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@Glen-i clearly saw this coming and bailed early.

That's a gross violation of our freedom to play games the way we want to.

THE RESULTS!! GP1: GP2: GP3: It’s a shame that we couldn’t get Backwards Racing working tonight, but I had a fun time regardless! It’s not often that we get a 3 way tie for 1st place, but we got it tonight! As for me? I had a strange mix of beautiful skill and beautiful fail (you’ll see why when I post my highlights later on). It’s been a great League guys! Here’s hoping I see you all again next year here too! @Glen-i will post the results over the weekend. I can’t wait to see how things get shaken up!

There’s a Pokémon Switch thread (it was quite buried, but it’s there) to talk about this; I’m not trying to be rude, just thought I’d mention it in case the mods see this as getting off topic As for official word on a release date, during its initial announcement at E3, Ishihara stated that it “might not release for more than a year”, but Nintendo’s Earning supplementary info cites it as releasing in “2018 or later”. Personally, I gravitate towards the latter, simply because I think that Nintendo already has a lot up it’s sleeves hidden away for 2018, and I agree that November is the most likely month of release whichever year that it comes, seeing as the last three main series entries have all released in November. I also agree with the idea that other parties, such as Monolith Soft or Bandai Namco, could be involved in the process, though I have my doubts that the latter would be involved, but we’ll just have to wait and see. As for how the series could evolve, I do think that dreams of “Pokémon-BOTW” are unlikely to ever come to fruition, but I think it’s worth mentioning that there are a few parts of BOTW I would like to see influence the design of the game: complete control of the camera, (more) in-depth character customisation, a world open to the extent that it feels like it’s a true adventure, etc. I feel that the last point is the most important, at least to me, because of how X, Y, Omega Ruby, Alpha Sapphire, and (Ultra) Sun and (Ultra) Moon all felt like a vacation more than they did an adventure? It would be wise for them to keep the simplicity of the games, which is what makes them so accessible to all ages, in aspects such as turn-based battles. However, random encounters are something in particular which I would like to see changed to overworld encounters, and more events where we meet Pokémon and befriend them or interact with them before capturing them would be a welcome addition. Another thing I’d like to see them do is to lean into some JRPG tropes, namely a focus on story. Sure, Pokémon plots aren’t - and don’t have to be - the greatest thing in the world when it comes to storytelling, but perhaps scale it back from world domination/world-changing events and focus on character arcs instead? Just my two cents (or maybe I should be saying pence? Idk) or so.

PKMN Trainer Red wants to fight!

Best thing we ever did, went from sub-par speeds of less than 2Mbps right up to... *checks* 75Mbps

Well, it was a shame we couldn’t do the reverse racing idea, but that was an entertaining final league night regardless. It’s been great playing with you lot again and I hope it will continue next year! We definitely need to do another “Smart Steering” GP at some point too. Cheers everyone!

Next League Night: Tonight 8pm Group 1 @BowserBasher is host @BowserBasher @martinist @punio75 @viceview51 @RedShell @S.C.G Due to an unfortunate last-minute snafu, Glen-i cannot participate tonight (meaning that I get a full screen to myself! HUZZAH! ) Are you guys ready for the craziliest, ridiculousliest, most utterly stupid night in MK League history? I know I am! @BowserBasher I will take Glen-i's place here and do the test with you at 19:30 (Make sure you select the four courses me and Glen-i chose for tonight's GP)

Upgrading my internet from copper to fiber optic. Should see a dramatic increase in speed after getting this in January.

You should also use this quote to put what Mark Hamill said into context. He was talking about an early draft, things were changed and he came around to Rian's ideas. @Fierce_LiNk

https://gonintendo.com/stories/298386-arcade-archives-double-dragon-releasing-on-nintendo-switch-eshop The arcade version of Double Dragon comes out on Switch next week!

I have thought about that myself, but I reckon that it's more likely that Namco would be helping out here. Monolith are still working on Xenoblade 2's DLC, have just finished work on BOTW's DLC and have another project they're just starting of their own (not to mention are also probably providing art assets for other 1st party Nintendo titles, like Pikmin 4 and Animal Crossing Switch, as well). They're likely tapped out for resources. Namco are Nintendo's go-to partner for outside development assistance and also have quite a bit of experience with UE4 now (not to mention that they've worked on Pokken/Pokken DX, so they have some experience with the IP already). They also have plenty of manpower to spare, so they seem like the most likely partner to me.

