themightyant

Salt levels in the comments are over 9000!

@Eddy9000 aha! That would remind me of my twenties… but they’re a bit hazy

@BloodNinja I've got to run and get back to work but just to leave you with the monetary part of the reform vs imprison debate, obvs. far more complex, but it's a start and it is interesting... and sorry... bad form to post and run

In 2020 it cost, on average, around £44,000 to imprison someone per year in the UK.

Meanwhile a year of education at Eton College, one of the most expensive boarding schools (food, board and education included), was also around £44,000.

While i'm not suggesting we roll out the red carpet to all wannabe car thieves, it does beg the question; given better opportunities and education how many would make the same criminal choices?

@BloodNinja Having travelled a fair bit i'd recommend Bali! lol

I'm off to Manchester from the big smoke this weekend in fact.

@BloodNinja Don't you worry we've got PLENTY of that too!

But yes it is a really interesting topic with no easy answers. Yet many feel very passionately one way or the other... often without much basis in fact other than a few dubious statistics and misquoted sound bites. Sound familiar

@BloodNinja Depends on what obligations the judge imposed AND where you sit on the reform vs imprisonment debate.

Usually if they think the scare and suspended sentence has a chance of actually helping the defendant reform they'll go with that. Not least prisons are over subscribed and expensive!

But yes it sounds a little lenient to me as published in the BBC.

@Damo Yeah, doesn't look Wata 9.8 A++ Sealed

Worth £20,000 according to who? Heritage Auctions?

@1UP_MARIO Haha! 👍

@GamingDude800 Apple Arcade??? You mad bro?

The Pathless, Manifold Garden, Sayonara Wild Hearts, Fantasian, Tetris Beat, Thumper, Alto's Odyssey: Lost City, Hitchhiker, Lego Builder's Journey, World of demons, Threes+, Overland to name a few.

PLENTY of great titles on Apple Arcade and £4.99pm is very reasonable if you like playing on the go.

Hardly surprising considering the size of the mobile gaming industry and until Apple Arcade they were mostly just leeching 30% off everything.

The 30% tax needs to be stopped though, even if they have limited it to 15% for apps/games makers making less than $1 million/year (That's for the studio not one game/app)

Apple Arcade IS a good service though, that has tried to undo the worst aspects of mobile gaming MTX/Timers/gatcha/F2P etc. and replace it with full games. It's their best contribution to the industry thus far.

Never played the game, have no interest in it, but i'll tune in.

They have done a wonderful job with these announcements. Pure gaming entertainment filled with in jokes.

Sakurai's long been known as a video game collector and nerd.
Great setup that i'm sure has been upgraded since.

PS5 and XSX are both brilliant bits of hardware.

I'm not the biggest fan of TGAs, but even if you don't like Geoff you surely have to respect his hard work and dedication to gaming over several decades.

His body of work from GameTrailers, G4tv, Kotaku and Spike VGAs is huge. Not to mention his brilliant The Final Hours series.

I'm not his biggest fan, and I find TGA's a bit of a self congratulatory circle-jerk (far too much like the Oscars in that reward) but I have to hand it to him for creating the awards out of nothing.

A hard working man who loves games and gaming. Keep it up Geoff.

@KiraMoonvalley "I'd take 1080p screen and 1440p native docked with dlss to boost it to 4k."

Take my MONEY!!!

Though I think it will be difficult to get 1440p + DLSS in a small enough heat/power profile right now. Few years away.

I wonder why he said that this week of all weeks?
Did they just release a game or something...

Quit with the transparent BS moves Konami. You know full well if you made a decent new Castlevania game it would sell well. Hell an average one would at this point.

There's nothing I want more in gaming that for Konami to sell their IP to someone who actually cares.

@Bobb Same cautiously optimistic. Also wasn't a fan of Samus Returns and it's Mercury Steam again.

Thought It was very good though there wasn’t that much that appealed to me directly

I was definitely in the sceptical until proven otherwise camp.

I think this was a sensible position at the time having owned and been jaded by the Wii U, and to a lesser extent the Wii - a console that abandoned many longtime gamers in favour of short term gains and gimmicks.

I played Breath of the Wild on the Wii U (all 120 shrines). It wasn't till 6 months later when Mario Odyssey came out that it became a must buy for me. I rebought Breath of the Wild and re-did all 120 shrines and more. (It's virtually identical to the Wii U version)

The BIG difference is that third parties and indies flocked to the Switch, the complete opposite of the Wii U.

