Sheikah

At least in Dark Souls 3 there are so many enemies placed in ambushes that I literally had no clue about until they appeared (even climbing over the edge of railing or literally seeming to spawn in). For me, the knowledge of enemy placements and weaknesses has always been my greatest strength second time round!

Excellent read! Very glad you're enjoying it - such a fun game when you get into it.

Don't resist. It's a really fuckin' great game.

Well no, that's not actually true, is it? Either way, this is fucking stupid. Let the mods clean this up.

I agree that going the hybrid route would make most sense given that their handheld systems sell well. That said, I'm not sure a game like FIFA would fare much better. Interesting times.

That would create some parity, but here's a musing. Let's say that the NX launches early next year - 2017. The PS4 and X1 will have been out about 3.5 years or so - probably about mid generation. Many people who like their FIFA and COD games have jumped on board by that point. Now, the people who really love Nintendo games will buy the NX anyway, but as we've seen with the Wii U, those people alone are not enough to keep third parties putting out their games on the console. Probably in part as well because they love Nintendo games, and less so non-Nintendo games, which they buy less of. My question is this: do you think there is a huge third subset of people who like FIFA/COD that have not bought another console already to buy their game, who were not already going to buy a Nintendo console but might be swayed to? Because to me, at this point in the generation, that is all the extra people having FIFA will bring in. Maybe some people who really love Nintendo will not have another console but dip into FIFA. Maybe cheaper porting costs mean it will get some extra games due to cheaper dev costs. But...unless there is another Wii-esque innovation that we don't know about, I just don't see how many extra systems it will shift by having these games. By people's own confession, Wii U had highly rated games (even if they felt mostly unambitious to me). But, that wasn't enough. Will having third parties be the answer? I honestly don't think so, personally. Many people will argue what defines success and if for you, the console having great games means it will be successful, then you will probably be delighted. But unless this console does something crazy, I just don't see multiplatform third parties like FIFA saving it from a similar Wii U fate. Yeah, because that's exactly what I said. I honestly have no clue how to respond to someone so blatantly disrespectful, continuing to accuse people of being autistic as an insult - because, yes, it very clearly is an insult to say to someone you don't like when you're having an argument with them. It also shows that you haven't got even a hint of a clue about the mannerisms and behavioural traits associated with autism. You are vile.

No, what you saw was someone expressing a negative viewpoint towards a thing and providing a counter point of view to that of others; such is discussion. My posts were pretty clearly an expression of my opinon; despite the lack of 'I think'. And now, you are making this place toxic by doing silly things like calling people autistic. They are instant loses; the second you say something like that, you know, I know, and everyone else knows that you fucked it. I'll gladly welcome more questions from liger, or anyone with a point of debate on topic that isn't implying someone is an idiot.

Absolutely - and the answer? Most people thirsting for third party support will buy those consoles for said third party support. It kinda stands to reason. And with NX launching mid gen, many of those people will have bought into their next gen console already. I just don't see a lot of people buying these games on Nintendo consoles rather than where existing friend lists are - I also think it's very unlikely Nintendo will ever acquire third party support on the level of competitors, so it's a bit of a moot point.

The service is actually really good, and as a heavy user of an always online game I would know immediately when I'm playing if it went down. I must have clocked over a thousands hours of online play (especially with Destiny) - and as I've said, I can't remember the last time the network went down. Certainly the messaging system was a bit dodge around the launch of the PS4 and some time after, but now it works really quite well. I guess my point with the apples and oranges was not to say 'they are completely incomparable'. Because you're right, to some extent an online service can be compared to another, at least in the aspects they share. My point is more that few games use online on Wii U, and very, very few use always online. If it goes down for 30 minutes, there's a good chance you won't even notice it - ie. people are biased to think that system always works. You also have the fact that there are many more things that can go wrong with a more complex service that hosts hundreds/thousands rather than tens of games - although, I concede, since you pay for it you expect perfection. It's a shame though that people without intimate knowledge of the network use high profile articles to argue their points, but not really surprising. Most of Sony's/X1's high-profile outages have been the result of targeted attacks, usually around Christmas, which again, won't really happen to Nintendo's network as the trolls go for the bigger consoles for maximum impact.

I'm not going to argue anymore on this, I am very confident about those points I made and I reckon you are too but you just want to have an argument about the wording because you get a kick out of these slagging matches. I will say though, telling people they need to learn to debate while simultaneously calling them autistic is pretty hilarious, if not incredibly stupid.

