Nintendo Switch Game News and Releases.

Grumpypants

sligeach wrote: »

The Outer Worlds Switch Review: Ambitious But Ultimately Not Good Enough

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZRWp5_FBvOs

https://youtube.com/watch?v=ZRWp5_FBvOs

The Switch version is hideous by comparison and once it's been seen, it cannot be unseen. It is sooo stripped back and still runs poorly. Add to this the Switch physical version costing around €20 more and a day one 6GB download patch, it's bad all round. Digital Foundry aren't impressed either.

Hideous is a stretch. I watched the DF video and didn't notice a lot of what they were taking about until they did the side by side with an Xbox X, and zoomed in 200% . And no one plays like that. And even then they used the Xbox x version which is a beast of a machine.

The studio got hit hard with corona and I guess they didn't have the time to polish it more. But if they already have 6gb of improvements in the day one patch then they are still working on it. The day 14 might have even more.

I won't pick it up yet as I've played half of it on Xbox and have Borderlands and BioShock in the post so will get it once it drops in price. 2K drop their games quickly.

I played Mutant Road to Eden too and that looked like garbage and crashed all the time. It was still great to have it on the switch though.

sligeach

Grumpypants wrote: »

Hideous is a stretch. I watched the DF video and didn't notice a lot of what they were taking about until they did the side by side with an Xbox X, and zoomed in 200% . And no one plays like that. And even then they used the Xbox x version which is a beast of a machine.

The studio got hit hard with corona and I guess they didn't have the time to polish it more. But if they already have 6gb of improvements in the day one patch then they are still working on it. The day 14 might have even more.

I won't pick it up yet as I've played half of it on Xbox and have Borderlands and BioShock in the post so will get it once it drops in price. 2K drop their games quickly.

I played Mutant Road to Eden too and that looked like garbage and crashed all the time. It was still great to have it on the switch though.

If you didn't notice most of the differences "until they did the side by side with an Xbox X, and zoomed in 200%" then you may need glasses. The 200% shots are for clarity and more detail, it's not needed. The XB1 is used to show how much of a downgrade it is and what has been cut.

I don't know if they are still working on it, I hope they are. The 6GB day one patch had been known about months in advance. Another thing, I doubt the Switch version will get the DLC that's coming, there's been no talk or commitment.

Plenty of sites have been heavily critical. You can say Digital Foundry are more about technical stuff, but what about GameXplain? If anything they were even more critical of the Switch version.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQ8i-X0FxTI

https://youtube.com/watch?v=TQ8i-X0FxTI

Nearly everything about it is bad, poor framerate, resolution, tonnes of pop-in, long loading times, heavily stripped back in sections, pausing mid-game, etc.

The game has has a Metacritic score of 69% and it'll likely fall further. You have trash sites like NintendoLife giving it 8/10(confirming once again that they're a joke) but it's being balanced out, thankfully. GameXplain and Digital Foundry don't give scores, luckily for the game, or it would be far lower. Or if IGN had given a Switch score, instead of just adding a critical Switch footnote within the main review. The same goes for Game Informer, they put out a critical PSA instead. I think it'll take some minor miracle to salvage this on Switch. It's a great game, but as many sites have stated, just not on Switch.

TitianGerm

sligeach wrote: »

If you didn't notice most of the differences "until they did the side by side with an Xbox X, and zoomed in 200%" then you may need glasses. The 200% shots are for clarity and more detail, it's not needed. The XB1 is used to show how much of a downgrade it is and what has been cut.

I don't know if they are still working on it, I hope they are. The 6GB day one patch had been known about months in advance. Another thing, I doubt the Switch version will get the DLC that's coming, there's been no talk or commitment.

Plenty of sites have been heavily critical. You can say Digital Foundry are more about technical stuff, but what about GameXplain? If anything they were even more critical of the Switch version.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQ8i-X0FxTI

https://youtube.com/watch?v=TQ8i-X0FxTI

Nearly everything about it is bad, poor framerate, resolution, tonnes of pop-in, long loading times, heavily stripped back in sections, pausing mid-game, etc.

