Highlar

I think I have to be on the side of those saying refinements in sequel online multiplayer games are where its at, rather than reinventing the game each time. Call of Duty, Fifa, Madden, etc., all survive just fine with ANNUAL releases, each with upgrades and new modes, etc., but not changing core gameplay, and they all do just fine. Heck, they are some of the top selling games every year. Splatoon has had years since the release of 2. They are adding new modes and ways to play. They add new lore and locations with every game. The controls and gameplay are more refined, tight, and in control in 3 than in 2 or 1 (per your preview here). It seems like every feature that has made Splatoon great in the past is being built upon, refined, made better for the player. Also, new stages and content have already been announced for...what...the next year or two? And that's the FREE updates, not counting any paid more expansive DLC that Nintendo comes up with for the game.

Is it enough to pull people off from Splatoon 2 to this new one? Maybe, maybe not. But those that really enjoy it will make the move over, and with the hundred million plus base of Switch that should guarantee this game makes over a million in sales easily. And with the promised content to come, I can definitely see this becoming another Switch evergreen title. Nintendo, to my mind, is the king of evergreen when it comes to gaming.

@Sarkos To me, that's the thing, though. None of the augments are NECESSARY for current "meta" sets. You don't have to augment a single piece of armor, and you'll still have a pretty amazing armor/skill build at the end of the day. The augmenting adds extra, non-meta skills that you don't need...but that can make your hunts more fun. For instance, the spiritbird call skill I'd not put on anything before, due to not having the slots open. But now I'm really liking it as an added augmented skill.

@Sarkos That's one thing I LIKE about the armor RNG system, though. The builds are already so powerful its not NECESSARY for any hunter to do...but its nice to have to get some additional cozy skills on your built you usually wouldn't slot for, like Hungerless, etc. Make your builds personal.

So well deserved! Sunbreak is the best MH expansion I've played through yet, right up there on par with Iceborne. There are those that have problems with the Qurious crafting RNG, but I really enjoy it. The grind is something I've never had a problem with in MH, and the crafting gives me a reason to keep going. I love the fact that the "meta" or "power" builds are still there, but can be tweeked and twisted a bit to make individual sets and builds to suit each hunter specifically. The complaints on difficulty have also been addressed with Sunbreak, as the Afflicted monsters can be real beasts. The Investigation system is a ton of fun, and I never have to wait long for a hunt. Even if I have to start a hunt on my own and open it up, people usually join quickly if I need multiplayer help. With major expansions and weekly event quests planned through 2023, this game is only going to just keep getting better and better!

@Jamessmooth This is a big problem that I keep running in to with any quest that requires a specific cultist for a ritual. If they don't come physically to watch the ritual (and for some reason I ONLY ever get around 6 cultists that show up, no matter how many I have in my camp), then they aren't ever on the ritual list. So I fail just about every quest that has that as a requirement (not that it holds my faith back, its very easy to get back up), and it is very annoying.

I got the Switch version the other day. I'm wondering if there is some kind of a memory leak issue or something with the game, because it started off playing just fine. But I prefer to leave games in sleep mode and set the switch in sleep rather than just shutting them down and reloading them when I want to start playing again. And the longer the game ran, the worse it started to get. The first dungeons were fine. Then the village started to jump and frame skip a bit. The second dungeon ran a bit worse than the first, at first, but started to get progressively worse by the time I got to the boss. Frame skipped around the village a bit and finally started the third dungeon path. The game got so jumpy and skippy that it was starting to actually make me a bit nauseous and eventually it just crashed completely. I've heard from others playing on PS that this has happened to them as well eventually: the longer you play at a time the worse it seems to get. Haven't been back on for a couple of days since it crashed, getting ready to give it another go. Because even with the frame skippy and lagging...I've been having a total blast with the game. I wish it had a longer progression in the village, though...because even before getting to the third dungeon I have already maxed out my village and Lamb progression. So now its just a matter of bringing my buildings up to higher levels and grinding out the dungeons? Although its been pretty nice seeing my cult go from barely able to make it through a day to just pumping out a bunch of meals in the morning then leaving to go do some crusades, and my cultists just take care of themselves...mostly. It does give a real sense of accomplishment. I also like how time continues in the village while in the dungeons, because seeing messages like "XXXX has died of old age" while fighting, and knowing that I now have a rotting corpse laying around the village gives a real sense of urgency to "do I just keep on...or abandon the hunt, warp back to the village, and clean things up before trying again?"

