Why do people always assume 10/10 means "perfect" and "flawless" and not whatever the word next to the score on a given site says it means? Numbers really need to be removed from review sites lmao, y'all arguing over a digit when the actual argument needs to be why this is "Excellent" rather than "Outstanding" in the eyes of the reviewer. Honestly one of my biggest gripes with numerical scores is how it turns the entire internet into a subconscious hive mind; I RARELY ever see people talk about what a given website's scores mean FOR THAT SITE.
Completely on board with giving NL the smackdown for biases but come on. Just because a game is without flaws does not immediately warrant said game a 10/10 from ANYONE. And just because a game has flaws does not immediately warrant anything less from anyone too. I find Breath of the Wild to be one of the most fundamentally flawed games not only in the LoZ franchise, but in Nintendo's major first party franchises in general. It was a "10/10" experience for me, and I personally judge games based on the experience and not how many boxes the title ticks. MAYBE (just maybe!) this is why PJ has opted for an "Excellent" rather than an "Outstanding". The numbers game removes so much nuance from games discussion and it really gets my panties in all kinds of twists.
@SwitchForce is it also worth figuring out who copied who in regards to the Xbox vs the Playstation and starting a litigation campaign? Sorta baffles me how many people think everyone needs to sue everyone else now because an innovative console has sparked similar concepts. There's no room for marketplace competition so long as Nintendo fans exist huh?
Might have to start a flame war on a phone forum now because I've just learned that Samsung and Apple are both making portable touch screen devices that are rectangular, small enough to pocket, have cameras, can play games, can be locked, have voice control, etc, etc, etc, etc...
@Damo why would you give an article like this such an inflammatory headline? The whole "Switch clone" ordeal really needs to be dropped. It is so needless and petty.
@sweth_t Just think to yourself how many adults you know in your life who know what GTA is and have either watched footage of it, have watched someone else play it, or have played it themselves.
Now ask yourself the same question about any of the other games you listed. GTA is such a household name at this point that it wouldn't surprise me 50% of all people buying an Xbox or PS4 in 2019 also end up picking up GTA. The only other franchises I can think of that are as well known would be Call of Duty or Mario, and Mario has none of the political sticking power that the aforementioned have.
I can quite vividly imagine a dad in his late 30s who is completely outside of the gaming ecosystem walking into an electronics store to buy a coffee machine, spotting a PS4 + Madden combo on sale, picking it up because, well, he likes Madden, and also noticing GTA on the shelf thinking to himself "oh, I have a bunch of friends who have played that, I might give it a try". I can't imagine that same situation happening NEARLY as frequently for any other franchise.
@NEStalgia Asuka would ruin me. I think the characters best suited to Smash's gameplay would probably be Devil Jin (smash attacks covered with laser scraper, hellsweep, the electric, twin pistons, specials covered with his laser eyes, heavens gate, parries, tilts being generic Tekken tools), Paul (could essentially work like a middle ground between Falcon and Ganon with his deathfist and heavy hitting tools), Law (honestly surprised he hasn't been added to a Smash game already, near infinite possibilities for a Smash moveset, his animations are quite cartoonish so he'd blend in well with some visual tweaking, sounds funny), Yoshimitsu (probably unlikely given he's already in SC but easily the highest amount of possibilities for any Tekken character, could be like Joker in that he ostensibly has two move lists [one with sword, one without, down B to swap?], has enough cool moves that'd work in Smash to fill out half a dozen characters) or Alisa (lots of room to mess around with the implications of her design; she could have a lot of interesting aerial options utilising her boosters and could similarly have a split move list like Yoshi, or specifically bring out the chainsaws for Smash attacks).
But yea, the man isn't stumped for options. Even if Kuma or Asuka were picked, I wouldn't complain; Sakurai makes every character that makes it to Smash a joy to play as far as I'm concerned.
Kinda funny how Nintendo Life and half the community were so quick to come to the defence of the reviewer when one user fairly innocuously stated he wouldn't be trusting the high score given to Astral Chain right off the bat for the very same reasons the entire community is blasting Nintendo Life for here with not a single defensive comment in sight. Weird how that works.
You know what other Bandai Namco game is a whopping 60GB? Tekken 7. This article is clearly confirmation that Captain Falcon is gonna be the next announced Tekken DLC character.
@In_Ex_Fan What is your point of reference for game-breaking bluriness or fidelity? I'm not sure if you've played games like Paladins or OW or any litany of PC shooters at their lowest possible settings, be them via in game settings or via modifying game files, but there are so many options for reducing graphical intensity that don't directly impact the bluriness of player models and important features. Doom looks fuzzy as all hell on the Switch but enemy character models are still well defined even at extreme distances. The most important aspects that would need to be retained largely aren't the ones that would have the biggest impact on performance (shaders, particle effects, aliasing, reflections, etc).
And good optimisation for current systems absolutely is important. It is why Doom managed to get ported to begin with, and why Turok's port is such a mess. It is why the best console version of Skyrim is the Switch version. Poorly optimised games are harder to port. I haven't said anywhere it doesn't take a while to port games. IG have had plenty of time to tinker with the Switch though and I'd imagine they've become quite efficient having managed to port Skyrim and D3 so well. HiRez's first ever port to the console was Paladins. It certainly felt like a first port at launch, but they ironed out a lot of the flaws very early on.
Don't take it personally dude, the observation was insincere when you look at the history of the company and its personnel. As someone who's followed Smite since launch and Paladins since open beta, it's difficult not to see gaps in the image. Smite and Paladins were sharing their lead developer all the way up until the split. The majority of the Paladins team was working on Realm, and Paladins saw a significant drop in progress when Realm began development. Paladins' team was born out of a large sect of the Smite team. Smite's update cycle has taken a hit numerous times coinciding with major Paladins updates. You seem to be drastically overestimating HiRez's scope, and they have a pretty substantial history of sacrificing progress and even entire titles while pursuing other games they've got running simultaneously. This isn't the fault of the employees; it definitely comes down to poor management and HiRez have a terrible reputation in this sense. The split was an attempt at solving persistent development issues in the company that have only VERY recently (going by Paladins' recent changes, as late as early 2019) started getting resolved after the split has been enacted (Paladins getting a new tech lead, the assembly of champions, the three mainline games fully operating independent of one another, etc).
None of this changes anything about my initial points, and arguably bolsters them instead. The allocation of resources for Paladins isn't even remotely close to comparable to that of Overwatch, and it isn't hard to see even now when you look at OW's Esports production values and the marketing that goes into all of their DLC. If it still seems I'm asking for too much wanting a 60fps toggle, I haven't really got much else to say. I'm preordering the game irrespective of whether such options are added. It's simply a wish I would have expected (if anyone) Blizzard to implement, and I don't think anyone is wrong in being somewhat disappointed.
@In_Ex_Fan I haven’t disagreed that OW is a better looking title. It clearly should be the more demanding of the two. I simply noted Paladins being so poorly optimised because performance roughly equals out as a result. Even though OW looks a whole lot better, it is also massively well optimised, and thus runs wonderfully.
I should once again bring up the idea of a toggle. A lot of people would rather play at 60 with poor resolution and graphics settings than 30 with everything pretty. This isn’t just a competitive thing. The first game on the Switch to have a toggle was Fire Emblem Warriors. Quite literally the furthest possible step from a competitive game one could get; a single player musou. People like smooth gameplay enough that a reduction in visual flare isn’t always a big deal. You’ve even noted Blizzard could hit 60 if they wanted, and if the company CAN, it doesn’t make sense to me that they shouldn’t give players the option to choose how they want the game to perform. It is also worth noting Paladins on the Switch runs a fair bit above the lowest PC settings. It looks patchy in areas because Paladins in general just isn’t the best looking game.
Intentional or not, that’s a very disingenuous observation. HiRez only split into multiple studios in August of last year. Realm Royale came out in June of last year. Paladins in 2016. Smite in 2014. Resources for Paladins absolutely were the concern of the other games. When you consider Paladins took 4 years to develop, the upcoming game had most of its development time while all games were being made under one roof. That is four mainline HiRez titles being developed at the same time.
@Spiders fair enough man. I have little doubt it's in a better state than it was back then. Haven't played much AoV but it definitely felt very smooth when I did give it a swing.
And absolutely, I'd be doubtful anyone disagrees that a rock solid 30 is better than a choppy "60". But given how positive the reception to Mortal Kombat's in-battle gameplay was even with its abysmal graphical fidelity, I really hoped (and hope!) a toggle will be made available for those of us who don't mind the game looking like ass for a smoother experience. I guess only time can tell how things pan out.
@In_Ex_Fan The comparisons aren't unwarranted. It isn't just that both games are cut from a similar cloth. It's the fact that Blizzard are quite literally ten times the size of HiRez. Not only that, but Paladins hasn't ever been HiRez's main baby; Smite's consistently been their primary project, they've had Realm Royale, and the fact they have a new game dropping next year at the very least implies they've been working on it at LEAST since Paladins was originally ported onto the Switch (given Paladins took 4 years to develop) which, by proxy, would mean reallocation of resources within the company.
