Considering it’s handheld and obviously not direct feed, so video quality isn’t as good as the real thing, I’m still pretty impressed by what they’ve achieved so far. Obviously my PS5 Pro will blow it out of the water, but it’s not always about visual quality. Good enough is, well, good enough and having it for portable play (my PS Portal doesn’t really count there) means I’ll probably pick it up for Switch 2 instead.
I’ll see how it pans out with more footage and feedback, but so far it’s looking like a S2 purchase for me.
Yeah, I know what you mean. Personally I’m not overly fussed with it all, maybe because I started gaming in 1978 when graphics consisted of a couple of white blocks on a black background.
Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love high fidelity 4K 120+fps games, I really appreciate the artistry and technical mastery that some games and platforms can provide.
But, if my options of playing a game are limited to lower frame rates, lower resolution and reduced fidelity, I can still enjoy it so long as the core gameplay experience is intact.
I played the entirety of Doom, Doom Eternal, Spider-Man Remastered and more on my OG Switch and Steam Deck, cut off from all of my powerful systems, when we had to live in hospital for 8 months.
Many of the games looked and/or ran terribly, but they were still damn enjoyable to play.
At the end of the day my philosophy is the best version of a game is the one you have access to, simple as that.
Unlikely to happen these days unfortunately. It seems no game, or hardware, can be previewed/reviewed/talked about anywhere without it being compared to something else currently available or coming in the future.
To be fair, that’s hardly a new phenomenon, it’s existed since the dawn of home gaming. I, like many of you, have been around for as long as computer/console/handheld/everything else digital gaming has existed and whether it was arguments in the playground, comparisons in print magazines or debates online, it’s always going to happen.
It’s possibly useful for those of us who are multi-platform gamers, but at the same time I’m well aware that any multi-plat game is going to look and perform better on my PS5 Pro, just as I know that my PC will look and perform better than that, I honestly don’t think we need to be told. But it’s going to happen regardless.
It would be nice if games were reviewed in a vacuum, compared perhaps only to how other games on the same system perform. There are doubtless millions more Switch/2 only gamers than there are multi platform gamers who also own a Switch/2 and I doubt they give a damn how it compares to another system because they only have one option to play it. So they’ll be happy with a, this is how it is on X system.
I was (am) in much the same boat, massive Switch 1 backlog (and PS5) and as far as actual exclusive Switch 2 games go, only 3 announced that I definitely want to play.
Having said that, I still pre-ordered a Switch 2 and I’m glad I did, MKW is a blast and DK coming this week, then MP4 eventually. But the other aspect I’m really enjoying about it is the improved performance for many of the games in my backlog. It’s making a very nice quality of life improvement having either/and 60fps/increased resolution. So much so that my most played game for the moment is TotK, which I barely scratched the surface of on my Switch 1.
Well that’s a shock to no one (probably), we’ve known for some time that the dock is perfectly capable of 4K 120Hz VRR and the chipset Nintendo uses for DisplayPort to HDMI conversion is also capable of 4K 120Hz VRR, if it’s configured to do so.
Nintendo, for reasons best known to themselves were almost ready to enable it for Switch 2, but decided quite close to launch to limit the output to what we currently have.
Personally, I fully expect a 4K 120HZ VRR update in the future. Rather obviously there’s not going to be any native rendering at that level, but it will open up support for DLSS 4K targeting 40fps and with VRR smoothing out the hiccups.
As to how long that’s going to take, god knows with Nintendo, I’m expecting at least a 6 months timeframe. But they are notoriously unpredictable with these things.
I’ve read some reports of people having issues with Ethernet connected and sleep mode, but I honestly believe these would also fall under the frustrating but unavoidable failure rate threshold.
FWIW, I’ve had mine docked and connected to Ethernet since launch day, so about 4 weeks, with only an handful of times out of the dock for play, and haven’t had the slightest issue with it so far. So it can’t be something that affects every system. I’m not saying it doesn’t exist, clearly some people have had the problem, but it’s not a universal hardware issue, or we’d all be experiencing it.
In all seriousness though, so far the number of (genuine) complaints I’ve seen is relatively low for the number of units sold so far.
As I said earlier, there’s never going to be a 0% failure rate, but Nintendo have had a long time to fine tune the hardware and software for Switch 2, we’re going to see problems, but by and large we can just sit back and enjoy our systems without any real worry.
Should any of us be unfortunate enough to experience one of the genuine systems that fall under the failure rate threshold, we’ll get a replacement quick enough. Annoying, yes of course, but why worry about something that may never happen.
There are going to be myriad issues cropping up in the weeks and months ahead. Let’s not forget that there’s no such thing as a 0% failure rate, if only it were possible, but it simply is not.
With over 5 million devices sold in the first month alone we can expect to see many problems cropping up, there will be potentially tens of thousands of devices with small issues that will in time develop into big problems resulting in a replacement being required.
Aside from that, overheating is a potential problem for any device like this, Switch, PlayStation, Xbox, PC components, Laptops, they’re all susceptible to overheating in certain circumstances. It may be because of an underlying issue as outlined above, or it can simply be environmental factors at play.
There’s also the possibility of simple bugs in the OS, it may be a continuation of the Switch OS, which itself was a continuation of the 3DS OS, but with all new hardware to deal with, it brings with it the potential for thousands of new bugs in the firmware and OS. Time will tell.
But one things for sure, we shouldn’t just assume that there is an actual problem waiting to rear its head in all devices, there’s nowhere near enough reported instances that we know of, and if there were, it would result in a recall, whether Nintendo liked it or not, they can’t risk public safety.
It’s not as simple as it seems from the outside, speaking as someone who works in the industry, - well, occasionally now I’m supposedly retired but it’s difficult not to work - creating a successful game is an extraordinarily difficult task regardless of the platform you’re targeting.
With the Switch, yes those games are hugely popular, but then they already were before they launched on Switch, which makes the job a rather simple one.
But outside of established franchises, you need to know your target audience as much as creating the experience you want to create. Without crafting your game strategy around your audience, you’re never going to get much in the way of sales regardless.
The Switch has never been lacking an audience, but due to the very limited hardware, the audience that’s there may not necessarily tie in with the experience you want to create. Don’t get me wrong, there have been some incredible ports in the Switch lifetime, but you could clearly see that some severe corners had to be cut.
That, unfortunately, is a sacrifice some developers just aren’t willing to make. You need only look at some of the games the Switch missed out on from most of the big publishers.
I love my Switch and it has served me well over the past eight years, hell I don’t know how I’d have coped without it as a mental escape for a little while now and then during the 8 months we lived in hospital, when my son was born so prematurely they weren’t even allowed to try and save him to begin with. It’s a harrowing, but ultimately uplifting story.
And I’ve no doubt I’m going to love my Switch 2 (I already do), the difference this time around is that at least the Switch 2 has got the grunt to cope with much more demanding third party software, believe me we’re a long way from seeing the best it can achieve yet, and some of the launch window software is already quite impressive.
I honestly think we’re going to see much more third party support this time around. I believe that the Switch 2 will have a generous market share and with its capabilities, that just opens the doors up to many more possibilities. A combination that’s very different from its predecessor and a combination that’s difficult for a publisher to ignore.
Nintendo is historically very successful in Japan, the rest of the world is usually a more difficult market.
But even that aside, if you look at the (in excess of) 150 million units sold for the Switch, yes it absolutely dominates in units sold, but there’s one very big problem with it, it’s very, very weak hardware wise compared to the other platforms.
Most AAA developers are making big budget games that push the hardware in one way or another, they’re targeting much powerful systems than the switch. So in that respect, the massive market share of the Switch is entirely irrelevant, it’s simply not a target platform because it could never hope to run the software.
Switch 2 is considerably more powerful than it’s predecessor, but rather obviously still far enough behind the PS5/XsX/PC markets for some developers to find the challenge of porting much more demanding games over to the weaker platform not financially justifiable.
The bright spot in that is that most third party developers are making their games compatible with Steam Deck, which is going to be a much smaller market than Switch 2 pretty soon, but they’re not really competing with each other.
Despite the very different architectures, if a game is capable of running on Steam Deck, it should be relatively straightforward to port it over to Switch 2.
We’ll get a better idea of how third parties will perform when they start releasing games that aren’t already many years old. I’m definitely considering trading the shiny graphics of my PS5 Pro for the portability of Switch 2, so long as the games run well enough. Time will tell.
This is atrocious, that’s a lot of customers having to wait longer for their shiny new toys.
On a completely unrelated topic, if anyone happens to be on the lookout for a Switch 2 at a very reasonable price, I just so happen to have nearly 3,000 of them sitting in my warehouse.
