{"id":5758,"date":"2017-11-20T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-11-20T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/news\/2017\/11\/soapbox_celebrating_the_second_chance_saloon_that_is_the_nintendo_switch"},"modified":"2017-11-20T17:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-11-20T17:00:00","slug":"soapbox-celebrating-the-second-chance-saloon-that-is-the-nintendo-switch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/2017\/11\/20\/soapbox-celebrating-the-second-chance-saloon-that-is-the-nintendo-switch\/","title":{"rendered":"Soapbox: Celebrating The Second Chance Saloon That Is The Nintendo Switch"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"picture strip\">\n<div class=\"img\"><a href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/news\/2017\/11\/soapbox_celebrating_the_second_chance_saloon_that_is_the_nintendo_switch\/attachment\/0\/original.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/news\/2017\/11\/soapbox_celebrating_the_second_chance_saloon_that_is_the_nintendo_switch\/attachment\/0\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"1737780-la_noire_screenshot_252.jpg\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Cole Phelps is one of the most unlikeable video game protagonists I\u2019ve ever had the pleasure of vaulting over a wall in pursuit of a fleeing perp, or accidentally propelling into the back of a parked Buick while at the wheel of a siren-wailing Nash Super. The leading man of Rockstar\u2019s <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/nintendo-switch\/l_a_noire\">L.A. Noire<\/a><\/strong>, developed by the now-defunct Team Bondi, Phelps is a careerist in all the wrong ways, striving for personal achievement whatever the damage dealt to those around him. His rapid rise through the Police Department of L.A. Noire\u2019s 1947 Los Angeles rubs a whole host of peers and partners up the wrong way, and leaves a similar sour taste in the mouth of the player.<\/p>\n<p>Okay, so Phelps isn\u2019t <em>all<\/em> bad \u2013 but I\u2019d forgotten so very much about his selfish side in the years between this game\u2019s initial May 2011 release (when I played it on Xbox 360) and its recent arrival on the Switch. Had I not picked it up again, in a port bearing some neat touch-sensitive control options for handheld play, I\u2019d have gone about my business remembering only the good times I had with Phelps. The leisurely drives around Hollywood. The lilting jazz that underpinned our quitter moments. All of those light-fingered one-on-ones with the city\u2019s many and varied stiffs. But, here we are; <em>here I am<\/em>. I\u2019m playing L.A. Noire and, you know, I\u2019m enjoying it more this time, second time around, than I did six years ago.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s not just the option to pinch the screen when manipulating a cadaver \u2013 the sticks and buttons still work just fine, too. Nor is it the portability of the platform that\u2019s making this playthrough such a\u2026 well, I won\u2019t say <em>delight<\/em>, because L.A. Noire goes to some dark places narratively (and is far from flawless mechanically, too), but it\u2019s certainly fun. More so than those advantages, I think it\u2019s the subdued hype, the relative lack of positives-loaded previews, that\u2019s allowing me to tackle these cases without any great weight of expectation. Six years is an eternity in the wider video games conversation regarding what\u2019s hot and what\u2019s not \u2013 and L.A. Noire, as much as it\u2019s one of those decent-enough seven-out-of-tens in my personal book, is absolutely in the \u201cnot\u201d category, here in 2017.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture strip\">\n<div class=\"img\"><a href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/news\/2017\/11\/soapbox_celebrating_the_second_chance_saloon_that_is_the_nintendo_switch\/attachment\/1\/original.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/news\/2017\/11\/soapbox_celebrating_the_second_chance_saloon_that_is_the_nintendo_switch\/attachment\/1\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"376645-doom_alt_boxart.0.0.jpg\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>I\u2019m not playing expecting anything revelatory \u2013 although those MotionScan-captured facial animations are still something special \u2013 and as such, I\u2019m able to enjoy the ride that much more. And the same has been true of a good number of other late-shows on the Switch.<\/p>\n<p>Blasting through <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/nintendo-switch\/doom\"><strong>DOOM<\/strong><\/a> on the move is a real treat when you vaguely remember what\u2019s waiting for you, jaws gnashing, around the next corner \u2013 but even without the experience of having played it once before, shorn of the usual release-date embargo hoo-hah that accompanies so many Bethesda-published new releases, 2016\u2019s best shooter can really breathe, even on the small screen.