DragonEleven

Wasn't it only the US and New Zealand that had been reduced to 40m? There had been no change here in the UK, so the fact that they're making such a big deal about undoing the change seems pretty pointless.
Personally, I don't think the change to 80m was needed... it's useful, yes, but it was only supposed to be temporary and we got on fine with 40m before, so if we did go back to 40m I wouldn't have any problem with that, it'd just take a bit of getting used to.

Based on the setting of the game, I'm a bit disappointed in their choice of Cyndaquil for the fire-type starter, seeing as the other two's final evolutions are clearly influenced by samurai and ninjas, which fit the setting perfectly, whereas Typhlosion doesn't have that same connection.
The way I see it, they had two viable options for each type...
Grass - Chespin (Samurai) or Rowlet (Ninja)
Fire - Tepig (Sumo) or Fennekin (Shrine Maiden)
Water - Oshawott (Samurai) or Froakie (Ninja)
Considering they wouldn't want two with the same inspiration, or two from the same generation, that would quite neatly work out to give Rowlet, Fennekin and Oshawott as the three choices.
I've got nothing against Cyndaquil... I just don't see why it was chosen over Fennekin in this situation.

Either way, I'll still go with Rowlet... even though my default choice is usually the water type, I think in the context of this game specifically Rowlet is just the more fitting choice... a ninja seems more fitting in a natural setting, whereas a samurai would be better in a more rural or battlefield setting.

Seeing as Metroid Dread had first been hinted at in Metroid Prime 3, and the 2D project had been confirmed to have been abandoned prior to the announcement of Metroid Prime 4, I was wondering if they were going to recycle the name as the subtitle for Prime 4 ('Metroid Prime 4: Dread' wouldn't have been a bad name)... but it was definitely a surprise that they had revived the 2D project.

As far as the development of Prime 4 goes, I'm still a bit dubious as to what exactly has been going on behind the scenes compared to what has been officially announced in regards to Retro Studios involvement. I suspect they've been involved for a lot longer than we've been led to believe, as they'd been hiring people to work on an unannounced game that seemed very similar to Metroid since before Prime 4 was officially announced, and any questions about their involvement in a Prime sequel were carefully worded to avoid giving a straight answer. However, as they were only being put in charge after the restart of development, it's possible that they were only serving a supporting role in the development previously.

The award was for best PRESENTATION, not the best content, so in that sense I think this result is fair.
As far as the content of the presentations go, I think Nintendo hands down won E3, but the way in which it was presented was kind of mediocre... no different from a normal direct really... lacked the 'skits' they've done in past E3 presentations, and they focused on information rather than hyping up viewers.

I play Genshin Impact on a fairly high spec gaming laptop and it's very obvious that they have issues getting the game to run smoothly... I could be in an intense fight against a whole crowd of enemies, with animations going off all over the place, and my laptop would handle it fine, but sit in a quiet corner where there is literally nothing happening and the game will randomly start putting more load on the CPU and graphics card for no apparent reason.
My laptop still handles it fine, even on the highest settings, but I could see how random spikes like this could cause problems for other systems.

The UK version of the store is almost non-existent compared to other countries, with no proper storefront making it impossible to browse (attempting to navigate to the main page just leads to the NES controllers page).
If I could browse for other items to order so that I could combine the postage I would be far more likely to take advantage of some of these offers.

TBH the games are probably my least favourite part of the franchise... don't get me wrong, they're still great games (in most cases), they just never really held my attention for long enough to properly enjoy them.

I need to get a new laptop soon anyhow, and it'll be cheaper to pay extra for a high-end gaming laptop than get either of the new consoles, and that'll give me access to pretty much any of the games I'd be interested in getting on the other consoles.

They should do a secret rare version where his head's a MasterBall instead.

