Ronnie

Mentioned this in the ME thread, but I adore this from the opening of ME3

Started Mass Effect 3, that intro cutscene up until the title card is as brilliant as I remembered it. "Leaving Earth" is one of my favourite bits of modern gaming music.

Well that's why I didn't say handheld mode...I was saying it's a shame they couldn't improve the output above 1080p in docked (by changing the internals). While I think 720p is ok for handheld, 1080p does look rather fuzzy these days on larger TVs. Sorry I misread, but that would change the business model even more. They obviously weren't aiming for a more powerful device, which outputting at a higher res would necessitate.

It's not about them 'not bothering'. Improving the display from 720p to 1080p completely changes the business model of the device, for something that isn't necessary in the slightest. Who looks at the Switch screen in handheld mode and says "there aren't enough pixels on this"?

The pixel density on the 3DS went from 132 ppi to 96, a big difference, especially on an already low res screen This is pretty marginal, 236 > 210. Unavoidable really if people wanted smaller bezels.

Wow, not exactly the first brand you think of for a collaboration

And lose three months worth of sales? I imagine the original will get a price drop towards the end of the year and they'll keep it around as the budget option.

Ooof. You'd think they could manage a banger of a State of Play by now, a couple of years into the format. Let alone a decent one a month after their no show at E3. Sad there was nothing Kena Bridge of Spirits, isn't that out next month?

I actually think 30% is a pretty high number! This was never going to be the next big thing, just an iterative update for new owners and to tempt a handful of older ones.

The PS5 "probably being released" at £600-700, and if you disagreed you were detached from reality, was my favourite. That or Nintendo have put all their software focus into mobile gaming a couple of years ago.

Can someone explain...

It'll tank and then they'll change the world again in 2029

I'll be putting my copy of this on eBay in the next day or so, so if anyone would like to buy it off me for £40 total let me know. In great condition obv.

It seems some people took the quality of life trailer to mean that Fi is now offering even more advice, so maybe this tweet is in relation to that misconception

Fair enough, though Altano never professes to be a Nintendo "expert", he just loves Nintendo, but I agree he can be a bit ignorant about the industry. And Whitta... yeah. It was more their words I felt like highlighting rather than the people saying them.

Reading the replies to all the tweets Nintendo have put out since the reveal makes me sad. It's such embarrassing stuff, but then that goes for 90% of Twitter in general I suppose. As for Pokemon Legends, I suggest you go in with extremely low expectations. Game Freak development ability + sprawling openworld + very quick release doesn't bode well.

Platinum'd the game just now. Overall I thought it was great, even if it plays things incredibly safe (even by Sony first party standards). Still, quite an accomplishment from Insomniac to have this and Miles Morales release so close together. That said, much as I had fun I was quite keen to be done with it in the latter half. Like the PS4 game it's one I'll forget about pretty quickly, though this was definitely a step up from that game, at least in the story-telling. As fun as the shooting gameplay is I'm disappointed there just wasn't more to the game than that. Barely any platforming, no puzzles, no exploration, only a tiny handful of sidequests. The changing dimensions looked hugely impressive but ultimately added very little. I expected the Pocket Dimensions to be more than they ended up being, very very short and simple, and frankly a bit pointless. The whole game just got really repetitive and one-note pretty quickly. Most worlds play out exactly the same, just run along a linear path and shoot stuff every few minutes. Some levels mercifully offered something a bit different, the one where you alternate dimensions and hide from that creature, that one was a standout for sure. The actual gun play was a lot of fun and the various weapons were enjoyable to use, levelling up the Enforcer to level 5 and holding the trigger as it shot out electric-like fire 4 times was brilliantly done. Set dressing wise the game is full of lots of tiny details that really elevate it, shame about all the invisible walls though. Visually it obviously looked stunning, some areas more than others. I went back and used an unlockable weapon (you'll know it if you're aiming for the platinum) on the very first parade level and the game just crashed, probably under extreme graphical pressure! Actually there were a surprising amount of bugs. As above, one important cutscene 2/3rd though didn't even play. 8/10 for me. Really fun and enjoyable in a beautifully polished package, I just wish there was a bit more variety to the gameplay. Oh and the 'Glitch' sections were offensively bad. Made all the worse by what is easily the most annoying voice acting in video games since "Excuuuuuuse me Princess". I have no idea what they were thinking!! That voice and the arena/weapon announcer, my god

So four and a half years later, people wondering when they'll finally do a price drop... nah... they INCREASE the price instead

I'd love to know the exact ratio of handheld/home console the Switch has seen worldwide since launch. I remember Nintendo putting out the exact stat a couple of years ago and it was close to 50:50.

They stopped making the Vita with an OLED screen after a year or so, and replaced it with an inferior LCD version, because, And I know it was a joke, it was funny.

Nice. Though funnily enough the Vita was the opposite. "Hey you know that one thing about the Vita that was actually pretty cool? Let's get rid of it in future hardware updates! Makes total sense." As someone who knows nothing about the technical side of game development, take this with a grain of salt, but BOTW started life as a Wii U game, the sequel will be Switch-only and so hopefully that and some extra development time will help.

Switches are flying off the shelves, it's still selling like crazy even 4+ years later. If sales were trending downwards then a more must-buy upgrade would have made sense to jolt sales again, but it's just not necessary. The current model still has 3+ years left in it from a sales pov at least. They'll ride this wave for a few more years, and then make a big splash in 2024 or whatever with the Switch 2. Personally I wasn't craving more power, so saving myself a few hundred quid is fine by me. Saved a lot of people feeling pressured to buy a new model rather than being left in the cold.