Thursday 29 December 2016

Nintendo Switch Rumour Dump

So something odd happened, Youtube streamer OBE1Plays was 'Intensely' streaming a Splatoon match when it was interrupted by now famous Nintendo Switch leaker Laura Dale.

Suddenly the stream ended and a Nintendo rumour fest began. OBE1Plays claims to have exclusive leaks for his "12 days of Switchmas" and this starts with both confirming that the next Assassin's Creed game will see 'release parity' across X1, PS4 and Nintendo Switch, which would be nice as on the Wii U version of Assassin's Creed III arrived 5 weeks later than is 360/PS3 cousin. The Wii U's gamepad made the poorly built wilderness map a lot easier to get through and reach the actual fun parts of the world. ODE1 also confirms the AC game in question is Egyptian themed, which could mean some Aladdin flashbacks.

The two's live stream can be viewed here but the stream is 30 minutes long and so here is the cliff notes created by Nintendo Life's Dan Thompson. You'll all so see some notes by me in Bold.

  • There's a record button on the left Joy-Con. We've previously assumed that button to be an NFC reader.
  • There will be no friend codes, DeNA is helping Nintendo with the networking. 
  • The leak from Reddit user 'Genos' is fake.
  • Laura was asked if there was the possibility of Red Dead Redemption 2 or Overwatch coming to the Switch. Regarding Red Dead, she stated that there's almost no way it's going to happen due to Rockstar's relationship with Nintendo. She assures that Overwatch wouldn't be there at launch, and the two stated that it would require a massively overhauled port due to the 'always-online' nature of the title. This bit seems off to us if Overwatch can't come to Switch that rules out other every MMO and "always online" titles like Destiny, Division and others like Rocket lead. The 3DS doesn't feature mobile internet but that hasn't stopped two MMOs in Japan (Monster Hunter Frontier and Dragon Quest X)
  • Don't expect a delay for the Nintendo Switch.
  • Laura was asked about voice-chat, before she was going to answer she asked if she could say anything due to OBE1 releasing a video detailing it out soon. This basically confirmed the fact that it's going to be included, smooth move guys. This isn't too helpful as the Wii U supported voice chat but not as a system wide feature.
  • The system will have Bluetooth, not sure to what extent. One assumes the Pro pad and Joy-Cons are not wired USB devices.
  • The Joy-Cons will be available to be purchased separately at launch date. Docks will be purchasable after 6 months and will be 'cheap'.
  • There won't be a bundle that includes the Pro Controller, they will be purchasable separately.
  • The battery will last around 3 hours with everything at maximum. We know from Unreal code that the Switch can throttle performance to 60% in portable mode so if 3 hours at max, then 5-6 hours at 60% is possible
  • The charging port is USB and will easily and quickly charge the system. Yay, power banks!
  • Only expect three virtual console Gamecube games at launch, they will be optimised for their original resolutions.
  • At launch, there will only be one colour of the Switch, and it will be the default grey. However, there's a slight chance that there will be multiple colours after launch. Pretty sure every Nintendo system after the SNES got multiple colours after launch.
  • The right Joy-Con has an IR pointer akin to the Wiimote, this will allow touch-screen functionalities while docked. 
  • The entry bundle for the switch will have 32GB of onboard storage, Micro SD card support will extend to 128 GB. hard limit or will players be able to risk larger cards? also, yay Micro SD!
  • When asked about Mass Effect Andromeda, she brought up the point that Mass Effect 3 sold horrendously on Wii U and that there are no plans to release the title. This isn't exactly a 'rumour' as the developers have already ruled out a port. I'm sure EA knows full well why ME3 sales was low on Wii U *cough* trilogy *cough*

Separately Ms Dale is still unsure on whether if the Breath of the Wild will be on the Nintendo Switch at launch, From her sources she believes that Mario Switch will be a launch title whilst Breath of the Wild will hit later. Whilst I don't have the sources of Ms Dale, the fact that Tantalus has games in development for Switch does make my "Zelda-delay-sense" tingle. (Tantalus are the studio behind the HD remakes of Wind Waker and Twilight Princess) though it would seem utterly bizare to rob the Switch of all that "wild hype" in favour of any brand boost from Super Mario Run.

