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@impurekind - Here's the part where we have to "agree to disagree" because ultimately satisfaction with a console is individual and subjective.

However;
I think a lot of people buy into the hype that gaming media and internet buzz creates...it's a demographic of mostly young males who tend to have disposable income and low self-esteem that prioritize spedning on tech and gadgets...so the manipulation of their buying habits is practically a science.

Anyway, the powers of hype that be told us the Wii U sucked, and the Switch is great...so far. I think a lot of people are susceptible to this sort of groupthink.

@SLIGEACH_EIRE - You kind of undermined your own tactics here.

I was trying to make light of how some people call it a handheld or console depending on the criticism or praise you want to launch at the moment.

So you go ahead and confirm that even after claiming it is specifically a handheld (post #95), you admit you'll be using it as a console...so that you can criticize it for "nerfed" gaming in handheld "mode"...which means you now say it's not exclusively a handheld! (post #102).

So thank you for validating my post.

@impurekind - In retrospect, the Wii U isn't a bad console at all.

It could have been more powerful and had a larger internal HDD, but it also had some nice features and a great exclusive library to offset some of it's flaws.

One of the biggest hurdles was that Nintendo didn't advertise it enough, and the gaming media were too busy reporting on how "confused" people were about what it was to you know...inform people as the media is supposed to do. *

(*no their job isn't to sell the console, but they should have informed people rather than adding to the confusion)

@SLIGEACH_EIRE

I think I understand your metrics here:

It's a console when we're comparing system specs, what third party games are available, and whatever else puts it at a disadvantage to competing consoles...

But when it comes to sales and price-point, we call it a hand-held to make it look less impressive at retail and overpriced.

Got it!

@Donutman - I feel very much the same.

My Wii U has been incredibly practical and gets a ton of use. I have a nice library of physical and digital Wii U games, as well as a huuuge library of Wii games. I also like it for the gamepad which gets signal in much of my small apartment, and is a great player for Crunchyroll, Youtube, etc...

My fear is that through an accident or just years of use my Wii U or the pad will eventually fail, and since it was never a popular console, it will be hard to get it fixed or replaced. I really don't see myself ever selling or getting rid of it.

@Agent721 - I used that sort of over-the-top language when someone on another forum was talking about how he saw bins filled with returned Splatoon discs at a game shop...which I knew from dealing with that person before was a lie, or at best a huge exaggeration.

So I upped the ante...to ridiculous extremes.

@Luna_110
On point with the "free alternative" but also it's necessary for corporations to protect their copyrighted intellectual properties as a matter of responsibility to those properties and their shareholders.

Sorry complainers, I want free stuff too...but that's how our capitalist system works. I'm not a huge fan of capitalism, but when regulated, it's the best system we could come up with for organizing an economy.

@westman98

Don't you love it when the goalposts for even breaking the mark of "success" is to surpass one of the best selling games/consoles of all time?

I doubt we'll ever see another PS2/DS level of success for a single console or handheld for a while.

@SLIGEACH_EIRE

I see the Emerald Isle is still contending with the great Nintendo Switch tsunami of 2017...

Have local and national authorities at least gotten the piles of excess Nintendo Switches that were blocking emergency routes and crippling major thoroughfares cleared out?

I heard there were concerns over wiping out entire species of coastal sea life due to dumping over-loaded barges filled with excess Nintendo Switches into the Atlantic...the sheer volume of which has caused sea levels to rise several inches, even causing some coastal flooding as far as the East Coast of the United States.

I sure hope Ireland can get this situation under control.

@Paddle1 -Interesting.

So you're comparing regular sized, original 3DS to a larger sized NEW 3DS.

So it's like comparing a regular model car with a 4 cylinder engine when it was new to the new model with sports package and 6 cylinder engine now...

@KingMike Get it more!

You Fail it!

Being a massive Castlevania fan I bought Citidale on sale despite mediocre reviews.

Apparently, if you bought the original, you get a half-price discount on the trilogy.

I may go for it. It's not a worthy clone in the way of Axiom Verge or Freedom Planet, but definitely some hours of enjoyment for old-school Castlevania fans.

@Cyberbotv2 - Definitely do yourself a favor and get one soon while many of the titles are still readily available and in circulation (unless you plan to go digital) at reasonable prices.

There's so many great 3DS games. Sooo many...

@Paddle1 Are you certain?

Didn't the normal XL model launch at $250, and now we have the NEW more powerful XL model at $200?

@rykirk - Well said! I agree with your reasoning 100%.

