The Nintendo Switch

Will be revealed at 7am PT/10am ET through Nintendo's official channels.

It's only a preview trailer. Substanstive reveal expected next week.

Remind me what this thing is again?

Nobody knows yet.

Hybdrid console/handheld. Good news is you don't have to choose between what Ninty platform you get, all games come to one place.

Bad news.. well, maybe it looks like a a Frankenstein monster. Expect to see the concept today and software lineup next week.

Gettin' ready for thread title change!

Seriously though the one positive thing (maybe) coming out from this is that it seems like it's been known about, in development for long enough where we might actually get to see something substantial in terms of info and real games tomorrow. The rumors have been for a March 2017 release date for ages.

The March 2017 date is official, from Nintendo.

I don't think we'll see much of games tomorrow since this is labelled as a 3 minute preview. The solid word on the street is a bigger thing next week.

But yeah, the March date was, in the words of Nintendo execs, partially to ensure a strong (1st party) lineup for the first year of this thing. Unlike the Wii U which relied on 3rd party ports.

Yeah that's a good thing unless it means "we're not expecting any 3rd party support at all this time around", which is probably does.

feel like at this point if you're still a Nintendo fan you just accept it :(
that said I skipped both Wiis so I might jump back in with this system

I don't really care about western 3rd party support on a nintendo console. And I don't think Nintendo's got much riding on it either. It's irrelevant. The DS and 3DS thrived without it. Nintendo needs to offer an alternative.

My PC already makes whatever MS / Sony console I reluctantly end up buying redundant in terms of your Call of Dutys and sports games.

Well actually sports games is the one genre still better on PSXbox than PC.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5uik5fgIaI

lol Nintendo Switch is a terrible name
Looks kinda dope tho

Name isn't so bad. Does look cool. But maybe that's just Zelda.

I'm totally on board, despite the pretty terrible name

trailer is v weird, thing itself looks p cool

Switch is a little dumb but leagues better than Wii or WiiU or GameCube

Terrible trailer o_O

Like the thing tho.

the first time the dude walked over and put the little controllers on and picked it up I whispered "what is this devilry?!?"

haha

i am into this!

https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/2016/10/20/nintendo-switch/

so, hardware-wise it's a really neat nvidia shield?

what does the core system come with tho? How much extra shit are they requiring me to buy?

agreed on dumb name, cool looking device. not sure about the detachable controller nubs but i like the rest

also why make a trailer where people are doing more fun things they would probably rather be doing than playing video games

also the DS had awesome 3rd party support, what you smoking. Even the 3DS's third-party support is way better than their consoles

I would guess it comes with the display/dock/controller wings and the standalone controller is extra?

DS and 3DS have great Japanese 3rd party support yes, not western. Because this is also a portable I believe they'll be able to retain Japanese 3rd party support, further differentiating their lineup from the competition.

Vanagon cameo

xp yeah I think the standalone controller is basically the Pro controller like on the Wii/U

Just consolidating 1st party output to one device is pretty huge, hopefully this means more variety as they don't need to work on 2 Mario Kart games at once for example

pending further information, i am into this. third party support is good from an adoption/longevity pov, Nintendo standards on a powerful handheld is cool (especially if it's more comfortably designed than the wii u tablet)

Cautious optimism

Has it been confirmed that there's no touch? People are surprised there's no use of that in the trailer...

is this likely to be region locked?

i skipped both wiis but i think it may be time to get back into this crap

xp

@ArcadeGirl64 53s53 seconds ago
As I previously reported in my September 2nd post, Nintendo Switch is 100% region free.

The people whose leaks have been most accurate e.g. Emily Rogers have been saying that it will be region free, and Iwata said on a few occasions that they were thinking about it. This console has got to have some big dumb thing wrong with it tho so it could be that :/

holding out for the big mario party announcement

I'm going to end up having to buy two of these.

i was also surprised that apparently there's no touch-capability.

i haven't had a nintendo console since the wii (which i attempted to mod and ended up bricking within 2 years), but i'm not sure this is going to be the one.

the whole gimmick where you can transform it into a handheld and go off to the williamsburg party and play videogames on the rooftop at the bbq - that's kinda cool in theory but i know i would never do something like that. when i walk my dog in the early morning, i like to just sit on the bench and pay attention to her, i don't want to resume my dragon quest at that moment. and after getting beaten down IRL 2v2 basketball underneath a bustling highway, i know my bros aren't going to want to play nba 2k18 with me. they'll probably be mad at me for being bad at basketball irl, 15 minutes earlier. i don't play games on public transport either. i'm just not a handheld person, so i feel like the main purpose of the system design isn't aimed toward me.

