Nicktendo

That's my hope too. I think there's absolute merit to what @Dcubed has said about Bandai Namco, and that undoubtedly has had an effect, but as usual there is absolutely zero communication to the end user. It's always hush-hush with Nintendo. Usually that'd be fine, but in this situation (with nothing on the horizon), it's starting to wear thin. This is made worse by the fact that their stock price and sales keep going up despite them doing bugger all. Where's the incentive to change? Maybe I'm in a minority of people, and I know there are millions of happy Switch owners out there who are either first timers or coming back from the Wii, but as I've said before, it's all be done at the expense of the fans who stuck with them during the Wii U. Of course most of the buzz about the Switch is positive, but the lonely 13 or so million of us who have seen all this shit before are drowned out by the hype and positivity and rightly baulk at the thought of giving Nintendo yet more money for old rope. I'm not buying Mario 64 for the fifth time. Even if Sunshine is there to "sweeten the £50 deal". If COVID is at all to blame, I still believe Nintendo should take the brunt of the responsibility. Yes, they're secretive. But they're also extremely archaic in how they operate and have proven time and time again that they struggle to keep up with the way technology and the world is changing. Sony and MS are both releasing a new console this year, and while there have undoubtedly been hiccups along the way, they've still delivered a deluge of news and hype (depending on your next-gen leaning) and kept the content flowing for their current systems. Looking at this year's release schedule makes me nauseous. Is that really the best they can do at they peak of Switch's lifespan? Are 6 ports in one calendar year really acceptable given the lack of original content? This is when I would've expected the Switch to hit its stride, instead Nintendo have let it chug along with a whimper going for the easy money every step of the way. I don't know what's going on behind the scenes, and I'm delighted that millions of people will get to play some truly exceptional games from their catalogue, but for me, it's come at a high price without anything really new or exciting to play. Who's to say if Nintendo's next big move is a Wii U type one (these things often come in cycles) that the ones who stuck with them from 2012-17 will still be there to do it all over again?

Honestly, take the fourth year of any console of the past 6 generations (bar Sega’s last two efforts) and it really highlights what a shocking year it’s been for Nintendo. I’m almost certain a new Switch is coming next year because there is no way they planned for this embarrassment out of anything other than necessity. Covid isn’t an excuse.

I think it looks decent, nice one! 2TB SSD drive is a great idea, I'd suggest getting a beefy regular one for movies, music etc. 4TB won't cost much these days but it's useful to have it for tons of small files and extra space if you need it. Also recommend adding a M2 drive to that for your OS, most used programs and a few select games as even that will be much better than an SSD with loading. 512gb would be more than enough for that and a few games on rotation. I have an NZXT case, and honestly, I wouldn't recommend them. Cable management is shit. Mine gets quite hot because they are designed to be "quiet" (i.e. bad cooling). They are not that quiet when the GPU is at full whack, so pretty redundant. Sturdy AF but doesn't really do what it advertises very well. I have a Radeon GPU though which generally runs hotter than a NVidia so you might be OK on that front. That processor is an absolute beast, I'm so jealous Just had a look at that motherboard and it has two. Most of the ASUS ROG-Strix ones do. The graphics card will need to be ITX compatible, that's right. No way the standard 3080 will fit in that system. Might not be one available immediately after it launches so keep an eye out for any companies doing a mini version in the next few weeks / months. You might be waiting a while to be honest, given the size of the heat sink on the regular card. There's some dimensions of the different cards available here:

Copyright everyone (2018 + 2019) You know the drill: fool me once, shame on you... The direct was decent. Glad to see stuff finally announced. Happiest moment for me is the All-Stars version on the SNES app. The definitive versions of the 8-bit games. Means I can finally play them. Sunshine and Galaxy both looked superb in 1080p widescreen, clearly credit to their fantastic art direction. 64 looks wank. Disappointed they didn't even try to touch the textures up or something. I think all three games could have benefited from a mild lick of paint, given the original All-Stars fully upgraded the four games in the collection. Who am I kidding though, Nintendo already have your money. Lack of Galaxy 2 leaves a sour taste and the "limited availability" is abso-fucking-lutely ridiculous. Shameful from Nintendo. The more the try to imitate Disney, the further away the push me I'm still undecided on this game. I could just pirate all three games for free, right now. A cheap an easy port is not worth £50. Great that SM3DW is getting new content. That game is an absolute gem and needs to be played by everyone. I'll likely pass as my Wii U version is sat right next to me. Other stuff was "meh". I'm so bored of the original SMB now, I have no interest in anything they do related to this game. That Mario Kart AR game though. HOLY HELL, that looks amazing! Probably won't pick it up, because it looks very simplistic and aimed at kids but I definitely appreciate this bold new direction and hope it bears more fruit in the future. Edit: Having no new original games announced for Xmas on September 3rd is a joke. If Nintendo's "big" Holiday line-up is really Pikmin 3 and a couple of Mario ports, the new console is definitely coming next year... Mental.

