GamingFan4Lyf

Switch should cross the 30 million units sold in Japan next week: it's only 5,000 units short.

It was more than Wolfenstien-inspired, it was originally pitched as a sequel to Wolfenstien (it even uses a modified version of the Wolfenstein engine).

I guess the money saved ditching FIFA was satisfactory enough for EA to invest in the time to port the Frostbite engine to Switch.

I absolutely love this.

As someone who actually had both Link Faces of Evil and Zelda Wand of Gamelon, I am looking forward to this release.

Look, those games certainly weren't Nintendo quality, but they had a certain "Saturday Morning Cartoon" charm to them. The biggest downfall was the god-awful controls and input lag.

I used duplication for Rupees and Dragon parts, but that's really about it.

After like 125 hours, I thought it was time to finish the game's Main Story and take a break for a while to get through other games in the backlog.

I still have a ton to do in the game though. While I got all the Roots, I never really "explored" the Depths (mostly Air Biked my way from Root to Root). There are still Side Quests left undone - mostly in the "Collect-a-thon" categories - and I am sure a ton of things left to discover.

I did get all of the Shrines, so at least that's knocked out.

12/15 - Root name was very hard. Couldn't remember the name of the companions. And I was off by 1 of the Dragon Tears count.

This reminds me that I still need to get the Story DLC for XC3.

So young. I’m so terrified of death, every time I see this stuff if makes me want to run out and get a full body scan to make sure I am 100% healthy.

“May it be shipped in his name.”

May it be shipped, period!

@SwagaliciousJohnson Can’t help but wonder how much better the Gamecube would have been if Nintendo had taken the DVD route instead of proprietary optical discs.

I mean, one could argue that Nintendo wasn’t wrong in it’s view that load time for discs was too slow (something Sony and Microsoft wouldn’t be able to “get right” until now) - it chose the proprietary route in order to have a “catridge-like” experience.

But the storage capacity of the Gamecube discs was the contributing factor for developers/publishers to skip the system for some of their games.

The hardware was an insane beast - if only it had the storage medium to back it up!

I hate to see comments like these.

1) Gamecube only sold 21 million units compared to 155 million PS2 (and, wow, only 24 million OG Xbox - that's surprising actually). Huge gap. Plus, The Gamecube had size restrictions due to not using DVD format.

2) Wii, while it sold a ton, the majority of those sales were probably for games like Wii Sports and not Call of Duty (or a majority of other games as well).

3) Wii U sold a paltry 13 million.

Nintendo basically relied on Nintendo diehard fans for these consoles.

The Switch is a console that has everything - from Doom to Metroid Prime to Dark Souls to Zelda. And, it's outsold the PS4.

Basically, after years of trying to recoup the audience it lost after the SNES, Nintendo has a console that appeals to a wide range of gamers.

While, yes, Nintendo IP are the heart and soul for Switch gamers, that isn't to say Call of Duty wouldn't find an audience on Switch if an actual Call of Duty game released on the system.

Still, I wouldn't expect to see any Call of Duty on Nintendo until the next system is out there.

And to Jim Ryan: be afraid of Nintendo's next system.

If the Switch could overtake lifetime sales of the PS4, then Nintendo only needs to double the power of the current system and the PS5 will take a hit (especially in Japan).

All a Switch 2 needs is a better CPU and more RAM to run modern games. The GPU, with DLSS backing, probably doesn't need a significant amount of boost, just enough to render modern games natively at 1080p/60 on a TV (and upscaled to 4K) and 720p/60 is still good enough in handheld.

Heck, put DLSS 3.0-compatible Tensor cores in the Dock, if that's possible!

It finally happened, Mario ate one too many Mushrooms.

I finished the Main Story on Friday - what a fantastic experience start to finish.

I may go back and take care of a few odds and ends, but I am basically done for now.

The Mario movie was really good and it suited Illumination.

I feel like a Zelda movie should be handled by a top-notch anime company.

I have been an absolute blast with Tears of the Kingdom - but this article definitely points out the overwhelming number of distractions that are in this game.