Furthermore, the game is running on spaghetti code, and it shows. I get near identical framerates in both Paladins and OW on my PC, yet OW is CLEARLY a better looking title. How they managed to port such a broken game onto the Switch is a marvel, let alone getting it to a pretty damn smooth 60 and allowing cross platform progression and cross play. Obviously different PCs will handle the games differently, and there is every chance my specific CPU+GPU configuration disproportionately affects the frames for or against one game over the other.
The end point I'm making is that if ever there was a company that COULD port OW at 60 (or at the very least include a graphical decrease toggle for anyone willing to take a visual hit [see: anyone who's ever played a competitive title on a PC]), it would be a company as huge as Blizzard. ESPECIALLY if they are asking for near-retail price on a multiplayer only title that is three years old. Not a studio like HiRez with a fairly patchy reputation who operate on a F2P model and have a fraction of the funding and workforce power.
If Blizzard feel 30fps is the best they can do with this port, so be it. It'll run smoothly, it'll have that signature polish, and it will still be a mighty fine time. But people's qualms aren't entirely unfounded, especially when considering the asking price.
@Spiders How so? Game is smooth as hell from my experience and very responsive. Only get frame drops if both teams are throwing all their ults at a point fight at once and even then the frame drop is negligible at worst. Funnily enough, some things actually run better in the Switch version of the game than the PC version, with characters like Sha Lin not suffering any of the performance issues that plague the PC version. I'd like to know your point of reference for a game that feels good at 60 because "garbage" is some pretty strong wording.
@SeantheDon29 All fighting games are capped at 60 max and if a fighter is released at 60, it needs to be released at 60 on every console it is ported to. This is considerably more important for fighters than any other type of game, because a fighter that is designed at 60 and is ported at 30 will require separate balance patches and entire movelists will have to be reworked.
The reasoning is this. In Tekken for example, a "launcher" (move that starts a combo) is typically 15 frames long at 60fps. If your opponent hits you with a move and you block it, if the move they hit your block with causes their recovery to be 15 frames long, you can now launch them for a full combo. If you cut the framerate in half, any move with an odd number of frames has to be changed. A launcher would now have to be either 7 or 8 frames, and depending on which frame the developer chooses to use could cause certain characters to become exceptionally powerful or incredibly weak. If your fastest launcher is 8 frames, it would be equivalent to 16 frames at 60fps and you would no longer be able to punish launch-punishable moves. If it is 7 frames, you can now not only punish launch-punishable moves, but also moves that were previously not launch-punishable (14 frame moves). A combo has the potential to drain more than half of your opponent's health, where as a typical 14 frame move might do a quarter at most. HUGE difference just off the back of a one frame change.
From a pure logic perspective, a 30fps fighter HAS to be designed and balanced from the ground up separately to a 60fps fighter. The genre is much too heavily predicated on numbers for you to get the same experience as another console if there's a discrepancy in framerates. You'd be playing different games.
It isn't nearly as dire an issue in regards to shooters but fighters just can't be ported like that. The perks of higher frames in shooters are largely feel and fluidity. The people who would complain about a 30fps port of a fighting game wouldn't be the PC crowd in this case; it would be people who actually play fighting games. In terms of demographic, that is largely the PS4 crowd, with PC trailing shortly behind. Releasing a port of a fighter on the Switch at half its actual framerate would be like releasing Overwatch but every character has been redesigned and crossplay is a complete impossibility.
Ahhh that's unfortunate. Was really hoping given D3 and Paladins run at 60 that Blizzard would work some magic. Hell, an in-game toggle that reduces the graphics quality and resolution but allows for 60fps would be such a boon. I've been a bit spoiled by Paladins and was hoping Overwatch, a fully priced competitive shooter, would offer comparable frame rates and cross-platform potential. Still putting down a preorder but the price tag seems to have gotten quite a bit heavier sentimentally in the last few days.
Paladins has cross platform play with both PC and Xbox with the option to disable playing with mouse + keyboard players, as well as cross platform progression. I've come to really appreciate the luxury, and I never feel pressured to buy a skin on one device over the other because, well, it all syncs up.
For those wondering about the gyro vs PC dynamic, in Paladins at the very least, 80% of poor performance vs PC players can be chalked up largely to positioning and character choice. I can perform at about 95% of my PC ability on console if I play my cards right (pick characters who prioritise positioning and point control over technical ability and insane accuracy), and can even perform well with characters who do require solid aim if they have strong mobility options (I've performed well against local pro league players with my Switch Kinessa, for example).
Mouse and keyboard is still a step up from gyro but the discrepancy between a control pad and a mouse has shrunk drastically with the introduction of gyro aim. You can also quite easily tell when you are playing against a console player who doesn't have gyro aim, and unless they started shooting first, you'll win pretty much all encounters with a non-gyro player given your character match up is around even.
Would have hoped for a lower price but I'm still gonna preorder. Doubtful I'll put as much into it as I have with Paladins but I'm very excited to give this one a spin on the Switch!
Smash has an SNK, a Capcom, and a Final Fantasy character and is developed by Namco. Tekken has an SNK, a Capcom, and a Final Fantasy character and is developed by Namco.
Captain Falcon in Tekken? A playable Tekken character in Smash? Both games still have characters in development so I'm incredibly excited at the possibilities. The fact Sakurai is one of the only Nintendo employees involved with the development of Ultimate really has me excited at the implications.
@psychoBrew Yea, I'd love to give this game a shot but gyro has been such a luxury that I can't see myself playing any console shooters without it at this point.
People often seem to neglect the actual reasons for the outrage in this scenario. I can think of two tangible issues and one conceptual one. The tangible issues are:
1. A small Smash community in South Australia already enacted a Hero ban, and so controversy exploded. This is a shame because no one really thought about why they did it, or what their own players thought about it. South Australia is a tiny state in a country with a small population, and the South Australian Smash scene is subsequently very small and doesn't compete at remotely close to an international level. The whole community was on board with the Hero ban, and doing what is best for your local community is the only way you will grow your scene. I will explain why the ban seemed necessary in the third point.
2. The second tangible point is understandable concern from players with visual impairments. Luckily for us, Smash is a very vivid game with very well animated and telegraphed moves so even players with mild visual impairments can compete at a high level confidently. Having to read from a text box during a match, however, is a completely different story, and many players have voiced that they are unable to read Hero's command box fast enough for it to be of any use to them to try. This is minor relative to the third point but it is still important and hopefully it can and will be fixed with a patch to add icons or increased text size for ease of identification.
3. The conceptual issue (and the reason for the SA Hero ban) is how Hero affects mid-level tournament play. At the casual level, Hero isn't overpowered because any character can be OP at a casual level. At the highest level, Hero isn't overpowered because the highest level players tend to prefer consistency and better frames, two things Hero does not offer relative to other top tier characters. At the mid level, while maybe not overpowered, Hero has INSANE upset potential. You could have stronger fundamentals than another mid level Hero player and still lose in tournament because he lucked out and managed to punish you with a win button. One can say "get good", but top level players are almost universally streamers or full time competitors. What this means for the mid level (which is where the MAJORITY of tournament players lie) is consistent mid level performers or consistent regional winners can start to lose confidence in their gameplay because of random upsets. A big psychological driver of wanting to get better at something is seeing your performance improve with time, and if you were expected to make it into winners side top 64 at a national event but got booped into losers by an unfortunate series of events in a Hero match in pools, it could really hurt momentum.
Hero isn't overpowered, but at the mid level, he has some of the most ridiculous upset potential I've seen in a game with an active competitive scene. Given all games prior to the top 8 of most tournaments are played as a Best of 3, you really don't get a whole lot of time to adjust to your opponent's play style, so adding an entire RNG system into the mix can prove quite frightening for consistently attending mid level players. I'm hoping more nuance to this ordeal is brought to the light; people have very legitimate concerns.
for some reason, video playback on the 3DS web browser was of a substantially higher quality than in the youtube app so i used to use it all the time for watching videos until the ability to play videos via the browser was seemingly patched out. not sure why there was such a huge quality discrepancy, or why the browser got patched to hell but you win some and you lose some i guess.
@JayJ I think the funniest part of this whole situation is there were two instances of "homophobia", and the more controversial one wasn't actually placed in the game by the core dev team. A third party dev who'd been working on the game who also happened to not be a native English speaker had placed the text in the game as a placeholder, not realising the brevity of the joke within the wider English-speaking political sphere, and the company removed it. The fact it was in a no-clip area should have been hint enough, though you can't hold the players responsible for the company's slip-up. They apologised for this, but held their ground on the more minor of the two, and within the context of the game and given just how timid the joke actually is both on the surface and as a reference, it's kinda crazy how much heat they copped.
In all seriousness, it's about time we got some proper SNK representation in a Smash title. Geese Howard has been incredibly well received in Tekken 7. Don't really care who gets added so long as they fall a little further from being a Ryu/Ken offshoot than some of the main series representatives (though I wouldn't be complaining if this were the case; the likes of Terry and Ryu are famed with good reason!). While it'd likely be from a series like KoF or mayyyyybe even Metal Slug, I'd personally love to see Rai or Arina from Waku Waku 7. It's about as likely as Evie from Paladins but I can dream.
