Imerion

Feels like another case of a big studio game being weighed on a different, harsher scale than indie titlesare. Now, I only have experience with the demo, but even so the sheer scale, attention to detail and impressive production values puts this head and shoulders above almost all indie releases (which are often also quite janky despite getting top scores) and I sort of wish that was reflected in the overall score and judement. Either way, I'm definiely getting this!

That this, Shadows of the Damned and Romancing Saga 2 getting rather low scores while loads of buggy and half-arsed indie games get much higher scores feel a bit weird to me. I'm ok with a review being subjective in part, but I really feel high production values should be factored in much more. Mainly because I would like to see more games of this type on the Switch.

I suppose this means the Switch version of this doesn't support gyro aim? Or that if it does it doesn't do so in a good way? Because I'll take well implemented gyro aim before mouse and keyboard any day. I get all the precision but can still play comfortably reclined in my couch.

I must say I don't agree with this - I'm currently having loads of fun with this game and I really appreciate an online game that actually focuses on intense short-to-medium matches that you can just jump into and enjoy. No leveling/grinding/crafting or such crap, no endless streams of ugly cosmetics and no battle royal - just pure fun!

Bugs and crashes are bad, of course, but I have yet to encounter any bigger problems. Considering pretty much every indie title releases half-broken and needs countless patches to work well I do feel this game is judged rather harsh, especially since a patch is already on the way.

I am happy Aspyr decided to release these awesome titles with upgraded visuals and all. And best of all: split screen is included!

As with many retro shooter remasters (though not the excellent Quake-releases) this one sadly lacks split-screen multiplayer. I really hope they will add that in a future patch, because this really sounds like a game that would be awesome to play that way. Elbows allowed and ghosting is part of the deal.

I have the expansion pack but will still be buying these separately, so I can keep playing them in the future when I might not have such a subscription (or it is no longer available).

Every time a trailer for these appear I forget they actually have english voices, I've always played with the original japanese ones. But I can't say I had anything against the ones I heard in the trailer.

Well, if Microsoft wants to bring new games to the Switch that is a nice turnaround - I'd be interested in playing CoD on my Switch - as long as they're real buyable games and not tied to xCloud or Game Pass that is.

It's good that the article has a list of their games, so I know what to boycott.

Sounds like exactly what I wanted: a safe sequel that does what it should. I also skipped 4, so this should be perfect!

Oh, yeah! This I want! Especially Knight since I never got to play that one.

I very much appreciate Nintendo has a focus on physical releases and real full games. I have nothing against digital downloads for smaller indie games and if others prefer them for larger games too that is fine. But I really hope Nintendo won't start pushing for more of anything related to microtransactions, subscriptions, passes and other crap that currently screw up the very core of gameplay experiences. Any of that and you have to design a game around it in a way that always seem to stand opposite of good balance and creative vision. I have no problem with more DLC and expansions though, as long as it wasn't made to "cut out" pieces of a full game from start.

I really liked this game. I appreciate a bit of spectacle in an arcade racer and it's great fun with a few friends. Arcade racers with this type of budget is sadly quite rare these days, so I'm happy to see it will receive new content and hopefully it has sold well enough for a sequel.

Also, now when Nintendo had money to spare due to the success of the Switch, they invested it in more internal dev teams and similar instead. That way, Nintendo gamers will get more games but they don't also take something existing away from others, like Microsoft does with their aquisitions of third parties.

Kudos to Team17 who listened to these concerns. Now I can keep liking them and buying their games.

I'm hoping Final Fantasy: Ever Crisis will get a Switch release, as a console-adapted package similar to how they did with Final Fantasy XV Pocket Edition. Of course, the full on remake would be awesome on Switch, but that might have to wait until a Switch hardware revision.

This is what I took with me from that quote:
First it will destroy the world, then it will be a tool for speculation and after that, in the end game, gamers might get something out of it. (After Ubisoft have made millions selling air that is...)

Seriously though, if Ubisoft really wanted a second hand market for gaming related things that can be done without this stupid energy-guzzling system. Games like Second Life and similar have done this for ages now. Seems to me most players are perfectly fine with sharing created levels, in-game content, etc anyway without this type of systems though.

A comment about Microsoft bringing new things to gaming: I'm not saying they haven't done that at all, but the thing they get most credit for, online games and integrated online services, Sega did many years before Microsoft. What Microsoft brought to this was a monthly fee - so just another way of taxing players. I doubt that would have been standard without MS pushing it the way they did.

