Thoughts and opinion on Switch 2
Before I start, do know I really like tech and generally, I like interesting implemtations of it, so I do have a bias towards handheld consoles in general because they have much more interesting limitations to start with. I'll get all my thoughts, up and down, on the switch 2.
I know the bigger screen does mean more internal area to work with, but how the hell did they manage to keep the thickness nearly identical to the switch 1? Actually impressive, I desperately want to see inside if it is all just because of smaller chip size.
Ok, so where do I properly begin excluding the shock that they pulled off the same thickness? Oh, the screen!
This screen is just a welcome addition overall. 1080p, better brightness and better panel tech that allows for HDR (Microsoft fix your god damn hdr implementation even nintendo has it) while being 120hz and VRR (Nvidia confirmed that it's using their implementation of g-sync via a blog post, here: https://blogs.nvidia.com/blog/nintendo-switch-2-leveled-up-with-nvidia-ai-powered-dlss-and-4k-gaming/). It now matches and slightly exceeds a lot of displays on handhelds now, which funnily enough makes puts it in a similar position as the og switch screen back in 2017, but at least the baseline is much higher so I think this will make the eventual OLED either be more meh, or more better in comparison. It may be closer to the meh side, at least with the first impressions I'm seeing on youtube and seen through my 2013 gaming monitor with clear faded pixels which is it's own issue if I do end up deciding to get a switch 2. Still +$100 I'm calling it. However, the fact it's 120hz natively means that you can now run games at 40fps without screen tearing because it's a clean divisable number of 120, with it looking noticably better then 30fps but not as draining as 60fps or above, which is going to help with more title's battery life. Speaking of Nvidia, let's talk a bit about that blog post.
I do not know how much people like this or not (See recent RTX 40xx and 50xx launches to see how happy people are with Nvidia), but I think they are very much the ideal partners in crime with Nintendo this time around. As long as the Tensor hardware is power efficient enough as they claim, this will just be a boon for handheld gaming times, even if they're stuck at the same 2-6.5 hours as the launch model og switch. It also means it can be updated with time to improve games potentially, so if developers decide to take advantage of it and nvidia/nintendo makes it easy to just update the codebase of a game to get to a never version, we may actually have a case of games becoming more performant and/or better looking with time, assuming they are not running at native 4k already. That's neglecting the processing offloading for stuff like that goofy camera, microphone quality and other stuff
(seriously, if you got a recent enough Nvidia GPU try the Nvidia Broadcast app, it's does basically all the audio/video stuff nintendo showed recently, but now with a focused platform I think this is going to become excellent)
oh ya, it is odd that the stream from friend's framerate is like 12 fps, best guess there is because it uses the on board video encoder and decoded to handle it, and if each is a seperate channel, along with one for background recording/screenshots, plus whatever the games may need for their own dedicated use, I am not too surprised it got the cut on such a slim package. Suck though.
That leads into the dock.
I think the dock is fine. Does the job, has USB ports on the side to connect controllers and charge them (USB 2 tho, so I guess the camera attachement had to go to the top USB C port CORRECTION, I just saw MKBHD's recent switch 2 impression video, it can actually be attached elsewhere maybe. That's interesting, Photo attached below). I think it's as inoffensive as the Switch Oled dock, which does all it needed to do too plus ethernet. It's fine.
I guess while I'm here, let's touch upon the Microsd Express card slot.
Let me preface this by saying, I knew that the standard was compatible with SD cards of prior so I found it odd they didn't make it clear if it could be used to at least get video/screenshots off, but they did!
Talking about the microSD express cards themselves, I may be in the minority here, but I am very very happy to see this get adopted. For those who are not in the know, it's basically much faster flash (that can be made for slightly more then an normal SD card) that runs off of the reader's PCIe Gen 4, allowing up to 2gb/s of read/write. Which is Crazy, and if they're mandating it to be required for games, that means the current 800mb/s read ones on the market right now is what the console will be using and games will finally load up so much faster. And, unlike the original SD cards, higher capacities like a terabyte already exist AND are not insanely more expensive over base sd cards.(I mean $20-25 for 256gb sd cards to $60 for same but microsd express is still a jump, but do you guys remember how fucking much 256gb sd cards costed originally? It was like $150, and I think 256gb storage will get further milage then the original 32gb storage the og switch had. And 1tb already cost $200 for when it comes out with the switch 2. Those prices will drop unless, uh... not within the scope of what I want to talk about)
Since we're on storage, 256gb of UFS storage? Like on phones, that can go multiple gigabytes per second read/write? Hell ya, we bout to get load times not much worse then other modern consoles.
Let's touch upon the joycons now.
I like them, but as more in a sense of improvment over og switch joycons. Which, honestly, that's all they needed to do. The standout weird feature is the mouse on both, but I only see this as a plus. I want more of my PC games on portable systems, and as much as I want the steamdeck too, the switch form factor is still more portable. Just... please let the bigger joysticks be actually good and resistant to stick drift, I do not want to open them up just to replace the sticks with hall effect ones again. As a plus, I can't wait to see what insanity warioware is going to become now.
Oh ya, chat.
