Qwiff

@Synplex It's unlikely they'll improve the frame rate issues much. In LA, the hitches occur when loading in new areas. The Switch's limited memory bandwidth can't keep up. The alternative to streaming would have been to have gameplay interrupted by loading screens.

Haven't played EOW yet, but I'm pretty sure it has the same problem.

@LikelySatan Enjoy your break from work. Same here. It's been all work the past month, so now I'm ready to play. This releases at exactly the right time.

If it's as good as LA, then I'll enjoy the heck out of it for sure.

Picking it up tomorrow morning. Took half days off tomorrow and Friday. The past month has been all work and no play, so I can use the break.

@martynstuff That reminds me of Robin Williams naming his daughter Zelda.

@DripDropCop146 In the meantime, there's a Nightdive remaster in the works of the older game. Never played it, but interested.

It's on my backlog, but this endorsement bumped it to the top. But first, EoW.

I wonder what he thinks of Dying Light, especially its Carpenter-esque soundtrack.

I think Twilight Princess and Link Between Worlds perfected the "traditional" 3D and 2D dungeon formulas. Then they moved on to new gameplay styles.

With TOTK, they did try to accommodate more regular dungeons.The entire questline leading up to the Wind Temple, as well as the temple itself was just masterful. No, the temples are not exactly like traditional dungeons, but you can feel they tried to give them more structure, at the same time having them fit in the free-form open-world gameplay. I'm hoping Echoes will do the same.

Also bear in mind that designing and developing a traditional dungeon takes a long chunk of development time. It's not some checklist item. They cut 2 dungeons from Wind Waker to make the release on time. Quality over quantity.

Nice weather, so not much gaming. Did play RE4 Separate Ways on XSS over the course of the week. Enjoyed it more than the main campaign, tbh.

I know what I'll be playing next weekend... For now, enjoy this weekend everyone!

@Jhena The singleplayer is very good, with some clever level design throughout. Spin dash is a great addition to the gameplay. The physics still don't have the fidelity of SMB1 and 2, however.

The multiplayer is terrible.

There are plenty of children, of around the same age as the Switch, who are putting this on their X-mas wish list. An evergreen title, like MK, is an obvious choice for such a bundle.

The Deck opened my eyes to 40fps. It's a huge step up from 30fps, but not much of a step down from 60fps. For some games, like Dying Light, I actually prefer it over 60fps, because the lower framerate makes it feel more cinematic.

Now if the Switch 2 display would support arbitrary refresh rates, it would give devs more performance headroom. Of course, docked output would be a problem, since the external display would then have to support 120Hz (a multiple of 40) or VRR.

Love these kinds of behind-the-scenes looks. Never played the original game, so interested in this remaster.

@Yalloo Disappointing how? Impossible Lair is a well-regarded title. Personally, I loved it. The mix of the overworld and platform levels, the humour, the music. One of the best examples of third-party titles from early in the Switch's lifecycle.

Enjoying the last bits of Summer, so no gaming this weekend.

Finished SMB Banana Rumble main Adventure mode yesterday evening. A few W9 and W10 levels were needlessly frustrating (e.g. W10 Tornado Ring), but other than that I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Enjoy the weekend everyone!

Sounding very promising indeed! Looks like it's the perfect fusion of BOTW/TOTK and Link's Awakening.

Yeah, the FPS drops are still there, but those didn't stop me from enjoying the heck out of LA. Gameplay is what matters and it sounds exactly up my alley.

Looks there were some lessons learned from the TOTK marketing. They didn't convey what made it stand out from BOTW, so people were dismissing it as mere DLC. (Some still do...) For me, all these previews are a bit too much, though, I want to discover things myself. Scrubbed through the SwitchUp video and it does look very vibrant. Perfect for the OLED.

These gen AI models would not exist without the copyrighted material used to train them and the fair use of this is still being challenged legally. First, fair use is evaluated differently when there's money involved, and there's big money involved in AI, needless to say. Second, while you cannot stop people being influenced/educated by copyrighted works, there's no actual person involved in gen AI. Just a machine hoovering up content.

Meanwhile, companies the size of Nintendo are not going to risk retroactively being slammed with copyright lawsuits, when they are perfectly capable of producing their own content.

Chicory: A Colorful Tale. I had to say farewell to a dog earlier this week, so I'm in a sad mood. Gaming is not going to console me (pun intended), but Chicory is a great game in and of itself.

