jdodson | Cheerful Ghost

Nintendo Announces Another Pokemon Game That's Out Now On Switch! Welcome Pokemon Quest!

Apparently Nintendo just dropped the all new Pokemon Quest game out on the Switch that's available right now that will also be coming out on iOS and Android later in the year. Pokemon Quest looks like a simple RPG where you collect Pokemon, send them out to level up and bring them home while you cook soup to attract and capture new Pokemon. It's a fun concept but I haven't loved all of Nintendo's free to play mobile games so hopefully this one sticks.

If you have a Switch download the game and let me know how it plays!

"Get ready to tap your way through an exciting new Pokémon adventure as Pokémon Quest is available now for Nintendo Switch! This title is the first Pokémon spin-off game created by GAME FREAK inc., the developers of the Pokémon main series games. Pokémon Quest is a free-to-download game, and it features some items available to purchase with real-world money. Check out the game now, and prepare to set out on a thrilling journey across Tumblecube Island!"

"Mobile players will soon be able to go on Tumblecube Island expeditions of their very own when Pokémon Quest makes its way to iOS and Android devices in late June 2018."

https://pokemonquest.pokemon.com

The Switch Gets Two New Pokemon Games + New Pokeball Controller!

Game Freak, the developers of Pokemon dropped a 40 minute conference pre E3 where they talked about two new Pokemon games coming to the Nintendo Switch this year called Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Pokémon: Let's Go, Eevee! I encourage you to watch the full conference reveal above but some relevant clips from the Let's Go site to help explain things:

"Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Pokémon: Let's Go, Eevee! bring the experience of a classic Pokémon RPG to Nintendo Switch with gameplay that is easily approachable for newcomers to the series, but is also deep enough to keep veteran Trainers on their toes.

The games also have two-player simultaneous play, so you can take the journey with a friend! And there’s a deep connection between Pokémon: Let's Go, Pikachu! and Pokémon: Let's Go, Eevee! and Pokémon GO, so fans of the hit mobile game will find even more to enjoy."

Which Let's Go game you pick will be the Pokemon that follows you around the map in a style similar to Pokemon Yellow on Gameboy. In fact the developers of Let's Go cited Pokemon Yellow as an inspiration for the game and the in game stuff they showed looked like a modern 3D remake of the original Gameboy Pokemon RPG. Which, honestly, seems like a great way to bring Pokemon to the Switch as many kids and gamers will be playing it for the first time so why not head back to the Kanto region?

Nintendo is also coming out with a Pokeball controller that you can use in game which looks interesting. Not sure i'd get it but if you're into that sort of thing it's available. Oh and all the Pokemon you collected in Pokemon Go you can send to the Let's Go games on Switch, or at least the Kanto region Pokemon you collected anyway.

https://pokemonletsgo.pokemon.com/en-us/

Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection is Here!

Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection finally dropped today to, mostly, great reviews. The game collects 12 classic games which translates to be about $3.50 per game which is an incredible value. Maybe you might not play each game for 8000 hours but dropping in on a few just to understand the journey the franchise has taken seems more than interesting to me. The 30th Anniversary Collection is now out on PS4, XBox One, Switch and Steam and the Switch and Steam reviews seem a bit mixed. The complaint of the Switch version is that the switch controller doesn't flawlessly execute all of the combos and the PC version is getting swamped with reviews complaining to not support some arcade fight sticks.

When I got the Super Nintendo Classic one part of that I enjoyed was it coming with Street Fighter II Turbo Hyper Fighting which has been fun to play with friends. I'm not amazing but I know a few character combos and can hold my own against low to medium skill players. The 30th Anniversary Collection ports over the games from the arcade versions so if you grew up with the console versions these games are different. Different in this case is good as each arcade version comes with better graphics and sound.

"Polish your skills in Training Mode, test your prowess against other players online, and journey through 30 years of rich history. Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection includes the legendary Street Fighter II, its highly-competitive sequel Street Fighter III: Third Strike, and an exclusive recreation of Super Street Fighter II: The Tournament Battle only for Nintendo Switch. Celebrate the last three decades of Street Fighter with 12 iconic titles on Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection, now available on Nintendo Switch!"

Mega Man 11 Is "Blue Bombing" It's Way To Launch October 2nd!

I'm not gonna lie, I prefer the old school pixel art of the classic Mega Man games. With that, they do need to bring Mega Man to a more modern audience so i'm trying to give the new art style a chance. Mega Man 11 looks to bring the classic 2D gameplay to modern systems with a more anime style that brings back a ton of classic 2D characterization. I don't love it but the style is growing on me and I bet after playing it a bit I might like it quite a bit. It was also announced today with the trailer featured above that Mega Man 11 is coming to consoles and PC October 2nd. For anyone planning on getting Mega Man 11 at launch or beyond what system do you think you will pick it up on?

