Comments 38

Re: Review: Castaway Paradise - "Like Animal Crossing" Indeed, Minus The Good Bits

CobraA1

"It feels less like progress, and more like someone snatching away new content for you so you don't eat it too quickly and realise how little substance there is to the game."

Yeah, that's very much like mobile games. When you strip away all of the monetization, the vast majority of mobile games are a grindy mess and have very little substance. They're mostly casinos disguised as games.

Re: Random: The Switch Joy-Con Can Be Used As A Remote Shutter For Mobile Devices

CobraA1

@Savino Timers have their place, but aren't always a replacement for a remote shutter. A remote shutter allows you more control over when the shot takes place as well as being able to take multiple shots without having to go back to the camera.

. . . although if you're going to include yourself in the photo, a timer does allow you to take the shot without holding something in your hand. It really depends on what you want from the photo.

Re: Random: This Tiny Update Would Make A World Of Difference In Animal Crossing: New Horizons

CobraA1

@Mountain_Man I don't mind having hidden systems that I can figure out and rewards me for doing so, like plant breeding. Those are pretty cool.

However, manually keeping track of tool durability so I can reset its durability instead of having to craft it again - that's more annoying than rewarding. Indeed, the whole concept of durability is not very rewarding.

I would argue that hidden systems work best when they work like a puzzle and provide a reward. Durability is not very puzzling or rewarding.

Re: Poll: Animal Crossing: New Horizons - What Would You Like To See Added In An Update?

CobraA1

Agree with all of the above, although I'd like to see them walk back the decision to have one island per Switch. One island per profile would be preferable, along with a way to easily visit other islands on the system. No, I don't think design decisions should be immune to criticism, and I do think it was a rather poor decision. Yes, I realize previous games had similar limitations.

Re: Video: Digital Foundry Looks At How Certain Wii U Games Might Run On The Nintendo Switch

CobraA1

@Chibi For most people the games are new - the number of Switch owners eclipses the number of Wii U owners so much that virtually any game ported to the Switch will sell better than it sold on the Wii U. Unless the port is difficult to make for some reason or another, it usually makes business sense to port games from the Wii U to the Switch.

I also think the fears of ports being done instead of new games is largely unfounded: Nintendo seems to be doing a great job of developing new games even though they’ve also ported over a good number of Wii U games. They have enough resources to make ports without hurting development of their new titles.

Re: Super Mario Battle Royale Game Receives Takedown Notice From Nintendo

CobraA1

"According to Gaming Reinvented, the game still looks a little too similar to the source material and unsurprisingly has the same 'level design and basic mechanics' as it. "

Maybe the way it looks and the exact level layout might still be an issue. However, basic mechanics and level design philosophy don't fall under copyright protection.

Re: Animal Crossing: New Horizons Will Not Support Cloud Saves

CobraA1

This is an incredibly bad excuse, it's trivial to compare time stamps on files and the system clock, and the Switch does not support accessing save games externally. Preventing cloud saves also doesn't prevent changing the system clock.

You know what's more insane? If you're accessing a cloud server, you can grab the time from the server and check to see if there is any manipulation of the system time! The server can also timestamp files it's receiving so that it's not relying on the easily manipulated internal clock of the Switch! Cloud saves are actually a solution to the problem! It's much harder to manipulate time when the time is being handled by device you don't control. I'm sorry, I'm not buying this reason. It has to be something else.

Re: Pokémon GO Is Dropping Its Apple Watch Support

CobraA1

To be completely honest, the Apple Watch feature never worked that well. It's super finicky and I'd just end up using the phone app anyways. I think Apple limits how often the phone and watch sync, so it can't really get information about Pokestops and Pokémon in real time. I won't really miss it, because it wasn't that good to begin with.

Re: Feature: The Black Shark 2 Is A Phone That Thinks It's A Nintendo Switch

CobraA1

As a Steam controller user, the idea of a right touch pad appeals to me. That said, not being able to detach both controllers and slide them into a grip is a very big drawback for the device when you're playing on TV. I slide both JoyCons into a grip far more often than using a single JoyCon. If you don't have a pro controller, that's how you play most games on TV.

Also cell phone graphical capabilities are very overstated. Only top end phones have the same amount of RAM (not storage - actual RAM) as the Switch, and none of them allow an app like a game to use most of it. Even with extremely high theoretical GPU performance, the RAM disadvantage prevents high poly models and high resolution textures. Cell phones are simply not designed for games, not to mention the business models common to cell phones make long session gaming rare. The Switch is unlikely to be affected by new cell phones and cell phone like devices.

Re: You Can Now Make Your Own Game Boy JRPGs With GB Studio

CobraA1

@BulbasaurusRex Some people will enjoy it, I'm sure. Also yes, there are a fair number of programmers that enjoy working within tight constraints - it encourages you to think about optimization and can teach you strategies and techniques you'd never think about with looser constraints. It can also be quite challenging, and lots of people do enjoy challenges. It can even be beneficial to have optimization skills if you're asked to develop software for embedded devices, which can be quite constrained.

