Comments 970

Re: Nintendo Drops Teaser Video For The Switch 2's 'C' Button

Discostew

Campus is the codename dataminers found for it. Thing is, if the C button is also on the Switch 2 Pro controller (which it seems to be on 3rd-party controllers dating back to last January), then it makes almost no sense to think it it's meant to connect to the Switch for some Wii U-like gameplay.

Re: Switch 2 Filings Show Support For Wi-Fi 6

Discostew

@themightyant I believe Switch's WiFi problem had to do with the antenna and its placement, though honestly, I've not had any problems using WiFi during online sessions with my launch system. From what folks could gather from the motherboard and enclosure leaks for Switch 2, the arrangement seems better this go around.

Re: Surprise! Donkey Kong Country Returns HD Now Has A Switch eShop Demo

Discostew

@Yalloo On the latest. I think I found the issue as it might be on my end. Before I moved, I was using Xfinity in Washington, but I moved to Idaho and Xfinity is not available, so I went with Quantum Fiber. All other devices have no issue, and while my Switch could connect, I hadn't tried downloading until recently to find it was problematic. I use WiFi (showed NAT type B), but I even hardwired via ethernet, and that had problems too.

I could connect to my phone via hotspot, and download that way through US Mobile, but I tried hotspot while having my phone connected to my home network. That was fine too, but I didn't want to have to do it this way each time. I do have a VPN I use for my phone, computer and NAS, the latter which I set up OpenVPN on my router to use it, so I assigned my Switch to use it as well when connected. An odd thing to do, but that seemed to help in both WiFi and Ethernet. But I imagine that would affect latency for games (WiFi showed NAT Type D under this), so again, I needed more checking.

Last thing I did was go over the WiFi settings, and remembered when I first set it up on my newer router (back when using Xfinity), the MTU was set to 1400 by default, and I had since then set it to 1500. So I reverted back to 1400, and that seemed to do the trick.

Re: Surprise! Donkey Kong Country Returns HD Now Has A Switch eShop Demo

Discostew

Dunno what's going on. I'm trying to DL the demo, and at first it took a very long time for the Home Menu image to even appear before the downloaded could begin, and then it got to 65% and is just stuck there. Never had that happen before with any demo or full game. Are their servers currently overloaded or something?

Re: Talking Point: Did All The Switch 2 Leaks 'Damage' Nintendo Or The Console's Reveal?

Discostew

For all the leaks that occurred over the years for the system, the one thing none of them were able to do was give an actual look at what the system could do. We see numbers like 1.7 TFlops in portable mode, but those are just numbers, and what we try to compare that to is with what a "PC" can do with it, not a console. Consoles with custom chips are tailored to get as much performance for games as possible from their specs, not just in design, but granting devs that bare-metal access PCs simply cannot offer.

As it is, our first glimpse into the actual look of Switch 2 games comes from Nintendo with this teaser trailer, which let's be honest, it's an edited, YT-compressed mess, so we can't really see the finer details that the system is capable of. For all we know, what we saw was a cross-gen title that showed the Switch version so as to not give away the Switch 2's potential for that same game.

Re: Rumour: New 'Switch 2' Leak Suggests Console Will Require A 60W Charger

Discostew

@nukatha I believe the output may be with regard to the combined output of everything external to the dock. Take for instance the Switch dock. Your numbers show 39W input and 33W output. The Switch itself only pulls 18W when docked and charging all batteries, meaning there is 21W to account for. By my understanding, each USB port on the dock is rated at 5V 1A for 5W each. There are 3 of them, so the combined output of docked Switch and USB ports matches the output you mentioned. So it's much like what you had, except the USB ports are not part of the remaining 6W.

But then again, the Switch OLED dock stats both input and output are 39W, so I dunno.....

Re: Tech Fans Have Gone Full 'Layton' In Analysing The 'Switch 2' Motherboard

Discostew

I still feel it won't be on 8nm. Maybe a smaller Samsung node.

While folks are trying to measure by pixels and such, one person I saw took a different approach, using Orin. They adjusted the images so the chips would have 90 degree angles, and sized them up so the RAM chips of both the leaks and of images from Orin's motherboard would match. That then gave them an estimate of the sizes of the Orin and T239 chips. Of course the Orin chip is bigger (at 455mm^2?), but we also have an x-ray of the Orin chip with sectioned areas that relate to the CPU, GPU, etc. So they scaled that down to fit into the Orin motherboard, and then sectioned out pieces of the GPU and CPU to adjust to the info we know about the T239 (like cutting 1/4 of the GPU because Orin has 16 SMs while the T239 has 12 SMs), and then placed the modified sections into the T239. What amounted from that is that it is just too tight to fit those major components in while still needing room for various other things.

