This is such a fun game. I don't like boxing at all, and am even less interested in most boxing games, but I loved this. I do think it needs a demo though, because it's really not something you can fully understand from a trailer or an ad. Needs to be experienced to be appreciated.
This was one of the games I was looking forward to the most. I was disappointed at the length of the game, I'm disappointed (although not a deal breaker) by the delay and I'm even more disappointed by this arbitrary price increase (by a third!). What was going to be a day one buy, despite the initially high price for a 10 hour game, will now be a when-it's-in-a-half-price-sale buy for me. And I don't actually expect to be waiting that long, since I don't believe many Switch owners will buy it at that price.
So we can expect this to be another case of third parties refusing to port to Nintendo systems because "our games don't sell on Nintendo platforms". I won't hold my breath for a Switch port of the Sexy Brutale, then.
ETA - Concerned Ape, if you're reading this, please don't do something similar for Stardew Valley. I've been waiting for it to come to Switch, because it's ideal for portables and I cannot play it on Steam. I don't mind paying a bit more for a Switch version, but I won't pay %% more than its base Steam price. Just can't do it.
@ThanosReXXX I don't blame you for holding off buying one for a bit. I'm getting one because we never did get a Wii U (despite having the same Humble Bundle you have) and they are still expensive here. I wasn't going to get a Switch straight away either, but I had an unexpected extra work project in January that has paid for it and half of Snipperclips, plus a birthday that's paid for Zelda and the other half of Snipperclips, so I'm jumping in at launch for the first time ever. I'd rather blow the money on a new console than spend only a little less on an old and unsupported one, even if some of the games we want will cost us more.
There are only a few games for Wii U we want that aren't (and possibly won't) be available on Switch - one of those (like himself said above) is NFS:MW but even second hand copies are ridiculously priced here so that's out of the question, at least for the time being. Maybe when Wii U consoles get to Gamecube-ish prices we can go retro.
@ThanosReXXX We're good, thanks. Hole in the roof is fixed, despite Storm Doris trying to kill our scaffolding guys with flying slates. Switch is still on pre-order and I have cancelled everything for the weekend so I can get lost (and probably killed, several times) in Hyrule. How about you? Not going to buy one, or counting the seconds?
@BLP_Software I've never really been convinced that anyone who writes for The Sun really understands about the birds and the bees myself. None of them seem to have any real life experience, anyway. Which is why they titter and giggle and get shocked about things like this.
I'm a little disappointed in the length, but I am a player who usually takes twice as long to finish a game as most estimates, so there is that. This is one of the games I'm most looking forward to though, I've watched that video of the first 27 minutes a couple of times and it looks so beautiful I can't wait to play it. It'll be a day 1 buy for me regardless of estimates of game length.
@Pazuzu666 The event may be PR in that it is a public relations exercise, in order to get the console into the hands of fans so they can try it for themselves. I was lucky enough to be one of those fans. I am not in PR, for Nintendo or anyone else. I'm just a gamer. I loved the thing. I am not being paid to say that, or to give my opinion. So in that sense, those of us who have been to one of the events and tried the console and the games are not PR. We are not journalists. But we are, unanimously (as far as I can see) all saying the Switch is a great console.
On the other hand, the previews and reviews you will be seeing March 1st-3rd will mostly be written by people who are paid for their opinion. You decide which one is a PR opinion, and which one is the opinion of an average gamer, and which one you give more weight to.
I was at the Hammersmith event in January. And I've read a LOT of threads, here and elsewhere, about the Switch. I have not seen one person who has actually held a Switch and played a game on it write anything at all negative about it. Not one. Plenty of negative stuff from people who haven't, but not a single negative from anyone who has actually spent any time with an actual Switch console.
I hope Nintendo get demo Switch consoles into stores asap at, or preferably just before, launch. This thing really has to be experienced to be appreciated.
@Fist_of_Belial "here in the western United States, the great majority of gamers appear to be miserable people stuck in dead end jobs, barely scraping by and medicating their misery with escape into the virtual."
I think you have, perhaps inadvertently, hit one nail on the head here. People who game 24/7 to the exclusion of all else are escaping. What they are escaping will vary from person to person, but will often be a combination of any or all of the following: bad parenting, bad education, lack of job, lack of prospects, lack of hope.
And just as my son would have found something else to be passionate about, the people you are talking about would find something else to self-medicate with. Gaming does not, in and of itself, cause the problems you are describing, any more than heavy metal music causes people to become Satanists.
In short, the causes of your "idiocracy" are many and varied. Gaming is not, in reality, on that list of causes. But it is on the list of escape from those causes. Those "dregs" that you mention are still people, and (if your assumptions about them are accurate) they are people dealing with a lot more than an addiction to gaming.
Also, this is a gaming site. Ergo, we talk about games here. I go to a knitting site to talk about knitting, and I go to a gardening site to talk about gardening and I go to a book site to talk about books. Just because people are talking about gaming here does not mean they are "addicts" or "dregs". It just means that gaming is one of their hobbies. So telling people here, on a gaming site, to "go for a walk in the woods instead" is not going to go down that well. If you want to talk about going for a walk in the woods, why not have a look at the American Hiking Society's webpages instead?
@Fist_of_Belial He dedicated the time, energy and effort because he wanted to create what he loved. Love of games led him to where he is now. If he'd never been exposed to games, maybe he would be watching daytime TV all day instead (doubt it, he'd have found something else to be passionate about, but ykwim).
I'm his mother, and a gamer. I don't play games 24/7 either. His dad's a gamer, neither does he. Our daughter, at 7, is a gamer (and a reader, an actress, a singer, a dancer and a wanna-be astro physicist).
The stereotype of a gamer as someone who does nothing but game is, and always has been, wrong. I've known a lot of gamers over the years, from the 80s onwards, and I have never met anyone like that. I don't doubt they exist, but not in the numbers you are assuming with your comments. Even Miyamoto-san loves his garden. Don't buy into, or peddle, that stereotype.
@Fist_of_Belial Gaming can "develop into a skill you can actually make additional income with". Son is going to Uni to do a Computer Science degree, got an unconditional offer because of the games he has coded. And he learned to code games (among other things) because he is a gamer. And he is a gamer, at least partially, because his mother is a gamer.
Oh, and he has also spent much time walking in the woods. DofE Gold includes a LOT of walking in the woods.
Not all gamers spent 24/7 in their mum's basement, doing nothing but gaming and eating pizza, you know.
@aaronsullivan That is a really good point, and one I hadn't considered. I think, then, that I will buy the DLC if I actually finish the main game. Since I have finished only one Zelda game (and that was Phantom Hourglass) and have two nearly finished (Spirit Tracks and LbW), this may never happen...
Must admit I'm not happy about this. The game (for Switch) has an RRP of £60 already. Add the DLC and that's nearly £80 for one game. DLC has been done well before - specifically Ace Attorney and Fantasy Life, both of which cost less than an average game to start with, the DLC really did add something extra to the game rather than being stuff that should have been in there from the start, and the price of the DLC wasn't too high.
I'm gonna wait to see what this DLC adds to BotW before I spend my hard earned cash on it. I'm not interested in costume packs and hard modes, but if there is a good, meaty, add-on story that will add at least another 25-30% to the main game, then I'll pay up. Otherwise I'll put that £18 towards Snipperclips or Rime or something else.
This is the game my daughter loved the most from the Treehouse presentation. Didn't get to play it at the Hammersmith event, sadly (that sofa was always full!) but it's a day 1 buy for me.
@Mii_duck You missed Story of Seasons, Marvelous, not sure of release date.
Out of this extensive list, I am definitely buying 9 and have another half dozen or so as maybes (depending on price and reviews). And only a small handful of those are Nintendo games. So much whinging about lack of third party, and yet third parties are everywhere.
Right now, with the price it is and the SKU available? No chance. Don't get me wrong, I love the Switch, I was at Hammersmith for the event and I've had mine on pre-order since the minute Amazon made them available. But as it stands right now, 100 million aint happening.