Also wrapping up the SMB Banana Rumble Adventure mode, and some more Horizon Chase Turbo. Their bright, colourful styles cheer me up somewhat.

EDIT: And Monkey Island Special Edition, which happens to be on sale on GOG. Wish there were was a Switch port, but Steam Deck will do. Don't have a PC, so the Deck is the only platform I can play it on.

Have a good weekend everyone!

I love how Nintendo puts the spotlight on indie devs, so we see the people behind the games. I never even heard of Coffee Talk, but will now definitely check it out.

Tetris Forever was the other highlight.

It's just nice to see Sega make a major announcement in the Partner Direct again. Last time it was SMB Banana Rumble, now this.

I have Tetris Effect Connected, but it's over-the-top with all the fancy effects. So definitely interested in these retro versions. Hopefully this collection also has Super Tetris from 1991. Always loved that version.

@HeadPirate It's hard to say if there would be a positive net effect on any game announcements in the way you're describing. I think it's safe to assume that any concrete, official next-gen news will impact current-gen sales of both hardware and games. I.e. people will start thinking of saving their money. You don't want to put the audience in that mindset, at least not when you're announcing new, current-gen games.

As for the shareholder thing, I'm referring to stories from earlier this year, about next-gen anticipation affecting the stock price:

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2024/02/nintendo-shares-drop-following-latest-reports-of-switch-2-delay

@HeadPirate It's more a message for shareholders. Switch 2 rumours/expectations have had a negative effect on their stock price before.

Anyone who's even slightly interested in games will watch anyway.

EDIT: It's also a form of courtesy to the devs to keep the focus on the games. Imagine working on your game for years, only to have the reveal spoiled by half the audience complaining about there not being a next-gen hardware announcement. It's good that they manage expectations.

Having finished TTYD earlier this week, I feel a little sad, but all good things must come to an end. It's definitely in my top 5 favourite games of all time. The care and attention they put into the remake is extraordinary. The credits list 30 people working on the lighting alone, and it shows.

After finishing such an epic game, I feel like going for some lighter stuff. This weekend, I'm playing Horizon Chase Turbo and Wave Race Blue Storm. The latter through Dolphin. The graphics hold up well, set the internal render resolution to 1080p and you basically have a remastered version.

Like others already said, it will be $399 at most.

Entertaining the notion that it will be $499 for a moment, it would need some substantial features to justify the extra cost. For example, 8 inch OLED, Hall effect Joy-Cons, better speakers or an extra GPU in the dock to improve docked performance.

With the Olympics over, more time for gaming, so TTYD. Been playing it on and off since launch. Hope to finish the game before the end of the month. That will leave some time to clear some of the backlog in time for Zelda. (Less than 6 weeks to go!)

Also, Turok 2. Played only for a bit, but I can already tell it's a great 90s shooter. Hint: it's still on sale.

Have a good weekend everyone!

@Rhaoulos As a workaround, you could use DekuDeals. They show the Metacritic rating in the sidebar.

Yep, just bought Turok 2. No idea when I'll get around to actually playing it, but for that price, I couldn't resist.

Only played Turok 1, actually, on PC back in the day. It came packed in with the Voodoo Rush, if anyone remembers that. It was my first exposure to hardware-accelerated 3D graphics and I was floored. Great times.

@AccessibleDaydream @TheBigK, Banana Rumble is the one to get for single-player. The multiplayer is, frankly, terrible.

if you happen to have a GameCube, or a Wii that can play GC games, SMB1 or 2. Those have great single and multiplayer.

For me, strategy game sequels are less appealing, because the bigger scope also means more time commitment for what is, usually, still the same type of gameplay. Heist is a great game, but I've had my fill with the first. Skipped Mario + Rabbids 2 for the same reason.

Bought the physical this week, so the main campaign is on the backlog. Perhaps I'll play the DLC right afterwards.

Watching the Olympics mostly, but some Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble adventure mode here and there. Pure videogame fun. No level is finished without at least the golden banana.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Played the demo for 5 mins on Steam Deck and was impressed. It does nail the feel and the art style gives it more personality than the average indie racer. I'm a bit skeptical of a Switch port being able to reach stable 60fps, seeing that it's an Unreal Engine game.

My only complaint is that there's no Collector's edition. The one for Link's Awakening remake had an art book. I would have loved to see a more in-depth look at the concepts and iterations they went through. But who knows? Maybe there will be a dedicated art book if the game turns out to be wildly successful beyond expectations.