I’m going to try and avoid the Direct (let’s see how well that goes), but the first open world Donkey Kong game and the first 3D Donkey Kong in 26 years, hell, I’m already sold, pre-order in, job done, you need not convince me….. Yeah, I’m an easy sell sometimes 😁
I’ve got this pre-ordered, it’s a new 3D Donkey Kong, I’m buying it regardless, there’s bound to be plenty of fun to be had in it.
No doubt people will be disappointed with a specialised Direct, but to be fair to them the system has been out for a week, it’s only natural they will be focusing on games that are in the immediate launch window.
Just as we will no doubt get a MP4 one when the time comes, or Pokemon. Give them a couple of months and they’ll start to drip feed us info on what’s coming later in the year. There’s a big holiday release to look forward to, that’s worth getting excited about and waiting for, and we’ve a few nice games coming between now and then.
It’s so much fun it’ll make happy in your boxers 😂
Seriously though, it is, as I would expect based on its pedigree, seriously enjoyable and has got to be the best fun per pound /dollar game on the system.
What’s surprised me more than anything is that I’ve put far more time into Fast Fusion so far than I have Mario Kart World and I’m a huge MK fan. Yes, the image quality is immediately noticeable as blurry, why they didn’t have a mode to rectify that from the get go is beyond me. But hey, nobody’s perfect and they’re going to fix that and add more tracks for free. Personally I’d have happily paid more for the game, it’s that good.
Yeah, isn’t it an awful coincidence that a company who would like to sell us alternative products would declare that stick drift will definitely be an issue eventually, on a system that’s been out for a handful of days, with sticks that are slightly modified to help avoid the problem and pr nightmare of the previous generation. I for one am completely shocked.
Not that I’ve ever actually experienced it myself. Somehow all of my JoyCons have been fine, I’ve even got the ones from my day 1 Switch, good as they ever were.
Nope, that pretty much sums it up for me too. A handheld that’s more performant than a PS4 on the go, and more powerful than a PS4 Pro on the big screen, at a reasonable price, bearing in mind it also includes a Dock and detachable controllers that are each an independent controller in their own right allowing for multiplayer on the go without buying any other accessories, how on earth can people not be happy with that in this day and age?
People will complain no matter what, it’s human nature. Give them more power and slap on an extra couple hundred bucks to the price, would they be happy then? No, they’d still complain, mainly about the price.
But let’s remember, this is the internet and public forums on the internet are so detached from what most people in the real world think that it’s really not worth bothering about.
The Series S CPU is definitely more powerful than Switch 2, as one would naturally expect. However, one cannot calculate the actual performance of any CPU based on its clock speed alone, that will get you precisely no idea of real world performance. Just look at how well Apple has done with its ARM64 architecture on a performance per watt factor compared to X86, for instance. The architecture, cores, clock speed, features of the silicon including AI calculations, cache and so on and so on must be taken into account, the clock speed alone is arguably less important now for performance per watt than it ever has been.
Synthetic benchmarks (roughly) put the Switch 2 CPU performance at more than double that of the PS4 in single core performance and multi-core pushes to more than 2.5 times that of the performance of PS4. Just for a little perspective.
For a handheld it’s actually quite performant. Nonetheless, why these comparisons to home systems with different architecture and significantly higher power draw keep popping up is beyond me. It’s about time we just enjoyed the games.
Rest assured, there’s enough juice under the hood to cope with (often cut-down in resolution, LOD, texture quality and so on) most third-party games for years to come. Not a single one of the games released for the system thus far is actually pushing the system to its limits. That will come in the next few years, particularly with software designed and developed for the silicon.
Not that I’m saying I’m not impressed with the launch lineup, CDPR has done excellent work in getting Cyberpunk to run as well as it does, but I expect to see even better from them down the line. Fast Fusion, MKW, and several others all have impressive elements in one way or another for launch games as well.
At the end of the day all of the specification analysis and comparisons really don’t mean much, what matters is what you see on the screen. And if you’re a gamer such as myself who’s been around since the beginning (although I admit my perspective is also slightly different being a developer) the single most important thing is gameplay. Everything else is just gravy, very nice gravy and it definitely makes the meal better, but gravy nonetheless.
The worst thing about the Jsaux one as far as I’m concerned is that it grips the cartridges a bit tightly (oddly not every slot), but I’ve genuinely worried about breaking the cartridge trying to pry the bugger out. Already looking for a better option, which is a shame, it’s a nice compact way to carry a lot of games.
Comparatively cheap enough, not however cheap enough for Nintendo to meet the BOM cost that they were aiming for, and if reports are accurate regarding its component and build cost of everything, the Switch 2 has one of the lowest profit margins of any Nintendo console for a long time.
So yes, they did indeed intentionally choose to make certain sacrifices but would we have been any happier if the cost of the device was higher at launch, but had an extra couple of hours play time? Certainly if they didn’t have the additional cost of making an actual dock to include with the system, they could have easily have dropped to a smaller node but how many people would complain about the dock being a separate purchase? (Not me for the record, I’ve already bought another dock set so I can have one in the lounge and one in my office).
5nm nodes are still in quite high demand and that’s keeping the prices up. In a few years when many of the manufacturers currently using 5nm have moved on to 3nm, that will be the time when Nintendo consider doing a revised model.
But all things considered, as you say, at least the next revision will have much better battery life. In the meantime, I’ll happily use my battery pack if I’m away for a day or two to give me 36+ hours from one charge of each. It’s pretty rare that I don’t have some sort of power source, whether at home or on the go anyway.
It’s unfortunate, but sadly while all other technologies have fairly rapidly advanced and in most cases become more power hungry, there’s only so much you can do by making chipsets more efficient, battery technology has remained mostly stagnant for a very long time and certainly hasn’t budged much in the past 8 years compared to the power demands of the Switch 2 chipset vs Switch 1.
There are of course battery technologies being developed that will improve battery capacity considerably, those however, are a very long way from being able to be used in a consumer product.
Considering the increased screen size/resolution/frame rate, and the vastly more powerful specs, I’m impressed they managed to keep the battery life around the same as the launch Switch.
No doubt there will be a revision a few years down the line with increased battery life, and no doubt an OLED display at some point. In the meantime, I’ve a quite compact 60,000mah battery pack (among others) should I find myself away from a charger for a wee while.
I initially debated getting this for Switch 2 when it was announced, as I already have it for PS5/XsX/PC, handheld duties for it up to now have been on my Steam Deck and Legion Go.
However, I was quite impressed by the early footage of the game and to be perfectly honest I was fed up tweaking the game on the PC handhelds to try and avoid dips into the 20fps territory in some areas. Yes it’s totally possible to get between 30 and 40 fps with it and SteamOS on the Legion Go is not surprisingly better than Windows. But still, the prospect of a simple plug and play, with no extensive farting around with the Switch 2 appealed, and I’m happy to support CDPR (yet again) for putting the whole game on the cart, so I took the plunge and pre-ordered.
I’ve barely scratched the surface of the game on S2 so far and I’ve only been playing in handheld, performance mode, but it’s blown me away. The fidelity and smoothness CDPR have achieved for a launch game is truly impressive and gives me a lot of hope for games a couple of years down the line when developers really get to grips with the system.
I don’t regret buying it for the fourth time for Switch 2 at all, and it will, without question, be my preferred way to play it handheld going forward. I’m looking forward to trying out the 40fps mode on my 65” OLED (hopefully tomorrow, I’ve cleared a day off from doing anything but playing with my new toy with the wife 😂). Obviously not expecting it to be on par with either my XsX, PS5 or PS5 Pro (not that it’s had a patch to take advantage of the extra grunt there) but I’m not purely driven by graphics. Yes I like awesome performance as much as the next person, but I’ll happily take top notch gameplay and crappy graphics…. I’m old, I started with 3 white blocks on a black background lol. But I digress.
So far the handheld gameplay from S2 is, in my opinion, much better than PS4/Xbox One and certainly better than either my Steam Deck or Legion Go when taking everything into account. Cross save compatibility just seals the deal, I’ll likely be spending most of my time playing it on S2, but when I do get the chance to play it on one of the home consoles or my gaming laptop, I can just carry on where I left off.
Only if you want to be able to wake the Switch 2 up from the controller, use the chat button, the back buttons, or the 3.5mm audio port. Other than that, the sticks do feel nicer, the pad as a whole feels better, although that’s subjective, and it charges in half the time, despite having the same battery life.
Much the same as myself, I don’t care what anyone says, I still think Sony have the best image processing in the business for their OLEDs, and I’d assume their LCDs as well they probably use much the same chipset.
