Nintendo Switch presentation: On third thought, it was that bad

[Aura7541]

NeoGAF - View Single Post -  Digital Foundry Videocast #7: Hands-On with Nintendo Switch

Digital Foundry's impressions on the Nintendo Switch:  (they played it at the London and German events respectively)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0lyvgeJJw0

A very good  video by them, probably the best impressions I have seen or read so far.

Partial summary:  (for those that cannot watch the video right away)

- impressed with its industrial design and it is a step up over past Nintendo consoles
- However, they feel it is like the Wii U 2.0.   The visuals of most of the games they played at the event resemble "those of the Wii U generation".
- if the Switch was not a "tremendous portable" they think it would be a disaster to release it.   (they claim a lot of the games they played are lower than 1080p)
- their opinion, very little evolution in what the games are offering.
- Docked view performance is less impressive than they thought it would be:
- Claim ports of games with simplistic graphics like Bomberman and Disgaea 5 looked awful at the event  because they are less than 1080p and Bomberman was also 30 FPS.

Other games:

- they also blasted  1-2 Switch.  It can be played without a screen or monitor.  They dubbed it "disposable entertainment" and inferior to  other minigame compilations.   They liked Nintendo Land on the Wii U,  but disliked 1-2 Switch and feel it should be bundled with the system instead of a separate $40. They feel 1-2 Switch is a collection of very basic games that one would download for free from an app store.
 - Zelda, Bomberman, and Skylanders are all 30 frames per second.  The rest of the games at the event were 60 frames per second docked or undocked (albeit they  admit the other games are not so impressive visually).

Positives:

- must perceive it from a handheld perspective.  Ultimately, the Switch is stunning as a handheld, but underwhelming if you only look at it as being a home console.
-  Zelda BotW runs at mostly a locked 30 FPS when undocked,  unlike what they played at E3 2016 on the Wii U.  Runs at 900p on the Switch (docked), 720p (undocked),  720p on Wii U.
- screen on the device a  720p IPS which is a big upgrade over the 3DS  resolution (400 x 240 screen) or the Wii U's gamepad screen (800 x 540)
- they enjoyed Arms and really like the art direction, and controls
- Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Zelda BotW were very impressive undocked experiences for them

Concerns:

- Splatoon 2 and Mario Odyssey are 720p native resolution and 60 FPS when docked.  They are concerned about how the undocked resolution would be like.  (undocked system runs at 40% of the GPU clocks according to them)
- the port of Skylanders is very blurry looking on the Switch.  (IMO): It may be a sign of the system's limitations or due to early or sloppy development .
- no anti-aliasing on Splatoon 2 or Mario Kart 8 Deluxe  (the Wii U versions of MK8 and the first Splatoon did not have anti-aliasing either) .
 

[the-pi-guy]

 Zelda BotW runs at mostly a locked 30 FPS when undocked,  unlike what they played at E3 2016 on the Wii U.  Runs at 900p on the Switch (docked), 720p (undocked),  720p on Wii U.

Specs didn't really seem like it'd make a difference like this.  

Depending on how bad the settings are for undocked gameplay, that seems pretty solid.  

[Legend]

Zelda BotW runs at mostly a locked 30 FPS when undocked,  unlike what they played at E3 2016 on the Wii U.  Runs at 900p on the Switch (docked), 720p (undocked),  720p on Wii U.

Specs didn't really seem like it'd make a difference like this.  

Depending on how bad the settings are for undocked gameplay, that seems pretty solid.  

Yeah I'm really interested in how powerful the Switch actually is.

Some reports+evidence point to it being a wii u when docked, while others point to it being a wii u when undocked.

[darkknightkryta]

Really depends, Bomberman is also running at 30fps.  I guess it really depends what Nintendo gets out of the Wii U and where Nintendo's priorities are with Zelda.  Though, 3 more gigs of ram is going to help with things.  It's probably a Wii U when undocked and a smoother Wii U when docked.

[kitler53]

It's bad for everyone and bad for the industry
Completely useless.

i dunno. i've had days where it was hard to tell who was holding which controller back in the olden days.   ps/xbox solved that with profiles but since nintendo is still livin' in the 90s this is one way to solve things. 

[Aura7541]

Really depends, Bomberman is also running at 30fps.  I guess it really depends what Nintendo gets out of the Wii U and where Nintendo's priorities are with Zelda.  Though, 3 more gigs of ram is going to help with things.  It's probably a Wii U when undocked and a smoother Wii U when docked.

I wonder how good Zelda will look on a decent PC running on CEMU.

[darkknightkryta]

I wonder how good Zelda will look on a decent PC running on CEMU.

Well if the textures aren't updated when the Wii U version releases... not as good as the Switch.

[the-pi-guy]

Yeah I'm really interested in how powerful the Switch actually is.

Some reports+evidence point to it being a wii u when docked, while others point to it being a wii u when undocked.

Zelda is 30 fps on Wii U? 
That seems pretty close to undocked switch, even if they were reducing settings.... 

Also undocked doesn't seem to be anywhere near as bad as what is was rumored to be.
Like a 20% downclock, thought it was rumored to be closer to 60%. 

[kitler53]

Zelda is 30 fps on Wii U?  
That seems pretty close to undocked switch, even if they were reducing settings....  

Also undocked doesn't seem to be anywhere near as bad as what is was rumored to be.
Like a 20% downclock, thought it was rumored to be closer to 60%.  

i thought the rumor was the developer could choose not to downclock at the expense of battery life.

[Legend]

i thought the rumor was the developer could choose not to downclock at the expense of battery life.

No way. System would be way too hot and loud.

Pretty sure the rumor was that they could not upclock when docked. Just keep it running with portable graphics.

Zelda is 30 fps on Wii U?  
That seems pretty close to undocked switch, even if they were reducing settings....  

Also undocked doesn't seem to be anywhere near as bad as what is was rumored to be.
Like a 20% downclock, thought it was rumored to be closer to 60%.  

Digital Foundry is still going with the 60% I think.

But based off how bad leakers were with games, the specs could be anything.

[darkknightkryta]

i thought the rumor was the developer could choose not to downclock at the expense of battery life.

Maybe they chose a balanced downclock?  Maybe the full X1's "full" power is 2 hours of battery and 6 at the lowest downclock.  I just hope Nintendo fixed their standby mode, it's garbage in the 3DS.  I mean something is wrong if my Vita is lasting longer than my 3DS

[Aura7541]

[Aura7541]

Nintendo have released a screenshot of the smartphone app for iOS that will allow Switch owners to do voice chat with other players pic.twitter.com/xrBJbteml2

— CEO Kaz Hirai (@KazHiraiCEO) January 16, 2017

[Legend]

I actually really like the idea of offloading lots of Switch non game functionality to smartphones. Keeps the system focused on the one thing it can do better than phones.


It'll be really stupid if the system can't ALSO do native voice chat, but app chat has some good advantages. I imagine Sony will someday add voice chat to the PS app.

[Legend]