I do kind of miss getting to my destination without passing like 10 things I force myself to ignore so I can focus on my goal.

Also, the item grind for armor upgrades feels worse than before. Maybe it's just because I am only focusing on the "best" sets for having the highest defense (did enemies always hit this hard?) - which require dragon farming (which is much more time consuming this time around).

I feel like once I finish all the Shrines and get the Wild Set fully upgraded I am going to just focus on finishing out the main story. I just can't see myself wanting to do the rest of the collect-a-thon stuff, side quests, and side adventures.

Wow, I had no idea Dolphin used proprietary code. I can totally understand not having that on Steam.

I don't personally mind emulation.

Heck, I grew up during the era when these games came out and I have owned the games in the past.

I mostly use it to relive those experiences (even if I do it for like a day or 2) and then just get rid of them. I don't have a collection of consoles and games just taking up space, so it's a great way to get that nostalgia-induced dopamine every once in a while.

I'll buy a re-release collection or two from time to time, so I also support "proper" methods of playing the games.

I wonder if this one is patchable as it seems to exploit how the game "treats" swapping between areas.

Like, can the Switch even handle not having that invisible wall to exploit without tanking memory?

I'm not at a point in the game where I can do this, and if it does get patched, I am sure it will be fixed before I can try it.

While I am not a huge fan of cheating, the material grind seems a lot more egregious this time around. I kind of wish Nintendo would add an official way to get all found materials at a Rupee cost - even if that means adding a challenging quest line to do so.

@Chaotic_Neutral To each his/her own; but I will argue that the "Stamina Gimmick" is only a gimmick if that is the single mindset you are setting.

There isn't 1 solution to a problem. Not enough Stamina?

• Build a flying craft - most of the time there are crafting materials to use near areas where they could be required.
• Use Recall on fallen debris and come down from the top.
• Find a route with less climbing.

Your imagination and problem-solving skills are the only "soft locks" to the game (not saying that to insult you, by the way). The sky is the limit (pun intended)

I have only found two particular instances where there is only a single answer to a problem.

"You get nothing for exploring in the latest Zelda games"
A new shrine?
A treasure chest?
A Korok seed (that do have a purpose if you want to expand inventory)?
A new quest?

There are tons of things to find.

Or you can ignore it all and just follow the yellow dots (or figure out how to beat the game without doing any of it).

I respect that it's not your cup of tea, though. I can't convince you to like the game. I do feel this game has way more depth than other open-world game. I only use sandbox elements when I need to solve a specific problem. I'm not about making whacky contraptions just for the sake of it.

@Savage_Joe Not many Metal Gear fans, I guess. LOL!

[Bleep Bleep]

Purah: What is it, Link?
Link: Purah, I've located Zonai Gear Rex.
Robbie: Watch out, Link, it has the ability to launch Rockets from anywhere in Hyrule!
Purah: Link, you must stop Zonai Gear Rex.
Link: What about Zelda?!
Purah: I've updated her last known location data to your Purahpad. First, stop Zonai Gear.
Link: Over and out.

[Power down]

Nicely done.

Imagine what will happen if Nintendo continues with the hybrid console market.

I mean, the Switch has already done so well, getting a Switch 2 that can at least run current-gen titles (albeit with some cutbacks) will be insane in Japan.

I kind of hope Nvidia is able to get DLSS 3 capabilities in the next Switch SoC as that will be a huge benefit for developers with regards to where to make cutbacks and get games to appear as "4K" and 60fps - especially since DLSS 3 is more for getting into the 120fps+ range on PC (or something beyond 60fps with real-time RT enabled) - an arena I doubt Nintendo will bother working with: Nintendo seems more about achieving the framerate it wants to achieve and leaving it at that.

I don't foresee Nintendo bothering with "Quality" and "Performance" modes for its games. The system just needs to get to "4K"/60 at most when docked and "720"/60 in handheld (as that seems to be a great sweet spot for a small screen).