Pokemon Sleep was supposed to be out this year, but there's been no mention of it since May 2019, so I wouldn't be surprised if it's been delayed, or possibly even cancelled altogether.
Seeing as it was implied to be a counterpart to Pokemon GO, and it was supposed to be accompanied by the Pokemon Plus+ device, which was to work with both games, I'd guess Niantic have something to do with the lack of news... just look at how long it's taking them to get Pokemon GO connected to Pokemon Home.

The only issue I have with this is the incense... it's people who are stuck inside that need the spawns to be boosted, not those who are walking around... they're doing the exact opposite to what needs to be done there.

Niantic have been making a lot of bad decisions with Pokemon GO as of late, and regardless of whether that's due to stupidity or greed they've been reluctant to admit when they've made a mistake.
In this case I think the charge will only be temporary while shiny Meltan is available again... essentially allowing you to pay to get more chances at a shiny... it probably won't be long after shiny Meltan goes away again that they decide to remove the fee and reduce the cooldown... probably with some B.S. about it being because they were listening to player feedback.

Amusing timing, seeing as I had to do a hard reset of my system for the first time just last night when I couldn't get the screen to turn on (seems the Switch thought it was docked when it wasn't, but the hard reset sorted it)

In the main games I think it's pretty good... shiny hunting is something to do once you've filled the Pokedex... the rate is high enough that you are suitably rewarded for your effort, but low enough to make it unlikely for you to complete the shinydex.

Pokemon GO on the other hand they just can't seem to get the shiny rate right with... the base chance is completely erratic, varying greatly from person to person and week to week... and events just completely miss the mark... community days have much higher shiny rates than they really need to be, while others can see you playing for several hours a day for a whole week and still not get a single shiny of one of the main Pokemon of the event (this is why players are calling for Niantic to disclose shiny rates).

This campaign is completely misdirected... eggs, raids, lures and incense do not actually qualify as loot boxes...
Eggs are free to obtain in game... incubators help you to hatch them quicker, but the probability is still determined by the free item.
Raids are also free to participate in one a day... premium raid passes give you additional chances, but do not change the probability.
Lures and incense merely give additional Pokemon spawns (which are, again, already available for free)... they typically use the same odds as regular spawns... occasionally certain Pokemon will have an increased chance of spawning as part of an event, but these would be considered a free bonus in addition to the items normal function.

What the campaign should be directed at is the premium events, such as the recent GO Fest... the tickets to access them are paid items that grant access to an exclusive set of spawns, with both specific Pokemon and the chance of getting shiny Pokemon mentioned in their marketing... they fit the description of loot boxes perfectly, so the odds for them should legally be disclosed.

I finished the game around the time the balloon world minigame was added... started to use it to collect the last of the available costumes, but I think I gave up as I found too many people were using glitches to place balloons in inaccessible areas, which made it difficult to build up streaks to earn more coins... haven't been back since, but I'm tempted to give it a try to see if they've fixed the cheating.

Where's Lakitu when you need him?

I will get this to complete the set, but will always consider this to be the lesser of the three.
Translations have already revealed that it contradicts the Hyrule Historia in places, and in other places makes claims that sound like complete nonsense, with no evidence in the games to support them.
If you look into it further you will find that despite being credited as being written by Nintendo, the section that covers the lore of the series was actually written by the writers at the Nintendo Dream magazine, which would explain all of the problems with it... they've taken liberties with the content by adding their own ideas and theories, rather than sticking to the official information provided by Nintendo, essentially making it no better than fan-fiction.

This isn't news if you ask me... most of what was said was already a near certainty already... all we were really waiting for was a date, which he has still not given, so we haven't really learned anything new about them... and the rest sounds like more of the empty promises that Niantic keep making, and keep failing to deliver... so there's no real guarantee that they will actually come to the game.

I think Animal Crossing in general is not particularly well suited to making money as a mobile game.
Most games resort to an energy based system to limit activity, or make people pay to overcome it, but Animal Crossing has always been about investing time in a game, so players will already be prepared for a wait.
This also causes problems for the premium currency they attempted to use, as it can also be earned through gameplay, but players are patient enough to earn what they need rather than buy it.
The fact that the premium currency items (including the new loot boxes) are purely aesthetic just causes more problems for this, as players can quite easily just get what they want and leave the rest with no real impact on the game itself.

