Official Nintendo Switch thread: Rocco free zone.

[Vince]

I'm definitely in at launch. Pre ordered my console, Zelda (standard edition) and pro controller from the fine folks at my local EB games. Wanted the special edition Zelda but they were sold out!

[GameHED]

I love rageaholic's reaction video:

I disagree. It's not clunky. Laptops are clunky. This thing has biult in wiimotes ffs. All the old consoles are compacted into one thing. What it needs is a Aliens game where you play the alien that must hack away at other aliens who have intruded into your colony and the haptic feedback lets ypu know whether you crushed its skull or cut through bones and organs. You as the xenomorph then get face huggers to lay eggs into the alien species mouth, and then that alien baby burst from the chest of the alien and transform/grows into that alien species form mixed with xenomorph dna.

There are hundreds of alien species for your kind to morph into and you collect all of them as you explore the homeworlds of each planet in thier form. (think hyper violent version of Avatar)
Eventually you get to the homeworld of the alien species in the movie 'Predator' and infest thier planet.

The motion sensing lets you chop off limbs and do combos and aim for vital organs of each alien's body. So precse cuts with your claws determine damage to that body part. Eventually when you impregnate a predator body you win the game and can play as a xenomorph-predator hybrid. The last boss is the alien in jihn carpenter's 'The Thing' movie. There is a first person and third person mode.

Moves in human-xenomorph form include:
-acid spit
-tail whip (360 degree move)
-claw slash (does cut damage)
-lunge attack (knock to the ground - giving option to bite head off or just run past on all fours like a dog)
-shout to see around walls (use sonar to reveal enemies)
-tail stab (pierce damage)
-wall cling (certain species of alien)
-swim (we saw water versions of xenomorph in later movies - think ecco the dolphin for water planets)

Doom showed the fun of killing at close. I think an aliens game needs to be made with you as the monster and go over the top with gore. But unlike Doom the emphasis is exploration of different alien worlds like No Man's Sky and there is a survival horror element to the game. You need to build nests, find food, kill rival tribes competing with yours for limited resources, and upgrade your characters skills, toughness and map data of the area. (let's just say its memory) Like Saint's Row it's all about securing territory so you can grow and expand.

It's x-com in reverse but with diablo style action and QTE for death moves. When you die you respawn in the body of another xenomorph until all of them are dead. Death is meaningful because you learn a little bit about each hostil alien's limits with each fight. (has dark souls feel to the game) When you go underground or indoors you are a lot stronger than outdoors and during the day. So you still feel vulnerable despite being a killing machine. In minecraft you sleep at night and work during the day. But as an alien you sleep in day and wander at night. Also hiding in shadow aids in sneaking. There is an assassin's creed feel to getting close and doing silent kill over running around and trying to take on everything at once. But as you gain more experience and upgrade you can fight more agressively and chain more targets together. (like the skill in recent far cry games where you can do multiple sneak takedowns if nobody notices you)

When you fight giant monster, the game goes into 'binary domain' mode where a team of xenomorph can be commanded using the micrphone to do certain things and you develop a bond with them. (ie if they hate your guts because you never help them when in need of help, then they don't always listen to your orders) Like a pack of wolves you need to use cunning to take on much larger aliens. Example a queen alien that has gone rogue. (these cpu assistants are like the little helpers in monster hunter when you go solo but you have partner along to distract the monster from you)

There are no guns for you to use but you are nimble and fast. As you get stronger you can jump higher, do more damage, call more aliens to assist, and sneaking becomes easier because you can move more silently.
When you do silebt takedown you gain more nutrition as your body learns to digest food better the more of that alien type you eat. You also have psychic ability a bit to learn skills from dead xenomorph whose knowledge passes to you. ie there is a rogue-like element to this where gaining more skills through prolonged play makes future replays easier the more often you retry. It suggests that dead ancestor can have ghost to guide future descendents and they share a pool of knowledge somewhere in 'the cloud'. (think of the aliens in macross frontier that used fold crystal to communicate long distances before death so they can learn/grow resistances to and adapt to enemies weapons, battle strategies, methods of combat very qickly thanks to instant communication over long distances, ..to make them stronger with each fight.
As the pool of knowledge grows, descendants get smarter and more intelligent offering more options in your style of play in retries of the game. Nobody knows absolutely everything, it is up to you to explre every habitable world by sneaking onboard ships. Much like capturing souls in castlevania action-rpg game series, gaining knowledge from fights lets you play smarter)

[guttermouth]

I'm definitely in at launch. Pre ordered my console, Zelda (standard edition) and pro controller from the fine folks at my local EB games. Wanted the special edition Zelda but they were sold out!