I also don't see Nintendo bothering with real-time RT, so the CPU/GPU only have to worry about rasterized graphics.

Of course, this assumes that utilizing DLSS isn't a battery hog.

Facial make-up is very similar to the dragons floating around - mainly the eyes and the ears (and of course, horns). Heck, the dragons even have hair!

I would have said halfway, but I am really not sure.

I mean, I have made some important main quest progress, but I have also been ignoring a ton of stuff in favor of finding Towers and Shrines (especially Korok-related things). I have been doing some side content along the way, though.

There is just so much to see and do, that I have no idea where I am in terms of actual progression.

It's probably going to be a while before I see those credits roll.

@ATHFjman18 Okay - people are weird.

I mean, I hid the answer behind a spoiler because it's literally stated in game why she looks the way she does (as well as the "age" she now portrays)

@ATHFjman18 There is an age debate?!

She's like...over 100 years old, was trapped in a kids body, then reversed things and went to a 20 year old body (it's literally stated in the game) .

@DystopianPeaches Good to know. Maybe that was adjusted from Breath of the Wild where I think you had to actually hit the claw part to get it and hitting the "hand" only gave a scale.

I mean, hitting the hand is definitely easier than the claw. But Nintendo could have made the hitbox also apply to the claw.

@RobynAlecksys To each their own, but that's one of the reasons I love this format - it's not all just a "simple puzzle". It's breaking the conventions of standard open-world games of "go to checkpoint, pew-pew-pew, move on to next checkpoint".

This adds some thought and ingenuity to the formula.

Not criticizing you, by the way. Everyone has different tastes.

I will second @jmvalone, those environmental puzzles are more for Shrines and to a certain extent Towers than anything else once you leave the tutorial area. Getting around is much simpler once you leave. There is plenty of breathing room to do more traditional things should you have puzzle burnout.

I think the opening area is more packed with them to kind of engrain puzzle mechanics as much as possible so they "stick" with you when you need them down the road.

@Semioth Okay that makes some sense as I did finally "hit" it once (but lost the piece...somewhere).

But even before I actually managed to get something, I shot that dragon a few times and arrows still went right through the foot/claw with no indication I hit it. They just clipped right through the geometry.

Feels like it was a lot easier in Breath of the Wild to get pieces. 🤷‍♂️

I have encountered a very strange bug - arrows are just flying through dragons.

Been trying for 45 minutes to shoot a claw and the arrow just clips right through. Shooting it anywhere does nothing!

@JONOFTHEJONS Mine is a few years old. It has an i7 at 3.2Ghz, 16GB RAM, and an Nvidia 1060 6GB

@anoyonmus Time will tell, but if it is UE4, I mean, I don't know how that will perform.

The only game I know that runs UE4 on Switch is Yoshi's Crafted World - but that's Nintendo first-party, so the level of performance expectation far higher than third-party games.

@Simon97 I mean, could be an upscaled 720p and upscaled 900p but with the internal up-scaler is running at a native 50% resolution.

Using Layers of Fear as my testbed - 720p on my Surface Book 2 in both Balanced and Ultra Performance TSR upscaling looked pretty convincing - but visual noise was noticeable around light sources.

Fortnite may be a better option to check on Switch since it's now using UE5.

@anoyonmus So if this is using UE5, I am confident it will be fine for Switch.

My Surface Book 2 - which, granted, is more powerful than a Switch - can run the current Layers of Fear demo at 720p, low settings, and TSR (UE5 internal upscaler) in "Balanced" and averages about ~85 fps with CPU load being in like the 40% range and GPU at 100%. And it still looks really good at Low.

I think with some overall asset cutbacks, lower resolution, and using a much more aggressive TSR setting (like Performance or Ultra Performance), this game can run pretty decent on Switch.

Bottom line: UE5 is so much more efficient than UE4 that is has amazing scalability and still looks really good.

But that assumes this is using UE5.