<\/p>\n<p>Suitably given its extra-terrestrial setting, there\u2019s no substantial pressure here. The press has long since spoken, and anyone interested in picking DOOM up for the first time on their Switch has a plethora of information to help guide their purchase in the first place, and just as much readily available when it comes to making the most from it, an abundance of guides and walkthroughs.<\/p>\n<p>Okay, so there\u2019s still performance points to address when any \u201cold\u201d game makes its way to the Switch. They can matter \u2013 not often much, as in DOOM\u2019s case (yes, it gets a bit blurry, but when a Baron of Hell is chasing your arse around Mars, you won\u2019t really be focusing on anything but self-preservation via full-frontal assault), but just sometimes, that second chance can be wasted. As has been the case with <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/nintendo-switch\/rime\">RiME<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>What had significant promise pre-release earlier in 2017, only to reveal itself as a polite puzzler with no true outstanding elements, has come to Switch in its worst version yet. It\u2019s a great disappointment, because RiME\u2019s exactly the kind of game that, with some critics lukewarm to it first time around, could have massively benefitted from being seen with greater distance between first-wave hype and at-hand play. But, yes: it\u2019s a mess, sadly. I hope that Playtonic\u2019s <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/nintendo-switch\/yooka-laylee\">Yooka-Laylee<\/a><\/strong> fares better when it finally sticks its Switch landing, as that could really sing as a portable platformer playground. (So long as nobody begins by directly comparing it with <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/nintendo-switch\/super_mario_odyssey\"><strong>Super Mario Odysse<\/strong>y<\/a>, of course.)<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture strip\">\n<div class=\"img\"><a href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/news\/2017\/11\/soapbox_celebrating_the_second_chance_saloon_that_is_the_nintendo_switch\/attachment\/2\/original.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/news\/2017\/11\/soapbox_celebrating_the_second_chance_saloon_that_is_the_nintendo_switch\/attachment\/2\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"Skyrim-Special-Edition.jpeg\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>2017\u2019s procession of great games for the Switch has included a series of known quantities, which have fitted in like this was their most natural home all along<strong>. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/switch-eshop\/thimbleweed_park\">Thimbleweed Park<\/a><\/strong> and\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/switch-eshop\/oxenfree\"><strong>Oxenfree<\/strong><\/a> are outstanding eShop options that I\u2019ve got so much more out of in handheld mode than I ever managed with them running on my home TV, through the Xbox One. <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/switch-eshop\/rocket_league\">Rocket League<\/a><\/strong> on the go is dangerous for missing public transport stops, even in its bot-bashing, own-goal-extravaganza offline modes.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve not started <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/switch-eshop\/stardew_valley\">Stardew Valley<\/a><\/strong> yet, but I know from my Twitter feed that it\u2019s got the makings of one hell of a time-sink. And to have that kind of game \u2013 that dip in and out experience, where sessions can be brief or endurance tests \u2013 on the Switch is just perfect for those who can\u2019t commit to sitting in the same seat for eight-hour stretches. It\u2019ll be my first time with it \u2013 but I know that I wouldn\u2019t be about to play it at all, if it wasn\u2019t for its take-it-anywhere convenience. It\u2019s simply up against too much on PlayStation or Xbox, for bigger-screen play.<\/p>\n<p>Exploring <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/nintendo-switch\/elder_scrolls_v_skyrim\">Skyrim<\/a><\/strong> again wherever I want to \u2013 be that in bed (until the battery runs out, or my hand goes numb, whichever happens first), on a commute or just for ten minutes between breakfast and running out the door of a morning \u2013 is immeasurably more rewarding than it was back in 2011. And, again, I think that\u2019s because I knew all about Skyrim before taking on its epic adventuring once more \u2013 I\u2019ve walked these roads, albeit in a different order, before; and I\u2019ve read all of the accolades (hell, I wrote a couple of them) and inputted them into my singular barometer for what represents a quality RPG, to me. Turns out: Skyrim still does.