I haven’t had the time to use my S2 on the TV yet sadly, the joys of having a 2 year old to look after, but I don’t think I’ll be disappointed when I do finally get the chance.
Yeah, I’d much rather have had 60fps as the standard option, with a settings option to change to quality mode for those who prefer shiny puddles over a smooth frame rate.
No argument from me there, one of the first things I tried, with some trepidation, was the eShop to see if and how much they’d improved it. I’ve been really impressed by the responsiveness of it, I absolutely despised the eShop on the Switch 1, it was so slow I avoided it whenever possible.
It’s, perhaps not surprisingly for a new console generation, a vast improvement over its predecessor in every conceivable way as far as I’m concerned. Yes, I’m slightly disappointed that it doesn’t have an OLED screen, but only and it is literally just one mostly avoidable scenario, and that’s when I’m using it in a darkened room. But I’m like that with every LCD screen regardless of the technology it uses, I’ve had OLED on everything as soon as it becomes available and I’m so used to it now that any and all alternatives irritate me - again, just in darkened rooms - otherwise the screen is excellent. It has great colour reproduction, it’s extremely bright, has great motion reproduction. Overall I’m impressed with it, even more so than that of either my PlayStation Portal, Steam Deck or Legion Go.
Unusually, and it is extremely rare for me to say this. Maybe it’s the engineer in me, I tend to instantly notice even the tiniest of flaws and weaknesses. But the Switch 2 (relatively speaking obviously) is the first console in quite some time where I’m not racking up a mental list of areas that should have been resolved before release. Is it perfect? Obviously not, nothing is. But what it is, is a significant improvement over it’s predecessor which improves upon every single pain point that existed and delivers almost exactly what I hoped for in a successor to the Switch.
They’re never going to appeal to everyone, indeed that’s applicable to every game/movie/TV show/music ever, can you imagine how awful it would be if we all liked the same thing.
Person I love the crossovers, really what’s the difference at the end of the day, if they gave the characters a different look but the same move set, would that mean they’re ok, just because they’d cosmetically fit into the source game series? I’ve always found them to be a good bit of fun, who doesn’t want to see Ryu kicking the Hulks ass?
Love Street Fighter, I have since SF2 hit Arcades and then SNES, my pads took a fair hammering with me and my mates playing a round to decide who made the coffees when we were stoned and couldn’t be bothered moving lol (and I used to spend a lot of time playing it on SNES during the quieter times back when I had my shops.)
Actually, I love all of the classic fighting series from Capcom, SNK, Namco, Sega and still play the old classics now on various consoles and Jamma.
I’d love to see one of the newer Marvel Vs Capcom come to Switch 2 as well, that would make me a happy chappie, oh and maybe a Darkstalkers revival, that’s another great fighting series from Capcom.
I completely agree, everything about the new Pro controller just feels so much more refined and it makes for a better feel in the hands.
I know a lot of people are thinking the console and its accessories are bland compared to its predecessor, but personally I prefer it. It’s like the Switch has grown up, from a pre, to early teen look to now being a late teen, early twenties device (if we’re thinking of it in human terms). It’s gone from being a schoolyard plaything, to having a grown-up job but still going clubbing at the weekends.
But that’s just me.
Besides, I don’t spend time looking at controllers or really the console itself, I’m focused on the game and when I’m not using them, they’re put away, so for me it doesn’t matter if they’re subdued, or neon pink with green splodges, it’s just an interface to what I’m actually interested in.
I like a bit of colour as much as the next person, but really, it’s not something I’m going to sit and stare at, so I’ll maybe buy ones in different colours if they interest me, but by and large I’ll save the colour for things and places I actually do look at.
I have absolutely no doubt whatsoever that there will be all manner of wild colours in due course, this is Nintendo after all, if they can make the most minimal changes to a product and have them sell like the proverbial hot cakes, you can bet your butt they will.
Haven’t unboxed my NSO GameCube controller yet, but I’m looking forward to seeing if it matches up to the original (which I fully expect it to.)
Pretty much always map L3 and R3’to back buttons on all of my controllers, I just find it much more convenient in most cases. But this is a handy tip for third party controllers that have four back buttons.
So in a program designed to show off the new system and all of the new additions to the controls and system over its predecessor, they want you to use these new features? That’s just shocking.
Look, I’m not about to pay for this thing, but I can absolutely see why you would need a camera (many standard USB cameras work, let’s not forget) and at least one controller that has the back buttons.
If they didn’t provide an option to bypass these specific parts that need additional purchases, it would be scummy and a problem, but they have provided a bypass for them, so essentially, it’s non-news.
If history has taught us anything, it’s that if a customer really wants a game, they’ll buy it regardless. Happened with PC, it’s been and is increasingly happening with Nintendo, PlayStation and Xbox. People have been buying codes in a box and discs with nothing more than a licence key on them for years now, all the while digital sales are increasing and physical sales are declining.
Personally, I prefer a full game on physical media and for as long as I can I’ll continue to buy them that way. But if there’s only the option of digital download, or disc/cart/code in a box keys, I’ll just buy it digital. I’m not going to miss out on playing a game I really want to in an attempt to make a point for a sadly dying medium.
For what’s its worth, I still buy CD’s/Vinyl/Blu-Ray when there’s an option for it, so I hope real physical media continues for a long time, though I strongly suspect that this will be the last console generation with actual, proper physical releases the way the industry is going.
Damn right I’m excited, if not for this particular game I'm still undecided about that, then in general.
Load times are a pain in the butt, especially when you’re used to many games having no load times on other systems. It’s not that I’m impatient, I grew up loading games from cassettes which took ages and would often fail if you happened to fart at the wrong time.
But all those seconds add up, and I’d take an extra 20 minutes of game time over an accumulation of loading any day of the week.
I played Breath of the Wild for over 200 hours, I wonder how much of that was loading screens as I warped around between shrines. I’d wager it was quite a lot of wasted game time.
Then there’s the, very obvious when you watch the video for this game, increased resolution, texture quality and particle effects.
Again, I’m perfectly happy playing games from 40 years ago, gameplay matters to me much, much more than graphics. But if I can have great gameplay and shinier graphics, why wouldn’t I choose that option?
If the new advancements for S2 don’t appeal to anyone, stick with S1, there’s still plenty of games coming for it.
Unfortunately there’s only a few decent retailers not taking advantage of the situation and actually selling them at list price just now.
Even then, little Johnny’s mum average punter who doesn’t know an SD Card from a toaster is going to look at the price and baulk at it when a normal 512GB Micro SD card can be had for less than a quarter of the price.
That the normal MSD is useless for the S2 doesn’t matter, its perception of value in the mass market and it takes time for prices to balance out. I’ve seen it more times than I’d care to count back when I had my computer/games stores, and the economy was in a significantly better condition back then.
But all that aside, the entirety of blame for the cost and availability of the storage is far from just the fault of Nintendo. They have adopted an existing standard, which has had very, very little support up to now and even the track record of the OG Switch is not enough to convince the manufacturers of the cards to throw their complete might behind it, yet. I can imagine the bean counters at SanDisk, or Samsung contemplating how much money they could make if the Switch 2 sells as well as the Switch 1, then remembering how badly the Wii U bombed after the huge cash cow that was the Wii and deciding to start off by prioritising production of the more affordable, lower cost cards. Even though I personally don’t see much evidence of the Switch 2 being a failure by any means, It just makes sense from a business perspective.
We, surprisingly, still have an actual Game store where I live, how I don’t know. I guess passing trade and people buying for their grandkids must be keeping them going. As far as I’m concerned Game disappeared years ago, what’s left is a husk of what used to be a great gaming resource. I stopped buying from them when they stopped giving a rats ass about their customers and what their customers actually wanted.
Obviously there’s the massive reduction in physical sales, online stores being generally cheaper and increasing competition from non-gaming focused stores. But It has been so badly managed over the past decade or so that their decline was inevitable.
They have prepared as best they can, with the storage option that’s going to have the highest mass market appeal, 256GB cards are easy to obtain and at relatively reasonable prices.
Unfortunately, most normal consumers, the ones who don’t hang around places like this, just aren’t going to be rushing out to pay in excess of £150 for 512GB, or well in excess of £200 for 1TB.
That’s just how it is with mass market appeal, not only is that the current situation, it always has been, sadly this is just history repeating itself again and I don’t just mean when we first started to see the first 1TB SD and Micro SD cards at prices beyond £300.