That said - I can see a family of Switch consoles, at different price points, in the future. If they market it right, and get different configurations out there, then maybe it might do something close to that. Time will tell.
@ThanosReXXX Thanks for that. Yep, the yellow buttons are what you'll get on the left JoyCon (but not yellow, and probably a bit smaller). Those look a bit thicker as well, I don't think the JoyCon ones stand out as far. Although I didn't actually use those buttons for anything during the event, they seemed close enough to the body of the JoyCon to maybe feel a bit more like a Dpad than those yellow ones would. More like you could kind of slide your thumb from one to the other than have to lift off and relocate, if that makes sense.
I've seen the GC controller before, but never used one. I know people rave about it, but it looks uncomfortable to me. Especially where the Dpad is. I'd have to try it out, obviously.
@ThanosReXXX Yeah, see this is what I get for not being a console gal. I have zero clue what an N64 controller looks like, or a PS-whatever number, or an Xbox, or whatever. I can wax lyrical about the differences between various Gameboys, the keyboard on a ZX Spectrum, the array of membrane buttons with red LEDs on the Merlin (which didn't even have a screen) and how much I love the JoyCons, but I have no frame of reference for console controllers. Sorry chaps!
@3MonthBeef They are separate buttons, which is about the only disappointing thing about the JoyCons for me. I can totally understand why they did it the way they did, andjust hope that a left JoyCon with a proper D pad becomes available at some point as a separate peripheral.
@samuelvictor Thanks for the Captain Toad recommendation - I thought it looked really good and was one of the main games on my "why I want a Wii U" list. Here's hoping they bring it to Switch. And if not, I'm sure I'll be able to pick up a 2nd hand Wii U at some point.
@ThanosReXXX I'm honestly not sure how "softness" is going to be conveyed through the HD Rumble. Senran Kagura isn't my kind of thing, but it will still be interesting to find out what they do with the Rumble for that.
They are taking one sweetie out of the sweetie jar at a time, from what I can see. Lego Worlds is not the first, and it won't be the last. For now, I have zero worries about the Switch's first year, we're not going to be seeing Wii U style droughts. After that, it will depend a great deal on how it is received by the consumer, but if it's as easy to port to as it appears, I can see most games coming to Switch as well as PS4/Xbone/Steam, that disappointing Resi announcement notwithstanding.
@ThanosReXXX I beat him at the milking game as well Honestly, those JoyCons are amazing. No, they won't make you feel slime in the way rjejr was suggesting (and that was very, ummm, suggestive ) but I can totally see (feel?) them making you feel the difference between cutting into a Slime and cutting into a Troll. I am so glad SqEnix is obviously wanting to take the possibilities of HD Rumble and have fun with it.
And now I'm wishing for a remake of Fantasy Life, with appropriate HD Rumble for all those mini games - the ratatatata of a sewing machine, the difference in feel between sawing wood and chopping it, whether mining gold feels different to mining copper....
As for the games, Nintendo does its own thing. Were all 80 games Kimishima mentioned Nintendo games? Because if not, he may not have permission yet from the devs to talk about them in detail. He won't want to tell us about them unless and until they are signed off, either. That's understandable. I am hoping for more game news, including and especially Nintendo games, to come though. And there have already been announcements of further third party games on their way (Lego Worlds being one of them). So yeah, it's maybe a bit too soon to say they "never spoke of them again", seeing as we still have about 6 weeks to go. I bet there will be more news to come.
@samuelvictor Yeah, I can see that about the Vita situation repeating with the Switch. It is an amazing bit of kit, and I can't wait to own one, but it's outside the kidzone for sure, at least for now, just as the Vita was. Far too expensive to buy for the average 8 year old, and maybe a bit too techy, unlike a 2DS but just like the Vita. I hope that there will be a portable only version 6 months to a year down the line, bundled with something suitable and at the kind of price the 3DS was before the last round of price cuts. £200-ish or less would be good. Doing it now would dilute the message and not be a good idea, but once there is a base for it, yeah.
And I'll join you in hoping for a port of Captain Toad, that's another on my list of what I wanted a Wii U for. And Need For Speed: Most Wanted for the hubby. I don't think I'm going to get Fatal Frame though, that kind of needs the GamePad and I think I might have to wait for a cheap second hand Wii U to be able to play that one.
@samuelvictor I agree with you there, although if the next Pokemon is Switch exclusive I'll be able to hear the screams about Nintendo killing off the 3DS all the way over here. A Sun/Moon port might be a system seller - but since it is already available for 3DS and came out before Christmas, I honestly don't think it would sell that many systems by itself. I do think though, that if they are eventually going to kill off the 3DS in favour of the Switch (highly likely, whatever they say publicly) the next Pokemon game needs to be sooner rather than later, and Switch exclusive. Smash is a no-brainer - on-the go, spontaneous Smash fun with friends? Oh yes.
Re: the Wii U - we were seriously considering finally getting one in late 2015. There were enough games to make it worth it to us. But the writing was on the wall, NX rumours were everywhere and we eventually decided to see what the next gen was going to be. And here we are. Yoshi's Woolly World is coming to 3DS, Lego City is coming to Switch, so that's two of the games we wanted a Wii U for, right there. Getting a Switch instead seems like the better idea now.
@samuelvictor I still consider Nintendo to be outside the console wars. And Switch is a great product to keep them outside the console wars, at least for the time being. MS and Sony can fight each other for most powerful etc, and Nintendo will carry on in their own fun, occasionally daft way. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. But to a large extent Nintendo's biggest competitor is itself.
How many Wii units are still out there in the wild, still being used? I know ours is. We never bought a Wii U, we knew what it was and how it was different but we could never justify spending the money - and by the time we could, the Wii U was already dead. We still have plenty of Wii games we haven't got to play yet. I wonder how many other Wii owners were quite happy with the games they already had or knew they could get? There's only so many hours in a day, especially for people who love video games but can't dedicate entire weekends to playing them. The Wii U was defeated by a lot of things - bad marketing, confusion on the part of the consumer, a high price and eventually a lack of games - but I think it's worst enemy was actually the Wii. Most Wii owners are not "gamers" in the Xbone/PS4 sense (and we know that a lot of Xbone/PS4 owners only buy FIFA and CoD anyway). They're not interested in the all new console or the new iteration of an old IP, especially if they haven't finished playing the old iteration yet. They don't visit gaming websites to find out about the new Mario, they haven't finished with the old Mario. The Wii's back catalogue could keep someone like that happily playing video games, great video games, for the rest of their life.
So the Wii U audience was only ever going to be a tiny fraction of the Wii's in the first place. Nintendo can't compete with MS and Sony on raw power, and they don't want to. They can't compete with mobile gaming in terms of price, and they don't want to do that either. They won't go third party, because they would then be constrained by having to fit their games into other companies' control schemes. What Nintendo does well, always has (with the occasional miss) is innovate hardware based on what they want software to do. No third party can do that.
I very much doubt that the Switch is going to be the new Wii. That ship sailed long ago. But I doubt it will be the new Wii U, either. I think it will be itself, not having to compete with the Wii like the Wii U did, not having to compete with Sony and MS (because that game's not worth the candle). It may be seen as competing with the 3DS though, and that worries me a bit.
@samuelvictor Dreamcast = Betamax. Cheaper than VHS, better all round, failed nonetheless.
As for Pokemon at launch - has there ever been a Pokemon at any console launch? I don't remember one. B2/W2 was released on DS long after the launch of the 3DS. But I think we can pretty much guarantee there will be a Pokemon on Switch, possibly not the next game but almost certainly the one after that. And Mario we know is coming (hopefully) by Christmas. If I needed to save for longer, or didn't like Zelda, I'd probably be thinking of a Christmas purchase. For my kids, I might wait for Pokemon. But this household will almost certainly end up with at least 3 Switches - not day 1, but by Christmas next year. Plus, this is a portable and it is actually being advertised (the last Nintendo TV ad I ever saw before Switch was for the Wii), so maybe the word of mouth will be better? I worry about Nintendo's marketing as well, and really hope they get it right this time.
