Nicktendo

I feel like 900p would be a decent compromise, but 1080p really is insanity. The fact the OLED can go 9 hours on a single charge, depending on the game of course, is a huge thing that attracts more handheld pay. I'm sure the tech wizards will have it all figured out and the battery life will still be solid, but I do think going that high is a bit needless, especially with the LCD screen as you mentioned. It's all a delicate balance of tech, performance, & price, and I have no doubt they will get that mix as right as possible that will make their own in-house games really shine.

I honestly don't think that will happen for free. I think most "upgrades" will be paid, but hopefully well-priced. Rumour mill is pointing towards BOTW and Odyssey "remasters" which will run in 1440p at 60fps. Both games were 900p on the OG Switch, and BOTW was 30fps, of course. I would be ok with stuff like this if it was a £5-10 upgrade, but I can also see them fully remastering some games to take proper advantage of the new hardware and charging full-whack for them. How heavy the lean into that will be interesting. Hopefully not too much. I think the most we can expect for "free" is simply for all games which use dynamic resolution scaling to always run at their max resolution, so BOTW would be 900p without frame dips. Stuff like Doom Eternal and The Witcher 3 would be interesting from that POV, I suppose. We may also see some games treat Switch 2's handheld mode as the old docked mode, so if the rumours are to be believed, they will run at a higher res than 720p, given the talk that that new screen is supposedly 1080p, which is absolutely crazy IMO because it's a needless drain on battery for minimal visual gain at a size that small, but that's another discussion.

Yeah it was obvious from the reveal that this would be a quick and cheap port, so no surprise the final version isn't up to snuff. I don't really see the point of this approach tbh. There's no way I'd pay 60 hard-earned bones for this.

I feel like a prize clown for picking 12 games now. I obviously didn't do enough reading or pay close enough attention to the pictures because I somehow just assumed it would be like one game a month or something. Oh well. Uphill battles are made to be overcome.

Thought I would join in the fun this year. 2024 was a pretty decent year, I managed to beat 25 games last year according to my stats, but many of them were smaller games or classic games on NSO. This year, I'm aiming a bit higher. Cyberpunk 2077: I picked up the DLC on sale a month or so ago and have just discovered the wonderful world of modding. I have 3 different save files already ranging from 5-25 hours deep, but I'm thinking of starting again from scratch with a new character as a big update has changed a lot of the systems in the game. Managed to get the game running nicely on my PC after tweaking some settings, so I plan to go through the main game and DLC in one go. Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection vol.1: Picked this up just before I went away for a couple of weeks over the holidays. I'm about 4 hours into the first game and absolutely loving it. Beat it on both PS1 and GameCube and have very fond memories of it, but have never played 2 or 3, so once I'm done with the first, I'll be quickly moving on to them. Fallout 4: Big update last year from MS again perked my interest in this game, and ala Cyberpunk, there are a ton of good mods for this game which can streamline / improve the experience. Been sitting in my Steam account for years, but I never really gave it a fair shake. So this year I will. Okami HD: Hype for the sequel. Played a bit on Wii (around 20 hours) and started on Switch again just after the VGAs. Final Fantasy X: Always wanted to play this after dipping into 7, 8, and 9 over the years. Started a couple of months ago and got 10 hours deep. The plan is to actually finish it by the end of the year. Atomic Heart: Was always intrigued by the setting of this, so picked it up in a sale. First gameplay impressions were not great tbh, but I will soldier on regardless as the story is decent so far. Persona 4 Golden: Never played a Persona game. Dipped into a bit of SMT and reviewed Tokyo Mirage Sessions for the site waaay back in the Wii U days. I bought this on a whim when it was very cheap and I'm loving it. 15 hours in and 2 dungeons down. Loving the setting, the characters, and the story so far. This will almost certainly be one of the 12 I definitely finish. Will probably move on to 5 Royal afterwards, keen to see more from this series. Selaco: Got a few friends on Discord championing this game and I decided to jump in too. Absolutely fantastic so far. Technically, the game is still in early access and only 1 of the 3 planned levels are available right now, but it's amazing what these guys have done on the Doom engine and they are WIZARDS with sprite work. Resident Evil Village: I went on a huge Resident Evil binge last year, starting with 4 HD on the Switch. Finished that in February, then went through 2 and 3 Remakes a couple of times each before beating 4 remake in early December. Had a blast, and RE quickly became one of my favourite franchises. So I'm going to go through VIII to continue that trend. Sea of Stars: Huge fan of The Messenger, so naturally I should give Sabotage's second release a go. Unicorn Overlord: Played the demo for a good amount of time and it really sold me on the game. Love the art style and the setting of this one. Yooka-Laylee: I beat the 2D game on Xbox a couple of years ago, and played it again over Xmas on the Switch. To be honest, I'll probably wait until Yooka-Replaylee drops, but I really want to go through the 3D game after having a lot of fun with the sequel. I have the Switch version, but it runs a bit shoddily, so we'll see what happens with Switch 2 or the remaster being released if I have a better option later in the year.

Heard it's Robobot. Residentevil4merchant.jpg

This is something I really hope happens one day, but I'm growing more sceptical as more time passes. I was LTTP on THPS1&2 remake because it took them three years to finally put it on Steam. Was worth the wait though, it's such a good remake. As for the original, going to my buddy's house at lunch time to play it on PS1 at launch is one of my favourite memories from the school days. These games completely shaped our world at that time and we all got heavily into skating and started listening to the music from the OSTs.

It does seem wild that they would do this if they're banking on one final Xmas push. Before the end of the financial year is March 31 2025, after all. I'm cool with it personally, plenty of stuff still to get through and buy from the Autumn/Winter line-up.

Get hype! Put around 50 hours into this on the Wii U but got interrupted by the Switch launch. Keen to give it a second go because I loved a lot of the systems in that game more than the mainline series.

True, I'm much more eager to play both of those than I am BFD, but I'm pleased the Nintendo Switch Online: Nintendo 64 - Mature™ app makes it appearing a real possibility. DRK still holds up well, I haven't played DK64 since release. Rented it, never owned it, and really didn't like it to be honest, but I'm keen to give it another shot. Tooie has been fun over the past few days, never played that one back in the day.

It's a shame both of these games have already had great remasters from Nightdive, but good to see them reaching a wider audience. Conker's Bad Fur Day when?

JBL got a lot of hate, but I adored his character. It was a nice throwback to the absurd gimmicks of the 90s and he played the role superbly. He was top drawer stuff on the mic. I know he was pretty bad in the ring, but his feud with Eddie in 2004 was fantastic, he really helped elevate Eddie to stardom. Evolution was a great stable too, pushed Orton and Batista into the big time. The turn on Orton and then Batista doing it back to HHH and Flair are still some of the best moments of the mid-2000s. Went to see a live event in Manchester when they were at their peak and Flair was great. Amazing that he was still able to entertain to such a high level at that age.

My favourite PPV of all time. The hardcore match between Raven, Big Show and Kane is also great. The promo video for the world title match between The Rock and Stone Cold still sends chills down my spine. Top Stuff. TLC II, Angle vs. Benoit, HHH vs. Taker and the main even are all 5* matches. This was peak WWE for me. While I enjoyed the Invasion angle a lot, and a lot of the stuff in the mid 2000s with Benoit, Guerrero, Evolution and JBL, it started going downhill significantly after that, especially with the roster split. 1997-2001 was when they were on a complete roll. Maybe it was just the fact I was a teenager during that time, but it was very special.