The cost of all higher capacity and faster storage formats has always historically been sold at a higher price initially, until the mass market demand grows, production increases and competition from other suppliers grows. We’ve seen it (well, those of us who were around for it) with hard drives, Zip Drives, SuperDisk and CD-RW over floppy disks, DVD-RW over CD-RW, Hi-MD over Minidisc, Blu-Ray over DVD and essentially every newer, faster, higher capacity version of SD, MicroSD, CompactFlash, Memory Stick, DAT Drives and every other current, or previous storage medium I can’t be bothered listing 🤣
I know what you mean, I’ve been around since before Pong, and while I have no objections to my games looking awesome, indeed I’m happy to pay for the privilege of getting just that (PS5 Pro for example), it’s actually lower down on my priority scale than, what I consider the important things, such as enjoyable gameplay.
I still enjoy 3D Mario though, in fact I’ll play anything that I find entertaining in one way or another, and I absolutely love Mario Kart.
But it’s not just the release games for me, though there’s a handful I’ve already ordered. It’s knowing that games like Metroid Prime 4, the next Zelda and many many more franchises I love will come along down the line. I’m also hoping they see sense and resurrect a few. So what the heck, I may as well get in there at the start, I’ve still quite a few Switch games to start and/or finish and I know a fair few of them are going to be better on Switch 2, even some that haven’t publicly been announced as improved. So the S2 will be the best way for me to experience those as well.
I’m sure Nintendo wishes the situation were different as well, but the manufacture of MSDEX is out of their control, it’s down to [primarily] the big 3 to get them out there, Lexar, SanDisk and Samsung.
Despite the standard being announced in 2018, there has been very little uptake in the use of them. Even with the revised and significantly faster standard in 2023, there’s still only a handful of companies making devices with MSDEX compatibility, and the number of devices they’ve put out with them are few and far between.
By and large it’s simply down to UHS cards being more than fast enough for mass market adoption. Few people have had an actual, tangible need for the faster speeds of MSDEX, so they have remained an extremely niche product. Therefore, none of the manufacturers have seen either demand, or need, to ramp up production of them, it’s just not a financially viable option when there’s so little demand.
The Switch 2 is really the first mass market consumer device which should have the install base of systems to make ramping up production viable. But even at this point, with the demand for the new console being high, the actual demand for external storage is still unproven. So the initial ramp-up in mass manufacturing will be a slow one initially.
There’s clearly demand for it now and having every unit they manufacture not only selling out, but with high numbers of back-orders for them, confidence to begin ramping up manufacturing will be taking place now. It’ll be a slow trickle to begin with and prices will remain high for a while, but within the next year or two there should be a better balance of supply and demand, as more consumer devices than just the S2 are released with compatibility, for the price wars to begin and prices to drop a little.
As for me, it should be a few months before I even need a 1TB card, and sure, I could delete games, but I like to keep my favourites on there to cover unexpected travel where there’s only crap internet, if any at all. But one thing I was sure of, locking an order in at that price was a good idea regardless.
Campkins cameras have them, if you’re insane and want to pay £300. I ordered mine ages ago from Amazon USA, cost me just over £100. Going to be a bit of a wait, but at that price, I’ll wait.
I may well have hit half a century, but I’m still as excited as 12 year old me would have been (hell, if you listen to the wife, I’m still a teenager 😂) Being more or less retired (I might do some work again eventually) I’m an at home dad looking after a 2 year old, so delivery day will largely consist of getting it on charge and getting the transfer done. But come 8 o’clock, when the wee man goes to bed, to hell with everything else, it’s game time 😊
It’s one more thing to help give S2 yet more appeal as an upgrade, there will be more of this incoming over the next few months. You can’t blame them really, they have to do as many S2 exclusive features as they possibly can.
Basic overlays for Switch 1 would work fine, it would struggle a bit doing proper GPU shaders (such as this one for S2) and constant saving for rewind in handheld mode while maintaining the excellent performance of their N64 emulator, which itself still isn’t perfect, as we all know it’s a notoriously complex system to emulate well.
I won’t say I’m surprised, because I’m not in the least, who among us didn’t see this happening eventually as soon as the EA acquisition was announced?
So, not surprised, but definitely saddened by it. I’ve been a Codie fan since the 80’s, lost count of how many of their games I’ve played and loved. Yes, even Rockstar Ate My Hamster occupied many an hour on my Amstrad back in the day. Sure it was an iffy game by any standards, but I loved the humour in it.
It’s sad when board members see huge acquisitions as a good way to make a pile of cash, line their pockets to buy another retirement yacht, just in case their other one gets a scratch. Knowing full well that they would have no problem remaining independent in the industry and still have a very viable business.
There’s an important distinction between the Shield TV and the Switch though, the Switch uses a down-clocked version of the Tegra X1 compared to the Shield, especially in handheld mode. So, handheld in particular, would struggle to run the majority of GameCube games at anything even remotely like full speed.
I’m ashamed to admit, that even as a huge Mario fan since his first outing, I’ve never played the Galaxy games. I had a Wii (of course), but it didn’t take long before it started gathering dust, which it does to this day. I simply hated, nay hate, motion controls with an absolute passion, they fall into the same category as touchscreen controls for me. Yes I’m an old fart who’s stuck in his ways, but give me a proper bloody controller or I’m just going to have a hissy fit 🤣
I do however hope they get a remake down the line, with proper controls and none of that pointer gimmicky nonsense.
You’ve a few years on me then, I just hit the half century last December.
I can say though, as a Scottish chappie, we fully embrace new technologies of all kinds. Why, I distinctly remember when thon new fangled Betamax thing first reached these shores as far back as 2012, what a time to be alive.
Comments 137
Re: Resident Evil Requiem Gameplay On Switch 2 Emerges From Tokyo Game Show
Considering it’s handheld and obviously not direct feed, so video quality isn’t as good as the real thing, I’m still pretty impressed by what they’ve achieved so far.
Obviously my PS5 Pro will blow it out of the water, but it’s not always about visual quality. Good enough is, well, good enough and having it for portable play (my PS Portal doesn’t really count there) means I’ll probably pick it up for Switch 2 instead.
I’ll see how it pans out with more footage and feedback, but so far it’s looking like a S2 purchase for me.
Re: Review: EA SPORTS Madden NFL 26 (Switch 2) - EA's Gridiron Series Finally Plays Ball On A Switch Console
@WheresWaveRace
Yeah, I know what you mean. Personally I’m not overly fussed with it all, maybe because I started gaming in 1978 when graphics consisted of a couple of white blocks on a black background.
Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love high fidelity 4K 120+fps games, I really appreciate the artistry and technical mastery that some games and platforms can provide.
But, if my options of playing a game are limited to lower frame rates, lower resolution and reduced fidelity, I can still enjoy it so long as the core gameplay experience is intact.
I played the entirety of Doom, Doom Eternal, Spider-Man Remastered and more on my OG Switch and Steam Deck, cut off from all of my powerful systems, when we had to live in hospital for 8 months.
Many of the games looked and/or ran terribly, but they were still damn enjoyable to play.
At the end of the day my philosophy is the best version of a game is the one you have access to, simple as that.
Re: Review: EA SPORTS Madden NFL 26 (Switch 2) - EA's Gridiron Series Finally Plays Ball On A Switch Console
@WheresWaveRace
Unlikely to happen these days unfortunately. It seems no game, or hardware, can be previewed/reviewed/talked about anywhere without it being compared to something else currently available or coming in the future.
To be fair, that’s hardly a new phenomenon, it’s existed since the dawn of home gaming. I, like many of you, have been around for as long as computer/console/handheld/everything else digital gaming has existed and whether it was arguments in the playground, comparisons in print magazines or debates online, it’s always going to happen.
It’s possibly useful for those of us who are multi-platform gamers, but at the same time I’m well aware that any multi-plat game is going to look and perform better on my PS5 Pro, just as I know that my PC will look and perform better than that, I honestly don’t think we need to be told. But it’s going to happen regardless.
It would be nice if games were reviewed in a vacuum, compared perhaps only to how other games on the same system perform. There are doubtless millions more Switch/2 only gamers than there are multi platform gamers who also own a Switch/2 and I doubt they give a damn how it compares to another system because they only have one option to play it. So they’ll be happy with a, this is how it is on X system.
Re: Rumour: A Nintendo Direct Is Set To Take Place Later This Month, It's Claimed
@dardel
I was (am) in much the same boat, massive Switch 1 backlog (and PS5) and as far as actual exclusive Switch 2 games go, only 3 announced that I definitely want to play.
Having said that, I still pre-ordered a Switch 2 and I’m glad I did, MKW is a blast and DK coming this week, then MP4 eventually. But the other aspect I’m really enjoying about it is the improved performance for many of the games in my backlog. It’s making a very nice quality of life improvement having either/and 60fps/increased resolution. So much so that my most played game for the moment is TotK, which I barely scratched the surface of on my Switch 1.
