Sakura

@Shinnos Thanks! Went ahead and purchased.

I love it when evidence is splendiferous. That's the best kind of evidence.

Great article.

I took the completionist route and got all the achievements, completed the catalogue, got all the villager posters etc. Island design isn't my strong point, so it's okay as is and has a five star rating, but will finally start to design properly. Going to be plenty of new things to do too. I may be a while.

Bamboo islands at night were best for me because there are no rivers, ponds, cliffs to get over/around. Chop down all bamboo, remove weeds and stones, dump on the beach. Wait for beetles to spawn on the coconut trees and sneak up while holding A. Spend a long time doing so. Take a few nets if you want particular beetles or you'll have to keep buying/making them.

I'd like more custom patterns slots, even more house storage, expanded pocket storage perhaps if a bag is equipped, batch crafting and item stacks consistent across all objects.

Hmm, very much minor storage-based wishes! I'm really enjoying the game.

The egg event seems pretty straightforward and easy to complete. The cherry blossom recipes, on the other hand, are difficult to come by, at least for me. They are not found in bottles or given by villagers, just from balloons.

@Manah Unfortunately, you cannot transfer your Animal Crossing save by doing a system transfer. System transfer on the Switch is just transferring each user separately. For Animal Crossing, the game save will not transfer with all your other user data.

https://animalcrossingworld.com/2020/02/ultimate-animal-crossing-new-horizons-save-data-guide-cloud-saves-one-island-per-switch-transfers/

Cloud saving looks like the obvious solution for AC. Not being able to transfer save data for AC to another Switch in any way just seems rather weird, especially considering how used to upgrading we all are. Oh, well.

@Heavyarms55 Unfortunately, a whole system transfer doesn't seem to be a thing. Looks like you can only transfer user profiles, which includes your user data and save data, which means it looks like there's no way to transfer your ACNH island to a different Switch. As most of us are used to upgrading or simply buying a different variant, this doesn't seem like great news.

"Transferring user information and save data allows you to move your user profile along with all its associated save data and Nintendo eShop purchases from one Nintendo Switch system to another. Data is moved one user at a time."

https://en-americas-support.nintendo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/27394/~/how-to-transfer-user-and-save-data

I quite liked Miitomo, but I loved the StreetPass games and puzzle pieces. Always wondered why they never put the games etc in Miitomo. Or allowed the app to collect players and then transferred them to a game on the Switch. They had their reasons, I guess.

Um, Mental Health Services for young people in general are woefully inadequate in terms of accessibility, so this feels more like the usual lip service, than actual service provision. Report back in a year.

I mean, my local Trust got around the issue of too many patients and not enough doctors by taking all patients off the books and essentially treating only those in crisis. Monitoring to be done through referral by GP back into the system for a short time until stabilised, then shown the door again. So much for parity of esteem.

@NEStalgia I thought it was much more expensive than that, but I can see how it's viable at $10 a month. I honestly thought it was $60 a month and not sure where I got that idea from. Just having an idiot day.

@MegaMel86 I thought it was more than that. That makes all the difference, makes it much more viable.

I really don't like the idea of streaming services for XBOX games. To use Game Pass as your main way to play games is one thing, but if you only want to play one or two games a year, it's a very expensive way of doing things. I'd rather pay once to always be able to stream a certain game than constantly to be able to stream many games I don't want to play. I don't know that it's a great fit for mainly Nintendo players. Value just isn't there for one or two games a year.

I think I'll like this, though the colour palette is a bit sombre. "Thoughtful and carefully-crafted" is so tempting. I'm very grateful for the review.

I will wait for a sale because it's not screaming out as a must-have purchase and there is so much to play, that I'm waiting for a sale on most games before I bite. So different from the WiiU era.

GRIS for me. Looking forward to it.

Broken Sword
Hotel Dusk
Phoenix Wright
Rayman
Phantom Hourglass
Trace Memory
Trauma Centre: Under the Knife

I still have Zero Escape and Spyro: Shadow Legacy to play and played a lot of GBA games on the Lite too.

"..some remedies are more profitable than others and illness is good for business."

Shareholders are the biggest beneficiaries of big pharma profits and dictate policy. Retirement funds are the biggest shareholders. They need stable and profitable stocks, so they insist on investment in the most profitable medicines, which often do not include those suffered by the poorest populations who cannot afford to pay much.

Also leads to price gouging in the US. Someone has to pay for Grandma's pension and without a general pot to take from, it's the unlucky who get ill.

@DABYX Yes, they can be repaired and it's not that difficult (can't be if I managed it). There are loads of videos on YouTube. Spawnwave's is a good one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMHl7GwbEb0

The replacement sticks cost £3-5. You'll need the right size screwdriver too. Some sticks come with that.

@DABYX As far as I understand it, the material that the sticks slide on to track players' movements is graphite. Dust is the graphite being worn away and accumulating as it is softer than the metal prongs. Thinking about how graphite works in pencils, it's not really surprising there are issues. Cleaning will work for a while as will calibration, but eventually the graphite is gone. I'm not sure that anything but a redesign is going to be good here.

Weakening pound means increasing prices.

Anyway, I won't be buying until I am certain that the thumb sticks are easily replaceable or are proven to not be susceptible to drift. Also expect there to be special editions and perhaps revisions to the original model.

£200 would not surprise me given that WTO terms are 40% import tax and none of us has any idea what is going to happen in the very near future. Any hike will be less and look better if the starting point is higher.