"Mega Man is back! The newest entry in this iconic series blends classic, challenging 2D platforming action with a fresh new visual style. The new Double Gear system boosts Mega Man's speed and power for a new twist to the satisfying gameplay the series is known for. Coming to systems on October 2, 2018. "

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 05/30/2018 at 04:16am

Whoa! Another Switch game that's also coming to PC! I had no idea it was coming out on PC. Thanks for the info!

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 05/30/2018 at 04:33am

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 05/30/2018 at 04:58am

That game looks beautiful, doesn't it?!

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 05/30/2018 at 02:37pm

Yeah, the style is growing on me. That said, I think the original pixel style of Mega Man 2 should be in a museum.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 06/14/2018 at 02:45am

Looks like Mega Man 11 is pretty good!

https://kotaku.com/mega-man-11-is-exactly-what-i-hoped-it-would-be-1826794039

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Do You Need To Run PC Games At Max Settings?

Some PC Gamers spent a lot of money on super powerful PC's. Upgrading a PC like a tricked out roadster is a pretty cool hobby and one reason why you'd want to do this is to be able to run PC game settings at high settings to get as much visual and gameplay fidelity out of them as you can. But do you really need to run games at max settings and if you did would they actually look better? In many cases the answer is yes but not every setting works that way and DigitalFoundry made a video explaining why.

Travis Admin wrote on 05/28/2018 at 12:14am

There are some settings where I legitimately can’t see any difference by turning them on and off, but I can get big performance boosts by turning them off.

I heavily customize video settings to get the best visuals while maintaining performance, but I don’t really bother upgrading parts until I can’t play a game I want. I can play on low-mid settings and be just fine. They still usually look better than games from 5 years ago.

Timogorgon Member wrote on 05/28/2018 at 01:44am

As a lifelong budget gamer, I've never really been able to afford a top of the line PC to run the highest settings on anything new. :P
I've learned to live with playing new games at medium settings and enjoying when I can bump older games up to higher settings.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 05/28/2018 at 02:13am

Oh hell yeah, of course! I've your not playing at 10k, what's the point? Everything looks ugly w/ less than that! Gotta have max resolution and 1 million frames per second! Hahaha I was being silly. I like to run on max settings, so long as my PC can handle it. I don't do 4k and high FPS, because my monitor is not capable. I like to see what GeForce Experience recommends and if I decide to, I'll adjust settings to fit my desire.

I started having to play Ark with low settings, because it couldn't do SLI (a key feature of my original GPU). But, I decided to upgrade and now I can run most things on high settings.

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 05/28/2018 at 09:41pm

High settings when I can, but graphics have gotten so good, that I think even lower settings look good too. IMHO we are to the point that you don't really need to upgrade every 2 years. But, maybe I am old. :)

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 05/29/2018 at 05:15am

My PC is almost 5 years old @Will_Ball. I have, however, replaced the GPU. I was able to customize my order and selected a GTX 690, so that's what it came with. Unfortunately, since the GPU is 2 GPUs in one, at least one of my favorite games wasn't able to take advantage of it fully, so I replaced it with a GTX 980Ti (Classified Edition aka overclocked). So, obviously I haven't followed the every two year cycle that you mention. I believe I picked really good hardware and that's why it's lasted so long (along w/ the GPU change). The only thing I'd want to change about it now is adding an SSD hard drive instead of this standard old school hard drive (what do they call them?).

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 05/29/2018 at 08:48pm

I have a good gaming laptop with a pretty solid card somewhat like Greg has. For the PC games I play it works well and depending on the game I can run at reasonable setttings. If I were wanting to run everything at 120 FPS at 4K I’d be running a much beefier PC but the portability of the laptop is really nice.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 05/29/2018 at 08:49pm

Right now the most visually intense game I’ve been playing in my PC is Hearthstone and Binding if Issac so I’m able to max those out well

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 05/29/2018 at 09:10pm

Yeah, as for me I'm perfectly ok with 59-60FPS. I'd have to upgrade my monitor if I want to go higher. I haven't seen the necessity to do that though.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 05/29/2018 at 09:17pm

My monitor caps at 60FPS too which has been fine for me so far. When I get another one I’ll see if it can do 120hz

Will_Ball Game Mod Super Member wrote on 05/29/2018 at 09:23pm

59fps?! How can you handle not getting a perfect 60 Greg? :)

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 05/29/2018 at 09:41pm

Recently i've been looking at high def curved displays for computing and some of those look really great. Some have the same deal mine has which is a 60 FPS cap, which isn't a huge deal but I would like to go to 120hz if it's possible. I have a pretty large Dell Ultrasharp which I consider one of the best tech investments I've ever made. I bought it well before the 4k craze and it sits at 2560x1600.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 05/29/2018 at 09:58pm

LOL @Will_Ball I hardly notice unless my frames get really low. I do also have screen tearing at times, so I pretty much always use Vsync.

