Comments 439

Re: Unity Apologies For Its 'Runtime Fee' Policy, Promises To Make 'Changes'

MinervaX76

Posted this in pure Xbox:

This means nothing until they actually roll back the whole thing. “Changes” might be something stupid as simply re-phrasing what an “install” means.

As far as I care Unity is no longer safe to use regardless what they do unless they do every single one of these things:

  • completely roll back this insane install policy
  • Fire the CEO
  • Make licensing changes (restore them) that specifically make sure no retroactive changes can be forced on developers that don’t agree to them so long they stay on older tools
  • Drop the requirement for the SDK to be “always online”
  • restore the GitHub to track licensing agreement changes

Even then the trust is gone, but at lest those steps would give room for a developer to use Unity without “trust”, simply continuously keeping an eye on any license changes.

I personally am not going back to Unity regardless.

Re: UK Charts: Mario Kart And Zelda: TOTK Hold Strong In A Week Of Tough Competition

MinervaX76

@Cashews The only thing I see them changing, if they didn't see GP growth, is standardize the early access pass scheme they used with Starfield.

Although honestly, they are in a "Cant lose" situation. Either subs go up, or they sell more copies for up-front cash. Well, the third possibility is them shipping a flop of a game but that's a separate issue (see Redfall).

Re: UK Charts: Mario Kart And Zelda: TOTK Hold Strong In A Week Of Tough Competition

MinervaX76

@Cashews Ah you were referring to the quarterly reports. For a bit there thought you implied that date due to other high profile releases in October. Seen the sentiment in other places that should the game not be charting in a month it will be proof of a failure and that Xbox will call it quits or what not extremes.

But yea I would not be shocked if we get our first game pass numbers then, but they will likely be inflated by the rebranding of XBox Live Gold to Game Pass Core.

As for Mario Kart... would not be shocked if the "next entry" ends up just being a conversion of 8 Deluxe into a service game with continued updates. There is simply no way they ever will manage to match the Kart 8 Deluxe success ever again.

Re: UK Charts: Mario Kart And Zelda: TOTK Hold Strong In A Week Of Tough Competition

MinervaX76

@Cashews I don’t see why that arbitrary date will make a difference. This was a successful launch for them. They sold out on their $300 limited edition and sold a ton of $100 early access copies. Both the $99 and $30 upgrades charted on the top 2 spots during the early access window on Xbox’s own digital storefront. I’m pretty sure MS is confident with their direction at this point.

That aside, this being a Nintendo site… I wonder if Nintendo’s next switch will try to release a new Mario Kart, an upgrade to this one, or simply double down on DLC.

Re: Xbox Boss Says Call Of Duty Would Run "Relatively Great Compared To Other Switch Games"

MinervaX76

@smoreon Given how quickly they spit out CoD games, I am certain they are not re-inventing their engine every year. In fact, what I have heard is that they are still running on a heavily modified version of the iD engine to this day.

Yes, the most recent CoD min specs is a GTX960, and you can find videos online on what are the best settings to achieve 60fps on such a vid card. For contrast, Doom Eternal, a game available on the Switch, has a minimum sys requirement of a GTX 1060. They have actually taken quite some time to get the Switch versions of Doom out, that's an argument to be made, but they are also not working at the same budget as CoD.

I doubt a Switch version would just tune down the graphics, but you can get away with a lot by lowering the polygon count on character and building/object models, texture resolutions, and simplifying shaders. It wont ever look as good, but I doubt anyone is expecting it to look as good, simply to run smooth enough.

Re: The FTC Doesn't Seem To Think Switch Is A Serious PlayStation & Xbox Competitor

MinervaX76

If I buy a multiplat game like Atelier games for Switch, I don’t go out and also buy it for PlayStation, so, yes, they are competing all for my money. Hell, same for PC. We should hit be splitting the gaming industry by hardware, if anything, it should be split by storefront. If a platform has a digital storefront (regardless if physical isn’t an option) then it’s in the competitive race.

PlayStation
Xbox (even on windows store)
Nintendo
Steam
Epic Store
Good old Games

These are all competing for my money.

