Imerion

Looks really fun and four player split screen pretty much seals the deal!

I don't play PC games, but a super-nice screen on my Switch would be nice so I'm getting a new Switch OLED (though I'm still hoping for a Switch Pro/2/Advanced next year. The Switch I have can be a spare for when we have guests. Could make for some nice LAN gaming more often.

By the way, Steam Deck having 2 - 8 hours of battery time sounds kind of vague. Even the old Switch models had a slightly more specific 3 - 5 hours.

I actually bought a similar device, a GPD Win, a few years ago. But the experience was far from optimal. Besides the normal trouble that tends to go with PC gaming, like games suddenly only displaying on one fourth of the screen size, updates suddenly breaking games completely, firewalls suddenly cutting things off, random driver issues, Steam login woes, etc, etc the biggest problem I had was that you can't really rely on that PC games work on a buttons-only device. Many games I tried didn't have proper gamepad support at all. And even for games that has been adapted perfectly for gamepad input on Switch or other consoles, like Civilization VI, the PC versions lacked such an option. So I doubt this will be smooth, effortless and for everyone. But for dedicated enthusiasts it might be interesting.

I've really enjoyed the Dungeon Defenders games in the past, but since they required four different devices and four copies of the game we very rarely managed to get around to play it. Does anyone know if this version will have split screen? That would really be a quality of life improvement that should result in the game actually being played as intended more often.

No interest in streaming either movies or games at all.

This is my type of racing! Will definitely be getting this: super-hyped for that four player splitscreen!

Nice! I really wanted motion controls for these. People didn't seem to like Banana Blitz for Wii, but I really liked the motion controls in that one. It was what sold me on the Monkey Ball series at all actually.

More and more of these sound really interesting, I should give them a try soon. AI: Somnium Files was really good, so I'm looking forward to the successor. A Switch port of Zero Time Dilemma would be nice too!

Good article. Samus being a woman is often talked about as important, so it is good to hear it did matter to people, even back then. It's cool that videogames can make people feel represented, empowered or included while also being really fun games with classic gameplay. It doesn't always take a complicated rich story to add additional meaning to something.

@Brownmonster Sounds great! I'm definitely interested either way - I really like these classic top-down racers and I appreciate the detailed graphics. Way too many games in this genre focus on overly simplistic graphics - which can be nice too - but I prefer more detail.

I've heard much good about Rush Rally 3 and will eventually get it on my Switch, but I must say this interests me more. The only thing making me hesitant, for both games actually, is the lack of local multiplayer.

Awesome! Might pick up this release - got the download version before and it was fun, looked fantastic and played great. Can't wait for the two sequels!

@vio They publish it themselves now under the Forever Limited label: https://forever-limited.com/

Lack of local couch multiplayer sadly made this uninteresting for me.

Very interesting! Panzer Dragoon Zwei och Panzer Dragoon Saga remakes exclusive to Switch would be amazing! I really enjoyed their first remake, especially after it was patched. Got a physical version on pre-order now.

I like these lists, but I really wish there were screenshots next to each game instead of just art. Would make it much easier to know if it looks like my type of game at a glance.

Yes! Wii Golf is the only golf game I've ever enjoyed and that was due to the motion controls, so I'm really hoping this will work as well.

OMG, it's happening! Thanks Nintendo, I'm super hyped! Now to find a way to gather all my friends in a covid19 safe way so we can watch together. Maybe I can put up a screen outside...

Interesting! I would like something like this, since I have no interest in online games at all. Hopefully it will release internationally as well. All these Dragon Quest announcements do sound very nice actually!

I played through the great Switch port of Bioshock Infinite: Complete Edition a few weeks ago and was really impressed by how fun, impressive and well made it was, so that one quickly turned into my Top 10. Before that it was probably Xenoblade Chronicles 2. Mario Odyssey might make the Top 10 cut too.

Setting aside Game Pass for the moment, which I don't believe in either for a variety of reasons, will Xbox Cloud Gaming, or any other game streaming service, be necessary at all in the near future? Even with a six year old Tegra X1 chip the current Switch can handle som really decent current-gen ports, even though it might need reduced detail and/or black magic porting skills. Consider if a Switch Pro would use the very much faster Tegra Xavier chip that is currently available. Even ports from the new generation of consoles shouldn't be a problem, though perhaps again with some smart porting. And then there is the even faster Tegra Orin chip, which hasn't released yet but a Switch Pro could possibly use. Why would anyone ever have use of a shaky, unreliable and latency-ridden streaming service then? I believe the advances in mobile processing technology will simply make game streaming obsolete before it ever has time to take off.