Super excited at this prospect. As someone who's played a hell of a lot of OW and Paladins on PC, as well as a few hundred hours of Paladins on the Switch, this is gonna be a day one purchase if it eventuates. Paladins has been for the most part an excellent Switch port, and a lot of the crashing issues from the early days have been ironed out. Getting gyro controls was a dream (albeit a massively unfair predicament for Xbox players when crossplay went live) and as soon as the gyro patch dropped I knew that if ever OW came to Nintendo I'd absolutely be taking the dive. I'd definitely say I prefer Paladins on the whole but I can't not pick OW up.
>dude leaves comment about an issue that isn't exactly uncommon in the gaming landscape >while quite clearly not the intent, one can infer that the comment is actually just a slight on the reviewer and by extension the company (even if people are quick to say "an individual reviewer's thoughts are not indicative of the company on the whole!!!" when addressing things like lists) >slander.exe >gets put on blast by users and staff alike >role of a reviewer goes from being able to convey one's thoughts on a game to being trustworthy >surprisedpikachu.png >target responds to comments quite amicably as far as internet discussion is concerned and gets hit with "victim card" or "attention seeker" >people who've clearly observed the thread continue talking about him even after he's disappeared or after posting aforementioned "attention seeker" appraisals >needless snide potshots and grandstanding ad infinitum
@Heavyarms55 For real. I'll never get over the fact that the best Sonic game in at least a decade, Sonic Mania, was developed with Sega's blessing and resources by one of the biggest fans of the original Sonic titles. Stuff like this isn't just a great job application; it is a straight up statement of "hey [company]. I love your games so much that I'm willing to make tribute titles with my own free time and zero budget". Stuff like Cadence of Hyrule (not to mention musical contributions by huge Nintendo nerds like FamilyJules) has me somewhat optimistic about how Nintendo handles things going forward but time will tell I guess.
Bowser's attempts at groping Peach go unpunished in Japan where chikan is rife, whereas he is aptly bonked over the head in the US and Europe. Vote carefully, soldiers!
idk if this is a fallacy but why is misogyny worse than conventional tenets of video games to game reviewers, like, can someone explain to me if we need to stage a coup at the next E3 in opposition to killing in video games
like, politicians get shat on repeatedly for blaming mass shootings on violent video games, yet something like this is a travesty irrespective of what real world events do or don't transpire allegedly in its wake. i dont get it mang help
I wonder why "Smash clone" is able to encapsulate every platform fighter that isn't Smash when "Street Fighter clone" means jack squat for literally any other fighting game under the sun, irrespective of how similar it is to Street Fighter. It'd be silly to call King of Fighters or Guilty Gear or DBFZ "Street Fighter clones", yet the same doesn't apply for Smash. ???
In following, this game is an absolute blast for anyone who enjoys the more competitive aspects of Smash. Very fast paced with a reduced emphasis on conventional defensive options, opting instead for high mobility and ways to space out your opponent with large hitboxes or interesting projectiles. Almost manages to eliminate things like camping completely without sacrificing enough tools needed to put up an oppressive wall. As @Pignot has noted, the game has very unique characters and as far as I'm concerned, the roster is more varied with its <20 character roster than Ultimate is with its +70. This isn't a slight on Ultimate; Rivals has simply been built from the ground up with competitive depth in mind and that is brilliantly reflected in the roster. Being good at Absa won't necessarily translate to being good at anyone else.
Really hoping this game picks up steam with the Switch platform. So much love has been put into making it one of the premiere competitive platform fighter experiences and the wonderful character designs and animations make it a blast even on a casual level. My long term wish is more devs really catch on to the potential of the genre like Dan Fornace & Co. have with this. Ultimate had the biggest showing at EVO this year and I think there's enough room for another competitive platform fighter in the fighting game cabal.
How the hell do you port a game to a console without an entire way to play the game that is present on every other device it has been ported into?
"Yea we are gonna port Ocarina of Time onto the Switch but unfortunately we are only porting the child Link timeline. We will add the rest of the game in a future update" probably wouldn't fly in any universe.
This is some poor wording because it creates a really polarized perception; either he is:
a) making a needlessly hyperbolic allusion to Street Fighter 1's single character roster and "perfect balance" which absolutely NO ONE is trying to be right now and it is almost a platitude at this point that 100% balance is never the goal if you want a diverse experience
or
b) genuinely endorsing a zero-balancing policy which NO ONE is following right now and this would significantly mar potential for game longevity as the casual market will carry the game in the early months, and the competitive scenes will decide when the game's time is up
or possible third option
c) criticizing the act of balancing and how it can ruin characters for players, to which I'd point him in the direction of the last BlazBlue game or a multitude of modded old school fighters where the devs have decided to just buff everyone to the point of insanity, sparking more drive for players to experiment with characters rather than dropping their favorites or quitting entirely
Either way, this was a really silly way to voice an opinion on balancing. Especially given he is probably fully aware SamSho's core fan base will be old school fighting game players.
@PCkid No but they were working on Wii U hardware from day one when developing Xeno X. It is public knowledge that Monolith Soft did not know about the Switch's technical specs or development software kits when they started developing Xeno 2. That's not a matter of me "thinking", that is just public information.
Fair enough man. I don't really have anything else to add. I haven't actually said whether or not I agree with your views on the game's quality on the whole in this thread so it's anyone's guess whether or not I think differently. Just don't see much reason to make some of the comments you did given the context of the game's production and its target audience. Time will tell if it's worth the coin I guess!
@PCkid The Wii U was over half way through its life cycle when Xenoblade X dropped. The developers were working with the Wii U infrastructure since development started. They had a full team and four years to put the game together. Until BOTW came along, it was far and away the best looking Wii U title, bar none. One could even argue its more impressive in certain regards.
Xenoblade 2 started development before the developers even had access to Switch hardware. It had a 3 year production cycle. Most of production was carried out by 40 people because a lot of the team was assisting with Breath of the Wild. It was going to be one of the first games to launch on hardware no developers had ever worked on.
The power jump between the Wii U and the Switch is no where near as large as the jump from, say, the PS3 to the PS4. Pair that with working on new tech, and it seems a bit silly to even conceive that Xenoblade 2 would be able to match Xenoblade X in 3 years, yet they came pretty damn close. Let me stress this again: Xenoblade X is the best looking title on the Wii U by a MILE. Similarly, Crysis 1 looked better than every PC game that came out after it until Crysis 2, FOUR YEARS later. The argument that newer titles unambiguously have to trump prior games graphically just doesn't make any sense.
To further all this, Daemon X Machina is being developed by a studio who only formed in 2011. They initially focused on DS titles. They haven't made a huge hit yet. Daemon is an incredibly niche title. There is no way on god's good earth they are working with a massive budget.
In comparison, Monolith Soft are one of the biggest game developers in the RPG sector on the planet. They've been around for 19 years. They've developed for Nintendo for most of that time. Hell, their team often ends up getting contracted to work on first party Nintendo titles. They focus almost purely on the most popular sector of Nintendo content; RPGs.
Tell me with a straight face if you think the budgets being worked with between Xenoblade 2 and Daemon X Machina are even remotely comparable.
There is so much more that goes into game production than what you see at the end, and if all you care about is visual fidelity, the PC market is always available. Picking out an extreme outlier doesn't really do anything to help you.
@PCkid Are you really expecting a third party third person mech shooter that takes place on massive maps featuring massive boss battles running on a non-native game engine to perform at a high frame rate with a good resolution and anti aliasing, all on an affordable portable console?
The Switch isn't a tank lmao. It's had technical issues even in first party titles since day one. Breath of the Wild hardly runs at all in areas like the Lost Woods. And that's on a first party engine developed by Nintendo themselves. My point is your expectations are somewhere in the stratosphere when they have no reason to be.
A last note: I'm not sure if you've seen the mecha market, but it is almost non-existent these days. The fan base is loyal, but niche. What other options does a mecha fan have if they want a feature-complete mecha title to play while on the go? Furthermore, have you tried this game handheld? Because it doesn't look all that bad handheld, and it is that niche of mecha + portable that the game is targeted at.
@PCkid I can generally understand people's desires for 60 frames in fast paced titles but your resolution and aliasing arguments have me wondering why you are even commenting on Nintendo articles at all lmao
@Dualmask Ducking isn't as simple as you make it out to be. Ducking introduces: -High + low mixups -Fuzzy guarding -Overheads -Potential for varying projectile heights which can in turn allow for unblockable scenarios (e.g. throwing a high fireball, following it and attacking with a low as soon as it connects with the opponent's defence) -While-standing punishment (moves designed to punish whiffed high attacks)
It is very difficult to feel like you have control in a fighting game when you have dozens of things to consider that you may not have burned into your muscle memory. You find yourself constantly thinking "what do I need to be doing right now" rather than letting your subconscious psychology do the heavy lifting. This game is designed to let people hop in and focus purely on fundamentals without getting bogged down and confused.
