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Nintendo Switch

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Re: Nintendo Switch

#371

Post by tmuir »

dkersten wrote: post #311
tmuir wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They don't call them Zelda Boxes for nothing. I'll admit I'm biased, but I see nearly every Zelda game as easily in the top 3, if not the killer app of each Nintendo system. Legend of Zelda - NES Link to the Past - SNES Links Awakening - Gameboy Ocarina of Time - N64 Wind Waker - Gamecube Twilight Princess - Wii Skyward Sword - Wii Heck, even the promise of how perfectly the WiiU's controller could have been for a Ze…

They don't call them Zelda Boxes for nothing. I'll admit I'm biased, but I see nearly every Zelda game as easily in the top 3, if not the killer app of each Nintendo system. Maybe so, but there's no way[1] I would by a console just because I want to play a single game. It takes at least half a dozen exclusives that interest me (announced, they don't all have to be released yet) for me to consider buying another conso…

I guess I look at it differently: Zelda games are so intriguing and enveloping for me, particularly the puzzle solving and tool usage, that the franchise stands alone, above any other, full stop. Outside of Zelda, I'm not a very big gamer, and the games I do play are ones that appear to have Zelda-like qualities.

Re: Nintendo Switch

#372

Post by Raphmedia »

kdamken wrote: post #327
Raphmedia wrote: post #314

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you really need more than 2.5 hours of battery power? I can imagine myself playing on the dock in the morning, taking the train and using the battery for 1 hour, working/school, taking the train with the battery for 1 more hour and then dock it back on.

Um, yes? 2.5 hours is terrible. Besides a daily commute, many flights are more than 1 hour. Also, it'd be nice to not have my device die immediately if I forgot to charge it three times a day.

How could you forget to charge it when it's main state is to be docked and charging?

Re: Nintendo Switch

#373

Post by amyjess »

on_and_off wrote: post #293
threeseed wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nintendo and arguably Microsoft simply can't compete with Sony right now. Sony is dominating the high end, exclusive game market. The Last of Us, Uncharted, Metal Gear Solid and coming up in 2017: Horizon Zero Dawn, Death Stranding etc. All of these push the console to the limits and show just how superior the PS4 hardware is over its competitors. Nintendo isn't really suited anyway. Their games are arguably better c…

I don't really get the obsession with high end graphics. Hyper Light Drifter is one of the most beautiful games I played to. For me the Switch looks powerful enough to run beautiful games. A good art direction trumps raw power in almost all cases.

I mostly agree, but I'm worried about what it means for third-party support.

If the Switch is significantly underpowered compared to the competition, it means that developers won't be able to easily port XBone/PS4 games to the Switch which will hurt the Switch's lineup. In that case, Nintendo's best hope for success is that their Blue Ocean Strategy will take off and people will treat the Switch as not just another console but as a supremely versatile handheld.

The reason the Wii got away with it was a) Blue Ocean Strategy gave it genuinely unique games and b) the PS2 was still kicking around so the Wii version can easily be ported to PS2 and sell on twice the number of consoles (i.e. they'd make a 360/PS3 version and a Wii/PS2 version).

The Wii U had beautiful games with beautiful art direction (Yoshi's Woolly World, anyone?), but it still flopped largely because third parties ignored it and Nintendo didn't have a good enough Blue Ocean Strategy.

Re: Nintendo Switch

#374

Post by vinkelhake »

JackOverflow wrote: post #258
agd wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

'Nintendo absolutely killed it' I'm afraid I have to disagree. Here's why: - price: much more expensive than most people were expecting (£280 vs for example, £200 for a PS4 with a game) - battery life: potentially only 2.5 hours? Really not good enough for a handheld. - storage: only 32gb, will run out very quickly - online offering weak vs ps4/xbox as only NES/SNES games and you only get them for a month - very few…

The battery life is bad, but I'm not that surprised by it. Current phone/tablets achieve a lot of their battery longevity by throttling performance, this is something that is not really acceptable when your device is a games console first. I can only imagine that if an iPad mini had to run a program as intensive as the upcoming Zelda appears to be that its battery life would also suffer.

The Switch GPU does clock down to 307MHz when undocked. In docked mode, it can run at 768MHz, about 2.5x faster. CPU and memory speeds are unaffected.

The built in screen is fairly low resolution so there are potentially fewer pixels to push when the Switch is undocked. It remains to be seen exactly how quality/performance will be affected by undocking.

Re: Nintendo Switch

#375

Post by sago »

masklinn wrote: post #182
fsloth wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As years go by the less I'm convinced that the platform with the fastest hardware is the best. With consoles, on the technical front, I want constant fluid framerates and predictability. For instance, I fail to see how PS4 Witcher 3 could be better than Witcher 3 on XBox one by any standard I care about when gaming (and I'm a professional graphics programmer). That said, yes, it seems Sony is winning this generation…

> As years go by the less I'm convinced that the platform with the fastest hardware is the best. It's never been the case. The GC was the most powerful console of its generation, the PS2 was by far the least powerful one (with the possible exception of the Dreamcast, not quite sure where that one was).

