Qwiff

These leaks seem to be coming from unofficial accessory makers, enjoying their 15 minutes of fame. I don't think we'll see any leaks from the likes of Hori.

Anyway, these leaks are doing Nintendo a favour, because they get the boring parts of the official announcement out of the way. "Here's the New Switch and it's bigger."

Your eyesight is not getting better when you get older, so I'm happy to see a modest increase in size. Hopefully the extra size will also make the Joy-Cons more comfortable. Looking at the leaks so far, I don't think they put in any particular effort in making them more ergonomic.

@Toastmaster @Jeronan, I see the confusion here: EU = European Union. Norway is not part of the EU, so that's why it's not available there.

@Jeronan Not sure what you mean here. EU customers can order a Deck just fine. In fact, the EU distribution centre is here in The Netherlands. My Deck arrived within a day.

EDIT: I guess you mean retail availability.

First of all, best wishes for a Switch 2(025) year to everyone! I'm looking forward to reading about the games everyone will be playing in the new year. From this topic, I've picked up quite a few titles that I hadn't heard of before and I'm sure this year will bring some more little-known indie gems to my attention.

Anyway, finally started Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. Already bought its DLC, so I expect it will keep me occupied for the next few weeks.

Also, Parking Garage Rally Circuit, on Steam Deck. It's a nice little indie drift racer, that's likely to be ported to Switch.

@Kiwi_Unlimited More likely, Nintendo doesn't care, as long as it doesn't affect their stock. If anything, these leaks only keep the buzz alive, without them having to do any marketing. We all know it's coming very soon, what does a few months' difference make at this point?

The most important and exciting details - the launch date, price and launch titles - are still unknown.

On page 32, the patent specifically talks about generating data sets on versions of a game that is capable of outputting higher resolutions, for use with versions of the game that output lower resolutions.

Now the obvious application here is to enhance resolutions for older, backwards-compatible titles. This might, however, also be a strategy to future-proof the Switch platform. I.e. continue to train new titles, developed during the next decade or so, on higher resolutions (on developer workstations) and provide game-specific DLSS data sets either with the game itself or through system updates.

Pepper Grinder. Played the demo earlier this year, but did not get around to buying the full game until now. Finished the first world yesterday and loving it so far. This may be one of the year's best indies.

Also, Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed. Sadly, this is not available on Switch, so playing on the Deck. The single-player is more fun than Mario Kart, tbh.

Enjoy the weekend. See you all next year!

Bought this in the current sale. Loving it!

Wrapping up Ace Combat 7, only 2 missions left. After that, getting onboard the Loco Motive again, now that the patch is out.

Merry X-mas everyone!

@Truegamer79 The excitement is because, this time, they gave a rough indication for the next gen announcement well in advance. Everyone knows it's coming in the next 3 months.

Actually, the "successor" messaging has always been aimed at the shareholders. That's also why they've been explicit in managing expectations for subsequent Directs.

Backwards-compatibility and Switch Online continuity is the only concrete technical info that they did reveal, and that, too, seems to be targeted at shareholders. Not having backwards-compatibility would risk alienating the existing user base. That's why they were so keen to at least drop this info ahead of the actual reveal.

Played the first few chapters at launch. Enjoyed it a lot, but put it on the backlog, awaiting this patch. Can't wait to get on board again!

It looks like the most important factor for a platform's success is the digital library. The PC handhelds are designed to give people access to their existing Steam library. I.e. for portable play Switch is no longer the only choice.

At the same time, the fragmentation in the PC market makes it hard for any single OEM to gain a majority share in the handheld segment. The Steam Deck sells in the millions, sure, but not tens of millions. And for Lenovo, the Legion Go revenue is just a rounding error on their balance sheet.

The digital library is also the reason why Xbox is losing to PlaySation again this generation. People are not willing to give up their, in this case, investment in PS4 games and want continuity.

So it's likely that the Switch audience will stick around for next gen, no matter how underpowered the hardware may be compared to other handhelds. And that's aside from the advantage of Nintendo having first-party exclusives, which Xbox and PS have mostly given up on it seems.

If it really looks like the leaks, there's no real surprise for Nintendo to reveal anyway, at least as far as the form factor is concerned. So I can understand why they're delaying the announcement as much as possible.

The more interesting info are the system specs and the games.

Yet more Ace Combat 7. Still 8 missions left. At this rate, I'll be playing this game next week as well.

Have a good weekend everyone!

I think he was lead artist on Skyrim while at Bethesda, so it's not some random guy. He left Bethesda during Starfield's development and is now an indie developer. Looks like roles with more creative freedom are better suited to him.