Also, I feel this discussion about the cost of games is interesting. Modern AAA titles are not expensive considering how many people are involved in making them. Where I live, buying physical games have actually become slightly cheaper than in the 90:s/early 2000:s. (For some reason digital games are often more expensive, especially on PC/Steam). But here's the thing: I want those AAA games! I want to pay 50$ for a Mario Odyssey, Xenoblade Chronicles, Pokemon Sword, Smash Bros Ultimate, or whatever, and know I can play that for at least 50-100 hours and it will have excellent production values all the way. But that is the cost of such a game - it won't go down. Microsoft can't ever hope to have games of that quality in GamePass in the long run unless the price increase or the quality of games suffer. That is another reason why I'm worried about Microsoft. Sure, it's not the Pay2Win and privacy infringing wild west of the app stores where quality was the first casualty, but can it keep from going there? I don't think so, and that is why I choose Nintendos and Sonys classic approach to gaming. I buy a game: Higher cost, but higher quality - and I also get to own the game and can play it whenever I want, even in the future.

I realize Microsoft is a business and aim to make money first and foremost, even though they use much less tactful methods than most others. But this Phil Spencer always going on about "We are doing this for everyone" and "Our aim is not to just divide and conquer - we care for all gamers" has gone beyond hollow. I wish he at least was honest and said "Look, Sony and Nintendo beat the crap out of us last generation so now we will use our economic muscles to change that." That is what is happening here, nothing more, nothing less.

Loads of gamers made a choice and the chose to play on Nintendo and/or Sony systems - which means they are not interested in either Xbox, PC or some sort of half-arsed streaming on mobile phones, so to keep talking about how this will benefit "all" gamers is just pathetic and disrespectful to gamers who made their choice.

"And, to be fair, many of us probably are happy that Nintendo is still familiar and doing things 'the right way'. The only question is whether, five years from now, Nintendo will be in tune with the rapid and daunting shifts we're seeing in the industry, and whether it'll react"

I for one feel it is important that Nintendo, and to large extent also Sony, actually stands up for the classic, easy to access way of gaming that is not based around services and content but rather centered around games and cool ways to play them. Thing is, I'm not sure I see this "shift" in the gaming industry at large. Rather it feels like Microsoft just wants to push their way of gaming onto the rest of the industry and the world and does so by force.

One of the worst parts of all this is that I feel Microsoft constantly belittles gamers. Gamers said: "Cool, a new generation of consoles, PS5 looks nice, I want that." And instead of competing with unique new games, tech, accessories, etc, Microsoft just says: "Sorry gamers, you chose wrong, so now we take away those games you were hoping for from the console you actually chose, so you have to chose our instead." It just feels petty.

This I'd like to see more of! Games utilizing the unique Switch hardware features. Sounds really nice with so asymetric co-op too. Gonna buy this for sure!

I'll be getting this day one! Good kart racers are few and far between, but this looks very well made. There's even a story mode. I just hope it will have four-player split screen. A free lite-version for local play is a nice offer for sure, but it won't replace a real splitscreen mode for a quick get-together with friends who don't have their own Switches.

If it was one thing the excellent Sonic-blend of fast arcade-action platforming didn't need it was a large boring open world most likely filled with boring open world-stuff like fetch-quests, long transportation parts and slow exploration. It will probably have some drab crafting too just for the sake of it. This trend of all games needing an open world is really irritating, but I guess I'll give them the benefit of the doubt while waiting for a sequel to the absolutely fantastic Sonic Mania.

@DABYX Oh, I see. That is odd, but thanks for the info!

@DABYX I also wonder about this. I was curious about joining, but it's my first time so I have no idea how it usually works.

They already lost me at free-to-play, but it looks like a very bland Smash bros clone anyway. There was a rather good attempt at a Smash-clone by Ubisoft from the Wii era though, with a Turtles-theme. That one I quite enjoyed, but it both looked and played differenty from smash while keeping the platform-ish 4-player battles.

@F_Destroyer I thought the same thing when playing this!

The fate of every cloud-based game ever. This lasted two years. Better hurry playing those cloud-only Switch games if you bought one, who knows how long they'll stay. A game like this should at least be updated to keep working as an offline single-player game for those who have downloaded it and perhaps even invested money in it...

And I still think they're excellent! It's good fun to invite friends and watch together with beer, snacks and some good hype (not to mention the subsequent playing of games "available after this presentation" .

@negw It looks good, absolutely, but docked it runs at pretty much half the resolution of Animal Crossing New Horizons and despite this it had trouble with stuttering and such. On a large TV the difference between the two games is staggering despite having pretty much the same type of look.

Very nice! Makes me wish Nintendo used this engine, with it's sharp highres graphics, for the Links Awakening remake instead of the blurry and stuttering Unreal Engine-mess we got. Perhaps if they remake Oracle of Seasons/Ages - one can wish!

Well, if they do a native port of any of these games I'll buy them day one!

