Nintendo Switch, the only console today making games which are games

[Ontopoly]

Mario and Luigi Brotherhood looks worth playing

 

[Azdul]

I will give Nintendo one thing : they're the only ones who seem to have figured out that weak and energy efficient hardware is enough to pull good enough graphics for most people. Just look at Sony and the PS5 pro, most other hardware makers are still trying to wrap their heads around this. Nvidia has given up producing cheap graphic cards that can still game. The reckoning seem to be just around the corner, the wall is going to be hit at full speed and nobody seem to want to change trajectories.

Nintendo bought Tegra hardware that Nvidia could not sell due to less than stellar performance. And now it's 3rd party developers problem how to get 30 fps from it.

Some run their games in the cloud (Control), some just do not port to Switch.

In most cases you could connect your smartphone to TV and controller and get better framerate. The genius of Nintendo is convincing people to buy their hardware instead. It costs serious money - so it must be better than what they already have in their phone.

 

[flyingjohn]

"
LOOOOOOOONG AGO WHEN THE BOUNDARY BETWEEN POKEMON AND HUMANS WAS UNCLEAR

I, TYPHLOSION, THE RAPING MASTER OF PEDOPHILIA, COMMITED AN UNSPEAKABLE EVIL!

A FOOLISH HISUIAN GIRL, LOST IN THE WILDERNESS, STEPPED FORTH AND TRUSTED ME

>*PLAP*

>*PLAP*

>*PLAP*

BEFORE THE GIRL COULD ESCAPE, I WIPED HER MEMORY IN MY CAVE, AND FORCED HER TO EAT BERRIES, OR ELSE HER FATHER WOULD DIE!

NOW THE FOOL BEARS MY CHILD, AND WILL NEVER UNDO THE RAPE THAT IS TYPHLOSION"

 

[Ezekiel]

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

This isn’t really a surprise, but now it’s official. The Switch 2 will be backwards compatible with the Switch, both the systems software and Online.



I’m guessing Nintendo keeps the lead over everyone else they created with the Switch, and it only gets bigger.

 

[lightbane]

It's like Nintendo was the only one of the Big 3 companies that still make games and not just remakes and remakes and no original games ever... Oh wait.

 

[Drakortha]

So I'll be going on a pretty long road trip sometime during the middle of this year and I've been holding off on buying a Switch for two reasons; I don't care for the 1st party titles. And also the looming 'Switch 2' on the horizon, which makes me feel like I should wait. But as time goes on the entire premise around waiting for a Switch 2 is disintegrating, as there isn't anything on the horizon I find worth dishing out the money for.

But lately I've been getting the cRPG itch and I want to do a new play through of Baldur's Gate 1&2, and the Switch port has caught my attention. I've read mostly positive reviews about the port and the control scheme.

Has anyone here played it and can attest that it's a worthy port?

A few friends have suggested I dish out the extra cash and get a Steam Deck instead. I can't say I care much about cramming as much power as possible into a portable device. I just want something for the road to pass some time and I reckon the IE games will fulfill that purpose. The old adage 'keep it simple, stupid' comes to mind.

I may also pick up Pillars of Eternity for another playthrough although I've heard a lot more mixed opinions on that one.

 

[mediocrepoet]

So I'll be going on a pretty long road trip sometime during the middle of this year and I've been holding off on buying a Switch for two reasons; I don't care for the 1st party titles. And also the looming 'Switch 2' on the horizon, which makes me feel like I should wait. But as time goes on the entire premise around waiting for a Switch 2 is disintegrating, as there isn't anything on the horizon I find worth dishing out the money for.

But lately I've been getting the cRPG itch and I want to do a new play through of Baldur's Gate 1&2, and the Switch port has caught my attention. I've read mostly positive reviews about the port and the control scheme.

Has anyone here played it and can attest that it's a worthy port?

A few friends have suggested I dish out the extra cash and get a Steam Deck instead. I can't say I care much about cramming as much power as possible into a portable device. I just want something for the road to pass some time and I reckon the IE games will fulfill that purpose. The old adage 'keep it simple, stupid' comes to mind.

I may also pick up Pillars of Eternity for another playthrough although I've heard a lot more mixed opinions on that one.