@KryptoniteKrunch I was just getting ready to say this when I saw your comment. When the NATIVE version on PS5 gets the same score as the cloud version on Switch, I think you know its the game that's just...bad. Sounds like the game is just very poorly optimized and badly implemented overall. Its just EXTRA janky on Switch thanks to it being a cloud version.

@blindsquarel Buckle up, fellow hunter, because you are in for one heck of a fun ride!

This is one of if not the biggest single update at one time to any MH game, in my opinion. Not only do we get new monsters and a new map (Gold/Silver Rathes did NOT originate in World)...we get a hybrid return of the Investigations system from World (maybe a combo of investigations and the older style Guild Quest system)...we also get a big list of new afflicted monsters...a whole new way to enhance our armor/weapons through crafting...and a way to make the talisman grind a bit easier with Bahari's new shop. This opens up tons of end game time, potentially hundreds of hours to invest in and keep playing Rise/Sunbreak. Oh, and not to mention that WEEKLY updated Event Quests begin coming out just a week after the update hits. And the NEXT update with even MORE content is only a month and a half or so away. This update is pretty insane...and its FREE (minus some bonus cosmetic DLC). I cannot wait for it to drop (just wish I knew if it was tonight EST or tomorrow sometime, just know that its "June 10)!

EBA until this point has forever been my absolutely favorite music/rhythm game. The music tracks selected were great. The timing on the hits to the beat of the music was superb. The storylines were all so absolutely hilarious they were a joy to watch (and that final stage, with the anti-music aliens was so good!); some stages were actually pretty emotional when you put the songs together with the story playing out above. Not to mention that the game has some of my all time favorite songs. For me, ever since playing EBA, it has always been my gold standard for rhythm games, and has yet to be bested by anything. If they made a new EBA for Switch, or even just re-released the original EBA on Switch, I would jump on it day one!

Sunbreak deserves all the praise it gets. I just hit MR70 last night. I've been taking my time, but still have a ton of Master Rank quests that I haven't even touched yet due to grinding some for specific parts for gear. The drop rates on rare monster parts seems to have been greatly increased...you don't seem to need to fight TOO many of any one thing to get everything you need to make whatever you want. And this is only with JUST playing bow in the expansion...there are 13 other weapons that I have yet to get in to. Sunbreak is a TON of fun, even if it is about the furthest you can get from the classic slower combat of older MonHun games; its fast...frantic...blazing speed combat (for Monster Hunter). Getting ready to dive back in and grind away some more!

I see this as more of a movie or video series in this style, rather than a game. Which I would absolutely watch in its entirety! This is very well done!

@SwitchplayerJohn However, it says "at retail" as well in the article above, so I doubt its an NSO exclusive. However, I don't know that I agree with the "competing with Fall Guys" vibe I get from the title and article. What makes Fall Guys so much fun is just how many players are running through the courses at the same time. This specifically says its a four player game. So might be great for some couch co-op/party game time, but its not going to compete with the full on zaniness of Fall Guys.

I must say, it looks like its a big improvement over what was originally release, graphic wise. The building aspects look improved and quite easy to use on the Switch console. The monsters look pretty detailed. On the other hand, you could still see slow down and actual pauses in the gameplay when areas would need some time to load. And that combat...that looked really janky. Still, I think its pretty clear that whoever they have porting it this time is much better at the Switch than what was attempted with the first release of ARK. Maybe I'll finally give it a shot on Switch when this one comes out?

So just curious, but is that 21 million for World for both original World AND the Iceborne expansion, or just base World? If its the former, than I think overall that Rise is selling better in general than World did. Base World was on PS4 and Xbox and PC, and has sold for several years now. Rise/Sunbreak is only on two platforms (Switch and PC), and in just a year has already sold over half of what World/Iceborne has? If this is the case, I think that Rise will eventually outsell World, which would be a pretty incredible feat.

Of course, this assumes that gen 6 doesn't get announced and come out in the meantime (World 2 or whatever). Both games are tremendous fun, though (I own Rise base on Switch and PC, Sunbreak on Switch, and World/Iceborne on PS4, PS5, and PC...I'm such a Hunter addict...lol).

