Comments 7,628

Re: New Pokémon Legends: Z-A Trailer Finally Gives Dragonite The Love He Deserves

RupeeClock

I'm not sold on it, turning Dragonite's antenna into wings isn't a good look considering Dragonair's wings are on the sides of its head.

It took this long for Dragonite to get something though, after Tyranitar, Metagross, Salamence, Garchomp, Hydreigon, and Goodra each got their own unique takes with mega evolutions, regional variants, or paradox Pokémon. In the cases of Tyranitar and Salamence, two even.

Re: 8BitDo's 'Pro 3' Controller Boasts Magnetic ABXY Buttons And A Charging Dock

RupeeClock

@Maulbert
Eventually, you'll get used to remembering the directions of the face buttons rather than the labels.
There's also that since PC games typically use the Xbox Layout, and X-Input controllers observe that layout, A is the South button and X is the west button.
It becomes easy enough to remember that Nintendo and Xbox swap their positions for A/B and X/Y, as the East/South and North/West buttons specifically.

I appreciate it when game developers map inputs based on positions rather than labels, but yeah there's the ongoing problem that Accept and Cancel has to be on A and B, and the Nintendo standard of Accept on East, Cancel on South, is ingrained on me. Frustratingly I've seen some software refer to this button swap as "retro", when really it's more like Eastern and Western.

Re: 8BitDo's 'Pro 3' Controller Boasts Magnetic ABXY Buttons And A Charging Dock

RupeeClock

I'm not really sure what the need for the magnetic face buttons is, the placement of the buttons and the software mapping is far more important than the printed labels.
This seems like a side-grade to the Pro 2 with an added gimmick and I'm not sure of the value here. Like, does it really need a charging dock? USB-C cables have been prolific and you're very likely to have a few ready for charging your phones or other devices.

Oh, if it has true Switch 2 connectivity, rather than a Switch 1 mode, that would mean it would be recognised as a Switch 2 Pro Controller, and therefore allow you to map the back paddle buttons. That would be truly worthwhile.

Re: Rumour: A Nintendo Direct Is Set To Take Place Later This Month, It's Claimed

RupeeClock

@LastFootnote
In truth, it was a growing frustration with the aging Switch 1 hardware in general, knowing that the games when emulated could probably perform far better with little or no compromise.
Though that was atop a growing backlog of games, so it was an added reason to not prioritise the game whilst I could wait for an official way for the game to be improved.

Re: Rumour: A Nintendo Direct Is Set To Take Place Later This Month, It's Claimed

RupeeClock

Nate the Hate has claimed a few times now that Kirby Planet Robobot will be getting a Switch release in 2025.
Whilst he was spot on with the Switch 2 reveal, I've my doubts about a Robobot reveal when the Switch 2 Edition of Kirby and the Forgotten Land is releasing on 28th of August.

I do want to see news about various Switch 1 games getting upgrades or editions for Switch 2, particularly games that were capped to 30 FPS like Paper Mario The Thousand Year Door, and Mario & Luigi Brothership. I actually avoided playing them just because of the 30 FPS.

Re: PSA: You Might Want To Be Careful Buying Pre-Owned Switch 1 Games For Your Switch 2

RupeeClock

@sethfranum
I don't have a problem with pirate getting punished, they're absolutely in the wrong, and they're moreso in the wrong for likely knowingly putting someone else at risk by selling the original game cards on.

My issue, and most people's issues are that customers using genuine game cards are being put through unnecessary stress by having their Switch systems banned despite themselves doing absolutely nothing wrong.

Nintendo are tarring them both with the same brush, falsely punishing someone and then asking them to prove themselves.
And what happens when such a customer doesn't know their rights or their recourse to getting their Switch system unbanned? They just have to accept that their Switch 2 system is banned and now they can't access the digital games they may've legally purchased, the online services they've paid subscription towards? How is that fair?

Re: PSA: You Might Want To Be Careful Buying Pre-Owned Switch 1 Games For Your Switch 2

RupeeClock

@sethfranum
The customer's games weren't pirate copies, they were genuine copies that were the victim of a pirate's misuse.

Are you aware of how in the 90s, people would rent games from Blockbuster, make back-up copies, and then return the genuine games? This allowed them to continue playing the game despite no longer owning a genuine legal copy (in fact, they never did to begin with).