Switch Infinity Engine games are alright. I didn't love it personally, but I also have easy access to a PC most of the time. If I didn't, I'd be more inclined to play them more (I have all the IE games on the Switch). From what I'd read the PoE games break in late game on the Switch due to some sort of save issue. I'm not sure if they ever fixed it, I'd look into that before buying them.

Anyway, the Switch is a solid device. I use mine in docked mode hooked up to a tv most of the time, but it's small and light which seem to matter to you. If you'll mostly or entirely use it for travel, you might want the Switch Lite instead which is a solid one piece device where the controllers don't come off. It's cheaper and may be more in line with what you want.

Steam Deck is awesome, but it's also significantly heavier and larger than the Switch.

The Switch has a ton of games on it between physical releases and the e-shop and also is the only one with Nintendo games if that matters to you. On the flip side, anything that you can get on the PC also tends to be a better experience there. For example, I had been playing... I actually don't remember which, I've done it with a few. Anyway, I was playing some indie game on the Switch and the loading times were driving me up the wall, so I picked it up again on PC just to put it on an SSD and have a better experience. For the most part, it's solid though, especially if just for travel.

 

[Vorark]

So I'll be going on a pretty long road trip sometime during the middle of this year and I've been holding off on buying a Switch for two reasons; I don't care for the 1st party titles. And also the looming 'Switch 2' on the horizon, which makes me feel like I should wait. But as time goes on the entire premise around waiting for a Switch 2 is disintegrating, as there isn't anything on the horizon I find worth dishing out the money for.

I had to travel a lot last year so I ended up with a Switch Lite to help pass time in hotels when there was nothing else to do. It was a decent purchase since it doesn't take too much space in the case and there's no need to worry about detachable controllers or a dock, only the charger.

People say the joysticks will eventually drift, something to keep in mind if you plan to hold on to the device in the long run; they're not too hard to replace, but you have to tear the Switch apart to do it. Battery life could be better but 6 hours is feasible if you turn airplane mode on. Depending on the game, text can be difficulty to read due to the size of the screen.

Didn't try cRPGs on it but it's solid for pick up and play games like Slay the Spire, Stardew Valley and such.

 

[Drakortha]

I just remembered Heroes Olden Era is out next year. It looks like the perfect travel game. If I got a Switch 1 but the game only came to Switch 2 I'd be kicking myself.

Honestly, If I had BG1&2 and a good Heroes game I'd be in my happy place where ever I go.

 

[sser]

So I'll be going on a pretty long road trip sometime during the middle of this year and I've been holding off on buying a Switch for two reasons; I don't care for the 1st party titles. And also the looming 'Switch 2' on the horizon, which makes me feel like I should wait. But as time goes on the entire premise around waiting for a Switch 2 is disintegrating, as there isn't anything on the horizon I find worth dishing out the money for.

But lately I've been getting the cRPG itch and I want to do a new play through of Baldur's Gate 1&2, and the Switch port has caught my attention. I've read mostly positive reviews about the port and the control scheme.

Has anyone here played it and can attest that it's a worthy port?

A few friends have suggested I dish out the extra cash and get a Steam Deck instead. I can't say I care much about cramming as much power as possible into a portable device. I just want something for the road to pass some time and I reckon the IE games will fulfill that purpose. The old adage 'keep it simple, stupid' comes to mind.

I may also pick up Pillars of Eternity for another playthrough although I've heard a lot more mixed opinions on that one.

Switch 2 will likely be hard to buy for awhile and very pricy. The Switch Lites are cheap, though I think for $100 more you get the OLED which is a much superior device IMO (bigger screen, very bright colors that pop).

I find the Steam Deck to be more of a "play PC games on the couch" type of device. It has never felt particularly portable, whereas the Switch is what I use when traveling. Also, the Switch simply has more battery life to be usable without always being plugged in. The library of games on the Switch is insanely deep at this point and you can likely find something you'd like to play. Also there are constant sales (except for Nintendo stuff).

The Infinity games are playable with console controls, it's mostly the screen size that would bother me. I always try and look up games on YouTube by putting in tags like "gameplay" and "handheld" so I can see how it looks in that mode. Many people record off the TV's which can be disingenuous to how it looks on the smaller screens. Just something to keep in mind.