kind of raisin' an eyebrow at the cartridge thing, although maybe these days cartridges can handle resource-intensive games? either way, i guess it has to be a cartridge so that you can Switch(tm) your game into mobile mode so you can level up while you're eating brunch and windsurfing in the afternoon.

whoooa, that came out way more negative than i meant it to be, sorry. i'm sure this will be a cool system and i will be jealous of all people getting to play the nintendo 1st party franchise sequels, for real.

solid state storage is fast in a way optical media will never be, and I get the impression that the Japanese market wouldn't be about a download-only platform. Also yeah carrying around an optical drive would work about as well as a discman.

(a discman that needed to stream textures to the GPU without skipping.)

idk i think the portability is actually pretty interesting/compelling. the best thing about the Xbox one right now is how it integrates into the windows 10 ecosystem. i can play it on my pc in my office, on my laptop in bed, or on the TV directly from the Xbox in the usual way. this limited portability is pretty awesome, and extending the possibility to take the game with you anywhere is a logical extension and seems pretty cool. Xps

yeh I play handhelds mostly at home, in bed etc. playing an Atlus game while cycling is on TV is my jam!

Kind of funny that there were no kids in that video, unless I missed something.

I think the average age of someone playing video games is now around 30

goin' for chill hipster demo?

going for that disposable income demo for sure

I would like to see all the cables involved for connectivity ie power/recharging etc

The WiiU is a monster for too many cables, I don't want to go through that again.

i can play it on my pc in my office,

oh is that a thing? like, via remote desktop or something? this makes me pretty glad i don't have an xbox.

Yeah, I've never played a game like this before

I mean I know what you mean, but "trying to get as far as you can before dying and having to start all over" is kinda how every game worked for a while - Pac-Man, Super Mario Bros., etc etc...

I bought mario party and hoo boy it pisses me off

i haven't played it in a while, but they rebalanced things quite a bit through patching for months after the release, so it's probably a bit different now than it was last time too

xxpost Oh for sure, it's like Pac-Man et al. in that sense. You die, you start over at the beginning. But this one *does* have (afaict) a story, and distinct level designs and different bosses and new challenges and the like, so when you die you have to do them all over again, in (so far) more or less order. If I had to start Dead Cells all the way back at the beginning each time, with nothing, a la Pac-man (not that there is any real progress in Pac-Man beyond time), I don't think I would come back to it. Super Mario Bros. at least let you continue at the start of the level, iirc.

(not that there is any real progress in Pac-Man beyond time)

untrue. take the ms pac-man story

pac-man and ms pac-man get chased by a ghost.
pac-man and ms pac-man get chased by a ghost and make love and get married

then ms pac-man chases pac-man, and pac-man chases ms pac-man, faster and faster.

then a stork drops off a baby. it is heavily implied that ms pac-man and pac-man had sex

act 2 is a metaphor for them having sex

in 1982 arcades! pretty subversive in my book

They should make a movie.

Vintage Tarantino monologue iirc

in 1982 arcades! pretty subversive in my book

it's why they changed their minds from calling it Miss Pac-Man iirc

And it all ties together if you consider the game's original name and why they reportedly changed it ...

Had a couple of better "Dead Cells" runs and have, well, run into a few particularly frustrating aspects of the game play. One is that there are some build-outs that seem to be a lot more effective, imo, like ranged attacks, but you don't always get a say what weapon you have at the start (afaict). Two, the mechanics of how all the powers work and interact (the mutations, the scroll upgrades, etc.) are kind of confusing (to me, at least), because three, the game is simultaneously fast paced but also unforgiving of speeding through. There are some parts that seem to reward zipping through as fast as you can, both to avoid enemies but also to get the timed rewards at the end. There are other places where you want to explore everything to get the most upgrades before progressing to the next part. But at the same time the maps is changing and moving around, which forces you to alter your strategy, which does keep you on your toes but also keeps the challenge level constant. You think you're getting good but then, ha ha, the map layout is suddenly a lot tougher to navigate and btw, now there are three of those scorpion things that have popped up.