For as simple as Smash is, it is still damn confusing at times, even for more experienced players. If you've never played Olimar before, he will feel completely alien. Trying to manage Robin's tomes is a huge challenge for the unprepared. Even Smash's neutral game can be quite complex given your opponent can attack from basically anywhere on the screen.
This game isn't designed for people who want a flashy triple A experience. It is designed for people who want to be able to play against other players and win or lose purely depending on how well they outplayed their opponent psychologically. Minimal gimmicks. Very common fighting game archetypes. It lets new players operate at their maximum reaction time in the most subconsciously active way they can with minimal time investment which I think is INVALUABLE for anyone who wants to discover what makes competitive fighting games truly wonderful.
my 360 controller back in the day lasted me from the console's release to, well, 2019. i threw that mongrel around. friends came over with their grotty fingers and got cheeto dust in every nook and cranny. it quite literally has a burned in sweat scent after years of halo and summer heat and bodily fluids.
both of my day one ps3 controllers work perfectly, and i often use them for fighting games on my laptop to this day with no issue.
i have three sets of joycons: a black set from day one, a yellow set from a little later, and a splatoon set when they first launched in SEA. both of the first two sets drift, and the splatoon one is probably overdue to start glitching out on me. in less than a quarter of a generation cycle ive lost two controllers where as my gamepads from a generation ago still work fine. its gotten to the point where i go out of my way to find games to buy that dont require controllers to play so if i want to bring the console on the train to work or whatever, i dont have to worry about the joycon analogues rubbing against the inside of my switch case (a worry that no one should have to have when buying a protective case afaic but idk maybe im dumb). as much as im happy i like visual novels and rhythm games, it would be nice to rip out smash or mario kart from time to time but the console wont let me without sacrificing my joycons to a higher power.
@Ralizah I think you've missed my argument completely. Using JustPasteIt again, spoilers. This response is a bit long so you might want to put the kettle on.
@Ralizah I've put my disagreements in a text post on a third party site as to not spoil anything for anyone. I don't think the reviewer is being all that hyperbolic when he uses terms like "vile" and "vicious", and this is coming from someone who's put more hours into psychological and horror titles more than likely any other genre (fwiw anyway). It's a pretty brutal narrative afaic.
@Heavyarms55 while this video is more specifically about emulation, it addresses a lot of points from this conversation we've been having. Worth taking a look.
@Heavyarms55 I should probably clarify my point a little more as it is very specific to Nintendo, the topic at hand. Piracy will always exist, and is undoubtedly a problem. I don't think it hurts Nintendo and their creators in the slightest at the moment though. They expend so many resources trying to combat piracy, modding, fan projects, gaming tournaments, etc. Contrast that with the amount of money they'd most certainly made if they just made their old titles available to play on current consoles (and potentially even on Nintendo officiated emulators on PC as other companies have done so in the past) and dropped the witch hunting, and it seems the only way content creators are being hurt at Nintendo is by having budgets cut so the Nintendo police can send strikes to every Tom, Dick and Harry that wants to try a classic that no longer exists legally.
You can't stop piracy. You can, however, vastly mitigate its effect, and given how much effort Nintendo are putting into combatting it, I can't see any way they aren't having to spend a lot of money fighting fruitless battles that they could easily be recouping through retro sales and pumping into their development departments. If Nintendo were already making their retro titles available, had already opened up to the modding and home brew scenes, were fully on board with sponsoring tournaments (which thankfully they've begun doing in recent years), and were less inclined to shut down fan projects, instead finding ways to regulate IP restrictions (see: Cadence of Hyrule, something that's been an EXTRAORDINARY success), the amount they'd be pulling in would dramatically increase funding for their content creators.
All this is a huge disincentive for pirates. The risk associated with pirating a classic game series vs spending $20 for the first 5 FF games in a Nintendo official emulator devoid of potential viruses and legal ramifications is a massive deal. Modding communities can work on projects utilising official Nintendo game files. Tournaments don't have to be operated using ISOs ripped from the internet, attracting the ire of the dev team because there's no reason a 10+ year old game should cost any more than a few dollars.
Should all this become common practice, then I'd be inclined to agree with your sentiments. But Nintendo already operate with that mindset taken to its logical conclusion; iron fist stranglehold on anything Nintendo related that isn't being made by Nintendo. It wastes money through policing. It forces communities underground. It incentivises illegal practice. Valve has showcased the incredible financial gain from a loose approach and utilisation of sales. Nintendo won't go anywhere continuing on the warpath.
@Heavyarms55 Responding to your first reply, I don't disagree. I didn't say piracy wasn't theft. I simply said I understand why people pirate Nintendo games. In Nintendo's highly specific case, I'd argue piracy only hurts Nintendo in that they spend countless resources trying to fight piracy. There is a very easy fix to the majority of piracy issues and that is actually selling the games people want to play. We aren't dealing with the issue of obsoleteness here. Nintendo aren't a small business selling vases. They are a corporation refusing to make digital files available for paying customers. The only people who are hurt by this whole situation is said customers who's only options to play a game are: a) potentially spend massive fees trying to find physical versions of games that are no longer sold for consoles that are running on fumes (I've seen copies of Smash Bros Melee going for over $200 online in less than mint condition) or b) break the law and download the game online I agree that it is a crime, but the victims in Nintendo's case aren't Nintendo's creators. No one at Nintendo is making any money off of games they aren't selling anymore. The victims are people who want to play Nintendo's classic titles and can't because Nintendo gives them no way to do so.
Responding to your second reply, I think you misunderstood me. I'm pro streaming and anti piracy. Streaming massively decreased piracy. Given a fair deal, people will choose to purchase content rather than pirate it most of the time. There's even a cognitive bias called the sunk cost effect that dictates people are more likely to lean towards things they've made investments in than things they haven't.
Piracy only denies content creators if content creators are creating content and selling it. Piracy doesn't deny anyone anything if no content is being made or sold. Can't stress this enough; I absolutely agree that breaking the law is bad. But imagine what'd happen if instead of spending countless resources sending notices to every website that provides Nintendo ROMs, Nintendo just sold the games people so desperately want?
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Re: New Nintendo Switch Online Bundles Offer Top Games At Discounted Prices (Europe)
@Expa0 that's a shame. It's a brilliant game, though I guess it isn't exactly everyone's cup of tea.
Re: Review: Divinity: Original Sin 2 - Definitive Edition - A Pure Work Of Magic
Why do people always assume 10/10 means "perfect" and "flawless" and not whatever the word next to the score on a given site says it means? Numbers really need to be removed from review sites lmao, y'all arguing over a digit when the actual argument needs to be why this is "Excellent" rather than "Outstanding" in the eyes of the reviewer. Honestly one of my biggest gripes with numerical scores is how it turns the entire internet into a subconscious hive mind; I RARELY ever see people talk about what a given website's scores mean FOR THAT SITE.
Completely on board with giving NL the smackdown for biases but come on. Just because a game is without flaws does not immediately warrant said game a 10/10 from ANYONE. And just because a game has flaws does not immediately warrant anything less from anyone too. I find Breath of the Wild to be one of the most fundamentally flawed games not only in the LoZ franchise, but in Nintendo's major first party franchises in general. It was a "10/10" experience for me, and I personally judge games based on the experience and not how many boxes the title ticks. MAYBE (just maybe!) this is why PJ has opted for an "Excellent" rather than an "Outstanding". The numbers game removes so much nuance from games discussion and it really gets my panties in all kinds of twists.
Re: Razer's New Gaming Tablet Is One Of The Most Blatant Nintendo Switch Clones Yet
@SwitchForce is it also worth figuring out who copied who in regards to the Xbox vs the Playstation and starting a litigation campaign? Sorta baffles me how many people think everyone needs to sue everyone else now because an innovative console has sparked similar concepts. There's no room for marketplace competition so long as Nintendo fans exist huh?
Might have to start a flame war on a phone forum now because I've just learned that Samsung and Apple are both making portable touch screen devices that are rectangular, small enough to pocket, have cameras, can play games, can be locked, have voice control, etc, etc, etc, etc...
@Damo why would you give an article like this such an inflammatory headline? The whole "Switch clone" ordeal really needs to be dropped. It is so needless and petty.
Re: Astral Chain Was One Of The Top-Selling Games Of August In The United States
@sweth_t Just think to yourself how many adults you know in your life who know what GTA is and have either watched footage of it, have watched someone else play it, or have played it themselves.
Now ask yourself the same question about any of the other games you listed. GTA is such a household name at this point that it wouldn't surprise me 50% of all people buying an Xbox or PS4 in 2019 also end up picking up GTA. The only other franchises I can think of that are as well known would be Call of Duty or Mario, and Mario has none of the political sticking power that the aforementioned have.
I can quite vividly imagine a dad in his late 30s who is completely outside of the gaming ecosystem walking into an electronics store to buy a coffee machine, spotting a PS4 + Madden combo on sale, picking it up because, well, he likes Madden, and also noticing GTA on the shelf thinking to himself "oh, I have a bunch of friends who have played that, I might give it a try". I can't imagine that same situation happening NEARLY as frequently for any other franchise.