Not sure if the game will have many different weather styles, but I love the sunny setting, and the deep, contrasting shadows they're showing in this trailer. So looking forward to this.

Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble. The perfect game for the Summer.

They put their heart and soul in the single player. The levels strike the right balance between difficulty (from Neon Arena onwards), replayability and simply being fun to play. The catchy soundtrack is just icing on the cake.

Have a great weekend everyone!

@gcunit They do care about image and prestige, just not necessarily about having made the best-selling console of all time.

Facts: 1) No console price cut 2) No Nintendo Selects this generation 3) First-party titles on sale for 33% off at most, and typically 2 years after their original release. See where this is going? They want to position themselves as a premium brand. That's what their image and prestige is based on.

@johnedwin If Nintendo cared as much as you do, they would have dropped the price already to meet that sales target. They don't have to, because they still have plenty of cash on hand.

In the longer term, it's more important for Nintendo to maintain their "premium" image, especially going into the next generation. The underlying message being that there's no point in waiting for a price cut.

It's good to see the OLED being the best-selling of the 3 models, showing that presumably more casual users are willing to pay a premium.

Farewell North releases in 2 weeks. Played the demo on Steam Deck and it's interesting enough, if you're in the mood for an emotional (dog) walking sim.

At least this edition can be called a genuine "indie" in the sense that it has not found mainstream success. Not being mainstream should be a badge of honour for an indie.

@Not_Soos It's a way to keep the game in the spotlight. Patches/updates are just part of marketing nowadays. And the strategy is working, because here we are, talking about the game again.

EDIT: and the marketing is working on me, because I just ordered the physical. In it mainly for the single player, so with the physics tick rate fix, there's no reason to delay. Monkey Ball is the perfect "Summer" game.

Good to hear they fixed it. Back on the wishlist it goes.

@roboshort Fair use takes into account commercial purposes. One party is profiting off work from the other without due compensation. Again, these models would not exist without copyrighted material being used to train them.

The fact that copyright law does not provide sufficient clarity is exactly the reason why this matter needs to be settled.

Playing various demos on Steam Deck. It's nice to dabble and not have to commit. The game that I do commit to is still TTYD.

Have a good weekend everyone!

@roboshort The legal issue is whether using copyrighted material to train AI is considered "fair use". In the US, there's the ongoing case of NYT vs OpenAI.

Fair use does factor in commercial vs non-commercial/educational purposes. If there's money involved, things are weighed differently. Needless to say, there's a lot of money involved in AI.

As @nessisonett already pointed out, these models would not exist without copyrighted works. The AI industry wants a free lunch. It's good that this is challenged legally.

I'm expecting cross-gen compatibility for the first few years. So a New 3DS-like situation that doesn't require you to upgrade immediately to play the latest games. I hope to hang on to the OLED for a few more years.

In terms of specs, I'm hoping for a screen that can also output at 40Hz or, even better, is VRR-capable. Anyone with a Steam Deck can attest that 40FPS is quite decent. Perfect performance target for portable play.

@Not_Soos Thanks for taking the time to write your post. I agree 100%. These players are still young and young people say some pretty dumb things sometimes. They reflect the world they're growing up in, so there's a lesson for everyone here.

Nintendo's response looks more like brand protection, tbh. Nothing wrong with that necessarily, but in the better scenario they would give these players a chance to apologise in public. Maybe they did reach out before making this decision, we don't have the full context.

@Hck Look at Argentina winning the Copa America and their racist chants afterwards. They haven't been stripped of their title. And Fernandez at least apologised for his behaviour.

I don't know if Nintendo gave these Splatoon players a chance to make an apology? Only goes to show that e-sports are mostly about marketing.

Super Rare Shorts sounds like an excellent idea. First time I'm hearing about it. Shame about the backlash.

Timed exclusivity is a great way to spotlight a title. And if you miss out, then it's not like there aren't enough other games available.

I used to collect 12-inches back in the 80s, so same idea. Having media available at all times (i.e. downloads, streaming) makes media consumption too casual if you ask me. You can't have everything in life.

These companies understand that retail presence remains important. What makes a better impression? A physical case on a store shelf or some thumbnail on a web page? Even if you end up buying the game digital, physical makes for excellent marketing.

GameCube is my favourite console generation, but I skipped TTYD back then, because I'm not into RPGs. Glad to get a second chance with the remaster, as I'm enjoying the heck out of it. The RPG elements are pretty light, tbh.