Re: Rumour: Supposed Images Of The 'Switch 2' Motherboard Appear Online

Discostew

Based on folks doing investigations, it seems like the SoC is made by Samsung, BUT, it does not automatically mean it is Samsung 8nm. Size is still a factor, not to mention power consumption and thermals, and considering what is inside the chip besides a CPU and GPU, it doesn't seem it could fit into 8nm. Supposedly both 7nm and 6nm by Samsung are off the table because of them either winding down or have basically been delisted, so if not 8nm, then the most likely candidate is Samsung 5nm, which at lower clocks is not too far off from TSMC 5nm. The gap increases with higher clocks, but at that point, we're not worrying about portable mode.

Re: Sony May Be Plotting A New PSP To Compete With Nintendo's 'Switch 2'

Discostew

This really seems like a reaction to Nintendo's Switch successor rather than a general good business decision. It simply can't be something that plays PS5 games natively because mobile tech isn't to that point yet, not even in the next few years. It would be weaker hardware that could play downscaled ports of PS5 games, so devs would have to separately make games for it beyond already dealing with the PS5 and its Pro. With Sony barely making any games themselves as it is that aren't remasters/remakes of existing PS4 games, what is left are 3rd-party, which already have a home on portable devices thanks to portable PCs like the ROG Ally. They'd be competing with them in the end, not Nintendo.

Re: Talking Point: So Then, Is This 'Switch 2' Leak Legit?

Discostew

I am siding on it being real. There are some that think the motherboard is 3d-printed, but that is simply not possible, not that the kind of details we have here. Even the casings look to be more than what any 3d-printer is capable of, because there are small details a 3d-printer would choke on.

Re: Rumour: Game Developers Supposedly Told Not To Expect Switch "Successor" In Current Financial Year

Discostew

Wasn't Chris Dring also the one that said "his sources" claim that TotK was Switch's last significant game? Then we got games like Super Mario Wonder, and soon-to-come Metroid Prime 4?

I'm really starting to hate how these folks are using "their sources" as a means to say whatever they want for clicks. Already have MLID claiming things that don't even align with the leaks Nvidia confirmed, but people eat it up anyways.

Re: Talking Point: The Switch eShop Could Be Great With These Few Tweaks

Discostew

Folks asking about eShop's slowness/lagginess should know the reason it is this way is intentional. They are using a CPU-heavy security layer, which as far as I'm aware, does not work with JIT compiling. It's why it is somewhat slow when no game is loading (as it uses the 3 CPU game cores), but extremely slow when a game is loaded (as it uses the same core tge OS uses).

Re: Video: Digital Foundry's Technical Analysis Of Luigi's Mansion 2 HD

Discostew

@OldGamer999 The team that made both LM:DM on 3DS and LM3 on Switch are one in the same; Next Level Games. They are not the ones porting LM:DM to Switch. That would likely be Tantalus, as described in the video.

To say that they could just take the graphics and animations from LM3 and throw them into this HD remake of a 3DS game is like saying Retro Studios could have done the same with Metroid Prime Remastered for animations and such. They didn't. The animation are retained from the GC, as well as collision maps among other things. Prime Remastered released back in 2023, but Retro Studios took control of Prime 4 back as late as Jan 2019 when the apology video went public (meaning they likely took control earlier than that).

So they were juggling both Prime Remastered and Prime 4 at the same time, giving plenty of reason to not stick with old restrictions. But they did. Why they did has to do with the design of the game itself. They put on a new coat of paint via more detailed models, physics-based rendering, etc, but the structure of the game internally remains as it was back on the GC so they don't break it.

Same goes for LM2 HD. Graphics have been updated, but they aren't using what LM3 already had, not just because these are different studios, but the game internally for LM3 is different from LM:DM.

Re: Video: Digital Foundry's Technical Analysis Of Luigi's Mansion 2 HD

Discostew

@NintendoKnight If it were $55, you'd probably still complain about it being too much, even though today's $55 is just under the value of $40 after 12 years of inflation.

As far as performance is concerned, we have platforms that are 20x stronger than Switch in docked mode, yet they have games that do drop into the 30fps range or drop as low as 720p. To top that off, these are games specifically made for the target hardware, not ports that are built on the design of older hardware. A game like Metroid Prime Remastered, while good looking AND from the GC era, is still held back by design for the era it was originally made for. Compare that to Metroid Prime 4, and you see just how much more can be done when it doesn't have to follow the same rules and can work to ALL of Switch's strengths.

Kids these days just don't spend enough time thinking rationally....

Re: Poll: Is $60 Too Much For Nintendo's Switch Re-Releases?

Discostew

How many people assume this is a ripoff when not taking into account inflation, or the fact that Nintendo didn't fall into the pit like other companies have when it comes to game pricing?