Joycons still janky AF and could do with a CPU/GPU/resolution boost. But aside from that it's been great.

Having been a little over-obsessed by folders etc. in the previous gens (and on Xbox S X) I now really appreciate the minimalism of both the Switch and PS5 interface more.

Too much going on here.

Don't usually go in for VG memorabilia, or any clutter, but damn I want this!

Sounds like my TV idea from a few years back "Let's hunt and kill the Kardashians" a reality show where every week we hunt and kill popular Influencers for crimes against humanity.

I'll take the royalties in bitcoin please Wales Interactive

Sadly as there is only one not two it's unlikely to be revised joycons that address drift and other issues.

I'm just shy of 76% my file is missing exactly 300 of the 900 Korok seeds. (72% total for all the Koroks, 24% for the missing 300)

Honestly I've completed it and all shrines 3 times across Wii U, Switch and Hard mode, but the 900 korok seeds for the prize of a golden POO is just not worth it imho... and virtually impossible without a guide... which is exactly the opposite of what BotW is all about.

@Kreko were you thinking of others when throwing around insults like a child?

No one needs to buy all of the versions. If they want to that’s on them.

If a GOTY version comes out with all the dlc and it’s cheaper is that a problem? What about a compilation like this a few years later.

Get some perspective and grow up.

@Kreko Looked at another way, you don't have ANY copies of Ori and now you can get both for less... struggling to see what you are complaining about tbh?

Games usually get cheaper over time, and nobody HAS to buy these again, they are the same games. But if they so desire there is that choice. If someone want's to buy every version of something that is on them, no one else.

@faint Someone with some common sense!

I've put almost 1000 hours into BotW across both Wii U and Switch and this is just outstanding. Still surprising me after all this time.

@Yosher Both my niece and nephew have Minecraft on PC but also have it on their Switch's. Tried to get them to share one copy, but no! they love and play it enough to warrant one each.

Guessing a lot of other kids (and adults) are the same.

I've been playing Metroid: Samus Returns in the UK and got a few hits. Never use the service though, but did notice it.

Not in it's current state! one of the worst "remasters" i've seen. Ugly as sin

A few of these games OK.

But still wishing for that proper Virtual Console STORE. I actually want to pay money for some games! Shocking, I know! But honestly Switch is the perfect platform for this.

Instead I'll keep using my jailbroken Vita in lieu of an official option.

My first thought: Raspberry Pi (despite still owning many. Convenience!)

My second thought: Does Chrono Trigger REALLY sell for $200+ dollars (I have a copy of that, Secret of Mana and many many others) I might sell it if that's actually the case.
Goes on Ebay. More like £15 - £35. More clickbait then

These should be donated or recycled. 😠
This makes me mad enough to break something...

@NEStalgia "Nintendo. Nintendo never changes"

This got a hearty chuckle. But while it's so true and infuriating most of the time, I also wouldn't change it!

@NEStalgia Ladies and gentlemen we just found a TRUE collectors item an ACTUAL buyer of the fabled Virtual Boy! We're not worthy. lol.

It's the one main Nintendo console I didn't buy, other than the NES - I was a Shinobi & Sonic / Sega Master System Stan back then.

The 2DS was always interesting because there was a lot of chat about the 3D possibly being bad for kids eyes so the 2DS was made primarily for that market. But a lot of people weren't convinced by the 3D (I flip flopped between having it on max and turning it off) and it ended up selling REALLY well, hence the other models.

It's also classic Nintendo, just like the the Switch Lite. Name a product after it's main feature '3D'S and then drop the 3D; or the Switch which doesn't switch to the TV. So little foresight, i'm convinced they are making it all up as they go along.

Still amazed they haven't made a Switch Lite dock but that is probably next year's revision but only with that new Switch Lite OLED model... and so it goes!

@NEStalgia The makes logical sense. But I've given up trying to predict Nintendo. For decades they've done the unexpected.

This is the company that gave us 6 distinctly different models of 3DS over 6 years including the 'NEW' Nintendo 2DS XL that arrived AFTER the Switch was released. All sold well.

And 4 DS models the last of which arrived Just 3 months before the first 3DS. So i'm not convinced by the cannibalizing argument.

What I am convinced by is that they will have SOME sort of new hardware out sooner rather than later. Just hope it's one I want... but I don't expect it.

@NEStalgia Considering Nintendo have literally denied new models days before announcing them in the past. I'd say so

Though personally I think it's more likely to be a Switch 2 in 2023 (or possibly 2022) at this point. Current Switch is still selling gangbusters.