<\/p>\n<p>The quality and style with which so many games have made their Switch debuts has made me supremely confident for <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/nintendo-switch\/wolfenstein_ii_the_new_colossus\">Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus\u2019s<\/a><\/strong> arrival in 2018 \u2013 indeed, I\u2019m yet to buy it for anything else, purely because the example of DOOM illustrates that this kind of port is achievable. I don\u2019t know if I\u2019ll hold out through Christmas, as the urge to step into the shoes of BJ again is pretty significant (the preceding <strong>The New Order<\/strong> was a cracker that I only got into earlier this year), but if I only owned a Switch, I wouldn\u2019t be worrying about it being a notably poorer experience compared to other hardware. Different, certainly, but worse isn\u2019t a word I\u2019d be expecting to reach for.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"picture strip\">\n<div class=\"img\"><a href=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/news\/2017\/11\/soapbox_celebrating_the_second_chance_saloon_that_is_the_nintendo_switch\/attachment\/3\/original.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/images.nintendolife.com\/news\/2017\/11\/soapbox_celebrating_the_second_chance_saloon_that_is_the_nintendo_switch\/attachment\/3\/900x.jpg\" alt=\"rimefeat.jpg\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Team Cherry\u2019s <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.nintendolife.com\/games\/switch-eshop\/hollow_knight\">Hollow Knight<\/a><\/strong> and Infinite Fall\u2019s <strong>Night in the Woods<\/strong> are two indie games that have long been on my 2017 radar \u2013 but that they\u2019re both incoming for Switch (<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/NightInTheWoods\/status\/925014487064817664\">albeit not explicitly<\/a>, in the latter\u2019s case), and knowing what I do about how Nintendo\u2019s console has changed the way I play games (shorter bursts, but much more frequently), means I\u2019m waiting, patiently, rather than picking them up immediately for any other systems.<\/p>\n<p>They\u2019ll be my first times \u2013 but for many others, no doubt, they\u2019ll be playing them through again and delighting in how they\u2019ve been given the chance to see what might have been a favourite, a flawed great, or even something they really expected more from, in a new way. They\u2019re released from the choking atmosphere of Metascore this and Steam charts that, that makes up many a game\u2019s release window, and offered instead a freedom. It\u2019s one informed by precedent, sure, but very much pointing towards the future of a platform that\u2019s only going to become a home for more amazing adventures from the recent, and not so recent, past.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m sure we\u2019ve all got our list of what we want to see come over from the previous console generation, so as to provide us with a second helping: an <strong>Arkham<\/strong> series set, maybe, or the <strong>Mass Effect<\/strong> trilogy. I\u2019d love to see a Dreamcast collection appear, like the one that came out for 360 and PC in 2011, or at least a few individual eShop additions \u2013 though I realise that\u2019s very wishful thinking. Look, Sega: just give me a controls-tweaked version of that console\u2019s <strong>Daytona<\/strong>, on the Switch, and I\u2019ll be happy. And if you want to sling <strong>OutRun 2<\/strong> on there while you\u2019re at it, I\u2019m not about to complain.<\/p>\n<p>I mightn\u2019t like everything I see in Phelps, and I mightn\u2019t like everything I do in L.A. Noire (uh, those hostage situations are <em>so<\/em> annoying). But if it wasn\u2019t for the Switch, I\u2019d never have played it again \u2013 and the same can be said of Skyrim, and even DOOM. These second chances have greatly added to my appreciation of games that I thought I had pegged a very certain way. And in each case, that assessment has been slightly altered, forming as it has in a way entirely uninfluenced by media previews and blind optimism \u2013 and for the better, almost every time.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Which is to say, again: <em>it\u2019s a shame about Rime.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cole Phelps is one of the most unlikeable video game protagonists I\u2019ve ever had the pleasure of vaulting over a wall in pursuit of a fleeing perp, or accidentally propelling into the back of a parked Buick while at the wheel of a siren-wailing Nash Super. The leading man of Rockstar\u2019s L.A. Noire, developed by [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nintendo-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5758"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5758\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sickgaming.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}