Agreed. As long as you have fun, anything goes. Me and a bunch of friends were playing Trine 2, barely enjoying ourselves due to the games wonky physics and half-baked platforming mechanics - but then we unlocked a weird arrow that slowed down time or something and started breaking the game, completing puzzles in weird ways - and was suddenly having a blast!

I'd say most people are more likely to just add games they don't want to play right away to their wish list and get them on eShop once a sale is going. Who can say if and when a game appears on game pass, not to mention when it might suddenly dissappear again if you didn't have time to play it while it was "on" .

@anoyonmus I'm not saying either is a good option, I would of course prefer Nintendo doing their own thing. The reason for Sony would simply be that they have a traditional view of what video games and game consoles should be that I can agree with. There are many things I dislike about that companys policies too, but Microsoft feels far more dangerous as they again and again seem to take decisions that move games more towards services and restricted access. All the debacle around the Xbox One launch, including the draconian rules for borrowing games, is a good example of this. They backed down then due to major backlash, but I don't doubt they would try again if they could get away with it. Same with Game Pass - I simply don't trust MS to not turn it into a "Netflix for games" in the future, complete with crap like monthly subscriptions being the only way to have access to the content, games rotating out after a while, account and sign in-requirements, not being able to lend games to friends, etc, etc. Please note, I'm not saying that is what they are doing at the moment, but I don't trust them to not start doing it in the future.

I truly hope Microsoft and their loathsome business practices will stay far away from Nintendo - who still stand for what I want gaming to be. In that regard I'd much prefer that Nintendo work with Sony. If Microsoft wants to bring some of their games to Switch, sure, but anything else will likely make me very sceptical.

As for the internet connection, I doubt they're streaming anything for the game, that would really limit online performance for a game like this. They probably just mean that without fast internet 60 fps won't really give you any advantages anyway.

This is a good setup. Personally I prefer the quality modes, but it's nice to have the option.

Well, if it's coming to Apple Arcade, which has stayed a failure despite all these deals, it will surely come to Switch eventually, as has been the case with other big Apple Arcade releases like Oceanhorn 2, Heroki or Shinsekai into the depths.

Addition to my post: I've also enjoyed the Rune Factory games, perhaps even more so than the Story of Season ones, but they feel sort of like two sides of the same coin with different focus.

Though I really like this genre, I never felt that I needed anything else than the Story of Seasons-games on 3DS. Stardew Valley didn't add anything new and lacked two of my favorite aspects of Story of Seasons - designing the entire city and making your own clothes. I prefer its art style and it was also refreshingly liberal, not only allowing same-sex marriage but also letting you wear whichever clothes you wanted no matter the sex of your main character. SoS for 3DS was a bit grindy though, so I'm hoping patches will bring less of that to the Switch entry.

Late comment here. This really only affects me the handful of times each year I bring my Dreamcast out of storage for some retro gaming, but if someone is confused there is an option in the Switch firmware these days that can remap any button, if I remember right.

@ARhollow Ah, sorry, I wasn't clear. I don't believe they'll get it to 60 FPS either. That is not an option unless you rewrite the whole game for the Switch hardware. What I believe is that we'll get stable 30 FPS and perhaps less resolution drops. Which I personally feel is good enough, and good gyro aim easily compensates for 30 vs 60 FPS when playing online, advantage-wise. (Worked wonders in Fortnite!)

@ARhollow Nah, that can be fixed with enough optimizations and profiling-tweaking for different situations. It's hard to know exactly where FPS drops may be before releasing a game like this, internal testing can only take you so far. But if I know Panic Button right, they will keep tweaking this until it works great.

Yeah, I was wondering about this. I searched through several stores but didn't find it either. Was going to pre-order and all. But I'll get it once it's out, the game looks great!

@monterxz So if Game Pass is discontinued you would still be able to access and play the games you bought there? They are not tied to an account, login or such?

@monterxz I never said I was prevented from buying the games. I just said I had no interest in Game Pass specifically, which is without doubt a renting system.

I am also worried MS might make games exclusive to Game Pass in the future, but that is another discussion.

