Goodbye NX, hello Switch

[nakedfrog]

I recently played through most of Pokemon Sword .. disappointing dumb and shallow story, super punchable overly cheery "rival", only Pokemen I like are old ones. It did put me in the mood for a good JRPG though so I've been playing through Dragon Quest XI .. fantastic so far with excellent music and storytelling. Bit hard to get into for the first couple hours but I'm glad I stuck with it.

I'm about 40 hours into DQXI myself, definitely enjoying it. Feels proper to be playing it on a Nintendo system, I did consider PC.

 

[cmdrdredd]

I'm about 40 hours into DQXI myself, definitely enjoying it. Feels proper to be playing it on a Nintendo system, I did consider PC.

I also see they have a demo for the game that is like 15 hours of game play if you explore a bit etc. That's longer than some full games are. Pretty cool.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Has the Link's awakening performance issues ever been aknowledged by anyone at Nintendo at all? I know it isn't fixed(I'm playing through it now after putting it down for a bit) but was there any reasoning or excuse provided(unlikely I know).

 

[Aikouka]

So, similar to Pokemon, I hemmed and hawed a bit over purchasing Animal Crossing New Horizons, but unlike Pokemon, I eventually caved and bought it. (Walmart actually had it for $50 in stores, which surprised me when it rang up.) This is my first Animal Crossing game, but I've played farm/life simulators in the past such as Harvest Moon or My Time at Portia. However, my main hang-up was that Animal Crossing isn't really a farm/life simulator, and I wasn't sure if I'd be fine with that.

All in all, I think the game is okay to play. I'd say it's more of a "lifestyle simulator" where while you can plant things like in a farm/life simulator, the point of the game is mostly designing "your ideal island". This leads to one of the larger drawbacks in a multi-person household... you're limited to one island per game per Switch console. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but if two different local players have wildly different ideas in mind for the island, then things may not go so well.

What might be one of the more interesting parts is that the recent events have caused quite a large number of people to play the game. (From what I heard, it's already one of the Switch's best selling games.) However, this has lead to what I see as clashes from old school fans vs. newer players on the game's lack of user-friendliness. For example, one thing that has bothered me is the lack of a free camera in any fashion. This wouldn't be that necessary, but the game provides no decent way to see objects that have been placed behind other objects. For example, if you're harvesting a tree and a fruit drops behind the tree, you cannot see it. The only way to see behind an object is to abuse what may be a bug where an object is momentarily not rendered as the camera zooms in all the way. That gives you about a second to see what's there before the object is visible again.

 

[cmdrdredd]

So, similar to Pokemon, I hemmed and hawed a bit over purchasing Animal Crossing New Horizons, but unlike Pokemon, I eventually caved and bought it. (Walmart actually had it for $50 in stores, which surprised me when it rang up.) This is my first Animal Crossing game, but I've played farm/life simulators in the past such as Harvest Moon or My Time at Portia. However, my main hang-up was that Animal Crossing isn't really a farm/life simulator, and I wasn't sure if I'd be fine with that.

All in all, I think the game is okay to play. I'd say it's more of a "lifestyle simulator" where while you can plant things like in a farm/life simulator, the point of the game is mostly designing "your ideal island". This leads to one of the larger drawbacks in a multi-person household... you're limited to one island per game per Switch console. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, but if two different local players have wildly different ideas in mind for the island, then things may not go so well.

What might be one of the more interesting parts is that the recent events have caused quite a large number of people to play the game. (From what I heard, it's already one of the Switch's best selling games.) However, this has lead to what I see as clashes from old school fans vs. newer players on the game's lack of user-friendliness. For example, one thing that has bothered me is the lack of a free camera in any fashion. This wouldn't be that necessary, but the game provides no decent way to see objects that have been placed behind other objects. For example, if you're harvesting a tree and a fruit drops behind the tree, you cannot see it. The only way to see behind an object is to abuse what may be a bug where an object is momentarily not rendered as the camera zooms in all the way. That gives you about a second to see what's there before the object is visible again.

