Nintendo Switch

[Captain Kelsten]

1 minute ago, Nathan Wind said:

What does "voice chat through a global app" mean?

 

"Phone people"

[pulsemyne]

The UI has been shown

 

Very simple and clean. Zelda takes 12 seconds to load from boot and then about 20 seconds to load from a saved point. One of the faster big world RPG loads.

[MikeBeaver]

1 minute ago, Nathan Wind said:

What does "voice chat through a global app" mean?

Calling your mates up over wifi or 4G through yet another sodding app, only this time you pay x amount for it, it's the worst thing about the whole project personally.

[Nathan Wind]

Just now, Doctor Shark said:

 

"Phone people"

Awesome! It'll work perfectly with my old school Nokia wot still has buttons.

[matt0]

1 minute ago, MikeBeaver said:

Calling your mates up over wifi or 4G through yet another sodding app, only this time you pay x amount for it, it's the worst thing about the whole project personally.

 

It's a system killer for me. I can't wrap my head around it. Either it's not what it sounds like and everything will be fine...

 

... or Nintendo have contrived to make exactly what I wanted from a Wii U follow up and then just needlessly fuck it up at the last hurdle.

 

If I'm paying a sub for online I want that service to be close to seamless as possible. This sounds like a nightmare so far. 

[Captain Kelsten]

It's just getting worse and worse. 

 

- Poor launch lineup

- Ports of Wii U games

- Poor third party support

- This online phone app bullshit - and charging for it!

- Price

- "Have a free, 20+ year old game each month. But only for the month, then we're taking it off you unless you pay £8.99 for it"

- Poor battery life

- Waggle

 

It's like Nintendo live in some sort of weird, alternate reality and are thus oblivious to what people think and want. 

 

I am so, so disappointed.

[ph0rce]

I'd have loved confirmation of Bluetooth audio so I could use my wireless headphones, there seems little point separating out the controllers & being able to put the console on a stand if I've still got a headphone cable tethering me to it. 

 

Onviously there's still a chance it could have it, long time between now & launch for some of these things to be revealed / explained. 

[MikeBeaver]

Just now, matt0 said:

 

It's a system killer for me. I can't wrap my head around it. Either it's not what it sounds like and everything will be fine...

 

... or Nintendo have contrived to make exactly what I wanted from a Wii U follow up and then just needlessly fuck it up at the last hurdle.

 

If I'm paying a sub for online I want that service to be close to seamless as possible. This sounds like a nightmare so far. 

I'll not be paying for a sub unless it's something stupid like £2  month ( it won't be, it's Nintendo ), the only reason I have Gold on my Xbox is that I keep finding it for around £20 per year, and at that price it's alright for the free games each month.

 

If I want to play NES or SNES games, I'll dig out the acual carts or just run ROM's, not like there isn't a glut of home and portable options for that.

Will be a shame though, as the subscription, if expensive, will kill any chance of Splatoon 2 becoming a mass market property.

[DarhkFox]

Is Zelda actually up for pre order on amazon? pre ordered the switch yesterday. Only see the Wii U version..

[Clipper]

51 minutes ago, Wiper said:

 

Yeah, because it was and still is awful. Which bodes poorly for the Switch's even shorter lifespan.

3ds was and is 3-5 hrs (mine is closer to 3 for most games) so Switch is on a par

 

Fucking awful. And yes the Vita was too.. handheld battery life has been shit for years.

 

https://www.wired.com/2012/09/battery-test/

 

the GBA and DS were better at 6-8 hrs but those days are long gone

 

EDIT - and the phone app stuff for voice chat is hilarious

 

For years we were told by all that Nintendo don't do voice chat because yknow kids safety. And Splatoon and MK are better because no voice chat! Yeah definitely better

 

Now they add voicechat in the most cack-handed way possible? I wonder what the next excuse will be for them being rubbish at online.

 

We have had voicechat for 10+ years on other consoles, Nintendo finally cotton on and want to charge for it and it's on a phone app?

 

For fucks sake

 

(still buying one)

 

[ph0rce]

On the controller front, just to clarify;

 

they are packing in a dog face but that doesn't charge the joycons, however there will be a basically identical dog face available that does charge them as an additional purchase?

 

they are packing in those little clips for the joycons which make the buttons better & have a wrist strap but they don't charge the joycons, however there will be basically identical clips available that do charge them as an additional purchase?