Travis Admin wrote on 05/29/2018 at 10:15pm

I love Adaptive V-Sync. It turns on V-sync at higher fps and turns it off below that, so you don't tank at low framerates.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 06/01/2018 at 05:09am

Check this out! Apparently Ark is the new Crysis! You kind of can't run Ark on maximum settings even with the best hardware. https://www.pcgamer.com/ark-survival-evolved-is-the-new-crysis-of-pc-hardware/
Watch the benchmarks in action! https://youtu.be/fNbvWbFfeNw

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Unreal 20 Years Later: An LGR Retrospective

Recently Unreal passed it's 20 year birthday and GOG was giving it away for free. During that giveaway I shared a behind the scenes making of Unreal video that focused on the original single player game and what later became Unreal Tournament. LGR made an Unreal 20 Year Retrospective video that goes much more into detail about the Unreal base game alongside some of it's great and not so great parts. It also talks about the Unreal multiplayer and expansions you can get as part of Unreal Gold edition.

Unreal Gold Is Free On GOG

The Unreal franchise is legendary. Unreal Tournament GoTY, Unreal Tournament 2004 & UT3 are all best of breed deathmatch shooters. But Unreal didn't start with the Tournament games it started with Epic creating the base Unreal game in 1998. GOG is giving away Unreal for the next bit so head over now and pick it up if you haven't before. I've included a history of Unreal video above which showcases much of the franchise story including how Unreal came by it's multiplayer Tournament mode.

"Believe dat.

It's been 20 years since we crash-landed on a planet full of ugly aliens, snazzy guns, and conveniently places power-ups. Today we're going back for a nostalgic trip FREE of charge!

Together with Epic Games, we are celebrating this anniversary with a 48h giveaway of Unreal Gold, the hallmark FPS that expanded the shooter genre with open areas, sweet weapon upgrades and, well, unreal lighting effects.

Grab it for FREE through our front page banner until May 24, 5pm UTC. Remember to redeem your code before June 7th, 10pm UTC.

https://www.gog.com/news/unreal_20th_anniversary_unreal_gold_free_for_48h

Will Nintendo Create A GameCube Classic?

After Nintendo created the amazingly popular Nintendo and Super Nintendo Classic I've wondered if a Nintendo 64 Classic would come this year? Some people have speculated that Nintendo might also bring a GameCube Classic to market and a YouTuber Nintendrew looked into how practical that was. Spoiler alert he actually builds one but it's not cheap, a reason why Nintendo might not be building one anytime soon. That said, computing prices drop fast enough a GameCube classic might come in the next handful of years and if it did, I'd buy one at launch.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 05/22/2018 at 05:47am

Wow that would be cool. What's interesting to me is that for us in North America, the GameCube is almost 17 years old! Yet I feel like I still see it as kind of "new." Whereas I feel like the N64 is older and much more doable as a mini. I would like to see a miniN64 and a miniNGC though. I really enjoyed my GameCube, I still have it.

Travis Admin wrote on 05/22/2018 at 04:47pm

Based on this video I'd say it's possible. Nintendo could more easily minify their own architecture, but they'd need really high demand for it to make it a good business decision. I'm still betting we see an N64 Classic, and that will be the last one for a while.

What I'd love is a GBA Classic loaded with GB, GBC, and GBA games. A DS Classic runs into hardware limitations probably.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 05/23/2018 at 05:11pm

The 64 Classic is coming this year. My guess is it will be announced in June or July.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.dailystar.co.uk/tech/gaming/704683/Nintendo-64-Classic-CONFIRMED-Nintendo-trademark-suggests-N64-Mini-console-coming-soon/amp

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 05/23/2018 at 05:59pm

Cool!

Travis Admin wrote on 05/23/2018 at 06:54pm

That isn’t real confirmation but it’s about as close as you can get without an announcement. Awesome!

I’m looking forward to this one because my N64 is a little broken. I kinda hope they do multiple colors like they did with the originals.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 05/24/2018 at 03:43am

I'm curious if they will do 4 player? They don't have to include 4 controllers but it would be neat if they did. My only game recommendation is they included Dr Mario 64, I think they'll get everything else right.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 05/24/2018 at 03:55am

I never played Dr Mario 64, I played the Gameboy version. That's something I'd like to see on that list and I think it seems like a good one for them to include, in other words, I think they would include it. I also think Mario 64 would have to be included, that's a classic N64 game. I doubt Smash Bros. will be on it, but that was one of my favorites. I also liked Goldeneye, but I don't expect to see that on there as it's not directly Nintendo.

