Nintendo Switch

[Amstari]

I had heard about the Swtich cartridges tasting bad but I thought it was just people trying to be funny. But then I saw Ben Heck taste one and it got me curious.

 

So I tried it, actually my girlfriend was braver than me and tried it first. It has a really strong strange chemical taste. It tastes like something has been added to the plastic.

 

Has anyone else been crazy enough to try licking a cartridge?

 

 

 

He tastes it at about 11 minutes into video.

Edited March 16, 2017 by Amstari

[roots.genoa]

I had heard about the Swtich cartridges tasting bad but I thought it was just people trying to be funny. But then I saw Ben Heck taste one and it got me curious.

 

So I tried it, actually my girlfriend was braver than me and tried it first. It has a really strong strange chemical taste. It tastes like something has been added to the plastic.

 

Has anyone else been crazy enough to try licking a cartridge?

Yes, Kotaku, two weeks ago: http://kotaku.com/nintendo-switch-cartridges-taste-so-bad-1792869498

 

Nintendo has responded to my inquiry, revealing the culprit behind the bitterness. Here’s what the company has to say:

“To avoid the possibility of accidental ingestion, keep the game card away from young children. A bittering agent (Denatonium Benzoate) has also been applied to the game card. This bittering agent is non-toxic.”

According to Wikipedia, denatonium benzoate is the most bitter chemical compound known, commonly used as an aversion agent to prevent accidental ingestion, which is why the Switch cards are coated in it. It’s also used in animal repellent, shampoos, soaps and nail-biting prevention.

 

Edited March 16, 2017 by roots.genoa

[Punisher5.0]

 

Yeah, I was just about to post that as well. I think it was pretty obvious this was just a slightly more powerful Wii U spec-wise. It's obviously now up to Nintendo to continue to produce games like Zelda where the power gap is not that important and/or masked really well. What that means for "robust" third party support remains to be seen, however.

I would say significantly more powerful.

 

CPU: Quad core vs Tri.

 

GPU: Almost double the frequency. Supports Vulcan

 

RAM: Atleast triple the amount at a much faster speed

 

These are just the basics as its hard to come by real in depth specs for even the WiiU. With more in depth specs I'm sure the gap would widen even more.

[Gentlegamer]

 

Has anyone else been crazy enough to try licking a cartridge?

 

 

Someone get Olivia Munn on the case!

[BillLoguidice]

I would say significantly more powerful.

<snip>

These are just the basics as its hard to come by real in depth specs for even the WiiU. With more in depth specs I'm sure the gap would widen even more.

 

The most practical estimates I've seen are somewhere between a Wii U and Xbox One. Hopefully that's enough for some good third party support of major titles.

 

Side note, I just received my shipped notice for Binding of Isaac. I should get it on Friday (tomorrow).

 

I also restarted Zelda. I think I have a much better handle on the gameplay now and not getting lost as much than I did before, so I thought it would be worth it to restart with my more experienced self. It's interesting how even after the restart, although there's still plenty of the same stuff to see and do, there are still new things to discover near even the beginning stages of the game.

[adamchevy]

To me the Switch feels like an upgraded Xbox 360. After playing a lot of Zelda on the go, I'm really impressed with the power it has. Also, the ability to use a full size controller on the go for me is awesome. I love playing on the go with my pro controller.

Edited March 16, 2017 by adamchevy

[Tanooki]

Wow a Zelda restart? Did you quit mid game? It seems like the world is open enough in itself a restart would kind of seem unnecessary unless you'd rather experience certain bits differently that are a one and done (like first scaled towers, order of the 4 dungeon beasts.) I know for one I'm glad I did not do the water dungeon until last and before that Gerudo. Some of the puzzles in those 2 dungeons confused the hell out of me and I'd just feel lost, but thanks to having that revali's gale I've been able to bypass that garbage and just scale and sail over some walls or up to a high platform to get what I wanted out of a space anyway by force. I kind of wish I had that gale for 3 specific towers which were a pain in the ass, but thinking back, at least one of them I'd probably have been shot down anyway as guardians have a hellish reach with that cannon.