Re: Switch 2 Dock Supports VRR After All, But It Doesn't Actually Work With Console
Well that’s a shock to no one (probably), we’ve known for some time that the dock is perfectly capable of 4K 120Hz VRR and the chipset Nintendo uses for DisplayPort to HDMI conversion is also capable of 4K 120Hz VRR, if it’s configured to do so.
Nintendo, for reasons best known to themselves were almost ready to enable it for Switch 2, but decided quite close to launch to limit the output to what we currently have.
Personally, I fully expect a 4K 120HZ VRR update in the future. Rather obviously there’s not going to be any native rendering at that level, but it will open up support for DLSS 4K targeting 40fps and with VRR smoothing out the hiccups.
As to how long that’s going to take, god knows with Nintendo, I’m expecting at least a 6 months timeframe. But they are notoriously unpredictable with these things.
Re: Switch 2 Users Are Reporting Instances Of Their Consoles Overheating
@AceReaper1994
I’ve read some reports of people having issues with Ethernet connected and sleep mode, but I honestly believe these would also fall under the frustrating but unavoidable failure rate threshold.
FWIW, I’ve had mine docked and connected to Ethernet since launch day, so about 4 weeks, with only an handful of times out of the dock for play, and haven’t had the slightest issue with it so far. So it can’t be something that affects every system. I’m not saying it doesn’t exist, clearly some people have had the problem, but it’s not a universal hardware issue, or we’d all be experiencing it.
Re: Switch 2 Users Are Reporting Instances Of Their Consoles Overheating
@ShieldHero
All part of the fun of early adopting 🤣🤣
In all seriousness though, so far the number of (genuine) complaints I’ve seen is relatively low for the number of units sold so far.
As I said earlier, there’s never going to be a 0% failure rate, but Nintendo have had a long time to fine tune the hardware and software for Switch 2, we’re going to see problems, but by and large we can just sit back and enjoy our systems without any real worry.
Should any of us be unfortunate enough to experience one of the genuine systems that fall under the failure rate threshold, we’ll get a replacement quick enough. Annoying, yes of course, but why worry about something that may never happen.
Re: Switch 2 Users Are Reporting Instances Of Their Consoles Overheating
There are going to be myriad issues cropping up in the weeks and months ahead. Let’s not forget that there’s no such thing as a 0% failure rate, if only it were possible, but it simply is not.
With over 5 million devices sold in the first month alone we can expect to see many problems cropping up, there will be potentially tens of thousands of devices with small issues that will in time develop into big problems resulting in a replacement being required.
Aside from that, overheating is a potential problem for any device like this, Switch, PlayStation, Xbox, PC components, Laptops, they’re all susceptible to overheating in certain circumstances. It may be because of an underlying issue as outlined above, or it can simply be environmental factors at play.
There’s also the possibility of simple bugs in the OS, it may be a continuation of the Switch OS, which itself was a continuation of the 3DS OS, but with all new hardware to deal with, it brings with it the potential for thousands of new bugs in the firmware and OS. Time will tell.
But one things for sure, we shouldn’t just assume that there is an actual problem waiting to rear its head in all devices, there’s nowhere near enough reported instances that we know of, and if there were, it would result in a recall, whether Nintendo liked it or not, they can’t risk public safety.
Re: Japanese Charts: Switch 2 Won't Slow Down, Surpasses 1 Million Consoles Sold
@tsim21
It’s not as simple as it seems from the outside, speaking as someone who works in the industry, - well, occasionally now I’m supposedly retired but it’s difficult not to work - creating a successful game is an extraordinarily difficult task regardless of the platform you’re targeting.
With the Switch, yes those games are hugely popular, but then they already were before they launched on Switch, which makes the job a rather simple one.
But outside of established franchises, you need to know your target audience as much as creating the experience you want to create. Without crafting your game strategy around your audience, you’re never going to get much in the way of sales regardless.
The Switch has never been lacking an audience, but due to the very limited hardware, the audience that’s there may not necessarily tie in with the experience you want to create.
Don’t get me wrong, there have been some incredible ports in the Switch lifetime, but you could clearly see that some severe corners had to be cut.
That, unfortunately, is a sacrifice some developers just aren’t willing to make. You need only look at some of the games the Switch missed out on from most of the big publishers.
I love my Switch and it has served me well over the past eight years, hell I don’t know how I’d have coped without it as a mental escape for a little while now and then during the 8 months we lived in hospital, when my son was born so prematurely they weren’t even allowed to try and save him to begin with. It’s a harrowing, but ultimately uplifting story.
And I’ve no doubt I’m going to love my Switch 2 (I already do), the difference this time around is that at least the Switch 2 has got the grunt to cope with much more demanding third party software, believe me we’re a long way from seeing the best it can achieve yet, and some of the launch window software is already quite impressive.
I honestly think we’re going to see much more third party support this time around. I believe that the Switch 2 will have a generous market share and with its capabilities, that just opens the doors up to many more possibilities. A combination that’s very different from its predecessor and a combination that’s difficult for a publisher to ignore.
Re: Japanese Charts: Switch 2 Won't Slow Down, Surpasses 1 Million Consoles Sold
@tsim21
Nintendo is historically very successful in Japan, the rest of the world is usually a more difficult market.
But even that aside, if you look at the (in excess of) 150 million units sold for the Switch, yes it absolutely dominates in units sold, but there’s one very big problem with it, it’s very, very weak hardware wise compared to the other platforms.
Most AAA developers are making big budget games that push the hardware in one way or another, they’re targeting much powerful systems than the switch. So in that respect, the massive market share of the Switch is entirely irrelevant, it’s simply not a target platform because it could never hope to run the software.
Switch 2 is considerably more powerful than it’s predecessor, but rather obviously still far enough behind the PS5/XsX/PC markets for some developers to find the challenge of porting much more demanding games over to the weaker platform not financially justifiable.
The bright spot in that is that most third party developers are making their games compatible with Steam Deck, which is going to be a much smaller market than Switch 2 pretty soon, but they’re not really competing with each other.
Despite the very different architectures, if a game is capable of running on Steam Deck, it should be relatively straightforward to port it over to Switch 2.
We’ll get a better idea of how third parties will perform when they start releasing games that aren’t already many years old. I’m definitely considering trading the shiny graphics of my PS5 Pro for the portability of Switch 2, so long as the games run well enough. Time will tell.
Re: More Than 2,800 Switch 2 Consoles Have Been Stolen From A Semi-Truck
This is atrocious, that’s a lot of customers having to wait longer for their shiny new toys.
On a completely unrelated topic, if anyone happens to be on the lookout for a Switch 2 at a very reasonable price, I just so happen to have nearly 3,000 of them sitting in my warehouse.
Re: Talking Point: What Are You Hoping To See In The Donkey Kong Bananza Direct?
I’m going to try and avoid the Direct (let’s see how well that goes), but the first open world Donkey Kong game and the first 3D Donkey Kong in 26 years, hell, I’m already sold, pre-order in, job done, you need not convince me….. Yeah, I’m an easy sell sometimes 😁
Re: Review: Savage Raven EDC Switch 2 Carry Case - A Sleek Alternative To Nintendo's Official Offering
Can’t speak for their case, but I did buy their grip for my S2 and it’s quite probably one of the best purchases I’ve made for it.
Re: Red Dead Redemption 2's John Marston Teases "Exciting News" This Week
@MrGawain
Awesome, might get another chance to use my C64 RAM expansion.
Re: Donkey Kong Bananza Direct Revealed For Wednesday, 18th June 2025
I’ve got this pre-ordered, it’s a new 3D Donkey Kong, I’m buying it regardless, there’s bound to be plenty of fun to be had in it.
No doubt people will be disappointed with a specialised Direct, but to be fair to them the system has been out for a week, it’s only natural they will be focusing on games that are in the immediate launch window.
Just as we will no doubt get a MP4 one when the time comes, or Pokemon. Give them a couple of months and they’ll start to drip feed us info on what’s coming later in the year. There’s a big holiday release to look forward to, that’s worth getting excited about and waiting for, and we’ve a few nice games coming between now and then.
Re: "A Must-Have Launch Title" - Digital Foundry Delivers Its Fast Fusion Verdict
@JohnnyMind
It’s so much fun it’ll make happy in your boxers 😂
Seriously though, it is, as I would expect based on its pedigree, seriously enjoyable and has got to be the best fun per pound /dollar game on the system.