The game has has a Metacritic score of 69% and it'll likely fall further. You have trash sites like NintendoLife giving it 8/10(confirming once again that they're a joke) but it's being balanced out, thankfully. GameXplain and Digital Foundry don't give scores, luckily for the game, or it would be far lower. Or if IGN had given a Switch score, instead of just adding a critical Switch footnote within the main review. The same goes for Game Informer, they put out a critical PSA instead. I think it'll take some minor miracle to salvage this on Switch. It's a great game, but as many sites have stated, just not on Switch.

Digital Foundry are probably one of best technical reviewers of games and engines around.

RobbingBandit

Disappointed that they pulled this a few months back to tinker with it and make it better only to release it like this where it's not worth €9.99 let alone €59.99(eshop price don't care if cheaper in other regions) patches and other fixes are very frustrating to have to use but to cut down the quality of the game just so it can be released on Switch at such an inflated price really gives new meaning to the switch tax.

blockfighter

Reading plenty of reports online in different forums from players saying the game is great and while it is obviously a downgrade on other console versions is still a very playable and enjoyable game on Switch if that's where you want to play it. Il probably pick it up at some point in the future. Hopefully on sale.

Rhyme

blockfighter wrote: »

Reading plenty of reports online in different forums from players saying the game is great and while it is obviously a downgrade on other console versions is still a very playable and enjoyable game on Switch if that's where you want to play it. Il probably pick it up at some point in the future. Hopefully on sale.

That's what I'm thinking. I don't have a PS4 or a newer XBox. My laptop might be able to play it on a low/medium setting but I don't really play games on my laptop. As long as the game isn't a janky mess (by my standards rather than Digital Foundry's) then I'm grand with it. I expect it to arrive in the post in the next day or two so can report back then.

pixelburp

Everyone's barometer of "acceptable" is different but the value proposition of a 60 euro game with awful LOD assets, texture popin and terrible frame rate feels low to me. More power to those deriving enjoyment from a technically inferior product but it ain't for me. Something is lost in the downgrade, the persona lessened. If patches fix it, I'll reassess but don't think Digital Foundry's tests are that open to question or particularly niche. That's the handy thing about consoles, they're boilerplate and standard hardware. 15 FPS during combat and mud texture pop in? Yeah. Naw thanks.

ERG89

pixelburp wrote: »

Everyone's barometer of "acceptable" is different but the value proposition of a 60 euro game with awful LOD assets, texture popin and terrible frame rate feels low to me. More power to those deriving enjoyment from a technically inferior product but it ain't for me. Something is lost in the downgrade, the persona lessened. If patches fix it, I'll reassess but don't think Digital Foundry's tests are that open to question or particularly niche. That's the handy thing about consoles, they're boilerplate and standard hardware. 15 FPS during combat and mud texture pop in? Yeah. Naw thanks.

They didn't show anything until the day before release. That said it all about the product.

Grumpypants

sligeach wrote: »

If you didn't notice most of the differences "until they did the side by side with an Xbox X, and zoomed in 200%" then you may need glasses. The 200% shots are for clarity and more detail, it's not needed. The XB1 is used to show how much of a downgrade it is and what has been cut.

I don't know if they are still working on it, I hope they are. The 6GB day one patch had been known about months in advance. Another thing, I doubt the Switch version will get the DLC that's coming, there's been no talk or commitment.

Plenty of sites have been heavily critical. You can say Digital Foundry are more about technical stuff, but what about GameXplain? If anything they were even more critical of the Switch version.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQ8i-X0FxTI

https://youtube.com/watch?v=TQ8i-X0FxTI

Nearly everything about it is bad, poor framerate, resolution, tonnes of pop-in, long loading times, heavily stripped back in sections, pausing mid-game, etc.

The game has has a Metacritic score of 69% and it'll likely fall further. You have trash sites like NintendoLife giving it 8/10(confirming once again that they're a joke) but it's being balanced out, thankfully. GameXplain and Digital Foundry don't give scores, luckily for the game, or it would be far lower. Or if IGN had given a Switch score, instead of just adding a critical Switch footnote within the main review. The same goes for Game Informer, they put out a critical PSA instead. I think it'll take some minor miracle to salvage this on Switch. It's a great game, but as many sites have stated, just not on Switch.