I'm as astounded by the reaction to this product as the people who are reacting by being astounded by it! (figure that one out)

Anyway, I agree this is a nice product to put out there for kids, people on a budget, older fans with less than perfect eyesight looking to get back into Pokemon or Mario...or whatever without spending a ton of money.

I give up...I don't understand gamer culture anymore, not even my fellow Nintendo fans...

Why is the New 2DS XL such a shock and mystery to everyone?

Why is everyone jumping on Reggie Fils Amie even when his statements make perfect sense, regardless of what other reasons you have for hating him?

More and more games for the 3DS family are being released with limited or no stereoscopic 3D function. It will allow for quicker, cheaper ports and lower processing demands. Also, people constantly tell Nintendo that they don't even use the 3D function.

Why does this product so flabbergast and beguile the internets?

@Manjushri - Actually, you have to pay for the use of a jet and fuel(several thousand dollars), a pilot and people to load/unload, rental of the airstrip, and then trucks to hurry them to stores.

@HeroOfTime32
Rule #1 of Nintendo critics, assume everything is always the most nefarious and anti-consumer immediately until proven otherwise...then just insinuate it again later.

@FatherPheonix - I have a regular 3DS, but as I'm not a kid anymore, my eyes struggle in either 3D or 2D mode on the small screen, and might pick this up just to play for long periods of time around the apartment without eyestrain.

@SLIGEACH_EIRE - Honestly, do you miss the awkward stage show press events?

Nintendo have generated more positive buzz with all of us anticipating their pre-produced E3 directs that communicate the same message without some corporate guys nervously sweating and appearing to look like freakish children next to amazonian Aisha Tyler, or flailing around with a Wii-mote like an interpretive dancer being electrocuted.

Just because "that's how it's been done" for the most part doesn't mean it can't change, or that Nintendo hasn't actually found a better way to communicate the same message.

Nintendo will have a big presence at E3 like they always do, and it will be more about demos and fun events than suits on a stage showing us pre-rendered trailers of games to come out in 2019.

Third Parties: "hey look, Switch sold a lot, let's pretend we were always on board!...for now"

Really people?

I haven't read every single comment, but do people not understand who this is for?

This is for kids where the parents don't want to spend $300 on a piece of tech with a ton of small parts that can get lost, and still get new Pokemon, Fossil Fighters, Etrian Odyssey, Yo-Kai-Watch, Yu-Gi-Oh, and whatever else the kids are still playing.

But what does Michael Pachter have to say???

@Nintendrew gotcha, thanks for the response.

Well, Ocarina of time is running like...200X 400X400 or something like that on 3DS in 3D mode?

Might be a nice add-on for some experiences, but it seems like the Vive is still the best bet for a serious VR setup.

I don't know if that's good or bad, but I'm definitely angry at Nintendo!

So....?

Well, did he find it a good experience, a bad experience, an interesting experiment? Did he find it comfortable and did the footage create the illusion of immersion in any way?

The setup was pretty cool, but he didn't really share any thoughts on the experience.

Gannon-dorf? More like, Gannon-dork! -Whoa!
Am I right people?
But you know...have you ever had airline food? What's the deal with it?

@SLIGEACH_EIRE - Seriously?

Hey, let me take that season pass I bought from last year's Call of Duty, and use it again in the new one!

Also, can I have a collectible statue of one of the characters or guns?

The funny thing is, as Amiibo goes on as a product, the value of them actually increases, where your DLC "paywall" purchased for other games does not.

Sorry...but that $12 kids shelled out for a Splatoon Amiibo just became a slightly better investment, not a worse one.

Well...

It still hasn't beaten PS4 in lifetime sales, so the Switch is an abject failure and it's only a matter of time before Nintendo goes third party.

Nah! - lol

I just figured I'd provide the Nintendoom in case anyone was feeling like something was missing.

Just FYI before anyone read too deeply into this, I still maintain that there is no guarantee of long term success, and that it's up to Nintendo to continue to market the platform properly and make sure there is content.

This time, at least the general gaming media is begrudgingly on board and not actively trying to sabotage this thing.

@XenoShaun - The first one is arguably the best. The amount of detail and little touches make it a joy to play through again and again.

Others may be bigger and badder, but the original really got it right.

@freaksloan - It's like the people that rant against the casual modes in Fire Emblem (although Phoenix mode is a bit much admittedly)... play on the correct difficulty for you.

I play many action RPGs on crazy hard difficulty because I'm a Diablo, Torchlight, Fate, Sacred, Titan's Quest, Victor Vran, Alien Syndrome, and Gauntlet fanatic.

