The Nintendo Switch

[mikeszekely]

Anyone else play the demo for Daemon Ex Machina yet?  Still feels a bit rough, and even the demo was pretty grindy.  I kind of dig it, though.  Most of the enemies are tanks and drones and what not that just drop ammo, but sometimes you'll run into another Arsenal.  When they're defeated you can loot them for parts or weapons.  I found myself less interested in completing the boss mission in the demo than I was in replaying the middle two missions to farm for gear.

[Mommar]

On 2/15/2019 at 11:06 PM, mikeszekely said:

Anyone else play the demo for Daemon Ex Machina yet?  Still feels a bit rough, and even the demo was pretty grindy.  I kind of dig it, though.  Most of the enemies are tanks and drones and what not that just drop ammo, but sometimes you'll run into another Arsenal.  When they're defeated you can loot them for parts or weapons.  I found myself less interested in completing the boss mission in the demo than I was in replaying the middle two missions to farm for gear.

I thought it was awful, played like a floating reticle with no weight or velocity.  Guns felt awful and unsatisfying to shoot.  It convinced me to not buy it.

[Black Valkyrie]

 

 

 

[slide]

6 hours ago, Black Valkyrie said:

 

 

Makes me want a Switch...

 

Soundtrack sounds great too!

[Seto Kaiba]

1 hour ago, slide said:

Makes me want a Switch...

 

Soundtrack sounds great too!

There were a few good side-scrolling shooters in that SEGA classics collection that came out for the Switch a while back... though it's mostly old-school "Nintendo Hard" stuff like Kid Chameleon and Bio-Hazard Battle/Crying: Aseimi Sentou.

[Duymon]

On 2/16/2019 at 1:06 AM, mikeszekely said:

Anyone else play the demo for Daemon Ex Machina yet?  Still feels a bit rough, and even the demo was pretty grindy.  I kind of dig it, though.  Most of the enemies are tanks and drones and what not that just drop ammo, but sometimes you'll run into another Arsenal.  When they're defeated you can loot them for parts or weapons.  I found myself less interested in completing the boss mission in the demo than I was in replaying the middle two missions to farm for gear.

It was extremely underwhelming, but I'm hoping things change as the Devs stated they wanted feedback from the community

[Seto Kaiba]

On 2/16/2019 at 1:06 AM, mikeszekely said:

Anyone else play the demo for Daemon Ex Machina yet?  Still feels a bit rough, and even the demo was pretty grindy.  I kind of dig it, though.  Most of the enemies are tanks and drones and what not that just drop ammo, but sometimes you'll run into another Arsenal.  When they're defeated you can loot them for parts or weapons.  I found myself less interested in completing the boss mission in the demo than I was in replaying the middle two missions to farm for gear.

Gave it a whirl this morning since I'm stuck home sick, and found it pretty unremarkable.

It kind of reminds me of the 3DS remake of Ace Combat 2, in that it doesn't really feel like there's any weight or inertia what you're piloting.  If you're controlling a big chunky robot you'd expect there be a little heft to it.  The grind I kind of expected, because that's par for the course with games like this.  

[mikeszekely]

11 minutes ago, Seto Kaiba said:

in that it doesn't really feel like there's any weight or inertia what you're piloting.  If you're controlling a big chunky robot you'd expect there be a little heft to it.

Maybe I've just watched too much Gundam, but I kind of don't.  If anything, I'm kind of thinking the opposite.  It's more frustrating to me to be plodding along and swinging a melee weapon like a middle-aged woman braining a cheating husband with a frying pan when I expect to be dashing in and slicing enemies to ribbons.

I guess it's the difference between expecting the game to be more like Armored Core or more like Zone of the Enders.

Then again, with parts already being listed as light, normal, and heavy, there's really no reason why the designers couldn't incorporate both.

