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Nintendo Switch review: pure potential

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Re: Nintendo Switch review: pure potential

#161

Post by boondaburrah »

prodmerc wrote: post #33
minikites wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So the iPhone is just an iPod with a big touchscreen that you can also use make calls? So the automobile is just a carriage that runs without horses? So the airplane is just a bus with wings?

Yes to all. Nintendo should probably switch (heh) to only releasing games for Android and iOS.

Maybe to releasing Steam games, but I still think Android and iOS are terrible gaming platforms. I need Nintendo to stick around though, because everyone else is just making turnkey PCs while Nintendo tries something new every once and a while.

Re: Nintendo Switch review: pure potential

#162

Post by PopsiclePete »

83457 wrote: post #95
emehrkay wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At the time the Playstation pushed more polygons per frame. I remember this debate because Nintendo said that they allowed for larger seamless polygons and said that it produced a better image on the screen.

Weren't N64 games over all higher resolution than PS1? I remember PS1 being just a jagged mess compared to N64

Maybe I'm super confused here, but I thought there was no such thing as "higher resolution" when it came to analog TV signals. This was before HDMI/HDTV. Your resolution was whatever NTSC/PAL dictated. Or am I wrong?

Re: Nintendo Switch review: pure potential

#163

Post by bartc »

saltvedt wrote: post #142
MAGZine wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nintendo has a history of doing quirky things, in an effort to differentiate themselves. They've always been innovative. - Directional Pad (NES) - Shoulder buttons on controller (SNES) - third handle on a controller and controllers with expansion slots (N64) - portable gaming systems (starting with gameboy, which didn't even have a backlit screen) - subsequent iterations that included: folding designs (SP), Touch scr…

You forgot the quirkiest thing of all, the Nintendo Power Glove [0] released in 1989. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_Glove

And the NES robot, R.O.B. ... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R.O.B.

Re: Nintendo Switch review: pure potential

#164

Post by swasheck »

GuiA wrote: post #81
VeejayRampay wrote: post #70

If someone can answer that question for me: Why has Nintendo shifted towards producing underpowered consoles? I used to play the Super Nes when I was a kid, and it was the most powerful console of its generation. The N64, the GameCube, the Wii and subsequent offerings were all underpowered in terms of graphical abilities and raw power after that. I hear people say "But the gameplay is what matters", which I agree wit…

It is mostly credited to Gunpei Yokoi's philosophy: "Yokoi articulated his philosophy of "Lateral Thinking of Withered Technology". [...] "Withered technology" in this context refers to a mature technology which is cheap and well understood. "Lateral thinking" refers to finding radical new ways of using such technology. Yokoi held that toys and games do not necessarily require cutting edge technology; novel and fun g…

I like this utilitarian perspective and believe it could strike a good content/profitability balance if done correctly. Constantly pushing new hardware specs is what has allowed the novelty of franchises to wear off into tired rehashes with better graphics. So we have to buy new hardware to push the new rendering engine that powers the new Call of Duty game that is ... the same as the previous 3 Call of Duty games, with more realistic 'splosions and faces.

If a company could, and would, pour its resources into a novel concept that leveraged existing, known technology, then I could be pretty happy with that. I don't like having to buy/accumulate more "stuff" but that's what we're being sold.

The closest I've seen Nintendo come to allowing this "Lateral Thinking ..." philosophy was with Xenoblade Chronicles X. Otherwise I've been wholly disappointed with the Wii U and the Wii before it (once the novelty wore off).

Re: Nintendo Switch review: pure potential

#165

Post by STRML »

bryanlarsen wrote: post #42
givinguflac wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it can charge while playing when using the official adapter. It's just that people were using low-rated battery packs. USB C can support up to 100W, the Switch charger is 45W, so if you're using a pack that doesn't output more than 10-20% of that, obviously you'll have slow charging and probably not enough to sustain playing and charging simultaneously. I'm not worried, I'm almost never away from power for more t…

Yah, you're right. Quoting from the review: "we’ve yet to find a battery / cable that can charge the console faster than it drains." So it's possible and likely that someone will make a capable pack at some point.

Looks like it won't take much. A lot of USB-C power banks on Amazon max out at 3A/5V; at 15W, that's just about the top power consumption measured on the Switch (16W), so it ought to be enough to at least keep the battery constant as power use fluctuates during regular gameplay.