More Ace Combat 7. Haven't played any flight games since the late 90s, but this game reminds me that flying is fun.

For me, the only real highlight is TTYD. Even though it's a remake, I missed out on the original. I now understand why it's held in such high regard, as it's in my top 5 of all-time favourite games.

It makes up for a rather lacklustre year for Switch, tbh. I had high hopes for EoW, but despite the high production values and fun mechanics, I found it to be too short and easy to be truly memorable.

Looking forward to MP4 next year. This generation is going out with a bang.

Speculating here. The EU delay could be due to pending age ratings in Germany. Same situation as Dying Light, which isn't available on the EU e-shop, because, in Germany, it's age-restricted. Since Nintendo cannot guarantee that a buyer is, indeed, at least 18 years of age, they don't carry it at all.

Problem is that PS5/Xbox blockbuster titles cost too much to make. See Concord for a recent example of an expensive failure. They have to recoup their investment somehow and leaving it on one platform is too risky. A possible way forward would be for consoles to focus on exclusives with a smaller scope and lower budget.

But, yeah, all you need is a Switch, a PC and some patience waiting for PS5 titles to be ported to PC eventually. Maybe Astrobot will stay PS5 exclusive, but that's the only game of note that you'll miss out on.

Now I'm Inclined to get this just for the Danger Zone rendition. Maybe the cheesy music is intended to induce rage?

Ace Combat 7. Was planning on buying this for Switch, but the current Steam sale was too tempting, so playing on the Deck and the gaming laptop instead.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Seeing the huge amount of work put into the MP1 remaster, I don't think we'll see an MP2 or MP3 remaster any time soon. The idea of having the entire Prime series on one console is appealing, but there's a law of diminishing returns, in terms of sales, for direct sequels. On the GameCube, MP1 sold ~2.8 million, while MP2 merely sold ~1.1 million. Furthermore, MP1 Remaster hasn't even reached the sales numbers of the original. The business case isn't really there.

I hope I'm wrong, though!

@NielsNL On the plus side, the font is scalable and arguably more readable than the fonts typically used in point-and-click games. Each UI element (dialog, captions) can be set to small, medium or large. It's good to see a game designed with accessibility in mind.

Starting with the current console generation, customers seem to be sticking to the same platform, because of backwards-compatibility and their previous investment in its digital library. It's one of the reasons why Xbox is struggling against PS5 and also why Nintendo was so keen to emphasize next-gen backwards-compatibility ahead of their actual Switch 2 announcement.

So if this new portable will be able to play all games from existing digital libraries, then that's a good value proposition for people who prefer PlayStation.

Anyway, the Switch really shook up the industry.

Loco Motive. For me, the surprise release of the year, as I found out about it only yesterday. Probably the GOTY in the point-and-click adventure genre. It's as if they discovered an unreleased LucasArts game from the 90s and updated it to modern standards.

Characters, writing, pixel art, animation, music, voice acting are all extremely polished. You can even change the text size of different UI elements to small/medium/large. On top of that, they added the occasional HD rumble effect. Basically, this game does everything right.

Have a good weekend everyone!

Ideally, interfaces should adapt to the user's preferred text size, like web browsers do. For games, this is not an easy problem to solve, since it affects the UI/HUD layout. Scalable text has to be designed and built in from the start.

System Shock remake is another recent example that comes to mind. The text is tiny, even on a big TV, let alone a Steam Deck. Would have loved to have played it, but refunded right away.

Half-Life 2 on Steam Deck. You can get it for free this weekend. Another sequel celebrating its 20th anniversary.

It was a day 1 buy for me, but the EU release was 2 weeks later.

I only played it once back then, so it's been a long time. While I do think they took the lessons learned and changed the gameplay to make it distinct, I feel MP1 is still the better game, because of the more interesting locales, as this article also points out. Dark Aether does get a bit oppressive after a while. But it's like arguing whether The Godfather 2 is better than 1.

Sadly, I had to sell my copy afterwards, because money was tight back then. A remaster would be welcome, it would go straight to the top of the backlog.

If it's ARM-based, then it might stand a chance. Current PC gaming handhelds, like Steam Deck, are hampered by the fact that they have to be X86. A dedicated handheld, that does not pretend to be a PC and does not offer backwards-compatibility, could give them a clean break.

Never played the original, but the remake is in my top 5 games of all time. The gameplay is good, but it's the characters and world building that make the whole experience so memorable. The ending boss battle, when the whole world is rooting for you, and the detective still thinks you're Luigi, is one the greatest moments in gaming. I felt sad when it ended.

