floxi

@Medic_alert Actually, SottR is one of the most well-optimized games I've ever come across, far from maxing out my old 6700 XT in 1440p60 (and running at close to 4k on One X); Rise was much more demanding in certain locations.

@NeoGee You and many others are missing the point of key cards: They can be borrowed and resold, while the former is a hassle on Steam and the latter absolutely impossible without selling the account your game is on.

@Suketoudara Duckstation does an amazing job at upscaling 3D assets/games with its so-called PGXP render pipeline, which manages to massively reduce the PS1's horrible graphics glitches like texture warping and wobbling, flickering, Z-fighting etc. in many games. By overclocking the emulated CPU, even notoriously laggy games like Silent Hill run at a stable frame rate, or - by enabling the included patch - even at 60. (Note: Dithering must be set to "scaled" instead of the default "True Color" for the game to look right.)

The same goes for the PS2 emulator PCSX2 and its ability to remove the original console's insane blur and often horrendous flicker (Valkyrie Profile 2 ... what a flickering nightmare that one was on original hardware ...), making games look like an official remaster.

@Ravenmaster Unfortunately, the RTX 5000 series isn't a new generation, but a poor man's refresh.

@mlt They don't have to find a way or anything - the original is already playable in tablet-only mode.

@darkswabber No, it was never a PSP exclusive, all three games were released on PC before being ported to PSP later, with the first title coming out roughly half a year before the PSP was even on the market.

@LastFootnote Rechargeable AA batteries are a thing, you know.

@Not_Soos PS1 and PS2 (and, to a lesser extent, PS3) had an incredibly diverse lineup of amazing exclusives - often smaller ones - from Japanese developers. With the move of the headquarters to California, Sony made a complete 180 from a Japanese-centric company to a Western-centric one and suddenly more and more Japanese developers started to release their games on Steam (and later on Switch; sometimes even on Xbox), too, to the point where I can get my entire fix of Japanese games on PC and/or Switch now.

And although I've seen several "PC and Switch only" Japanese releases in recent years, the majority is available on PS as well, but it's no longer a must-have system with exclusive access to dozens upon dozens of games or even entire game series.

@KingMike There've been a lot of rumors and allegations about StarForce over the years, but none of them could ever be proven - not even in a lawsuit. But since it installs its own device driver - just like Denuvo does - I've never installed it.

That said, Taito Legends uses SafeDisc, which did have a known security issue and Microsoft patched out support for it back in the Vista days.

There's a version without SafeDisc on MyAbandonware, which should be perfectly legal to use in most countries, or you could use the ROMs that you own with a much newer version of MAME.

Keep in mind that if you want to see old, low-res software like this in its original pixelated glory, you'll have to enable integer scaling in your GPU control panel, or else it will be noticeably blurry in fullscreen. (AMD Adrenaline: Settings -> Display -> enable GPU Scaling, then Integer Scaling. Dunno where the other manufacturers hide this setting.)

@DripDropCop146 If by normal you mean makeup, botox (upper half of his face barely moves anymore) and plastic surgery (eyes), then yes, he looks normal.

@LadyCharlie But that's not the original version; XBL Perfect Dark is a remaster with updated graphics and more importantly: modern controls.

@LUIGITORNADO Haha, 4 years later, there are now more than 200 Metroidvanias on Switch ...

@Banjo- Thank you!

@Banjo- Aroma and version 8.0.5 of Harkinian. Could you please check the version you're using? Apparently, performance got significantly worse a couple releases ago. (Activating 60 fps in the newest release leads to a massive slowdown and audio stuttering; even lowering the resolution to 50% doesn't help)

@Banjo- What magical Ocarina port are you talking about? I only know Ship of Harkinian, which does not run at 60 fps on Wii U without massive stuttering.

@sleepinglion Yeah, these watches have an extremely cheap look. I mistook it for a 20-buck-watch at first glance, too.

@mlt
The amount of flickering, wobbling and polygon jitter in many PS1 games was brutal. I often thought: "Damn, this looks horrible, but hey, it's 3D!" I couldn't even play some titles like Tomb Raider 1 and 2 at all, because the insane flickering gave me headaches.

I can only replay some of the old titles with Duckstation's PGXP, which is able to eliminate most of the graphics glitches.

@Justaguest You can significantly prolong the life of JoyCons with electrical contact cleaner spray and if they're totally broken, a pair of replacement sticks is like 3 to 5 bucks including tools, screws and shipping.

I wish they had locked the frame rate to 30, because right now it's jumping from 30ish to around 45 all the time, resulting in bad frame pacing, choppy scrolling and bad controls.

@Slowdive Shaders are just 100-200 KB (yes, kilo) per game and language files are also minimal in size since there's no voice acting.