I am currently MR3. Taking my time working through the game, as I am thoroughly enjoying my time with Sunbreak so far! I really enjoy the follower hunts, for when I want to hunt offline but not feel like I'm just running around alone. The difficulty is already higher than it was in Rise base game. The new monsters, including the variants I've fought so far are all so good! My only real complaint, if I had any, is that I am a bow main. The armor sets in MANY instances just don't really do much for bow users. I'm really only on my second new armor set, and it took getting up to Rakna-kadaki to get it. However, I am LOVING the new armor designs. I cannot wait to fashion hunt in Sunbreak! Some of the new bows I'm not exactly taken with, but the upgrades to the older bows I have are just glorious! There is so much good that can be said about Sunbreak!

Been playing the expansion for about 4 hours now. Loving every minute of it so far. Is it more of the same? Yes...but that's just what Monster Hunter is. The G/Master rank expansions almost always have you refighting older enemies at their G rank versions before you get to meatier, newer monsters. And its not fighting the exact same monsters, as they have new moves and patterns to learn as you fight them. They are tougher, harder to kill, and more of a challenge, even the smaller ones. And they have newer, bigger, better armor and weapons, even for those same "old" monsters. I'm too tired to continue on for now, but will be jumping back in when I wake up again. Sunbreak is that good, especially for Hunter fans everywhere.

Nice to see some of the changes already implemented in base Rise, like the palamute coming up underneath you when called, etc. However, when did they take the blast off of the Defender weapons??? That's what made them deadly useful, but it looks like none of them that I checked a bit ago had blast element still on them? Anyone know what time Sunbreak is supposed to go live???

Have the day off myself for this release. I'm doing it digital on my Switch. Monster Hunter never leaves my system. I have MHGU, Rise, and MHS2 already on there, never to be removed. Sunbreak is just the next MH to join the collection. My bow is limbered up, and I'm so ready to embark on a new adventure!

@Strictlystyles Slowly is one thing. This season pass bar goes quickly up to 15 or so, then turns positively GLACIAL in the pace it takes to get anywhere. And there are...what...100 levels to the thing? It makes it feel like more than just a "play everyday" situation, because even playing every day it feels like it can be hard to go up even one level a day.

Been having a blast playing with my daughters and others with Fall Guys. We'd been waiting for this to hit Switch for a long time. One of my girls plays on her laptop, the other and me on our Switches. Personally, I rather like the janky nature of the other beans running around at wonky framerates. It just adds to the silliness and fun for me! The several different modes play really similarly, which is kind of a shame, but the variety of different maps and styles that play out is a ton of fun (though there's been lots of shouting and swearing, its all been in good fun). We've already had a few bouts of time where we log in to run a few games together, and the next thing we know 2 or 3 hours have passed. Its just pure, addictive, good old fashioned fun! My biggest complaint, I would say though, is how slowly slowly slowly the pass exp bar gets filled unless you are winning every match. The exp gain seems totally off with how many levels they've got built into the season pass. But its still been a lot of fun so far, and I expect we will continue to enjoy our time with it.

There's a ton I think we'd all want announced! For me, I want that rumored Metroid Prime Trilogy and GBA games (GBA was a golden age for RPG's). But another thing I really want to see Nintendo do? Tomodachi Life for Switch. It was such a quirky, fun, ingenious game on 3DS, and I (and especially my daughters) would love to see a follow up on the Switch.

I have to say, shaving 30 seconds off of a world record Any % time run in a major game is REALLY impressive. Usually these times are shaved off a second (or even fraction of a second) at a time. That's looks like a VERY nice improvement over the previous time.

I don't quite understand those saying "Oh well, no general Direct then!" The current rumors that I know of say there is a Direct, scheduled for June 29. I don't see how Nintendo doing a smaller Direct for one of their (currently) bigger game franchises first to get it out of the way somehow negates the possibility of a more general, longer Direct the week after. Nintendo does this kind of thing for Pokemon and other big name games. Capcom does the same for games like Monster Hunter, etc. I, for one, am still hoping for the full Direct next week, and I'll be watching this Xenoblade 3 Direct after I get home from work on Wednesday (love the Xenoblade games).

@GameAndLuke Yeah, that is a REALLY obtuse way to do the MHR:Sunbreak demo location. I had to get help from a Twitch chat room. lol

Astalos is just glorious. Its wings ripple through a rainbow hue of colors when energized. And...Malzeno is a BEAST! Holy canolly...so fast...so ferocious...its move set is so good! Also, the new armor sets? chef's kiss Delicious! June 30 can't come soon enough!!!

