AltCode

"Cosy horror"? IMO, that's quite the oxymoron 🤔

Pauline: was a rock... suddenly is a child?!
Me:

@JimNorman Whoa, what an exotic hour to broadcast this! 😉

All kidding aside, did you perhaps mean to write 4pm CEST?

@Twilite9 Ha, the first time I thought when I saw the character was just that: "Look, it's Princess Hilda!"

Perhaps the design of this character is based indeed on her.

@Toastmaster Well... that's why steam has the "recent reviews" and the "all reviews" scores. The former very clearly shows that the review bombing that began today, but the latter still clearly indicates that the game has not been doing well since it lauched.

And there's also the reviews graph. If you exclude the reviews from today and onwards, it still quite mixed to negative...

TBF, the original developers of KSP, Squad, should have never sold the rights to KSP to Take-Two to begin with; that was an incredibly short-sighted decision by them.

@Toastmaster KSP2 is still in early access as well. Unlike the first game, which was also originally launched in early access, it was not received well, and according to the reviews on the steam store page, it was already receiving glacial development prior to this announcement.

@Olliemar28 @PikaPhantom Based on Koizumi's past comments regarding magnets (see my comment at #11) I think it's unlikely that they would go back to magnets if the current rail system works so well, or at least if they were to replace the current system, I don't think they would switch to a magnets-only system.
Despite a decade of time having passed, I highly doubt that there has been much change in magnet technology in that time. Also, there's a limit to how strong you can make a magnet before they make detachment inconvenient, or start damaging electronic devices (the switch included).

But what I can imagine is that perhaps they've come up with a new system that combines magnets with an additional locking mechanism: the magnets snap the controllers, and then you click a mechanical button (like the one already present on the back of the current joy cons) or flip a lock mechanism (like the one seen in the joy con straps) on the back of the controller that further secures the controllers to the main device.

@Kaiffe123 Yes! You're absolutely right, I think the Nintendo Minute video was indeed where I had heard this before. Thanks to you, I was actually able to find an article about the video: https://www.cbr.com/nintendo-switch-joy-con-clicking-history/

Koizumi said, "One I was particularly excited about at the time was using magnets, where you could snap it right to the console." While simply being able to attach the Joy-Con on the side with magnets sounds satisfying, Koizumi demonstrated the concept's crucial design flaw. Sometimes, the controllers would detach if tugged too hard, or the magnates would fail to hold up the tablet's weight, which meant "as you would play, sometimes it would just fall into your lap."

I vaguely remember reading or watching something a few years ago about how Nintendo had prototyped the use magnets on the original switch as well before they opted for going with the current rail setup. I however, cannot seem to find any information about this any longer...