Once again, someone using a genuine game card should not be punished. The genuine item itself cannot be tampered with or modified, it does not become a "pirate copy" if a previous owner made an illegal copy of it using a Mig Switch.

Something else that bears mentioning, is that it's possible to backup the game software on a game card without copying the certificates. This is very common for installing games to hacked Switch systems or for use in emulators, as these do not require the certificates.
The certificates are only a problem when the Mig Switch flashcart is involved, as it does require them to spoof the game cards.

Re: PSA: You Might Want To Be Careful Buying Pre-Owned Switch 1 Games For Your Switch 2

RupeeClock

@riggah
You've fundamentally misunderstood the issue.

There are Switch 1 flash carts called Mig Switch, they work by loading a microSD card with game card dumps, and they rely on having the unique certificates that every genuine Switch 1 game cartridge has.

What happened here is someone used a homebrew enabled Switch or the Mig Switch's USB dumper accessory to dump some genuine game cartridges, install them to their Mig Switch, and then resell the genuine game cards on the grey market.
Nintendo can detect which game cartridge certificates are being used when a game is loaded, and by comparing logs whenever your system next connects online, it can determine if two or more instances of the same certificate were being used at the same time, which should be impossible and asserts that either, or possibly both certificates are pirated.

Nintendo's approach to banning every console involved is indefensible, because it's banning someone using a genuine game card and may have absolutely nothing to do with the actual pirate.

Re: Miyamoto Views Games As 'Products', Not 'Works Of Art', Says Ex-Nintendo Dev

RupeeClock

Consider this perspective.
If your goal is to produce entertainment products for consumers, the aim would be to produce something of high quality and value that successfully entertains.
That sort of mentality better serves the customer, compared to the goal of aiming to produce a work of art which may not align with customer satisfaction.

That isn't a bad way to run a business, and you can still appreciate the craftsmanship and workmanship of a product outside of evaluating it as a work of art. Sort of an argument of separating objectivity and subjectivity.

Re: Looks Like Paradox Pokémon Are Coming To Pokémon GO

RupeeClock

Whilst the anniversary artworks for Pokémon Go are nice, they're not strictly indicative of what's actually coming up.
For example, the 6th anniversary artwork features an unnamed girl alongside another character Mateo, who was introduced with the routes feature.
The 7th anniversary artwork features Alcremie and Mimikyu, two Pokémon with special gimmicks that have yet to debut.
And the 4th and 5th anniversary artworks infamously feature Mega Mewtwo Y and X respectively, which have only very recently have been datamined as having their graphics data added.

Re: Mega Man Is One Of Capcom's "Most Important IPs" Despite No New Games In 7+ Years

RupeeClock

I can somewhat understand Capcom's angle here.
For a lack of new games, what they do have is a large selection of legacy games available on all major platforms (literally the "Legacy Collections"), and the continual merchandising of Mega Man through things like Yetee t-shirts, new figurines, new comic lines.

There's at least two more Legacy Collections they could release though, for the Mega Man Star Force series, and the Mega Man Legends series. Now if only Mega Man Legends 3 could ever come to fruition, but with Keiji Inafune's departure that seems highly unlikely.

@Divide_and_Wander
Mega Man ZX and ZX Advent loosely fit that definition.
Though I'd like to see how a Classic Mega Man Metroidvania would pan out, with a classic Metroidvania grid-map layout and defeating bosses unlocks new map exploration options.
Heck, if Namco can do this with Pac-Man of all things, why not Capcom and Mega Man?

Re: Romero Games Hit With Layoffs Following Microsoft Xbox Cuts

RupeeClock

Microsoft's overreach and greed in all these studio acquisitions with no clear strategy has come to a boiling point, and I am infuriated that all these people are losing jobs and years of passionate work due to their neglectful management.

It also shows how strongly that they just care about the brands and not the people behind them.

Re: Of Course Mario Kart World Is Being Review Bombed

RupeeClock

@Debo626
I think my position here's been somewhat misunderstood. I'm not really defending the review bombing, so much as I'm empathetic to why people are resorting to it.
I stand by that voicing dissatisfaction is not a disinformation campaign, but genuine review bombing where a few individuals fabricate too many negative reviews does actually become disinformation because it speaks volumes above the reality.

If we're talking about individuals that leave their one negative review, it's because they might not feel they have much else recourse about a change they strongly object to. Such as if they feel writing directly to Nintendo would be futile, but that lowering the public score might have an impact.