The purpose of GB Studio is to share a polished up version of some tools that were used in a game jam, where just for fun a bunch of developers were challenged to create something with a common theme, in this particular case yes the theme was "Gameboy." The actual jam was the Bored Pixels Jam 3, and the game submitted was "Untitled GB Game."
https://itch.io/jam/bored-pixels-jam-3

I don't fault anybody for trying to target a historical platform - it can be challenging, nostalgic, and fun to see how much you can push the platform (or an emulator of the platform). I've seen people make games even today for the NES, SNES, Commodore 64, and other historic platforms. It's programming as a hobby, and why try to tell people what they can and can't enjoy as a hobby?

RPG Maker Fes looks interesting, but it exists for the same reason: It's targeting people who just want to try their hand out at making RPGs for fun; it's practically useless for making actually profitable games. It can only make 3DS games, it requires a player to actually play the games it makes, and it's advertising everywhere that the games it makes can be played free.

So both GB Studio and RPG Maker Fes exist for making games as a hobby, not as a serious business venture. So I say let the hobbyists enjoy their hobby .

If you really want a more serious game development engine, there's Unity, Game Maker, or if you really want to target JRPGs or Link's Awakening style games - RPG Maker MV.

The drawback is that getting a game from RPG Maker MV to an actual console is a bit more involved as it doesn't natively support any console, but the games it generates are native HTML / JavaScript, so it might actually be doable as long as there is a compatible browser engine that can be embedded (preferably Chromium).

Re: Feature: Rainway CEO On Streaming, Switch And Clearing The Air Over 'That' Trailer

CobraA1

@onex How does it create a hacking exploit? As I understand it, it's just streaming video to your device from your PC.

Competing with their store I can kind of see. But that's not the stated reason why they're not releasing it for the Switch. But then again, their stated reason for not releasing it on the Switch is pretty vague and smells a bit like BS anyways.

I am kinda hoping that Nintendo will be a bit more helpful in the future with streaming services. I personally am disappointed that Hulu is the only video streaming service officially available. Yes I know it is a gaming centric platform, but the Wii had YouTube and Netflix (if I remember correctly). I'm not sure what the holdup is with the Switch - using the "hidden" browser reveals that the Switch is already perfectly capable of playing YouTube videos.

@Agramonte In my opinion, iOS is even more of a square peg than the Switch. Cell phones aren't really built for gaming.

Sure, the convenience of cell phone networks is great, but you're gonna hit the data cap (whether advertised or hidden under the fine print of an "unlimited" plan) pretty quickly. I've done my share of watching video on my data plan to know it doesn't take much to hit the caps. WiFi is not always that great, but it doesn't count against your plan. Also I've actually seen some pretty good WiFi at Starbucks and worst case scenario I can (and have) tethered my Switch to my cell phone (although that does carry the caveat that it counts against my data cap).

Also, you are talking carrying a third party controller everywhere, as well as usually a smaller screen. Am I going to carry an Xbox style controller with me to a coffee shop? Probably not. But since the JoyCons on the Switch slide onto the system and don't adversely affect its form factor, they're much more portable than most MFi controllers I've seen.

Maybe you see things differently, but in my opinion I'd love to be able to just pull out my Switch and play, or stand it on a table and play, and not squint at my iPhone's screen.

Re: Super Mario Party For Nintendo Switch Won't Support Handheld Mode

CobraA1

Imagine trying to play a minigame that requires a lot of shaking or movement? You'd never do well in handheld due to its mass, and might shake the console out of its rails - the locks are not very strong. Mario Party was designed for the lightweight JoyCons - not the bulky console. It really makes a lot of sense they don't allow handheld mode. Just detach a JoyCon, is that hard?

Re: Super Mario Party For Nintendo Switch Won't Support Handheld Mode

CobraA1

This is the one game I'd expect to be like this, because it's so dependent on the JoyCons. It's still portable because it still works without a TV; you just need to slide off the JoyCons. Personally I'll be playing it on the TV 90% of the time anyways, and I have no problems with the occasional tabletop mode.

Re: DOOM Eternal On Switch Will Target 30fps

CobraA1

@Sculptor The Wii U has older technologies and likely doesn't have modern APIs available. The Switch is consistently getting higher resolutions, more stable framerates, and more detailed graphics whenever something is ported over to it from the Wii U.

On paper, some parts of the Switch might not seem as impressive as the Wii U, but it has been shown time and time again the more modern architecture of the Switch makes it a more powerful machine than the Wii U.

Re: DOOM Eternal On Switch Will Target 30fps

CobraA1

@ramu-chan Don't underestimate portability. A lot of people are re-buying games so they can take it on the go. Even as a PC gamer with a high end video card, I personally enjoy being able to play my games anywhere.

And no, dropping down from 60 to 30 is not catastrophic, and you ought to re-read the research yourself: Simply assigning a "framerate range" to our eyes oversimplifies how they work.

@Nincompoop They might be using per-object motion blur and temporal antialiasing, so the "motion rate" technology might be unnecessary. I think it introduces input lag into games, but I'd have to double check that.