@Z-Core Because Monster Hunter "expansions" are usually bigger than the games they are "expansions" of. They contain so much new content, new monsters to fight, new mechanics to enhance those found in the original game, that a demo makes total sense. Especially with the new Switch Swap and skills coming out, its a good idea to give players a chance to try the mechanics out before the full games release.

This was such great Sunbreak news! I think we've all been waiting for the demo drop to get a head start fight against Malzeno. But seeing Gore Magala and a Frontier monster (Espinas, when I don't think any Frontier only monsters have been released in any game except Frontier?), as well as Daimyo and the new explosive variant of Rakna Kadaki (did you see the fire flowing down the webs???)...oh man this made the whole Capcom show for me.

My daughter pre-ordered this, and she is absolutely loving it. Yes, she's a fan of the show (its one of her favorite anime's of all time), but she likes the combat and everything else about it too. I must say, the graphics are VERY good...and look just like the show, in a 3D animated style. Its pretty fantastic looking.

The only thing I'd be concerned about is...just how different is this going to be from the original Overwatch? Because from what I saw...it really didn't look THAT much different. Other than being free to play, how is it going to set itself apart from the original Overwatch?

Having never played Three Houses, but loving Warriors/Musou style games, I'm giving the demo a shot...and I must say its really impressive so far. I really have no idea about the story, etc., but the writing is pretty top notch so far. Presentation is clean and crisp...it looks really good. Also...as a pet peeve of mine...I have to say I love how synced the voices are to the lips when speaking. Even when a pause is done during speaking, the lips stop moving, then start again when the voice speaks again. Its a tiny detail, but adds to the immersion to me. I also really love the anime/cartoon style to the graphics with the bold black outlines, etc. Its just a classical cell shaded look that will stand the test of time. Combat is also quick and responsive. I might actually have to get this when it comes out!

The coolest part I see up there, is that if we already bought Dying Light on the Switch digitally we will be upgraded for free to THIS version and get the extra DLC we are missing for no extra cost. That is a class act move, in my opinion. This is a GREAT game on the Switch, so seeing even more content for it is wonderful news!

To be honest, I kind of get a Monster Hunter vibe on the way the multiplayer sounds, when 4 hunters are out on a map together. You come together, or you can each go your separate ways to explore different areas of the map, then come back together again for battles. It seems to me that the Pokemon Company might have learned a little from Capcom with how smooth the online play for MH:Rise is. I was excited for Arceus and its open world (and I loved it). But with 4 player online co-op storyline gameplay with Pokemon Scarlet and Violet? I am BEYOND excited for this. My two daughters and I can finally live out our dream of running around hunting pokemon together. Its actually something we've wanted for the past few generations of Pokemon games. Each one kept getting closer, but it looks like what we have always wanted is finally here! They had already put a double pack on pre-order for them from Gamestop, but I'm going to have to get a copy (of Scarlet) for me now, too (I was probably going to pass on the game myself and just watch them play until this news)!

Sunbreak is THE game I've been waiting for all year so far. Mario Strikers is also shaping up to be something I'm very interested in. Those two are my main picks for June, I'd say. Although other possibilities are Fall Guys (since it will be F2P finally) and Fire Emblem Warriors, as I really enjoy warriors style games on Switch (but I never played Three Houses, so I'm not as into the storyline as others would be).

I HAD been interested in this way back...before it released on PC, etc. Now, I've still got mild interest, but that's even now tempered even further by a season pass put it. So its a paid for game, with a paid for season pass in it? Those generally make me want to shy away. If it was FTP with a season pass, I can understand that. But...a continuous paid for season pass on top of the cost of the software...and I'd imagine a cash shop built in as well? I don't know... I'll have to see more as it gets closer to launch.

Oh wow...bow gets a severing move for tails??? SO SWEET! It looks like it will take work to make use of it, but...that Butcher's Bind switch swap to Aerial Aim is just nuts! I cannot WAIT to try and pull that off myself. SO...MUCH...BOW...DAMAGE!!!!

@danemord True. That's why I asked about the possible difficulty of the quests, as the Follower AI does look like its pretty solid. I'm still getting the game regardless. I love Monster Hunter, and have bought Rise twice on both PC and Switch (though I'll just be getting Sunbreak on Switch at first), and its one of my favorite Monster Hunter games to date. And I think the Follower feature is a great idea; its something I've wanted for a long time.