 

If that's correct, are we sure that the dock which is supplied in the bundle actually charges the console, and there's not one available separately which does that as an additional purchase?

 

 

 

[matt0]

5 minutes ago, MikeBeaver said:

I'll not be paying for a sub unless it's something stupid like £2  month ( it won't be, it's Nintendo ), the only reason I have Gold on my Xbox is that I keep finding it for around £20 per year, and at that price it's alright for the free games each month.

 

If I want to play NES or SNES games, I'll dig out the acual carts or just run ROM's, not like there isn't a glut of home and portable options for that.

Will be a shame though, as the subscription, if expensive, will kill any chance of Splatoon 2 becoming a mass market property.

 

See, I'm not even that picky. I'd pay a sub for an Xbox live quality service and monthly NES and SNES games provided I got to keep them. But this is somehow less than a bare minimum service, it's charging for an actual inconvenience with the most backhanded offering possible to try and sweeten it. 

[rgraves]

18 minutes ago, Broker said:

 

How different is it archtecturally? So different that half the games coming in the first year are Wii U ports?

It's completely different. And half the games? MK8 is one - what others? Splatoon 2 is not a port of the first game.

[Zombait]

23 minutes ago, HarryBizzle said:

The state of this.

 

 

https://www.wired.com/2017/01/reggie-fils-aime-nintendo-interview/

 

 

Games journalism, people. 

 

No one is asking him why there are only 5 games on launch, let alone if he sees the madness is asking people to pay Nintendo a subscription fee so they can talk to people using their phones. 

It's crazy isn't it? That's a fine example of the Nintendo Free Pass to get away with shit right there. This whole using an app to do voice chat is utterly backwards, besides everything else not everyone has a smartphone and I'm led to believe everyone who want's to play online will be required to pay the subscription. If this was Microsoft or Sony they'd be getting the full force of the internet's outrage until they clarified or back peddled...but Nintendo they can brush it all off with some pictures of Zelda or Mario and everyone's like  I'm gonna sell my gran to get one. 

[Wiper]

6 minutes ago, Clipper said:

3ds was and is 3-5 hrs (mine is closer to 3 for most games) so Switch is on a par

 

Fucking awful. And yes the Vita was too.. handheld battery life has been shit for years.

 

https://www.wired.com/2012/09/battery-test/

 

the GBA and DS were better at 6-8 hrs but those days are long gone

 

 

 

See, I own a New 3DS (used to own a 3DS XL) and a Vita, and the former is always around the 4-5 hour mark for me, while the Vita sits around 5-6. Both are always a pain on long journeys, but the latter always feels a lot better though simply due to being able to leave it on standby and not find it half-drained within a day; the 3DS is a liability when travelling because if I need to leave it on standby I'm not sure whether I'll end up losing my progress due to the battery killing itself before I get to a charger, while with the Vita I'm always confident it will be fine (even if the battery is near empty when I put it into standby).

 

Considering the brevity of the Switch's battery life, I really hope it has great standby mode performance to make up for it as otherwise any portable gaming sessions are going to be liabilities when it comes to saving progress.

[rgraves]

13 minutes ago, Captain LeChuck said:

That being said, you sound like a Nintendo fanboy. "The best in the gaming landscape"? I'm sure some of their games are up there. But the best? Hmmmm.

Christ on a bike - thinking Zelda and Mario are good (and pretty generally considered the high-points in their respective genres) is enough to get you labelled a fanboy now?

 

Why can't people just discuss things and have different viewpoints on here - why does everyone feel the need to throw the fanboy label around the minute somebody else has a different opinion or sees something in a different way? I don't think I've ever called anyone else a Sony or a MS fanboy, it's such a ridiculous thing. It's what people resort to when others don't see things in exactly the same way as they want them to.

[Clipper]

I know there is the dreamcastometer but I think we need an XBOX-One- Ometer - or Boneometer to rate how shit a reveal is compared to the hype leading up and the number of disappointments revealed.

 

It is as if they want to test the nintendo faithful to the absolute limits.