I've seen more people get the red and blue joy-cons simply because they've been easier for them to find at the time... in the better bundles at least.
My local stores seem to consider the red and blue joy-cons to be the more childish of the colours, so they tend to bundle it with what they consider to be the more childish games (mainly first-party titles like Mario and Zelda).
The grey joy-cons on the other hand they seem to consider more mature, so tend to bundle them with more mature games that are typically the less popular third-party titles... so it's obvious that those bundles won't sell as well.

I'm pretty sure all the Ultra Beasts are shiny locked at the moment, so this makes me think they might release them under the name Ultra Shinies, so the trademark could just be for marketing purposes.
And while I'm aware that they don't use the English word 'shiny' when referring to shiny Pokemon in Japanese, they may make an exception to that in this case seeing as they use the English phrase 'Ultra Beast' in Japanese, so it would fit for them to keep using English words.

Yeah.. I will not be getting any of them... it was bad enough when they made certain event items available in exchange for leaf tickets only... at least in those cases they did add enough leaf ticket rewards to the event to get them.
With premium currency like this that can be earned in-game, I think it's only okay as long as it's possible to earn enough through a reasonable amount of gameplay... basically making the paid option the easy way out if you don't want to spend that much time playing.
That's the way it has been with Pocket Camp so far, and it pretty much that way in Fire Emblem Heroes and Pokemon GO as well... but these fortune cookies are certainly not... the only option is to spend real money, so are certainly not welcome.

Looks like it could be a fun little puzzle game, so I might get it... as long as the price is reasonable... if not it'll just be another game to keep an eye on during the sales.

@Heavyarms55 I think it largely depends on how much they change the existing formula for the new Switch game... if they make proper use of the Switch's capabilities that will almost certainly result in some drastic changes compared to the existing games, which will make it difficult to classify it as part of the existing core series. This will also likely result in backlash from fans of the existing games who don't want such drastic changes... hence they will most likely opt to keep both running in parallel.
Game Freak do have the potential for this... in recent years they have roughly doubled in size, so could easily handle two major projects simultaneously, and it was confirmed that they had already been doing that with one team working on Ultra Sun and Moon while another was working on the Switch game.

I knew there had to be something to their poses, and had noticed that there was the same number of monks as there was sages, so did suspect some sort of connection, but I hadn't got round to going back to look into it further.

I think getting all of his scores removed is a bit of an overreaction... just the ones that are in doubt would be fair.

Whether or not he's being honest about his scores is debatable... the evidence is against him, but I don't see why he'd argue his innocence in this sort of situation... he could quite easily just say a mistake was made with the submissions and would face next to no repercussions... the investigations would be dropped, and he's still proven himself to be one of the best players in the world.
If he is guilty, then arguing his innocence could just be more damaging for him... it's pushing for further investigation, and if they do prove that he did intentionally cheat, then that opens up all of his other scores for further investigation... which could potentially cause him to lose everything.

We can expect to see Gen 8 introduced in 2019/2020, which will be around the same time we should see the Switch game... but I think it's still debatable whether it will be 'the' Gen 8 game, or just a game released within Gen 8 (I'm still expecting them to split the franchise into two 'core' series... the existing main series being kept largely as it is, while introducing a new series, starting with the Switch game that will run alongside it).

The important thing is that he's a Pokemon TRAINER... not a Pokemon collector.
Unlike in the games, he's not given his Pokedex with the task of completing it... if anything it's already virtually complete, so it's more of a tool for him to use to help him train.
And that's exactly what he does... he trains... he's always trying to get better... starting over with just Pikachu in each region to constantly challenge himself.
The one time he actually succeeded in his challenge (the Battle Frontier) he was given the opportunity to become a frontier brain, but turned it down, saying that he wanted to travel (and therefore train) more.
Ash is always saying that he wants to be a Pokemon Master, but that doesn't actually have any real meaning within the franchise... it's just something Ash says... it seems like he just uses it to make it sound like he has a specific objective when he doesn't... he's constantly moving his objective so that he can keep training.