@PlywoodStick Unfortunately, I don't know. I never got a look at the back of the Switch with the kickstand up and I never asked the question. I would guess that you are correct about UHS-II, simply because it makes sense, but I can't confirm it.
ETA - Not having either an Xbone or a PS4, I can't really comment on the bodybuilder bottleneck (excellent analogy there, btw) except to say that Nintendo have a lot of experience with SD cards with the 3DS and are historically very good at getting the best out of what may seem to be lower specs. So what you are suggesting wouldn't surprise me at all.
@ThanosReXXX I can only say that HD Rumble and the ice cubes thing made me "get it". I'm not techy and I'm not in IT or marketing, I'm just a (relatively, for here) casual gamer. If I'm a good representative example of the people Nintendo are trying to reach with this type of marketing, then it will be a success. On the other hand, if I'm not... well then, perhaps Wii U all over again. Let's hope not. I watched that train wreck too.
I'm not sure about announcing some of those 80 games. Obviously some of them already have been announced, but not many. I think one thing they need to get away from is games that are delayed, and then delayed again. Or games that are promised and never materialise. Or games that are promised, delayed, finally materialise and then have 30GB of day 1 patches. And they also need to be able to keep the games coming, not dump them all on us day 1. 80 games on day 1 would mean some will not get the exposure they deserve, especially if they are up against Zelda. Honestly, I'm concerned about this too, because not everybody is a Zelda fan (or not a fan enough to spend £330 on a new console and the game to play on it) and those people need reasons to spend their money. I hope that Nintendo know what they're doing and people are just being impatient. But yeah, this one could bite them if they don't get it right.
The short sighted and deaf thing - it's more that I have to see the world through glasses, all the time. It means things can get missed. Same with the hearing - one side works, the other doesn't. So some sound gets missed. If we were having this conversation in person, in speech, I would be partially hearing you, partially lip reading you, and scraping together as much extra as I could from body language, tone of voice, facial expression, all that, to fill in any gaps. Sometimes it takes an extra beat or two for my brain to process all that and "hear". Mostly, you'd never know. But it can be exhausting for me, especially in environments that are badly lit and have a lot of background noise. In terms of video games, I find it very difficult to filter out any extra noise, whether audio or visual, which is why I am not good at platformers or shooters. Add an extra stream of information via a different sense, one that works like everyone else's, like HD Rumble, and the experience for me becomes so much better. Although I probably will still be bad at platformers and shooters
@Sakura Thanks for the info re: Syberia, I'm pretty sure I'll be getting 3 and then I'll think about the earlier games. I miss adventure games as well. Someone really should do a remake of Beneath A Steel Sky, for the Switch naturally.
@ThanosReXXX Nintendo doesn't want this to be just for people who already own consoles or consider themselves "gamers" or speak the gamer lingo. Going up against Microsoft and Sony, where graphics are everything and they only innovate if someone already did it first, is a fool's game. Using words like advanced force feedback, for most consumers who aren't already hard gaming console owners, what does that even mean? If you're trying to grab an audience, you need short, simple soundbites. HD Rumble works for that. It may not be as accurate as it could be, but it certainly gave me the right idea of what to expect - especially when paired with the ice cubes in a glass visual. Whereas if they'd called it next generation haptic force feedback they may have lost me at generation.
Haters gonna hate. Those who feel they were burned by the Wii U, yeah they're probably gonna hate too, or at least be suspicious. I'm not sure what the average age is on here, maybe kids just don't have much imagination any more, but once they get their hands on a Switch they'll get it. Or they should.
I agree with you that Nintendo needs to advertise this right. But I don't think they are marketing solely to the screamers on here. I hope, really hope, that they make one of the big games, a Mario or Splatoon or Zelda or something, with all the (pertinent) HD Rumble they can throw at it. Look guys, it's not just visuals, it's not just sound, you can now feel it as well.
I dunno. I'm partially deaf and extremely short sighted. Maybe Rumble means more to me because of that. Maybe feeling my games, along with seeing and hearing them, means more to me because my sight and hearing are fairly rubbish. But I really can't describe how excited I am for this.
@samuelvictor Also, I don't forsee many games making full use of them, whilst they undoubtedly increase the price. It may have been wiser to leave these features out.
If you do that, innovation is dead. All those lovely, interesting and unique experiences would never have happened. Nobody can tell from here whether the Switch will be successful or not. To me, it certainly deserves to be. But then, VHS was successful and Betamax bit the dust, despite the fact that VHS was larger, less efficient and more expensive.
Nintendo is never going to get anywhere competing directly with Sony and Microsoft. All they want is more power, better graphics, all the time. It's a race that really only has room for 2 competitors. To be different takes innovation and takes risk. And marketing. How on earth do you market, via words, sound and video, something you feel? I don't know, that's why I'm not a marketing executive. And we all know that Nintendo has often failed at marketing (mostly cos they just didn't do any of it).
I don't know, maybe they'll get their point across in whatever marketing and advertising they do and this thing will sell like hot cakes. I think it'll sell like hot cakes in Japan, regardless. The thing about the ice cubes in the presentation, along with the name "HD Rumble", made me expect what I pretty much got with the hands on. I'm not anything special, so why did that work for me, but very few others on here? I mean, I knew the Wii U was more than just an add-on - but I wasn't excited for it and never bought one. This, I can't wait for. I hope that other people will love it too and it becomes a runaway success, but there are no guarantees in life or in marketing. The exact same thing can grab the public's imagination one day, and make them go "meh" the next. It's always going to be a risk.
@ThanosReXXX The problem with that is that the desired audience won't necessarily have a clue about haptic whatever and force whajamacallit. I didn't know what haptic feedback was until I got a smartphone with it, and it was about 6 months after that before the phrase itself crossed my path. Rumble, on the other hand, is something pretty much everyone who's ever played a video game knows. And HD is also something everyone knows. Hi Definition Rumble, seems self-explanatory, yes?
That's why they used the ice cubes in the presentation. They weren't able to show it, it's a physical feeling not a visual. So they used a visual (the ice cubes) to show the physical feeling. Yeah, loads of idiots on here can't see the use of ice cubes (or marbles or whatever). They don't have the imagination to see the potential, that the ice cubes is an example, not the full extent of its possibilities. And I don't think using words like haptic or force feedback will necessarily change that. How do you explain a physical feeling in words and pictures, in a short time frame without confusing your audience? I actually thought HD Rumble was a pretty good name, especially given the constant banging on about graphics...
@Sakura Tell me more about Syberia 3. Is it worth getting 3 if you've not played the earlier games? Broken Sword I'm familiar with, from back in the day (hadn't actually realised they were still making games in the series - those old games were awesome). Have actually recently picked up a copy of Secret Files 2 for Wii, not played it yet. I'm kind of hoping for a few adventure games for the Switch, along the lines of Syberia, Secret Files and Another Code. RiME looks good but that's more puzzles (somehow that reminds me a bit of The Dig, which is weird cos that was set on an asteroid and was inventory-based...) Maybe I should get a Steam account just for adventure games, but I'd rather play on a handheld than a PC these days.
ETA: Boilers are a PITA. Our old one I fixed various things on over the years (fan and diverter valve being the most... interesting) but we ended up having to get a new one. In January. The delivery of which was delayed by the snow. Yeah, I feel you. Hope it gets fixed soon.
@ThanosReXXX Yeah, makes me feel old too. All the entitled whining. I have a 7 year old who doesn't whine that much.
Regarding Mii-Duck's ARMS ass kicking, he's used to buttons. ARMS can use buttons as well, from what I've read, but we were using the motion controls. Maybe I'm just more used to motion controls? Or maybe my tendencies are more violent than his. Who knows? Regardless, I am really looking forward to the rematch!