A bit of background for those that may care:
1. For the longest time, Apple had disallowed any kind of emulators in its the official App Store.
2. In spite of that, Riley Testut, the developer of the Delta emulator, released his original emulator, GBA4iOS, outside the App Store with the use of a workaround known as the "date trick" that required you to simply change the date of your device one day back.
3. Apple and many developers who used this trick to install apps outside the App Store, were stuck in a cat and mouse game for a few years. But ultimately, in 2014, Apple finally won with the release of iOS 8.1, which killed the "date trick". As a result, Riley Testut open sourced GBA4iOS (https://rileytestut.com/blog/2014/10/08/gba4ios-is-dead-long-live-gba4ios/)
4. Two years later, Riley Testut announces Delta, his new emulator, as a closed beta (http://rileytestut.com/blog/2016/12/09/delta-beta-testing/).
5. In 2019, Riley Testut announces the first incarnation of the Alt Store, as an unofficial app store for iOS that could be used by anyone. And for good measure, this one could not be blocked, and to this day still has not been blocked, by Apple (https://rileytestut.com/blog/2019/09/25/introducing-altstore/).
6. Three days later, the Alt Store app is released alongside two other apps, the aforementioned Delta emulator, and Clip. All three apps are open source as well.
7. Fastforward to 2023, and the EU announces that Apple has been designated as a gatekeeper as part of the DMA legislation, meaning it must allow other app stores in iOS (and only iOS).
8. Come January 2024, Riley Testut announces that he will offer the Alt Store as a legitimate alternative app store in the EU, no workarounds necessary. (https://fosstodon.org/@altstore/111818192849973994)
9. At the beginning of April 2024, Riley Testut clarifies how the European version of the Alt Store will work. And in addition, he mentions that it is ready to launch, but it has been delayed because Apple has not given its final approval for launching it (https://techcrunch.com/2024/04/01/the-altstore-an-alternative-app-store-coming-to-eu-will-offer-patreon-backed-apps/)
10. Surprising everyone, a few days later Apple suddenly decides to remove its longstanding ban of emulators from the official App Store (https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/04/apple-now-allows-retro-game-emulators-on-its-app-store-but-with-big-caveats/). You know, part of the raison d'etre for why the Alt Store was created in the first place all the way back in 2019.
11. Not long after, iGBA becomes the first emulator to be released on the official App Store. And very soon after, it is taken down by Apple "after learning that it was a knockoff app that copied another developer's submission", most likely GBA4iOS (https://www.macrumors.com/2024/04/14/game-boy-emulator-in-app-store/, https://www.macrumors.com/2024/04/15/apple-removes-igba-from-app-store/)
12. The NES emulator comes and goes a few days later as well (https://www.macrumors.com/2024/04/16/nes-emulator-bimmy-for-iphone-in-app-store/)
13. And here we are! Alt Store PAL was released in the EU with Delta and Clip again, and Delta was released for the rest of the world in the official App Store.

@Olliemar28 This is incorrect, the DMA has only enabled this on iOS. iPads are still beholden to the entirity of Apple's strict lock and key.
Also, and I can't believe this wasn't mentioned either, Delta has also been released for the rest of the world on the official App Store - https://apps.apple.com/app/delta-game-emulator/id1048524688

In any case, I'm a bit disappointed by the lack of coverage NL has given to the current situation of emulators in iOS. This isn't even the first emulator to be officially released for iOS. That title goes to iGBA, which was taken down by Apple for being a knockoff of the much older GBA4iOS (sources: https://www.macrumors.com/2024/04/14/game-boy-emulator-in-app-store/, https://www.macrumors.com/2024/04/15/apple-removes-igba-from-app-store/), and Bimmy, which was ultimately taken down by its own developer (source: https://www.macrumors.com/2024/04/14/game-boy-emulator-in-app-store/)

Been playing this on my iPad since it’s included with my Netflix subscription; it’s quite a chill game to play. I also wish the game were slightly longer, but I do think they nailed the core game elements, so hopefully they might introduce more content later.

It’s a shame to hear that the switch version is plagued by crashes and a low frame rate; I did not have this experience on my iPad, so hopefully that gets resolved on the switch soon. Honestly though, I’m surprised to hear that the switch version lacks touchscreen support, considering that is baked into the mobile version on iOS and Android.

@AlanaHagues Might want to update the article; It's already been confirmed to Gamespot that Martinet will not be involved in Super Mario Wonder.

@HammerGalladeBro It's not though. The Streisan Effect would apply if the movie critics were actively attempting to hide, remove, or censor the movie from cinemas; giving a negative review in no way comes close to classifying as any of these three.

@OctoAmbush If you're talking about the DuckDuckGo browser, then I don't know what to tell you, it works for me there as well.

But just in case, if you're talking about the search engine, why would it? This is an easter egg specifically for Google's search engine.

It actually does work in other browsers. I tested in Vivaldi, Safari, and Firefox. All of them gave the easter egg.

@Patchanka @MxNintendo is has never been an official account though.

Also, to further clarify things, @NintendoES is managed by NoE, while @NintendoLatam is very likely going to be managed by NoA.

