Comments 136

Re: Hold On Tight As Digital Foundry Tries To Nail Down Zelda: Link's Awakening's Performance Hiccups

Nehalem

I beat this game and really liked it. I never played the original and was very impressed how well it held up as I heard it was a very faithful reboot. At first, the graphics turned me off a little, as I thought they were a little too cutesy and toy-like for my tastes but that impression wore off quickly.

The stutters were obvious but never a bother for me.

Still, like others, it is times like these that I look forward to something with a little more power at some point. While you can never have enough I would love to just have games at this level always hit 1080p and 720p consistently (although I could imagine Nintendo doing 1080p screen to mimic the docked profile as a handheld and introduce two new performance profiles alongside).

Re: Metacritic Review-Bombers Strike Again With FIFA 20 On Switch

Nehalem

@Zyph because you agree with them .

I do too but that is still the case. Review bombing still tells us something about people feeling upset about something and I find it interesting regardless of whether I agree with it.

If I try to frame this in a more forgiving way towards ea I would say they went about as far as they could with the old engine and figured the cost of bringing frostbite to ARM hardware wasn’t worth it. This is assuming they still haven’t ported it to arm, but it seems crazy they wouldn’t undergo this since you could imagine them wanting this tech on mobile at some point.

Too bad Konami hasn’t jumped on this opportunity and ported their game.

Re: Review: Blasphemous - A Nightmarishly Good Mix Of Metroid And Dark Souls

Nehalem

"Sometimes a little unclear as to how you proceed at later stages in the game" is why I can never get into metroidvania games. I love the idea of them, but I always get stuck and the requirement of tracking all over the place drives me crazy and ruins them for me. For some, it may culminate in a wonderful sense of discovery so I'm not suggesting my way is the right way here. The sense of discovery works for me in BOTW for some reason but in these games I just get bored and I have almost given up on the genre.

I think for me there just needs to be the tools to clearly see where I've been and where I might want to backtrack to.

Re: Switch's NES And SNES Games Will No Longer Be Added Monthly

Nehalem

I think this all boils down to the pessimism of Nintendo and their ability to do “online”. As it is their service value will largely depend on the subjective value of these old games (but at least snes is way better than nes, which I found boring). The service itself is still a dinosaur and way behind in any empirical sense.

It’s very cheap but if you never actually play the old games it would be nice if they actually offered more on the online side.

Re: Splatoon Producer Hasn't Thought About The Future Of The Series Just Yet

Nehalem

I’m confused why people are suggesting this might be the last entry. It’s one of their most popular franchises worldwide.

Always be skeptical of these interview translations and what may have been lost, as well as just how guarded Nintendo is in general.

They will almost certainly start development immediately on the next release at the conclusion of two.

Re: Review: Dragon Quest Builders 2 - Beating Minecraft At Its Own Game

Nehalem

The FPS on docked is a problem. I'm not an FPS obsessed person but it's clearly dipping below 30 quite often (it's the inconsistency that is so noticeable, it's very jumpy in many places). Handheld seems to be fine. We know that the docked performance bump it receives is not equal to doubling so why in the world did they go with 1080p on docked? It would have been just fine to give us 900p or even remove anti-aliasing. Or the option to just stay at 720p as the first one did? Or better than any change the resolution dynamically as seems to be the rage these days.

Regardless, I'm baffled that they have allowed this game to have these performance issues when docked. A couple of sensible choices would likely have addressed this just fine.

Re: Switch Lite's Battery Life Will Last 3 - 7 Hours, Depending On What You Play

Nehalem

I’m curious if this is from the processor. If so that probably means they cut costs by having a smaller battery and simplified cooling system (on top of the other stuff, just saying this battery life should be a lot better if it had the same sized battery with a shrunken processor).

Which then makes me wonder when this processor will become available on the standard switch with hopefully enhanced capabilities (remember this will have the hack fix almost for sure so Nintendo will have major incentives to get them in all switches ASAP).

Re: Rumour: Switch Lite To Retain Docking Ability, Nintendo Still 'Experimenting' With More Powerful Model

Nehalem

There are some really good reasons to have a pro-ish model (or just new switch version). It stands to reason that the light will include a new version did the X1 chip that will be built on a smaller node and have a security fix. This will allow simplified cooling to allow them to reduce the price.