You are right that the game has flaws inherent in the design of only having one island per console and every player has to deal with it. Whoever started the island is also the resident representative and makes all design decisions. Other players can contribute but cannot directly make decisions. Also annoying are the mystery islands. I've gotten the same island no less than 20 times with the same fruit as my island, & no new plants, bugs, or fish. I've got many items that require bamboo to build and I've never seen an island that has bamboo. Apparently this is a very common issue in the game because I see reddit threads on it as well. Further I find the game to be very tedious. Having to go through a process of button mashing to craft items or buy and sell items. I like the game but really don't dedicate a lot of time to it, i play a little every day so I know I'll never see everything. Another annoyance is the tools. In the old games your tools broke but you could get a golden version that never broke if you did special things. In New Horizons you can also get golden tools but they are only 2x as durable as iron tools. So you go through all the hassle to obtain it and use precious gold ore (10,000 bells if you sell and very rare) to craft it and it still breaks. Makes them not worth it. Especially if you consider the golden fishing rod requires you to catch every fish. After all that I don't think someone would be much interested in fishing any longer.

Overall the game is pretty decent. It's casual enough to just relax with but has enough collectibles for really hardcore completionists. The game becomes more of a design center at a certain point. Build your house a certain way, design special rooms etc. To get the most out of the game it appears you have to do the online stuff and visit other islands too. The old games gave you enough chance to do everything on your own but this game seems to push you toward the online aspect because of the more limited resources on your island.

 

[Aikouka]

Also annoying are the mystery islands. I've gotten the same island no less than 20 times with the same fruit as my island, & no new plants, bugs, or fish. I've got many items that require bamboo to build and I've never seen an island that has bamboo. Apparently this is a very common issue in the game because I see reddit threads on it as well.

I was actually lucky enough to get both Bamboo Island and Money Island once so far, which has been nice. The nice thing about Bamboo Island is that it's also the best place to turn into Tarantula Island because it has no inland water, which means you get no Giant Water Bugs, which are common spawns when you remove all trees, flowers, and rocks.

Anyway, I think Nintendo's idea is that Animal Crossing is meant to be more of a communal game where you can network with others or connect with friends to get resources; however, the problem is that online play isn't free and Nintendo... well, let's be honest, is pretty bad at online... anything.

We've seen how other people have to jump in to fill in the gaps such as the website http://turnip.exchange, which allows users to post access to their island with a turnip price. However, even that can be saddled by Nintendo's poor online workings. For example, whenever someone arrives or leaves an island via the airport, the game pops up a dialog and you have to wait for that person to officially arrive/leave, which, of course, also has an animation.

Further I find the game to be very tedious. Having to go through a process of button mashing to craft items or buy and sell items. I like the game but really don't dedicate a lot of time to it, i play a little every day so I know I'll never see everything.

Yeah, it definitely would work a lot better with some minor quality of life changes to the excessive amount of menus or even just taking some cues from MMOs that handle menus better. For example, it can be quite annoying to craft fish bait. The Manila Clams take up a spot in your inventory for each one, and you have to craft the bait one at a time. Sometimes, I'll just walk away mashing the A button while going into the kitchen to grab a drink and hope it's done when I get back.

All in all, the game reminds me of World of WarCraft, and unfortunately, I don't mean the good things. It reminds me more of how WoW became a theme park where the game constantly tried to present you with little things to do. In WoW, it was things like daily quests, and in Animal Crossing, it's the Nook Mile+ objectives.

At this point, I mostly get into the game, do all my 2x or 5x Nook Mile+ objectives, get my money tree, and look at the revolving items for sale.

The game becomes more of a design center at a certain point. Build your house a certain way, design special rooms etc. To get the most out of the game it appears you have to do the online stuff and visit other islands too. The old games gave you enough chance to do everything on your own but this game seems to push you toward the online aspect because of the more limited resources on your island.

I've seen some people going as far as essentially hosting non-Animal Crossing events in the game itself. For example, someone hosted a talk show from within the game

 

[Kaido]

The Switch has now sold more than the N64 and GameCube combined

The company sold 21.03 million Switch consoles during the fiscal year between April 2019 and March 2020.

www.engadget.com

 

[DrMrLordX]

@Kaido

It's still hard to get one without paying a markup. Demand for them is crazy right now.

 

[purbeast0]

Switch is by far my most played console. I've been playing Mario Kart online with my buddies like 3-4 nights a week since this quarantine started. I plan on purchasing the new Shantae game in a couple weeks on Switch too when it comes out.

I did play Ori Will of the Wisps on X1X a couple weeks ago. It's one of the best games this generation. I believe it's coming to Switch as well at some point.

I haven't touched my PS4 other than watching Blurays for a few months.

 

[Kaido]

Switch is by far my most played console. I've been playing Mario Kart online with my buddies like 3-4 nights a week since this quarantine started. I plan on purchasing the new Shantae game in a couple weeks on Switch too when it comes out.

