Gaming - Page 1608

Last month Square Enix showed off some new screenshots for Final Fantasy VII: Remake that led some to believe the battle system would have an command mode of sorts; however, game director Tetsuya Nomura has stepped in to clear things up.

As we previously reported, Nomura affirms that Final Fantasy VII: Remake's combat will be entirely action-based--likely similar to Final Fantasy Type-O and Final Fantasy XV--and not follow the same turn-based mechanics of the immortal RPG classic.

The confusion started when a screenshot showed Cloud ducking behind cover which led some gamers to believe certain instances of battle sequences would be command-based or scripted QTE-style events rather than freeform seamless action. This isn't so: Nomura confirms that things like taking cover will be optional, and only be available in certain environments.

Warner Bros Games and Monolith Productions just dropped the first-ever gameplay footage for Middle-earth Shadow of War, and have a strong feeling tactical gamers are going to love it.

Shadow of War is a direct sequel to Middle-earth Shadow of Mordor, and this time around players will actually get to make their own orc army while wielding enhanced new powers.

The gameplay footage is showcased on an Xbox One console, and highlights all the different combinations of powers and clever experimentation needed to strategically annihilate your foes. In a way it reminds me of Lord of the Rings chess--only in a massively dynamic open-scale third-person environment.

Nintendo has changed. With its new Switch handheld-console hybrid, the Japanese console-maker of yore has done away with clandestine business models and embraced the future. Nintendo is actively courting game developers of all kinds to ensure the Switch has a massively growing and steadily flowing games library, and indie devs are a big part of that push.

The way Nintendo sees indies is similar to how Sony strategically uses them as bite-sized snacks via PS Plus to tide gamers over in between big releases. Nintendo will do the same, but it's planning to actually match Sony's indie commitment, and eclipse Microsoft's ID@Xbox altogether. In fact, Nintendo's head of publisher and developer relations Damon Baker, if an indie game is on Steam, it should be coming to the Switch too. But Nintendo doesn't want to lock exclusivity like Microsoft--the Switch is a complimentary system.

"The way we're looking at Switch is this is a complementary platform. If it's on Steam, then there's no reason why it shouldn't be on Nintendo Switch as well," Baker told Games Industry.biz in a recent interview. "If you want to take that experience on the go, if you want to have a baked in multiplayer experience, this is the system to do it. It's got those points of differentiation, but we're not trying to go head-to-head against any of the other platforms. We just think that if the content makes sense to be over on our platform then it should be on our platform."

Square Enix's latest Dragon Quest Heroes II game is having trouble maintaining a solid 30FPS on Nintendo's new Switch handheld-console hybrid, with frame rates dipping down to the low 20's.

Being a "Musou" game, Dragon Quest Heroes is heavily based on action-filled combat, so frame rates are actually quite important. Sadly the game delivers underwhelming performance on the Nintendo Switch, possibly indicating a badly optimized port, or a more daunting answer: the Switch's custom NVIDIA Tegra SoC might not be powerful enough for specific games.

Eurogamer's Digital Foundry recently compared Dragon Quest Heroes II's frame rates on the Nintendo Switch, PlayStation Vita and PS4 versions to see the major differences. As you'd expect, the PS4 maintained a solid 60FPS throughout, with the Switch and PS Vita versions hitting 30FPS while exploring. Combat is a different story, however: the Switch's in-game combat FPS while docked is the same as Sony's yesteryear PlayStation Vita handheld. Frame rates instantly dip down to low 20 FPS when any sort of combat is initiated.

Lots of Nintendo Switch gamers are still having issues with their left JoyCons disconnecting mid-game. If this is happening to you, try re-calibrating and/or manually disconnecting and re-syncing your controller. Here's how to do it.

We haven't had any trouble with our Nintendo Switch JoyCons: in fact, we were able to get about 37 feet away from the system while docked or in handheld mode before the JoyCons disconnected. But lots of gamers aren't so lucky, and they feel spurned by Nintendo--and rightly so. After all if one JoyCon doesn't work, you can't play any games unless you replace it for $50 or buy a Switch Pro controller for $70. Not exactly too fun, is it?