Your not going to notice missing trees from a random road in the game unless you do a direct comparison. As for standing and looking at a sign, not really going to do that either.

90% of the game is conversations and picking up loot. The small bit of combat that suffers is a let down but it's not a shooter.

Fallout 3 was garbage on PS3 too but I still played through it twice. That's 120+ hours with bad textures, frame rates, crashes etc. I still had a great time.

CiDeRmAn

Loved FO3 on the PS3, even though it was a janky mess at times, same way I liked Morrowind and Oblivion.
That said, own might have hoped for a better effort with this new release.

blockfighter

pixelburp wrote: »

Everyone's barometer of "acceptable" is different...

You said it all in the first 6 words.

sligeach

Grumpypants wrote: »

Your not going to notice missing trees from a random road in the game unless you do a direct comparison. As for standing and looking at a sign, not really going to do that either.

90% of the game is conversations and picking up loot. The small bit of combat that suffers is a let down but it's not a shooter.

Fallout 3 was garbage on PS3 too but I still played through it twice. That's 120+ hours with bad textures, frame rates, crashes etc. I still had a great time.

When they're charging €60 for a late port and it's significantly cheaper on other platforms, I'll make it my business to notice. It goes a lot further than some missing trees and blurry signposts.

And I find Obsidian's launch trailer disingenuous, particularly where they list off review scores with tiny blurry writing at the bottom of the screen, stating:

"Reviews based on an initial launch platform version of the game."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIlTwfNmCLE

https://youtube.com/watch?v=tIlTwfNmCLE

There's not a single Switch review of 9 or higher on Metacritic by the way.

https://www.metacritic.com/game/switch/the-outer-worlds/critic-reviews

Grumpypants

It's €48 on Amazon which is a great price for a new release. It costs a lot to port the game ( a full studio team worked on it) and the Switch has a small enough sell through for anything that isn't Nintendo. Plus the cart is far more expensive than a blue ray.

You will always pay a premium for switch ports. Most people understand that. They pay because the prefer playing on the switch. And they want to see more games moved over. Why would any publisher port a game to make a loss.

Heck, I have the outer worlds on Xbox X, and that was free on Game Pass! I'm still buying the switch version.

They did a great job getting the game on the switch and keeping the core intact. Everyone knows there will have to be sacrifices.

Pretty much every one of those reviews on meta critic says it's still a great game. Even the lower ones like the 6/10 GameSpot one says

"Combat performance, visual grandeur, and longer load times aside, however, this is still the same game as it exists on other platforms. The memorable characters who inhabit the world and their interesting stories of living under a bizarre dystopia of corporate oppression are still here. The companions you pick up along the way are still as endearing and fleshed out as they are in other versions. The game's layered, branching, and interweaving questlines are still intact, and are a fascinating thing to slowly pull apart as you continue your journey. The beauty of The Outer Worlds is that you don't need to be the galaxy's most competent gunslinger in order to get the most out of it. If you have the means to play it on another platform, do so. But if you don't, there's still a great, modern RPG underneath the exterior."

sligeach

Loopymood have revealed that their point-and-click adventure game AntVentor will be released on Nintendo Switch on 24th June, priced at €7.99.

AntVentor – official game trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-fyCi2zaTWk

https://youtube.com/watch?v=-fyCi2zaTWk

I was looking at their Twitter account, the game has won numerous awards, it's a pretty game too.

https://twitter.com/LoopyMood/status/915594107342458881

https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Games/Nintendo-Switch-download-software/AntVentor-1792750.html

sligeach

Steamroll is coming to Switch. It should be out next year.

SteamDolls - Order of Chaos [Official Trailer]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTwvmenDK-U

https://youtube.com/watch?v=OTwvmenDK-U

SteamDolls is a steampunk inspired metroidvania with a grimy touch of brutality, featuring AAA talent like David Hayter. Lose yourself in a labyrinthine city, full of secrets and madness, and reveal the truth lurking in the shadows. You know but four words: Action, Exploration, Stealth, and Blood.


Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1305260/SteamDolls__Order_Of_Chaos/
Kickstarter: https://bit.ly/sdolls_kick

sligeach

Pixboy || Nintendo Switch Trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2YtKPc7zlk

https://youtube.com/watch?v=A2YtKPc7zlk

Pixboy is a 2D platformer in old-school colors that gives you the true retro vibes. There are 40 hand-crafted levels, 30 enemies, 150+ secret rooms, and 24 color themes resembling old devices like MS-DOS, GameBoy, or IBM.

blockfighter

Grumpypants wrote: »

It's €48 on Amazon which is a great price for a new release. It costs a lot to port the game ( a full studio team worked on it) and the Switch has a small enough sell through for anything that isn't Nintendo. Plus the cart is far more expensive than a blue ray.

You will always pay a premium for switch ports. Most people understand that. They pay because the prefer playing on the switch. And they want to see more games moved over. Why would any publisher port a game to make a loss.

Exactly this. But some people still don't seem to understand this. If the game wasn't getting ported to the Switch at all for the above reasons, people would complain that Nintendo is getting enough 3rd party support. You can't win.

blockfighter

<Mod Snip - Keep it friendly, blockfighter>

pixelburp

blockfighter wrote: »

Exactly this. But some people still don't seem to understand this. If the game wasn't getting ported to the Switch at all for the above reasons, people would complain that Nintendo is getting enough 3rd party support. You can't win.

I wouldn't. Switch has a great 3rd party line-up and there are plenty of games with no Switch port - I'm perfectly accepting of that and know the why. Heck, I've posted to this thread, jokingly longing for some ports of the Dishonoured or (modern) Deus Ex games but recognise there's likely no commercial or technical bandwidth for it to happen

I'm more surprised than outraged by the Outer Worlds port, there's no fundamentalism here. Perhaps the devs will patch the game over time - Hello Games arguably saved their reputation through the Patch - but as it stands? I'm just curious who made the decision to OK something with a downgrade that noticeable. If it was a time constraint, lack of budget, CoVid scuppering the dev cycle, or an executive decision regarding the Switch as a whole. Knowing the games industry, it was probably just time. Tis rare enough publishers say "when you're ready".

blockfighter

Hopefully it gets a patch. Much like Witcher 3 did. Although granted that released in a better state than Outer Worlds by the sounds of it.

Nicetrustedcup

Anyone playing the borderlands ports on the switch?

There running at 720p 30FPS but it plays amazing on the switch and what more do you won’t order then borderlands on the switch ha

pixelburp

blockfighter wrote: »

Hopefully it gets a patch. Much like Witcher 3 did. Although granted that released in a better state than Outer Worlds by the sounds of it.

If I was to speculate wildly: The Witcher 3 was ported by Saber Interactive, who had already worked on PS/Xbox ports, so had familiarity with the engine (I also want to say they rebuilt assets, but I could be mixing it up with another port). They already knew the limitations of the engine, and had "ownership" of the tech. Virtuos only worked on Outer Worlds for the Switch port and - as if often the case - they may have had limited experience on the Unreal engine at that point (this happened a lot with EA dev teams when the dictat came that teams had to use the Frostbite engine on everything and nobody had used it before).

Mind you, I see Virtuous worked on the Bioshock collection which AFAIK has received positive feedback. So while obviously big difference with porting 10 year old games & engines, the dev team aren't slapdash. Something went wrong somewhere in the development process. As someone who works with contractor teams, they're not always great at communicating when sh*t doesn't work, they tend to throw it over the wall and leave it to you to discover the faults

Fysh

I do wonder about the demographic of Switch ownership in terms of "what % of Switch owners also have one or more other current games systems?" Because, having a reasonably decent PC that can play Steam games and a PS3, I find that a lot of the AAA ports to Switch are, for me, just a chance to pay more to play a possibly-inferior version of the same game I could play elsewhere. But it's different for folk who don't already have other systems for playing games, and for folk who specifically want portability as an option.