The 3DS is in a cupboard somewhere and completely drained in power, I don't even know where the charger is Thanks for the offer, but I'll pass. I don't want to go back to a 240p screen. I may end up getting it on Switch later. I'm coming to the end of Mark of the Ninja now and have really enjoyed the game. I'll definitely be going back for the scrolls and the challenges once I finish the main story and I'll post my thoughts in the Gaming Diary afterwards. One of the best indie games I've played for sure. My CrossCode recommendation came with a warning. In true internet gamer style, I was "praising" a game I've never played. I do own it, I have read reviews and seen other people's comments, but haven't actually played it myself yet, so take it with a pinch of salt. I'll be starting it as soon as I clear some other indie games off my plate first. It looks great though. Transition tunes are correct - @Jonnas guessed the GameCube game when it was actually the 64 version, so you take the W on this one . Sorry Jonnas

It was mentioned in this one. Super Crush K.O. basically has one song, so it's not that I'm afraid

Yeah I'd definitely like to get a wheel too, but not something I'm looking at doing for the time being. My friend has a Logitech wheel which cost him 400 Euros. Amazing to use it in racing games with incredible force feedback. Will give it a go in F1 in a couple of weeks. This is why I mentioned M2 storage in the other thread, a race usually loads up in 5-10 seconds for me, whereas F1 2019 took a good minute plus on my old mechanical HDD. Any TT guesses this week @S.C.G @Jonnas @Vileplume2000??

Honestly I felt exactly the same. It's daunting. Do your research, watch plenty of build / part tips on YT, read reviews, understand how stuff works and what you need to get what you want. Once your self-built PC is sat running F1 in 4K, it'll have all been worth it.

Definitely recommend building your own, will be much cheaper in the end. It's not difficult. I did it last year with zero experience in building PCs. Shouldn't be too hard to source parts at a good price in Singapore. YouTube videos can show you every aspect of building a PC and what to buy in terms of cases / power. A budget of £5K is a bit extreme, you'll be able to build a competent beast for under £2K. Mine cost me just under a grand and I can run 99% of games at ultra settings in 1080p. Other run at 60FPS in 1440p or 4K if they're not super recent (last 2-3 years). Obviously if 4K60 is your target or higher framerates, you'll be closer to or even slightly over two grand. A Ryzen processor is the way forward. The new models are generally better than Intel ones and priced much more competitively. I have an AMD graphics card (RX580) and it does the job for me at this moment in time. Nvidia cards are a little more expensive but seem to run the majority of games better. If you're wanting to play at higher framerates (120hz or 144hz), Nvidia is your best bet in cooperation with a g-sync monitor. Like others have said, new cards are coming soon, so expect the prices of current cards to drop. With a high budget you'd want something that supports Ray-Tracing to future proof yourself. Nvidia also supports DLSS, which allows games to run in a lower res and uses AI to simulate higher res, works wonders for framerates. It's hard to tell the difference in some games, amazing technology. Go with M2 storage. It's still expensive, but lightning fast. I bought 512GB for £80, but it was absolutely worth it and reduces the load times massively. Not to up to date on mini-systems and gfx-cards as I have have a pretty big tower.