I would include Apple App Store and Google Play, but there are very few sold titles on mobile that are also on sale for any other platform. Square with games like FF pixel remasters and Capcom with games like Monster Hunter Stories, I guess…

Tldr: it’s the gaming industry, not the “high end console” industry.

Re: Princess Peach Will Star In Her Own Game On Switch In 2024

MinervaX76

Looking forward for this!

Interesting thing I noticed is that this and the Luigi mansion remaster were not stared as coming to Switch, but instead “are in development”.

I think it’s all but certain these games are going to be exclusive to the Super Ultra Nintendo Switch Cube!

Re: Star Wars: KOTOR II 'Sith Lords' DLC Cancelled For Nintendo Switch

MinervaX76

@PepperMintRex they were basically fired from remake development by Sony because “the remake was not cinematic enough” for Sonys taste.

Word has it everyone else involved was very happy with the state of the remake, but once they got fired, they likely stared struggling with money.

Would not be shocked if they shut down or are forced to do huge layoffs by the end of the year.

Re: Embracer Group Shares Plunge After $2 Billion Deal Falls Through "Late Last Night"

MinervaX76

@CharlieGirl @Cipher36 Interesting. For what its worth, I never order single games. I always make sure I get at least 2 or 3 games at once. For one, it makes sure my games arrive in a sturdy box instead of ever arriving again in an envelope that can be damaged during shipping. Sadly, this means my orders arrive up to a year later due to the whole bundle being held back by one game waiting for some final patch or what not. Maybe I get better luck with my notifications due to that multiple-item order approach. Last Friday I placed my smallest order in years, only two games. Will see how that one gets handled/tracked.

@HandheldHaunter might not be the case here, but very often they take a long time to ship things where the dev is still working on "one more free dlc/update", since they like to make sure players get the most complete version of the game in the cart. That, for better or worse, has become more and more regular as of late (indies continuing to add content.)

Re: Square Enix Game Sales Down 12.2% Despite Multiple High-Profile Releases

MinervaX76

Xbox might not be a market leader but they still are competitive. Releasing FF pixel remasters, Live a Live, and Octopath 2 definitively on the platform alone would had likely made up for that drop, maybe actually net for a sales increase. It’s not like porting pixel games to another platform would had been that expensive.

But SE do SE.

Re: Switch Hardware Sales Now Over 125 Million, PS2, Nintendo DS Target Still A Way Off

MinervaX76

If all Nintendo wants is to break a record, they’ll just call the next switch the [New] Nintendo Switch and claim all sells of that count towards the gen, same as they did with the Gameboy color, New 3DS and DSi.

They are also very likely to keep the Switch in the market at a very low price point even after the successor launches, I would not be shocked if for 2 more years, to try pad those sales. Lots of games will likely ship as cross-gen.

Re: Talking Point: Which Is Your Favourite Nintendo Controller? Every Nintendo Pad Ranked

MinervaX76

For me it’s heavily based on what kind of game im playing.

Smash, IMO, plays best with the GameCube controller.

If I’m to play a 3D game like Breath of the Wild, the Switch Pro controller is best, as it takes the best features of the Xbox controller layout and adds amazing rumble features, plus amiibo reading and motion sensors.

If I’m playing Tetris, only the joycon will do. Having the directional buttons represented by actual individual buttons means I only mess up because I messed up, not because the dpad somehow detected the tilt on the right press as an “up”.

I honestly would put the NES controller at the bottom, it’s sharp edges just feel like they want to cut my hands open (yes I used one recently.)

The Wii U combo of nunchucks and wiimote had its charms, but meh.

In defense of the Wii U pad, i always felt that giant device was way more comfortable than everyone gives it credit for.

Re: Poll: Which Was Your First 'Final Fantasy'?

MinervaX76

My first was the original on the NES. I didn’t even know English at the time, but I loved video games and rented this of the local video club. I could still draw that place off memory.

Rented it several times, it was so much fun even not understanding the dialog (that for me at the time, felt like the entirety of the off of the Wheel of Time, by virtue of not understanding beyond the menu magic spell names)

It was also my first ever RPG, and turn based video game.