@DanteSolablood Yeah, with you on that presentation being a bit... lacking. Japanese presentation aimed at a Japanese audience. Unless it's a game show, the Japanese tend to not do the excited, excitable, all singing, all dancing, here's why you must get one right NOW, ooooooonLY nineninetynine ninety nine, BUY NOW thing that the Americans (and, to a slightly lesser extent, Europeans also) do. That kind of low key, understated approach doesn't work for an audience that is used to the X Factor. I'd love to know how it went down in Japan.
@Sakura You know, the real problem with that isn't graphics and power and all that. The real sticking point is the battery. Batteries have come a long, long way in the last few years, but what can be done with them is limited in a way that graphics and computing power just isn't. Batteries are subject to the very real limitations of chemistry and physics. They are far more efficient than when I first stuck 2 AAs into a Gameboy Color, for sure. But the kind of progress we've seen with computers (like the aforementioned 386SX costing £3k back in 1990, to my little laptop costing £189 now) just isn't going to happen with batteries. And the more powerful the computer, the more power the battery needs. I think 3 hours for the Switch, given what it's showing you visually and making you feel physically, is excellent. Add more power and you get a shorter battery life. Add a bigger battery to get a longer battery life, you get a heavier and more expensive Switch. There is no way around this.
@ThanosReXXX Her objective opinion. Gamer since age 12 (one of many girls in my school, including a girl who could programme her ZX81 to do amazing stuff. Never could get it to make a cup of tea though). Dragged my husband into the DS era (he was more a console guy til he met me). Both kids had/have any number of computers, gadgets, gizmos and the Boy wants to go to Uni to do video game coding. So yeah. Her objective opinion
@ThanosReXXX No worries. The tech stuff goes over my head. I'm a player, not a developer, a bit of html is the limit of my coding abilities and I don't much care about Phenomenal Cosmic Power (sorry, channeling my inner Genie there). I'm originally an adventure gamer, really. Look at the graphical difference between, as an example, Maniac Mansion and Day of the Tentacle. Then look (when you're able to) at the difference between Splatoon and Spla2oon. Spla2oon looks better, sure. But not orders of magnitude better. I think that kind of graphical leap (MM to DotT) is never going to happen again, certainly not in that kind of time span. But the difference between the rumble on, say, Pokemon Pinball and 12Switch? Orders of magnitude. Huge orders of magnitude.
@Sakura I think, given the extra tech that is in the Switch, it's worth more than a PS4 anyway. But YMMV, depending on how graphically powerful you need or want your consoles to be. I'm primarily a handheld gamer anyway (have been since 1982 when I got a Merlin for Christmas). I don't like FMV. I prefer bright, cheerful, happy graphics - as opposed to realistically depressing grey/green/brown. I don't do shooters. I do do RPGs. I grew up with wireframe on a ZX Spectrum (48Kb), 16bit graphics were amazing after that. So, yanno, all this 900 v 1080 v 4K is daft to me. Give me a story and good game play (and not too much jarring jaggies, frame rate slow down, break-the-immersion stuff) and that's far, far more important to me than perfectly realistic graphics.
Put it this way. 25 years ago 1Mb of RAM (yes, 1Mb) cost £100. A 386 SX PC with Windows 3.1 cost £3,000, without a monitor. Digital cameras were in their infancy and cost thousands. Now I probably have more computing power in my little smartphone than the entire Future Publishing building had in 1990. And there were a LOT of computers in that building. Tech moves on all the time. The Switch is amazing, to me, right now. I don't care if it's not as powerful as a PS4. It has games I can play on the TV or on the go. PS4 doesn't have that. It has HD Rumble. PS4 doesn't have that. It has Nintendo games. PS4 doesn't have that. I'm not interested in the graphics wars, and I consider them to be silly. I think maybe Nintendo would agree with me there, because they don't seem to care about being the most powerful console out there. They are far more interested in innovating how you play, what you feel, the entire experience - not just what you look at.
@ThanosReXXX Thanks for the explanation about old threads and such. Yep, email alerts are activated.
Plus and minus buttons, haven't a clue about those I'm afraid. They weren't used for anything apart from start/select in any of the demos we tried.
Switch vs Wii U graphics - again, I can't really have an opinion on this because I don't have a Wii U to compare to. But I will say that everything looked crisp and lovely, from the Switch screen itself to small TV screens to the bigger ones. No jaggies, or at least no obvious jaggies. I'm not enough of a techy to get my knickers in a twist about resolution and frame rate anyway, all that is mostly wasted on me. I'm far more interested in how the game plays, whether I'm interested in the story, the graphics are secondary. Jumpy, laggy graphics that pull me out of the immersion, those I notice. I didn't notice any of those.
And I am really looking forward to chopping up Slimes too!
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Re: Video: Nintendo Releases Localised ARMS Character and Weapon Showcases
This is such a fun game. I don't like boxing at all, and am even less interested in most boxing games, but I loved this. I do think it needs a demo though, because it's really not something you can fully understand from a trailer or an ad. Needs to be experienced to be appreciated.
Re: Nintendo Switch Owners Will Have To Wait Longer And Pay More For RiME
This was one of the games I was looking forward to the most. I was disappointed at the length of the game, I'm disappointed (although not a deal breaker) by the delay and I'm even more disappointed by this arbitrary price increase (by a third!). What was going to be a day one buy, despite the initially high price for a 10 hour game, will now be a when-it's-in-a-half-price-sale buy for me. And I don't actually expect to be waiting that long, since I don't believe many Switch owners will buy it at that price.
So we can expect this to be another case of third parties refusing to port to Nintendo systems because "our games don't sell on Nintendo platforms". I won't hold my breath for a Switch port of the Sexy Brutale, then.
ETA - Concerned Ape, if you're reading this, please don't do something similar for Stardew Valley. I've been waiting for it to come to Switch, because it's ideal for portables and I cannot play it on Steam. I don't mind paying a bit more for a Switch version, but I won't pay %% more than its base Steam price. Just can't do it.
Re: New Frontier Days Becomes A Nintendo Switch Launch Game
Think I'd rather wait for Stardew Valley, but that's a pretty long wait. Price is good though. I'll probably decide based on the review.
Re: Random: Infamous British Tabloid Takes 1-2-Switch a Bit Too Seriously
@ThanosReXXX I don't blame you for holding off buying one for a bit. I'm getting one because we never did get a Wii U (despite having the same Humble Bundle you have) and they are still expensive here. I wasn't going to get a Switch straight away either, but I had an unexpected extra work project in January that has paid for it and half of Snipperclips, plus a birthday that's paid for Zelda and the other half of Snipperclips, so I'm jumping in at launch for the first time ever. I'd rather blow the money on a new console than spend only a little less on an old and unsupported one, even if some of the games we want will cost us more.
There are only a few games for Wii U we want that aren't (and possibly won't) be available on Switch - one of those (like himself said above) is NFS:MW but even second hand copies are ridiculously priced here so that's out of the question, at least for the time being. Maybe when Wii U consoles get to Gamecube-ish prices we can go retro.
Re: Random: Infamous British Tabloid Takes 1-2-Switch a Bit Too Seriously
@ThanosReXXX We're good, thanks. Hole in the roof is fixed, despite Storm Doris trying to kill our scaffolding guys with flying slates. Switch is still on pre-order and I have cancelled everything for the weekend so I can get lost (and probably killed, several times) in Hyrule. How about you? Not going to buy one, or counting the seconds?
Re: Random: Infamous British Tabloid Takes 1-2-Switch a Bit Too Seriously
@ThanosReXXX Is he showing his age?
Re: Random: Infamous British Tabloid Takes 1-2-Switch a Bit Too Seriously
@BLP_Software I've never really been convinced that anyone who writes for The Sun really understands about the birds and the bees myself. None of them seem to have any real life experience, anyway. Which is why they titter and giggle and get shocked about things like this.