I don't see it. Other than looking very futuristic and Sci-Fi, I don't really see much similarities to Metroid Dread.

And regarding those first few enemies? None of seemed to share anything in common with the E.M.M.I. other than been obviously robotic. The E.M.M.I.s were slender and somewhat humanoid shaped, but moved very inhumanely. The first few enemies in the video were certainly not slender and were far less humanoid (one of them looks like a snake for crying out loud).

Outside that, it seems interesting, I'll keep an eye on it.

@ModdedInkling What makes you think it hasn't? We still have no sales records for anywhere else outside Japan. Not to mention that Splatoon 3 made it to the top spot of the UK's sale charts (see NL's article: https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2022/09/uk-charts-splatoon-3-inks-its-way-to-the-top-spot), and the game seems to be in the top spot of the eShop's charts across multiple regions

Perhaps this article ought to be updated to mention these tweets by James Gunn:
https://twitter.com/JamesGunn/status/1544357353318797312
https://twitter.com/JamesGunn/status/1544360985732861952

@AlanaHagues NoA just shared info on the character and has revealed her name to be Juniper for the west: https://twitter.com/NintendoAmerica/status/1537532975222489098

Perhaps this is worth updating the article?

@Not_Soos Nope. Afaik, none of the former THQ staff is employed by either THQ Nordic or Embracer Group; mind you, the former is a publishing company based in Austria, and the latter is a holding company based in Sweden.

When it comes to developers, I think there are a few that are still employed by them, be it as direct subsidiaries, or just as a their publisher.

You can embed a quote with (quote=USERNAME)Quote goes here(/quote) (replace the parentheses with [ and ] instead)

Yes, and no. There were two companies named THQ Nordic before. THQ Nordic GmbH, which is still named THQ Nordic, and its parent company THQ Nordic AB, which renamed itself to Embracer Group.

Just in case you (or anyone else that might be reading) were unaware, the THQ that went bankrupt has nothing to do with today's THQ Nordic or Embracer Group. From wikipedia:

In June 2014, Nordic Games Licensing acquired the "THQ" trademark, intending to use the name as a publishing label for its THQ properties. Subsequently, in August 2016, the company changed its name to THQ Nordic AB, while Nordic Games GmbH became THQ Nordic GmbH.

@MsJubilee Yep, they had. In their tumblr to be precise:
https://splatoonus.tumblr.com/post/183462046683/the-squid-research-lab-has-compiled-this

It was also a MyNintendo reward for a while (the page is still up):
https://my.nintendo.com/rewards/32e4e6d873534718

Why not link the tweets sharing this same information that are in, you know, English...
https://twitter.com/SplatoonNA/status/1523651096677289989
https://twitter.com/SplatoonNA/status/1523651053702422530
https://twitter.com/SplatoonNA/status/1523651006407462912
https://twitter.com/SplatoonNA/status/1521114051522093056
https://twitter.com/SplatoonNA/status/1521113990490820608
https://twitter.com/SplatoonNA/status/1521113928842895363

@Darkwario1 You’ll probably keep the octoling. I’m certain of this because I bought the octo expansion when it originally came out and my younger sibling would play on my switch until they got their own, but even after they had transferred their save file to the new switch. Even though they could no longer play any of the octo expansion levels, they still could choose to play as an octoling.

"Back in 2019, the Stardew Valley creator Eric "ConcernedApe" Barone announced he would self-publish in the future after the game's publisher Chucklefish was accused of exploiting contributing workers during its development of Starbound."

@Liam_Doolan That is not true, ConcernedApe began to move towards self publishing in 2018, a whole year before the accusations towards Chucklefish had even surfaced. The switch version followed suit in October 2019.