What’s surprised me more than anything is that I’ve put far more time into Fast Fusion so far than I have Mario Kart World and I’m a huge MK fan.
Yes, the image quality is immediately noticeable as blurry, why they didn’t have a mode to rectify that from the get go is beyond me. But hey, nobody’s perfect and they’re going to fix that and add more tracks for free. Personally I’d have happily paid more for the game, it’s that good.
Re: Magnetic Joy-Con Sticks Already In The Works For Switch 2 Amid Fears Of Drift
@Kwyjibo_Kitsune
Yeah, isn’t it an awful coincidence that a company who would like to sell us alternative products would declare that stick drift will definitely be an issue eventually, on a system that’s been out for a handful of days, with sticks that are slightly modified to help avoid the problem and pr nightmare of the previous generation. I for one am completely shocked.
Not that I’ve ever actually experienced it myself. Somehow all of my JoyCons have been fine, I’ve even got the ones from my day 1 Switch, good as they ever were.
Re: Forget The PS4, Koei Tecmo Reckons Switch 2 Is Closer To Xbox Series S
@Debo626
Nope, that pretty much sums it up for me too.
A handheld that’s more performant than a PS4 on the go, and more powerful than a PS4 Pro on the big screen, at a reasonable price, bearing in mind it also includes a Dock and detachable controllers that are each an independent controller in their own right allowing for multiplayer on the go without buying any other accessories, how on earth can people not be happy with that in this day and age?
People will complain no matter what, it’s human nature. Give them more power and slap on an extra couple hundred bucks to the price, would they be happy then? No, they’d still complain, mainly about the price.
But let’s remember, this is the internet and public forums on the internet are so detached from what most people in the real world think that it’s really not worth bothering about.
Re: Forget The PS4, Koei Tecmo Reckons Switch 2 Is Closer To Xbox Series S
@cdriper
The Series S CPU is definitely more powerful than Switch 2, as one would naturally expect.
However, one cannot calculate the actual performance of any CPU based on its clock speed alone, that will get you precisely no idea of real world performance. Just look at how well Apple has done with its ARM64 architecture on a performance per watt factor compared to X86, for instance. The architecture, cores, clock speed, features of the silicon including AI calculations, cache and so on and so on must be taken into account, the clock speed alone is arguably less important now for performance per watt than it ever has been.
Synthetic benchmarks (roughly) put the Switch 2 CPU performance at more than double that of the PS4 in single core performance and multi-core pushes to more than 2.5 times that of the performance of PS4. Just for a little perspective.
For a handheld it’s actually quite performant.
Nonetheless, why these comparisons to home systems with different architecture and significantly higher power draw keep popping up is beyond me. It’s about time we just enjoyed the games.
Rest assured, there’s enough juice under the hood to cope with (often cut-down in resolution, LOD, texture quality and so on) most third-party games for years to come. Not a single one of the games released for the system thus far is actually pushing the system to its limits. That will come in the next few years, particularly with software designed and developed for the silicon.
Not that I’m saying I’m not impressed with the launch lineup, CDPR has done excellent work in getting Cyberpunk to run as well as it does, but I expect to see even better from them down the line. Fast Fusion, MKW, and several others all have impressive elements in one way or another for launch games as well.
At the end of the day all of the specification analysis and comparisons really don’t mean much, what matters is what you see on the screen. And if you’re a gamer such as myself who’s been around since the beginning (although I admit my perspective is also slightly different being a developer) the single most important thing is gameplay. Everything else is just gravy, very nice gravy and it definitely makes the meal better, but gravy nonetheless.
Re: Best Nintendo Switch 2 Game Card Cases
@ProNerdy
The worst thing about the Jsaux one as far as I’m concerned is that it grips the cartridges a bit tightly (oddly not every slot), but I’ve genuinely worried about breaking the cartridge trying to pry the bugger out. Already looking for a better option, which is a shame, it’s a nice compact way to carry a lot of games.
Re: Fast Fusion's First Content Update Includes A Remade 'Fast RMX' Track
Thank god, I’m glad I’m not the only one to have wondered why it was so blurry when it has such a wealth of resolution and detail options.
Re: Sounds Like Switch 2 Is Already Breaking Sales Records In France
@chiimaero
Comparatively cheap enough, not however cheap enough for Nintendo to meet the BOM cost that they were aiming for, and if reports are accurate regarding its component and build cost of everything, the Switch 2 has one of the lowest profit margins of any Nintendo console for a long time.
So yes, they did indeed intentionally choose to make certain sacrifices but would we have been any happier if the cost of the device was higher at launch, but had an extra couple of hours play time?
Certainly if they didn’t have the additional cost of making an actual dock to include with the system, they could have easily have dropped to a smaller node but how many people would complain about the dock being a separate purchase? (Not me for the record, I’ve already bought another dock set so I can have one in the lounge and one in my office).
5nm nodes are still in quite high demand and that’s keeping the prices up. In a few years when many of the manufacturers currently using 5nm have moved on to 3nm, that will be the time when Nintendo consider doing a revised model.
But all things considered, as you say, at least the next revision will have much better battery life. In the meantime, I’ll happily use my battery pack if I’m away for a day or two to give me 36+ hours from one charge of each. It’s pretty rare that I don’t have some sort of power source, whether at home or on the go anyway.
Re: Sounds Like Switch 2 Is Already Breaking Sales Records In France
@beartown
It’s unfortunate, but sadly while all other technologies have fairly rapidly advanced and in most cases become more power hungry, there’s only so much you can do by making chipsets more efficient, battery technology has remained mostly stagnant for a very long time and certainly hasn’t budged much in the past 8 years compared to the power demands of the Switch 2 chipset vs Switch 1.
There are of course battery technologies being developed that will improve battery capacity considerably, those however, are a very long way from being able to be used in a consumer product.
Re: Sounds Like Switch 2 Is Already Breaking Sales Records In France
@beartown
Considering the increased screen size/resolution/frame rate, and the vastly more powerful specs, I’m impressed they managed to keep the battery life around the same as the launch Switch.
No doubt there will be a revision a few years down the line with increased battery life, and no doubt an OLED display at some point. In the meantime, I’ve a quite compact 60,000mah battery pack (among others) should I find myself away from a charger for a wee while.
Re: Review: Nintendo Switch 2 Pro Controller - A New Benchmark In Comfort And Design
@Uncle_Franklin
Probably dependant upon how you grip it and the size of your hands. But with my big pit shovel hands, I’ve not had an accidental press at all so far.
Re: Review: Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition (Switch 2) - A Superb Port Of An Incredible RPG
@Divide_and_Wander
I initially debated getting this for Switch 2 when it was announced, as I already have it for PS5/XsX/PC, handheld duties for it up to now have been on my Steam Deck and Legion Go.
However, I was quite impressed by the early footage of the game and to be perfectly honest I was fed up tweaking the game on the PC handhelds to try and avoid dips into the 20fps territory in some areas. Yes it’s totally possible to get between 30 and 40 fps with it and SteamOS on the Legion Go is not surprisingly better than Windows. But still, the prospect of a simple plug and play, with no extensive farting around with the Switch 2 appealed, and I’m happy to support CDPR (yet again) for putting the whole game on the cart, so I took the plunge and pre-ordered.
I’ve barely scratched the surface of the game on S2 so far and I’ve only been playing in handheld, performance mode, but it’s blown me away. The fidelity and smoothness CDPR have achieved for a launch game is truly impressive and gives me a lot of hope for games a couple of years down the line when developers really get to grips with the system.
I don’t regret buying it for the fourth time for Switch 2 at all, and it will, without question, be my preferred way to play it handheld going forward.
I’m looking forward to trying out the 40fps mode on my 65” OLED (hopefully tomorrow, I’ve cleared a day off from doing anything but playing with my new toy with the wife 😂). Obviously not expecting it to be on par with either my XsX, PS5 or PS5 Pro (not that it’s had a patch to take advantage of the extra grunt there) but I’m not purely driven by graphics. Yes I like awesome performance as much as the next person, but I’ll happily take top notch gameplay and crappy graphics…. I’m old, I started with 3 white blocks on a black background lol. But I digress.
So far the handheld gameplay from S2 is, in my opinion, much better than PS4/Xbox One and certainly better than either my Steam Deck or Legion Go when taking everything into account. Cross save compatibility just seals the deal, I’ll likely be spending most of my time playing it on S2, but when I do get the chance to play it on one of the home consoles or my gaming laptop, I can just carry on where I left off.
Re: PSA: Got A Switch 2 Pro Controller? This Little Capture Trick Is A Game-Changer
@abbyhitter
Only if you want to be able to wake the Switch 2 up from the controller, use the chat button, the back buttons, or the 3.5mm audio port.