I always play with split Joy-Con - it's just so nice to have the freedom to have my hands wherever I want and sit however I want. Oh, and I feel gyro-aim works best that way too: using the right Joy-Con to aim like a laser pointer. Works great even when resting my arm against the sofa.

@marnelljm Oh, I missed that. That's too bad. I agree with you, no HD rumble is a deal breaker.

This is great! I have small hands, so I prefer using the Joy-Cons, plus its relaxing to be able to have my hands apart. But this is a nice option if I should ever need a classic controller. The Switch Pro controller is slightly to big for me, but not as bad as the Xbox One controllers.

No way. Real games that I can play any where, any way, any time - even in 10 years - or it didn't happen.

Really excited about this one! I'd very much like another good kart racer. They are way too few, especially ones from larger developers like Square-Enix.

I'll be getting this. I'm sure there will be a few patches to improve things a bit, as usual, and then I'll play it. Been looking forward to some nice hack-and-slash!

While I will keep using my wired headphones and have no need for Bluetooth audio it's good to know the option is there and it will probably make many people happy. Also nice to have the option to limit data transfers in standby-mode. But as many have already mentioned - 13 firmware versions and there is still no useful way to handle big game collections. Finding a certain game in my now 200+ game list is getting ridiculous... I want those folders so bad!

Sounds perfect! And if it wasn't enough already, mentioning Rush 2049 and Hydro Thunder - two of my favorite racing games ever - definitely seals the deal!

Oh yes, a sequel would be fantastic!

Looks nice! I'm more interested in this than Art of Rally, mainly because I prefer this graphical style. Multiplayer would be nice, but for this very low price I'll definitely pick it up. Also +1 for being able to turn off anti-aliasing. I've always disliked that effect.

@LeighDapa We're still keeping it small due to covid19.

As for physical releases not having the latest patches, etc: it doesn't actually need to be that way. Developers could instead get the time they need to finish games completely before releasing them - as it used to be. Would be better for everyone - we wouldn't need to wait a couple of months after every release before playing a game in case it gets better after a while, for example. At least the Switch alleviates this problem somewhat since you can sync the latest version through LAN, meaning people with physical releases can share updates with others even after the original server/store goes down.

I'm really happy Nintendo keeps up the "Insert a cart - play the game" approach. And it's awesome to see how big the market for physical Switch releases is. It's also interesting that the disc-less versions of PS5 and Xbox S/X don't sell even close to as much as their physical-media capable variants. Sometimes people make it sound like the death of physical media is inevitable, but the market is us - what we chose is what gets done, not what large corporations try to force upon us to increase their profit margin.

In a few days I will have an N64 game night, where we will be playing loads of N64 games without having to worry a bit about them being available on some online service or whatever - all made possible by the fact that we still own the original carts. Gonna be fun!

Also, the Evercade seems to be doing fine too. Check it out if your interested in retro gaming!

@WhiteUmbrella Haha, no, I'm not really the athletic type. I know very few people who are. But the problem is mainly that static positions gets tough after a while either way. Usually it's enough to have my elbows resting against the sofa, but that doesn't work in several other situations, such as on chairs or train seats. Again, the Switch works ok in these situations, but I really wouldn't want to add more weight to it.

The weight will definitely be a problem for many. When playing longer sessions with my Switch I feel weary unless I have a pillow or something for support. Any more than that would get uncomfortable very quickly. As for the size I guess the comfort depends on how large your hands are. I have small hands, so the Switch Joy-Cons are perfect for me. Modern Xbox controllers are a tad to big though and feel uncomfortable to me, while I have a friend with very large hands who prefers them.

This'll be the first one I'll boot up next gaming night! Fast paced arcade racing, well designed tracks and four player splitscreen pretty much equals insta-buy for me!

I'd like a new Wii Sports or similar, no doubt. But I'd settle for Wuhu island as a bonus course in a new Wave Race.

An interesting take on this, and that Minecraft server do sound like a nice idea. But this type of gameplay really isn't for me. Maybe it's because I have lots of friends living close to me, but I either want to play directly with other people, having them beside me in my very comfy sofa, or I want other people to stay completely out of my own immersion and experience. This middle-ground usually tends to ruin the experience for me. If possible I always disable odd ways games try to insert other people into my own experience. Xenoblade Chronicles X did something like this which I hated - I wanted other players out of the fantastic world I was discovering. There it could be disabled. Much worse is Sky: Children of Light. The game is amazingly beautiful and a very cool experience, but random people running around the game world doing random things completely ruined it for me.

Still busy with Doom Eternal. I'd like to download all of these, but last time I tried that required me to sign up for bethesdas ad- and tracking account. (Doom Eternal seems to force this upon me too, but it can be bypassed by starting the game in Airplane mode and then detaching the controllers, allowing docked play without internet access!)