General gaming discussion

Mario Odyssey is an amazing game and for me a far better game the BOTW.

I find the Switch a frustrating console. As a home console, it sacrifices a lot to allow for portable play, but as a portable, it’s too large, battery-hungry, and not as rugged as the venerable DS clamshell design.

It has some great games but a lot of them were front-loaded into the first couple of years of its life (it’s been years since a proper new Mario of any description, which seems a real missed opportunity with the film out.)

Its catalogue wouldn’t have felt so meaty if it didn’t have the Wii U’s to cannibalise, which is going to be a challenge for its successor.

The Steam Deck is stupidly large. Seeing it in person put me off getting one. But I’m the kind of person who insists on a smartphone I can comfortably use one-handed, which puts me out of step with current tastes.

And their dates ...

the game isn't out until the 5th of December in the USA. 😁

I agree with this. I've had mine since launch and it's by far my least used console of the three. Any form of gameplay using joycons is just a pain, I never play portable and stick with the pro controller. I've brought it on a few long haul flights and things but even then it just feels uncomfortable to use and it's awkward and bulky and I end up playing iPhone games instead because that is a much more comfortable device to hold in addition to the better screen and longer battery life, and the app store does have plenty of content such as Slay The Spire to get you through a journey.

My Switch gets most of its use as a couch multiplayer console, with Mario Kart, Smash Bros, Mario Party etc as this is something the other consoles have sadly neglacted, but as I said before the joycons are a pain for everyone except player one with the pro controller (and some games don't even allow the pro controller, don't get me started on the hoops you have to jump through in controller set up when jumping into certain modes of Mario Party or 51 worldwide games)

Aside from that I do think Nintendo's first party content tends to be very overrated. They benefit a lot from the nostalgia element which I just don't have because I didn't grow up with their games, and they definitely have the most rabid fanboys in the community who will make excuses for any bad design decisions. As far as I can recall BOTW, Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and Pokemon Sword are the only single player games I've completed on the machine in all the years I've owned it. I bounced off Mario Odyssey and that game does seem to have had a critical reappraisal since all the "best game ever" reviews completely based on hype at the time - I noticed various sites doing best Mario game compilations in the run up to the movie and Odyssey has tended no to rank highly.

I think I've played more PS5 games in the last 6 months than Switch games in the last 6 years. It doesn't help how high Nintendo keep the prices either. There are games I'd play like Pikmin 3 or the Link's Awakening and Advanced Wars remakes that would interest me but not when they're all over fifty quid with no prospect of them ever going on sale, whereas any game you're halfway interested in on the other consoles can usually be purchased around €20 within a year of launch - a side effect of there being far more games and far more competition in those eco systems I guess. Indie games tend to be priced more evenly but again why buy a Switch version when you can get it on either of the other console that will load faster, have more storage space to install it and probably run at a higher resolution with better performance, even in the case of games that don't particularly push hardware.

All that said I'm still super hyped for TOTK though based on the gameplay I've seen. All the consoles have something going for them if gaming is a major hobby for you.

Nintendo really are something else based on those reviews coming in. Incredible what they have achieved again, bug free, and on a such a small footprint device. They wake up the industry time after time.

I have been using a Hori split pad on my switch recently as the joy-con rail was borked on one of my switches when I fixed it I went back to breath of the wild and I bought fire emblem on the eshop but the memory card slot bust recently so I am now in using an Oled switch and the busted switch in tandem to play my games.

The hori doesn't read amiibos which in my case are essential for both Three Houses and Botw and I am assuming will be useful in Tears when I get it tomorrow but long story short the hori makes the switch seem huge in comparison to the standard joy-con set up they are very light but no rumble and no NFC.