I did play Ori Will of the Wisps on X1X a couple weeks ago. It's one of the best games this generation. I believe it's coming to Switch as well at some point.

I haven't touched my PS4 other than watching Blurays for a few months.

Yup exactly! What's funny is how our perspectives change. Not picking on you here, but just because my first-page post halfway down is like 5 pages long, I'll quote yours haha:

Oct 20, 2016

Man oh man, seems Nintendo hasn't learned a thing. The Mario 64 clone looks awesome on that video but I highly doubt I'll get this console it just has too much crap I don't care about and if they are focusing on portability I'll pass. Graphics look like Wii-U (if that) so they aren't really stepping up there it seems.

So is the new Zelda game going to basically be just like Twilight Princess was and come out on both Wii-U and Switch? Or was it always only announced for this new console? Wii-U owners got completely boned on Zelda if so lol.

And man, those fake "real world" scenarios in the trailer are laughable.

I feel the same way! A low-graphics portable unit that could break? Nah man. Now? Definitely my family's most-played console. My wife wanted to buy a second one for team play with her Trump bucks, but they're hard to find right now lol. Xbox & Playstation both now offer console streaming, but it's just not the same as having dedicated portable hardware that runs natively, so you can just flip down on a couch or a chair & play.

I was pretty skeptical when it was first announced, especially after the rise & then mute of the Wii, the mediocre-ness of the Wii U, and the prevalence of tablets on the market today for portable gaming, but they've done a really good job with the Switch, plus it seems like they've done a decent job of making sure new, good-quality content comes out on a regular basis. I mean, Animal Crossing is going gangbusters right now:

Nintendo profits surge as 'Animal Crossing' game becomes fastest-selling title on the Switch

Nintendo said "Animal Crossing: New Horizons" sold over 13 million copies in the first six weeks, making it the fast-selling Switch game.

www.cnbc.com

 

[Kaido]

Reminds me, on a tangent, someone ported Super Mario N64 to PC in 4K:

'Super Mario 64' fan releases a fully playable port for PC

A fully-functional 4K port of 'Super Mario 64' for the PC has appeared online.

www.engadget.com

There was a rumor that Nintendo was planning on releasing ports for the Switch, which would be AWESOME:

Report: Nintendo to release several remastered Mario games this year

Nintendo is allegedly celebrating the 35th anniversary of Mario by remastering several of his games for the Switch this year.

thenextweb.com

The modder "Unreal" even released an 8K video on his Youtube channel:

Also has raytracing support!

 

[purbeast0]

I nearly didn't even get the Switch I had it preordered at launch and a week prior almost canceled it. I decided to keep it though because I had a flight to Aruba 2 days later and thought it would be something to do on the plane. Well I am glad I decided to keep it lol.

 

[SteveGrabowski]

You guys shouldn't feel bad, I thought Switch was a turd too until I got one. I even kept arguing in this thread about how I'd never use it handheld and didn't give a crap about that, and now my I use my Switch about 60/40 handheld vs docked. And while PS4 is still my favorite and most played console this gen, Switch is really impressive too and gets a lot of playtime. By far my favorite Nintendo system since the SNES. And the new Ori looks great, but I'm waiting for it to hit Switch before playing because that game looks built for handheld. Don't laugh but my most played Switch game might be Mario Tennis Aces. I have always loved tennis games and that one is so addicitive and great for play in short bursts.

 

[DrMrLordX]

Only thing bad about being a Switch early adopter is that the second-gen hardware is so much better in terms of battery life. Now you can't buy a Switch unless you want to pay around $500.

 

[purbeast0]

Only thing bad about being a Switch early adopter is that the second-gen hardware is so much better in terms of battery life. Now you can't buy a Switch unless you want to pay around $500.

But you got to play it for years before the revision. How is that bad?

If you wanted longer battery life you could just buy a separate battery pack or one that integrates onto the console itself.

 

[DrMrLordX]

But you got to play it for years before the revision. How is that bad?

One of the complaints that I heard from a lot of early reviews of the Switch was the bad battery life and the reduction in performance while on battery. If Nintendo had asked for a better chip out of the gate instead of going with off-the-shelf TX1, they probably could have delivered solutions to those problems at launch. Instead they got a revised TX1 which mostly got the job done. Now the Switch is a much, much better product.

 

[Sonikku]

It's not all bad. The Switch revision has an inferior display. The screens sourced for our earlier models are better.