Sorry getting a train to Manchester so won't be back on most of the weekend.

Ugh, I can't stand it when people start talking utter bollocks. I was pretty clearly stating my opinion, but in order to "win an argument" you will now interpret all words I say as literally as possible. Why do this...? To clarify - when I say "it won't do a thing", I don't mean it won't make a single sale. I mean, by and large, this won't really make much difference. Because people do not select Nintendo consoles to play these games. It will not reverse Nintendo's third party situation. The funny thing is that people think EA coming back would rectify things, and that behind the scenes literally everything that is wrong with Nintendo and why it doesn't attract third parties has secretly been fixed.

I primarily play Destiny on my PS4, which as you know, is an always online game. I think it would be fair to say that I have a good feel for the service...whereas honestly, you don't seem to be on very much (you're on my friends list). And I genuinely can't remember when it last went down for me. It is a really stable service - most of my issues have been with Destiny servers (particularly around events like Iron Banner). Put simply, I think you're just complaining for the sake of it, or have a really shit connection. As for "apples and oranges" - yeah, what of it? The vast majority of Nintendo games aren't online, at least not always online. So if they went down for a half hour here or there, I doubt you'd even have a clue.

@MilaGi can you come this year?

My bad. Most people (≥50%) may buy games consoles just to pay two games. Nintendo's console may gain a major FIFA userbase, contrary to literally everything we know about Nintendo. Pigs may fly. Some things are really pretty obvious, do we need to speak with caution all the time?

Your son and his friends are very much in the minority if they are literally the only worthwhile games those systems provide. And having these games on Nintendo's system will not do a thing. People will not select their console to buy these games, by and large. Other than for your personal situation and a smattering of people who feel like you, this won't matter on the big scale. The vast majority of people rightly recognise the advantages to the other consoles and why they are most suited to the games they get. These systems have cultivated party systems, voice chat, image, advertising deals, standard controllers and the userbase. Most people do not think "god, I have to buy a PlayStation or Xbox system to play FIFA". That is literally the furthest thing from reality.

Nintendo have a very limited service compared to Sony/MS; to compare their reliability like this is apples and oranges. As a further point, a lot of the high profile downtime has been due to attacks on Sony/MS servers. Groups target these consoles because people actually use them. Also - games download at full speed for me. A lot of people's issues tend to be throttling/setup related.

And how do you think the date was chosen?

His response could have been about the game network; wasn't clear from his post.

Yeah, it can happen, but I feel PS4 was poised to capture the same crowd the 360 had. The mid-generation thing will pretty much decimate any chance I can see of Nintendo doing the same thing here. This generation really is interesting - Nintendo pushed a last gen console (power, storage, online infrastructure) with clunky gamepad that nobody asked for while Xbox went down the route of Kinect and anti-consumer policies. Almost like everyone except Sony literally lost their fucking minds at the start of the generation. In some ways, if the X1 had done better I imagine PS Plus offerings would have remained more competitive.

Regarding the 'there'd be no third party issue if EA reunited with Nintendo', do people really believe that? Like, if EA started releasing every game they normally release on Nintendo's next console, do you think Nintendo would be drawing people to their console with that? And that other devs would follow? Or do you think the people into games like FIFA/COD will continue to buy them on alternate consoles, where their friends/digital libraries already are? And where the console manufacturers have experience and know what they are doing with regards to online/parties? And that sums up the issue for me. Developer support for games like these on Nintendo's consoles will always be limited because the anticipated uptake of these games on Nintendo platforms vs other platforms will be poor. There is no conspiracy, non hate, and no plan to deliberately shaft Nintendo with regards to not releasing feature-rich versions of games on their consoles. Nintendo generally make their console in such a way as to be unattractive to these developers so they have no obligation to support if 100%.

Once you get the BT line though, it's been all good for me (that said, I know from previous experience their customer service is a bit shit). I wouldn't have overlooked my property through lack of Virgin service!

After the PS4 conference last year it would be madness to not tune in again, if only for more info/footage on those games. The chat was electric. What was it last year, three mega bombshells for PS4?

If I were Blade I would start with Dark Souls 3 - you have a shield in it. Having said that, Bloodborne is one of the finest games ever made, so you really can't go wrong either way. Just stick with it when it hands your ass to you at the start.

Don't have any of those problems. Maybe your broadband is just a bit fucked?