Cakefish

I’ve just downloaded my Switch back catalogue. Well, as much of it as I could fit on the internal memory until my new micro SD card order arrives next week.

I’ll get the BOTW upgrade pack. Might even get Shadow x Sonic Generations. That’ll probably see me through until Kirby & the Forgotten Land and Metroid Prime 4. I’ll be keeping a close eye on the eShop to see if anything new pops up in the meantime though! Shame they killed off Gold points…

Panzer Dragoon Remake is vastly improved. It runs at 60fps even in non-performance mode. It still very much looks like a Switch game of course, but it’s maxing out the dynamic resolution and topping out the 60fps cap. Also loads much faster.

Splatoon 3 also loads noticeably faster!

Yep. It’s working hard downloading all the games, poor thing!

Anyway, this new device smell discussion was all the rage on Reddit during Steam Deck launch too.

After a (very) brief testing Ashen seems to perform a lot smoother. I could instantly tell frame times were better. Loads much faster too.

Promising first signs!

Well Amazon must’ve read my comment yesterday because they finally dispatched the 512GB Lexar card. It’s due on the 13th now. That’s fine by me seeing as it doesn’t seem like UK retailers will get stock until August.

Amazon US lied to me and the 512GB card I ordered never arrived in the end. It’s still not despatched so no chance it gets here by Wednesday, which somehow is still the ETA they’re claiming. If it doesn’t dispatch by Wednesday I’ll cancel and just wait for Smyths to get stock this side of Atlantic.

My order from Amazon USA for 512GB SD card still hasn’t despatched yet but the ETA for 4th June hasn’t changed. It’s not gonna make it is it? No way it can cross the Atlantic and get through customs in under a week.

Nier Automata is incompatible. Sad days.

When Metroid Prime 4?!

@DDStuff @burndive @PlayingWithPower the tech exists. Lenovo Legion Go 2 has been officially announced and due for release later this year. It has an 8.8” 144Hz OLED panel with VRR. It’s not a matter of the tech not existing, it’s simply a matter of cost. Nintendo wants decent profit margins on Switch 2. The OLED model will arrive once costs of manufacturing have come down to Nintendo’s satisfaction.

Ah can’t even enjoy Switch 2 for 5 minutes without the Switch 2 OLED rumours. Sigh. I say this as someone who’s been critical of the lack of OLED in vanilla Switch 2. I just want a bit of time to enjoy this expensive investment without obsessing over the inevitable future revisions.

Super disappointing. I’m not going to cancel my preorder or anything, but still very disappointing.

I haven’t been deliberately ignoring it, but I’ve just been busy playing some games on Steam so there’s just been no time for my Switch backlog in the past month.

I was one of those asking them to tone the innovation down and focus instead on refining the core experience more. So I’m happy that Switch 2 is just a better performing Switch. Focusing on VRR, 120Hz, DLSS, HDR, fast load times etc. was the right call over weird gimmicks. Just a shame about the lack of OLED and the relatively power inefficient 8nm SOC, but that’s less about innovation and more about business economics.

Oh I thought the Kirby Forgotten Land upgrade was launch day. Hmmm now I’ll have to figure something else out to play in June.

I love this game so much, I played it three times!

You’re free to give us Metroid Prime 4 release date now Nintendo. Do it! Please…

No Splatoon 3 or Pikmin 4 makes me sad.

Splatoon could’ve just simply updated the hub to run at 60fps if there were competitive concerns about boosting framerate elsewhere. Pikmin 4 could’ve just unlocked to 60fps. Boom. That’s all that’s needed. Let’s add Luigi’s Mansion 3 to the list now that I think about it, could also just run at 60fps.

@Serpenterror Xbox consoles are also manufactured outside USA.

The crazy thing is even before this price rise the £70 standard for Xbox/PlayStation games was already above the new £67 eShop pricing for Switch 2 games. So £80 AAA games will probably be the new standard now on Xbox/Playstation. Joy. At least Nintendo is giving a better currency conversion to UK. Only positive thing I can really say about all this.