 

They are used to defending

 

- No voice chat - hey the games dont need it - safe for kids

- No charger included - you already have one

- rebuying your old VC purchases each gen

- No sharing apart from MiiVerse

- Using Miiverse and bespoke social networks instead of established ones - safe for kids

 

but now they have to defend

 

- Seperate joycon holders that charge the controllers but the included one is not a charger

- Dropping miiverse and telling us to use established ones

- Not including 1-2 switch as a pack-in

- Prices of the controllers and peripherals

- Fucking woefully sparse launch lineup - yes we know 70% of a launch lineup is tat but comeon 5 games!?! At least Zelda will have a stellar attach rate

 

(still buying one )

[Super Craig]

15 minutes ago, Clipper said:

I know there is the dreamcastometer but I think we need an XBOX-One- Ometer - or Boneometer to rate how shit a reveal is compared to the hype leading up and the number of disappointments revealed.

 

It is as if they want to test the nintendo faithful to the absolute limits.

 

They are used to defending

 

- No voice chat - hey the games dont need it - safe for kids

- No charger included - you already have one

- rebuying your old VC purchases each gen

- No sharing apart from MiiVerse

- Using Miiverse and bespoke social networks instead of established ones - safe for kids

 

but now they have to defend

 

- Seperate joycon holders that charge the controllers but the included one is not a charger

- Dropping miiverse and telling us to use established ones

- Not including 1-2 switch as a pack-in

- Prices of the controllers and peripherals

- Fucking woefully sparse launch lineup - yes we know 70% of a launch lineup is tat but comeon 5 games!?! At least Zelda will have a stellar attach rate

 

(still buying one )

 

It's nowhere near as bad as the Xbone reveal.

[rubberducker]

Why the f@ck couldnt Nintendo have created a Netflix for their games? Most of their 8/16/64 bit classics available online whenever you want to play them. Everybody would have been blown away by that..

 

but no instead the greedy bastards want to resell us all the same old shit on a new platform. 

 

Well fuck it I'm done. Nintendo is not getting another penny from me buying older games.

 

its like they don't give a fuck about their core fanbase and are playing a very dangerous game.

[Clipper]

5 minutes ago, Super Craig said:

 

It's nowhere near as bad as the Xbone reveal.

i never said it was, just saying we need a boneometer scale 10 being the Xbox One

 

I'd say this was  a solid 7 or 8 on that scale

 

 

[pulsemyne]

4 minutes ago, rubberducker said:

Why the f@ck couldnt Nintendo have created a Netflix for their games? Most of their 8/16/64 bit classics available online whenever you want to play them. Everybody would have been blown away by that..

 

but no instead the greedy bastards want to resell us all the same old shit on a new platform. 

 

Well fuck it I'm done. Nintendo is not getting another penny from me buying older games.

 

its like they don't give a fuck about their core fanbase and are playing a very dangerous game.

There were some hints today that you would be able to transfer stuff from the WiiU to the Switch. Reggie said there are more details to come regarding that.

In other news it seems that splatoon 2, when docked, runs at 1080p 60fps. Nice.

[mogawoods]

10 minutes ago, rubberducker said:

Why the f@ck couldnt Nintendo have created a Netflix for their games? Most of their 8/16/64 bit classics available online whenever you wants to play them.

 

but no instead the greedy bastards want to resell us all the same old shit on a new platform. 

 

Well fuck it I'm done. Nintendo is not getting another penny from me buying older games.

 

its like they don't give a fuck about their core fanbase and are playing a very dangerous game.

 

They're an ultra conservative company and they know that once they do a Netflix style subscription based virtual console, they instantly devalue their entire back catalogue and that's it - there's no going back. From their perspective, they go from each game being worth £2/£5/£10 or whatever depending on the original system, to £10 a month for their entire back catalogue (or whatever chunk you're expecting them to dump on there).

 

I want it too, but why would this fiscal dinosaur of a company (which thinks something like 1, 2, Switch is worth £40) ever come close to doing something so wildly charitable?

[Shimmyhill]

Now I'm not defending the chat decision at all but I was trying to think how would I connect my astros to it, had the idea of an optical stripper to take the 5.1 from HDMI and thought that would do, either that or I plug my headphones into the amp but then of course there is no mic for comms!