In saying that...while I'm very glad that the Switch is continuing Nintendo's Wii-era change towards having better 3rd party support, 1st party titles have always been the core draw for me on Nintendo systems. Third party titles get more of a hairy eyeball from me in terms of the cost:value proposition I'll get, which means that I won't be pre-ordering or day-1-buying anything. To each their own, though.

nintendoo

Same. Yep, just getting an xbox one x on sale for this reason.
I always play docked.
So, Switch for Nintendo exclusives and the xbox for the multi platform stuff and xbox exclusives.
For PS exclusives I'll wait until I see a cheap and quiet PS4 pro on sale or wait for a few years for a 2nd gen PS5

(edit)
And an extra couple of rainy days in the week to play all this stuff

super_furry

For me the Switch came at the perfect time in my life and is definitely my primary gaming system now. I've two kids under two-and-a-half and just don't get the time to play Xbox or PS4 now. When they're in bed at night, I don't want to lock myself away from my wife either, so it's usually her watching TV or Netflix and me on the Switch. At least that way we get to spend some time together without the kids.

nintendoo

super_furry wrote: »

For me the Switch came at the perfect time in my life and is definitely my primary gaming system now. I've two kids under two-and-a-half and just don't get the time to play Xbox or PS4 now. When they're in bed at night, I don't want to lock myself away from my wife either, so it's usually her watching TV or Netflix and me on the Switch. At least that way we get to spend some time together without the kids.

Yep, Nintendo have the family market sewn up. Their games are wholesome fun to be shared. Nobody else comes close. Actually have never really owned a non Nintendo console.

But I caved in with a cheap Xbox one x cause I want to experience RDR2, Ori and Forza in 4K magic. No interest in first person shooters / zombie apocalypse games. / ridiculously violent/disturbing games. Will make an exception for RDR2 'cause it's art god dammit and Witcher 3

sligeach

Alwa's Legacy Launch Trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMGzxfvBvT0

https://youtube.com/watch?v=qMGzxfvBvT0

Alwa’s Legacy is a modern retro game full of dangerous dungeons, magical items and ancient secrets. By upgrading your magic, any way forward is right in this non-linear adventure game full of exploration.

Indie developer Elden Pixels has announced that Alwa’s Legacy, the successor to the critically acclaimed 8-bit inspired platformer Alwa's Awakening, is launching on Steam & GOG on June 17th for £13.99 / $17.99 / €14.99; with the Nintendo Switch launch soon to follow.

https://www.gamasutra.com/view/pressreleases/364350/Alwas_Legacy_begins_Arriving_onnbsp_June_17th_to_Steam__GOG.php

As stated, this is the sequel to Alwa's Awakening, which is already on the eShop for €9.99. The first game was 8 bit and scored 70% on Metacritic. This sequel is 16 bit and should hopefully be better with the developer having more experience. It reminds me of Metroid, Zelda and Shovel Knight.

Mr E

I thought it looked a bit stiff, but the more it went on, the more I liked it.

I'll watch for reviews.

blockfighter

blockfighter wrote: »

Hopefully it gets a patch. Much like Witcher 3 did. Although granted that released in a better state than Outer Worlds by the sounds of it.

the outer worlds is on unreal engine 4.

unreal engine 4 games have ended up with major issues on the switch in more than a few cases

e.g. sinking city, bloodstained , rime etc

these games never sorted the issues properly with patches

and outer worlds has large open areas with big draw distances -> more demanding than those games above

witcher 3 is not UE4.

outer worlds is very unlikely to improve much with patches and they already had a delay to "improve" it

it didn't run great on base xb1 or ps4 either (much better than NS obviously but not flawless)

sligeach

I watched this a couple of days ago and I thought it was interesting. It covers some things that were mentioned in posts here, e.g. The Witcher 3 port did have some custom assets and Unreal Engine 4 has issues running on Switch, particularly open world games. This will become more prevalent going forward as developers start using Unreal Engine 5.

The Outer Worlds on Nintendo Switch ANGERS Nintendo Fans - But Is VIRTUOS ALL To Blame?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksZ0UqUP8mQ

https://youtube.com/watch?v=ksZ0UqUP8mQ