Alas, there may be a solution! Gamers are told to keep their left and right JoyCons attached to the Nintendo Switch during the day one update, but some JoyCons still don't work after that. Next up you'll want to try a hard reset to reset the Bluetooth connections from the device and the controllers. But that still may not be enough. You may want to try re-calibrating the controllers themselves, or manually disconnecting and re-pairing them.

The Nintendo Switch dock only outputs a portion of its supplied input power to the Switch console via USB Type-C, and not the full 39W as we originally thought.

Earlier today I reported that Nintendo is still selling standalone docks for the Switch, and on a whim, I flipped over my dock to see if I could find a product number. I found something quite interesting regarding how much power the dock passes to the Switch console: the dock is supplied an input energy rate of 15V at 2.6A (39 watts) from the AC adapter, but the dock's output rate is only 15V at 1.2A (18 watts).

This means the Nintendo Switch receives 18W of power from the dock, not the whole 39W of power that's pushed from the AC adapter.

Nintendo's new Switch handheld-console hybrid system has smashed sales records, and has even outsold Nintendo's coveted Wii at launch.

Nintendo's gambit has paid off in dividends: the Switch's first two-day launch sales in the Americas (North America and South America) exceeded any other console in Nintendo's history, including the company's superstar Wii. That's according to New York Times reporter Nick Wingfield, who talked shop with Nintendo America President Reggie Fils-Aime in an unpublished interview.

While Nintendo's Reggie Fils-Aime didn't provide exact numbers, sold out retailers all across the world echo the console's success. The extreme demand and well reception from critics triggered a meteoric rise of Nintendo shares, and the company has been enjoying a consistent upward climb since the system's launch on March 3. The Switch's main system-seller, Zelda: Breath of the Wild, now holds the mantle as the top-selling standalone launch title: in fact, Breath of the Wild even outsold Super Mario 64 at launch.

Contrary to what you might have heard, Nintendo is indeed still selling standalone Switch docks on its website.

I've seen reports going around that Nintendo is no longer selling individual Switch docks on its site as a result of it scratching console screens. This prompted buzz that Nintendo may be planning a revised Switch dock that doesn't scratch any screens, however it appears these publications didn't look too far, because Nintendo is still selling Switch docks.

Both the official Nintendo Japanese online store and the Nintendo U.S. online storefront are selling Switch docks without the main console, but the U.S. site is sold out. Interestingly enough I couldn't find a listing for the dock on the Switch UK site.

After a few days with the Nintendo Switch we're ready to deliver some basic impressions. Don't worry, our review is coming soon!

The Nintendo Switch is an incredibly interesting device. It's rather intriguing and, well, fun. The idea of melding mobile, handheld and console gaming to one device is revolutionary--but is it worth all the drawbacks? After all, the Switch is a lot less powerful than an Xbox One or PS4, and even those consoles are getting upgraded. But the Switch does something none of those do: provides impressive handheld performance.

All in all the Switch is a comfortable, efficient, and rather enjoyable piece of kit. Right now, however, it's more of an investment because it's lacking games. Zelda: Breath of the Wild is the major system-seller, and games like Shovel Knight are the best real ancillary titles--even better than the 1-2 Switch game that should've been a pack-in title. The real magic of the Switch is being able to take it with you and play with anyone on the go, but right now we don't have too many games that make use of that (just Bomberman R and 1-2 Switch). Here are our hands-on impressions of Nintendo's new merged console-handheld roadmap.

Horizon Zero Dawn patch 1.02 delivers the much-awaited performance mode for the PS4 Pro. Yet, this mode favors on delivering a smooth 30FPS gameplay rather than a much responsive 60 FPS experience.

According to Eurogamer, which did a fantastic job in their initial frame-rate analysis, the performance mode actually forces the game to run at a locked 30 FPS in 1080p. Players who choose this option over the resolution mode will certainly miss out on the excellent SSAA coverage and all the eye candy that 4K provide. Even in Eurogamer's honest opinion, this performance mode is not much of a game changer because "Guerrilla's performance at 4K is already so good with only very minor drops (if any) in most areas."

Guerrilla Games approach about the performance mode is nonetheless an interesting one. We're now seeing a trend from developers who focus on maxing out the graphical performance of the consoles while delivering a smooth experience in their games instead of making them look like crap but run at "60 FPS".