NerdyPaul

@anoyonmus Given how popular Persona is in Japan and the fact Nintendo owns that market, its themselves they would be screwing

Crazy Taxi complete with The Offspring. It was like being back in college

Knockout tour alone makes World better than 8 Deluxe for me personally. I've put a lot of hours into that mode and still never come first, but its still fun as hell.

For everyone playing Rebirth don’t forget to always pet the chocobos. I don’t make the rules

Is it weird that I am more interested in this than Sonic Racing Crossworld?

I'll likely go between FF7 Rebirth and Mina The Hollower on Switch 2 (I am actually glad I got Mina even though it isn't my usual thing) plus the usual weekly Guild Wars 2 with friends on the MSI Claw 8.

@Pho The performance issues in this game were 90% limited to PC and they have been fixed. No reason to suggest it will launch on Switch 2 with issues like that

I may get this on Switch 2. Gonna need to find some people to play with though because I hear this game is better played with friends

@Dman10 Capcom and Square Enix are about equal there to be honest. Both cooking for Switch 2 owners

Brand new AAA game day and date on Switch 2 with other platforms. Take my money already Square Enix

The delay was 100% the right call.

I gave it a 9 by the way, it lost a point due to the need for a third party grip to improve the ergonomics. If Nintendo releases "pro" joycons it will be bumped to a 10

Honestly, I have a PS5 Pro and I have a MSI Claw 8, and over the past year I have actually found myself picking up my Switch 2 more than those other two devices. Switch 2 has kind of become my preferred way to play games, even third parties. I think it’s the experience of playing on Switch 2. It is just such an easy pick up and play experience with no faffing with drivers, fighting Windows or tweaking settings. The other part of the experience is the fact I can play docked or handheld and seamlessly transition to playing handheld or docked, which my Claw simply cannot match. At the age of 43, it is experience over power and graphics that I value most. I just wish Nintendo would make “Pro” joy cons for handheld play.

As for first party releases, I think Nintendo has kind of got their release cadence about right. The last thing I’d want is for them to blow their load on the biggest hitters in the first year and then go multiple years with nothing (like happened with the Wii U). Better to sprinkle in a few bigger games while filling the gaps with smaller games in their vast IP catalogue. In the first year I think it was always more important to get third parties on board helping them get dev kits and showing them that Nintendo will help them promote their games.

I'll believe it when Atlus or Sega announce it

@GrailUK I just tend to be all for games giving players the choice to customise their experience to suit personal tastes, preferences and abilities. We all spend our hard earned money to enjoy games and we all like to enjoy them in different ways. Some like a challenge, some want to explore the world that has been so lovingly crafted, some people want to soak up the lore. All valid ways to enjoy a game so options to allow people to tailor the experience can't be a bad thing.

A goos example is the custom options in BG3 which let me increase the challenge in areas of the game I enjoyed (combat, specifically enemy behaviour) but reduce it in others (long rest resource cost).

@OrtadragoonX Didn't we hear it was $200m over 8 years? Or did I imagine that?

@Aquinas Add to that the fact the Switch 2 is only now really coming down from the Tomodachi Life boost, yeah this is more of a normalisation.

@Ryu_Niiyama PS5 sales in Japan are not really surprising to be fair. Playstation has been an almost ran in the country for a while now. What is surprising though is the collapse in PS5 sales in the UK which has always been a Playstation stronghold and the fact the Switch 2 has reached a million sales here months faster than the Switch did.

@FreasurePlanten Yep, Tomodachi Life inflated the numbers hugely in the past few weeks. Next game that appeals to the Japanese market will see another upswing

Wait til Winds and Waves release next year. There will be a big upswing with that

@DarkCoolEdge Pokopia enters the chat. When it’s a game people want to play, the fact it’s a key card is irrelevant

@DarkCoolEdge too bad the majority of people don’t care either way and majority rules at the end of the day

I wouldn’t mind trying Elden Ring for the world exploration but if I did I think I’d buy it on Steam to play on my MSI Claw where I could mod it to make it easier

@DarkCoolEdge is 80 bucks for a “false card” really any worse than 80 bucks for pure digital on Steam?

