Comments 314

Re: The Switch's Home Menu Uses Less Than 200 KB Of Resources For Super-Fast Load Times

McHaggis

@Geeks4Life Bluetooth headsets are probably not working either to keep licensing costs down, or because it would be a support headache. Having investigated this quite a lot in recent weeks, here's what I know

Bluetooth supports various codecs for streaming audio. SBC and AAC are the most commonly supported ones, but they are not suitable for streaming game or video audio because of the encode -> transmit -> decode delay. Some newer headphones and devices support a codec known as aptX and its variant, aptX Low Latency, the latter of which has no noticeable delay and is suitable for gaming, but only over the A2DP (media) profile. This allows audio in one direction only, so games that require the use of the microphone will have to fall back to the HSP (headset) profile.

Finally, there is a codec called FastStream, and several devices that allow two-way communication at low-latency using a separate channel for voice, but this is only supported by a handful of transmitters and barely any headphones (Avantree and Creative are the only ones I know of).

Here is a comparison of Bluetooth audio codecs. USB wireless headphones are not limited to working within the Bluetooth specification, so they don't have these problems.

So, to come back to why Nintendo don't support BT audio, it's most likely that they don't want to have a feature that is difficult to provide support for. Alternatively, they may not want to pay licensing fees for the codecs, which is also the main reason the Wii had no DVD playing feature (even though it actually had built-in support that could be unlocked using homebrew).

Re: Miyamoto Calls On His Industry Peers To Deliver Games At Fixed Prices

McHaggis

Fortnite is a great example of the free to play model when it is done properly. No purchase to unlock standard gameplay, and everything purchasable just gives a cosmetic bonus. The vast amounts of money it's making Epic allows them to continue updating the game on a weekly basis, keeping it fresh and fun.

Free to play, but not pay to win, is an excellent model for games. Bad examples are those where buying gets you non-cosmetic upgrades, or season passes where no content is added to the game.

Re: Fortnite v5.20 Brings New Weapon, Steady Storm Mode And Resolution Upgrade On Switch

McHaggis

@BouncingHat @Bunkerneath

Some of us appreciate the regular Fortnite updates as it is a regular part of our Switch gaming. Nobody is forcing you to read these articles and, aside from the weekly challenge guides, the articles have been few and far between (this is the first one since Thursday). The effort required for you to complain vastly outweighs the effort required to scroll past them.

Re: Nintendo UK Is Asking For As Much As £180 To Repair Cracked Switch Consoles

McHaggis

@AlternateButtons 'That's not a defect, that's a manufacturing deviation. Some Switch's are warped for instance.'

A dead pixel is a deviation. Warping is (arguably) a deviation. A self-cracking shell is a defect because those cracks can affect the integrity of the device and shorten the overall lifespan.

'If you break it after warranty, that's on you'

Nobody is breaking their Switch, it's breaking itself. You even acknowledged that could be the case in another of your comments. Why are you defending Nintendo so hard on this? Do you not think that companies should be held to high standards when it comes to the products they provide?

'regardless of what your dumb EU laws say.'

Oops, you just undermined your argument by letting on that you're not from Europe and calling laws you don't understand, which are designed to protect consumers, 'dumb'.

Re: Nintendo UK Is Asking For As Much As £180 To Repair Cracked Switch Consoles

McHaggis

@JohnQuixote while I agree with you about selection bias, your method would go too far the other way too. NL readership would include people that:

a) don't own a Switch
b) didn't see the poll post
c) didn't have their Switch at hand when they read the post and forgot about it later

Personally, I didn't take part in the poll even though I saw the article. I did not click through to read it even though my Switch has a crack, because I assumed one of my kids had mishandled it (they all denied and the Switch never leaves home without its bag/case). After seeing this article and seeing photos with cracks almost identical to mine, I regret not clicking through to the original poll to discover this earlier.

Re: Nintendo UK Is Asking For As Much As £180 To Repair Cracked Switch Consoles

McHaggis

@Knuckles-Fajita you obviously have no idea how polling and extrapolation work. 1000 is not a terrible sample size, given general willingness to participate and NL's readership size.

@AlternateButtons

"Can I also point out how ridiculous it is this person wants their repair for free? Are they out of their mind?"

And you have no idea about consumer rights in the UK and EU. You acknowledged in another post that it might be due to overtightened screws. This would imply a manufacturing defect, which absolutely should be resolved at the manufacturer's expense.

Several years ago, my 3DS's screen was being scratched when closed due to a defect. Even out of warranty, Nintendo acknowledged the problem and repaired the unit at their expense.

Re: Sony "Looking At A Lot Of The Possibilities" When It Comes To Fortnite Cross-Play Support

McHaggis

The power is with the video game developers, they could withhold games from the Playstation until they get the green light for cross-play. This affects their bottom line, though. Still, I don't think it will be long before we see games not appearing on Playstation for that reason, just like we don't see games come to Switch because it doesn't have features (power/graphics usually) that other consoles have.