I really like the look of this.

@MaseSco One of my first thoughts was that if StreetPass was still a thing, I'd be loving this. (Now, I'll probably hold on for a special edition or perhaps a revision of the original if that happens.)

I think some kind of StreetPass functionality included in one of Nintendo's smartphone apps could have been great. Could have collected hits on our mobiles and transferred them to the Switch for playing or just kept it on mobile. I'm biased. I loved StreetPass.

Completely missed this news today, work...

Now I shall have to convince myself I don't need one. I know I don't... Looks like a good option for taking on the road. Hmm... A good business strategy for Nintendo.

I think I might enjoy this. Hope it turns out well.

Edith Finch!

Maybe a couple of the on sale Curve Digital titles.

@StevenG Thank goodness you are here to tell me everything that is wrong with me!

I'm guessing you have quite a few problems.

@StevenG I think perhaps that 4 Joy-con may not be a representative sample of the millions made? If yours are already showing some signs, enough to warrant calibration, then you may find a problem later. That's how mine started. Calibration worked for me for a while, but in the end, a replacement stick was the only solution. Play time could also be a factor in how quickly they degrade. I do play a lot. About 3000 hours before the drift became intolerable. I don't know how good that is, but not had a problem with any other controller ever and I've been gaming a long while now. The sticks are, at least, easy to replace.

@StevenG Just using one set of Joy-con, not spreading use over 4 controllers. Using them as normal for playing games normally. Only the left has drift, which I have fixed by replacing the stick. It's a known design fault. The material used to provide contact so the stick can track the player's movement wears away with normal use.

My biggest fear with a mini like this is stick drift. At least Joy-con are easy to fix with replacement sticks. Opening up the whole device is surely more risky. Hope the design is more durable.

Very has this deal too. They've also recently added the official adapter for £19.99.

@nintendoknife Thanks for that. Think I'll be skipping it. So much else to choose from.

Is RiME worth it at £15? I remember it was highly anticipated and then a bit disappointing for early adopters.

Going to get some sticks and fix my Joycon. Save for a redesign, the Joycon might always have the drift problem so best to buy the parts and learn to fix.

I still want to know what new models are releasing before I buy a new set. I expect a pro version to have its own set of Joycon and that's what I'm most likely to go for. The mini had better not have the drift problem if they're integral.

Whatever any new model(s) are like, I really hope the stick drift is fixed. I'm only playing Go Vacation at the moment, but it's irritating.

They ought to do a proper design revision of the existing joy-con. I know there are different versions out there, but nothing that provides a definitive fix for drifting or disconnection.

I hope setting the date and time is still possible on start up like it is in New Leaf. I regularly picked up the game again after a few weeks of not playing to continue from the in-game date I last played. Never needed to change the system date.

One of the things that deterred me from playing Pocket Camp was the constant stream of time-limited events and the inability to play at my own pace.

It's not yet a deal-breaker, but lack of cloud saves is perplexing. It's the only reason I have NSO. I guess Nintendo has their reasons, but they haven't yet proved them to be sound.

Other than that, I like the Lost in Blue type shake up.

And it has to be better than amiibo Festival, which was in bargain bins at record speed and currently (not even) on sale for £5.95 from Game Collection.

I would like to see more before committing, but looks promising.

@ThatDaveGuy Unfortunately, Switch games save to the internal drive and not to the cartridge or SD card. This means there's no way to back up saves except cloud saves and those are not available for all games.

Just hoping any new Switch model launches before October 31st.

I'm currently playing Go Vacation (similar sort of minigame collection) and finding that using a mixture of motion controls and "full controls" is working best. Some events work much better with motion controls, others with full controls.

Drifting joy-con is a real pain, though.

Going to have to replace that left joy-con for the Panzer Dragoon game.

Just waiting on reveal of new console SKUs.

I need to look more at this as I don't know much about it at all, but so many people saying it's great, that definitely going to do some research.

I don't usually bother with collector editions. Very happy to pick up the standard version. Never played the original.

Very excited for this. Loved BotW, despite a couple of small flaws.

I loved the GBA games, but never played these, as far as I can tell. Was waiting for this to be announced, but yeah, took them long enough. Glad I waited, though.

I enjoyed the London 2012 game, probably because of the hype around the Olympics, that was great.

I do find these kind of games to always contain a few events that have difficult controls, but I keep plodding on. Rio 2016 was an improvement. With the Olympics in Tokyo, I am looking forward to seeing what Nintendo dishes up. The card app was great. I miss some of the features of the 3DS. I guess Nintendo wasn't interested in developing something like StreetPass for mobile that could link to the Switch. The games might have made Miitomo more appealing.

Anyway, bring it on. Can't wait for the 2020 Olympics.

Would have liked to see more of this game.

Concerning history/archaeology in video games, here are a couple of articles that discuss Ubisoft specifically. Just for interest.

https://www.heritagedaily.com/2019/06/digital-heritage-through-video-games-a-critical-view-on-ubisofts-notre-dame/123883

https://archaeogaming.com/2019/04/19/consulting-for-ubisoft-on-assassins-creed-odyssey/

@sanderev I think Central European Time is one hour later than BST (British Summer Time). So, just add one hour to the times given for BST.

Not to be hating on Smash in any way because I think it's a masterpiece despite not being my bag, but I do hope the pacing of this year's E3 Direct is a little more balanced than last year's.

Anyway, always look forward to seeing what Sakurai and his team have planned.