[Mommar]

14 minutes ago, mikeszekely said:

Maybe I've just watched too much Gundam, but I kind of don't.  If anything, I'm kind of thinking the opposite.  It's more frustrating to me to be plodding along and swinging a melee weapon like a middle-aged woman braining a cheating husband with a frying pan when I expect to be dashing in and slicing enemies to ribbons.

I guess it's the difference between expecting the game to be more like Armored Core or more like Zone of the Enders.

Then again, with parts already being listed as light, normal, and heavy, there's really no reason why the designers couldn't incorporate both.

Heft isn't necessarily the problem but there's no texture to the controls at all.  It's a floating box with a Mech drawn on it right now.  It doesn't feel like a slow mech or a fast mech.  It feels like baby's first OpenGL project.

Edited February 20, 2019 by Mommar

[Seto Kaiba]

3 minutes ago, mikeszekely said:

Maybe I've just watched too much Gundam, but I kind of don't.  If anything, I'm kind of thinking the opposite.  It's more frustrating to me to be plodding along and swinging a melee weapon like a middle-aged woman braining a cheating husband with a frying pan when I expect to be dashing in and slicing enemies to ribbons.

Outside of maybe Mobile Fighter G Gundam or Iron-Blooded Orphans, Mobile suits tend to be the slow, plodding sort on the ground.  In flight in space, they tend to be prone to lots of sudden, aggressive turns and stops because they're relying on redirected momentum for control.  The Arsenal just feels weirdly weightless.  The game involves a lot of flying, but there isn't really any visual or control feeling that makes it feel like there's a mech there.  It's more like the flames are cosmetic and you're just sort of gliding on an invisible platform, like the Fly cheat in Quake or those stupid helicopter stages in Ace Combat: Assault Horizon.  Even the mecha stages in Sonic Adventure were better executed than this in terms of a feeling of controlling a robot with mass to it.

 

3 minutes ago, mikeszekely said:

I guess it's the difference between expecting the game to be more like Armored Core or more like Zone of the Enders.

The overall aesthetic is very similar to Armored Core... so I can't rule out that that may have colored my expectations somewhat.

As mecha go, Daemon ex Machina's Arsenals definitely have the visual stylings of a slow, ground-pounding robot.  They're a little more rounded than those usually are, but with that huge over-the-shoulder launcher, the three-toed feet, and so on, it really does look like something that should have a fair amount of heft to it.  The only other thing it really reminds me of is the military LFOs from Psalm of Planets Eureka Seven, which were slow, plodding robots when they weren't using their ref boards.

 

[Mommar]

7 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

Outside of maybe Mobile Fighter G Gundam or Iron-Blooded Orphans, Mobile suits tend to be the slow, plodding sort on the ground.  In flight in space, they tend to be prone to lots of sudden, aggressive turns and stops because they're relying on redirected momentum for control.  The Arsenal just feels weirdly weightless.  The game involves a lot of flying, but there isn't really any visual or control feeling that makes it feel like there's a mech there.  It's more like the flames are cosmetic and you're just sort of gliding on an invisible platform, like the Fly cheat in Quake or those stupid helicopter stages in Ace Combat: Assault Horizon.  Even the mecha stages in Sonic Adventure were better executed than this in terms of a feeling of controlling a robot with mass to it.

 

Like I said, "baby's first OpenGL project."  Like when you first learn to program a moving camera.

[Black Valkyrie]

 

 

 

[UN Spacy]

DECULTURE gaming? Are the devs Macross fans!?

 

[UN Spacy]

 

[Duymon]

This is great news. I can now throw my switch into the ground in a fit of frustrated rage and scream obscenities as I repeatedly stomp the life out of my broken switch's carcass.....

In PUBLIC.

THANKS CUPHEAD

[Mommar]

Cuphead is difficult, I take it?

[Duymon]

27 minutes ago, Mommar said:

Cuphead is difficult, I take it?

It's the first game to make me rage-quit in 20 years.