 

Last night I finished off the (parked before fight) 3rd and 4th dungeons in one sitting and parked it staring at Impa to move it along again. I probably could try and finish in a loose sense the game today or tomorrow, but I don't know. I too have Binding of Isaac shipped notice in my email this morning as well and I Am Setsuna is on the way so it's on water or on the west coast by now no idea which. The nice thing is Zelda is so well made you can just go back whenever and explore something new anyway so it kind of never exactly really ends persay.

 

Power wise I think that Switch itself looking just at the core specs of a stock Tegra X1 (210 I think?) put it over a WiiU and under the PS4/One, but with the customization, the use of Vulcan API tech and other stuff listed loosely by Punisher we know it's probably middling between the two to be a safe argumentative bet about it. Looking at the horribly shoddy unoptimized port of DQHeroes 1+2 out in Japan, it's hard to gauge things as it makes it look as weak as something between the Vita and a PS3 which just isn't reality at all. That one almost pegs the effort as bad as some of those launch WiiU games that had graphics problems as well as terrible FPS all over the board too, yet then you'd get like AC4 Black Flag and it stood out as they did try on that one. I think the only way to learn this would be stolen docs, a leaky mouthed dev violating some NDAs, or just by experiencing what comes out over the next couple years and seeing where things stack up or fall short.

[BillLoguidice]

Wow a Zelda restart? Did you quit mid game? It seems like the world is open enough in itself a restart would kind of seem unnecessary unless you'd rather experience certain bits differently that are a one and done (like first scaled towers, order of the 4 dungeon beasts.) I know for one I'm glad I did not do the water dungeon until last and before that Gerudo.

 

 

No, I was still trying to for the paraglider. My issue with my first play was I had misidentified what the temples were that I needed to go to, so I only got the first few orbs. That's been resolved with this second play-through. Again, these REALLY are classically not my type of games. I get easily lost in 3D worlds, so really need objectives clearly pointed out to me. The fact that I had to mark the objectives myself on the map initially threw me. I'm better at it now.

 

Anyway, since I wasn't all that far in, it definitely benefited me to restart. I had a better understanding of what was what. I doubt I'll ever want to play through this again, no matter how good it eventually gets, so I don't mind the one restart now.

[BillLoguidice]

Power wise I think that Switch itself looking just at the core specs of a stock Tegra X1 (210 I think?) put it over a WiiU and under the PS4/One, but with the customization, the use of Vulcan API tech and other stuff listed loosely by Punisher we know it's probably middling between the two to be a safe argumentative bet about it. Looking at the horribly shoddy unoptimized port of DQHeroes 1+2 out in Japan, it's hard to gauge things as it makes it look as weak as something between the Vita and a PS3 which just isn't reality at all. That one almost pegs the effort as bad as some of those launch WiiU games that had graphics problems as well as terrible FPS all over the board too, yet then you'd get like AC4 Black Flag and it stood out as they did try on that one. I think the only way to learn this would be stolen docs, a leaky mouthed dev violating some NDAs, or just by experiencing what comes out over the next couple years and seeing where things stack up or fall short.

 

Yeah. I think the red flags (that might retard certain even logical ports) we have to look out for in this first year also include the current game cartridge size cap and extra costs/risks with producing cartridges (over cheaper optical discs). We're getting early signs that a lot of third parties are still taking a wait-and-see approach and/or are presently happy with just supporting the PC/PS4/Xbox One trio. I really want to see that change, because I think there really are some games I'd rather play on the portable form factor, which is something I was obviously skeptical about before actually using the Switch.

[Punisher5.0]

The most practical estimates I've seen are somewhere between a Wii U and Xbox One. Hopefully that's enough for some good third party support of major titles.

 

That sounds like a fair assessment. Atleast it's pretty off the shelf hardware so it should be pretty straight forward to program for.