Re: Random: Infamous British Tabloid Takes 1-2-Switch a Bit Too Seriously
@ThanosReXXX "I've never seen a cow with udders/nips that long. Small wonder that it makes people think of something completely different..."
To be fair, I don't think I've ever seen any of what (I think) you are implying that long either. That would make my eyes water.
Re: Random: Infamous British Tabloid Takes 1-2-Switch a Bit Too Seriously
At least they didn't report that the JoyCons give you cancer. Oh no, that's the sort of thing the Daily Fail would write.
Re: RiME Will Take Around 10 Hours To Complete "If You Really Want To Take Your Time"
I'm a little disappointed in the length, but I am a player who usually takes twice as long to finish a game as most estimates, so there is that. This is one of the games I'm most looking forward to though, I've watched that video of the first 27 minutes a couple of times and it looks so beautiful I can't wait to play it. It'll be a day 1 buy for me regardless of estimates of game length.
Re: Hands On: Trying Out the Nintendo Switch on its Public Tour
@Pazuzu666 The event may be PR in that it is a public relations exercise, in order to get the console into the hands of fans so they can try it for themselves. I was lucky enough to be one of those fans. I am not in PR, for Nintendo or anyone else. I'm just a gamer. I loved the thing. I am not being paid to say that, or to give my opinion. So in that sense, those of us who have been to one of the events and tried the console and the games are not PR. We are not journalists. But we are, unanimously (as far as I can see) all saying the Switch is a great console.
On the other hand, the previews and reviews you will be seeing March 1st-3rd will mostly be written by people who are paid for their opinion. You decide which one is a PR opinion, and which one is the opinion of an average gamer, and which one you give more weight to.
Re: Hands On: Trying Out the Nintendo Switch on its Public Tour
@Franklin You go to parties? I am surprised.
Re: Hands On: Trying Out the Nintendo Switch on its Public Tour
@Pazuzu666 @Franklin "coerced". You keep saying that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
coerce, verb
past tense: coerced; past participle: coerced
persuade (an unwilling person) to do something by using force or threats.
Nope, no coercion. Just a bunch of knowledgeable, enthusiastic people demonstrating great games on a great console.
Re: Hands On: Trying Out the Nintendo Switch on its Public Tour
I was at the Hammersmith event in January. And I've read a LOT of threads, here and elsewhere, about the Switch. I have not seen one person who has actually held a Switch and played a game on it write anything at all negative about it. Not one. Plenty of negative stuff from people who haven't, but not a single negative from anyone who has actually spent any time with an actual Switch console.
I hope Nintendo get demo Switch consoles into stores asap at, or preferably just before, launch. This thing really has to be experienced to be appreciated.
Re: Talking Point: The DLC Expansion Pass for Zelda: Breath of the Wild is Both Surprising and Inevitable
@Fist_of_Belial "here in the western United States, the great majority of gamers appear to be miserable people stuck in dead end jobs, barely scraping by and medicating their misery with escape into the virtual."
I think you have, perhaps inadvertently, hit one nail on the head here. People who game 24/7 to the exclusion of all else are escaping. What they are escaping will vary from person to person, but will often be a combination of any or all of the following: bad parenting, bad education, lack of job, lack of prospects, lack of hope.
And just as my son would have found something else to be passionate about, the people you are talking about would find something else to self-medicate with. Gaming does not, in and of itself, cause the problems you are describing, any more than heavy metal music causes people to become Satanists.
In short, the causes of your "idiocracy" are many and varied. Gaming is not, in reality, on that list of causes. But it is on the list of escape from those causes. Those "dregs" that you mention are still people, and (if your assumptions about them are accurate) they are people dealing with a lot more than an addiction to gaming.
Also, this is a gaming site. Ergo, we talk about games here. I go to a knitting site to talk about knitting, and I go to a gardening site to talk about gardening and I go to a book site to talk about books. Just because people are talking about gaming here does not mean they are "addicts" or "dregs". It just means that gaming is one of their hobbies. So telling people here, on a gaming site, to "go for a walk in the woods instead" is not going to go down that well. If you want to talk about going for a walk in the woods, why not have a look at the American Hiking Society's webpages instead?
Re: Talking Point: The DLC Expansion Pass for Zelda: Breath of the Wild is Both Surprising and Inevitable
@Fist_of_Belial He dedicated the time, energy and effort because he wanted to create what he loved. Love of games led him to where he is now. If he'd never been exposed to games, maybe he would be watching daytime TV all day instead (doubt it, he'd have found something else to be passionate about, but ykwim).
I'm his mother, and a gamer. I don't play games 24/7 either. His dad's a gamer, neither does he. Our daughter, at 7, is a gamer (and a reader, an actress, a singer, a dancer and a wanna-be astro physicist).
The stereotype of a gamer as someone who does nothing but game is, and always has been, wrong. I've known a lot of gamers over the years, from the 80s onwards, and I have never met anyone like that. I don't doubt they exist, but not in the numbers you are assuming with your comments. Even Miyamoto-san loves his garden. Don't buy into, or peddle, that stereotype.
Re: Talking Point: The DLC Expansion Pass for Zelda: Breath of the Wild is Both Surprising and Inevitable
@Fist_of_Belial Gaming can "develop into a skill you can actually make additional income with". Son is going to Uni to do a Computer Science degree, got an unconditional offer because of the games he has coded. And he learned to code games (among other things) because he is a gamer. And he is a gamer, at least partially, because his mother is a gamer.
Oh, and he has also spent much time walking in the woods. DofE Gold includes a LOT of walking in the woods.
Not all gamers spent 24/7 in their mum's basement, doing nothing but gaming and eating pizza, you know.
Re: Talking Point: The DLC Expansion Pass for Zelda: Breath of the Wild is Both Surprising and Inevitable
@aaronsullivan That is a really good point, and one I hadn't considered. I think, then, that I will buy the DLC if I actually finish the main game. Since I have finished only one Zelda game (and that was Phantom Hourglass) and have two nearly finished (Spirit Tracks and LbW), this may never happen...
Re: Talking Point: The DLC Expansion Pass for Zelda: Breath of the Wild is Both Surprising and Inevitable
Must admit I'm not happy about this. The game (for Switch) has an RRP of £60 already. Add the DLC and that's nearly £80 for one game. DLC has been done well before - specifically Ace Attorney and Fantasy Life, both of which cost less than an average game to start with, the DLC really did add something extra to the game rather than being stuff that should have been in there from the start, and the price of the DLC wasn't too high.
I'm gonna wait to see what this DLC adds to BotW before I spend my hard earned cash on it. I'm not interested in costume packs and hard modes, but if there is a good, meaty, add-on story that will add at least another 25-30% to the main game, then I'll pay up. Otherwise I'll put that £18 towards Snipperclips or Rime or something else.
Re: Feature: Nintendo Switch Countdown - The Origins and Simple Magic of Snipperclips
This is the game my daughter loved the most from the Treehouse presentation. Didn't get to play it at the Hammersmith event, sadly (that sofa was always full!) but it's a day 1 buy for me.
Re: Nintendo Switch Will Have A "Lot More Announcements" on Third-Party Games Soon
@ThanosReXXX I think we could feed some of these commenters to Audrey II. For the sake of a bit of peace.
Re: Nintendo Switch Will Have A "Lot More Announcements" on Third-Party Games Soon
@Mii_duck You missed Story of Seasons, Marvelous, not sure of release date.
Out of this extensive list, I am definitely buying 9 and have another half dozen or so as maybes (depending on price and reviews). And only a small handful of those are Nintendo games. So much whinging about lack of third party, and yet third parties are everywhere.
Re: Tatsumi Kimishima Expects Nintendo Switch To Sell "About As Well" As The Wii
Right now, with the price it is and the SKU available? No chance. Don't get me wrong, I love the Switch, I was at Hammersmith for the event and I've had mine on pre-order since the minute Amazon made them available. But as it stands right now, 100 million aint happening.