Great news for those who want it. Not me though because Souls games scare me

Bottom line when it comes to the use of AI technology:

There are good uses for the technology and there are bad uses for the technology (same as every technology) and context is hugely important. We have zero real context for how the technology has actually been used in the development of this game. Don't forget game development is a broad multi faceted discipline just like "AI" is a broad multi faceted set of tools. We simply cannot say for certain what tools have been used and it what areas of development of the game to be able to even have an opinion about its use in this case.

I will say it again for those in the back, context matters. In this case we don't have any.

@Booloon they are deliberately misreading it because they have a particular bias and need that bias confirmed.

@ShadLink not just these days either, AI tools have been in use in the industry for a lot longer than the current hype and outrage cycle because these tools are just repackaged and rebranded versions of tools that have existed for over a decade now

It says Europe but this is an EU directive so will this apply to all of Europe? Asking from Brexit UK.

@Sahasrahla They are not cutting brainstorming out of the creative process, they are using the tools to make the brainstorming more efficient. No different to a writer using outlining tools, or a tool to help them visualise the timeline of the story they are working on, which is something all writers do.

@RyMacG4 Yes, it has. "AI" tools have been in use long before the current wave of AI tools

I'm not seeing the problem here.

They have been transparent about their use of AI tools in game development, they gave an assurance that any AI generated assets and will be removed before release and that those AI generated assets will be replaced by human created assets. All good things in my book.

Online discourse around AI is quite pathetic with very little nuance. We need a mature discussion about the potential benefits, the potential pitfalls, and ways to minimise the latter while accentuating the positives. I am not anti AI, and I am not blindly pro AI either. I am very much bad uses of AI (like using it to completely replace human creativity) but I can see how it can be used to aide human creativity when the balance is right. As of now I see nothing to suggest that the balance is not right at Crystal Dynamics when it comes to AI.

Step 2 of the Direct discourse cycle is well under way

@SBandy1 Me with Pokopia

Step 1: Nintendo Direct "leak" (rumour really)
Step 2: Internet goes wild with "predictions" (mindless speculation really"
Step 3: A solid Direct happens with lots of cool announcements but the wild speculation doesn't happen
Step 4: Internet goes wild with outrage that their too high exceptions were not met
Step 4: ????
Step 5: Social media grifters profit

The cycle of Nintendo Direct discourse online.

Not gonna lie, I kinda want those pink ones, "women's clogs" be damned

Hey, companies who make things, men like pink too.

I love to see indie games do well.

Its raining games

Nice. I played a bit of this on my MSI Claw 8 and it definitely has potential so Switch 2 owners are in for a treat. I'm just waiting for 1.0 before playing more.

I feel like abysmal commentary is just a feature of both FIFA/EAFC and PES/eFootball because it has never been good. First thing I always did when playing them back in the day was turn the commentary off/down.

Also, side note, PES was always better for gameplay than FIFA

Already have it preordered and preloaded. Its a big chunky download

Do I need another controller? Nope. Will it be inferior to the Switch 2 pro controller? Most likely. Am I eyeing up that Kirby Horipad anyway because I just love Kirby? Yes, yes I am.

@somnambulance It may have gone to a dark place but that makes the representation of it so important and useful. We need to be able to have meaningful conversations around this stuff and seeing it represented in games (also books, film and TV) genuinely helps destigmatise it.

I do love seeing indie games made by smaller teams on a tighter budget on the top of the reviews tree. Only Schrodinger's Call is higher on Opencritic but with far fewer reviews.

Side note: that visual novel is now on my radar because of that fact

Also it isn't on the list but Quartet also released on the eShop today (overshadowed by Mina maybe) so I have that downloaded as well

I have FF7 Rebirth preloaded and ready to go on release. Take my advice and do the preload. It's a chunky old download.

@SearchingS Modern CoD games are pushing 200gb on other platforms. There is no way they could get it down to 60 to go on a game cart without significant sacrifices to graphics, performance and features. This will be a code in a box, if it gets a box release at all

I won't be doing this because I am a ham fisted oaf and I would mess it up. Great that it is an option for people with more skills than me though.

Mouse controls alone is a major win in a game like this