I expect we'll see 5A+ power packs in the future which will handle it easily.

Re: Nintendo Switch review: pure potential

#166

Post by lmnt »

izacus wrote: post #9

Hmm, the battery life is kinda disappointing. I'm not interested in Switch as a TV console (PS4 does that significantly better and has better games for when I have time to give them) and it seems it's going to struggle as a 3DS replacement when it can't even live through a rather average flight :/ I do still hope the best 3DS franchises will make it to the Switch and I might pick it up after price drops under the pri…

You seem to be thinking of your PS4 as a "home console" and the Switch as the "portable", whereas the Switch is really both those things and none of them. You can play the same games both on the couch and on the go (unless you are hellbent on always playing two games in parallel on each console).

I think the Switch will allow for a new "non-binary" way of thinking about what's portable and what's a home game, and fit into our lives in a new way. I can't wait to start playing a game on the commute back home from work (which takes well under the 2.5h), and continue the same session on the big setup later when I arrive. I think it will allow me to spend more hours per week playing big titles compared to what I can spare today.

Re: Nintendo Switch review: pure potential

#167

Post by boondaburrah »

danso wrote: post #101

As a late Wii U owner, I'm willing to wait until the Switch proves to be a success. The horror stories of the Wii U's launch, combined with lackluster support and signs that Nintendo didn't know how to adapt to the Internet age haven't exactly been mitigated by what we know of the Switch so far: no web browser, no Virtual Console nor movie services like Netflix at launch. Everything smells rushed...in the meantime, I…

Nintendo has a history of only supporting games on their consoles. They still don't view themselves as your home theatre center-for-everything like xbone does, and that's a relief for me. They only thing they need to be "complete" in this day and age is to have good online multiplayer.

That being said I'm looking at the switch as a vita replacement, not a home console.

Re: Nintendo Switch review: pure potential

#168

Post by __david__ »

83457 wrote: post #95
emehrkay wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At the time the Playstation pushed more polygons per frame. I remember this debate because Nintendo said that they allowed for larger seamless polygons and said that it produced a better image on the screen.

Weren't N64 games over all higher resolution than PS1? I remember PS1 being just a jagged mess compared to N64

I think the main difference was textures: on the 64 they ended up being blurrier/flatter and therefore less pixelated. That said, there were definitely PS1 games that looked great and weren't cursed with jaggies (Wipeout, for instance).

Re: Nintendo Switch review: pure potential

#169

Post by slantyyz »

PopsiclePete wrote: post #147

I'd totally buy a Switch....if it was actually humanly possible. I also wanted to by a NES Classic, which also proved impossible. Solved that problem with a Raspberry PI. I loathe Nintendo's idiotic business practices of artificially limiting supply when there's huge demand. They have something like 2 million Switches for the launch window. 2. Million.

>> Solved that problem with a Raspberry PI.

If you're ok substituting a Pi for the NES Classic, you might want to try substituting a GPD Win [1] in place of a Switch.

Depending on the games you play, the GPD Win is an excellent portable computer for playing games. After I saw the opening title list and pricing of the Switch, I just ended up buying a GPD Win and play a lot of my Steam library on it. For the games it can't play, I can still use Steam Streaming if I'm playing with it at home. I was pleasantly surprised with some of the 720p frame rates I could get with it. There's a list of games that are playable in the GPD Win's Reddit group [2].

1: https://liliputing.com/2016/10/gpd-win-handheld-gaming-pc-qu...

2: https://www.reddit.com/r/gpdwin/comments/5a8z2t/games_that_a...

Re: Nintendo Switch review: pure potential

#170

Post by pidg »

lotyrin wrote: post #129
M_Grey wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think there's a bit of a darker side as well. The Wii was so unbelievably successful, and profitable that it seems to have created a kind of corporate-level of addiction, and subsequent profit-seeking behavior. The Wii was underpowered, quirky, but just happened to hit all of the notes that a ton of people who hadn't played games before (and would later move on to playing on phones and tablets) were looking for. Mo…

From what I understand, they can readily afford to make these bets though. If Switch turns out not to be another Wii, but rather a WiiU, that's no sweat to them and they can easily figure something else out.

"Nintendo have $10.5 billion in the bank – enough for it to take a $257 million loss every year until 2052."

http://nintendotoday.com/nintendo-not-doomed/

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