Nintendo Switch

[Gulo Blue]

To me, there are 2 main elements of video games and a game only needs to achieve 1 of the 2 things: interactive story telling and/or the trick of making people believe they've accomplished something. Nintendo is a master at designing games that can be beat by people of low skill while still having difficult elements that require higher levels of skill. But the low skill bar has dropped over the years and I get what MC is saying about there being weirdo comic book guy people out there. Looking up things online (which I do now and thought was an unforgivable sin 10 years ago) I've seen comments from people that act like these games owe them something - free games...and people complain when there are mildly difficult elements about how the company needs to include some workaround for people like them.

It's a pretty neat trick, making people believe they've accomplished something special while at the same time making sure absolutely everyone can do it.

 

[dubbsco]

I disagree with the low skill bar. I think that's a narrative that took off without any good evidence.

Souls Series, Nioh, DOS2 (what I am currently playing), there are SO many games that are available that can provide a big time challenge.

Games back in the day were hard because they were completely unfair and programmed horribly. If you think about a game like Punch Out, most of the game is relatively favorable until Tyson, and then he's basically unbeatable. Contra is one shot, you are gone.

 

[Gulo Blue]

I disagree with the low skill bar. I think that's a narrative that took off without any good evidence.

Souls Series, Nioh, DOS2 (what I am currently playing), there are SO many games that are available that can provide a big time challenge.

Games back in the day were hard because they were completely unfair and programmed horribly. If you think about a game like Punch Out, most of the game is relatively favorable until Tyson, and then he's basically unbeatable. Contra is one shot, you are gone.

Challenges exist, but popular games these days are beatable by most people. If there was some threshold for popularity that made sense over the decades, I think we'd see a steady increase in the percentage of people that could complete popular games. But these days, people buy more games than they can play, so there's a difference between games that are beat and that could be beat, just because of the abundance of dirt cheap games that didn't exist in the past.

 

[Gulo Blue]

Wife picked up Battletoads and discovered she doesn't have her childhood reflexes either.

 

[sggatecl]

Our 'family' gift this year is a Switch. Wife is really excited, I'm looking forward to it but am more excited about the Steam Link I just got on sale for 15 bucks.

 

[dubbsco]

Games are more beatable today because there is so much more information available to us, and they are programmed properly. We can get walkthroughs, guides, etc in a matter of seconds.

I think people confuse how hard the games were back in the day with how a lot of them were programmed incredibly poorly.

 

[tomdalton22]

the only video game I have played in the past 10 years is Wii golf or Bowling with my son when he was younger. Now he is in his teens and the Wii is collecting dust. He has a Xbox 360 that is mostly collecting dust and plays his XBox one almost every day. I hope he doesn't want this next novelty.

 

[Gulo Blue]

Games are more beatable today because there is so much more information available to us, and they are programmed properly. We can get walkthroughs, guides, etc in a matter of seconds.

I think people confuse how hard the games were back in the day with how a lot of them were programmed incredibly poorly.

I disagree with the idea that they were programmed poorly. Plenty bad games were made of course, but your typical Nintendo game was very well programmed. Same with a lot of the bigger names like Capcom and Squaresoft. If you compare old Mario to current Mario, old Zelda to current Zelda, old Resident Evil to current Resident Evil...I don't think the quality of the programming has improved (in the case of Sonic and Final Fantasy it actually got worse through the early 2000's.)

 

[BrianDag]

Games are more beatable today because there is so much more information available to us, and they are programmed properly. We can get walkthroughs, guides, etc in a matter of seconds.

I think people confuse how hard the games were back in the day with how a lot of them were programmed incredibly poorly.

You're spot on regarding the information and tutorials that are readily available as soon as the games are released.

 

[sggatecl]

Family gift this year is a Switch. Excited to play Zelda.

 

[Gulo Blue]

Family gift this year is a Switch. Excited to play Zelda.

Good pick. Did not play Skyward Sword, but I'm really enjoying Breath of the Wild.

 

[sggatecl]

Good pick. Did not play Skyward Sword, but I'm really enjoying Breath of the Wild.

