Ring Fit Adventure Player Shows Off His Healthy Transformation After One Month
If there’s one thing we’ve been reminded of over the past year, it’s that fitness games are quite popular. When Fitness Boxing was originally released on the Switch, the developer Imagineer ended up having to issue an apology in Japan due to nationwide shortages after stories spread of weight loss success.
The same thing happened when Ring Fit Adventure arrived on the hybrid system last October – with Nintendo having to apologise for stock shortages (again, in Japan) after strong sales in the first month of the game’s release.
Has Ring Fit Adventure had the same impact on the health and fitness of users as Fitness Boxing? Apparently it has, according to one Ring Fit player who recently uploaded a before and after photo of himself after one month. This regular user reportedly exercised in the game for about 25 minutes a day and made sure to keep track of his diet at the same time. Here’s the result:
Before and after 30 days of exercise in Ring Fit Adventure
Is getting fit part of your new year resolution? Have you been exercising in Ring Fit Adventure regularly? Are you noticing any differences? Share your own fitness journey in the comments below.
Pokemon Sword & Shield: Every Max Raid Event Happening Right Now
Pokemon Sword and Shield introduce a few exciting new features to the series, such as Max Raid battles. At certain dens dotting the Wild Area, you can team up with three other trainers--either locally or online--and take on supersized Dynamax Pokemon together.
Pokemon you encounter in these Max Raids are special in a few different ways. First, there's a chance the monster will have its Hidden Ability. Regular wild Pokemon you come across in Sword and Shield will never have their Hidden Ability, making this the only way to obtain it in the games (outside of breeding, and in that case one of the parents would need to have the Hidden Ability in order to pass it down).
Depending on the level of the Raid, the Pokemon will have a couple of perfect IVs (base stats) as well, making them useful for breeding if you're trying to put together a competitive team. You'll also receive an assortment of rewards for clearing Max Raids, including Exp. Candy and TRs, which can otherwise only be purchased with Watts (and are quite costly). Finally, Max Raids are the only way to encounter Gigantamax Pokemon; unlike standard monsters, these Pokemon take on a different appearance when they Dynamax.
Which Pokemon you encounter in Max Raids is typically up to chance, but Game Freak periodically hosts Max Raid events that bring out certain monsters for a limited time, such as Shiny Magikarp and Gigantamax Snorlax. You can see the full list of Max Raid events happening right now in Pokemon Sword and Shield below. Be sure to also check out our Max Raid guide for tips to help you defeat these Dynamax monsters.
Review: ESP Ra.De. Psi – The Best Shmup On Nintendo Switch, Period
Before we begin our review of ESP Ra.De. Psi, M2 ShotTriggers’ latest triumph, here’s a little history for those who may not be intimately familiar with ESP Ra.De. and its place within the pantheon of shooting games. In 1998, the blossoming shmup developing studio, CAVE, just finished delighting and devastating the world with their ‘danmaku’ masterpiece, Dodonpachi – a game that, to this day, consumes the minds and emotions of any shmup player who dares to challenge it. Before Dodonpachi, CAVE also released the innovative Donpachi, the first shmup to utilize the famous combo-based chaining system that has become a popular staple of contemporary shooters. Both of these games are in the classic style of military-oriented fighter planes taking on waves of other sci-fi combat vehicles. However, with the creation of ESP Ra.De., CAVE deviated from this aesthetic in pursuit of a new idea that was unique for the time — flying human beings blasting their enemies with psychic lasers.
Looking at the visual style of ESP Ra.De. and comparing it to some of the popular anime of the time, especially Akira (1988) and Ghost in the Shell (1995), it’s easy to see where this new design is likely rooted. In fact, for fans of Ghost in the Shell, ESP Ra.De. contains a fun Easter egg in the form of a mid-boss that bears an amazingly coincidental resemblance to the cloaking tank unit that the Major battles at the end of the film.