Re: Of Course Mario Kart World Is Being Review Bombed

RupeeClock

@Debo626
The integrity of the numeric review system is at odds with how people actually behave, that's the problem.
I don't condone them twisting the system, but I don't condemn them voicing their dissatisfaction. This is precisely why Steam uses their thumbs up/down system instead.
Broadly public reviews are rarely objective, but the approval or disapproval is easily understood.

Review bombers want to do damage because they feel that strongly about an issue, and like many social occurences they could be heavily misguided or rightly indignant. With the Mario Kart World update, indignance seems more likely because of a development that actually has affected customers after the fact.

Edit: To clarify, if one person is leaving multiple zero-point scores, that's an abuse of the system I can't abide.

Re: Of Course Mario Kart World Is Being Review Bombed

RupeeClock

@Dee123
Anyone leaving such a review knows that, and are aware of the system of averages and use it as a way to have the most impact.

For many people leaving these reviews, the random intermissions in online play is a huge problem and a deal breaker, when online play is perhaps the biggest and single most reason for them to even play the game.

Re: Of Course Mario Kart World Is Being Review Bombed

RupeeClock

@KoopaTheGamer
That's fair, since people getting upset about the user experience being understandably worsened, are going to get emotional, exaggerate the problem, and unintentionally spread misinformation when they're voicing their dissatisfaction by whatever means they have.
The idea of "tipping the scales" really comes into play here by having a sharp drop in the user approval of a given game, this is something that Steam understands with its thumbs up/down system.

@LEGEND_MARIOID
I doubt that these users are intentionally spreading disinformation, so much as that they are looking to affect change.

Re: Front Mission 3: Remake Appears To Replace 2D Art Assets With Generative AI

RupeeClock

@Dom_31
There's two kinds of AI image upscaling.
The first is non-generative upscaling, where the data model is trained on specific kinds of images (photos, illustrations, digital art, etc), and aims to "reverse" compression or downsampling. Some models are strict with producing an upscaled output that should 1:1 downscale to the original image, other models are more interpretive and add detail it identifies like material textures (hair, brick, grass, etc).

The second is generative upscaling, which is a prompt based process like generating an image out of nothing, but instead using a source image as a basis. This doesn't aim to be an accurate or faithful recreation, and is commonly used as a means of heavily guiding a desired output.

Either kind of image upscaling can be done well or done poorly, and in this case the generative upscaling has been done exceptionally poorly by someone with no eye for detail.

Re: Missed Out On Castlevania Anniversary, Advance & Dominus Collection Physical Editions? Fear Not, As Pre-Orders Have Gone Live On Play-Asia

RupeeClock

@KociolekDoSyta
Just an FYI, SUPERDELUXE GAMES is a Japanese publishing brand established by Limited Run Games and 8-4.

https://limitedrungames.com/blogs/news/limited-run-games-and-8-4-teams-up-to-create-a-new-publishing-brand-for-the-japanese-market-superdeluxe-games

A number of Limited Run Games releases, have also had SUPERDELUXE GAMES releases, and are usually quite affordably priced, feature multi-language support, and quite nicely put together.

Re: Gex Trilogy Is Now Playable On Switch 2 As Compatibility Update Goes Live

RupeeClock

@SillyG
I really doubt a single audio file is 4.5GB.
My hunch is that all of the media is inside of a container file, and the update has to replace that container file.
Therefore, replacing a single missing or damaged audio file, may necessitate replacing the entire container.

Think of it like sharing a ZIP file of a music album, but having to share a second replacement ZIP file because one of the music tracks was bad or missing.

Re: Gex Trilogy Is Now Playable On Switch 2 As Compatibility Update Goes Live

RupeeClock

@SillyG
What likely happened there is the game build is structured in a way that the update can't just patch individual things, such as replacing what may've been a faulty file or inserting a missing file.
Some Switch games suffer from basically redownloading the entire game within the update file, Bloodstained Ritual of the Night for example.

Still, it's another example of how LRG are slipshod in the actual release of their games, and betray their "Forever Physical" slogan.

Re: Gex Trilogy Is Now Playable On Switch 2 As Compatibility Update Goes Live

RupeeClock

I hope that the future PAL update too will be on the physical cartridge, but glad to hear they're at least shipping it with the essential compatibility update.

