Cakefish

@Otoemetry UK is currently going through rough economic times, more so than other regions, so that’s got to be a contributing factor. Cost of living for basic necessities is climbing ever higher.

It’s beautiful! I love that the entire game is now consistently 60fps, no more jarring transition between stages and hub world anymore. Fantastic.

The lack of OLED is definitely noticeable (particularly so at night), but the LCD is decent enough that I’m not losing sleep over the downgrade in display tech. My gaming PC monitor is also LCD so it’s not like I’m allergic to them. I absolutely would’ve preferred OLED, but VRR and 120Hz are sublime features to have and pairing these with OLED would’ve driven costs up too high for the mass market. I understand compromises had to be made to reach this price point.

Ashen is 60fps now, which is kinda crazy as it’s capped to 30fps on Xbox Series X!

Panzer Dragoon Remake runs significantly better too. You no longer need to engage performance mode to reach 60fps.

Tinykin and A Hat In Time are still locked to 30fps but perform significantly better and load much faster.

It’s surreal how smooth the hub areas are now, I’m so used to seeing them at 30fps. It’s great though! Consistent 60fps now throughout the entire game, love it!

You can find ways to hurt yourself with literally any device out there, just ask parents of a toddler! Much ado about nothing.

It’s the advancement in architecture with DLSS, mesh shaders, variable rate shading, texture compression and all those other bells and whistles that will allow the Switch 2 to exceed PS4 in typical gaming. Raw compute isn’t the be all and end all, it’s how efficiently resources are used that also plays a key role in final results.

It was very sad saying goodbye to my Switch OLED as the display and battery life were just so damn nice. Switch 2 has impressed me though with the sheer snappiness and sharpness of the UI and significant performance/loading time improvements in backwards compatible games. Battery life and OLED are obvious areas for improvement that the mid gen refresh will undoubtedly address in a few year’s time, but until then I’ll be enjoying my Switch 2 very much!

Happy owner of a Switch 2 myself! I contributed to these numbers, I’ve played my part 😁

Very impressive! Considering PS5/XSX launched during the pandemic when gaming was exploding in popularity, these are great results.

And I think the notion that UK is anti-Nintendo is way overblown. Sure it’s not matching Japan or USA, but these are hardly bad results, no?

Attachment to Nintendo is more generational dependant here in UK I think. I’m a millennial and Pokémon was everywhere, literally everywhere, in my childhood. So GBA and GameCube were my childhood too, then later the DS in my teenage years.

I know plenty of people who own Switches, though they’re all of a similar age to me in their 30s. I preordered a Switch 2 and I know two other people who did the same.

I have the Venom one. It's a perfectly good case, but I quickly realised that I completely overlooked that the Switch isn't gonna fit in there with an ergonomic grip applied, which I have also purchased... oops. So I've ordered Savage Raven Max Carry Case so I can carry it around without needing to take the grip off every time. ETA for delivery is end of June, they must be in short supply right now.

Colour me very interested! I love Splatoon single player.

Nice! Proper Switch 2 support woohoo 🥳

The biggest cons are the obvious significant regression in battery life coming from the Switch OLED/2019 refresh and the display being LCD (so being more of a sidegrade coming from Switch OLED).

The biggest pros are the significantly snappier UI and much improved performance/loading times in games, as well as the superior ergonomics and much improved attachment method of the new joycons.

I’m really liking the new hardware a lot, but the allure of a hypothetical Switch 2 OLED with 4nm power efficient SOC is very real.

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!