I’ll never get those 11 minutes back. Please stop doing this Nintendo

I finished Super Crush K.O. last night, the second Switch game from Canadian studio Vertex Pop and a sort of semi-sequel to Graceful Explosion Machine. I've got to say, these guys really know how to design a mechanically sound experience. This is some of the most fun I've ever had with a side-scrolling brawler. The combat is superb. You have basic attacks assigned to X, special attacks to Y and a gun to ZR. The latter two are limited to avoid being spammed with a fairly lengthy cool down if you over-use them. You also have a dodge on L, which can be used to absorb projectile damage or quickly get out of trouble, but this has an extremely lengthy cool down and needs to be used sparingly. Gameplay wise, it's essentially an expansion on the shmup mechanics found in GEM, but adapted for the Beat 'em up genre. You have to manage your attacks, maintain your combo and avoid damage, which sounds straightforward on paper but when there are 15+ enemies on screen it can get a bit hectic. The game controls like an absolute dream and feels extremely fluid and responsive. Chaining together attacks is a joy. Throw in some light platforming elements and you have a fast-paced game that makes your dart across the screen left and right to keep your combo going. Like GEM, this game is fairly simple to beat, but tough to master. Going for an "S" ranking in each of the 20 levels gets gradually harder, achieving a "perfect combo" in each stage's numerous sections is extremely tough and requires learning enemy placement and patterns. I managed to beat all of the levels on the first attempt as you're generously given 5 lives in each stage and plenty of checkpoints, but you're punished heavily by the scoring system for taking too long to finish or dying. I basically need to go back through the latter half of the game and improve some of those B rankings to an S. That would probably double the 3-4 hours it took me to beat the game in the first place. Each world is broken into 5 levels, 4 stages and a boss. The stages take around 5-10 minutes to finish, with a boss battle lasting about 3 minutes. Perfectly suited to the Switch's pick-up-and-play nature, but can easily be finished in a couple of sittings should you desire. Unfortunately, while the art style is nice, there isn't a lot of variety. The worlds all basically look the same, and while I appreciate the aesthetic, it gets very repetitive by the third world. New enemies are thrown into the mix as you progress, and the difficulty ramps up, but this is not true of the boss stages. You fight the same boss with slightly altered attack patterns, which makes for a pretty disappointing final showdown. The "story" is a bit stupid. Alien girl kidnaps your cat, chase the alien and rescue. That's about it. Didn't feel it was really necessary and ignored it almost immediately However, the gameplay is super satisfying and based on that alone, I think it's a game anyone who likes a good brawler should play. While the game is short, there is plenty of challenge in the high-score chasing and it's not exactly expensive. Want to say £7.99, which is a bargain. More so if it ever goes on sale. Recommended. Looking forward to seeing what these guys come up with next.

One of my Pro Controllers suffers from stick drift. Granted it's not as bad as the Joy-Cons and is temporarily fixable, it's still annoying. The issue is that it's really easy for dust to get into and underneath the sticks. Probably not an issue for people who clean a lot But yeah... not an issue on past hardware, is an issue with the Switch to compound the Joy-Con issues. Great pad, good weight, good rumble, good build quality (for the most part) but the drifting and the shitty D-Pad kind of kill it for me. Infinitely better than the Joy-Cons, but I'd be up for a revision with a new console launching. Hope it's true to be honest, and glad that I held off on a Lite or better battery model. Wishlist would definitely be a better screen (doesn't have to be 1080p, happy with 720), smaller bezels, better Joy-Con and a slightly improved CPU/GPU. Not expecting close to PS4, but ironing out some frame dips and making more consistent 1080p docked and / or 60 FPS more common across different games would be nice.

Which would still make it overpriced for the content on offer.

The Messenger: Picnic Panic = 100% Done. A nice 3 hour extra adventure which throws up a lot of new and interesting stuff. Very challenging compared to the base game. Again, I'll say more later But I will say it is fantastic that this DLC was free. Top stuff, Sabotage. New Game + is calling...

Given there isn't much news and stuff to play on the Nintendo front, I can see that being the case for a while, which is fine. The PodPals episode should be good, I know both me and Greg have a LOT to say about The Messenger and that was a timed console exclusive on the Switch IIRC. I've been playing my Switch a bit more recently, and with the Indie Direct yesterday, I might pick up a couple more games soon. I've had £60 sat on the eShop since April. When I settled on No More Heroes for the intro and outro music I had completely forgotten about Genki Rockets. Think that song played in one of the shops in Santa Destroy. I followed them from that game and downloaded one of their albums. Absolute waves of nostalgia when I listened to it on Sunday night. It must've been about 10 years since I've listened to any Japanese music, and I updated my music playlist with a load of old stuff I used to listen to back in the Uni days.