[Tanooki]

Bill I agree on both your posts. It made sense, had no idea you were that little into it. Open world games I loathe, won't touch most or just scratch them and get fed up with the immensity of it. This one though, this Zelda game takes the pain off most the stuff that drives me nuts, Nintendo magic at work I guess. I doubt I'd ever replay it, it doesn't seem fitting for it kind of. It doesn't even really allow multiple saves as it overwrites stuff and auto saves ever so fairly often. It's more of a kill the bad guy boss at the end, then take your spare time and look at the scenery and find more stuff you had no idea was there in the first place just questing around and that's good enough.

 

I think that idea you had with the Switch is sound, it's a shame, but I can't blame the wait and see having how Nintendo treated third parties with the Wii and really the WiiU with that whole middle finger that system was from price, hard to code for, painfully backwards to port to, they basically told people to suck it and they walked. Now it's like, will Nintendo fix this? Some are on board, some are on board but waiting or tinkering, and others are fence sitting. I think if Nintendo keeps a track going on a more enlightened path their handheld end of the company took which third parties were fine by, they'll be fine, but if it gets to be seen as a stupid Nintendo under done console again, it'll be an Android and a few other port box or just left alone for the indies to load up in mostly digital and some physical which would be a shame. It has off the shelf Tegra stuff going on there so it can't be too hard for anyone to pick up a project and bring it on board without stressing over it. More probably should just take the leap of faith as right now with the game list so short and not saturated buyers like myself would be more willing to bite and try a game out when there's less choice. It's prime time for companies to get back into the thoughts of more strict/only Nintendo game buyers as a choice and not some b-team garbage fad title or worse.

[BillLoguidice]

More probably should just take the leap of faith as right now with the game list so short and not saturated buyers like myself would be more willing to bite and try a game out when there's less choice. It's prime time for companies to get back into the thoughts of more strict/only Nintendo game buyers as a choice and not some b-team garbage fad title or worse.

 

I agree with this. That's why middling titles like Bomberman (which I bought) are probably enjoying better sales now than they would if the library were what it should be in a year or so.

 

I also agree with your assessment of third party support. Nintendo clearly knocked it out of the park with Zelda (although, to be fair, it's also the same game on the Wii U, just arguably made "better" on the Switch due to its portability). As I've stated earlier, indie support is great and all and it's what helps round out a system's library, but that can't be the Switch's primary source of third party support. I think it will be important for a variety of reasons for the Switch to have a significant third party title that's at least close to Zelda-levels of overall quality. The PS4 and Xbox One have the advantage of being a few years in now with significant third party titles with Zelda-levels of overall quality and lose nothing to the Switch from a technological standpoint except portability. That third party thing is something I'd argue the Wii U never achieved, although it did have a few quality third party titles to go along with all the usual first party stuff (which had an often glacial release frequency). Anyway, the point is, the Switch has had a solid launch, Zelda is the talk of the town, etc., so now we just that aforementioned big third party title to start to really heat up the competition.

[Flojomojo]

It doesn't even really allow multiple saves as it overwrites stuff and auto saves ever so fairly often. It's more of a kill the bad guy boss at the end, then take your spare time and look at the scenery and find more stuff you had no idea was there in the first place just questing around and that's good enough.

 

It seems like the kind of thing they could extend with extra content if they wanted to. I've bought the Season Pass and wonder how deep the extra stuff might go.

[BillLoguidice]

 

It seems like the kind of thing they could extend with extra content if they wanted to. I've bought the Season Pass and wonder how deep the extra stuff might go.

 

While I would never buy a season pass (can't trust myself to ever use the extra content), I would definitely consider buying individual DLC missions should I ever finish the main game. Considering this might be the only Zelda game on the Switch for who knows how many years, that would be the best way to make more use of an excellent engine.

[cybercylon]

 

 

Has anyone else been crazy enough to try licking a cartridge?

 

 

 

Wouldn't that behavior belong on Freaky Eaters or My Strange Addiction?