Surprised it took them 2 decades to finally do it, but they seem to have a lot of restraint there still, with extensive parent controls to help metigate any issues, so I'll only give them slightly less shit. Slightly. I'm going to call it though, there is going to be controversy about what eventually will occur over the gamechat. Can't wait!
Switch online services
I mean, it was inevitable. This, with the Wii games that's almost absolutely coming later, is going to be good. I suspect a pricebump is going to occur with the NSO that's going to make it cost almost a full game per year, but at least the retro selection is going to start going from crazy to insane, making it probably worth it. I just hope that the voucher program (shown below) gets expanded to more third parties, because as much as I like nintendo games for $50 a piece with this program, it needs to be way more expansive to make the $20 cost at this time to be online, let alone get the 2 vouchers for $100, worth it. If they do that, and keep on adding new actually fun (looking at you Zelda Notes... what the fuck are you) and nice to have to the service, I think it could become worth it in the near future.
I ALMOST FORGOT ONLINE DOWNLOAD PLAY, seriously that alone may be worth it because with both local and online, it means you do not have to force your friends to buy games they may otherwise never touch outside of playing with you. This is straight up a good, pro-consumer thing if others don't ignore it 24/7. I just hope the streaming quality will not be dogshit ahhaha....
(Shout out to nintendo actuallly using this a part to prevent scalpers, I don't like it much because I didn't pay for NSO on the og switch but at least this is a verifiable way to prevent scalpers. I just wish acconts from the Wii U/3ds era got special treatment :^) )
Since we're getting more into software, shout out to how sad the UI is still.
Nintendo, the literal bare minimun here is not just black and white customizable themes. You haven't done that for a generation. I would have much rather had the UI present from the DSi/Wii to Wii U/3ds era then this bland nothing soup. God. Now, onto the most devicive one, and the one that makes or breaks it for me. The games, and their prices.
Let's get a few things clear, the $90 physical switch 2 game thing (which I had fallen for too) is in europe. If you're a suffering US citizen, the price is $80 for what seems to be big, high budget nintendo games, with everything else being $70, at least from the list of prices I've seen online.
About Game key cards, ya it's just the 'download play' games on the switch, but instead of a piece of paper that's one time, it's a re-usable cartridge that allows multiple downloads on other switches and acts like a physical one otherwise. This, in my opinion, is objectively better, and is not the default option. Other games will be on the Cartidge like og switch, see Cyberpunk 2077 on a 64gb one (seriously how the fuck they did that).
This switch 2 edition is on a case by case basis, so if it is just an fps/resolution bump, it is likely to be free. If it has a bit more, like some added extras and they know people would pay for the fps/resolution, see botw and totk will be $10, and if the content has basically DLC + all of the above, it's $20. Also, lol at welcome tour.
Seeing all of that, I'm iffy. I'm worried that the panic and reactions from everyone will lock the prices for everyone else at $80 since the publishers will take any chance to push prices up further, but if $70 stays I would reluctantly accept it. Unlike some people on the other platforms may say, in the past before $60 standardization, we had other options to play games like with rental stores, actually being around friends, and frequent discounts and bundles to get inventory moving. That does mean nowadays, especially with no sale nintendo, this price is here to stay, and if this is the cost to actually keep games good and not need astronomical sales to make back development costs, so be it. I am just not happy knowing that a lot of publishers will be using machine created/generated stuff each year for that price or $80 and expect no issues with it. The only thing I am very curious about is the capabilities of the switch 2 being somewhere between a PS4 and PS5, but able to handle PS5 ports, potentially making it the best way to play a lot of newer games on the go until valve decides in 2030 to make the steam deck 2.
Now everyone's favorite issues, price. I think it's reasonable, sucks a bit but reasonable. We're now dealing in a world where Nvidia has their focus on AI stuff, and knows that Nintendo wants backward compat + better stuff, so Nvidia likely is changing way more on parts. This world also includes inflation (seriously, $300 in 2017 is now closer to $400, and now there's all the extra nicer stuff slapped on top to justify a next gen). This world also includes ungodly uncertienty because of a a group in the wrong place in the wrong time. Considering all of this, honestly, $450 is fine. It sucks, I know it has pushed a few friends out from buying it w/o someone assisting them in the purchase, but it's fine. It's going to be a great refinement, which is all a sequel console had to be. The thing you have to know, nintendo is doing the thing again with previous controllers being compatible with the current system, so in reality (especially with me and my hall-effect modded controllers) the price to play with others will not be much more. I touched upon this already, but the game prices are iffy for me, and it's absolutely going to prevent me from buying as many games as I had for the og switch, but it's an dampener.
I will need more time to simmer (and see how my finacial situation is going to be), but I am currently leaning to I will try to get it. I'm on the fence, and I have a good chance of flipping to waiting later, or just not getting.
I may add more thoughts as I think them and remember I can use tumblr like this, but I think this is everything I wanted to get out that has been simmering in my head for a bit. Oh ya I almost forgot the most important thing, Homebrew. I love homebrew, it has given me extra life and enjoyment out of my og switch. If there is another launch edition vuln that allows homebrew, I want in.
