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Nintendo Switch – New Video Game System [video]

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Re: Nintendo Switch – New Video Game System [video]

#91

Post by ocdtrekkie »

i_am_viet wrote: post #85
emdowling wrote: post #8

It is so reassuring to see Nintendo create a modern gaming machine that doesn't try to be a living room hub or an iPad competitor. Going entirely by the video alone, every single design decision has been made with a clear focus on gaming. The simple docking action for transitioning it to the TV, the versatility and portability of the controllers, the reasonable size, etc all combine to make this (again, judging entir…

Correct me if I am wrong. I believe eshop purchases are still tied to the system and not the account. This makes transferring of content more of a hassle than it needs to be. You'll need to do a system transfer of the games if you want to maintain your library.

AFAIK, that is still how it works as of the Wii U. And yeah, there's awful processes for if say, your device dies, and you need to recover your digital purchases.

Re: Nintendo Switch – New Video Game System [video]

#92

Post by emdowling »

i_am_viet wrote: post #85
emdowling wrote: post #8

It is so reassuring to see Nintendo create a modern gaming machine that doesn't try to be a living room hub or an iPad competitor. Going entirely by the video alone, every single design decision has been made with a clear focus on gaming. The simple docking action for transitioning it to the TV, the versatility and portability of the controllers, the reasonable size, etc all combine to make this (again, judging entir…

Correct me if I am wrong. I believe eshop purchases are still tied to the system and not the account. This makes transferring of content more of a hassle than it needs to be. You'll need to do a system transfer of the games if you want to maintain your library.

This is exactly what I'm concerned about. It seems ridiculous. Not sure if it's enough to be a deal breaker, but it seems so backwards especially as they control the whole platform.

Re: Nintendo Switch – New Video Game System [video]

#93

Post by erickhill »

bigtunacan wrote: post #62

This is a pretty brilliant move in concept. While phones and tablets have encroached on the handheld gaming space, the DS is still a huge success and where Nintendo has continued to dominate the market. As a parent, I have 4 of the current gen DS systems. One for myself and one for each of my three children. Nintendo has really struggled to stay relevant in the console space though as seen by the Wii U's underwhelmin…

I'm assuming the Switch replaces the Wii U. But will the 3DS live on? I assume the answer there is yes as well, but the lines between the two products is getting really blurry, isn't it?

Re: Nintendo Switch – New Video Game System [video]

#94

Post by jerf »

Jamieee wrote: post #24

Is this an upgrade for the 3DS, the Wii U or both? I was looking at picking up a couple of the new 3DS, doesn't seem worthwhile now.

Looking carefully at the cartridge when they slide it in (0:53 in the video), it looks to be perhaps twice as thick as the 3DS cart. But it would be very easy to make both go in the same slot, just make the new carts ever so slightly thinner. I can't see if the controllers have all the 3DS controls, but it looks like it's at least close. And a modern chip, with the option to be at least partially designed for the task, could easily either emulate or ship with hardware support for running the 3DS, which still is not that powerful in modern terms. Losing the 3D support is all but a non-issue in practice. I don't want to predict this is the case, but I see no major technical reason why this couldn't run 3DS games fully backwards compatibly.

The only thing I can't see is whether the screen is a touch screen, which would be necessary. Which may also preclude using 3DS games in TV mode. (Unless they do something weird with Wiimotes or something. But I'm not sure that would play well enough to be worth doing.)

If it's backwards compatible with both 3DS and the WiiU, and perhaps even the Wii, this thing will come out of the game with an absolutely killer lineup. ('Twould be a pity there would probably no way to port the physical disks that you already own across, though. The 3DS games would just slip in, so they'd have an ironic advantage over "real" Wii games.)

Re: Nintendo Switch – New Video Game System [video]

#95

Post by jbmorgado »

iamatworknow wrote: post #42
ericzawo wrote: post #18

This looks amazing, and the fact they got Skyrim in the trailer is a great promise of its graphical prowess. I just hope they take online gaming seriously this generation.

Skyrim came out in 2011. I understand this is the "special edition" but that usually just means better textures, not a new engine. The recommended hardware requirements are not exactly cutting edge for the PC version of the remaster (i5 2400, 8 gigs ram, GTX 780).

It's actually a new engine, the same one used in Fallout 4: https://www.engadget.com/2016/06/12/skyrim-hd-special-editio...

Re: Nintendo Switch – New Video Game System [video]

#96

Post by eropple »

jbmorgado wrote: post #90
eropple wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It could be, sure. Which has minimum specs well south of even the PS4, release date merely three years ago. I'm not saying it's a bad game. (Skyrim is the last Bethesda game I enjoyed--man, FO4 was bad .) But it is not really a benchmark in 2016. This is a higher-end Tegra. It's impressive-for-a-mobile-chip, but mobile chips still aren't really impressive. Maybe the base has additional GPU muscle or something, who kn…

Special edition Skyrim is coming out this month, 28th of October, on the PC, not 3 years ago.