LRG got in trouble for shipping the Doom Classics Collection with a known issue that the game is unplayable on systems that were never connected online.

LRG also shipped Ninja Five-O with the base title and no updates, with people getting their hands on the game ahead of the digital release and any updates that might fix issues like gallery artwork not displaying.

Re: Smash Bros. Director Sakurai Laments 'Unsustainable' AAA Game Dev, Discusses AI And Uncertainty

RupeeClock

The issue with AI as usual tends to be the proclivity towards cost and corner-cutting, taking an off-the-shelf solution to mass generate whatever is "good enough" without any meaningful direction, or purposeful refinement. Particularly, trying to side-step any human involvement and hire fewer people, which is just wrong.

Over time, I expect we'll see the biggest companies adopt internal AI solutions that are trained solely on their own internal data and practices, and used as a means to help automate processes and expedite the asset creation process.
The idea being that real artists produce a baseline of what they want for their game or series, and the generative AI can help generate large numbers of similar work at scale with no misuse of data, and full control given to the artists.

AI can also be used to analyse data in meaningful ways to help guide decisions, instead of using the raw output as the product itself. That kind of data science can be invaluable, but also risks dulling critical judgement.
Imagine for example, the world map design for Breath of the Wild. Much of that game's development was spent figuring out the best placement of all the individual points of interest, an AI tool could help figure out likely progression and directional paths in a 3D space and serve as a guideline for how to place your items and encounters.

Re: Third-Party Launch Games On Switch 2 Reportedly Sold "Very Low Numbers"

RupeeClock

SEGA were one of the most egregious here, repackaging recent releases with no upgrade path, fully digital with game-key releases.
Hell, with Sonic X Shadow Generations, they expect you to re-purchase the DLCs! SEGA can stuff it, I won't re-buy the game full price and wait for the inevitably big sale that Sonic games always end up going on.

Aside from that, I can understand third parties struggling to get in edgewise after a customer's just bought a whole new system, one or two big first party games for it, and any accessories like the Pro controller or the microSD express card.
They also have to compete with the backwards compatibility backlog, a lot of people were keen to play older games with performance upgrades.

Re: Donkey Kong Bananza Switch 2 Box Art Shows Pauline In All Her Glory

RupeeClock

The UK My Nintendo Store have gone through the site and updated the graphics for DK Bananza, really cheeky thing here to switch this out so close to release!

A lot of other retailers are going to continue to display the cover art with Odd Rock, even after release, and confuse customers that didn't see the news as to why there's a difference in the cover art.

Re: Poll: So, Have You Used Zelda Notes Yet?

RupeeClock

Using the navigation feature is pretty nice, but it's something I'm trying out after having played through the game multiple times before.
It's not something I'd recommend for first-time players.

My set up is I have a tablet on a stand just below my monitor, so it's kind of like the secondary screen of a 3DS or Wii U acting as companion to the main screen.
Getting bits of trivia about Hyrule's history as you explore the map is pretty nice, but there was an error in the voice memory for Hateno's Dye Shop. Zelda mentions using Silent Princess flowers to create a royal blue colour, but in-game they're used to dye clothes white.

Re: Feature: 11 Games With 'Secret' Performance Bumps You Should Revisit On Switch 2

RupeeClock

@DjinnFighter
Contra Operation Galuga having input lag issues is down to Unity engine.
It seems to be a universal issue with Unity games capped to 30 FPS, they have huge input delay. When modded to target 60 FPS, whether that's a modded Switch or emulators, that input lag disappears.

That's the general hope for 30 FPS capped Unity Games, get a Switch 2 update for 60 FPS support.

Re: Site News: We've Got A Switch 2

RupeeClock

@UltimateOtaku91
An earlier email did give me a heads up that I should have full tracking details by early morning, so I should have a working DPD tracking link by then.
You probably will, too.

Re: New Zelda: Echoes Of Wisdom Update Is Finally Fixing Its Most Frustrating Feature

RupeeClock

@Gohanjin
The depth of field blur effect is a design choice, as it's recreating "tilt shift" which is known for making things look miniaturised.
The hiccups, yeah they're an annoying problem where the engine dynamically caps at 30 or 60, and rounds down to 30 if it can't maintain 60. Occasional dips below 60 can still happen on Switch 2 so you still have to suffer that problem.