This is actually so useful for hiding demos, trial games, and a dozen or so indie shovelware titles I regrettably claimed for free in the past. So good that you can nuke all the clutter!

Metroid Prime 4 and Splatoon 4

Pro controller, carry case, glass screen protectors, ergonomic grip, and a 512GB express card.

That’s a shame for physical collectors. For people who are open to buying digital I still strongly recommend Split Fiction though. I’m currently on my third play through and it’s still an incredibly fun time, even if repeat plays lack the wonderful surprise element of that first time. It’s a brilliant gem of a game.

I'm glad you gave us non-Americans an option to still be included in the poll, else I definitely would've skewed the results.

I’ve got a 512GB card on order from Amazon US. I had to import as no native British retailer is selling cards above 256GB capacity. ETA for arrival the week of Switch 2 launch!

Super disappointing. I really hope this is only a temporary issue. VRR is so beneficial to gaming.

@Shade_Koopa my LG CX has VRR and is literally half a decade old now. It wasn’t the first TV to have VRR either, the even older LG C9 also has it. That point was valid when XSX/PS5 launched but 120Hz/VRR support is fairly widespread on all but the cheapest TVs these days.

@OorWullie Yep that’s exactly how it works! I played with one of my brothers who got the friend pass on Steam and it worked with my Xbox paid version no trouble. You just both need an EA account to invite each other to the game session.

Worth every single penny. I strongly recommend it to anyone who has even the slightest interest in co-op games. I’ve played through it twice already on Xbox. I give it a personal score of 10/10. That’s how much I enjoyed it.

Worth mentioning that Friend Pass is 100% cross-platform with this game. I don’t see that mentioned in the article.

Are there options in display settings to enable/disable VRR, HDR, and 120Hz individually? Curious to know how much user control we will get on these screen options, both handheld and docked.

PSA - the 512GB Lexar card can currently be imported to UK for £90.05 via Amazon US: https://amzn.eu/d/h1Zvb2o

That makes it better value than the £199 1TB Lexar card described in this article (which actually is currently out of stock anyway).

Sony meanwhile seems to be innovating primarily in the realm of console price rises. Yesterday’s news was the second official price rise for PS5 since it launched. Those in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones…

Personally I think VRR on a handheld is a great innovation. I know ROG Ally X was there first, but that’s a full fat Windows PC. Switch 2 is the first mainstream handheld console with VRR. Even the mighty Steam Deck OLED lacks VRR!

USA: tariffs, market chaos, and miniature American flags for all!

Sony: grrr… I’ll huff and puff and… [raises prices in Europe and Oceania]

Nintendo would be wise to just keep quiet and keep carrying on. There’s already online disquiet about Switch 2 pricing, so they should just be glad that Sony has just voluntarily stepped on a rake and provided a valuable distraction.

Great to see Split Fiction still going strong! Much deserved.

@darylb24 @kevmauldin looks like Nintendo UK are out of stock now, so I'm keeping my Very order active!

@Tyranexx Split Fiction can be played in online co-op. That’s how I played it (twice actually!)

Nintendo community apparently unaware just how good Split Fiction is. It’s a 10/10 game in my opinion. Thoroughly recommend.

What is Metroid Prime 4's release date? Come on just tell me already! What is the file size? When can I preorder from eShop?

Does the VRR support have low framerate compensation (LFC) in both handheld and docked modes? I have LG CX so it's supported on my TV. Question is whether Switch 2 itself supports it. XSX supports LFC while PS5 does not, so it's not a guarantee - but would be the cherry on top of the tasty VRR desert.

Can we set the display to 60Hz and SDR to save battery life? Is it even worth doing so?

Themes! Will we get any themes other than basic white/black? What extra software features will we get this time around? (aside from GameChat that they already announced). Will it actually track game hours played on our profiles in a sane manner?

I'm also curious how much better Switch 1 games will run on Switch 2 via backwards compatibility, i.e. those that don't get any free patches nor Switch 2 Editions. I have to assume better loading times are pretty much guaranteed, but better performance too would be so very welcome - ironing out all the stutters and fps drops that plague so many Switch games.