The Case of the Golden Idol. This game really gets in your head. Bought this a few months ago, but it ended up on the backlog. Recently, it was updated to a Complete Edition that includes the DLC and a new UI. You can upgrade to this new version for free, even if you only have the base game.

Have a good weekend everyone! And don't forget, over here in Western Europe we get an extra hour of gaming this weekend.

It's not strictly part of this sale, but Return of the Obra Dinn is also discounted at the moment. And NL scored it 9/10. Good fit for Halloween.

Looks like they simplified the lighting, by making it much brighter overall. Tbh, the darker look of the original has more atmosphere. Might be a budget issue, since lighting can be a ton of work. For comparison, the TTYD remake credits list 30 people working on the lighting alone.

Enjoyed my time with the game, but felt it was too easy, and the main quest to be too short, to make it as memorable as the other 2D titles. The summoning mechanics are great. Hopefully, they expand upon this with the next title.

In the dev interviews, they indicated they settled on Zelda as the playable character 1 year into development. It does feel like they had to cut development short as a consequence. After the third main dungeon, I was quite surprised to see that the main quest was already moving towards its conclusion.

Wind Waker had the same issue. They had to cut a major dungeon due to time constraints, replacing it with a tedious fetch quest. Thankfully, EoW does not make the same mistake of padding out the game with filler content.

@Olliemar28 Rumour has it that the Odyssey team is working on a DK game.

Speak No Evil was pretty decent.

Related trivia: two of the lead actors (the American couple) were also leads in Halt and Catch Fire. That series accurately captured the spirit of the 80s and 90s computer industry. I'm old enough to recall. Anyone with an interest in the dawn of the personal computing era, or just excellent drama, should watch it.

The word "fan" is derived from "fanatic", so its use is accurate in this case.

@dazzleshell We did get Bowser's Fury. Yes, it's a bonus game and feels more like a prototype of an open-world Mario, but what is there is very good.

The only Nintendo generation that had analog triggers and games being made with that in mind. FLUDD control in Sunshine comes to mind. Also the rumble is still the strongest of any Nintendo controller. Used to great effect in Wave Race Blue Storm. HD rumble on the Pro controller seems puny in comparison. My original purple controller from 2002 is still working well. No drift.

That said, I would still not be interested in subscription-only access to retro games. Give us the option to buy, my wallet is ready.

Great news! While the good parts are fantastic, the game is far too long. Hopefully, they cut out the boring bits without the Alien this time. Maybe have multiple xenos hunting you?

@Lofoten For me, moving the data from SD to internal memory did seem to reduce the FPS drops slightly. Either that or I'm enjoying myself too much to notice them anymore.

Credit where credit is due. I don't think there are many people comfortable with getting undue credit. (Unless you're Donald Trump, ofc.)

I've seen maybe one out of five videos, but every one was inspirational, so I still have a huge backlog to look forward to. He put his heart and soul into this project, but good for him to move on.

If there's one thing that Nintendo does right is representing their games' footage accurately, frame rate drops and all. Having videos of an emulator outperforming the real hardware is just not a good look. I don't think it's "hardware envy", or a similar petty argument, but partly about managing customer's expectation for current-gen games.

Same reason for them going after AI-generated images. They want their IP represented accurately.

I'm sure we'll see a new Switch emulator in the future. Dolphin has been around for 2 decades already, after all.

So far I'm loving it. The animation, lighting and materials look gorgeous. They didn't skimp on production values, so it's a proper Zelda game and not some spin-off.

I like that the combat is different from Link. Feels like a mini RTS / Diablo.

Yes, they made the puzzles easier due to the increase in player freedom, but you still feel a sense of accomplishment in solving them in your own way.

If I have to give a verdict now, I'd score it a 9.

EOW of course. Loving it so far. The combat reminds me of playing Diablo 2 with the Necromancer.

Enjoy, everyone!

I can only echo that tip about mobbing your enemies. Feels like a mini RTS.

My own tip: enable Hero mode from the start. The increased risk makes it much more rewarding.

@MeloMan Not only the amount of assets, but also the level of detail. 3D games can use lower detail textures for objects in the distance. 2D games don't have that option.

As much as I like the game, I have to say that the FPS fluctations are much more noticeable than they were in LA. Yes, internal memory is faster, so titles that rely on continuous streaming will benefit. I have a physical copy, so can't compare.

TOTK, for example, temporarily raises the clock speed to speed up initial loading, but drops back to normal clock speeds during actual play. It's unlikely they'll be able to fix it for EOW, because it would mean raising the clock speed during the entire game.