Re: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's File Size Reached A Mighty 60GB During Development
@NEStalgia Asuka would ruin me. I think the characters best suited to Smash's gameplay would probably be Devil Jin (smash attacks covered with laser scraper, hellsweep, the electric, twin pistons, specials covered with his laser eyes, heavens gate, parries, tilts being generic Tekken tools), Paul (could essentially work like a middle ground between Falcon and Ganon with his deathfist and heavy hitting tools), Law (honestly surprised he hasn't been added to a Smash game already, near infinite possibilities for a Smash moveset, his animations are quite cartoonish so he'd blend in well with some visual tweaking, sounds funny), Yoshimitsu (probably unlikely given he's already in SC but easily the highest amount of possibilities for any Tekken character, could be like Joker in that he ostensibly has two move lists [one with sword, one without, down B to swap?], has enough cool moves that'd work in Smash to fill out half a dozen characters) or Alisa (lots of room to mess around with the implications of her design; she could have a lot of interesting aerial options utilising her boosters and could similarly have a split move list like Yoshi, or specifically bring out the chainsaws for Smash attacks).
But yea, the man isn't stumped for options. Even if Kuma or Asuka were picked, I wouldn't complain; Sakurai makes every character that makes it to Smash a joy to play as far as I'm concerned.
Re: Review: NBA 2K20 - An Impressive Port That Delivers The Full Experience On Switch
Kinda funny how Nintendo Life and half the community were so quick to come to the defence of the reviewer when one user fairly innocuously stated he wouldn't be trusting the high score given to Astral Chain right off the bat for the very same reasons the entire community is blasting Nintendo Life for here with not a single defensive comment in sight. Weird how that works.
Re: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's File Size Reached A Mighty 60GB During Development
@MarioFan02 been the number one game on my Switch wish list since the console was announced
@NEStalgia he's kinda in the game already so it makes me wonder if maybe someone else like Jin or Kazuya will make it as a playable character
Re: Super Smash Bros. Ultimate's File Size Reached A Mighty 60GB During Development
You know what other Bandai Namco game is a whopping 60GB? Tekken 7. This article is clearly confirmation that Captain Falcon is gonna be the next announced Tekken DLC character.
Re: Iron Galaxy Helped Bring Overwatch To Switch, Nintendo Version Runs At 30fps
@In_Ex_Fan What is your point of reference for game-breaking bluriness or fidelity? I'm not sure if you've played games like Paladins or OW or any litany of PC shooters at their lowest possible settings, be them via in game settings or via modifying game files, but there are so many options for reducing graphical intensity that don't directly impact the bluriness of player models and important features. Doom looks fuzzy as all hell on the Switch but enemy character models are still well defined even at extreme distances. The most important aspects that would need to be retained largely aren't the ones that would have the biggest impact on performance (shaders, particle effects, aliasing, reflections, etc).
And good optimisation for current systems absolutely is important. It is why Doom managed to get ported to begin with, and why Turok's port is such a mess. It is why the best console version of Skyrim is the Switch version. Poorly optimised games are harder to port. I haven't said anywhere it doesn't take a while to port games. IG have had plenty of time to tinker with the Switch though and I'd imagine they've become quite efficient having managed to port Skyrim and D3 so well. HiRez's first ever port to the console was Paladins. It certainly felt like a first port at launch, but they ironed out a lot of the flaws very early on.
Don't take it personally dude, the observation was insincere when you look at the history of the company and its personnel. As someone who's followed Smite since launch and Paladins since open beta, it's difficult not to see gaps in the image. Smite and Paladins were sharing their lead developer all the way up until the split. The majority of the Paladins team was working on Realm, and Paladins saw a significant drop in progress when Realm began development. Paladins' team was born out of a large sect of the Smite team. Smite's update cycle has taken a hit numerous times coinciding with major Paladins updates. You seem to be drastically overestimating HiRez's scope, and they have a pretty substantial history of sacrificing progress and even entire titles while pursuing other games they've got running simultaneously. This isn't the fault of the employees; it definitely comes down to poor management and HiRez have a terrible reputation in this sense. The split was an attempt at solving persistent development issues in the company that have only VERY recently (going by Paladins' recent changes, as late as early 2019) started getting resolved after the split has been enacted (Paladins getting a new tech lead, the assembly of champions, the three mainline games fully operating independent of one another, etc).
None of this changes anything about my initial points, and arguably bolsters them instead. The allocation of resources for Paladins isn't even remotely close to comparable to that of Overwatch, and it isn't hard to see even now when you look at OW's Esports production values and the marketing that goes into all of their DLC. If it still seems I'm asking for too much wanting a 60fps toggle, I haven't really got much else to say. I'm preordering the game irrespective of whether such options are added. It's simply a wish I would have expected (if anyone) Blizzard to implement, and I don't think anyone is wrong in being somewhat disappointed.
Re: Rune Factory 4 Special Archival Edition Announced For North America And Europe
Nintendo Life really be throwing the swimsuit day dlc in the subtitle lmao
Re: Iron Galaxy Helped Bring Overwatch To Switch, Nintendo Version Runs At 30fps
@In_Ex_Fan I haven’t disagreed that OW is a better looking title. It clearly should be the more demanding of the two. I simply noted Paladins being so poorly optimised because performance roughly equals out as a result. Even though OW looks a whole lot better, it is also massively well optimised, and thus runs wonderfully.
I should once again bring up the idea of a toggle. A lot of people would rather play at 60 with poor resolution and graphics settings than 30 with everything pretty. This isn’t just a competitive thing. The first game on the Switch to have a toggle was Fire Emblem Warriors. Quite literally the furthest possible step from a competitive game one could get; a single player musou. People like smooth gameplay enough that a reduction in visual flare isn’t always a big deal. You’ve even noted Blizzard could hit 60 if they wanted, and if the company CAN, it doesn’t make sense to me that they shouldn’t give players the option to choose how they want the game to perform. It is also worth noting Paladins on the Switch runs a fair bit above the lowest PC settings. It looks patchy in areas because Paladins in general just isn’t the best looking game.
Intentional or not, that’s a very disingenuous observation. HiRez only split into multiple studios in August of last year. Realm Royale came out in June of last year. Paladins in 2016. Smite in 2014. Resources for Paladins absolutely were the concern of the other games. When you consider Paladins took 4 years to develop, the upcoming game had most of its development time while all games were being made under one roof. That is four mainline HiRez titles being developed at the same time.
Re: Iron Galaxy Helped Bring Overwatch To Switch, Nintendo Version Runs At 30fps
@Spiders fair enough man. I have little doubt it's in a better state than it was back then. Haven't played much AoV but it definitely felt very smooth when I did give it a swing.
And absolutely, I'd be doubtful anyone disagrees that a rock solid 30 is better than a choppy "60". But given how positive the reception to Mortal Kombat's in-battle gameplay was even with its abysmal graphical fidelity, I really hoped (and hope!) a toggle will be made available for those of us who don't mind the game looking like ass for a smoother experience. I guess only time can tell how things pan out.
Re: Iron Galaxy Helped Bring Overwatch To Switch, Nintendo Version Runs At 30fps
@In_Ex_Fan The comparisons aren't unwarranted. It isn't just that both games are cut from a similar cloth. It's the fact that Blizzard are quite literally ten times the size of HiRez. Not only that, but Paladins hasn't ever been HiRez's main baby; Smite's consistently been their primary project, they've had Realm Royale, and the fact they have a new game dropping next year at the very least implies they've been working on it at LEAST since Paladins was originally ported onto the Switch (given Paladins took 4 years to develop) which, by proxy, would mean reallocation of resources within the company.
Furthermore, the game is running on spaghetti code, and it shows. I get near identical framerates in both Paladins and OW on my PC, yet OW is CLEARLY a better looking title. How they managed to port such a broken game onto the Switch is a marvel, let alone getting it to a pretty damn smooth 60 and allowing cross platform progression and cross play. Obviously different PCs will handle the games differently, and there is every chance my specific CPU+GPU configuration disproportionately affects the frames for or against one game over the other.
The end point I'm making is that if ever there was a company that COULD port OW at 60 (or at the very least include a graphical decrease toggle for anyone willing to take a visual hit [see: anyone who's ever played a competitive title on a PC]), it would be a company as huge as Blizzard. ESPECIALLY if they are asking for near-retail price on a multiplayer only title that is three years old. Not a studio like HiRez with a fairly patchy reputation who operate on a F2P model and have a fraction of the funding and workforce power.
If Blizzard feel 30fps is the best they can do with this port, so be it. It'll run smoothly, it'll have that signature polish, and it will still be a mighty fine time. But people's qualms aren't entirely unfounded, especially when considering the asking price.
Re: Iron Galaxy Helped Bring Overwatch To Switch, Nintendo Version Runs At 30fps
@Spiders How so? Game is smooth as hell from my experience and very responsive. Only get frame drops if both teams are throwing all their ults at a point fight at once and even then the frame drop is negligible at worst. Funnily enough, some things actually run better in the Switch version of the game than the PC version, with characters like Sha Lin not suffering any of the performance issues that plague the PC version. I'd like to know your point of reference for a game that feels good at 60 because "garbage" is some pretty strong wording.