JB has some.......guess they won't last long

https://www.jbhifi.com.au/games-console ... on/335487/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[t0mby]

$189?

[GameHED]

So what are going to be the differences between the Switch and Wii U version? One runs at double the framerate right?

[flipswitch]

Wii U 15fps, Switch 30fps?

[GameHED]

Watch treehouse footage of the game. Looks good. I can settle for 30 but if I get Switch I want more frames or draw distance or something. Not identical game. We need rocco replacement.

[Candy Arse]

CrackHED spends countless hours talking about upgraded graphics not meaning a thing, now he wants it for Switch games.

[GameHED]

Consoles have always been upgradeable. (master system had an expansion port.
Wii U has HDD expansion.
There is going to come a time when people are going to want to increase the ability of the base machine. It worked for n64, Wii (in the form of Wii U which lets you play old wii titles) the 3DS (under the NEW label) so I see it as a logical thing for Switch.

I like upgraded graphics. I just don't think PC is stable platform thanks to bugs ruining the experience. We all know that is why console hasn't died out yet. (but is predicted to thanks to mobile gaming and the dumbing down of gaming in general - only a matter of time that triple A games bring a new crash of the videogame industry. If FF15 fails commercially I bet that will be the end of the triple A JRPG)

Third Parties might not be around when console dies out through mobile phone dominance, and I think nintendo will be the only one left standing after the console industry collapse because they never emphsis just the graphics. I never buy nintendo for bleeding edege visuals. Never have. They just make entertaining games and polish the titles so they don't need 30 gig patches.

As the local EA nut hugger I don't expect you to understand. People care about quality which is why people are more careful now about getting ripped off due to hype machine of marketing departments. (no man's sky being an example) For every Witcher III, there is a dozen EA style games made by souless arseholes who don't want games to advance as an art.

This death of console (due to big companies engaging in anti-consumer practices) may cause people to turn back to pc but then they will miss out on certain non-pc franchises. (the bloodbournes, Red Dead Redemptions, Xenoblades etc)

I think console HAS to be upgradeable in order to keep the people who are tech whores happy. But not necessarily ME. I want it to be upgradeable for different reasons. (eg things like loading time are reduced with more space - that is why I was happy when Xbox had HDD when it was first brought to market because it mean persistent environments for open world rpg games. The first elder scrolls game that came to console "Morrowind" introduced people to PC-like experience on console which means you can drop loot on the floor come back later and still see it on the floor hours later. It's a small immersion thing.)

If the mobile phone market kills consoles, then console must try to kill them back as much as possible before it dies. The Switch looks like the asnwer to that becaus it is like a tablet, but it's a hardcore game machine as well. It has wii motes for party games, but doesn't charge you money to buy a seperate peripheral which means third parties that make games with motion sensing know that every unit sold already has waggle out of the box.

Very clever move. MS will probably clone the idea for scorpio I reckon..Then they'lll force Peter Molynuex to make a God game on scorpio and then cancel it at the last minute when PS5 comes out to counter scorpio.

You got to understand that most pc gamers use old pc to play shit like WoW, League of Legends, Star Craft etc which doesn't even have nice graphics. Only few have powerful high end machines. Game companies know this which is why they target console first as they pay more and there is more of them. It explains why they put 30 fps caps to not affect sales of the console versions of their games. It's cheaper to release on pc but if you make your games too sophisticated you miss out on sales of your game to people on low end systems. ( a lot of them just bought pc to play card games, surf the web, pirate tv shows, skype chat or check email, not as a gaming machine)

[GameHED]

Another Zelda being planned for Switch:

http://au.ign.com/articles/2017/01/17/n ... ndo-switch" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

makes logical sense since BotW is technically just a port of a Wii U game.