XBox was comfortably more powerful than the GC, GC was ahead but more similar to PS2 in practice, both were well ahead of the Dreamcast (Dreamcast launched first, PS2 next, XBox and GC last, so kinda to be expected). GC was hamstrung by memory issues (PS2 had better bandwidth, fill rate, media capacity, iirc), so was a bugger to use its power, but that's by the by.

So, I disagree with the first claim in your second paragraph, but my pedantry only supports your main point: PS2 won, selling 3 times the others put together. But PS2 was a long way from being the most powerful.

But, both as a developer and player, and purely subjectively, I do think XBox was the 'best' of that generation.

Re: Nintendo Switch

#376

Post by overcast »

brogrammernot wrote: post #363
overcast wrote: post #354

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry, but that's just impossible, really. Any sufficiently long flight, especially international, ALWAYS has power connectors and/or USB slots. Admittedly the power plug is often hard to find, hidden under the seat or armrest, but the USB slots are usually right below the heads up screen for movies. Unless you're flying extremely short distances only, power is basically included in all flights at this point. This ap…

I've flown from LA to Boston, New York several times over the last year and I don't recall a single USB or power cord outlet. On every international flight I've taken, there has been USB power but zero power outlets in coach.

You're definitely not looking hard enough then. Like I said, they are typically hiding somewhere under the seats. There is NO WAY a super common flight like LA to NY does not have power.

Re: Nintendo Switch

#377

Post by amyjess »

inDigiNeous wrote: post #224
eltoozero wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dolphin EMU really highlights how strong and under-appreciated so many of the GameCube gen games are: Viewtiful Joe, F-Zero X, Luigi's Mansion, Mario Sunshine, Pikmin, Wind Waker, and especially the Metroid Prime series are outgrageously good games. Hard to think of any real bombs in that entire library TBH.

Oh man, games like F-Zero GX, you just don't get this stuff on Sony or Microsoft consoles. Also Metroid Prime, Super Smash Bros Melee! Stuff of legends. 4 player support on the same couch? Damn. Gamecube might have been the best console from Nintendo in my view.

The GameCube was the only Nintendo console I've never owned.

Sure, Melee was fun, but I played all the time at my friends' apartments. I didn't need to play it at home: multiplayer was where the fun was at. Usually after a class (I was in college during the GameCube's heyday), a classmate and I would go over to his apartment and play Melee for a few hours.

I might have bought a GameCube if it had a decent Mario platformer (and I felt burned by the N64 too... Super Mario 64 was a huge disappointment to me... the Galaxy games were the first 3D platformers I could stand, and I didn't really get the 3D platformer I wanted until 3D World).

Re: Nintendo Switch

#378

Post by msh »

Confusion wrote: post #153
misingnoglic wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regarding the iPad, do kids/parents see that as a gaming device? You can't get real games on one of those.

The games you can get on an iPad are very real games to kids.

But as a parent it is hard to find the good games on the ipad, most are crappy pay to win stuff.

Re: Nintendo Switch

#379

Post by ericzawo »

slantyyz wrote: post #353
ericzawo wrote: post #42

That[1] was masterful marketing of an upcoming videogame console on all fronts. From the beginning it emphasises mobility with a (hopefully good!) smartphone app to manage online/local wifi matches, as well as multiple levels of play while on the go. It's reasonably priced (matches current generation in total at the register) and has an incredibly diverse range of titles to be excited about this calendar year. It man…

>> But the marketing and presentation was honestly textbook. I don't know if anyone else noticed but I thought this presentation would have played better if it had been done with a western live audience because of cultural differences. The Japanese audience was very polite and seemed fairly quiet throughout the presentation. If it was done in front of western fans, there would have been continuous eruptions of raucou…

Indeed. I was thinking they should have held it in Los Angeles, and had drinks beforehand. ;)

Re: Nintendo Switch

#380

Post by city41 »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #93
city41 wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I personally am excited for the Switch and will get one at launch. And for me personally, the Wii U is the best console of this generation. But I'm not nearly as enthusiastic about the Switch in general as you are from this presentation. So far it feels like "the Wii part 3". Yes the Wii sold well, but it didn't sell very many games. Most Wii owners were perfectly content with Wii Sports. The Wii U has pretty much be…

>But part of me can't help but wish Nintendo would just straight up compete with Sony and Microsoft. // Surely though if you want that experience you can buy a PS4/Xbone/PC. Personally I'm really happy that Nintendo continues to give a different twist to their consoles and provide some texture to the market.

But will you still be happy if Nintendo bows out of the market altogether? It's no coincidence they are exploring mobile games. They aren't exactly killing it these days. If the Switch doesn't do well, I wouldn't be surprised to see Nintendo go completely 3rd party.
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