Snake Pass is really great! It has camera issues (classic 3D platformer problems, eh?) I've remembered who made it now, sumo digital, who've been doing A LOT of good work recently, not Team 17. It's a fun and challenging game but not a time sink. As I said in the 'cast, 5-10 hours is enough to see it from start to finish, with a little more for 100%. Well worth getting if it goes on sale. Transition tunes are correct, the hints were there for those who listened carefully David Wise is a pioneer and instantly recognisable in these tunes. Great OST.

Oh shit! I had no idea Manifold Garden was coming to Switch! I did the Russian translation for it almost 4 years ago! (My claim to fame in the gaming industry ) Wanted to buy it on PC but it’s an Epic Store exclusive...

Good. Sweeney is pure garbage.

$599 is a great price considering the hardware. As you mentioned though, @Julius there's nothing to really entice people to it at the moment with Halo being delayed. I'm pretty sure the contract option will be available in the US, hopefully in Western Europe too and I can see many people going for it that way, especially if GamePass and Live are thrown in for cheap (or free!). I wonder what Sony will do if this is the price. They already had the PS3 launch at $599 which proved to be a colossal mistake. Yes, technically a $599 PS5 would be cheaper adjusted for inflation, but I wonder if they'll split the Xbox SX price by going $549 Digital Only and $599/$649 for the disc-based consoles. Interesting times ahead. I'm stocked up on popcorn.

Hopefully some news about Sports Story and Hollow Knight: Silksong!

Finished The Messenger over the weekend. Managed to hit 100% after about 14 or so hours. I won’t share any opinions on it until the podcast but I will say that I enjoyed it more than Ori 😂 Just started the DLC.

The one about Google is also on his channel and it seems Epic have a slightly better case against Google, but still an extremely long shot. Worth a watch if you have time. It’s also revealed in that video (according to Epic) that Apple phones constitute less than 25% of the global phone market. So it is in no way the “monopoly” they are trying to present it as. It’s clearer now why the Epic Game Store charges 12.5% compared to 30% across the industry. It was all part of the plan. Ironically, games are not cheaper on the EGS, and outside the “free” games Epic pays for to give away to people, the consumer doesn’t win. This is all ridiculously shady.

All payments made in the App Store go through Apple directly. My point in this discussion is that having a second store or third-party payments would upset that balance and pose a risk to how secure their systems are. That's why I don't think they should allow other companies access at an OS level. Touch ID and Face ID are security systems implemented at OS level, via both hardware (Apple's processors) and software (iOS) to prevent other companies having access to your CC information, and also keep your data extremely safe - the safest in the entire industry. By allowing others access, those systems are immediately at risk. It's central to the design philosophy of iOS, and one which I appreciate massively as an end-user. So it's really not as simple as just allowing more competition. What you're asking them to do is basically give up what they've spent billions of dollars and many millions man-hours investing in. People have more freedom (including different stores and the ability to sideload whatever app they want) on Android. So if that's what they want, they should buy an Android phone, but that obviously makes you more vulnerable to hacks and other nasty stuff. People had a choice for years with different OSs, and the world moved to Android and iOS. Competition existed and people made a choice. Windows didn't push their OS enough and it was missing too many apps to make a dent in the success of Android and iOS. I remember Instagram wasn't there for years and people got annoyed by it, and this certainly wasn't limited to Insta. The difference with Macs is that the hardware is not always developed in-house (yet). They still use Intel chips in a variety of products. Though that is slowly changing with Face / Touch ID being implemented in MacBooks and iMacs and the new MacBooks using Apple's own A12/A13 processors which have the security implemented in the chip. I expect that stuff will really change once MacOS and iOS gradually merge into one, which is likely the plan. In 5-10 years, I would say you probably won't be able to install third party apps on Mac outside of the App Store. The iPad Pro is already essentially a fast decent MacBook and it doesn't allow third party stores. Even though I don't own a Mac, I expect over the next few years that will become a more valuable to the security-concerned end-user, and I would be interested in getting one down the line for work. Apple could be more consumer friendly, of course they could, but I don't think allowing others access to their security is the way to do it. I think Epic understands that, which is why we're seeing this lawsuit, and why it was unquestionably planned with their marketing video ready to go minutes after they announced the lawsuit.