Honestly, the biggest challenge/mystery I've faced so far is the way the tougher enemies seem to suddenly sprout up an impenetrable forcefield. Elite enemies and bosses, it's like it's not enough that they're tough, suddenly they get a forcefield as well, even as they teleport and follow you around and throw other enemies at you? I'm trying to figure out what I'm doing wrong, but again, it's so fast that I don't have much time to experiment before I die. And along those lines, I wish there was some easier way to get some health back. Maybe that changes later? The game does seem to be evolving, which makes the very steep learning curve a hair more fair.

there's another creature (or some object? it's been a minute since i played) that generates the force field if you can prioritize killing them you'll bring down the forcefield for everyone else. also if you can draw the enemy out of the focefield monster's range they'll lose the protection - they have to be within proximity for it to go up.

Hmm. How am I supposed to know what's generating the force field? Is that the fire hydrant looking things? Anyway, there was one Elite Zombie that had a forcefield generated between what looked like two gems. Each gem took several seconds of attacking before they broke, and when they broke they gave me what felt like a 3 second window to attack the zombie before they generated again and I had to start the process over. It took what felt like a couple of minutes to take down that one enemy, but it didn't involve strategy or anything, just standing in a spot throwing shit. It felt like taking down a dragon with arrows in "Dark Souls," but ... much less satisfying.

because three, the game is simultaneously fast paced but also unforgiving of speeding through. There are some parts that seem to reward zipping through as fast as you can, both to avoid enemies but also to get the timed rewards at the end. There are other places where you want to explore everything to get the most upgrades before progressing to the next part.

never play Sonic the Hedgehog

on second thought, this idea seems fundamental to every platformer. most people just try to survive the first time, skipping what they can. they save exploration for 100%'ing or just squeezing some new challenge out of the game later.

the balance btwn speed + thoroughness is a critical & key part of how the game works

haha, yeah. and like sufjan is saying, fundamental to many games and even genres. balance between going as fast as you can and still doing well is kind of fundamental to being a human, whether you're doing manual labor, doing homework, or playing a racing game

How am I supposed to know what's generating the force field? Is that the fire hydrant looking things?

for this part though, i'd recommend just playing again and taking your time in that area. edge around the area, from the top or below, and get a look at what's happening. you'll figure it out

in the truest form of the rogue genre the only progress you make between runs are the knowledge + skills you've earned in previous runs

So far "Dead Cells" doesn't seem to be much of a platformer. That is, (so far) there are not many places to die from falling off, and there's really been no real precision jumps or anything. What sets it apart from other games remotely similar (from memory; I've spent much more of my life not playing video games than playing them) is the ultra-aggressive enemies that will follow you and fuck with you even when you retreat. In other games, those are the sorts of novelty enemies that show up later in the game to keep the challenge high. Here they seem to be there almost from the start. Also, I've only fought one boss so far (afaict), and it's unusual to have the bosses regenerate when you come back, too. So you have to fight them again. Definitely high-stakes and precarious! Am I right that to finish this game is akin to doing a start-to-finish game run?

But anyway, as far as platformers go, even from my limited experience and vantage I have relatively recently played Hollow Knight, Shovel Knight, Ori, and even Celeste, and this is nothing like those, imo. So far. (I've never played Sonic.) So far I'm definitely getting better at this, but it's kind of 1/2 step forward, two steps back, and it remains to be seen how compulsive I find this frustrating-by-design rogue rhythm.

hey what is the best way/site to track if switches (specifically the switch lite) are in stock at various online stores?

I used stockinformer.co.uk and it worked a charm, but I think it only tracks UK stock

thanks - looks like there's a US version too

dekudeals.com also good and for eshop sales as well.

OK, had a great run in "Dead Cells." Made it to the bell tower, killed absolutely everything, powered up like crazy and then ... no idea what to do next. There's a locked door that requires a key, can't find the key. Look all over for something I missed, and as far as I can tell I made it to every spot I can reach with the powers I had. I start looking at my watch, because it's time to start dinner, but there is of course no way to save (in theory you can just stop, but you have to leave the game running). Just searching and searching for some clue and ... nothing. So I give up and look it up online, and it turns out I have to ring these four far flung bells in order of pitch, which a) I never would have figured out and b) *even after learning that* I couldn't navigate my way around the map to find all the bells again. And then I got bored and had to make dinner and thought, well, it was fun while it lasted, and quit the game. It's totally on me, and maybe some of you more hardcore sorts were like, duh, that's a reference to Metroid 2, but me? I thought it was pretty annoying, which makes me think this game, for all I like about it - the humor, the weapons - might unfortunately just be Not For Me.

two thumbs down: way down

I had forgotten that you need to TURN IN the blueprints you collect. Don’t want to know how many I inadvertently never registered.