@SilverM @Mgalens Yeah, there is still some benefit to running PS4 games on PS5, but I do believe it still does adjust CPU/GPU to match previous hardware because Sony wanted to ensure that games still worked correctly. However, because of the improvements in overall efficiency of CPU/GPU, games still benefited. I'd have to go back to the initial Deep Dive that was done as it was explained.

Interesting.

I really hope that Nintendo's next system still plays Switch titles as well as does similar backwards compatible enhancements as like the Series X - maybe not so much as like enhances resolution or 60fps (though that would be nice), but more so in that games will use the full hardware - unlike the PS5 where it downclocks the system to match the PS4 (unless otherwise patched to do otherwise).

That being said, I have yet to really hit any major performance drops in TotK.

@Martijn87 I am sure any revenue this person gets for doing this more than paid for the game.

Also, I agree. But I guess when speedrunning is your bread & butter, this is how you play games going forward.

@Olmectron Ah, very good. Well then I stand corrected. I will keep the original comment for context.

Thanks for that! 👍

Good that it's doing well in Mexico. It's just such a shame that based on exchange rates, it's not a huge dent in American dollars.

I mean, 1.391 million pesos equals $77,603.89 US

Unless you are saying the revenue is actually $1.391 million US in pesos - which would actually come to 24,932,783.65 pesos.

@Mgalens Exactly my point. 60fps would need to be the minimum for proper multiplayer to work across platforms (assuming a Switch version even does cross-play).

Shaderless boxes to represent a player with different colored rectangles to represent different guns in box buildings and stick trees on one platform and highly detailed graphics on another would still work because it's the 1's and 0's of "Player shoots other Player with Some gun at Neat Location" that matter in the end.

The Switch is more capable than that scenario, but what we see locally isn't what matters. It's the integration of the code that makes the game work that matters - something, I think, the Switch can handle.

I mean, as long as avatar X in building Y (or location Z) matches on all platforms, it doesn't really matter what the graphics look like on Switch.

It could be all basic geometry and textureless cel-shading running at 720p on Switch and they could play with everyone else. Ultimately, all the logic of "pew, pew, pew" can run anywhere - everything else is window-dressing.

Taking my daughter to see it today. It will be her first and my second time seeing it. It is such a fun movie!

@Pickettfury I mean, I was in that target audience for Final Fantasy Mystic Quest.

The only other experience I had with JRPGs before that was Phantasy Star II - which was hard as heck for a 9-year old (but I did eventually finish it).

I had also tried Dragon Quest (well, Dragon Warrior) and also found it to be difficult.

I didn't really start cutting my JRPG teeth until I was about maybe 13 or 14. Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy VI (well, III at the time) were the start.

Other: Final Fantasy Mystic Quest.

Only thing I had left was getting Poo for collecting Korok seeds.

No thanks. LOL!

Perhaps Nintendo should look at what Microsoft did for Gears of War Ultimate Edition: there is an option to run the original credits in the game menu.

If they don't want to recode the whole thing, then make it an FMV of the original credits that runs when you select the option (though I am sure it's in that original source code somewhere).

Problem solved.

Kind of weird about the Neo Geo part since Arcade Archives has been releasing Neo Geo games to Switch.

Already pre-ordered. I can’t wait.

Though, I don’t think I will have the same “wow factor” as I did leaving the Shrine of Resurrection for the first time on my TV and in surround sound.

I could be wrong though.

Regardless, more excuses to roam Hyrule are never a bad thing!

I had a third-party attached screen for my Gamecube while I was in the Navy (US). It was perfect for gaming in my rack on deployments.

The screen wasn't amazing, but it was enough. My division eventually had its own space where we could put TVs, but the LCD was great in a pinch!

I got Metroid Prime Remasterd physical on Sunday (I got Target's last copy).

Wow, what an upgrade from the original. It looks so much better than what is seen on YouTube compression!

Played this at last year's PAX East - it was such a fun game and have been waiting for release ever since!

I mean, I am sure in the right hands there could be feature parity - but it would need to be a "built from the ground up" engine for Nintendo Switch.

I just don't see that happening this generation. Maybe for Nintendo's next generation.