 

So I guess I could plug my headset into the switch so thats fine but of course you can't do that then its docked, I guess they could have put the headphone socket on the top but then the dock is over there and I'm over here so headphones won't reach (they would pretty much as they have a 3m cable)

 

So I can see why there needs to be a solution to a problem that hasnt really been there before because of the docked and portability of the Switch - bluetooth could work but I can't see many people using their Turtlebeach killerz elite green headphones on the bus, I doubt many BT headphones have a mic in them so you run into different issues.

 

Again, I'm really not defending the voice over an app on a phone - how do you listen to audio on headphones and do comms, ear buds in your ears and cans over the top - its like headphones in your headphones but I can see there is a problem that I can't see too easy a solution for.

 

In a way the comms almost needs to be separate because of all the control/system setups as you can put headphone sockets on all the controllers, well I guess you could but it would up the cost...

 

So in summary, the comms on app is stupid but its an odd problem that I can't see an elegant solution for!

[pulsemyne]

For anyone going to a show try the marble game on 1 2 switch. Apparently it's really good at showing off the rumble tech.

[Protocol Penguin]

1 hour ago, scottcr said:

Thinking of punting a whole bunch of GameCube and Wii games... Metroid trilogy, Xenoblade, fzero, chibi robo, last story, 1000 year door etc... methinks I should be able to raise enough....

 

Is the GameCube VC definitely a thing? 

 

THE LURE IS TOO STRONG

Nah, don't sell the GC games. You'll regret it. I know, as it took me a great deal of effort to rebuild my (NTSC only) collection, and that was back in 2010/11 before all the prices went mental. Never sell the evergreen and irreplaceable for the latest flash in the pan.

[Broker]

Even overpriced GC games will only net you the £40 Nintendo think their rereleases are worth. 

[Nathan Wind]

10 minutes ago, Shimmyhill said:

 

Again, I'm really not defending the voice over an app on a phone - how do you listen to audio on headphones and do comms, ear buds in your ears and cans over the top - its like headphones in your headphones but I can see there is a problem that I can't see too easy a solution for.

 

 

Bung a 3.5mm jack in each Joycon at the cost of,ooooh, I dunno....pennies?  They're already wirelessly communicating with the base or connected to the tablet.  Or just make your own Bluetooth mic if there aren't any suitable ones on the market.  It surely isn't much of a stretch to do a little single ear mic thing like business-twats and taxi drivers wear.  But what do I know about console design? Fuck all, that's what.  Maybe it's not that easy.

 

Normally I'd be rolling my eyes at the miserable bastards on 'muk sucking the joy out of a console launch yet again, and nit-picking, but quite a bit of this one is actually quite shit.

[Harsin]

Or stick a jack in the grip between the controllers. Nintendo are charging £25 for the fucking thing anyway.

 

The actual Switch has a jack anyway, so you just only a solution for when it's docked.

[Majora]

12 minutes ago, ann coulter said:

 

They're an ultra conservative company and they know that once they do a Netflix style subscription based virtual console, they instantly devalue their entire back catalogue and that's it - there's no going back. From their perspective, they go from each game being worth £2/£5/£10 or whatever depending on the original system, to £10 a month for their entire back catalogue (or whatever chunk you're expecting them to dump on there).

 

I want it too, but why would this fiscal dinosaur of a company (which thinks something like 1, 2, Switch is worth £40) ever come close to doing something so wildly charitable?

 

Yeah but surely the percentage of the player base willing to keep rebuying the same game digitally is shrinking with each new console? 

 

With Wii, people were excited about the VC. Each week the releases got loads of attention. For the first time in years it was possible to legally own and purchase a lot of these games. They even released games which didn't previously make it to Europe. 

 

Then Wii U came and it got a lot less attention. The drip feed started again from scratch. A lot of people had already bought these games once. Are much of their fanbase really going to care a third time when the VC gets a weekly update of NES Excitebike and SNES Wario Woods?

 

Surely it's reached a point where most of these games are going to garner no interest and very few sales? The novelty has gone. A Netflix style service may devalue them in the sense that they can no longer sell them separately for silly prices but I bet it would suddenly interest a lot more people and get more people reaching into their pockets if you could access their whole back catalogue of N64, SNES and NES games for a month. 

 

Nintendo just can't seem to understand that dripfeeding two 20-30 year old games a week for purchase for the third time in ten years isn't going to excite anyone anymore. 

[SpagMasterSwift]

I want to play GameCube games on my train commute each day...it's that simple. They let me do that and they'll have my money.