Maybe the next one will have realistic looking people in it like Witcher?

[Candy Arse]

I just don't think PC is stable platform thanks to bugs ruining the experience.

This can only be said by someone who does not play games on a PC.

[flipswitch]

GH, have you tried cleaning out your PC or maybe calling pest control? Bugs shouldn't ruin anyone's experience.

[GameHED]

Candy: then how come I said it?

PC pretty much died about the time when MMO games took over and you didn't need a high quality hardware to run a game. Because companies realised they could make more money selling you virtual items and things rather than games.

Console on the other hand kept growing.
Here's an old article about the shrinking pc market:
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/25257 ... ole-losing" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

We have to look at this debate realistically. Why are these companies caring so much about console gamers? Why did the witcher 3 guys not just make rpg only for the pc platform? Because the suit and tie guys realised console is where the profit is at. More people are on console than pc. But the pc guys like to think that just because pc is more powerful than console, that they are the winners or superior to console guys. The fact is PC although it has potential for awesome things, usually it is never tapped because companies do not want to alienate the low end pc owners due to missing out on potential sales so they make games ugly on purpose (the cartoony look overwatch is one example) to reel in the average joe.

This is why Witcher 3 had to go to console to sustain the existence of the open world otherwise it might not have been able to make back the money if it was only pc.

I always sensed these things because every day new kids are born and the first thing they get to play are consoles when their dads tell them not to touch their pc. They then get them a console, and then that kid converts to console for the large bulk of their life and eventually the master race as those guys realise how ugly the graphics on console are and get a pc of their own, but they have kids and tell them not to play on pc because console is more suitable.
As console gaming grew, pc gaming had to shrink. There is only so many developers out there in existence, and to survive they need console platform to actually profit.

What you get however is higher expectation of excellence with console since historically people on console didn't tolerate bugs like people on pc do. This meant all the console versions ended up feeling more polished because otherwise people would return the games. With PC most just pirate the shit out of the game, then if they like it they will buy it. But since retail can make more money selling console titles over pc, they don't stock that many pc games. So people are stuck going with Steam. But steam requires you like waiting for your games to finish downloading. Most people don't have patience. What if you wanted to try out dozens of titles at once first to decide if they were any good? It's not practical to buy all of them and be stuck not being allowed to return them right?

This is why pc was doomed. It's not just that games are buggy, but that people are impatient. Why would you want to buy something you don't like when you can pirate it, get all DRM stripped, and then play it and not pay developers. The fact is businessmen can't sustain these large triple A games like Witcher on pc alone. Console is superior to them.
For people that own high end pc, yes it is superior to console, but you have a limited range of titls to play much like nintendo console. You aren't happy unless you switch back to console because the big triple A companies are all on there.
You can whine to get console games ported, (like with GTA5) but at its core those games are still console titles. PC gamers do not understand this. They had to pay a lot of marketing for the console version first, then after it profited, they could port to pc. If it had not come to console, then they'd need to go low budget to compensate for the pirate problem. Hackers will always overcome protection. Suit and Tie guys know this. But with console, people are happy to pay for the games because the experience is kept to a certain standard. (otherwise the angry mob will return the title if it is too buggy or has interface or control problems like Skyrim on pc at launch did. There is no modding community for console in the past to fix issues, so companies that make console games check for everything before release)

You can argue that this has changed in recent years, (having so many patches to download before you can even touch a game) but the honest companies with strict standards still keep the old console feel to their titles (ie most nintendo games) where it isn't ready until everything is fixed before releasing, which brings confidence and makes buyers les likely to want to pirate. (they can easily return it)

[GameHED]

switch improves draw distance, texture, resolution, and looks cleaner to me.

Plus you can play on the bus.

[Candy Arse]

Quotes a 9-year old article

Did anyone hear Jeff Gerstmann talk about his Switch experience on today's Giant Bombcast?

Sounds like a bit of a clusterfuck.

[Candy Arse]

CrackHED if you play PC games like you're alluding to, what's your Steam username?