Not interested in Microsofts renting system. But that is fine, I'll just wait until MS finally gives up on the XBox platform and these games will be available everywhere again. Considering how much market MS has lost on the PC desktop space (ChromeOS, Linux and MacOS are all taking market shares from Windows) Microsoft will probably want to be careful with their money very soon...

While the important thing is it's developed specifically for the Switch hardware and it's strengths, there's still one reason I personally want big titles made like this to stay completely exclusive. I can see why it might seem nice that more people would get to play this, but what I think is important is that since I prefer playing on console, for all sorts of reasons, and specifically prefer the Nintendo Switch for even more reasons, I want more people to be part of that ecosystem since it drives sales of software, in the end resulting in even more good software for the device I prefer. If the game is available elsewhere this incentive won't be as big.

So long story short - I want the Switch to have big name exclusives so more people will get it and all of us who like the Switch will get more games in the long run. So I'm still all for pure exclusives for Switch in regards to that and I am a little bit dissapointed. (Here's hoping Monster Hunter Stories 2 is completely exclusive!)

This company worries me more and more between things like this, their meagre Switch-support and, worst of all, forcing people to sign up to their ad- and tracking scheme in order to play games you've payed full price for... (Yes, every time I played Fenyx Rising I took out my Switch from the dock, put it in Airplane mode, put it back and started the game. Worked excellent and I avoided signing up!)

I'm not sure I get all the hype around raytracing. Sure, reflections and lighting looks good, but I seriosuly doubt I could tell it apart from modern non-raytracing methods.

This! This is what I want! A classic single-player game with a world to explore and no pay2win in sight!

I still want the regular Direct - especially the long 40+ minutes ones! I like the hype, and I like gathering some friends, taking a beer, sit back and talk excitedly about all the cool stuff we will be able to play in the near future (and sometimes even directly afterwards). It's the perfect way for this type of announcements I'd say. A small announcement now and then tends to get lost in the noise, especially for small games like Part-Time UFO or similar.

As always I'm extremely impressed by this team and I'm super-excited to be able to play Doom Eternal! Buying it day one for sure!

Now if it only had a split-screen mode! (Which is still the only practical way of actually getting any local multiplayer done... besides Download Play that is, which sadly isn't a thing anymore.

"At the risk of sounding like an old person, these days you have to put up with timed seasons, season passes (which are different things, obviously), customisation loot boxes, weekend XP boosts, pre-order DLC and 60-hour story modes where you have to explore every inch of a comically enormous world map in search of arbitrary collectables"

This is so very very true! All games seem to do this these days yet I have absolutely zero interest in any of it. Spontaneosuly, this sounds like a game for me!

@Deltath An increase in third party releases and a Switch Pro in a few years sounds like a good and likely scenario. Let's hope for that!

@TheFrenchiestFry This might be true for next gen PS5 games in a few years. Currently though, if it can run on Xbox One it can run on Switch and several excellent ports are proof of this, such as The Witcher 3, Wolfenstein: New Colossus, Hellblade or Alien: Isolation. Downgraded graphics, sure, but all with good performance and good enough graphics. Those are the type of ports I'm worried about losing. KH3 or FFXV could be ported too, but it would of course require much more effort and would cost more, so I'm worried companies will just take the easy way out when we as consumers and gamers deserve something better.

The worst thing about this is that I fear once a cloud version is released for Switch, there probably won't be any attempts at a real port after that... Again, I'm fine with scaled back graphics, no raytracing, etc as long as I have a real game I can play whenever and however I want.

People talk about this like it's only if you want to play the game in 10 years time this will be a problem, but it's actually also possible the company running these servers will go bankrupt in a year and all you have left are icons on your Switch dashboard. It has happened several times before with similar services.

I for one often replay games even close in time to when i first played them, to try new things, play them together with friends, etc. Not to mention I have many games to play, so it might be a whole year until I feel like now is the time for this specific one.

I stand firmly against this consumer-offensive renting business.

Oh please be true, I really want this game!

Oh no, not falling for this. I'm not about to rent a game that I won't even be able to play on my Switch on the go, not to mention having it suddenly stop whenever my internet connection has a hitch (which happens quite often, even though I have a fiber connection). I have no problem with a graphical downgrade for a hybrid system like the Switch, if they would just have bothered with a proper port. This is just beyond lazy though. Sorry Nintendo for complaining about Pikmin 3 running in 720p - at least it is a proper port running on my console.