The bundles are probably the best thing about this event... they may not contain anything special, but their value is amazing... I bought one of the largest ones straight away as I've taken to saving up coins just to buy bundles like these... getting items individually is just a waste in comparison.

I also find it funny that the event has made some of the research tasks a lot easier, while making others almost impossible... catch fire types and catch dragon types tasks are usually pretty hard in my area, but now seem far easier... meanwhile, catch dark types and catch Swablu tasks are near impossible.

I'm seeing mixed reports about the trick for raids... some people are saying that Niantic has now fixed it so that you have to 10 separate raids rather than letting the same one time out repeatedly, but others are saying that it's still working for them.
It's possible that the people saying it's not working could just be doing it wrong... you have to drop back to the lobby until the timer runs out, not quit the raid completely... I suspect this may be where those people are going wrong.
However, as it is unlikely that Niantic intended for the research task to be completed in this way, they may well fix it at some point.

The breeding of monsters actually reminds me a lot of the way you combined monsters in Monster Rancher.

I'd guess the one in dungarees is a Bird Keeper (wears a similar outfit in FRLG), and the Pikachu outfit I'd guess is a Poke Fan (often wears Pikachu merchandise, although that specific outfit is closer to that of a Poke Kid, that guy is too old).

I also noticed that it looks like some of the extras are holding green screen 'bundles' to stand in for Pokemon they'd be carrying so that they've actually got some weight to hold.

I'm surprised so many people don't have enough Magikarp candies... I still have over 1000 after evolving one for the Mew quests, and that's nothing compared to people who spend a lot of time near the waterfront in my town.

I got Mew last Monday myself, and the only thing that held me up was stage 5, as we didn't have any ghost type nests at the time, so I had to go out late at night to find them... and Ditto I got lucky with as my Pokemon GO Plus caught one for me on my way into town that day.

Also, a couple of tips...
For either of the buddy candy quests it's a good idea to switch to a Pokemon with a low buddy distance (such as Magikarp) to get those tasks cleared a lot quicker.
When you get to the 10 raids quest, just find an easy raid, go into the battle, but drop back out to the lobby and let the timer run out... this counts as one raid, but you can repeat it multiple times on a single raid pass until the raid de-spawns.

Or you could just do what I do... get a Pokemon GO Plus (a Gotcha would probably work as well) and spend a day in your local town centre... I almost always get a Ditto that way.

As for the specific spawn locations... that seems a bit pointless as they can all be found pretty much anywhere (with the exception of Yanma)... time and weather affect their spawns more than the location.

When I needed a new battery for my original 3DS (it had swollen up so much it was noticeably bending the back plate) the customer service people were useless... they said they wouldn't replace the battery themselves and wouldn't provide me with a battery to do it myself... all they offered to do was to replace the console with a new one, but I'd have to pay basically full price for it and send them my old one so they could transfer the data over.
Instead I bought a third party battery online and got a New 3DS when it was released a couple of months later for basically the same price they were asking... and I now have two working 3DS systems instead of one.

The only other time I've used their customer service was when my Wii had the disc read error due to the faulty part... unfortunately the problem didn't show up for me until the console was out of warranty, so I should have had to pay to get it fixed... but when I got my Wii back a few days later it said on the receipt that they'd done it for free.

I actually bought a USB-A to USB-C cable ages ago for use with my power bank, but had been avoiding using it in case it did cause a problem (this was before the recent problems with third party items)... it's from Anker, so it's good quality, and I've now checked and it does have the 56K OHM resistor, so it should be fine.

I doubt that explanation is entirely accurate... sticks may have originally been put on the left with the intention of making games harder, but I doubt they would have become the standard for that reason... I'm guessing that they discovered that having the stick on the left was actually better.
It makes sense if you think about it... the dominant hand would be more suited to faster and more accurate actions which would be needed for the button presses... and even nowadays with twin-stick controls, aiming is always handled with the right hand, while general movement is always with the left hand.