Re: Anniversary: Capcom's Breath Of Fire Series Is 30 Years Old, And We Miss It

MinervaX76

As capcom seems to be in a growth sprout as of late thanks first to its huge success with Monster Hunter and now with the fantastic Resident Evil entries, I would like to see them expand back into its legacy IPs, Breath of Fire included.

I think I would not like to see a sequel as much as a full new reboot, although not sure how much of a chronology there was in the original games.

Just take the concept of a protagonist that can turn into a dragon, turn based battles, and make a modern graphical showcase RPG that challenges the visuals of Final Fantasy VII Remake and Final Fantasy XVI, just keep it turn based.

Re: Poll: Will You Be Getting The New Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom Switch OLED?

MinervaX76

I own the Link Between Worlds Nintendo 3DS XL

I also own the Hyrule Edition New Nintendo 3Ds

I also own the Skyward Sword Joy-Cons.

Yes, I am definitively getting me this Tears of the Kingdom Switch OLED (already preordered).

Edit: Also worth noting is that I only have one Switch, the launch model, so this is a good excuse to get an OLED model (even if we likely will see the next gen Nintendo console next year.) So, I do get a bit of an upgrade by getting it. Its very likely I'll never use those joycons, they look too precious to use and have them get drifty, might put them on display on a shelf 😅

Re: Soapbox: Nobody Does 'More Of The Same' Better Than Nintendo

MinervaX76

Modern gamers frustrate me, but I am not sure if it's the gamers or the press... There is this constant "I want total innovation!" left and right, yet the best selling game franchises are those that keep doing more of the same only better.

Back in the day I looked forward for every new Mega Man, they were basically some new levels and new bosses, but the same game. Maybe a new feature here and there. Sliding being added in an entry, holding down fire to charge the mega buster, small stuff like that.

Nowadays the press makes a huge fuss about a game not re-creating every single art asset on a sequel... no wonder it takes a decade to get sequels nowadays .

Re: Where To Buy Zelda Tears Of The Kingdom Switch OLED Console And Pro Controller

MinervaX76

Nintendo: Zelda Tears of the Kingdom will be $70
Me: What? I am not paying more than $60 for a game, Amazon better honor my proroder!!
Nintendo: They will
Me: Good!!!
Nintendo: BTW, do you want these two zelda amiibos? They are $15.99 each!
Me: Oh yea of course I want them...
Nintendo: We also got a collector's edition Tears of the Kingdom Pro controller for $74.99, only $5 higher than the regular Pro controller, would you like one?
Me: Who do you think you are talking to? Of course I want it!!!
Nintendo: One more thing, we also have a Tears of the Kingdom edition Switch OLED for $359.99, only $10 higher than the regular OLED model, would you also be interested on that?
Me: Who do you think you are now???? Of course I want the darned thing, just ring me up already!!!
Nintendo: It will be a total of $526.95, plus tax.
Me: Here you go!
Nintendo: Enjoy your game!!!
Me: Suckers... I got me Zelda Tears of the Kingdom $10 under the price tag! 😏

Re: Microsoft "Confident" Activision Could Optimise Call Of Duty For Nintendo Switch

MinervaX76

Think this is the first time they actually say Switch, so far they only said things like “Nintendo consoles” or “Nintendo users”.

I have mentioned a few times that the PC version of CoD games can run on a potato. It’s extremely scalable. Minimum specs are still higher than a Switch, but a Switch version is never expected to even run at 1080p, so I can see them pushing the scaling down a bit lower for the switch with some tinkering.

Re: Capcom Ending Resident Evil 7 Cloud Rental Service On Switch

MinervaX76

@TheBigBlue doubt it, but who knows, maybe at the right price tier… PlayStation Now (former name of their streaming service) started life as a rental service that you had to pay $10 for a few days (or was it a day?) privilege to rent PS3 games.

It was… not successful to say the least.

Now that GamePass exist, I find it highly unlikely anyone would be able to rent individual streaming titles for any significant amount of money in the west.