Mountain_Man

Donkey Kong Odyssey? I'd dig it.

I can't even remember the last time I had a game crash to the main menu. What is there left to improve at this point?

Eh, if they can get it off the ground then more power to them. Competition is good. The biggest problem — assuming the damn thing is even affordable — will be software support. Will Apple be able to attract a critical mass of developers and publishers to bring their wares to the iSwitch, or whatever it's called? Or will it be home to the same mobile junk people play on their overpriced iPhones and iPads?

Any info about an English language release?

Only thing I know about this episode is that Musk apparently "jokingly" admitted that cryptocurrency is a scam, and shortly after cryptocurrency prices took a dive. Was this the wake-up call people needed to realize that it really is a scam?

"...reports that [Nintendo is] working on a new 'Pro' model refuse to go away."

That's because those rumors are essentially true. Nintendo is always working on their next console even if it's years away from being released.

"Never mind maneuvers, just go straight at 'em!"

I played the Game Boy Advance port of Dark Alliance many years ago. It was the closest thing to handheld Diablo at the time. Probably won't bother with it on the Switch since I already have Diablo III, Torchlight II, and Victor Vran, so I'm pretty well set as far as action RPGs go.

This can't be right. We all know Nintendo doesn't actually release games. The naysayers have said so.

"Will it challenge Animal Crossing?"

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha...

gasp for breath

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

And we once again find ourselves in that awkward situation where we must rely on the warez scene to preserve games for future generations.

@Razer "150m budget is everything ... It's the cost for production, distribution, wages and marketing."

No, $150 million was the budget for production costs alone.

https://screenrant.com/detective-pikachu-movie-budget-cost-pokemon/

That article puts the "break even" point at $300 million, but I suspect it was higher than that given the immense amount of marketing and wide distribution. Warner Bros wanted the Pokemon universe to be their answer to the Marvel films, at least in terms of money making power, so they sunk a huge amount of money into "Detective Pikachu" trying to create a tent pole for a whole new film franchise. At $450 million, it's very likely they barely made their money back.

@Fiskern I said that a movie needs to make back AT LEAST twice its budget, and that's on the low end. Depending on how much marketing was done (and for "Detective Pikachu", it was a hell of a lot), the break even point can easily creep up to three times the budget.

@Razer "This film made a respectable 450m on 150m budget but for a behemoth as hungry as WB right now, that isn't enough."

A general rule of thumb is that a film has to make back at least twice its budget in order to turn a profit. That's because studios spend an immense amount of money on marketing and distribution. In the case of "Detective Pikachu", $450 million on a $150 million budget puts it in the "barely breaking even" category.

@Deppasois "I have Music CDs bought in 2000, they still work and have no 'rot' on them , only light scratches."

My music CD collection goes back to 1990, and there's not hint of "rot" on a single one of them.

Are these Power A controllers any good? They seem like the only decent alternative to the much more expensive Nintendo offering.

Switch Pro confirmed?

@VoidofLight It didn't require anything near 20 conversations to see a variety of dialog. You only had to go two or three interactions deep on any given day (again, the irony here is that the people who claim to enjoy the "life sim" aspect of Animal Crossing apparently never figured this out). But I am glad to see Nintendo mix it up so that we no longer get the same handful of stock phrases first time you talk to a villager.

As for "missing" content, again, it all depends on what you mean by "content". New Horizons does, in fact, have a LOT of content to the point that even after 400-hours, I'm still discovering new things. What you're bent out of shape about is that it doesn't have identical content to New Leaf, but then, New Leaf wasn't identical to Wild World which wasn't identical to the original Animal Crossing. If you just want the same old same old over and over again then go play the previous game that you found most enjoyable. The rest of us actually enjoy the new things added to the franchise.

This isn't to say that New Horizons is perfect. I think Mystery Islands could have been done better, I wish there were more uses for Nook Miles, and I wouldn't mind seeing Town Projects return in some form (beyond being able to place and move structures and terrain features), but given all the new things that New Horizons does bring, these are niggling criticisms at best.

@VoidofLight
What I'm hearing is that it's not so much that New Leaf has less content, you just don't happen to like the content it does have. I mean, yes, there are fewer exterior design options for your home, but then you can freely decorate the property around your house, so one step back and a dozen steps forward?

Regarding villager dialog, it was always there, but you had to talk to villagers multiple times in a day to "unlock" the more elaborate conversations. Now you have a chance to get the more elaborate conversations first time you talk to them. (The irony here is that people who claim to prefer the "life sim" gameplay weren't even doing the things they claim to enjoy if they never realized that villagers became more verbose the more you interacted with them during the day.)

@VoidofLight
Again, I don't know exactly what you mean by "content" or in what way you think New Horizons has less of it.

@VoidofLight "I'm surprised people like you genuinely think that New Horizons has the same amount of content as previous installments..."

I don't know exactly what you mean by "content". What I'm saying is that for me, the core gameplay and daily activities are pretty much identical between New Leaf and New Horizons. There is not, in my opinion, a vast difference between the two games. There are notable differences, certainly, but those differences don't make one game better than another. I enjoyed New Leaf, and I enjoy New Horizons for many of the same reasons. And I say again, these people acting like New Leaf had great depth and variety, I just don't see it.

I'm honestly baffled by people who act like New Leaf had great variety and depth of gameplay, because I find myself doing many of the same things in New Horizons that I did in New Leaf. What am I missing?

@johnvboy I played New Leaf for over 500+ hours, and I honestly don't remember the deep and complex gamplay that others apparently found in that game.