And I also await the nerdy detailed tech specs that Digital Foundry will no doubt cover when that info becomes available.

Is there any benefit to ordering direct from Nintendo? I have received one of the coveted invites, but I already managed to nab an order with Very (after a friend recommended the Hotstock app). Is there any benefit to changing to Nintendo direct? I’m not really sure which retailer is more reliable for successfully fulfilling preorder deliveries.

I swear if they make access to Metroid Prime 2/3 locked behind subscription only I will huff and puff and… BE VERY ANGRY ONLINE!!!

£509. So this costs more than Switch 2 Mario Kart bundle + 2nd gen Pro controller combined. Wowzers.

It’s annoying that in UK the only way to buy 512GB/1TB options is importing from the US. I can’t find any native retailers selling anything larger than 256GB cards and considering that I’ve already got that amount of Switch games it seems a bit too tight for Switch 2. So I’ve been forced to order from US Amazon. I initially ordered the 1TB option (£171.52) but realised it wouldn’t have been delivered until 4 weeks after launch, so changed over to 512GB (£94.01) which should arrive just before Switch 2 launch day. Hopefully that’ll keep me going for a while.

I’ve got an invite (nice to know I’m worthy!), but I already managed to get a preorder in with Very so I guess I can’t really take advantage. I’ll order a 256GB SD Express card from the store though. I’ll probably replace it with a higher capacity one eventually, but want something to store my legacy Switch collection on at launch and the higher capacity 512GB/1TB options from Lexar are US only for now (boo!).

Edit: nevermind, I ordered a 512GB SD express card from Amazon instead. It’s a US import, but hopefully should arrive in one piece!

What. How is it possible to camp for two months? That’s pure insanity.

My friend managed to get me a preorder. Super cool of them as all other UK retailers have already sold out of launch stock, but Amazon invites are still being sent out. Mine will arrive on the 7th. A relief I can read this article without feeling FOMO!

The lack of availability of micro SD express cards is a bit annoying, but hopefully this announcement will kick the manufacturer’s arses into gear to ramp up production by June.

Game prices honestly don’t really bother me much. On eShop Donkey Kong is £59 and Mario Kart is £67. Both cheaper than the typical XSX/PS5 £70 standard for AAA games. So how can I really be mad at that? The catch of course is that first party Nintendo games hardly ever go on sale and the discount is usually much lower when they do. So yeah, I do get the wider backlash to an extent for that reason. I’ll just be very selective when choosing which Nintendo games to buy. Metroid Prime 4 is a guaranteed must have, the rest currently announced not so much.

I’m also still a little bummed by no OLED but 120Hz VRR is really helping to soften that blow. I’m really excited to see Nintendo go so hard on these specifications, not even Steam Deck has VRR so this is a huge win for gaming handhelds!

Overall I’m just super pumped to be involved with a console launch. I wasn’t there for Switch launch nor XSX launch. This is my first time getting a games console at launch in my entire life and I’m feeling the hype.

Super rude of them to sneakily break preorder embargo like this. Nintendo announces the 8th and then all the alternative retailers decide to disregard that and ninja launch their preorders - and not even bother to send email notifications. WTF?! By the time I realised they’d all sold out. Now Amazon and Nintendo’s own lotteries are my only hope.

The highlight of all the announcements for me. Even the mighty Steam Deck OLED does not have VRR. This is significant.

VRR support is wonderful, definitely helps to soften the blow from a lack of OLED.

£396 is almost exactly what I expected (I was predicting £399). I’m okay with that.

Existing MicroSD cards not being supported is a bit of a bummer. Express cards only seem to be available in 128GB and 256GB formats. Seems a little tight when Switch 2 will likely be similar to modern Xbox/PlayStation games.

I’m disappointed by the lack of Metroid Prime 4 release date. The wait continues… (though a Switch 2 edition is cool!)

The art direction is lovely so the game still looks absolutely beautiful just like Prime Remastered. It’s worth the compromises for the delicious silky smooth 60fps.