Actually, they haven't given any sort of date at all. Nobody from Nintendo or TPC has mentioned a date at all (same goes for Fire Emblem Switch and Metroid Prime 4 for that matter). Any rumblings of it coming in 2018 are nothing more than people making assumptions. I wouldn't expect Pokemon Switch to hit until November 2019 at the earliest (We might see a new Pokemon Mystery Dungeon this year though). I also wouldn't say that the game design of Pokemon is "outdated" either. There's nothing else to compare it to really. Limited in terms of the scope of the world and the camera system? Sure. Outdated in terms of the rest of the game design? By what standard? Turn based games are not "outdated" at all. Not every game has to be a contemporary open world game, with a free moving camera, that is a clone of The Witcher or GTA. In fact, for a Pokemon game that is supposed to have a wide audience, that actually might be a detriment. That being said, Pokemon has always largely been an "open world" game, ever since the beginning. It was only with the 3DS games that they had to really take a step back here. I would expect it to be designed more like Monster Hunter World or Super Mario Odyssey in that regard; with a decently sized, crafted world, but delivered in a seamless fashion without loading between areas. More like the original games, but in full 3D (and hopefully without the utterly ridiculous genwunner pandering! Please!!!). Probably with a behind the character view, but I'd expect camera control to be limited - think Mario Galaxy - in order to make it accessible to kids and people not used to using cameras in 3D space. I expect something grander in scale than Sun/Moon, but certainly still an evolution of what they were going for with that game. Pokemon doesn't need to change what it is, but it probably does need to back up on the linearity of the newer games, get rid of the loading screens and get back more of that "open world" feel that it used to have. If that means much fewer cutscenes, then so be it. Correct. They have 118 staff in total (and not all of them work on one game at a time). I don't see any way they can make a HD Pokemon game without outside help.

I'm on fairly regularly, usually a bit later on after my wee man is asleep. If you fancy some games sometime just give me an @

3D models do not equal a game engine. Those same models run perfectly fine in Pokedex 3D Pro (and while running in S3D to boot!). Game Freak's engine runs terribly and I say that as a long-time fan of the series. It doesn't even support basic texture filtering on 3DS for pity's sake! (Even the N64 could do that!) and they're being expected to basically jump two generations in one go with the Switch! I agree that the 3D models for the Pokemon are probably good enough as they are. I don't see them going back and remaking all 800+ Pokemon models again. Like you say, I expect them to reuse the models but with better shaders, lighting, textures etc. You know who else used to struggle with making 3D games until recently? Intelligent Systems. But look where they are now! Game Freak could get to that point if they get the outside help that IS currently do... Very true, but I think it's a sensible choice to move to UE4 and if Creatures are moving towards using it, then it's a strong sign that they're going to be using it for the next mainline Pokemon too; given that they co-develop the games alongside Game Freak. They wouldn't even be the first Nintendo affiliated studio to abandon their own in-house engine in favour of UE4. Good Feel actually had their own engine that they employed on both Wii U and 3DS (and it even ran really well on both consoles too!) and they've switched to UE4 for the new Yoshi game. Nintendo EPD and Monolith also use various middleware packages in their own engines, like Autodesk Beast and Havok; so it's hardly a sacred cow that they're killing here. Given Game Freak's current position, it seems far more sensible to me to make use of an established engine that already runs well on Switch than to spend years flailing and struggling to make something of their own from scratch (it also means that they may be able to get the next mainline Pokemon out on Switch much sooner than they'd otherwise be able to).

That seems to be the case. Anyone know which version comes with the anime songs, hoping it's not the expensive collector's edition?