@SkullDragr It's only a few mm longer which is likely accounted for by the Microsoft Surface style 150+ degree kickstand's hinges.

I'd be very surprised if ANYTHING major has changed in teardowns.

@sixrings the trouble with the “how much does it cost to make” question is what do you include in that.

Is it just the BOM (Bill of materials) I.e. the parts themselves. This is usually the lowest number and the one clickbait articles and youtubers use to say technology X is a ripoff as it only costs half the retail cost to make. (It doesn’t)

Does it include the skilled labour, and machines to make them.

Does it include the cost of factories, energy & transport.

Does it include the millions in Research and Development, or advertising and staff costs to successfully market and sell a product worldwide.

Does it factor in wholesale vs retail price and the cut for retailers?

There are a LOT of different costs you COULD include in this number and the difference will be huge.

This is why Xbox can say under oath in court “we have never made a profit on an Xbox console” and not be lying and yet PlayStation said to investors that the PS5 (disc version) is already profitable. Neither lied but they are talking about different numbers.

Ultimately we don’t know how much the Switch costs to make. But whatever number the Internet says is likely missing many costs involved in bringing that product to market.

@MarinoKadame The Switch Pro controller, DualSense (Dualshock 5), Dualshock 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series and even the £150 Xbox Elite controllers ALL use the same part for their analogue sticks. (Though suppliers may vary for each batch)

There are always some reports of drift on each of those but it's relatively small and in my experience these are all pretty robust.

It's not in the same league as the JoyCons which genuinely have a massive issue, whereby the vast majority of Switch owners experience drift at some point. The one bonus is you can easily replace the joycon sticks, once you know how, whereas the others require advanced soldering.

Lastly: There have been reports that the DualSense may have more drift issues, though if that is the case it is likely either:
1) A bad batch of that same part (happens to them all)
2) the deadzone is set to be smaller in the software. This could be fixed with a firmware update. (I think it's this, the standard deadzone seems smaller to me than on PS4)

A similar fix (a bit of foam) worked for the disconnecting JoyCons so why not give it a go?

Regardless this seems to be a specific type of drift. His drifting is going WAY off centre and seems to keep moving down. When I've had drift it was a little different and just stayed a tiny bit off centre. It will be interesting to see if this fixes either or both.

Looking forward to replaying this and seeing how it's aged.

I loved Skyward Sword when I first played it (and the second and third time too) but that was a while ago.

But I also loved Twilight Princess at release but wasn't so enamoured with the HD remake. It had aged poorly imho compared to Wind Waker HD. Still a good game but frustrating at times.

Hopefully SS HD fares a little better.

Glad to hear they are likely working on BotW2. Anyone who has played any of their open world games could see their hand in the open world Hyrule in the first game.

@HotGoomba I'd take your consistently better prices on all games, electronics etc. over the chance to win an overpriced piece of moulded plastic.

@moodycat 6 is the game that killed the series for me. Played every one up to that point and just fell off after this.

I realise I could just skip 6 and play 7 and 8 but the OCD demon doesn't like that

@CivilMadman @Moonlessky 100% this is a Pro gamer-dad move! The Switch is amazing for finding those little quiet gaming moments in life, like this.

@HamatoYoshi I should have clarified furhter. Slightly better battery than launch model. Same as 2019 revision. (edited post for clarity)

Really disappointing, this is just a slight hardware revision.

• The OLED is nice (still stunning on VITA) but it's only 0.8" larger diagonally and still has large bezels.
• Slightly better battery life (than launch model, same as 2019 rev.)
• Double the storage 64GB (But honestly just buy a MicroSD)
• Ethernet port (already an optional extra)
• Better kickstand (usb port still on bottom, can't charge and use)
• Remodelled dock (who cares, it's still a cheap bit of plastic)
• New colour (clutching at straws now)

Unless you are always using it as a handheld, in which case the OLED may be worthwhile, this is a poor 'upgrade' for $350. Hard pass, sadly.

@geordie Durability becomes less of an issue the longer you play the game (Thankfully) and start to pick up better, and more durable weapons and learn to farm them if ever short. (Which is rarely, if ever, but you can)

I'm split on it. It's a hassle at the beginning but I love that it makes you have to switch up styles and tactics and use all your arsenal.

Additionally once you've got the mechanics down and on subsequent replays it's far less of an issue as you don't 'waste' weapons so quickly by not knowing the mechanics as well. In this regard it's a real shame it punishes beginners as it's a big hurdle.