We also got Mario Odyssey. I've heard really good things about that one as well.

 

[Gulo Blue]

We also got Mario Odyssey. I've heard really good things about that one as well.

I put that on my Christmas wish list, but I'm worried that if I get it, I won't actually start playing it for a long time. I can only get through maybe 1 to 3 games a year, and Zelda, at least as far as I've played so far, feels like a huge game that I'll be playing for a long time.

I got Assasin's Creed Black Flag ages ago and it's still sealed. Fallout New Vegas too, bought on Steam and never played. (Several games on Steam I haven't played, but New Vegas I really meant to play.)

 

[sggatecl]

I got Assasin's Creed Black Flag ages ago and it's still sealed. Fallout New Vegas too, bought on Steam and never played. (Several games on Steam I haven't played, but New Vegas I really meant to play.)

Fallout New Vegas was one of the best games I'd ever played at the time. Real consequences for choices made in the game, didn't feel like you were being led down a path.

Assasin's Creed...this video sums up my thoughts on it. Don't watch at work or around kids, language is a bit strong.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UOgvbS4GkF0

 

[Gulo Blue]

Fallout New Vegas was one of the best games I'd ever played at the time. Real consequences for choices made in the game, didn't feel like you were being led down a path.

Assassin's Creed...this video sums up my thoughts on it. Don't watch at work or around kids, language is a bit strong.

So I saw a little of that game and I wasn't swayed until I heard DaVinci was going to be your upgrade guy. "Hell yeah, that sounds great!" So number 3 was the 1st one I played. The gameplay got a little old, I could defeat pretty much any bad guy just button mashing, so I said I wouldn't play another, but then they announce the next one is going to be set in the American Revolution. "Hell yeah. That sounds great!" Bleh. The visuals were nice, but I was really hoping for more historical fiction. I kind of liked the boat parts though. So the next one is going to be a lot more boat parts + pirates...well, eh...ok, I saw it for a few bucks and thought I'd try it.

But I never have. I will turn on Netflix and watch reruns of The Office before I'll play that game.

 

[Gulo Blue]

FYI, in that video, at the 2:35 mark, that big blob in the middle is a Lorenz attractor.

 

[sggatecl]

So everyone in the family has an account on the Switch, including my wife who doesn't really play as much as my son and I. We're in an unofficial race to see who beats Mario Odyssey first. Nintendo hit the mark with this game, I don't regret this purchase at all. Looking forward to Zelda next. This system has so much potential.

 

[Michchamp]

Leave politics out of my video game threads, you say?

Go to hell, I say. here is The Marxist Case for the Nintendo Switch.

premise of the article admittedly falls flat, but I get his complaints about the way games have gotten overly complicated, including shitty programming (IN MY DAY GAMES DIDN'T REQUIRE PATCHES...), and bullshit subscription models, and goody boxes and all that crap.

If you're paying a subscriber fee to get an advantage in a game, you're a sap.

The downtime waiting for a PS2 game to load, was almost already too much for me.

 

[Michchamp]

the retro consoles Nintendo put out are great.

I know a lot of people that have no interest in competitive gaming or the time it takes to get into some of this shit, and want something they can just plug in to a USB port and flip on. similarly they don't give a shit about realistic graphics and sound. You're playing a video game for a distraction... and you know this. is the gameplay fun? that's what matters.

if your system requires wifi to work... you're doing it wrong. not just for the time it takes, but the privacy & hacking concerns. putting a live microphone or video camera in your house and giving away your CC number so you can buy digital knick knacks... all of which can be and often are easily hacked, is completely unreasonable. I can't believe how many people willingly do these things without concern.

 

[Michchamp]

lest I be accused of threadjacking, let me say the Switch does sound pretty great.

it does kinda seem like Sony and Microsoft went too far and left a more simplistic & basic gaming niche for Nintendo to fill.

though I still wouldn't given Nintendo my CC number or buy game add-ons if they have those; not sure. couldn't confirm online if the switch is wifi capable, although in this day and age, it seems idiot developers are willing to put a chip in anything.