Re: Iron Galaxy Helped Bring Overwatch To Switch, Nintendo Version Runs At 30fps
@SeantheDon29 All fighting games are capped at 60 max and if a fighter is released at 60, it needs to be released at 60 on every console it is ported to. This is considerably more important for fighters than any other type of game, because a fighter that is designed at 60 and is ported at 30 will require separate balance patches and entire movelists will have to be reworked.
The reasoning is this. In Tekken for example, a "launcher" (move that starts a combo) is typically 15 frames long at 60fps. If your opponent hits you with a move and you block it, if the move they hit your block with causes their recovery to be 15 frames long, you can now launch them for a full combo. If you cut the framerate in half, any move with an odd number of frames has to be changed. A launcher would now have to be either 7 or 8 frames, and depending on which frame the developer chooses to use could cause certain characters to become exceptionally powerful or incredibly weak. If your fastest launcher is 8 frames, it would be equivalent to 16 frames at 60fps and you would no longer be able to punish launch-punishable moves. If it is 7 frames, you can now not only punish launch-punishable moves, but also moves that were previously not launch-punishable (14 frame moves). A combo has the potential to drain more than half of your opponent's health, where as a typical 14 frame move might do a quarter at most. HUGE difference just off the back of a one frame change.
From a pure logic perspective, a 30fps fighter HAS to be designed and balanced from the ground up separately to a 60fps fighter. The genre is much too heavily predicated on numbers for you to get the same experience as another console if there's a discrepancy in framerates. You'd be playing different games.
It isn't nearly as dire an issue in regards to shooters but fighters just can't be ported like that. The perks of higher frames in shooters are largely feel and fluidity. The people who would complain about a 30fps port of a fighting game wouldn't be the PC crowd in this case; it would be people who actually play fighting games. In terms of demographic, that is largely the PS4 crowd, with PC trailing shortly behind. Releasing a port of a fighter on the Switch at half its actual framerate would be like releasing Overwatch but every character has been redesigned and crossplay is a complete impossibility.
Re: Iron Galaxy Helped Bring Overwatch To Switch, Nintendo Version Runs At 30fps
Ahhh that's unfortunate. Was really hoping given D3 and Paladins run at 60 that Blizzard would work some magic. Hell, an in-game toggle that reduces the graphics quality and resolution but allows for 60fps would be such a boon. I've been a bit spoiled by Paladins and was hoping Overwatch, a fully priced competitive shooter, would offer comparable frame rates and cross-platform potential. Still putting down a preorder but the price tag seems to have gotten quite a bit heavier sentimentally in the last few days.
Re: Blizzard Has No Plans To Add Cross-Platform Progression To Overwatch Right Now
Paladins has cross platform play with both PC and Xbox with the option to disable playing with mouse + keyboard players, as well as cross platform progression. I've come to really appreciate the luxury, and I never feel pressured to buy a skin on one device over the other because, well, it all syncs up.
For those wondering about the gyro vs PC dynamic, in Paladins at the very least, 80% of poor performance vs PC players can be chalked up largely to positioning and character choice. I can perform at about 95% of my PC ability on console if I play my cards right (pick characters who prioritise positioning and point control over technical ability and insane accuracy), and can even perform well with characters who do require solid aim if they have strong mobility options (I've performed well against local pro league players with my Switch Kinessa, for example).
Mouse and keyboard is still a step up from gyro but the discrepancy between a control pad and a mouse has shrunk drastically with the introduction of gyro aim. You can also quite easily tell when you are playing against a console player who doesn't have gyro aim, and unless they started shooting first, you'll win pretty much all encounters with a non-gyro player given your character match up is around even.
Re: Overwatch Coming To Nintendo Switch In October, Physical Version Is A Code In A Box
Would have hoped for a lower price but I'm still gonna preorder. Doubtful I'll put as much into it as I have with Paladins but I'm very excited to give this one a spin on the Switch!
Re: Feature: Just Who The Heck Is Terry Bogard, Smash Bros. Ultimate's Latest DLC Fighter?
Smash has an SNK, a Capcom, and a Final Fantasy character and is developed by Namco. Tekken has an SNK, a Capcom, and a Final Fantasy character and is developed by Namco.
Captain Falcon in Tekken? A playable Tekken character in Smash? Both games still have characters in development so I'm incredibly excited at the possibilities. The fact Sakurai is one of the only Nintendo employees involved with the development of Ultimate really has me excited at the implications.
Re: Pay Your Respects, The 3DS YouTube Service Has Now Ended In Japan
@Kawaiipikachu ahhh, this makes more sense
Re: Review: Bulletstorm: Duke Of Switch Edition - Puerile, Crass And Bloody Good Fun
@psychoBrew Yea, I'd love to give this game a shot but gyro has been such a luxury that I can't see myself playing any console shooters without it at this point.
Re: Dragon Quest XI S Developers Weigh In On 'Overpowered' Hero In Smash Bros.
People often seem to neglect the actual reasons for the outrage in this scenario. I can think of two tangible issues and one conceptual one. The tangible issues are:
1. A small Smash community in South Australia already enacted a Hero ban, and so controversy exploded. This is a shame because no one really thought about why they did it, or what their own players thought about it. South Australia is a tiny state in a country with a small population, and the South Australian Smash scene is subsequently very small and doesn't compete at remotely close to an international level. The whole community was on board with the Hero ban, and doing what is best for your local community is the only way you will grow your scene. I will explain why the ban seemed necessary in the third point.
2. The second tangible point is understandable concern from players with visual impairments. Luckily for us, Smash is a very vivid game with very well animated and telegraphed moves so even players with mild visual impairments can compete at a high level confidently. Having to read from a text box during a match, however, is a completely different story, and many players have voiced that they are unable to read Hero's command box fast enough for it to be of any use to them to try. This is minor relative to the third point but it is still important and hopefully it can and will be fixed with a patch to add icons or increased text size for ease of identification.
3. The conceptual issue (and the reason for the SA Hero ban) is how Hero affects mid-level tournament play. At the casual level, Hero isn't overpowered because any character can be OP at a casual level. At the highest level, Hero isn't overpowered because the highest level players tend to prefer consistency and better frames, two things Hero does not offer relative to other top tier characters. At the mid level, while maybe not overpowered, Hero has INSANE upset potential. You could have stronger fundamentals than another mid level Hero player and still lose in tournament because he lucked out and managed to punish you with a win button. One can say "get good", but top level players are almost universally streamers or full time competitors. What this means for the mid level (which is where the MAJORITY of tournament players lie) is consistent mid level performers or consistent regional winners can start to lose confidence in their gameplay because of random upsets. A big psychological driver of wanting to get better at something is seeing your performance improve with time, and if you were expected to make it into winners side top 64 at a national event but got booped into losers by an unfortunate series of events in a Hero match in pools, it could really hurt momentum.
Hero isn't overpowered, but at the mid level, he has some of the most ridiculous upset potential I've seen in a game with an active competitive scene. Given all games prior to the top 8 of most tournaments are played as a Best of 3, you really don't get a whole lot of time to adjust to your opponent's play style, so adding an entire RNG system into the mix can prove quite frightening for consistently attending mid level players. I'm hoping more nuance to this ordeal is brought to the light; people have very legitimate concerns.
Re: Pay Your Respects, The 3DS YouTube Service Has Now Ended In Japan
for some reason, video playback on the 3DS web browser was of a substantially higher quality than in the youtube app so i used to use it all the time for watching videos until the ability to play videos via the browser was seemingly patched out. not sure why there was such a huge quality discrepancy, or why the browser got patched to hell but you win some and you lose some i guess.
Re: Konami Plans To Work With More "Globally Known IPs" In The Future
@Mr_Muscle The mobile market beckons
Re: Disgruntled Gamers Are Review-Bombing Astral Chain On Metacritic
@JayJ I think the funniest part of this whole situation is there were two instances of "homophobia", and the more controversial one wasn't actually placed in the game by the core dev team. A third party dev who'd been working on the game who also happened to not be a native English speaker had placed the text in the game as a placeholder, not realising the brevity of the joke within the wider English-speaking political sphere, and the company removed it. The fact it was in a no-clip area should have been hint enough, though you can't hold the players responsible for the company's slip-up. They apologised for this, but held their ground on the more minor of the two, and within the context of the game and given just how timid the joke actually is both on the surface and as a reference, it's kinda crazy how much heat they copped.
Re: The Pokémon Sword And Shield Anime Will Be Set Across Every Region From Kanto To Galar
Up Next: Nintendo to hire Andrew Wilson to release all subsequent regions as paid DLC over the course of three season passes
Re: Rumour: The Next DLC Fighter For Smash Bros. Ultimate Might Be Representing SNK
Boy oh boy I hope it's Evie from Paladins!!!