Other than that, the sticks do feel nicer, the pad as a whole feels better, although that’s subjective, and it charges in half the time, despite having the same battery life.
Re: PSA: Got A Switch 2 Pro Controller? This Little Capture Trick Is A Game-Changer
@OldGamer999
Much the same as myself, I don’t care what anyone says, I still think Sony have the best image processing in the business for their OLEDs, and I’d assume their LCDs as well they probably use much the same chipset.
I haven’t had the time to use my S2 on the TV yet sadly, the joys of having a 2 year old to look after, but I don’t think I’ll be disappointed when I do finally get the chance.
Re: Review: Street Fighter 6: Years 1-2 Fighters Edition (Switch 2) - Just One Caveat Holds Back Capcom's Finest
@SalvorHardin
Yeah, I’d much rather have had 60fps as the standard option, with a settings option to change to quality mode for those who prefer shiny puddles over a smooth frame rate.
Re: PSA: Got A Switch 2 Pro Controller? This Little Capture Trick Is A Game-Changer
@OldGamer999
No argument from me there, one of the first things I tried, with some trepidation, was the eShop to see if and how much they’d improved it. I’ve been really impressed by the responsiveness of it, I absolutely despised the eShop on the Switch 1, it was so slow I avoided it whenever possible.
It’s, perhaps not surprisingly for a new console generation, a vast improvement over its predecessor in every conceivable way as far as I’m concerned. Yes, I’m slightly disappointed that it doesn’t have an OLED screen, but only and it is literally just one mostly avoidable scenario, and that’s when I’m using it in a darkened room.
But I’m like that with every LCD screen regardless of the technology it uses, I’ve had OLED on everything as soon as it becomes available and I’m so used to it now that any and all alternatives irritate me - again, just in darkened rooms - otherwise the screen is excellent. It has great colour reproduction, it’s extremely bright, has great motion reproduction. Overall I’m impressed with it, even more so than that of either my PlayStation Portal, Steam Deck or Legion Go.
Unusually, and it is extremely rare for me to say this. Maybe it’s the engineer in me, I tend to instantly notice even the tiniest of flaws and weaknesses. But the Switch 2 (relatively speaking obviously) is the first console in quite some time where I’m not racking up a mental list of areas that should have been resolved before release.
Is it perfect? Obviously not, nothing is. But what it is, is a significant improvement over it’s predecessor which improves upon every single pain point that existed and delivers almost exactly what I hoped for in a successor to the Switch.
Re: Review: Street Fighter 6: Years 1-2 Fighters Edition (Switch 2) - Just One Caveat Holds Back Capcom's Finest
@Suketoudara
By default, yes it’s 30fps on PS5/XsX, but if you change to performance mode in settings, you get 60fps but at a reduced 1440p resolution.
Re: Review: Street Fighter 6: Years 1-2 Fighters Edition (Switch 2) - Just One Caveat Holds Back Capcom's Finest
@Anti-Matter
They’re never going to appeal to everyone, indeed that’s applicable to every game/movie/TV show/music ever, can you imagine how awful it would be if we all liked the same thing.
Person I love the crossovers, really what’s the difference at the end of the day, if they gave the characters a different look but the same move set, would that mean they’re ok, just because they’d cosmetically fit into the source game series?
I’ve always found them to be a good bit of fun, who doesn’t want to see Ryu kicking the Hulks ass?
Re: Review: Street Fighter 6: Years 1-2 Fighters Edition (Switch 2) - Just One Caveat Holds Back Capcom's Finest
Love Street Fighter, I have since SF2 hit Arcades and then SNES, my pads took a fair hammering with me and my mates playing a round to decide who made the coffees when we were stoned and couldn’t be bothered moving lol (and I used to spend a lot of time playing it on SNES during the quieter times back when I had my shops.)
Actually, I love all of the classic fighting series from Capcom, SNK, Namco, Sega and still play the old classics now on various consoles and Jamma.
I’d love to see one of the newer Marvel Vs Capcom come to Switch 2 as well, that would make me a happy chappie, oh and maybe a Darkstalkers revival, that’s another great fighting series from Capcom.
Re: PSA: Got A Switch 2 Pro Controller? This Little Capture Trick Is A Game-Changer
@OldGamer999
I completely agree, everything about the new Pro controller just feels so much more refined and it makes for a better feel in the hands.
I know a lot of people are thinking the console and its accessories are bland compared to its predecessor, but personally I prefer it. It’s like the Switch has grown up, from a pre, to early teen look to now being a late teen, early twenties device (if we’re thinking of it in human terms). It’s gone from being a schoolyard plaything, to having a grown-up job but still going clubbing at the weekends.
But that’s just me.
Besides, I don’t spend time looking at controllers or really the console itself, I’m focused on the game and when I’m not using them, they’re put away, so for me it doesn’t matter if they’re subdued, or neon pink with green splodges, it’s just an interface to what I’m actually interested in.
I like a bit of colour as much as the next person, but really, it’s not something I’m going to sit and stare at, so I’ll maybe buy ones in different colours if they interest me, but by and large I’ll save the colour for things and places I actually do look at.
I have absolutely no doubt whatsoever that there will be all manner of wild colours in due course, this is Nintendo after all, if they can make the most minimal changes to a product and have them sell like the proverbial hot cakes, you can bet your butt they will.
Haven’t unboxed my NSO GameCube controller yet, but I’m looking forward to seeing if it matches up to the original (which I fully expect it to.)
Re: PSA: Got A Switch 2 Pro Controller? This Little Capture Trick Is A Game-Changer
Pretty much always map L3 and R3’to back buttons on all of my controllers, I just find it much more convenient in most cases.
But this is a handy tip for third party controllers that have four back buttons.
Re: Want To 100% 'Welcome Tour'? You'll Need To Cough Up For Some Accessories
So in a program designed to show off the new system and all of the new additions to the controls and system over its predecessor, they want you to use these new features? That’s just shocking.
Look, I’m not about to pay for this thing, but I can absolutely see why you would need a camera (many standard USB cameras work, let’s not forget) and at least one controller that has the back buttons.
If they didn’t provide an option to bypass these specific parts that need additional purchases, it would be scummy and a problem, but they have provided a bypass for them, so essentially, it’s non-news.
Re: Publishers Are "Thanking" Nintendo For Game-Key Cards On Switch 2
@MrGawain
If history has taught us anything, it’s that if a customer really wants a game, they’ll buy it regardless. Happened with PC, it’s been and is increasingly happening with Nintendo, PlayStation and Xbox. People have been buying codes in a box and discs with nothing more than a licence key on them for years now, all the while digital sales are increasing and physical sales are declining.
Personally, I prefer a full game on physical media and for as long as I can I’ll continue to buy them that way. But if there’s only the option of digital download, or disc/cart/code in a box keys, I’ll just buy it digital. I’m not going to miss out on playing a game I really want to in an attempt to make a point for a sadly dying medium.
For what’s its worth, I still buy CD’s/Vinyl/Blu-Ray when there’s an option for it, so I hope real physical media continues for a long time, though I strongly suspect that this will be the last console generation with actual, proper physical releases the way the industry is going.
Re: New Videos Show How Fantasy Life i Has Been Beefed Up On Switch 2
@Medic_alert
Damn right I’m excited, if not for this particular game I'm still undecided about that, then in general.
Load times are a pain in the butt, especially when you’re used to many games having no load times on other systems. It’s not that I’m impatient, I grew up loading games from cassettes which took ages and would often fail if you happened to fart at the wrong time.
But all those seconds add up, and I’d take an extra 20 minutes of game time over an accumulation of loading any day of the week.
I played Breath of the Wild for over 200 hours, I wonder how much of that was loading screens as I warped around between shrines. I’d wager it was quite a lot of wasted game time.
Then there’s the, very obvious when you watch the video for this game, increased resolution, texture quality and particle effects.
Again, I’m perfectly happy playing games from 40 years ago, gameplay matters to me much, much more than graphics. But if I can have great gameplay and shinier graphics, why wouldn’t I choose that option?
If the new advancements for S2 don’t appeal to anyone, stick with S1, there’s still plenty of games coming for it.
Re: Poll: With One Week To Go, What Are Your Switch 2 Launch-Day Plans?
@Medic_alert
Unfortunately there’s only a few decent retailers not taking advantage of the situation and actually selling them at list price just now.
Even then, little Johnny’s mum average punter who doesn’t know an SD Card from a toaster is going to look at the price and baulk at it when a normal 512GB Micro SD card can be had for less than a quarter of the price.