 

[Drakortha]

I saw this. I think it looks pretty good.

It's worth noting the upload date is 2019, so this is the regular Switch model with the smaller screen compared to the OLED.

 

[sser]

Doesn't look half-bad. Now I'm intrigued to pick up IWD1 as I've never played it.

 

[mediocrepoet]

The ones out are BG1 & 2, IWD & PST, and NWN. They're decent ports, it's just a matter of getting used to the control scheme. But they did do their best to make a good controller map out of what's definitely a M+K game.

 

[Drakortha]

sad really, none of those games appear on any "top 10 RPG's on the switch" list. It's all JRPG shit.

 

[mediocrepoet]

sad really, none of those games appear on any "top 10 RPG's on the switch" list. It's all JRPG shit.

Well I mean... what did you expect?

 

[Tehdagah]

 

[Zboj Lamignat]

You'd think Chad inhaling Peach's arm pit odor is enough to clue people in.

 

[Drakortha]

You'd think Chad inhaling Peach's arm pit odor is enough to clue people in.

The ad doesn't even mention screen size. That's enough for me.

 

[Drakortha]

So I've just found this hidden gem of a game I didn't even know existed before now. And I did some digging and found a developer basically confirming it's likely coming to switch 'soon'.

So here's a HoMM game for Nintendo for anyone looking for one. Considering it might be a while before we see Olden Era come to consoles.

 

[Drakortha]

Pulled the trigger today and picked up a preowned original Switch. It was a lot cheaper than buying the OLED, saving me a few hundred dollars. (A$212) I figure I get this one for now so I can at least start playing some games as cheap as possible and set the extra money aside for the new switch model if I want it later.

The dungeons and dragons collection on the estore is on sale 70% off and includes Planescape, IWD, BG1&2, and NWN. Snatched that up first thing, and I'm happy

 

[Drakortha]

Okay, so this is interesting..

When I was tossing around the idea of investing in the Switch I did a lot of research and the consensus among a lot of people seemed to be that the Steam Deck was the superior option, with people often citing that games were cheaper on Steam and that there's more games to choose from.

So what's interesting is, since getting my Switch I've been scouring the Steam store for 3rd party games to play and then cross referencing them to see if they are also available on the Nintendo Estore. And funnily enough not only are most of the games that are actually worth playing available on the Switch as well, they are actually cheaper on average.

The discounts on the Estore also tend to be steeper. For example - I just picked up Doomsday Hunters on Switch for $10.20AUD on sale, but on Steam it's $12.45AUD on sale. With their regular prices being $25.50 and $23.50 respectively. The Steam discount is -47% while the Estore discount is -60%. A few other games were like this as well.

But the best part is they pretty much all play very well across the board, with barely a hickup or an issue with the default controls. You just download it, launch it, and start playing. But then I read the Steam boards for these same games that are "Steam Deck Verified" and you often see topics from people trying to figure out how to setup their controls correctly.

So basically my verdict is that the Nintendo Switch was a damn awesome choice and I have no regrets choosing it over the "muh portable pc" monstrosity. The pricing on 3rd party games on the Estore are a lot better value than I had been led to believe, and I'm looking forward to taking them along with me on my next road trip and having easy access to them without the stress of shit not working.

TLDR;
Switch >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Steam Deck

 

[VonMiskov]

3rd party games are usually cheaper on Switch but Nintendos' and the system specific (like Xenoblade) titles are rarely on any reasonable sale.

 

[Drakortha]

3rd party games are usually cheaper on Switch but Nintendos' and the system specific (like Xenoblade) titles are rarely on any reasonable sale.

Yeah, it's a good thing I don't like Nintendo's 1st party games or JRPG's at all for that matter. But as a 3rd party indie game machine the Switch rocks.

 

[Dark Souls II]

How much does the battery last on a used Switch? I'm thinking about getting one to play some jRPG crap that's not on PC and I'm too lazy to emulate or my 10 years old laptop simply can't run. Does the screen feel big enough to be comfortable? I won't be using a TV screen because I don't have one. Also, can you pirate games on this thing? I'm not used to paying for games.