The last one was Battletoads on the NES

Edited February 22, 2019 by Duymon

[UN Spacy]

OH MAN

 

[Seto Kaiba]

1 hour ago, UN Spacy said:

OH MAN

 

Iiiinteresting... I wonder if this will be the announcement of the new Pokemon main series game they were teasing.

 

Incidentally, after replaying the The Room quadrilogy and the Zero Escape trilogy my jones for horror/puzzle games still isn't satisfied.  Nintendo recommended Dying: Reborn, but I can't seem to find much of anything about it.  It came out about a month ago.  Has anyone given this game a go?

[Seto Kaiba]

Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield, eh?

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/02/pokemon-sword-and-shield-will-hit-switch-in-late-2019/

From left to right, Grookey, Scorbunny, and Sobble, the new starters for Pokemon Sword and Shield.

 

 

Edited February 27, 2019 by Seto Kaiba

[UN Spacy]

IN...never had a Pokemon console game before.

[Seto Kaiba]

1 hour ago, UN Spacy said:

IN...never had a Pokemon console game before.

Not a main series one, anyway... though the Switch is halfway to being a portable, so I guess it was the logical port of call for the next Pokemon game.

Looks like the visual aesthetic is going to stay similar to Sun and Moon, though with the Switch's gruntier graphics processor it shouldn't start chugging during double battles anymore.

[mikeszekely]

2 hours ago, Seto Kaiba said:

From left to right, Grookey, Scorbunny, and Sobble, the new starters for Pokemon Sword and Shield.

Ugh. I remember a time when it was hard to choose your starter because there was at least two cool choices. Now it's looks like it's going to be hard to choose because they all look terrible.

[Seto Kaiba]

2 minutes ago, mikeszekely said:

Ugh. I remember a time when it was hard to choose your starter because there was at least two cool choices. Now it's looks like it's going to be hard to choose because they all look terrible.

Maybe* I was a cynical kid, because I can't remember a point where I didn't think the unevolved starter pokemon looked obnoxiously twee... and I started at Gen 1.  It's not until they've evolved at least once that they start looking like they mean business.

This lineup is the first in a while where it's not immediately obvious (at least to me) what the final types are going to be, so that adds a little interest.  A grass monkey, fire rabbit, and water chameleon?

 

* No, I was definitely a very cynical kid.

[spacemanoeuvres]

All those old school looking shooters have me itching to buy a switch but I don’t really have time to play. The joy of family *roll eyes*

[Scyla]

On 2/27/2019 at 8:43 PM, mikeszekely said:

Ugh. I remember a time when it was hard to choose your starter because there was at least two cool choices. Now it's looks like it's going to be hard to choose because they all look terrible.

To be fair as a kid/teenager when the first Pokémon game came out for the original GameBoy I thought they looked all terrible. Some evolutions later Charmander and Squirtle where passable.

Scyther and Mewtwo are the only cool ones out of the original 151

Edited February 28, 2019 by Scyla

[mikeszekely]

On 2/27/2019 at 3:04 PM, Seto Kaiba said:

Maybe* I was a cynical kid, because I can't remember a point where I didn't think the unevolved starter pokemon looked obnoxiously twee... and I started at Gen 1.  It's not until they've evolved at least once that they start looking like they mean business.

 

35 minutes ago, Scyla said:

To be fair as a kid/teenager when the first Pokémon game came out for the original GameBoy I thought they looked all terrible. Some evolutions later Charmander and Squirtle where passable.

Scyther and Mewtwo are the only cool ones out of the original 151

Yeah, they were all cute and not at all badass.  But all of the Gen 1 starters had personality.  Totadile was pretty cool in Gen 2.  Gen 3 weren't my favorites, but I could go with either Treecko or Torchic.  Gen 4 was a little worse than Gen 3, but I'm cool with Turtwig or Piplup.  Gen 5 was pretty bad, but again at least Tepig and Snivvy had some personality.  I thought Gen 6 had some of the best starters since Gen 1, I liked both Froakie and Fennekin.  Gen 7 was so-so, Rowlet and Litten were ok.  But Gen 8 just looks kind of generic and boring.  Someone suggested they look like Powerpuff girls.

