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Happy 7th(!) birthday to the Nintendo Switch.

No

I've always disliked the concept of pro systems. For me a console should be a single SKU developers can optimise for, so that no matter what every user will have access to the same experience. When I see the arguments around Rebirth and such, throwing more hardware resources at the problem is the wrong way to look at it. It's just brute-forcing a solution instead of properly fixing the issues at hand. With this generation in particular it's even more ludicrous than the last because we basically went from playing cross-gen games to asking for pro models after seeing the first proper current-gen only titles. I also think it sets a questionable precedent, because this is a never-ending circle. No console will ever be able to do everything during its 6-8 year lifespan, so if we're accepting pro models as a necessity now, we'll basically doing it for every generation going forward as well. If selling the 'same' system multiple times to a household is the key idea here, then slim models with identical hardware features are a better way to do it imo.

Happy for you. Genuinely hurting the experience for me though. Either a stuttery mess which causes a headache and just doesn’t feel good or so blurry it feels like my eyes are unfocused constantly.

The conversation has moved on a bit but I think Final Fantasy is just an edge case. For whatever reason it doesn't perform like it looks like it should, and I am one of those people that found the 30fps mode incredibly framey. It might be less about the optimisation of the game, and more about what it's doing. Unreal Engine 5 just doesn't seem worth the cost to me, it's amazing, I just don't think it's the best use of the resources when games can look really good and run well on lesser engines. FF isn't UE5, but I do wonder if there's just some stuff they're doing that isn't worth it I don't think we need Pro consoles this generation, not yet at least, I suppose it depends how long it is. I don't think there's a tech need for it, and how much it will cost, just throwing more power at the UE5 problem that's coming seems like a problem solved by just scaling back your aims to match the hardware I don't know if I'd buy the new one, I've just had to replace my PS5, so dropping the same again doesn't seem sensible. But then, as others have said, the fact I'm on a gaming forum suggests that I spend stupid money on games

Sephiroth did sound how I imagined him. The two that took me a bit to get used to were Reno and Rufus. I imagined Reno to be a bit slicker and Rufus to be brattier. But I soon rolled with what they were going for.

Yes, there's a number two in that title. That's because there was a first game, over thirty years ago, on the NES. I'll admit I never heard of it and I also completely missed this game's announcement. Just stumbled upon it randomly when browsing the eShop yesterday and looked it up because the artstyle is ace (bit reminiscent of some of Nintendo's Yoshi games). Seems like a competent platformer with a quirky sense of humour and four playable characters. Might put it on my buy list next month, it's nice to see those genuine surprise releases come along once in a while. Edit: there seems to be a physical release coming in June, on second thought I think I'll wait for that one. Available on all platforms btw.

Just finished with the demo. Naturally, miles behind everyone else. Further still since I passed on Remake. Positives: It looks nice. But that is a standard with FF. Square has always/tried to push the boat out with visuals. It was quite clever to use exposition dump town Kalm for the demo,* Since it is so self-contained. It was exactly the same scene but with a facelift though. So can't complain. The Reality of the scene gets a lot more winks and nudges to the knowing player. Which was to be expected, it's not a new game or plot twist anymore. I like the VA. Sephiroth has a more subtle, calm voice than I would expect. Although I recall similar with Advent Children. At the time, I didn't like it because it didn't sound as I thought Sephiroth would from the OG text. But I'm over that now, obviously. Negatives... The elephant in the room that was absent from the above paragraph: The combat and controls. The worst part for me was with the boss. Most of it felt too fast for me to keep up with what was happening and what I was doing. It came across as button bashing at that point. Like strategy wasn't needed. Other times I'm fighting one foe while being blindsided by another that isn't in my field of view (which reminded me of New GoW). The menus come across to me as they are trying to be clever. But it feels unintuitive. Much like switching between party members. I did like that while Sephiroth is strong here, he is significantly weaker than during this scene in the OG. Is there still a little 'ERROR: THIS ISN'T TURN BASED' in the back of my head? Possibly. So maybe the controls are a 'me' issue. Also that piano playing was ridiculous. Definitely a case of the 'less' of the OG interface being the better way to go. The Big Question: Did I like it? 🤔It was fine. I wasn't bowled over. I think Kalm wasn't the best selling point to a big fan like me, of the original game. As that scene is quite slavish recreated. And therefore dull. Will I buy it? 20 games on the shelf at the moment. A few more digitally so I probably shouldn't. Yet, it's coming tomorrow.🤷‍♂️ *There is an additional part for Junon in the demo. But I doubt I'll touch it. It does specify that section isn't representative of the final game, so there's no real point.

Yeah, the thing mfnick mentioned is what I feel. I got a headache yesterday also but with performance mode, it makes me feel cross eyed for some reason The thing is, performance mode resolution isn't fixed, it's dynamic. So it might seem fine at first but you might see issues elsewhere. But screen resolution and technology is also a factor here. But again its really not just a graphics snob thing, its not like i can help it, might also explain why I've spent so much time playing cards

Nah. Rebirth looks fine to me. So I’m not interested.

Feel like it’s a tough question the same week everyone is playing Rebirth 😅 It’s weird that some games struggle so much on the performance side on PS5. For me image quality being the biggest problem right now. Not only are devs being too reliant on FSR, FSR is also dog shit. Not sure if the problem is the technology or the reliance on upscaling. This is the same machine that does Spider-Man 2 - high fidelity, 60 FPS, 1440p with RT. Horizon 2 is a terrible game but second to none in terms of graphics. Even on PC where games out perform it, the look they captured on PS5 is incredible. The SSD ‘magic’ aside Ratchet & Clank on PS5 is a spectacular looking game. I don’t think I’ve ever been as impressed by a launch game for a system than Demon’s Souls. The game looks crazy (except for the mine level) Then you look at Rebirth, Star Wars, Forspoken (At launch), Immortals and it’s like what is going on There’s no reason not to have a PS5 Pro. But only if it’s feasible to fit it with AMD’s new FSR or some kind of frame generation because PS5 standard can be an incredible machine just for graphics. But there are a lot of odd games and developers out there that just can’t seem to get the best out of it in terms of performance - image quality especially. If a Pro makes it easier for everybody, then they should do it. I still think what you get for the money PS5 is amazing and I don’t feel like it’s “done” in anyway. But if they can make a better one, clearly some games could do with it

Daigo says what he thinks is the difference between high level players and top players Years ago when I was struggling at college I was thinking about the different types of intelligence. My thinking is there’s 2 types. A person who reads the book and a person who wrote the book. Someone can read a book, extract what they need from it and repeat it when required. But then there’s the person who figured it all out on their own in the first place and wrote the book to begin with. There’s such a huge difference between someone who can memorise information, and someone who is given 2 different pieces of information and make new information out of it. I feel like he’s saying the same thing here. You can memorise what you see a top level player do and copy the strats. But a truly top player understands why the strat, or sequence, or move is effective in the first place, and can think of new ways of applying it or new ideas for it. Where as the high level player will just wait for someone else to figure it out and copy them again Fighting games or anything else. I stay struggling just to memorise things 😓

I wonder how I'll feel about the backlight. But turns out I'm going to have to wait a while for this to arrive, as something about the address I got it delivered to didn't work out, so my Playdate is on its way back to the US now. This thing will have the carbon footprint of Taylor Swift when it eventually arrives, Jesus Christ. There was a little update with upcoming games the other day btw.: I think the 2D brawler looks really nice. They also show some space exploration game towards the end with seems to push beyond what the system was ever intended to do.