Source: https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2018-12-01-stardew-valley-dev-splits-with-uk-publishing-partner-chucklefish

Heck, when he moved to self-publishing for the switch as well, he even made this comment nearly a month after the controversy had occured:
"I thank Chucklefish for their help in making Stardew Valley a major success on the Switch, and I’m looking forward to continuing full support of Stardew Valley on the platform!"

Source: https://www.stardewvalley.net/self-publishing-on-switch/

His move towards self-publishing never had anything to do with the Chucklefish controversy. It was just a coincidence that it happened is he was moving towards self-publishing.

@Olmectron I'm not sure where you're going with this, but being based near the border does not make Lienzo or its employees any less Mexican. Also, the only information I can find about where they are based is "Chihuahua, Mexico" - not sure if they are referring to the city or just the state, if you could share any more specifics of where they are based, please do share a link.

"And even all their social network posts are posted in English, including their Twitter bio description. It seems they are not targeting their own country as potential buyers."
Well I don't think they can't be faulted for that. The US video game market is a significantly bigger than that of Mexico, so I think it makes sense they would try to target them more. I have seem them make a few post in Spanish every now and them though.

Yikes, this was hard to read. I had high hopes for this game... (admittedly though, I might still get this game much, MUCH, later down the line anyways).

@SirPrimalform Remember my other example? Well Rosetta 2 is another translation layer for two completely different architectures (x86 to arm).

There are also a few other translation layers out there that work between different architectures. Anbox already allows Android apps to work on Linux (arm to x86) and Windows Subsystem for Android will allow Android apps to work on Windows (arm to arm, but also arm to x86).

So I still stand by my point that the similarities in architecture probably shouldn't have anything to do with it.

@SirPrimalform I believe that similarity in architecture shouldn't have anything to do with it. They called it a translation layer, but another common name for something like that is compatibility layer; think of steam deck's proton, apple's rosetta 2, or wine (see more at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compatibility_layer).

@LUIGITORNADO It isn’t the same game engine. It says so in the article (and the FAQ).

It does look a lot like SV right now. I wonder if it could end up changing later on. SV itself went through many different pixel art styles before it was released.

@Yosher I think I can definitively say that Alex won't be using the same model, seeing how she has skinnier arms, you can even see this in the image they posted.

It being last doesn't mean "nobody likes tan", just that it was the least liked color from the subset of people that were monitored in these statistics. Quite a difference.

Of course, the "nobody" may just be hyperbole, but I still don't like it :/

@ryancraddock fix the article, please! This update is only out on PC right now.

Um, this update is NOT out on consoles yet. Only on PC for now.

The ESRB rating is even more baffling once you realize what PEGI gave it.

ESRB: "Nudity", "Sexual Content", Use of Drugs and Alcohol, Violence -> gets a Mature rating

PEGI: Sexual Innuendo -> gets a 12 rating

EDIT: And here is the exact same video posted by Nintendo DE with no age restriction :/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jSgfkWb3Dok

@Carlos1996 JRPG does not mean "made in Japan" or that it's turn based. Have a look at Extra Credit's videos take on what makes JRPGs JRPGs. Spoiler alert, the geographical position of the dev team has nothing to do with it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_rvM6hubs8

@Not_Soos Adding to what @freitasXsau and @Lugazz said, think about it as a spectrum of language dialects. In the lower end you have American English vs British English, which have some obvious differences, but do not infer communication/understanding in a very meaningful way that often.

On the higher end of the spectrum you have languages like European Portuguese vs. Brazilian Portuguese, or even Swiss German vs. High German, which are quite different and might result in some problems in spoken communication.

European Spanish vs LatAm Spanish lies somewhere between that spectrum of dialects.

Furthermore, LatAm Spanish covers multiple dialects of Spanish (Mexican, Chilean, Argentinean, Ecuadorean, etc.) in the most neutral manner it can possible manage, while European Spanish is made solely in mind for a Spaniard audience.

You guys neglected to mention that it adds the LatAm Spanish audio. European Spanish audio came included with the base game.