Oh I guess all I have to do is talk with the collector between levels? Suppose I do that everytime anyway, n/m.

i see josh is "in chicago" again

xpost I was about to say, holy shit, I had to *turn in* all those blueprints?!

You don't need that key to progress to the next level, you just need it to get the Punishment shield blueprint (which you should only ever have to do once).

I couldn't get out of that level. What did I miss? I was stuck there, as far as I can tell. There was no exit. Or can you go ... backward, to the previous level?

I think you’re just missing it, I’ve never had trouble exiting a level

You may very well be right! But I must have looked for 30 minutes, maybe more, before I literally ran out of time. I kept checking the map for places that might open up, but nada. It didn't help that that level is full of teleporters and doors and stuff. And it's all kind of irrelevant, because the next time I go back, if I bother, it will be a different map.

Sometimes uncharted hallway openings are hard to find on the map, it's true. Easy to miss the few pixels that aren't just more walls.

Plot twist! I think, ok, oooooone more try before I throw in the towel, let's see how long it takes me to get back to the tower. I boot up the game and ... surprise, I'm where I quit it! Which is to say, pretty powered up and still at the bell tower, with everything dead. That's good! But I still don't know how to get out. I look it up and I'm not the first to ask that question. It seems I need a different key to a different door, and that door is usually in a room with spiked traps. OK. So I go to every room with traps and ... I'm pretty sure I've gotten the key already. Which means there must be some door I either missed or confused for something else and lo and behold, there it is! Finally get past this level and through a couple of others before getting killed by ... The Hand of the King boss? Which, looking it up, means I actually did OK! So - I guess all is forgiven, "Dead Cells." And there's more to explore on future runs, too

sounds like you're ready for nethack

fwiw, i think the dark souls games are way more esoteric/confusing than dead cells, at least as far as items and the proper path forward are concerned

I should go back to dead souls

Obviously Dead Cells invites those comparisons, but hmm, let me think about that a sec. Well, I guess one big difference is that I went into Dead Cells 100% blind, and the way the levels generate makes it more or less impossible to follow walkthroughs, anyway. Before I played Dead Souls not only had its reputation preceded it, but so had some of its levels and battles. Oh, also, it is totally humorless, whereas Dead Cells is a hoot. One other big difference, of course, is that once you have a build or weapons you are happy with in Dead Souls, or a play style you like, that's what you get to stick with, if you want, so even when you die you more or less know where you stand when you start over and can therefore ignore a lot of the stuff it throws at you. Dead Cells, you don't necessarily start from scratch each time, but it's unlikely you will ever get to create the same build, so it forces you to change strategies and approaches even as the levels themselves shift and change. Like, Dead Souls, AI aside it's very set, so you absolutely know certain bosses, say, or levels, are trial and error. Which Dead Cells is, too, but you never quite get the same thing twice to grind away at the same way.

Anyway, Dead Souls rules, but Dead Cells is a clever lark. I think I may play Last of Us for the first time next. I like stories.

josh, tell the truth: did you start playing dead cells just because it sounds like dead souls

a game so difficult, it doesn't exist

i call it dud cells

Honestly I had no idea there was any relationship besides the two titles. But whenever the game came out (last year?) I know it got lots of good reviews and year-end notices, and that it was one of those games that developers kept, well, developing, so it seemed like a potentially good value and added it to my list for when it went on sale. Like I said before, I've never played any of the usual rogue likes, and this one I saw specifically referred to as a roguelike that gets right what a lot of them get wrong, so while I had avoided the ones I mentioned before (Binding of Isaac, Enter the Gungeon, Spelunky; I did buy Death Road to Canada and Darkwood, the former I played once, the latter not yet) this one was intriguing enough to take the plunge. I'd also been looking for the occasional good Switch game to pick up between epic PS4 games, which I can also only play on the TV, which is to say, when the TV is not in use by anyone else.

https://ogn.theonion.com/the-11-best-games-to-play-for-the-nintendo-switch-1843476876/slides/4

hehehehe

would play: https://ogn.theonion.com/the-11-best-games-to-play-for-the-nintendo-switch-1843476876/slides/11

have been playing a lot of 'president' from the clubhouse games pack in btwn work/clients. always my favorite card game, very happy to have an actually deece version you can play super quick rounds of at a whim. to me that's worth the 40 bux right there, and then there are 50 other games??!? thx nintendo!

do most of the Clubhouse games have online play?

not 100% sure about that as I've just been playing against the computer... but judging from the games menus I think they probably all do yeah