Nintendo Switch (was: Nintendo NX)

[Kchrpm]

The direct today showed more of previously announced games, and also gave us a couple of new titles from Bethesda that were quite shocking.

[Rare White Ape]

Fuck yeah Doom. I'll buy it again for Switch, and Wolfenstein II is a very nice surprise.

Mario Odyssey is looking more and more excellenter every time they show it off.

[Yw-slayer]

*Hipster* I can play DOOM on my 4K 43" monitor at full-res and 60fps. */Hipster*

[Rare White Ape]

That's nice and all, but I'd like to see you jam your PC and monitor into a backpack, then whip it out when killing time out of the house.

I'll bet that at least half of my 150 hours on Zelda were away from home. I get immense value out of my Switch in that regard.

By christmas, there will be four, maybe five major releases to sink my teeth into:

Mario
Doom
Skyrim
Xenoblade 2
Thimbleweed Park

[Jason]

And eventually you'll be sold on Mario + Rabbids

[Yw-slayer]

Lol I just got into an argument with my schoolmates about that.

I still don't get why running it like a PS4, which itself has a gpu equivalent to one from 2010, is so great. I guess it's cool, but man, it's 7 years on, you'd hope they can manage that shit by now.

[Jason]

Because it's a tablet running a Tegra X1 processor? If there's any games that are current gen at all, it's an achievement in my book.

[Rare White Ape]

Doom will run at 60fps, mark my words.

It'll require a significant graphical downgrade, but hey it's gonna fit in the palm of my hand while doing it.

[Yw-slayer]

So let's assume that it's near the quality of the PS4 port. The PS4 is a 4 year old console which itself has a gpu equivalent to a 2010 model. That a portable chip can match that is not that impressive in my opinion. It's to be expected.

[Rare White Ape]

It can't match PS4, nowhere near it. It's more on par with PS3. But while GPU tech has moved on, processor speeds since the X360/PS3 days haven't really jumped a lot. This means that the graphics look nicer, but the scope of games (world size, AI, physics, etc) has stayed roughly the same for ten years. Blame consoles for that, because most PC titles follow their lead these days and developers want to be able to release on as many platforms as possible.

So it's processor tech stagnating that has allowed Switch to do it all while portable, not 7 (or more) year old GPUs.

Like I said, it'll run at 60fps, but it might require a 720p output, lowered poly counts and most of the post effects to be turned off. I've already spotted the motion blur missing from the brief clips we've got, so what else they're doing will be interesting to see.

But that misses the point; it's portable. I'll be able to play DOOM, one of the best games in the last few years, at work with my feet up on a quiet Sunday shift. That's got me excited.