Just my opinion.  Maybe like X & Y we'll get a chance to get a second starter from another generation.  Then I can stuff the fire bunny in a box on the PC.

[Seto Kaiba]

For what it's worth, I had the opposite reaction to the Generation 1 starters.  They look so much alike (esp. Squirtle and Charmander) that they didn't feel very distinctive to me.  Many of the early route pokemon had more exciting or interesting designs, like Geodude.  (After all these years, Haunter is still a personal favorite just because it looks so happy with its own malevolence.)

If I had to rank the generations by the appeal of their starters (best to worst) I'd go with: 2, 6, 8, 4, 7, 1, 3, 5.

 

 

Anyhoo... this is apparently the "Galar" region.  Between the overall shape, the preponderance of castles, and that bit about 1/3 of the way up from the bottom that looks like Palace of Westminster, I'm guessing we're headed to Poke-Britain this time.

[Mommar]

On 2/27/2019 at 2:49 PM, spacemanoeuvres said:

All those old school looking shooters have me itching to buy a switch but I don’t really have time to play. The joy of family *roll eyes*

It turns out you do have time.  Waitingnin the office at the doctors.  Play.  Waiting fornthe kids tonget out of school.  Play.  Pretty much anytimenthe kids hold you up somewhere.  Play.  The portable feature makes it possible to knock out five minutes wherever you are.

[jenius]

I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess Mommar doesn't have kids...

EDIT - that said, where there's a will, there's a way... but often time there is a priority stacking list and gaming can quickly slide down. My free time is tiny these days and I don't game because there are other things I choose to do... as a younger man I had few obligations and could do more zero sum activities

Edited March 1, 2019 by jenius

[mikeszekely]

1 hour ago, jenius said:

I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess Mommar doesn't have kids...

Nah, I'm kind of with @Mommar on this one.  One of the biggest draws for me with the Switch was that I could play on the TV after my daughter went to bed but also in portable mode whenever I could throughout the day.  You just gotta make sure you look up every so often if you take 'em to the park or something to make sure the kid is still ok.

Oh, and I'm not sure about shmups, but my girl's at an age where she's still not playing, but she's starting to learn about the characters from other kids and she's curious about what I'm playing.  So I've been playing stuff like Super Mario Odyssey (which I'd bought at launch and didn't get around to until just this month), and she'll sit and watch me play for awhile.

[jenius]

I took my switch on a plane once and played like six hours of BOTW and it was glorious. I also went on a plane with my Switch and never used it because I was settling children and then decided I should watch some Marvel movies so I could see what all the hub bub was about... Because I don't get to just go watch a movie any more. 

[kajnrig]

Apparently Scottish/British-accented trainers are blowing up the memeisphere.

Edited March 1, 2019 by kajnrig

[Mommar]

6 hours ago, jenius said:

I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess Mommar doesn't have kids...

EDIT - that said, where there's a will, there's a way... but often time there is a priority stacking list and gaming can quickly slide down. My free time is tiny these days and I don't game because there are other things I choose to do... as a younger man I had few obligations and could do more zero sum activities

What does having or not having children have to do with the fact you're sitting in your car for five or ten minutes waiting for school to get out and have five or ten minutes to play a game before you have to worry about handling the children?

Besides, I am a full time care-taker for my Mom.  She's a seventy year old, disabled woman with the mindset of a seven year old who needs constant attention.  I know how to sneak five minutes in on the Switch when I can.  No children required.

[jenius]

It wasn't meant to be offensive. As I explained, when you're a parent (or a caretaker) there are a lot of things you don't have time for and you use those 5 minute windows the best you can. Sure, you can make gaming a priority to get in some side or vertical scrolling shooting, but often times, even with as easy as a Switch makes it, there are other things you choose to do with those 5 minutes (like grab a coffee, read the news, shop for toys on eBay, check MW)....