Comments 1,358

Re: Random: What Happens When A Guardian And Stone Talus Upset Each Other In Zelda: Breath Of The Wild?

Ernest_The_Crab

@impurekind I feel it probably is intentional. They need to have code in there to register that they got hit and specifically by another enemy (rather than Link) and then additional code to tell them attack that other enemy.

It's easy to prove that damage detection between monsters exists (I've used one of those giant Cyclops as a shield from Guardian lasers before and it had half health left when I started fighting it since the Guardian got bored from not being able to see me from behind the Cyclops).

"Enemies" targeting each other also exists in the game as well. If you ever watch a boar or bull run into a camp of Bokolins they auto attack them (probably for food reasons )

However, the enemies fighting each other has to be intentional since there'd have to be a way for the game to tell them specifically that another monster attacked them and to target them in turn.

There are plenty of games that only do part 1 (which means they most likely just have any attack deal damage from anything). An example of a game where only part 1 is true is Monster Hunter. Large monsters NEVER target each other and generally only hurt each other accidently while trying to get to you. You can observe this behavior by simply wandering into an area with two large monsters and observe what they do before they detect you (wander around and ignore each other even if they're mortal enemies like Seregios and Rathalos).

Maybe Nintendo should think about licensing their BotW game engine to other developers (or simply teach them the AI coding tricks they used). Might help improve AI in their partners' games.

Re: Guide: How To Beat Zelda: Breath Of The Wild's Hardest Shrine Quest, Eventide Island

Ernest_The_Crab

From my understanding, you can also bypass the weapon/armour requirement if you just drop your stuff before starting the island trial, since your equipment doesn't disappear. It would most likely make this a cake walk though.

Also, another method of getting to the island is simply abusing the ice power and building pillars all the way from either the west mainland or the northern shrine.

Re: Weirdness: Bizarre Zelda: Breath Of The Wild Glitch Lets Link Walk Underwater

Ernest_The_Crab

@RadioHedgeFund They could do that. They'd have to rework a number of things to make it interesting though.

Portions of the landscape would have to be remade to allow for underwater tunnels. They may also need to add diving enemies/AI plus whatever treasures they want lying around for the player to find. Possibly need to add more food/material items that only show up underwater. The actual map may need to be changed up too depending on how they change the world.

I don't see them doing it though, not with the amount of time they have. It doesn't seem that great from a gameplay perspective either since they most likely wouldn't add more shrines (since that would require a rework of switch activation, at the moment it seems like it's restricted to Link standing up and the terminal being almost flat against the ground).

Re: Weirdness: Bizarre Zelda: Breath Of The Wild Glitch Lets Link Walk Underwater

Ernest_The_Crab

@Joeynator3000 I guess they left it out because they already had their hands full doing an open world?

None of the previous 3D Zelda games really did diving all that well and most of the more interesting underwater mechanics involved the iron boots (and not actually swimming, exception may be Majora's Mask). Underwater areas also felt mostly empty in previous games except in dungeons.

A whole rework of underwater mechanics would have needed to be done.

Maybe we'll see it in a future Zelda game?

Re: Capcom is Running a Sale on All Monster Hunter Games on the North American eShop

Ernest_The_Crab

@Rumncoke25 It really depends. With 1v1 there's no real issues.

With multi monster fights, where you fight more than one monster at once, you often need a ton of planning (and a bit of luck especially in tiny single area arenas). Those are generally where you will see a huge difference in clear speed and consistency when playing multiplayer as there is more than one target (well that's providing your team mates are somewhat reliable).

Re: Zelda: Breath Of The Wild Uses Dynamic Resolution Scaling To Maintain Performance

Ernest_The_Crab

@yuwarite Wouldn't the original hardware need to be designed in such a way to disable the Switch GPU and use the GPU in a new dock though? The current dock really only allows for output capability through HDMI and charging the console.

If it wasn't originally designed to run like that, I don't see that really working. Also, with all of the Nintendo Switch teardowns we've seen so far, someone would have mentioned if something like that was possible.

Re: Here's Why Nintendo Switch Games Cost More Than Those For Other Consoles

Ernest_The_Crab

@SLIGEACH_EIRE Yeah I'd like to see the card prices as well.

Quite frankly, if this is REALLY the case, then we should see a corresponding price drop mid console life as it gets cheaper to make the cards?

@KomrathDE That's because the retailers can drop price without any penalties or illwill. It is much harder for a publisher to do so, especially if they still make a good chunk of their money from physical copies. You think these guys can handle going against someone like Walmart for example? It would be unwise to make that kind of enemy.

Re: Nintendo Switch Owners Will Have To Wait Longer And Pay More For RiME

Ernest_The_Crab

@CptFalcon From my understanding, the Switch physical version of Puyo Puyo Tetris is a collection's edition whereas the PS4 version is a standard version.

It comes with 2 additional keychains, at that point it really depends on how people value getting the additional bonuses.

I'll probably get it digitally anyways since it seems to be something that I would want to keep on me especially for multiplayer.

@Thaswizz It has been confirmed. The Nindie's show case not too long ago actually showed it. We do need an actual date confirmation though.