While it would be great to see more third party characters, I think they're going to need a new approach to handle them in order to avoid it getting silly.
Some third party characters would be fine as playable characters, but I think they should limit them to only those from video games who have a particular tie to Nintendo.
That's not to say I think other characters shouldn't have the opportunity to appear... I just think a different approach would need to be taken... I don't think they should be added to the main roster or useable in any of the traditional game modes, but perhaps special events or challenge modes... so that they can still be included without disrupting the 'purity' of the core game.

I think it depends on the level of violence and how it is presented to the player... some games do portray excessive violence in far too much of a positive light.
However, Trump's video did seem to take some of those clips out of context, with the moments of violence seen actually having been presented negatively within the games themselves.

Yeah, I'm guessing the 'original game' credit was partly because we haven't got it's final name yet (to differentiate it from the original game), and partly because they haven't actually announced who is developing it.

A Switch game that costs £50 on the e-shop will earn you 250 gold coins (worth £2.50)... a physical copy of that same game will typically be available on amazon (on release) for around £42, and would earn you 50 gold coins (worth £0.50)... so if we deduct the rewards from the cost, the digital copy would basically set us back by £47.50, while the physical copy would only be £41.50.

So although this new update does give us more incentive to buy digital copies of games, it's actually still more worthwhile to buy physical copies.

I tend to buy all of my games physically, so won't be getting as many points, however, at the same time that also means the only things I'm likely to buy on the e-shop are cheaper games that don't get a physical release, so I won't exactly be losing out much.

I agree with the underlying point they are making... I would by far prefer a Monster Hunter game that had been crafted to suit the Switch specifically, rather than a ported game that you cannot enjoy fully without restricting how you use the Switch itself.

I still think there's a bit of wiggle room in what's been said that could allow Retro Studios to be involved.
The line which is believed to rule them out only states that it would be 'a talented new development team'... but considering the majority of the original Metroid Prime development team have since left Retro Studios, it could simply be a new development that they have since assembled (I think I remember Tanabe making a comment suggesting this a few years ago).
Seeing as Bandai Namco's involvement in the project is apparently being shifted from Singapore to their Japan studio... this seems odd for such a major title if they were the lead developers on the project... which suggests that they may only be assisting with the development, and another studio is leading the project.
Add all of this to the fact that Retro Studios haven't released a game in four years, had been looking to hire new staff within that time with skills that would fit better with a Metroid Prime game than the other games they had been developing, and were apparently working with a composer just last year who is well known for his work on sci-fi games, and is a fan of the Metroid franchise... it certainly still seems like a possibility to me.

As far as I'm aware, there's only one person in my town who even has the gold fisherman medal, and that's only because he lives right on the waterfront... even those of us who have caught thousands of Magikarp are still nowhere near.

Really need to get back to this game, as I had been enjoying it a lot before I got distracted by other games.
Personally, although the bugs were noticeable, I wasn't too bothered by them, so would happily play it in it's current state... but the fact that they are putting the effort in to fix them is certainly reassuring as a lot of developers don't put that much care into ports.

They've also got a mini-event on making it so that any eggs you pick up are guaranteed to be gen 3 Pokemon.

I still don't even have a microSD card in my Switch.
I haven't downloaded any full games yet, but I've downloaded a load of DLC, and every demo that's been available, and don't seem to have run out of room yet... and when I do I can just delete some demos.

@Shellcore @Razer I'm talking about the RRP, not the price they're actually sold for in shops... so the £40-50 I suggested for them is clearly below the £60 RRP of BotW.
We still know very little about the games themselves, but the variety game appears to basically be a mini-game compilation, akin to something like 1-2-Switch, which has an RRP of £40.
The robot game is likely far more substantial that what we saw in the limited look we've been given, so could quite easily be a full game in itself, and full games on the Switch typically come in at £50 RRP.