Re: Switch Piracy Tool Could Brick Your System Because It Contains (Wait For It) A Piracy Countermeasure

McHaggis

@DABYX I totally agree that anyone playing online with hacks fully deserve to be banned. I don't think Nintendo should ban people for installing homebrew, but I understand that it is their prerogative to do so if they wish.

Some people are arguing that this pirating tool has better security than Nintendo, which isn't the case as people are close to cracking it already. I certainly don't think Nintendo should be able to brick consoles that it detects modifications on. The last piracy device to do this was the Gateway for 3DS, and it ended up bricking a lot of their own consumers' devices in a false positive match.

Re: Switch Piracy Tool Could Brick Your System Because It Contains (Wait For It) A Piracy Countermeasure

McHaggis

@DABYX The hackers who found the vulnerabilities held on to them and went through the responsible disclosure route to let NVIDIA/Nintendo know about them. However, when it became clear that the creators of the piracy device were about to release their solution and charge for it, those hackers decided that they should release their product for free.

As for the rest of your comments, yes, people should be able to hack their hardware to do whatever they want to do with it (as long as it's legal). People do the same thing with iOS for jailbreaks and Android for custom roms.

Re: Nintendo Is Banning Switch Game Cards To Combat Piracy, Potentially Killing The Second-Hand Market

McHaggis

I remember when this site before it started posting sensationalist articles. Options available to you if you purchase a game card that turns out to be banned from Nintendo:

  • Call Nintendo or the publisher for support
  • Return to the store you purchased the game from if it is local
  • Call your credit card company if you cannot return to the store
  • Invoke PayPal Buyer Protection if you bought on eBay

This is definitely not the end of pre-owned games.

Re: Hands On: Revisiting Kanto With Pokémon: Let’s Go! Pikachu And Let’s Go! Eevee On Switch

McHaggis

Agree with the others here, the article is diminishing the overall game by calling it a reskin. If indeed the entire Kanto region has been remade in 3D, that's much more than a reskin. The article also failed to mention the co-op multiplayer. I'm going to love playing this game with my kids.

On another note, this game feels like a main game but is considered not a main game. This makes me think that we'll see a number of drastic changes in the next Pokémon game. Maybe it will be open world and non-linear. An open world game where you could see other online players at the same time would be amazing (basically an MMO, yes).

Re: You Can Start Building Your Nintendo Account Family Group Ahead Of The Switch Online Launch

McHaggis

@iMarkU, @Kal_el_0724, @jswhitfield8

We have one Switch, but separate accounts, which is required to have your own online profile. Are you saying that I only need to buy one subscription and my kids will be able to play online using their profiles? If so, that's better but should probably be made clearer so that families aren't paying the family price for a single Switch.

EDIT: according to the FAQ,

If I purchase an Individual Membership, can other users playing on the same Nintendo Switch also use the Nintendo Switch Online service?
No, this is not possible.

Re: You Can Start Building Your Nintendo Account Family Group Ahead Of The Switch Online Launch

McHaggis

For £31.49 per year I should get more family benefits. Only one of us can use the Switch at any one time, so only one of us can use Nintendo Online services at any one time. In essence, this isn't costing Nintendo any extra to provide the service to families, they're just charging a premium for it.

At its current price, I'd at least like to have an incentive to get more Switches, like a family game library.

Re: Pokémon GO Receives New iPhone Exclusive Features

McHaggis

@Steven_the_2nd

'Hardware wise, The iPhone X has a much better screen than any Android tho'

Samsung says "hi" and reminds you they make the screens for Apple. Granted, the iPhone X has a thinner bezel at the bottom, but the cut out at the top for the camera and speaker look silly IMO.

Also, here's a few things that my Galaxy S8+ supports that your iPhone X doesn't, off the top of my head:

  • VR
  • Multi-window/split screen
  • Extensive OS customisation

That being said, I don't think people choose one operating system over the other based on what features it does or doesn't support. They choose it for how well it integrates with other devices to make life easier, as well as the price point (not everyone can afford a Galaxy S8+ or iPhone X).

Re: Nintendo Acknowledges Iwata Tribute On Switch, But Has "Nothing To Announce"

McHaggis

The presence seems like an easter egg and nothing more. There are very specific conditions that have to be met for the game to launch on a specific day of the year. It was not initially discovered by hackers, but by chance a member of GBATemp accidentally launched the game on the date - even respected hackers were accusing this person of lying at the time, and it was months later when it was finally discovered to be true.

I wonder if perhaps Reggie wasn't aware of the easter egg until it was publicly outed, and that's why he can't comment on it.