I play fighting games on easy because even though I've been playing them since Killer Instinct and Street Fighter 2 on SNES, I still suck at them!

Donkey Kong is one of the most recognizable and important games of all time.

While it may have stood slightly behind Pac-Man in it's day here in America, it's gameplay and original characters were far more influential throughout the ages than the grand yellow dot muncher.

@gatorboi352 - well sure, but the Wii U's lack of power was severely overhyped. The internet made it seem like the Wii U was two Atari 2600s duct taped together.

Also, your analogy is apt, but not in the way you meant. The Gamecube, Wii and Wii U all used that power PC architecture. The Switch is closer to a PS4 and XB1 in basically using the X86 architecture. So more like...2 Xbox360s shrunk down and duct taped together?

@PlywoodStick - eh...nice dodge and diffusion I guess?

You basically came in accusing one group of people of getting salty over a particular poster, then claimed it was ironic for me to point out that the actual salt seemed to be coming from the Nintendoomers in this particular instance ( seeing as how the initial news is very far from the dire predictions).

Now it's all about the integrity of hearing "both sides", but I really don't see how that applies to this situation.

The real question is:

After you see the frame rate stutter, can you unsee it?

@PlywoodStick - uhm what?

So wait...it's okay for you to point at one group and declare their over-abundance of sodium output when defending a specific board user...

But when I suggest the reverse may be true, I'm failing to point to all parties that may be guilty and therefore It's dismissed as ironic or hypocritical?

Is that what you're trying to say here?
I'm actually not 100% clear on the point you're trying to make.

@PlywoodStick - Hmmm, nope.

I don't think you understand what "salt" means in it's pop-cultural rhetorical context.

If anything, it seems right now the Switch Nintendoomers are the ones deploying truckloads of salt and somehow still managing to come off as self-righteous as the news seems to contradict the certainty of their dire predictions.

What separates a troll from a legitimately opinionated person that is simply cautiously and frequently negative, is the inability to ever admit they were wrong or concede a point.

Concession, compromise, and reason do not elicit angry responses or continued attention the same way that stubborn and overwhelming negativity regardless of the facts will.

@Anti-Matter - You have a few options:

1) go with a cheaper setup, (under $400) like an integrated video card with 4GB RAM...some are pretty powerful and will work for The Sims 3 and 4, but don't expect to run Tomb Raider or GTAV very well. Check the requirements I listed.

2) Go with a desktop setup where you aren't paying for a monitor and portability.

3) Wait for a sale

@Ryu_Niiyama - Thanks for your input.

I can't say I have a lot to add or disagree with there.

I think the Wii U's biggest problems were 1: Marketing like you mentioned, and 2: Completely hostile gaming media on a feeding frenzy of negativity.

Think about this: Game journalists are always claiming it's their job - no duty - to get out there and get the facts to the consumers...but for the Wii U, they wrote more articles about how confusing it is, and how consumers were confused than they ever did actually explaining or clarifying. It was like a self-sustaining misinformation feedback loop that really impacted consumer confidence.

The third party situation was unfortunate, but also in 2012-2013, the market was really at it's saturation point for the "grey-brown military shooter", and the Wii U was like a breath of fresh air for those seeking an alternative...but sadly the mainstream still wanted more CoD, Battlefield, and Killzone at that time.

I will say this about Slig - He can take some punching back in stride which I do admire. However, I do still think he goes out of his way to always interject some negativity whenever possible.

I'm always suspect of people that seem to have nothing positive to say on essentially a fan-news website...you begin to wonder why they continue to frequent and support a community for something one would normally have long ago abandoned when you realize the brand or product is not for you or no longer for you.

My two cents.

@Anti-Matter - Well, I haven't had a laptop in a while, but my old laptop from around 2008 struggled a little with the SIMS 2.

A modern laptop should be able to handle the Sims 3 and 4, but you'll need one with a dedicated video card if you want to run it with nice resolution and framerate, as well as future proofing it so it won't be terrible going forward. Go with at least the equivalent of an Nvidea Gforce 700 series (900 series is the current standard and more powerful than XB1/PS4) or better, and 4 to 8 GB Ram.

Expect to pay around $600-700(US) retail normally, but searching for sales can get you something -much- cheaper. Keep in mind a desktop system will be cheaper if you intend to mostly play at home and have an HDMI ready TV or Monitor.

My setup is the traditional Desktop tower with HDMI output to my HDTV, and I swap inputs between that, blu-ray, and Wii U using one remote.