[Tanooki]

I would not be surprised if it was the only one period, or shoveled between two again. Then again they committed over 4 years of research and development into BotW and in the end they have this insane engine they now can use, reuse, tweak, refine and grow which could shave a year or two off a project easily as that was from the ground up. I think looking how it really is ultimately rating better in the end than all the bootlicking Ocarina of Time got for being revolutionary 3D Zelda back then and they'll want to keep people happy and stick with what now works because the old formula was played out and people were losing interest. If they keep the new style of land, growth, the whole revamp of now 'mission and land up to the beast' style dungeons, the shrine challenges (instead of annoyingly placed heart bits) and other goodies they went with I could see another within probably 3 years time that really pushes the hardware well and firmly while not being gimped or delayed a year or so for the next system (as long as switch doesn't pull a WiiU which it likely won't.)

 

Switch itself being basically a nvidia tegra microconsole/tablet rolled custom into one solution, and we've seen the guts are all swappable by design, they may well go the route of the eventual Shield Tablet/Console 2 line, much like PS4 Pro and One's boost too, beefier hardware that can run the game on both but with better enhanced performance which is fine. This would be based upon success as we could easily guess they have as always a fall back in the wings, probably a new 3DS style true handheld (no tv play) if the Switch stumbled hard as 3DS was their crutch and life support machine thank to their final console the WiiU.

 

I'm hoping we see more 3rd party product, not just 3rd party interest. Sure we have some solid stuff coming yet if they fix up the crap with DQ Heroes 1+2 before it's here, Ultra SF2, Skyrim, and other announced goodies from key figures. There's already some stuff today but it's more digital level with I Am Setsuna which is physical in Japan from Square-Enix with their other exclusive title we saw shown off (Project Octopath) coming this year. Nintendo gamers need to man up and stop being babies and losers about supporting stuff other than Nintendo or they'll make a run of it and be stuck again. System sales are key, but attach rate of NON-Nintendo titles are just as key as well. Even if Bomberman is shitty, and we do have refined super upgrades coming like that Rayman title, they need to be bought and bought well so these people re-open their eyes and put some dedicated effort into the system on the whole. It would be totally fine if some fear was there and they adapted controller (only?) based Android stuff like that wicked remaster of the first Seiken Densetsu for Android from Square-Enix as a physical/download game -- I'd buy that in a heart beat, but something new would be greater.

[Andromeda Stardust]

 

The most practical estimates I've seen are somewhere between a Wii U and Xbox One. Hopefully that's enough for some good third party support of major titles.

 

Side note, I just received my shipped notice for Binding of Isaac. I should get it on Friday (tomorrow).

 

I also restarted Zelda. I think I have a much better handle on the gameplay now and not getting lost as much than I did before, so I thought it would be worth it to restart with my more experienced self. It's interesting how even after the restart, although there's still plenty of the same stuff to see and do, there are still new things to discover near even the beginning stages of the game.

Thanks for reminding me that I need to pick up my Issac preorder at Gamestop tomorrow.

 

Pity the new Zelda doesn't allow multiple save slots. I guess the workaround is to create an additional user profile on your Switch (you can copy an existing Mii over from N3DS or Wii-U using Amiibo) to have multiple save slots. Paper Mario Paint Splash (wii-U) also only had a single save slot per profile. I think it's annoying if you completed a game and want to start fresh without deleting your old save, or you have a buddy come over you gotta create a new profile for him instead or just start a new save in slot B.

 

I have done multiple playthroughs in the past of favorite games using multiple save slots; kinda annoying each game only have a single save slot and they are using profiles now in lieu of slots. That said, for families with children, it may work out better to have separate profiles for each member so they don't mess up your game saves.

[Andromeda Stardust]

Bill I agree on both your posts. It made sense, had no idea you were that little into it. Open world games I loathe, won't touch most or just scratch them and get fed up with the immensity of it. This one though, this Zelda game takes the pain off most the stuff that drives me nuts, Nintendo magic at work I guess. I doubt I'd ever replay it, it doesn't seem fitting for it kind of. It doesn't even really allow multiple saves as it overwrites stuff and auto saves ever so fairly often. It's more of a kill the bad guy boss at the end, then take your spare time and look at the scenery and find more stuff you had no idea was there in the first place just questing around and that's good enough.