@LillianC14 Everything/everyone a bit older is "boomer" now, but the main audience for these games were in fact Gen X and early Millenials.

@the4realpsych Yes, the frame rate isn't great, especially in front of the house ...

@Deljo Retro gaming has a huge following in the UK compared to most other European countries. And you have awesome retro-stores, museums, conventions and lots of great retro Youtubers. Also, "retro GAMER" is a British magazine. Home computers were a big, big thing in the UK (C64, Micro, Spectrum, Amiga, ...) and many people still care about those.

@BloodNinja Good for you if you like PS3 that much, but Skyrim performs and looks so much better on Switch, it's not even a competition. (Hooked up brother's PS3 lately and was shocked how horrible even first party titles like TLoU run on that thing. Sold mine back in the day, because GTA IV with sub-20-fps drove me nuts.)

@Royalblues No, children aren't the main target audience for Nintendo. (Haven't you seen Switch ads?) Plus, they're only a tiny minority of the players according to a business presentation held by Nintendo last year.

@Knightrider1 There's a remaster for XBLA, which ultimately got canned due to licensing issues. Dusted off the good ol' 360 once it was leaked (about a year ago AFAIR). Awesome game.

@PickledKong64 I got the native XBLA port of Goldeneye recently and damn, that is fun to play.

Thyza rocks!

(And the game rocks, I love it.)

@nib0 gotcha 😉

@nib0 Nier: Automata is no no-brainer port. It runs at only 900p with heavily reduced quality on base-PS4 and no anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering (it looks like a Switch port ...) and even decent gaming rigs have a hard time running it at max quality at a constant 60 fps.

@graysoncharles Huh? GTX 770 2013, Witcher 3 2015.

WOW, they actually turned what was one of the coolest looking cell-shaded titles into what looks like a bedroom coder's early access title on Steam.

@Mynameishello It looks like you haven't heard about Hunter Biden's laptop yet ...

@SimonCucho If you want to pay full price for a leftover, burnt slice of pizza from yesterday's party that's stuck to the cardboard, go ahead. You might even get lucky and Nintendo will warm it up for you. But stop calling others "snobs" just because they don't share your taste.

Wow, what the hell. Super low resolution and horrible framerate. It actually made me dizzy after less than 10 minutes.

@TheFrenchiestFry GTX 770 was only 2 years old when Witcher 3 was released.

@Alpha-2002 Don't buy new ones! First try WD40 Electrical Contact Cleaner and if that doesn't help, get new analog sticks for like 10 bucks - there are several good tutorials on Youtube on how to replace the defective ones.

It's F-Zero X Wave Race.

@nessisonett Yes, I tried it on PC without VR. It's extremely awkward to play it that way and each and every move is a constant reminder that it's not meant to be played without VR.

@CarpeDiem "China will be a changed place one day soon. People are rising up." It's much too late trying to change China from within. That would inevitably lead to a full-blown civil war.

@BlackenedHalo Witcher 3 is perfectly fine on Switch and I'm really enjoying it. This game however has extreme framerate issues and is downright unplayable at times.

@NEStalgia Fun fact: Larian is developing Baldur's Gate 3 right now.
BTW this review doesn't mention the significantly downgraded graphics. Don't even think about playing this game in TV mode - it's horrible and you can actually count the giant pixels of e.g. fire and smoke effects. Very blurry textures and the perfomance tends to tank during combat. And playing an RPG like this with a controller is a chore, especially when it comes to inventory and skill management. Do yourselves a favor and play it on PC (every mid-range card from the last 5 years can handle this game in 1080p) if you can. Nonetheless, I'd still give it an 8 (10 for the PC version).
BTW: It's not a hardcore RPG, but quite hardcore compared to action RPGs like The Witcher 3. Some puzzles are real clouts, you can easily mess up your build and even kill potential future party members by offending them during a conversation. This game doesn't hold your hands and requires some actual thinking, but it's always rewarding and easily one of the best RPG experiences available today. And it's one of the very few games with great dialogue and humor plus some of the weirdest/craziest easter eggs and secrets you'll ever see in a video game. (I just met the "Matryoshka zombies" ...)

@Joe-b careful, Child of Light has perfomance issues, and afaik they never released a patch.

8/10 plus 1 point extra for the soundtrack. The song that's playing during the Arrow Nemesis fight is pure awesomesauce.

@Mando44646 yes, the Skyrim port is awesome. Something that cannot be said of Child of Light: Every other version (Windows, PS3/4/Vita, 360, One, WiiU) runs better than the botched Switch port.

@citizenerased: Nope, not a single patch. BTW There's no excuse for the bad performance - when I play it on a GTX 1070 in 720p60, its clock stays at 139 MHz at a utilization of around 14-20% ...

@StooBush It's such a shame that they removed gamepad support.