In all seriousness, it's about time we got some proper SNK representation in a Smash title. Geese Howard has been incredibly well received in Tekken 7. Don't really care who gets added so long as they fall a little further from being a Ryu/Ken offshoot than some of the main series representatives (though I wouldn't be complaining if this were the case; the likes of Terry and Ryu are famed with good reason!). While it'd likely be from a series like KoF or mayyyyybe even Metal Slug, I'd personally love to see Rai or Arina from Waku Waku 7. It's about as likely as Evie from Paladins but I can dream.
Re: Talking Point: With Overwatch Apparently Switch-Bound, The Future's Bright For Blizzard And Nintendo
Super excited at this prospect. As someone who's played a hell of a lot of OW and Paladins on PC, as well as a few hundred hours of Paladins on the Switch, this is gonna be a day one purchase if it eventuates. Paladins has been for the most part an excellent Switch port, and a lot of the crashing issues from the early days have been ironed out. Getting gyro controls was a dream (albeit a massively unfair predicament for Xbox players when crossplay went live) and as soon as the gyro patch dropped I knew that if ever OW came to Nintendo I'd absolutely be taking the dive. I'd definitely say I prefer Paladins on the whole but I can't not pick OW up.
Re: Review: Astral Chain - Platinum's Best Game Ever? You'd Better Believe It
>dude leaves comment about an issue that isn't exactly uncommon in the gaming landscape
>while quite clearly not the intent, one can infer that the comment is actually just a slight on the reviewer and by extension the company (even if people are quick to say "an individual reviewer's thoughts are not indicative of the company on the whole!!!" when addressing things like lists)
>slander.exe
>gets put on blast by users and staff alike
>role of a reviewer goes from being able to convey one's thoughts on a game to being trustworthy
>surprisedpikachu.png
>target responds to comments quite amicably as far as internet discussion is concerned and gets hit with "victim card" or "attention seeker"
>people who've clearly observed the thread continue talking about him even after he's disappeared or after posting aforementioned "attention seeker" appraisals
>needless snide potshots and grandstanding ad infinitum
what a lovely bunch we have here
Re: Random: This Legend Of Zelda Fan Is Recreating A Link To The Past In The Unity Engine
@Heavyarms55 For real. I'll never get over the fact that the best Sonic game in at least a decade, Sonic Mania, was developed with Sega's blessing and resources by one of the biggest fans of the original Sonic titles. Stuff like this isn't just a great job application; it is a straight up statement of "hey [company]. I love your games so much that I'm willing to make tribute titles with my own free time and zero budget". Stuff like Cadence of Hyrule (not to mention musical contributions by huge Nintendo nerds like FamilyJules) has me somewhat optimistic about how Nintendo handles things going forward but time will tell I guess.
Re: Poll: Box Art Brawl #5 - Super Mario Kart
Bowser's attempts at groping Peach go unpunished in Japan where chikan is rife, whereas he is aptly bonked over the head in the US and Europe. Vote carefully, soldiers!
Re: Review: Sword Art Online: Fatal Bullet Complete Edition - This Anime Adaptation Misses The Target
idk if this is a fallacy but why is misogyny worse than conventional tenets of video games to game reviewers, like, can someone explain to me if we need to stage a coup at the next E3 in opposition to killing in video games
like, politicians get shat on repeatedly for blaming mass shootings on violent video games, yet something like this is a travesty irrespective of what real world events do or don't transpire allegedly in its wake. i dont get it mang help
Re: Random: The Voice Of Zelda Signs Fan's Copy Of Breath Of The Wild In Hylian
I think she spelled the second word wrong
Re: Dan Fornace Reconfirms Smash-Style Brawler Rivals Of Aether For Switch
I wonder why "Smash clone" is able to encapsulate every platform fighter that isn't Smash when "Street Fighter clone" means jack squat for literally any other fighting game under the sun, irrespective of how similar it is to Street Fighter. It'd be silly to call King of Fighters or Guilty Gear or DBFZ "Street Fighter clones", yet the same doesn't apply for Smash. ???
In following, this game is an absolute blast for anyone who enjoys the more competitive aspects of Smash. Very fast paced with a reduced emphasis on conventional defensive options, opting instead for high mobility and ways to space out your opponent with large hitboxes or interesting projectiles. Almost manages to eliminate things like camping completely without sacrificing enough tools needed to put up an oppressive wall. As @Pignot has noted, the game has very unique characters and as far as I'm concerned, the roster is more varied with its <20 character roster than Ultimate is with its +70. This isn't a slight on Ultimate; Rivals has simply been built from the ground up with competitive depth in mind and that is brilliantly reflected in the roster. Being good at Absa won't necessarily translate to being good at anyone else.
Really hoping this game picks up steam with the Switch platform. So much love has been put into making it one of the premiere competitive platform fighter experiences and the wonderful character designs and animations make it a blast even on a casual level. My long term wish is more devs really catch on to the potential of the genre like Dan Fornace & Co. have with this. Ultimate had the biggest showing at EVO this year and I think there's enough room for another competitive platform fighter in the fighting game cabal.
Re: Turok 2 On Nintendo Switch Doesn't Include Multiplayer
How the hell do you port a game to a console without an entire way to play the game that is present on every other device it has been ported into?
"Yea we are gonna port Ocarina of Time onto the Switch but unfortunately we are only porting the child Link timeline. We will add the rest of the game in a future update" probably wouldn't fly in any universe.
Re: Samurai Shodown Director Says A Perfectly Balanced Fighting Game Would Be Boring
This is some poor wording because it creates a really polarized perception; either he is:
a) making a needlessly hyperbolic allusion to Street Fighter 1's single character roster and "perfect balance" which absolutely NO ONE is trying to be right now and it is almost a platitude at this point that 100% balance is never the goal if you want a diverse experience
or
b) genuinely endorsing a zero-balancing policy which NO ONE is following right now and this would significantly mar potential for game longevity as the casual market will carry the game in the early months, and the competitive scenes will decide when the game's time is up
or possible third option
c) criticizing the act of balancing and how it can ruin characters for players, to which I'd point him in the direction of the last BlazBlue game or a multitude of modded old school fighters where the devs have decided to just buff everyone to the point of insanity, sparking more drive for players to experiment with characters rather than dropping their favorites or quitting entirely
Either way, this was a really silly way to voice an opinion on balancing. Especially given he is probably fully aware SamSho's core fan base will be old school fighting game players.
Re: Frame Rate Was One Of The "Top Priorities" For The Developer Of Daemon X Machina
@PCkid No but they were working on Wii U hardware from day one when developing Xeno X. It is public knowledge that Monolith Soft did not know about the Switch's technical specs or development software kits when they started developing Xeno 2. That's not a matter of me "thinking", that is just public information.
Fair enough man. I don't really have anything else to add. I haven't actually said whether or not I agree with your views on the game's quality on the whole in this thread so it's anyone's guess whether or not I think differently. Just don't see much reason to make some of the comments you did given the context of the game's production and its target audience. Time will tell if it's worth the coin I guess!
Re: Frame Rate Was One Of The "Top Priorities" For The Developer Of Daemon X Machina
@PCkid The Wii U was over half way through its life cycle when Xenoblade X dropped. The developers were working with the Wii U infrastructure since development started. They had a full team and four years to put the game together. Until BOTW came along, it was far and away the best looking Wii U title, bar none. One could even argue its more impressive in certain regards.
Xenoblade 2 started development before the developers even had access to Switch hardware. It had a 3 year production cycle. Most of production was carried out by 40 people because a lot of the team was assisting with Breath of the Wild. It was going to be one of the first games to launch on hardware no developers had ever worked on.
The power jump between the Wii U and the Switch is no where near as large as the jump from, say, the PS3 to the PS4. Pair that with working on new tech, and it seems a bit silly to even conceive that Xenoblade 2 would be able to match Xenoblade X in 3 years, yet they came pretty damn close. Let me stress this again: Xenoblade X is the best looking title on the Wii U by a MILE. Similarly, Crysis 1 looked better than every PC game that came out after it until Crysis 2, FOUR YEARS later. The argument that newer titles unambiguously have to trump prior games graphically just doesn't make any sense.
To further all this, Daemon X Machina is being developed by a studio who only formed in 2011. They initially focused on DS titles. They haven't made a huge hit yet. Daemon is an incredibly niche title. There is no way on god's good earth they are working with a massive budget.
In comparison, Monolith Soft are one of the biggest game developers in the RPG sector on the planet. They've been around for 19 years. They've developed for Nintendo for most of that time. Hell, their team often ends up getting contracted to work on first party Nintendo titles. They focus almost purely on the most popular sector of Nintendo content; RPGs.
Tell me with a straight face if you think the budgets being worked with between Xenoblade 2 and Daemon X Machina are even remotely comparable.
There is so much more that goes into game production than what you see at the end, and if all you care about is visual fidelity, the PC market is always available. Picking out an extreme outlier doesn't really do anything to help you.
Re: Review: DOOM II - It's Hell On Earth With This Devilishly Playable Switch Port
Shouldn't it be the Cons and Joys list? Given the left one doesn't work?
sorry
Re: Poll: Vote For Your Favourite Nintendo DS Games
No, Gavin. You can't tell me what to do. I am autonomous!