That said - I can see a family of Switch consoles, at different price points, in the future. If they market it right, and get different configurations out there, then maybe it might do something close to that. Time will tell.
Re: Talking Point: Let's Explore What Could Be Done with HD Rumble on the Nintendo Switch
@ThanosReXXX Thanks for that. Yep, the yellow buttons are what you'll get on the left JoyCon (but not yellow, and probably a bit smaller). Those look a bit thicker as well, I don't think the JoyCon ones stand out as far. Although I didn't actually use those buttons for anything during the event, they seemed close enough to the body of the JoyCon to maybe feel a bit more like a Dpad than those yellow ones would. More like you could kind of slide your thumb from one to the other than have to lift off and relocate, if that makes sense.
I've seen the GC controller before, but never used one. I know people rave about it, but it looks uncomfortable to me. Especially where the Dpad is. I'd have to try it out, obviously.
Re: Talking Point: Let's Explore What Could Be Done with HD Rumble on the Nintendo Switch
@ThanosReXXX Yeah, see this is what I get for not being a console gal. I have zero clue what an N64 controller looks like, or a PS-whatever number, or an Xbox, or whatever. I can wax lyrical about the differences between various Gameboys, the keyboard on a ZX Spectrum, the array of membrane buttons with red LEDs on the Merlin (which didn't even have a screen) and how much I love the JoyCons, but I have no frame of reference for console controllers. Sorry chaps!
Re: Talking Point: Let's Explore What Could Be Done with HD Rumble on the Nintendo Switch
@3MonthBeef They are separate buttons, which is about the only disappointing thing about the JoyCons for me. I can totally understand why they did it the way they did, andjust hope that a left JoyCon with a proper D pad becomes available at some point as a separate peripheral.
Re: Talking Point: Let's Explore What Could Be Done with HD Rumble on the Nintendo Switch
@samuelvictor Thanks for the Captain Toad recommendation - I thought it looked really good and was one of the main games on my "why I want a Wii U" list. Here's hoping they bring it to Switch. And if not, I'm sure I'll be able to pick up a 2nd hand Wii U at some point.
Re: Talking Point: Let's Explore What Could Be Done with HD Rumble on the Nintendo Switch
@ThanosReXXX I'm honestly not sure how "softness" is going to be conveyed through the HD Rumble. Senran Kagura isn't my kind of thing, but it will still be interesting to find out what they do with the Rumble for that.
They are taking one sweetie out of the sweetie jar at a time, from what I can see. Lego Worlds is not the first, and it won't be the last. For now, I have zero worries about the Switch's first year, we're not going to be seeing Wii U style droughts. After that, it will depend a great deal on how it is received by the consumer, but if it's as easy to port to as it appears, I can see most games coming to Switch as well as PS4/Xbone/Steam, that disappointing Resi announcement notwithstanding.
Re: Talking Point: Let's Explore What Could Be Done with HD Rumble on the Nintendo Switch
@ThanosReXXX I beat him at the milking game as well Honestly, those JoyCons are amazing. No, they won't make you feel slime in the way rjejr was suggesting (and that was very, ummm, suggestive ) but I can totally see (feel?) them making you feel the difference between cutting into a Slime and cutting into a Troll. I am so glad SqEnix is obviously wanting to take the possibilities of HD Rumble and have fun with it.
And now I'm wishing for a remake of Fantasy Life, with appropriate HD Rumble for all those mini games - the ratatatata of a sewing machine, the difference in feel between sawing wood and chopping it, whether mining gold feels different to mining copper....
As for the games, Nintendo does its own thing. Were all 80 games Kimishima mentioned Nintendo games? Because if not, he may not have permission yet from the devs to talk about them in detail. He won't want to tell us about them unless and until they are signed off, either. That's understandable. I am hoping for more game news, including and especially Nintendo games, to come though. And there have already been announcements of further third party games on their way (Lego Worlds being one of them). So yeah, it's maybe a bit too soon to say they "never spoke of them again", seeing as we still have about 6 weeks to go. I bet there will be more news to come.
Re: Talking Point: Let's Explore What Could Be Done with HD Rumble on the Nintendo Switch
@Sakura Oh yeah, more adventure games for sure. Otherwise I'll just have to get a Steam account and hope my little laptop can cope.
Re: Talking Point: Let's Explore What Could Be Done with HD Rumble on the Nintendo Switch
@samuelvictor Yeah, I can see that about the Vita situation repeating with the Switch. It is an amazing bit of kit, and I can't wait to own one, but it's outside the kidzone for sure, at least for now, just as the Vita was. Far too expensive to buy for the average 8 year old, and maybe a bit too techy, unlike a 2DS but just like the Vita. I hope that there will be a portable only version 6 months to a year down the line, bundled with something suitable and at the kind of price the 3DS was before the last round of price cuts. £200-ish or less would be good. Doing it now would dilute the message and not be a good idea, but once there is a base for it, yeah.
And I'll join you in hoping for a port of Captain Toad, that's another on my list of what I wanted a Wii U for. And Need For Speed: Most Wanted for the hubby. I don't think I'm going to get Fatal Frame though, that kind of needs the GamePad and I think I might have to wait for a cheap second hand Wii U to be able to play that one.
Re: Talking Point: Let's Explore What Could Be Done with HD Rumble on the Nintendo Switch
@samuelvictor I agree with you there, although if the next Pokemon is Switch exclusive I'll be able to hear the screams about Nintendo killing off the 3DS all the way over here. A Sun/Moon port might be a system seller - but since it is already available for 3DS and came out before Christmas, I honestly don't think it would sell that many systems by itself. I do think though, that if they are eventually going to kill off the 3DS in favour of the Switch (highly likely, whatever they say publicly) the next Pokemon game needs to be sooner rather than later, and Switch exclusive. Smash is a no-brainer - on-the go, spontaneous Smash fun with friends? Oh yes.
Re: the Wii U - we were seriously considering finally getting one in late 2015. There were enough games to make it worth it to us. But the writing was on the wall, NX rumours were everywhere and we eventually decided to see what the next gen was going to be. And here we are. Yoshi's Woolly World is coming to 3DS, Lego City is coming to Switch, so that's two of the games we wanted a Wii U for, right there. Getting a Switch instead seems like the better idea now.
Re: Talking Point: Let's Explore What Could Be Done with HD Rumble on the Nintendo Switch
@samuelvictor I still consider Nintendo to be outside the console wars. And Switch is a great product to keep them outside the console wars, at least for the time being. MS and Sony can fight each other for most powerful etc, and Nintendo will carry on in their own fun, occasionally daft way. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. But to a large extent Nintendo's biggest competitor is itself.
How many Wii units are still out there in the wild, still being used? I know ours is. We never bought a Wii U, we knew what it was and how it was different but we could never justify spending the money - and by the time we could, the Wii U was already dead. We still have plenty of Wii games we haven't got to play yet. I wonder how many other Wii owners were quite happy with the games they already had or knew they could get? There's only so many hours in a day, especially for people who love video games but can't dedicate entire weekends to playing them. The Wii U was defeated by a lot of things - bad marketing, confusion on the part of the consumer, a high price and eventually a lack of games - but I think it's worst enemy was actually the Wii. Most Wii owners are not "gamers" in the Xbone/PS4 sense (and we know that a lot of Xbone/PS4 owners only buy FIFA and CoD anyway). They're not interested in the all new console or the new iteration of an old IP, especially if they haven't finished playing the old iteration yet. They don't visit gaming websites to find out about the new Mario, they haven't finished with the old Mario. The Wii's back catalogue could keep someone like that happily playing video games, great video games, for the rest of their life.