The only reason a company would ever "give up" on a product is if they made all the money they reasonably could from it. The popular idea that Nintendo could be rolling in Apple money if only they would do what fans insist are can't-lose avenues for unlimited profit is pure fantasy.

We buy retro games because we remember how much fun we had playing them when they were new. Of course most of the time the novelty of replaying a favorite game from the past is short lived because we almost never get the same feeling we had when we first played it, or they're simply not as good as we remember.

Of course it's worth it. It's always worth it to buy a last generation console and take advantage of the substantial used discount.

Some day, I would love to be in a position where my employer hands me a big pile of money to walk away.

Luigi is my favorite Mario Bros.

Improving your Switch's WiFi connectivity is less about any tweaks you can do in the system itself and more about simply improving the WiFi in your home. I was having problems with connectivity in some parts of my house and solved it with an inexpensive WiFi repeater. This benefitted not only my Switch but all of my WiFi devices.

I don't care about GamePass for the same reason I don't care about Netflix or Spotify or any other subscription services: I buy the few things I enjoy in a medium that allows me to actually own the product so that a company can't arbitrarily decide in the future that I can no longer access it.

Well, that's not entirely true as I do have a substantial Steam library, but that's because it's pretty much impossible to buy games on physical media for PC these days, and, yes, I'm fully aware that the majority of my PC gaming library is not "future proofed", and that does bother me a little, but I figure if Valve ever pulls the plug, there will be other ways to acquire the games I wish to play again.

This is such an obvious Donkey Kong Country ripoff that I almost expect Nintendo to issue a cease and desist.

My first Animal Crossing was Wild World, but it didn't really grab me, and I stopped playing after six-months. New Leaf is where I really got hooked, and at over 500-hours, it was my most played game on the 3DS. Now I'm playing New Horizons, and it will easily eclipse my New Leaf play time.

Love me some classic Blizzard gaming goodness.

Have had a Switch for over two years, lots of play time, and no problems beyond the ubiquitous Joy Con drift.

Return of MiiVerse? That was one of the coolest things on the 3DS. I was sad to see it shutdown.

It looks blue to me, but it's that odd shade of blue that some people mistake for purple.

Only thing I sort of don't like about Rise is not having to find the monster. Having the icons right there on map is maybe a little too streamlined. But this is really a minor quibble since the game overall is really quite good.

Are lava caverns in the game? I don't recall seeing them.

@Luigisghost669 I fear the joke went over your head.

Premise 1: Nintendo says they can keep up with demand.
Premise 2: Customers are demanding a Switch Pro.
Conclusion: Switch Pro confirmed.

The logic is irrefutable.

What did the 2K rep actually say? Was it the typical "We have no plans to announce it at this time" response that's not an actual denial?

So it's basically a backyard shed built by somebody with too much time and money on his hands.

The price alone tells you that this game is garbage.

Nintendo releasing a dock with a dedicated 4K upscaler actually makes more sense than them releasing a whole new Switch model.

@Paraka The justification, generally, is that if there is no legal way to purchase something, meaning there's no established means to pay for it even if you wanted to, then it falls into a "grey area", and the property can be acquired in whatever way is most convenient. Of course this only applies to non-material goods that can be replicated at will, like movies, television shows, music, literature, and computer software. I doubt the law considers this a grey area, but many consumers certainly do. The problem, naturally, is that when something does become available for purchase, such as Nintendo releasing a number of their classic games as part of an online subscription, people who already "own" the products by other means are reluctant to then pay for them.

The other angle are people who purchased something in the past but then lost the means to play it, such as someone who owned a copy of a certain game, but the console needed to play it no longer works, or the cartridge itself malfunctioned. Are they within their rights as a consumer to acquire a ROM file and play the game through an emulator? Or simply to keep a copy tucked away on a hard drive as a backup?

@Paraka "So where is the line eventually drawn in the sand?"

Copyright law was supposed to be that line, giving someone a financial incentive to create a work for which they could profit for a limited time, after which it would become public domain. Unfortunately, companies like Disney keep finding ways to bribe and coerce politicians into changing the law so that Disney can protect its most precious properties (for instance, if copyright law as originally written was followed to the letter, then Mickey Mouse would in the public domain right now), and so things have become a bit of a mess.

@GrailUK "My [gut] tells me most folk aren't being as genuine as they claim lol."

There is little doubt that some people use "preservation" as an excuse to acquire games that they never paid for, but in many cases, the preservationists are simply people who want to maintain access to a legacy gaming library that they've spent good money on.

@GrailUK I don't think game preservation is a complicated concept. It simply means that people want games to continue to be available to play. You mention VHS, but it's not the format that people care about, it's the content. So when a movie studio takes a movie that was previously available on VHS and releases it on a contemporary format like Bluray, then they are preserving that movie. People would like to see game developers and publishers have the same attitude about gaming software. Unfortunately, unlike movies, there is little financial incentive to release old games on new hardware because it's serving a niche market. So, in the end, it's really up to fans to preserve their favorite games through emulation and piracy. And while I'm not in favor of piracy, it is with a sense of irony that I admit that it's only because of "warez" groups that we even have access to a lot of old software that would have completely disappeared, such as the extensive Commodore 64 and Amiga software libraries.

@COVIDberry "Multinational corporations treated games as disposable products..."

Most companies treat their products as disposable. As soon as it costs more to preserve and maintain it than they can make from selling it, it's gone.

As long as piracy and emulators exist, software will be preserved. It might be an imperfect solution, but it is a solution.