"Release date three years ago" was referring to the PS4. Fallout 4's minimum specs on PC, even (i.e., not an optimized platform), are lower than the PS4-equivalents on that platform. I would expect a mobile device (and the Switch is on a Tegra platform, it's a mobile device), three years further down the line, to be able to be at least in the ballpark of "competitive", with allowances and restrictions (lowered draw distance, simplified shaders, maybe reduced texture size depending on the memory budget), with a machine packing a Radeon HD7870.

My point is that re-engine'ing the game doesn't change the assets involved (stuff like texture quality or shader complexity has a pretty significant impact on performance), nor (necessarily) the visual effects involved. You could scale UE3 down to run on absolutely laughable hardware and games today still regularly support 640x480 and other silly things. Being "on an engine" means something only when you have hard hardware requirements, like requiring support for SM 4.0 or whatever.

Re: Nintendo Switch – New Video Game System [video]

#97

Post by TulliusCicero »

revjx wrote: post #27
emdowling wrote: post #8

It is so reassuring to see Nintendo create a modern gaming machine that doesn't try to be a living room hub or an iPad competitor. Going entirely by the video alone, every single design decision has been made with a clear focus on gaming. The simple docking action for transitioning it to the TV, the versatility and portability of the controllers, the reasonable size, etc all combine to make this (again, judging entir…

The Nintendo Shop on the Wii U is reasonable, actually. It's fairly easy to use, discoverability is decent. It's pretty basic but it's (in my opinion) their best attempt yet. Assuming they build on what they've learn from that, I'd hope the store for this system will be even better. My most-wanted feature for the shop is for them to stop forcing me to buy the 'classics' on every bloody Nintendo system I buy! I must o…

The Wii U shop isn't completely awful, but it's pretty bad. Both the 3DS and Wii U shops suffer from two major problems:

1. They're slow.

2. There are far too many screens/taps necessary to do things.

Loading each new screen seems to take at least a few seconds, and there are way too many of them. I'd estimate you could remove like half the screens in the 3DS shop purchase flow through better UX design. Just compare how long it takes to buy something on either system to how long it takes on Android or iOS.

edit: oh yeah and downloading takes large games takes a REALLY long time. I downloaded the new Sonic game for my 3DS the other day on the guest wifi at a Google office and it took like 3 or 4 hours. It definitely wasn't the wifi that was the constraining factor, speed testing on my phone showed it at like 200 mbps.

Re: Nintendo Switch – New Video Game System [video]

#98

Post by TulliusCicero »

wmeredith wrote: post #16
6stringmerc wrote: post #5

Very clever. Anchor for home, and again trying for the mobile area where their creativity really worked (3DS). I'll be curious in the system specs and the decisions they made - such as having that apparent card slot. Hooray for the headphone jack. I'll never understand the marketing motivation to show a bunch of people getting together for a social gathering and togetherness, then cram together to watch / play on som…

Yeah, the two people playing Mario Kart split screen on that thing was laughable.

I've used the Wii U Gamepad to play multiplayer games in the car with my son (you don't need a monitor at all). Yeah it's a bit of a tight squeeze, but still fun.

Re: Nintendo Switch – New Video Game System [video]

#99

Post by slantyyz »

ianai wrote: post #74
slantyyz wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm very intrigued by this console. I switched to Steam after the PS3 and thought I'd never get a TV based console again. I really love the slide-in controllers. A few things I hope for would be: * Open specs for the slide-in controllers so that third parties can satisfy various niches (like the fighting game community) * A standard USB-C or micro-USB charging port so that people can use their existing power banks/ch…

What would be the business decision for them allowing cross device purchases? They might be selling the console at a loss for game revenue.

IIRC, it was a huge issue for the 3DS. If you lost or damaged your 3DS, it was a real pain to get all your downloaded games back on a replacement device.

Re: Nintendo Switch – New Video Game System [video]

#100

Post by monocasa »

zelias wrote: post #23

Nintendo has been trying to blend mobile and console gaming since the Gamecube (anyone else remember the GBA link??). I think they've finally succeeded in a way that can make the transition between the two seamless. In a space currently dominated by two nearly-identical competitors (XBONE and PS4), I think Nintendo has the opportunity to capture a large portion of the market.

Even before that, they had the N64 Transfer Pak. And before that they had the SuperGameboy. They've been trying to blend mobile and console since they had both.
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