I really suspect most of the pre-launch reviews didn’t have the day 1 patch, because the game never froze at all for me (I 100%-ed it) and other than some washout on handheld it looked fine.

I hopped back in to explore some dynamic areas after the patch and it definitely has more expressive night sky and plants now, but the game ran fine for me the whole time

@dux honestly it looks better than The Witcher on Switch, I never experienced the issues in the pre-release reviews and I 100% the game before the patch

I'm really tempted to buy this game, especially at its now very low price.

@Heavyarms55 dont believe what that dude said. It actually runned like complete garbage. Imagine goldeneye 64 framerate (15fps), well you got that in battles in the open world. It never ran at 30fps to begin with.

@Darknyht "The Switch version got dinged at release because it sacrificed a lot of visuals to run compared to the more powerful consoles."

Thats not true lol. The game was bashed because its framerate was atrocious to begin with. You have videos recorded with drops to 16fps in fights in the open areas on top of objects popping out of nowhere. And lets not forget the random "loadings"

@GannonBanned Sorry bad choice of words. I meant new Switch colour (red) which I’m going to get.

@Pirate1 I had to google GC strategy and I think it means Garbage Collection, which seems to be something to do with how memory is reallocated to improve performance. I could be wrong though!

Anyway, I liked this game, for what it's worth. The occasionally dodgy graphics never bothered me.

@ROBLOGNICK oh nice, congrats!!

I was just making sure you weren’t betting the farm on Switch Pro, April 2021

@GannonBanned okay cool, thanks! I'm gonna pick it up after work then. Absolutely loved the game on xbox, but after the reviews I got worried it was a god awful port. Good to know!

@XBontendo Just load an earlier save.
Having an ending to a game isn't a bad thing.

@StevenG Unfortunately I dont have one. Having an ending isnt bad, but locking me in so I cant enjoy the dlc isnt great

General PSA that me and several XBox players realised far too late: keep extra saves before the last area

@XBontendo You played a game based on that engine with only one active save? Are you incredibly brave or very stupid?

@StevenG I only keep one save for most games as many players do. I also dont want to tempt myself to undo a decision.

It's poor design on their part, and I dont think it's unreasonable to ask for a patch letting me leave. Why try to start something with me by calling me stupid? Nice way to make friends.

@XBontendo I gave you a choice, I didn't call you anything.
I think they went the correct route. After end game DLC is always a letdown.

@StevenG Choice or not, read that to your mum and ask her whether it comes across as condescending.

I can't vouch for the DLC so I'll just have to take your word for it. Too bad since the main game was a treat

Dang that timing, I just beat the game two nights ago.

That being said, I already stepped away from the game so maybe I’ll wait until all the DLC is out before I go back. Maybe they’ll fix the frame rate drops by then too.

Was just thinking about starting this one. Probably won’t buy the DLC, but happy for the tweaks.

@tourjeff I bought it on a lark when it was $25 at best buy. It looks like a PS3 game. Dead on looks like PS3 New Vegas.

@GannonBanned you are crazy if you think it looks better than the Witcher on switch. You have to share what you are taking as its some strong stuff, lol. You would be the first person who ever thought that that I have ever seen.

@Fifth313ment I love them both, but the Witcher always has that hazy vaseline memory glaze over it - it’s also probably a style preference, too 🤷‍♂️

I never claim to be a smart person

@Casual_Gamer95 I played the entire game and never once felt cheated by frame rate. It wasn’t unplayable, just what you would get on a slightly under spec machine. I would agree that it isn’t the best way to play the game, but if it is the system you own it is an enjoyable game on Switch.

Digital Foundry’s XBO vs Switch comparison would be like comparing a Porsche against a Japanese K car. Both are cars for passenger transport, but the designers built with different objectives and purposes. Dinging the K car because it cannot go 0-60 in the amount of time as the Porsche is just obviously stupid, and to me that equally applies to someone holding the Switch version of a game to a vastly more powerful console then acting surprised it cannot compare. Hence why I put it in terms of low power PCs which would have made more sense for Digital Foundry to hold the Switch version against (that being a PC w minimum specs, not a i7 gaming system running low settings).

@Darknyht you still don't get it? it's the framerate and pop ins that were the biggest issues on switch, just because the switch is lower specced, it doesn't mean people should agree with games that run so poorly they're similar to powerpoint presentations. Outter worlds is a tragedy on switch and always will be. And before you play the "you never had a switch" card, i did and was a day one owner and third party games were most of my purchases so i think i can tell when framerate ain't decent.

But go on, and rant about how DF compared with the other platforms and continue to ignore the real problems of the switch version.

Having read they were pushing a new patch. 1.3.
I thought I’d go back to OuterWorlds in the hope that there was more visual improvements made on the previous and only patch since release.
Sadly playing it today I can’t notice any changes. I’m not a person who understands the world of coding/patches etc but when I read the patch note stating “Adjusted Texture Streaming Strategy” I was hoping that meant a reduction in pop in on the open world areas and less muddier textures. But alas not as buildings, distant hills and rock faces still blatantly change texture and or colour and fauna pops up as you approach.
The game is playable but frustrating when you see the likes of other ports of just as impressive games nobody thought could ever come to the switch, looking better visually.
Whether I purchase the DLC will be dependent on the price.