Abe's Take
It's not long before we can call time on these rumours as we're less than a quarter of a month away from the full reveal by Nintendo. 

Old Republic pays tribute to Carrie Fisher

Not exactly an event I wanted to return on but felt ignoring the passing of Carrie Fisher in favour of yet another Nintendo Switch rumour would be wrong. More so in the light of her mother Debbie Reynolds also passing.


Fans across the Star Wars fandom have been paying tribute but a certain one has our attention. Thousands of Fans have been amassing in Star Wars: The Old Republic's version of Alderann (the adoptive homeworld of Fisher's character) to pay tribute to the late actress, writer and activist.  PC gamer is reporting that high-level players have been wiping out the mods to allow low level (and new) players to reach the ancestral home of the Organa family. Players have also organised a petition asking for a statue based on Fisher's likeness be placed where the players are paying their respects.


Abe's Take.
Carrie Fisher as Princess Leia is a shared childhood memory for all the GK-UK team, Our hearts go out to her daughter Billie Lourd who had lost too much over the last week.

Editorial notice: Yes we are aware of the "issue" with the SWTOR tribute and ATM don't care about the implications on the films.



Tuesday 20 December 2016

Check Out This Legend of Zelda 3D Map

Some time ago you may remember someone created the entire world map of the original NES Legend Of Zelda in Minecraft? Well, you should, here let's remind you of what it looked like. 



Well via Mike Matei on Twitter (one-half of Angry Video Game Nerd) has shown of what happens when you take 6 months of Minecraft work and send it to a 3D printer. Spoiler alert! it is 'the glory'!


That beautiful piece took a solid 24 hours to print and then took a further (probably frustrating) 6 hours to paint and has apparently been sold for $100, which in the humble rambler's view is devastatingly cheap. Gaming collectables are insultingly expensive at the best of times, let alone custom item that represents over half a year's worth of effort



Check out the rest of the pictures on Mike's Twitter page.

Abe's Take
I sure hope more of these get into the wild. I would happily pay $100 for stuff like this. I'm not 100% sure if it's because A) it's really good for the price or B) I'm just used to the $500+ price tag of other collectables like THIS GUY or THAT GUY

Monday 19 December 2016

Dragon Quest XI Reconfirmed For Switch... Again

So after a lengthy absence thanks to a minor technical fault with my personal PC... a small fire made its home in it. Now that's all sorted we're back with Nintendo Switch news.

Nintendo has reconfirmed Dragon Quest XI for the Nintendo Switch, for those keeping score this being the third time DQXI has been confirmed for the Nintendo Switch. The first time Square-Enix confirmed both DQ X and DQ XI would come to the (then) NX during a live stream for the franchises 30th anniversary but shortly afterwards (precisely the length of time for an angry call from a Nintendo lawyer) retracted the announcement. Then after the Switch's reveal SE officially confirmed DQXI was coming to PS4, 3DS and Switch all at the same time.

So why this third attempt at confirming the title? Well, Square has been showing off the PS4 and 3DS version (video below) and did not mention the Nintendo Switch version, which led to fans pressing Nintendo for confirmation that a version was still coming and of cause it's now been confirmed by Nintendo.

Check the video out, the 3DS version starts after the PS4 version at 2:11


As you can see the two versions of the game are shaping up nicely. The ps4 version looks really nice, like Akira Toriyama's designs are given a more "realistic" makeover (interesting to see if it gets a PS4 Pro mode). Whilst the 3DS version has a rather interesting take with a dual 2D sprite & 3D model presentation (something tells me there might be a Pokemon game like that before the Switch takes over full time).

Abe's Take
Questions still hang over Dragon Quest XI as there is no confirmation about which of the two versions will come to Nintendo Switch and whether it'll even come west, though the chances are good as Dragon Quest Heroes and the two 3DS remakes have been localised.