That the normal MSD is useless for the S2 doesn’t matter, its perception of value in the mass market and it takes time for prices to balance out. I’ve seen it more times than I’d care to count back when I had my computer/games stores, and the economy was in a significantly better condition back then.
But all that aside, the entirety of blame for the cost and availability of the storage is far from just the fault of Nintendo. They have adopted an existing standard, which has had very, very little support up to now and even the track record of the OG Switch is not enough to convince the manufacturers of the cards to throw their complete might behind it, yet. I can imagine the bean counters at SanDisk, or Samsung contemplating how much money they could make if the Switch 2 sells as well as the Switch 1, then remembering how badly the Wii U bombed after the huge cash cow that was the Wii and deciding to start off by prioritising production of the more affordable, lower cost cards. Even though I personally don’t see much evidence of the Switch 2 being a failure by any means, It just makes sense from a business perspective.
Re: UK Retailer GAME Cancels A Bunch Of Nintendo Switch 2 Pre-Orders
@Munchlax
We, surprisingly, still have an actual Game store where I live, how I don’t know. I guess passing trade and people buying for their grandkids must be keeping them going.
As far as I’m concerned Game disappeared years ago, what’s left is a husk of what used to be a great gaming resource. I stopped buying from them when they stopped giving a rats ass about their customers and what their customers actually wanted.
Obviously there’s the massive reduction in physical sales, online stores being generally cheaper and increasing competition from non-gaming focused stores. But It has been so badly managed over the past decade or so that their decline was inevitable.
Re: Poll: With One Week To Go, What Are Your Switch 2 Launch-Day Plans?
@Medic_alert
They have prepared as best they can, with the storage option that’s going to have the highest mass market appeal, 256GB cards are easy to obtain and at relatively reasonable prices.
Unfortunately, most normal consumers, the ones who don’t hang around places like this, just aren’t going to be rushing out to pay in excess of £150 for 512GB, or well in excess of £200 for 1TB.
That’s just how it is with mass market appeal, not only is that the current situation, it always has been, sadly this is just history repeating itself again and I don’t just mean when we first started to see the first 1TB SD and Micro SD cards at prices beyond £300.
The cost of all higher capacity and faster storage formats has always historically been sold at a higher price initially, until the mass market demand grows, production increases and competition from other suppliers grows. We’ve seen it (well, those of us who were around for it) with hard drives, Zip Drives, SuperDisk and CD-RW over floppy disks, DVD-RW over CD-RW, Hi-MD over Minidisc, Blu-Ray over DVD and essentially every newer, faster, higher capacity version of SD, MicroSD, CompactFlash, Memory Stick, DAT Drives and every other current, or previous storage medium I can’t be bothered listing 🤣
Re: Poll: With One Week To Go, What Are Your Switch 2 Launch-Day Plans?
@JumpingJackson
I know what you mean, I’ve been around since before Pong, and while I have no objections to my games looking awesome, indeed I’m happy to pay for the privilege of getting just that (PS5 Pro for example), it’s actually lower down on my priority scale than, what I consider the important things, such as enjoyable gameplay.
I still enjoy 3D Mario though, in fact I’ll play anything that I find entertaining in one way or another, and I absolutely love Mario Kart.
But it’s not just the release games for me, though there’s a handful I’ve already ordered. It’s knowing that games like Metroid Prime 4, the next Zelda and many many more franchises I love will come along down the line. I’m also hoping they see sense and resurrect a few. So what the heck, I may as well get in there at the start, I’ve still quite a few Switch games to start and/or finish and I know a fair few of them are going to be better on Switch 2, even some that haven’t publicly been announced as improved. So the S2 will be the best way for me to experience those as well.
Re: Poll: With One Week To Go, What Are Your Switch 2 Launch-Day Plans?
@Medic_alert
I’m sure Nintendo wishes the situation were different as well, but the manufacture of MSDEX is out of their control, it’s down to [primarily] the big 3 to get them out there, Lexar, SanDisk and Samsung.
Despite the standard being announced in 2018, there has been very little uptake in the use of them. Even with the revised and significantly faster standard in 2023, there’s still only a handful of companies making devices with MSDEX compatibility, and the number of devices they’ve put out with them are few and far between.
By and large it’s simply down to UHS cards being more than fast enough for mass market adoption. Few people have had an actual, tangible need for the faster speeds of MSDEX, so they have remained an extremely niche product. Therefore, none of the manufacturers have seen either demand, or need, to ramp up production of them, it’s just not a financially viable option when there’s so little demand.
The Switch 2 is really the first mass market consumer device which should have the install base of systems to make ramping up production viable. But even at this point, with the demand for the new console being high, the actual demand for external storage is still unproven. So the initial ramp-up in mass manufacturing will be a slow one initially.
There’s clearly demand for it now and having every unit they manufacture not only selling out, but with high numbers of back-orders for them, confidence to begin ramping up manufacturing will be taking place now. It’ll be a slow trickle to begin with and prices will remain high for a while, but within the next year or two there should be a better balance of supply and demand, as more consumer devices than just the S2 are released with compatibility, for the price wars to begin and prices to drop a little.
As for me, it should be a few months before I even need a 1TB card, and sure, I could delete games, but I like to keep my favourites on there to cover unexpected travel where there’s only crap internet, if any at all. But one thing I was sure of, locking an order in at that price was a good idea regardless.
Re: Poll: With One Week To Go, What Are Your Switch 2 Launch-Day Plans?
@Medic_alert
Campkins cameras have them, if you’re insane and want to pay £300. I ordered mine ages ago from Amazon USA, cost me just over £100. Going to be a bit of a wait, but at that price, I’ll wait.
Re: Poll: With One Week To Go, What Are Your Switch 2 Launch-Day Plans?
I may well have hit half a century, but I’m still as excited as 12 year old me would have been (hell, if you listen to the wife, I’m still a teenager 😂)
Being more or less retired (I might do some work again eventually) I’m an at home dad looking after a 2 year old, so delivery day will largely consist of getting it on charge and getting the transfer done.
But come 8 o’clock, when the wee man goes to bed, to hell with everything else, it’s game time 😊
Re: Nintendo Shares Video Detailing New N64 Features For Switch Online
@Blofse
It’s one more thing to help give S2 yet more appeal as an upgrade, there will be more of this incoming over the next few months. You can’t blame them really, they have to do as many S2 exclusive features as they possibly can.
Basic overlays for Switch 1 would work fine, it would struggle a bit doing proper GPU shaders (such as this one for S2) and constant saving for rewind in handheld mode while maintaining the excellent performance of their N64 emulator, which itself still isn’t perfect, as we all know it’s a notoriously complex system to emulate well.
Re: Rumour: Iconic Studio Codemasters May Soon Close For Good
I won’t say I’m surprised, because I’m not in the least, who among us didn’t see this happening eventually as soon as the EA acquisition was announced?
So, not surprised, but definitely saddened by it. I’ve been a Codie fan since the 80’s, lost count of how many of their games I’ve played and loved. Yes, even Rockstar Ate My Hamster occupied many an hour on my Amstrad back in the day. Sure it was an iffy game by any standards, but I loved the humour in it.
It’s sad when board members see huge acquisitions as a good way to make a pile of cash, line their pockets to buy another retirement yacht, just in case their other one gets a scratch. Knowing full well that they would have no problem remaining independent in the industry and still have a very viable business.
Re: Nintendo Shares Video Detailing New N64 Features For Switch Online
@Blofse
There’s an important distinction between the Shield TV and the Switch though, the Switch uses a down-clocked version of the Tegra X1 compared to the Shield, especially in handheld mode. So, handheld in particular, would struggle to run the majority of GameCube games at anything even remotely like full speed.
Re: How Well Do You Remember Super Mario Galaxy 2?
I’m ashamed to admit, that even as a huge Mario fan since his first outing, I’ve never played the Galaxy games. I had a Wii (of course), but it didn’t take long before it started gathering dust, which it does to this day.
I simply hated, nay hate, motion controls with an absolute passion, they fall into the same category as touchscreen controls for me. Yes I’m an old fart who’s stuck in his ways, but give me a proper bloody controller or I’m just going to have a hissy fit 🤣
I do however hope they get a remake down the line, with proper controls and none of that pointer gimmicky nonsense.
Re: Xenoblade Chronicles 3 Dev Used Procedural Generation To Manage 100,000 Different Assets
@Skippermonkey
You’ve a few years on me then, I just hit the half century last December.
I can say though, as a Scottish chappie, we fully embrace new technologies of all kinds. Why, I distinctly remember when thon new fangled Betamax thing first reached these shores as far back as 2012, what a time to be alive.