...Suzuki Super-Bikes II: Riding Challenge was pretty good tho...
Re: Frame Rate Was One Of The "Top Priorities" For The Developer Of Daemon X Machina
@PCkid Are you really expecting a third party third person mech shooter that takes place on massive maps featuring massive boss battles running on a non-native game engine to perform at a high frame rate with a good resolution and anti aliasing, all on an affordable portable console?
The Switch isn't a tank lmao. It's had technical issues even in first party titles since day one. Breath of the Wild hardly runs at all in areas like the Lost Woods. And that's on a first party engine developed by Nintendo themselves. My point is your expectations are somewhere in the stratosphere when they have no reason to be.
A last note: I'm not sure if you've seen the mecha market, but it is almost non-existent these days. The fan base is loyal, but niche. What other options does a mecha fan have if they want a feature-complete mecha title to play while on the go? Furthermore, have you tried this game handheld? Because it doesn't look all that bad handheld, and it is that niche of mecha + portable that the game is targeted at.
Re: Frame Rate Was One Of The "Top Priorities" For The Developer Of Daemon X Machina
@PCkid I can generally understand people's desires for 60 frames in fast paced titles but your resolution and aliasing arguments have me wondering why you are even commenting on Nintendo articles at all lmao
Re: Review: Fantasy Strike - Taking The Fighting Genre Back To Basics
@Dualmask Ducking isn't as simple as you make it out to be. Ducking introduces:
-High + low mixups
-Fuzzy guarding
-Overheads
-Potential for varying projectile heights which can in turn allow for unblockable scenarios (e.g. throwing a high fireball, following it and attacking with a low as soon as it connects with the opponent's defence)
-While-standing punishment (moves designed to punish whiffed high attacks)
It is very difficult to feel like you have control in a fighting game when you have dozens of things to consider that you may not have burned into your muscle memory. You find yourself constantly thinking "what do I need to be doing right now" rather than letting your subconscious psychology do the heavy lifting. This game is designed to let people hop in and focus purely on fundamentals without getting bogged down and confused.
For as simple as Smash is, it is still damn confusing at times, even for more experienced players. If you've never played Olimar before, he will feel completely alien. Trying to manage Robin's tomes is a huge challenge for the unprepared. Even Smash's neutral game can be quite complex given your opponent can attack from basically anywhere on the screen.
This game isn't designed for people who want a flashy triple A experience. It is designed for people who want to be able to play against other players and win or lose purely depending on how well they outplayed their opponent psychologically. Minimal gimmicks. Very common fighting game archetypes. It lets new players operate at their maximum reaction time in the most subconsciously active way they can with minimal time investment which I think is INVALUABLE for anyone who wants to discover what makes competitive fighting games truly wonderful.
Re: Class Action Lawsuit Officially Filed Against Nintendo For Switch Joy-Con "Drifting" Issues
my 360 controller back in the day lasted me from the console's release to, well, 2019. i threw that mongrel around. friends came over with their grotty fingers and got cheeto dust in every nook and cranny. it quite literally has a burned in sweat scent after years of halo and summer heat and bodily fluids.
both of my day one ps3 controllers work perfectly, and i often use them for fighting games on my laptop to this day with no issue.
i have three sets of joycons: a black set from day one, a yellow set from a little later, and a splatoon set when they first launched in SEA. both of the first two sets drift, and the splatoon one is probably overdue to start glitching out on me. in less than a quarter of a generation cycle ive lost two controllers where as my gamepads from a generation ago still work fine. its gotten to the point where i go out of my way to find games to buy that dont require controllers to play so if i want to bring the console on the train to work or whatever, i dont have to worry about the joycon analogues rubbing against the inside of my switch case (a worry that no one should have to have when buying a protective case afaic but idk maybe im dumb). as much as im happy i like visual novels and rhythm games, it would be nice to rip out smash or mario kart from time to time but the console wont let me without sacrificing my joycons to a higher power.
Re: Soapbox: The Nintendo Switch Lite Has The One Thing I've Been Waiting For All This Time
impressive amount of noise being made about this console from people who have no intention of buying it
Re: Review: What Remains of Edith Finch - One Of The Most Unforgettable Games On Switch
@Ralizah I think you've missed my argument completely. Using JustPasteIt again, spoilers. This response is a bit long so you might want to put the kettle on.
https://justpaste.it/5tpdg
Re: Review: What Remains of Edith Finch - One Of The Most Unforgettable Games On Switch
@Ralizah I've put my disagreements in a text post on a third party site as to not spoil anything for anyone. I don't think the reviewer is being all that hyperbolic when he uses terms like "vile" and "vicious", and this is coming from someone who's put more hours into psychological and horror titles more than likely any other genre (fwiw anyway). It's a pretty brutal narrative afaic.
https://justpaste.it/6l1ja
Re: Hands On: This $50 Handheld Plays Pretty Much Every Game From Your Misspent Youth
@Heavyarms55 while this video is more specifically about emulation, it addresses a lot of points from this conversation we've been having. Worth taking a look.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f35i5AVzpsg
Re: Hands On: This $50 Handheld Plays Pretty Much Every Game From Your Misspent Youth
@Heavyarms55 I should probably clarify my point a little more as it is very specific to Nintendo, the topic at hand. Piracy will always exist, and is undoubtedly a problem. I don't think it hurts Nintendo and their creators in the slightest at the moment though. They expend so many resources trying to combat piracy, modding, fan projects, gaming tournaments, etc. Contrast that with the amount of money they'd most certainly made if they just made their old titles available to play on current consoles (and potentially even on Nintendo officiated emulators on PC as other companies have done so in the past) and dropped the witch hunting, and it seems the only way content creators are being hurt at Nintendo is by having budgets cut so the Nintendo police can send strikes to every Tom, Dick and Harry that wants to try a classic that no longer exists legally.
You can't stop piracy. You can, however, vastly mitigate its effect, and given how much effort Nintendo are putting into combatting it, I can't see any way they aren't having to spend a lot of money fighting fruitless battles that they could easily be recouping through retro sales and pumping into their development departments. If Nintendo were already making their retro titles available, had already opened up to the modding and home brew scenes, were fully on board with sponsoring tournaments (which thankfully they've begun doing in recent years), and were less inclined to shut down fan projects, instead finding ways to regulate IP restrictions (see: Cadence of Hyrule, something that's been an EXTRAORDINARY success), the amount they'd be pulling in would dramatically increase funding for their content creators.
All this is a huge disincentive for pirates. The risk associated with pirating a classic game series vs spending $20 for the first 5 FF games in a Nintendo official emulator devoid of potential viruses and legal ramifications is a massive deal. Modding communities can work on projects utilising official Nintendo game files. Tournaments don't have to be operated using ISOs ripped from the internet, attracting the ire of the dev team because there's no reason a 10+ year old game should cost any more than a few dollars.
Should all this become common practice, then I'd be inclined to agree with your sentiments. But Nintendo already operate with that mindset taken to its logical conclusion; iron fist stranglehold on anything Nintendo related that isn't being made by Nintendo. It wastes money through policing. It forces communities underground. It incentivises illegal practice. Valve has showcased the incredible financial gain from a loose approach and utilisation of sales. Nintendo won't go anywhere continuing on the warpath.
Re: Hands On: This $50 Handheld Plays Pretty Much Every Game From Your Misspent Youth
@Heavyarms55 Responding to your first reply, I don't disagree. I didn't say piracy wasn't theft. I simply said I understand why people pirate Nintendo games. In Nintendo's highly specific case, I'd argue piracy only hurts Nintendo in that they spend countless resources trying to fight piracy. There is a very easy fix to the majority of piracy issues and that is actually selling the games people want to play. We aren't dealing with the issue of obsoleteness here. Nintendo aren't a small business selling vases. They are a corporation refusing to make digital files available for paying customers. The only people who are hurt by this whole situation is said customers who's only options to play a game are:
a) potentially spend massive fees trying to find physical versions of games that are no longer sold for consoles that are running on fumes (I've seen copies of Smash Bros Melee going for over $200 online in less than mint condition)
or
b) break the law and download the game online
I agree that it is a crime, but the victims in Nintendo's case aren't Nintendo's creators. No one at Nintendo is making any money off of games they aren't selling anymore. The victims are people who want to play Nintendo's classic titles and can't because Nintendo gives them no way to do so.
Responding to your second reply,
I think you misunderstood me. I'm pro streaming and anti piracy. Streaming massively decreased piracy. Given a fair deal, people will choose to purchase content rather than pirate it most of the time. There's even a cognitive bias called the sunk cost effect that dictates people are more likely to lean towards things they've made investments in than things they haven't.
Piracy only denies content creators if content creators are creating content and selling it. Piracy doesn't deny anyone anything if no content is being made or sold. Can't stress this enough; I absolutely agree that breaking the law is bad. But imagine what'd happen if instead of spending countless resources sending notices to every website that provides Nintendo ROMs, Nintendo just sold the games people so desperately want?