This leads to a great discussion. Maybe we can come up with our own ideas about what may be included or what we'd like to see included.

Travis Admin wrote on 05/24/2018 at 01:24pm

I bet they’d put Smash on it.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 05/24/2018 at 01:36pm

I think Smash would be a great addition.

jdodson Admin Post Author wrote on 05/24/2018 at 01:39pm

Ideas:

Mario 64
Ocarina
Majoras Mask
Mario Kart
Smash
Dr Mario 64
Excite bike
Gauntlet
Earthbound 64 (because they go back and finish it, which they won’t but one can dream)
Star Fox 64
Donkey Kong 64

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 05/24/2018 at 05:42pm

Shit yeah I forgot about the Zelda games and Mario Kart. Star Fox 64 would be great, I've seen it, but never played it. Great list Jon! Hopefully Smash would be in there. Are N64 games small enough to fit on something? Well, I do know that the Zelda games are small enough to fit on a Gamecube disc (because I have that disc).

Travis Admin wrote on 05/24/2018 at 06:30pm

N64 games are very small by today’s storage standards. 32-64mb. So you could fit ten large N64 games on a standard cd rom. They’d have plenty of room to put 30 games on a 2gb sd card.

I would like to see GoldenEye and Perfect Dark on there but I highly doubt they’d get on there due to licensing since Microsoft owns Rare now, so the only Rare games would be properties owned by Nintendo like Donkey Kong 64

Travis Admin wrote on 05/24/2018 at 06:31pm

Oh and you know that Wave Race game is going to be on it.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 05/24/2018 at 10:55pm

Cool, thanks Travis. I'd like to try Perfect Dark. I'm not sure, but I may have played or seen Wave Race.

Azurephile Super Member wrote on 05/26/2018 at 03:37am

Oh! And I want Pokemon Stadium (1 & 2?) on there. Ogre Battle 64 would be a good addition, too, I've read or heard that it's a good game (similar to Final Fantasy Tactics).

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Take A Look At The Grandfather To The Switch, The Sega Nomad!

I didn't know that Sega released the Nomad which was a full blown Genesis that you could play on the go or connected to a TV. It's a great idea and something that people love about the Switch but Nintendo wasn't the first to do it. DF Retro talks about what worked about the Nomad and other consoles that tried to do that before the Switch became so popular.

"Nintendo Switch is rightly lauded for its hybrid console concept - the idea of having a fully mobile console you can also use for living room play, with full multiplayer support. But whether through design or through sheer luck, Sega actually got there first with its Nomad, way back in 1995. John picks up the story."

Nintendo's New Switch Online Service Is A Step Closer to A Nintendo Netflix Subscription

Today Nintendo dropped the details of it's Switch online service and it looks quite interesting. I don't love that consoles charge you money for online play as that's typically included in the price of PC games. That said, the way Nintendo is rolling it out isn't too shabby because the first year of service will just be $20. But what do you get for that first year?

Online Play

20 NES games with added online play

Save data cloud backup

Nintendo switch online app & special offers

I haven't heard great things about the online app & special offers just sound like discounts on things we'd already get. The interesting part is the 20 NES games with added online play and if you look at the list, it's a great list of games such as Soccer, Tennis, Donkey Kong, Mario Bros, Super Mario Bros, Balloon Fight, Ice Climber, Dr. Mario, The Legend of Zelda & Super Mario Bros 3. So basically you get access to most of the games on the NES Classic included in your subscription? Sounds like an amazing benefit to me but i'm wondering if this list of games rotates or if they keep adding to it over time? If it's the latter then it could mean that Nintendo will eventually offer a compelling back catalog of retro games that come included with a Nintendo online subscription which if they keep adding games could be an incredible selling point of the Switch.

https://www.nintendo.com/switch/online-service/
https://www.nintendo.com/switch/online-service/nes/

jdodson1

2744 Posts

Nintendo Announces Another Pokemon Game That's Out Now On Switch! Welcome Pokemon Quest!

The Switch Gets Two New Pokemon Games + New Pokeball Controller!

Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection is Here!

Mega Man 11 Is "Blue Bombing" It's Way To Launch October 2nd!

Do You Need To Run PC Games At Max Settings?

Unreal 20 Years Later: An LGR Retrospective

Unreal Gold Is Free On GOG

Will Nintendo Create A GameCube Classic?

Take A Look At The Grandfather To The Switch, The Sega Nomad!

Nintendo's New Switch Online Service Is A Step Closer to A Nintendo Netflix Subscription