Re: Nintendo Confirms Switch Save Data Is Tied To The Console And Cannot Be Transferred

Ernest_The_Crab

@Switch81tch Yes. That's exactly how it works.

I could see the save aspect being rather annoying, BUT I feel this is temporary.

For example, isn't save data for Miitomo and Fire Emblem Heroes already tied to the Nintendo Account? I have a feeling this is something that will be rolled out with the rest of the online services at once.

That being said given that hardware issues are generally more common near launch, this could be extremely problematic. They need to roll out all their online stuff soon, especially if these fixes are all rolled up in there.

Re: Guide: How To Access the Nintendo Switch eShop For Multiple Regions

Ernest_The_Crab

@Maxz For me it works out to be about $5 in savings before applicable taxes/additional credit charges. Then again the Canadian dollar hasn't been particularly good in recent times. Well, the States also seem to have a relatively low savings as well going by your original numbers.

I guess pricing wise this only really benefits European countries? I'd probably only do the digital imports if its something that I feel wouldn't be released over here (or be horribly delayed).

Re: Guide: How To Access the Nintendo Switch eShop For Multiple Regions

Ernest_The_Crab

@PGS_71 The difference would have to be noticeable though. Most credit cards charge an additional conversion fee when you buy stuff from a region with a different currency.

You'd also need to find a region that supports a language that you would understand as well.

From my experience not many people actually import games on the Xbone or the PS4 compared to just purchasing in their own regions.

Re: Friend Codes Are Back on Nintendo Switch, But There Are Other Options

Ernest_The_Crab

@owdohg You might want to correct that ever so slightly. A gamer tag in the Battle.net sense IS a friend code (battle.net also accepts email addresses which by default must be unique as the email service providers make a check when you create one. They can also be a completely random jumble of numbers and characters as working in insurance has shown me). It's a series of numbers that identifies the user.

The problem here isn't so much the existence of friend codes as it is the IMPLEMENTATION of them.

@Ogbert Also, if you're talking about gamertags, I can tell you if I searched for users on Steam with the name "Iamgod" I would get over 1000 hits. It is the unfortunate problem that arises when you allow people to have choice.

Re: Nintendo Switch Battery Test Reveals Some Surprising Results

Ernest_The_Crab

@Crono1973 Well the thing is it's longer than the new 3DS battery life. At max lighting (with no 3D), it lasts about an hour when I play MHGen, which is quite frankly a less demanding game given that's not open world and the maps are fairly small as well (most enemies aren't synced either with other players, except large monsters). That and the game is still SD based rather than HD.

The Switch will give me about 2 to 3 times more gaming time in portable mode on a game that's CONSIDERABLY more demanding. If anything that's an improvement.

Not many people here have made apples to apples comparisons except the rare few like @memoryman3 with the PC comparisons.

Re: Nintendo Switch Now Reportedly Adds 25% Extra GPU Power for Developers in 'Mobile' Mode

Ernest_The_Crab

@UmniKnight Just a small change you should make; Nintendo isn't responsible for any of the mainline Pokémon games (barring the original Silver and Gold where Iwata stepped in to code two regions into the games to help out GameFreak).

GameFreak is pretty notorious for not being particularly good at coding efficiently and unfortunately they are the main developers of the series and own a sizable chunk of the IP as well. It's doubtful that Nintendo would want to step on the toes of GameFreak (they are a contracted developer rather than owned developer) whom are responsible for developing Nintendo's most successful IP.

Re: VOEZ Is The First Nintendo Switch Game You Can Only Play In Portable Mode

Ernest_The_Crab

@DanteSolablood It's nice to have options but to tell you the truth I never use the touchscreen when playing Pokémon. How else would I hear all of the sound effects when messing with the menus =P?

I can see a Hearthstone port, if it happens, doing this though.

@booker_steve It's GameFreak that prefers to have Pokémon on portables. Most of the console games were actually made by Nintendo 1st party studios.

Re: Nintendo Switch Battery Test Reveals Some Surprising Results

Ernest_The_Crab

Well at least it has better battery life than my new 3DS XL.

MHGEN lasts for like an hour for me when playing online with 3D off and max brightness. And it's not a particularly old portable.

To me this only seems like an improvement, especially considering the massive power jump required to go from SD to HD.

The energy used is most likely immense given how long it also takes to charge the device relative to it actual battery life, when playing a game. I can only imagine how much the final cost would have gone up by or how it would have messed with the overall design of the console if they tried to use anything with a higher capacity. Or perhaps we'd get exploding battery issues lol

Re: Pokémon Scoops Two Wins at the D.I.C.E. Awards

Ernest_The_Crab

@Octane Yet they have a category for VR which really isn't an actual gameplay "genre." Their categories seem to be all over the place.

Hm...the Uncharted nomination I can agree with providing they didn't screw up near the end writing-wise (like the previous 3 games). Anyone know if that's the case with 4?

To tell you the truth it's a popularity contest. Pretty much every title that won an award is a AAA game or a huge brand. Unless they have a separate section for indie games it's very hard to take these awards seriously.