Back in 7th gen, Sony and MS were very aggressive with game pricing because of their competitiveness of having the same 3rd-party games, insomuch that they'd drastically discount games on their respective platforms near release. Folks got accustomed to it, and now get upset when a game doesn't get discounted like that, including Nintendo games when Nintendo wasn't even involved in that. Why? Because people want games cheap. Cheap to the point where they'll do what they can to get it free, hence the lead-in to piracy with cockamamie excuses to justify it.

And speaking of which, if game pricing had followed alongside inflation rather than have stayed stagnant for so long, we would have been paying much more than $60-70 today. People bringing up the Select lineups with regard to this to complain about pricing are not understanding the point of the Selects. They were not given to a newly released game on a platform (including ports/remasters/remakes). They were given to games that have existed on said platform for a while, with most of them having sold well beforehand. They were for people who hadn't already bought the game.

There isn't a one-button conversion process for porting games, and even if there was, there are steps involved to ensure that the game runs properly. QA to be exact. It takes time and resources just like a completely new game. Taking a GC game, designed with a completely different architecture than Switch, and remastering it onto a new platform is no simple action either. It isn't simply going from ATI to Nvidia on the GPU-side. It's going from GC's fixed-function pipeline using TEV units to fully-programmable shaders.

Re: Japanese Charts: Strong PlayStation Sales Can't Knock Mario Wonder From The Top Spot

Discostew

@Jalex_64 A thing about Playstation slim SKUs is that prior to the PS5, the slim SKUs would be cheaper. PS4 Slim, for example, was $100 off the price of the PS4 Phat when it released. With PS5 Slim, it's the same price as PS5 Phat, with the PS5 digital Slim being more expensive by $50 than the PS5 digital Phat. So my guess is that it's a blip like you mentioned. To me, it's not a bump by folks who have been waiting for the Slim since the PS5's launch as those folk likely were waiting for a price reduction like before. This bump is likely by folks who have been waiting for the Slim for a few weeks.

Re: Talking Point: What Do You Wish You Knew Sooner In Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom?

Discostew

I waited a LONG time before actually heading into the depths, because when I first checked it out, I felt I needed to have a LOT of those brightbloom seeds to explore. By the time I felt I had a lot just to explore a little, I go under, and make my first trip from the initial quest to go in, and find out that the lightroots light up the sections.

Then there's the shrines. Searching for them in the overworld is exhausting, but when looking at the map between overworld and underworld, I realized that lightroots are practically located under shrines. Finding lightroots is much easier than shrines because of the dark.

Re: Switch Android Emulator Skyline Halts Development Due To "Potential Legal Risks"

Discostew

@blindsquarel I hate when people claim game preservation when it's not preservation that's the problem. Nintendo handles game preservation extremely well. They preserve the code, assets, etc of all the games that touch their platforms. It's how Square-Enix was able to recover the Secret of Mana games, as they had lost it. What folks are really calling for is game availability, but they use "preservation" so they don't look as entitled.

Re: Nintendo Switch Is Not "Technically Capable" Of Running Call Of Duty Games, Says CMA

Discostew

There seems to be a claim of specifics going on here when there doesn't seem to be any, as far as I can tell. Everyone is saying that MS was talking about the Switch, yet were they? Last I checked, they said "Nintendo platforms", which could very well be the Switch successor, which is rumored to release as soon as the end of this year. It would already take time to make any Nintendo version if one wasn't already in development.

Re: Review: Final Fantasy I-VI Pixel Remaster - A Beautiful And Faithful Reimagining Of The Classics

Discostew

@MARl0 It is really unfortunate. I really love these games, yet the scroll stuttering is starting to ruin it for me. Even FF6 has an odd scroll glitch that was happening during the opening sequence, where every so often, certain rows of pixels are not uniform in size like the rest. Even the very beginning as it begins the sequence, it's like it freezes, and then jumps ahead.

Re: Nintendo Wins Court Dispute Against Pirated Game Hosting Site

Discostew

@blindsquarel And Nintendo is fantastic when it comes to game preservation, as they preserve every game made for their platforms, source code and all. It's how Square Enix were able to regain the code and assets for making the Mana collection, as they had lost their own copy of the code long ago.

What you're referring to is not game preservation, but having access to them.

Re: Nintendo Wins Court Dispute Against Pirated Game Hosting Site

Discostew

@mariomaster96 You do know that Super Mario Sunshine stresses the Switch's CPU to its max, right? And that is on the low-end of complexity for Gamecube games. Nintendo not only had to make a Gamecube emulator, but had to tweak it heavily for it run as good as it currently does. They are not going to be able to make a generic GC emulator for Switch that runs ANY game from that platform at full speed. The only reason why Galaxy runs well is because it's a partial port, as they recompiled the CPU code and modified it so it would run natively. The rest like the GPU are still emulated.