The only thing I'm not sure about is the Followers deaths not counting towards the quest death count. That almost makes me feel that the follower quests might a bit easy mode, especially if you can just revive them right there during the fight instead of them coming back from camp. Unless the fights are set to a pretty high level? I still think they sound like a fun time, just maybe not as challenging as I thought they might be?

@YoshiF2 Thanks for that link! Yeah, if that is the final starting roster, that seems pretty small for what they seemed to be proposing with the Direct reveal. By which I mean all the online teams, etc. It would mean that team rosters wouldn't be all that much different one to the next, which I think would be a shame. For something like this, if they are hoping for a robust online community, I'd think they would need more variety in the different characters (ala Smash Bros, if not THAT big). Guess my expectations are now tempered from what they were, which feels like a shame, too.

Reading through the comments, I have to ask...has the full roster already been shown somewhere, and I missed it? I haven't seen the roster of characters in the game actually shown anywhere. Are people just assuming the roster is only what has been shown in the trailers so far, or has it been shown somewhere before for it to be "small"?

I can't remember the exact price on it at the moment, but there is also a bundle collection added, at a reduced price, which includes all of them, I believe I saw earlier (at least in the NA store). Its like a classic Star Wars collection or something like that, is what its labeled as. So if you have none of them, and want them all, you could go that route.

After playing most of the sports now, with my daughters and them online together, Switch Sports seems like a blast. The games are still fun, especially online (we all love the Survival Bowling a lot). However...for some reason, to me at least, the games feel...less responsive to the motion controls of the Joycons than they did on the Wii-mote. I don't know if anyone else feels like this or not (I need to now go back and read through the comments). For instance, in Tennis, the control over the racket feels less than what it did in the original Wii Sports. Is anyone else having this kind of reaction to the controls? The games are still a ton of fun to play with others locally or online, but something just feels...less responsive?

@MysticRunes I have to agree with this. I didn't get that "30 seconds is an incredibly long wait time!" (paraphrased, of course) either. I took that as...30 seconds to load? That's all? Sounds pretty good to me!

@JeanPaul That is what Sunbreak is, the G Rank expansion to Rise. Just as Iceborne was the G Rank expansion to World, and the "Ultimate" versions were to the older games (IE MH3, to MH3U where 3 was high rank, and Ultimate added G Rank). This is the way Monster Hunter has gone for generations of the games. The initial release is up to High rank, and the follow up brought in the G rank (or Master rank as its now called since World). It has always added a massive amount of content to the games, and I cannot wait for Sunbreak to drop. Already had it pre-ordered since it was first available.

Also, Generations Ultimate will always be one of my favorite games of all time. Just started yet another new character for a new playthrough of the game with a different weapon from start. The game is simply divine!

Hmm... NLife seems to be on the lower end here of the reviews I usually take in for a game. Switchup, Gamexplain and others seem to be coalescing around 75-80/100, much higher than what NLife is giving this. The other reviews mention the pop in, and load times, lower resolutions, etc. But none of them complain about the controls the way the Nlife review does. The other reviews all seem to quite enjoy the gameplay and controls, etc. Also, no other review I've seen yet says anything about soft locks or crashing at all. The developer is also apparently aware of the graphical issues, and is supposed to have a day 1 patch ready that will hopefully help with this. Did NLife wind up with an exceptionally bad copy of the game? This is one of the few times I've seen NLife come way down from other average review scores on a Switch game.

So what exactly is it that stops this from being a 10 and being a 9 instead? Just curious, because this reads basically like there is nothing wrong with this game.

Shining Force II! HUZZAH! I've always loved all the Shining Force games. Also, Sonic Spinball is a great addition as well.

Re-imagined for Xbox, Playstation and....Nintendo? LOL

Yeahhh...same day as Xenoblade 3? Sorry Digimon, but Xenoblade's take priority. I do like the cyber sleuth game package on Switch, but....XENOBLADE SAME DAY is a no go.

Yeah, tell us who the "third party developer" is, Wildcard. THEN maybe I might be interested in ARK on Switch again. I was very interested when it was first announced, then saw just how horribly optimized for the system it was, and never got around to purchasing it. So I will definitely take this with a grain of salt and see how it comes along in September to decide if I want to purchase or not then.