Nintendo would want to push all switches to this since the security hole on the switch is built into the hw and makes it very simple to hack. So making a smaller update to the existing switch totally makes sense. With this new model improving performance is certainly possible if they give it a higher clock speed with some new performance profiles (docked / undocked). We will just have to see. They could also just improve battery life.

Re: Feature: GoldenEye Dev David Doak On Shaking (And Stirring) The FPS Genre On Console

Nehalem

Agree with others. Couch co-op was so much fun because the social aspect. I barely saw arcades when a lot of companies focused on them, but there was something magical about them too.

It would be so easy to dismiss this as simple nostalgia but it is not the games that meant so much but the interaction they created.

Nintendo, for their part, has still valued these experiences but this game, combined with gen x teenagers, was something else.

Re: Sakurai Battled Through Health Issues With An IV Drip During Smash Ultimate Development

Nehalem

I think people are right to be sympathetic but perhaps don’t understand him. I’m guessing he wouldn’t be very happy taking time off, and is not the kind of person to work normal hours. Some people are passionate about their work and only feel fulfilled when they give it their all. They live to work, not the other way around. For these people the worst thing they can do is retire as they generally don’t last long without that purpose.

I could be wrong but at least consider the possibility that this might be the case...

Re: Review: Final Fantasy IX - A Strong Entry In The Classic Series Despite Some Rough Edges

Nehalem

I've been playing it for the first time. I've dipped my foot in many FF entries but the series has always been pretty hit and miss for me (Dragon Quest games have aged much better for me).

My thoughts (FWIW):

  • Playing on a portable console is perfectly suited for these older games.
  • It's aged pretty well overall. The drawn backgrounds look nice, if pixelated. The overworld has not aged well at all. The battles are too slow and janky in terms of animation but not bad.
  • Why do the battles take so long to load?
  • The characters are great, some moments have me laughing. I'm kind of surprised because usually JRPG stories and characters feel lost in translation for me. These characters are truly endearing at times.
  • The systems in place aren't overly archaic, which I appreciate.
  • The card game is completely lost on me. The rules seem arbitrary and not well explained at all.
  • At times I've used the "+" menu cheats. I appreciate them being there because at times things would take forever...

Overall have really liked it and can appreciate why people like this game so much. I tried playing VII a couple of years ago and couldn't get into it at all. Been surprised by this one.

Re: Rumour: Nintendo Has Plans To Revive A "Dead And Buried" Game

Nehalem

@Heavyarms55 I think they could stick with the same engine, it’s the rest of what is required. Once it is harder than going from 60 to 30 FPS, or lowering the resolution (or dialing back other easily tweaked visuals), I think most companies deem it “infeasible”. The next thing up is having to simplify 3D models and at that point it’s like creating a remaster if a game (a ton of work and money).

Re: Thea: The Awakening Sold "Noticeably Better" On Switch During Its First Week

Nehalem

On the topic of independent games on the switch: For a while I was buying a lot of independent games, but found too often that I would only play them for an hour and drop them. It really makes me appreciate how much has to go into a game to get the level of polish most/some of us expect.

FWIW, I absolutely did buy a lot because of portability AND the dearth of bigger titles.

If this one really is good maybe I’ll pick it up later this month.

I expect my data point of one person to only be treated as that...

Re: Dead Or Alive Xtreme 3: Scarlet Won’t Be Released In Europe Or North America

Nehalem

I really don’t care about these games and would never buy one. I do generally like the idea that people can do what they want as long as it doesn’t harm others (like for reals harm, not just offending) so I wish there wasn’t the moral outrage if they they had brought this over.

Also I find myself very turned off by the ones arguing against this game or games like it (especially the listing out of all the virtuous issues they are fighting for).

Is it possible the next counter culture movement will be against the left? I never thought it possible but I never thought in my lifetime that the puritanical force would be from the left and not the right.

Strange times indeed.

Re: Talking Point: How Do You Feel About The Metroid Prime 4 Delay?

Nehalem

It was the release I was hoping for most this year. So this stinks.