 

[DrMrLordX]

It's not all bad. The Switch revision has an inferior display. The screens sourced for our earlier models are better.

Is that how it saves so much on battery?

 

[sze5003]

Mine pretty much stays docked. I took it out yesterday to play some Mario Odyssey and my battery did drop to 94% in a couple minutes.

I do see that the revised models are going for $400-500 on offer up and other sites. I need to find some games that will keep me playing the switch.

 

[purbeast0]

One of the complaints that I heard from a lot of early reviews of the Switch was the bad battery life and the reduction in performance while on battery. If Nintendo had asked for a better chip out of the gate instead of going with off-the-shelf TX1, they probably could have delivered solutions to those problems at launch. Instead they got a revised TX1 which mostly got the job done. Now the Switch is a much, much better product.

I get like 3-5 hours out of it in portable mode without having to charge it. And if I did need to charge it? I would use a battery pack that I already had before I even got the switch.

Not sure what you mean about performance though. That is the first time I've ever heard that claim in it being more performance in the newer model than the old model while on battery.

A "much much" better product is a stretch. It's more like a "nice to have" upgrade since it's just the battery life, which again, can already be solved other ways.

This is also "normal" in the console market since the PS3/360 era. New console designs come out like 2-3 years later that consume less power. So you should be saying this about MS, Sony, and Nintendo in that "if they did better out the gate" they would have a "much much better product" as you put it, since the mid 2000's.

 

[DrMrLordX]

So you should be saying this about MS, Sony, and Nintendo in that "if they did better out the gate" they would have a "much much better product" as you put it, since the mid 2000's.

It's not the same thing. The correct SoC for switch initially was TX2. It was cheap, and it was much better in performance and power characteristics than TX1. Nintendo wanted cheap-er. So they opted for TX1.

Sony didn't have the option of using a better version of Cell out of the gate since it was the most advanced version of Cell they could produce at the time. The same basically holds true for Xbox 360 as well. They might have been able to source a better PPC core, but it wouldn't have fit within the desired power envelope (contrast with TX2, which would actually have been BETTER in Nintendo's desired power envelope than TX1). And I think you can say the same for PS4 and Xbox 1. AMD didn't have a lower-power, more-performant option available for either company. Maybe if Puma+ had been available at the time, that would have been true. But it wasn't.

 

[Aikouka]

Well, if you managed to get a Switch early enough, you do get the benefit of a console that has an unpatchable vulnerability that allows for hacks. This may seem just like malevolent piracy talk, but keep in mind that Nintendo doesn't even allow you to back up your own saves and only some games allow for cloud save back ups. If you can hack your Switch, you can save your games yourself. Of course... if you need to buy a new Switch, you won't be able to put them back given it will be using the fixed Tegra X1. So... I guess it's kind of a moot point?

 

[nakedfrog]

I'm in the "docked 99% of the time" camp. I stick with my 3DS if I want something portable.
Still cycling through games on Switch, PC, and PS4, just finished playing one on Switch that I started back in January, now I'm on PS4 again.

 

[purbeast0]

I was trying to play Mario Kart online on my couch the other day and it was a lot tougher than if I'm playing it docked. The tiny screen and the fast speed of the higher class races was really tough, as was the shoulder buttons cause I'm used to the pro controller.

 

[JPB]

Man oh man, seems Nintendo hasn't learned a damn thing. The Mario 64 clone looks awesome on that video but I highly doubt I'll get this console it just has too much crap I don't care about and if they are focusing on portability I'll pass. Graphics look like Wii-U (if that) so they aren't really stepping up there it seems.

So is the new Zelda game going to basically be just like Twilight Princess was and come out on both Wii-U and Switch? Or was it always only announced for this new console? Wii-U owners got completely boned on Zelda if so lol.

And man, those fake "real world" scenarios in the trailer are laughable.

Switch is by far my most played console. I've been playing Mario Kart online with my buddies like 3-4 nights a week since this quarantine started. I plan on purchasing the new Shantae game in a couple weeks on Switch too when it comes out.

I did play Ori Will of the Wisps on X1X a couple weeks ago. It's one of the best games this generation. I believe it's coming to Switch as well at some point.

I haven't touched my PS4 other than watching Blurays for a few months.

Ill admit that I used to be Sony / Nintendo only. But after a few years now....I find myself wanting a XB1...mainly for Gears / Halo / Forza......but still.