This is still my jam, however many years later:

Indeed Already reached chapter 60. The pacing is pretty much perfect. *cough* looking at you One Piece *cough* I think I'll also give the anime a go. Would love to see those fights animated.

https://www.resetera.com/threads/nintendo-power-is-back-as-an-official-nintendo-podcast.12098/ First episode is pretty good. I like how they acknowledge the Switch Home Menu Icon Fiasco

Nintendo have launched an official Nintendo Power Podcast charting to devs. First up - Zelda.

I'm too scared to play it. It's that simple.

So annoyed I bought Silver and then a week or two after this is announced.....They're forcing my hand here.

I can't be too critical myself about the Japanese lifestyle because, due to my job, my hours are quite demanding and I often have to go home and carry on working, and on weekends, too. So, I can "get it" because I can see how easily work and home life can crossover easily and how it can be thoroughly draining. I can only imagine that this is amplified when it's applied to many more people or entire industries, let alone the country in general, where it's expected that you have to work long and demanding hours. It's a subject that I find interesting. We often have children that come to our school from China and Japan and their work ethic is just unreal. The expectations that the people put themselves under (or are forced to by their families) is just insane, really. I wonder if it's too ingrained in their culture for there to be a change, especially as we are living in a world where you have to be competitive to get ahead. As with that, there will continue to be a ripple effect and I guess one of those ripples is the decline of console sales due to the lack of free time. It's something I never thought I'd see when I was younger.

Not much of a surprise but...

Yeah, it's a crazy way to live and I certainly wouldn't put up with it. For me, money comes and goes and I value my free time over anything else. Once im done playing with X-rays for the day, I leave work and then my time is my own. Hell, I flat out refuse to even check my work emails once I leave. I find it important to have that separation between work and home life. Its sad to see this kind of culture slowly making its way to the West. A lot of the big western gaming publishers seem to run their operations like this. Crazy hours, with very little time for anything else. The company has to be everything to you. A couple of people I used to work with worked in the industry ( one worked for Ubisoft ) and they said the employers know that most of their workers have a passion for the industry and they then exploit that passion.

We've done our whole Christmas meal and present giving already, as we're in Belgium visiting @Eenuh's family. This was one of the presents that I was given. I'm looking forward to utterly neglecting it until I get through the games that I was given last Christmas and when I decide to play something that isn't Overwatch.

With Japan loving their handhelds, and dismissing consoles, Switch was always going to dominate over there. Nothing else is going to touch it. I do hope it ends up outselling the Wii U in the space of a year.

Just finished the campaign. One of the best CoD campaigns in a long time. It really was like Band of Brothers. Plenty of action, great story, fun set pieces and high stakes. Awesome. I loved the mission Epilogue. It was just a small thing but it was quite powerful in the way it was presented. Fantastic stuff. There were a couple of tricky parts on Veteran difficulty. On one section I had to destroy a tank by places charges on its back. I got a checkpoint as I placed the first one on it but when I done this I had very little health. It took me ages to get another charge on it due to my small amount of health and a massive wave of enemies that has spawned. The other section that was tough was near the end. I won't spoil it but I eventually got through it by spamming smoke grenades, charging in with a shotgun and then crawling my way to victory. Its great to see that Veteran is no longer just a grenade throwing, infinite enemy spawning mess that it once was. Those were some tough and dark days.

I wouldn't be so sure. Fire Emblem Echoes, as much as I love that game, does lock all the best classes behind DLC. Xenoblade isn't the first one to do something like that. Even Pokemon Mystery Dungeon almost went down that route with the first 3DS title, but it thankfully redeemed itself by completely dropping any DLC for Super Mystery Dungeon. The game was better for it.

Here are a few of my highlights from the last evening.

Learnt a cheeky new technique from another player on Clam Blitz. They were on the opposing team and threw a clam towards me, which I initially tried to avoid, thinking it was a projectile , but once I realised it was just a clam and went to collect it, they then chucked in a bomb! Very nearly got me with it too. At first I thought they had thrown the clam by mistake (which I found hilarious at the time ) but looking back on it now it's actually a pretty cool tactical move. Captured a vid of it: This game keeps getting better and better, already played it way more than I did the Wii U original. Just wish they would patch out that bloody startup sequence! At the very least make it skippable!! It massively detracts from the quick pick up and play nature of the Switch.

Usually Thursday after MK League around 9.15pm.