=====================================

UPDATE!
From the STEAM store, these are the requirements for SIMS3

OS: Windows XP (Service Pack 2) or Windows Vista (Service Pack 1)
Processor: (XP) 2.0 GHz P4 processor or equivalent; (Vista) 2.4 GHz P4 processor or equivalent
Memory: (XP) 1 GB; (Vista) 1.5 GB
Graphics: 128 MB Video Card with support for Pixel Shader 2.0
DirectX®:
Hard Drive: At least 6.5 GB of hard drive space with at least 1 GB additional space for custom content
Sound:
Built-in Graphics:
Intel Integrated Chipset, GMA X3000 or above.
2.6 GHz Pentium D CPU, or 1.8 GHz Core 2 Duo, or equivalent
0.5 GB additional RAM
Supported Video Cards:Nvidia GeForce series: FX5900 or greater, G100, GT 120, GT 130, GTS 150, GTS 250, GTX 260, GTX 275, GTX 280, GTX 285, GTX 295; ATI Radeon™ series: ATI Radeon 9500 series of greater, X300, X600, X700, X800, X850, X1300, X1600, X1800, X1900, X1950, 2400, 2600, 2900, 3450, 3650, 3850, 3870, 4850, 4870 series or greater; Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA): GMA 3-Series, GMA 4-Series
Please note that the GeForce 6100 and 7100 cards are not supported

So it looks like you could get away with a slightly cheaper laptop, but I would invest the extra cash for a solid one, or wait for a really good sale...just because the difference in performance, load times, etc will improve your life going forward, lol.

@Crono1973 - I've gone back to Xenoblade Chronicles X, and that would have been lauded as an amazing and ambitious exclusive on any other console - but on Wii U it was plagued first by people screaming about scantily clad teenage girls, then screaming about "censorship" because they put the teenage girl in more modest apparel.

Oh yeah, and they removed the most important feature of all...a bust slider!

@Crono1973 - I'm still trying to figure out what was wrong or "bad" about the Wii U itself that these know-nothing casuals apparently had all figured out.

Was the marketing blundered? - Yes, but I think adding more were the gaming media actively working to sabotage and undermine any positivity for that misunderstood console.

I'm a PC gamer, and to me, the Wii U simply had all the sorts of games either missing or poorly represented on PC and the other consoles - and to be blunt, I'm just not a fan of multiplayer military shooters in the first place.

@Gamer83 I doubt any single console will again touch Wii/DS/PS2 numbers. The X360 and PS3 did pretty well because they were supported for so long, but now with mobile, tablets, and PC gaming...I highly doubt consoles will ever regain those numbers unless new markets open up that change the dynamic.

@SLIGEACH_EIRE LOL.

Family Guy creator Seth McFarlane is apparently Irish American, and he loves to poke at the Irish even more than he does at most:

Family Guy Video: Ireland

@Asaki - thanks.

I really have not heard anything about anyone modding any Xboxes for any reason. It seemed like later Playstations weren't of much interest to modders either.

Maybe it's just a case of my not owning any of those, so I wouldn't catch the news on sites related to those consoles...although I do visit some broad based gaming sites that cover all platforms.

@Waninoko - Well that's interesting, and I have heard of this and seen some of the new releases for what is essentially hardware that hasn't been officially supported for over a decade.

@SLIGEACH_EIRE

Here in the United States, we can be woefully ignorant of other countries. Sometimes you would think all we know about Ireland are the potato blight, the legend of St Patrick, and U2.

..But Americans are not yet aware of the latest big news from the Emerald Isle, the great Switch blight of 2017! I heard there are switches everywhere in Ireland, stacks of them rotting in the streets...piles of Nintendo Switches so high they block out the Sun and threaten to choke out crops. There are reports of great waves of Nintendo Switches burying entire communities and blocking major highways impeding trade and food distribution across the Island. In fact, I've heard they had to contract out across Europe for the heavy military and construction equipment necessary to start removing the massive piles of overstocked Nintendo Switches as the number of Irish residents simply buried under the endless mountains of Nintendo Switches becomes a humanitarian crisis.

In one instance, an Irish civic official said that they needed to use a helicopter just to see the tops of the giant piles of leftover switches that threaten to overwhelm the entire Island nation.

@Firelork - hey man, sorry if it comes off mean, because I know most Floridians are really nice, but I was explaining to the UK residents here that Florida has a reputation for strange news stories.

@nhSnork - I don't want to be mean to the nice folks that live way to the South of me here, but yeah...not just politicians, Florida is known for being the state with the most bizarre incidents and baffling news stories.