So the Wii U audience was only ever going to be a tiny fraction of the Wii's in the first place. Nintendo can't compete with MS and Sony on raw power, and they don't want to. They can't compete with mobile gaming in terms of price, and they don't want to do that either. They won't go third party, because they would then be constrained by having to fit their games into other companies' control schemes. What Nintendo does well, always has (with the occasional miss) is innovate hardware based on what they want software to do. No third party can do that.
I very much doubt that the Switch is going to be the new Wii. That ship sailed long ago. But I doubt it will be the new Wii U, either. I think it will be itself, not having to compete with the Wii like the Wii U did, not having to compete with Sony and MS (because that game's not worth the candle). It may be seen as competing with the 3DS though, and that worries me a bit.
Re: Talking Point: Let's Explore What Could Be Done with HD Rumble on the Nintendo Switch
@samuelvictor Dreamcast = Betamax. Cheaper than VHS, better all round, failed nonetheless.
As for Pokemon at launch - has there ever been a Pokemon at any console launch? I don't remember one. B2/W2 was released on DS long after the launch of the 3DS. But I think we can pretty much guarantee there will be a Pokemon on Switch, possibly not the next game but almost certainly the one after that. And Mario we know is coming (hopefully) by Christmas. If I needed to save for longer, or didn't like Zelda, I'd probably be thinking of a Christmas purchase. For my kids, I might wait for Pokemon. But this household will almost certainly end up with at least 3 Switches - not day 1, but by Christmas next year. Plus, this is a portable and it is actually being advertised (the last Nintendo TV ad I ever saw before Switch was for the Wii), so maybe the word of mouth will be better? I worry about Nintendo's marketing as well, and really hope they get it right this time.
Re: Talking Point: Let's Explore What Could Be Done with HD Rumble on the Nintendo Switch
@PlywoodStick Unfortunately, I don't know. I never got a look at the back of the Switch with the kickstand up and I never asked the question. I would guess that you are correct about UHS-II, simply because it makes sense, but I can't confirm it.
ETA - Not having either an Xbone or a PS4, I can't really comment on the bodybuilder bottleneck (excellent analogy there, btw) except to say that Nintendo have a lot of experience with SD cards with the 3DS and are historically very good at getting the best out of what may seem to be lower specs. So what you are suggesting wouldn't surprise me at all.
Re: Talking Point: Let's Explore What Could Be Done with HD Rumble on the Nintendo Switch
@ThanosReXXX I can only say that HD Rumble and the ice cubes thing made me "get it". I'm not techy and I'm not in IT or marketing, I'm just a (relatively, for here) casual gamer. If I'm a good representative example of the people Nintendo are trying to reach with this type of marketing, then it will be a success. On the other hand, if I'm not... well then, perhaps Wii U all over again. Let's hope not. I watched that train wreck too.
I'm not sure about announcing some of those 80 games. Obviously some of them already have been announced, but not many. I think one thing they need to get away from is games that are delayed, and then delayed again. Or games that are promised and never materialise. Or games that are promised, delayed, finally materialise and then have 30GB of day 1 patches. And they also need to be able to keep the games coming, not dump them all on us day 1. 80 games on day 1 would mean some will not get the exposure they deserve, especially if they are up against Zelda. Honestly, I'm concerned about this too, because not everybody is a Zelda fan (or not a fan enough to spend £330 on a new console and the game to play on it) and those people need reasons to spend their money. I hope that Nintendo know what they're doing and people are just being impatient. But yeah, this one could bite them if they don't get it right.
The short sighted and deaf thing - it's more that I have to see the world through glasses, all the time. It means things can get missed. Same with the hearing - one side works, the other doesn't. So some sound gets missed. If we were having this conversation in person, in speech, I would be partially hearing you, partially lip reading you, and scraping together as much extra as I could from body language, tone of voice, facial expression, all that, to fill in any gaps. Sometimes it takes an extra beat or two for my brain to process all that and "hear". Mostly, you'd never know. But it can be exhausting for me, especially in environments that are badly lit and have a lot of background noise. In terms of video games, I find it very difficult to filter out any extra noise, whether audio or visual, which is why I am not good at platformers or shooters. Add an extra stream of information via a different sense, one that works like everyone else's, like HD Rumble, and the experience for me becomes so much better. Although I probably will still be bad at platformers and shooters
Re: Talking Point: Let's Explore What Could Be Done with HD Rumble on the Nintendo Switch
@Sakura Thanks for the info re: Syberia, I'm pretty sure I'll be getting 3 and then I'll think about the earlier games. I miss adventure games as well. Someone really should do a remake of Beneath A Steel Sky, for the Switch naturally.
Re: Talking Point: Let's Explore What Could Be Done with HD Rumble on the Nintendo Switch
@ThanosReXXX Nintendo doesn't want this to be just for people who already own consoles or consider themselves "gamers" or speak the gamer lingo. Going up against Microsoft and Sony, where graphics are everything and they only innovate if someone already did it first, is a fool's game. Using words like advanced force feedback, for most consumers who aren't already hard gaming console owners, what does that even mean? If you're trying to grab an audience, you need short, simple soundbites. HD Rumble works for that. It may not be as accurate as it could be, but it certainly gave me the right idea of what to expect - especially when paired with the ice cubes in a glass visual. Whereas if they'd called it next generation haptic force feedback they may have lost me at generation.
Haters gonna hate. Those who feel they were burned by the Wii U, yeah they're probably gonna hate too, or at least be suspicious. I'm not sure what the average age is on here, maybe kids just don't have much imagination any more, but once they get their hands on a Switch they'll get it. Or they should.
I agree with you that Nintendo needs to advertise this right. But I don't think they are marketing solely to the screamers on here. I hope, really hope, that they make one of the big games, a Mario or Splatoon or Zelda or something, with all the (pertinent) HD Rumble they can throw at it. Look guys, it's not just visuals, it's not just sound, you can now feel it as well.
I dunno. I'm partially deaf and extremely short sighted. Maybe Rumble means more to me because of that. Maybe feeling my games, along with seeing and hearing them, means more to me because my sight and hearing are fairly rubbish. But I really can't describe how excited I am for this.
Re: Talking Point: Let's Explore What Could Be Done with HD Rumble on the Nintendo Switch
@samuelvictor Also, I don't forsee many games making full use of them, whilst they undoubtedly increase the price. It may have been wiser to leave these features out.
If you do that, innovation is dead. All those lovely, interesting and unique experiences would never have happened. Nobody can tell from here whether the Switch will be successful or not. To me, it certainly deserves to be. But then, VHS was successful and Betamax bit the dust, despite the fact that VHS was larger, less efficient and more expensive.
Nintendo is never going to get anywhere competing directly with Sony and Microsoft. All they want is more power, better graphics, all the time. It's a race that really only has room for 2 competitors. To be different takes innovation and takes risk. And marketing. How on earth do you market, via words, sound and video, something you feel? I don't know, that's why I'm not a marketing executive. And we all know that Nintendo has often failed at marketing (mostly cos they just didn't do any of it).
I don't know, maybe they'll get their point across in whatever marketing and advertising they do and this thing will sell like hot cakes. I think it'll sell like hot cakes in Japan, regardless. The thing about the ice cubes in the presentation, along with the name "HD Rumble", made me expect what I pretty much got with the hands on. I'm not anything special, so why did that work for me, but very few others on here? I mean, I knew the Wii U was more than just an add-on - but I wasn't excited for it and never bought one. This, I can't wait for. I hope that other people will love it too and it becomes a runaway success, but there are no guarantees in life or in marketing. The exact same thing can grab the public's imagination one day, and make them go "meh" the next. It's always going to be a risk.
Re: Talking Point: Let's Explore What Could Be Done with HD Rumble on the Nintendo Switch
@ThanosReXXX The problem with that is that the desired audience won't necessarily have a clue about haptic whatever and force whajamacallit. I didn't know what haptic feedback was until I got a smartphone with it, and it was about 6 months after that before the phrase itself crossed my path. Rumble, on the other hand, is something pretty much everyone who's ever played a video game knows. And HD is also something everyone knows. Hi Definition Rumble, seems self-explanatory, yes?