Good they don't release it if not ready, and the honesty is really nice, but I can't help but feel Nintendo needs to have more development resources. They are fortunate, in a strange way, that Wii U did poorly and so many of us never played it because if we were just going by original Switch games they developed the game output would feel quite a bit more dry (and lets be honest, Nintendo will always depend on first party titles more than Sony or MS). They would probably be wise to buy Platinum games and other studios for example (most likely Japanese).

Re: UK Charts: New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe Launch Sales 24.8% Higher Than On Wii U, Hits Number One

Nehalem

The problem with a Nintendo fan site like this is so many people know the Wii U well. For many of us, the Switch is the first Nintendo console in some time and we know nothing about the Wii U. So for me personally, Nintendo would be crazy not to release every game they made for Wii U. I honestly didn't know 3d world existed until I saw it mentioned here.

From this perspective charging full price doesn't seem crazy because it never existed before (or, stated another way, it's a brand new game for many people). I wish it was cheaper but it's easy to see why they can do this.

FWIW, I also bought this game. My wife and I play it together and that was one of the main reasons I bought it (I love that Nin values multiple player on the couch games). i will say that it looks outdated in the graphics department and all the "plastic" criticism is warranted, but the gameplay is great.

Re: Japanese Charts: Smash Bros. Ultimate Stays In Top Spot While Switch Maintains Momentum

Nehalem

@Kainbrightside it’s just a little annoying. I don’t know why cobalt felt compelled to bring up a story that casts the switch in a bad light.

Coming off the Wii U I think Nintendo fans care a great deal about the market and it makes sense. For a bit there this year it seemed like the switch had lost its momentum, so this seems like good news all around. Japanese developers specifically should feel quite compelled to support the switch for years to come. I am guessing it will be more complicated for western developers still given performance differences, etc.

This year wasn’t my cup of tea with the first party titles but next year looks promising (fire emblem and Metroid, esp).

Re: Random: Hollywood Legend John Carpenter Doesn't Think Much Of Nintendo Labo

Nehalem

@Mr_Pepperami Your comments on fatherhood mirror my own. I have so many friends that don't have kids and I don't want to be "that" guy but I just know they are missing out (not in all cases, but in several cases with my friends).

I know where they are coming from as I didn't think I would have kids for a long time but my wife and I changed our minds and our life is 100% more busy but also 200% more meaningful.

Kids are great, just don't over spoil them .

Re: Random: Former American President Barack Obama Doesn't Care About Pokémon, So Go And Vote

Nehalem

Strange article. I personally just hate to see politics and games mix, and same with sports. We really just need our places where you can avoid it given how divisive it has become.

Even a simple article about going to vote will be divisive (I know it’s because who the article is about and people on the right know that they would never see similar report that is not in some way negative about their guy/gal). It’s sad but also true.

Re: Former Telltale Employee Takes Legal Action Following Mass Layoffs

Nehalem

@gloom yeah this was the kind of absolutist rhetoric I was pushing back on. This situation sucks no doubt but lives are not “destroyed” By most metrics this was hardly a large company where the management is many layers (and locations) removed so there is never any care for workers.

It could absolutely be that this management is one of the worst possible examples of how not to run a games company, but I have seen many counter examples to this as well (mostly outside this industry, but that is because I don’t know a ton of people who chose this industry but do know some)

The gaming industry is a mess though and glad I don’t work in it.

Re: Cities: Skylines - A SimCity Successor That Struggles To Shine On Switch

Nehalem

On the direct you could tell it was struggling. I can rarely see bad frame rates but it looked bad enough to notice. The developers themselves on eurogamer said that it dropped to the twenties so stop trying to apologize for it. It just doesn’t run well which is a shame. I’m sure optimizing a game like this is hard given that it adds a lot of complexity to render later but still a shame.

Re: Nintendo Switch System Update 6.0.0 Is Now Live

Nehalem

I’m surprised how excited people are. It feels mostly the same as before, you just pay for online. I’ll give them credit on the nes app, it runs nicely and has a good interface (I don’t think I will play it much as I just am not into nes games)

I don’t think this does anything for Nintendo’s online reputation.

If you like it then good.