Would love to see what PC games you're playing

[PhoneMonkey]

[GameHED]

Quotes a 9-year old article

Did anyone hear Jeff Gerstmann talk about his Switch experience on today's Giant Bombcast?

Sounds like a bit of a clusterfuck.

I don't trust Jeff Gerstmann. He seems too anti-nintendo. I still remember when he bashed Twilight Princess for not having enough voice acting. Just because Square was doing that with Final Fantasy X.

Zelda has progressed since then and is making cute girls cry:

Do you cry when one of your soldiers dies on the battlefield in your Real Time Strategy games on pc published by sega? (who don't make good sonic games anymore after going third party and needed fans to fix the franchise for them)
I don't. Games are not just about bald space marines. Get used to seeing 10 10 10 10 like skyward sword from edge.
The latest Final Fantasy game may be open world now too, but I reckon more people want to play this instead of a walking simulator. If nintendo had 10 years to make a Zelda game like the folks at Squareenix it would be twice as good as this game. Imagine that..

[Candy Arse]

That's the same Jeff Gerstmann who argued to the death for Mario Maker to win Giant Bomb GOTY in 2015.

Still waiting for your Steam account name, CrackHED.

[PhoneMonkey]

Skyward Sword was the worst Zelda, Skyward Strike/sky waggle basically ruined it.

[GameHED]

Edge gave it 10 and Skyrim only got 9. The whole forum loves edge. That means it's the best game ever made. They both have the word 'sky' in it too. Nintendo innovates giving them the 'edge' get it?

You want your game to get 10? You got to be ahead of others and you can't do the same stuff others do. Waggle was the thing back then. People needed an excuse to buy wii motion plus controllers amd SS was the killer app to sell it.

[GameHED]

That's the same Jeff Gerstmann who argued to the death for Mario Maker to win Giant Bomb GOTY in 2015.

Still waiting for your Steam account name, CrackHED.

Whatever dude. Voice acting is the reason elder scrolls sucks now. It's the reason every npc sounds the same and says the exact same words as everyone else as if they were scripted to say things by a truman show director. With plain text (cheaper) and unique dialogue (more unique way of saying things) the characters can have depth to what they say. Voice acted npc (that needs to be paid every line) ruined elder scrolls. It's all thanks to these fake gamers assuming that because other games have things in them that work for that particular game, then it must be appropriate for ALL games to have those things in order for it to be 'better'.

They don't play games or care about the overall experience. They just want to whine about the technology behind games. They are like you candy. So that is why they hate everything that isn't designed to be a nice tech demonstration.

[GameHED]

Hey candy: watch the street fighter 2 ultra trailer. At the end it looks like they show a VR edition of Street Fighter. What dickhead at capcom wants SF to be a first person view fighting game? Didn't they already try something like that on 3ds with SF4 port? Just give us street fighter 3 ffs

My suggestion to capcom is copy the guilty gear xrd style of hand drawn sprites but please keep the full animation style (not limited animation) of high budget movie quality anime.

check out this guy's street fighter animation

That's the stuff people of my generation used to remember animation from japan was like before they went all cg. sigh... Why was the 80s so much more awesome than carttons today with shitty batman 90s cartoon art style???

related:

his other work includes this:

and he is working on a battletech style short as well . (think mobile suit gundam 8th msteam setting )

capcom or snk should give this guy the job of doing the cutscenes and endings for arcade mode for all the characters imo. obviously he plays videogames

[GameHED]

Steam doomed:

Not making more money than last year:

This is a sign that pc is slowly killing itself. Too much content means developers have to split attention amoungst each other more as new games are introduced rather than see each 'pie slice' get bigger and therefore see profits grow as new games are created. Only a matter of time the second videogame crash arrives... What is the point making new games if people just play old ones?
Hopefully this means they start to turn thier attention on neglected genres. eg the mech sim, the arcade beat em up, the 3d platform game etc

I remember in the old days every EA game was unique back in the c64 era. Now everything is just sequels.
Will we ever see a new Mail Order Monsters fighting game?

[Candy Arse]

I think it's a fairly safe bet that Steam will be around long after the Switch has bombed out