That's why they used the ice cubes in the presentation. They weren't able to show it, it's a physical feeling not a visual. So they used a visual (the ice cubes) to show the physical feeling. Yeah, loads of idiots on here can't see the use of ice cubes (or marbles or whatever). They don't have the imagination to see the potential, that the ice cubes is an example, not the full extent of its possibilities. And I don't think using words like haptic or force feedback will necessarily change that. How do you explain a physical feeling in words and pictures, in a short time frame without confusing your audience? I actually thought HD Rumble was a pretty good name, especially given the constant banging on about graphics...
Re: Talking Point: Let's Explore What Could Be Done with HD Rumble on the Nintendo Switch
@Sakura Tell me more about Syberia 3. Is it worth getting 3 if you've not played the earlier games? Broken Sword I'm familiar with, from back in the day (hadn't actually realised they were still making games in the series - those old games were awesome). Have actually recently picked up a copy of Secret Files 2 for Wii, not played it yet. I'm kind of hoping for a few adventure games for the Switch, along the lines of Syberia, Secret Files and Another Code. RiME looks good but that's more puzzles (somehow that reminds me a bit of The Dig, which is weird cos that was set on an asteroid and was inventory-based...) Maybe I should get a Steam account just for adventure games, but I'd rather play on a handheld than a PC these days.
ETA: Boilers are a PITA. Our old one I fixed various things on over the years (fan and diverter valve being the most... interesting) but we ended up having to get a new one. In January. The delivery of which was delayed by the snow. Yeah, I feel you. Hope it gets fixed soon.
Re: Talking Point: Let's Explore What Could Be Done with HD Rumble on the Nintendo Switch
@ThanosReXXX Yeah, makes me feel old too. All the entitled whining. I have a 7 year old who doesn't whine that much.
Regarding Mii-Duck's ARMS ass kicking, he's used to buttons. ARMS can use buttons as well, from what I've read, but we were using the motion controls. Maybe I'm just more used to motion controls? Or maybe my tendencies are more violent than his. Who knows? Regardless, I am really looking forward to the rematch!
Re: Talking Point: Let's Explore What Could Be Done with HD Rumble on the Nintendo Switch
@ThanosReXXX Heheh, no worries, and no offense taken. And you aint old. You're younger than me if you were only 5 when the 2600 came out.
Re: Talking Point: Let's Explore What Could Be Done with HD Rumble on the Nintendo Switch
@DanteSolablood Yeah, with you on that presentation being a bit... lacking. Japanese presentation aimed at a Japanese audience. Unless it's a game show, the Japanese tend to not do the excited, excitable, all singing, all dancing, here's why you must get one right NOW, ooooooonLY nineninetynine ninety nine, BUY NOW thing that the Americans (and, to a slightly lesser extent, Europeans also) do. That kind of low key, understated approach doesn't work for an audience that is used to the X Factor. I'd love to know how it went down in Japan.
Re: Talking Point: Let's Explore What Could Be Done with HD Rumble on the Nintendo Switch
@Sakura You know, the real problem with that isn't graphics and power and all that. The real sticking point is the battery. Batteries have come a long, long way in the last few years, but what can be done with them is limited in a way that graphics and computing power just isn't. Batteries are subject to the very real limitations of chemistry and physics. They are far more efficient than when I first stuck 2 AAs into a Gameboy Color, for sure. But the kind of progress we've seen with computers (like the aforementioned 386SX costing £3k back in 1990, to my little laptop costing £189 now) just isn't going to happen with batteries. And the more powerful the computer, the more power the battery needs. I think 3 hours for the Switch, given what it's showing you visually and making you feel physically, is excellent. Add more power and you get a shorter battery life. Add a bigger battery to get a longer battery life, you get a heavier and more expensive Switch. There is no way around this.
Re: Talking Point: Let's Explore What Could Be Done with HD Rumble on the Nintendo Switch
@ThanosReXXX Her objective opinion. Gamer since age 12 (one of many girls in my school, including a girl who could programme her ZX81 to do amazing stuff. Never could get it to make a cup of tea though). Dragged my husband into the DS era (he was more a console guy til he met me). Both kids had/have any number of computers, gadgets, gizmos and the Boy wants to go to Uni to do video game coding. So yeah. Her objective opinion
Re: Talking Point: Let's Explore What Could Be Done with HD Rumble on the Nintendo Switch
@ThanosReXXX No worries. The tech stuff goes over my head. I'm a player, not a developer, a bit of html is the limit of my coding abilities and I don't much care about Phenomenal Cosmic Power (sorry, channeling my inner Genie there). I'm originally an adventure gamer, really. Look at the graphical difference between, as an example, Maniac Mansion and Day of the Tentacle. Then look (when you're able to) at the difference between Splatoon and Spla2oon. Spla2oon looks better, sure. But not orders of magnitude better. I think that kind of graphical leap (MM to DotT) is never going to happen again, certainly not in that kind of time span. But the difference between the rumble on, say, Pokemon Pinball and 12Switch? Orders of magnitude. Huge orders of magnitude.
Re: Talking Point: Let's Explore What Could Be Done with HD Rumble on the Nintendo Switch
@dkxcalibur Judging by the safe cracking game in 12Switch, I would say that that's more than possible.
Re: Talking Point: Let's Explore What Could Be Done with HD Rumble on the Nintendo Switch
@Sakura I think, given the extra tech that is in the Switch, it's worth more than a PS4 anyway. But YMMV, depending on how graphically powerful you need or want your consoles to be. I'm primarily a handheld gamer anyway (have been since 1982 when I got a Merlin for Christmas). I don't like FMV. I prefer bright, cheerful, happy graphics - as opposed to realistically depressing grey/green/brown. I don't do shooters. I do do RPGs. I grew up with wireframe on a ZX Spectrum (48Kb), 16bit graphics were amazing after that. So, yanno, all this 900 v 1080 v 4K is daft to me. Give me a story and good game play (and not too much jarring jaggies, frame rate slow down, break-the-immersion stuff) and that's far, far more important to me than perfectly realistic graphics.
Put it this way. 25 years ago 1Mb of RAM (yes, 1Mb) cost £100. A 386 SX PC with Windows 3.1 cost £3,000, without a monitor. Digital cameras were in their infancy and cost thousands. Now I probably have more computing power in my little smartphone than the entire Future Publishing building had in 1990. And there were a LOT of computers in that building. Tech moves on all the time. The Switch is amazing, to me, right now. I don't care if it's not as powerful as a PS4. It has games I can play on the TV or on the go. PS4 doesn't have that. It has HD Rumble. PS4 doesn't have that. It has Nintendo games. PS4 doesn't have that. I'm not interested in the graphics wars, and I consider them to be silly. I think maybe Nintendo would agree with me there, because they don't seem to care about being the most powerful console out there. They are far more interested in innovating how you play, what you feel, the entire experience - not just what you look at.
Re: Talking Point: Let's Explore What Could Be Done with HD Rumble on the Nintendo Switch
@ThanosReXXX Thanks for the explanation about old threads and such. Yep, email alerts are activated.
Plus and minus buttons, haven't a clue about those I'm afraid. They weren't used for anything apart from start/select in any of the demos we tried.
Switch vs Wii U graphics - again, I can't really have an opinion on this because I don't have a Wii U to compare to. But I will say that everything looked crisp and lovely, from the Switch screen itself to small TV screens to the bigger ones. No jaggies, or at least no obvious jaggies. I'm not enough of a techy to get my knickers in a twist about resolution and frame rate anyway, all that is mostly wasted on me. I'm far more interested in how the game plays, whether I'm interested in the story, the graphics are secondary. Jumpy, laggy graphics that pull me out of the immersion, those I notice. I didn't notice any of those.
And I am really looking forward to chopping up Slimes too!