Agreed. The level of detail put into this world is mesmerizing. I could see myself replaying it in a couple years but having so much fun just taking my time exploring the universe, at times with no set objective.

 

 

I think it will be important for a variety of reasons for the Switch to have a significant third party title that's at least close to Zelda-levels of overall quality.

Skyrim? That would be the closest thing to Zelda BOTW currently announced for it. And I don't care if it's years old. I've never played it and the engine will be well refined, possibly loaded with more content than the original release.

[Osgeld]

skyrim is a very in depth game (though I prefer fallout3 over it)

 

BUTTTTTTT

 

it is a pretty old game, so that's not winning any favors

[Asaki]

Pity the new Zelda doesn't allow multiple save slots. I guess the workaround is to create an additional user profile on your Switch (you can copy an existing Mii over from N3DS or Wii-U using Amiibo) to have multiple save slots.

I'll have to check and see if the WiiU version is like that, too.

[Punisher5.0]

https://www.google.com/amp/www.polygon.com/platform/amp/2017/3/17/14956986/nintendo-doubling-switch-production-availability

 

Looking good for the future

[Rick Dangerous]

https://www.google.com/amp/www.polygon.com/platform/amp/2017/3/17/14956986/nintendo-doubling-switch-production-availability

 

Looking good for the future

 

Good, they need to hurry it up, and with the accessories too! Tell the captain of the cargo ship from China full speed ahead; icebergs be damned.

[BillLoguidice]

Skyrim? That would be the closest thing to Zelda BOTW currently announced for it. And I don't care if it's years old. I've never played it and the engine will be well refined, possibly loaded with more content than the original release.

 

Yeah, as we discussed earlier and others have stated again, Skyrim is a special case. It's quite old now and has appeared in multiple editions on many different platforms.

 

Skyrim on the Switch does have the advantage of being only the second portable entry in the long-lived series and certainly it should have plenty of buyers, regardless. One would also hope that - possible space constraints aside - it will have most of the content of the fairly recent Special Edition release for PC, PS4, and Xbox One. If not, that would be fairly disappointing. Anyway, I consider Switch on Skyrim more of a "foundation" release (as in an important library addition, but not necessarily something that will get people to really take notice) than something that would necessarily set the same type of standard for third party stuff that Nintendo did with Zelda for first party stuff. I guess we'll see, though. Certainly the game's final form is still not known and perhaps there will be more excitement than I'm anticipating.

 

With all that said, I do think that having a Bethesda release on a Nintendo system is an important milestone regardless. If Nintendo got EA and a few other key third parties like Blizzard on board, they'd be set.

[BillLoguidice]

https://www.google.com/amp/www.polygon.com/platform/amp/2017/3/17/14956986/nintendo-doubling-switch-production-availability

 

Looking good for the future

 

Definitely. You could predict this from the high relative enthusiasm this received early on versus the previous few system launches (Wii U and Vita). Certainly a big factor in this is the "Zelda bump". That won't last long, though, so certainly Nintendo needs to keep up enthusiasm with sufficient stock levels and a few important releases every month or so, regardless of the source being first or third party. Hopefully this does continue to go well, because it certainly would be nice to have three healthy systems again, particularly since the Switch is so different from the other two.

[Flojomojo]

With all that said, I do think that having a Bethesda release on a Nintendo system is an important milestone regardless. If Nintendo got EA and a few other key third parties like Blizzard on board, they'd be set.

 

What's the other portable Elder Scrolls you have in mind? I know there was a mobile phone thing long ago, a cancelled PSP Oblivion type game, and the collectible card game for modern mobile. None of them are as interesting to me as a real Skyrim to go. Is it old, or is it "classic" at this point?

 

I hope you're right about some third parties. It's been a long time since Atari snagged DOOM for the Jaguar. Nintendo had Batman and Mass Effect on Wii U, and that was it.