Finished Deltarune on my $450 Deltarune machine. I don't know if I can handle waiting another decade for the full thing to be finished.
Storm knocked out my power yesterday (just got it back this morning), so I figured that at least until my batteries die, this is the time to start on that copy of Sea of Stars that's been sitting on my shelf after I bought it on sale last year. So far very impressed by it. Also nice that I can actually use handheld mode again with working JoyCons, my Switch 1 hadn't left the dock in years.
Relapsing back into Puyo Puyo Champions, again. My relationship with the game remains complicated, as does my sadness at feeling like queue times are getting slower and slower...
Also dusted off Splatoon 3 for the new Jet kit. There's gonna be a casual bracket at a convention I'm going to next weekend, so I gotta try and derust a bit.
I'm a little tired of the fearmongering from people who seem to be racing to the assumption that JoyCon 2s will definitely be as brittle as JoyCon 1s. We don't know that yet. Yes, we know it's not Hall Effect, but that's been true of the majority of video game controllers for a long time. JoyCon 1s were just anomalously defective in a way specific to that controller, and I highly doubt they haven't considered this with the 2. Until we actually start seeing a failure rate comparable to JoyCon 1s, can people just... wait and chill for a sec?
"Except for all the people complaining, why is no one complaining?"
Misinformation has been one big game of telephone. There's been a lot of legitimate confusion around VRR, I know Nintendo did claim it was supported docked at first but then had to retract it. FWIW, this is probably something that wasn't ready for launch but will be patched.
But I've seen far more cases of misinformation used to bash on the Switch - I've lost count of the number times I've seen people claim Mario Kart is $90 somehow.
Regarding game prices, I'm not thrilled about it, but I also feel the need to point out that any AAA with DLC has already been more than $80 for a while now. If you don't like it, don't buy AAA.
Me, I don't often buy games at full price, or basically any AAAs outside of Nintendo for that matter. For the handful of IPs I really love that badly, I'm honestly okay with paying a premium. It's the price I pay for having niche tastes that have narrowed with age, it's fine because I'm saving a lot on the games I don't buy. If I have to pay $80 for Kirby Air Ride 2, I will because I've waited 22 years for this sequel.
There's a lot that's fucked up in the game industry, and I just don't think Nintendo is anywhere near the worst right now. The circlejerk here on Lemmy in particular has become especially tiring, and I wish some of y'all could direct that energy towards companies that constantly screw over their workers, push gambling-based business models onto kids, or keep collapsing under their own weight when they expect every game to be the next Fortnite and speedrun shutting down any game that doesn’t meet unrealistic investor expectations.
I think we've reached a point where you've got the backlash, the backlash to the backlash, the backlash to the backlash to the backlash... and all of that keeps amplifying toxicity. Everyone needs to step back and chill.
Of course there's going to be one eventually, but if they're implying it's coming very soon that actually raises questions. Donkey Kong Bananza looks to have been developed by the team that did Odyssey, so if a 3D Mario was being developed in parallel, I'm curious who was on that project.
The Wii U was stuck working against itself in a number of ways. On paper, the idea of bringing the DS's successful format to a console sounded great... but couldn't actually work the same way in practice.
The first problem was that human eyes can't focus on two screens at different distances from the eye. You can't actually look at both screens together, you have to switch your focus from one to the other.
Then there's just the economic reality of console development requiring developers to prioritize multiplatform development. No one wants to design a game around the Wii U and have it be exclusive to the Wii U. That was viable for the DS because the DS was such a massive juggernaut, and because handheld titles could be developed on a much smaller budget, but Wii U exclusivity could never be justified. Games that are being developed for other single-screen platforms and then ported to Wii U can't do much with the Gamepad.
But perhaps the most ironic nail in the coffin was that the best use case for the Gamepad, Off-TV Play, could only be supported by games designed around a single screen. Developers shouldn't make the second screen important or else they lose this feature!
I bought a Miyoo Mini Plus two years ago and liked it so much I wish I'd bought a more expensive model with analog sticks. I keep looking at all the shiny new stuff on the market and feeling the temptation to upgrade, but holding off because something better is always around the corner.
Well, guess I no longer have to worry about temptation now.
I've sadly found myself lamenting the fact that a lot of my favorite genres are tragically underrepresented on Linux. I still gotta keep my Switch, and buy a Switch 2, for some of those games.
Wii U Pro Controller