Visuals aside, ESP Ra.De. is also a departure from Dodonpachi in terms of gameplay and scoring mechanics. Moving away from the strict chaining and maximum bonus system of Dodonpachi, ESP Ra.De. replaces chain combos by having the player attack larger enemies with a special shot and then mugging score items out of the smaller enemies with a regular shot for extra points. It’s a refreshing reversal of design. When written out in detail, the scoring system of ESP Ra.De. does seem confusing, but the basic idea can be summarized as follows: hit the larger enemies with your fully charged special shot, while the “bubbles” of the special shot stick to the larger enemy, quickly fly around and kill the smaller ones with your regular shot to collect higher value score items. Of course, as with any CAVE shooter, there are a bunch of additional strategies to maximize scoring potential, but this basic idea will carry the player quite a long way.
However, as refreshing and fun as the original scoring system of ESP Ra.De. has been for many players, there is one aspect of the original arcade release that we are very happy to see addressed in this new Switch port. This concern is the excessive boss milking of the arcade release. Boss milking, for the uninitiated, is when a player delays killing a boss by destroying regenerating or extra pieces for added points. In many shmups, like Ketsui, boss milking is a fun and interesting mechanic that presents the player with an enticing risk-reward scenario. The player takes the risk of fighting the boss longer for the reward of more points (and shmup players love points). In the case of ESP Ra.De., though, this risk-reward is thrown out of balance to the point where the boss milking is extremely rewarding, points-wise, but involves the player committing to very long stretches of tedious repetitive gameplay. Stack this up with the time commitment of playing for score in the first place, and the result is a game that very few players have the patience to play for score on a serious level.
Enter M2 ShotTriggers — the team that needs no introduction to the shmup world, but could benefit from an intro to the wider gaming public. The ShotTriggers team is a small group within the Japanese development powerhouse, M2 – the studio behind many acclaimed ports that have been released on modern consoles, like the Collection of Mana and Castlevania Anniversary Collection. They are highly respected among this field of video game creation. The ShotTriggers sub-team specialises specifically in shmup arcade-to-console ports. What’s extremely important to understand about ShotTriggers is that, compared to other teams porting shmups to modern consoles, these guys are as hardcore and passionate about the genre as any player could hope for. The ShotTriggers team talks to the super-players and studies the games in-depth and delivers comprehensive features that you will not find anywhere else – even in the world of unofficial emulation.
As much fun as it is to have an official port of a classic game, like Metal Slug, on your home console, the world of unofficial emulation is delivering these games in an outrageously strong form — especially for dedicated players. Not only are players given the mighty save-state feature to efficiently and quickly hone in their practice of difficult or important sections, but they are typically playing these games with lower input lag as well. Just take a look at the absurd amount of input lag and complete lack of training features in the ZeroDiv Psikyo ports as an example (Strikers 1945 II has a whopping 7 frames of lag). Many of these ports are simply ROMs being dumped with user interface elements added and no consideration for playability in the long term.
M2 is never happy with this approach. With ESP Ra.De. Psi – as with Ketsui DeathTiny and BattleGaregga Revision 2016 – the ShotTriggers team set out to make a port that even unofficial emulation cannot match. They accomplished this impressive achievement through the addition of the following elements. ESP Ra.De. Psi now has an Arcade Plus mode that tones down the boss milking issue of the arcade release, making it more attractive to play for score. Accompanying this mode is the addition of a new character, Alice Master, a green-haired girl in a white gothic dress who obliterates her enemies with energy bursting from her favourite doll (very fleek, we must say). M2 also added a comprehensive save-state functionality to their port, so players can spend the hours they need to practice for things like the final boss fight without having to waste time credit-feeding to the last stage over and over.
The user interface of ESP Ra.De. Psi is well-formulated, also. There are comprehensive control features like being able to set the autofire rate on different buttons and fully implemented screen rotation and scanline options. We recommend the 25% darkness level, but the lines can go as dark as 100% if desired. Of course, no arcade shmup port is complete without rotation support and, as hoped, Psi can be played both horizontally (YOKO) as well as vertically (TATE). It wouldn’t be a Nintendo Switch shmup review without mentioning the ability to use the Flip-Grip in handheld mode, which is a cool option. However, one thing to keep in mind is that, if you plan on using the Hori D-pad Joy-Con — which is absolutely superior to the stock Joy-Con D-pad, even with a case mod — you are going to be out of luck because, unfortunately, Hori did not add wireless functionality to it.
Outside of the core gameplay, M2 has also included some extra modes that enrich the experience beyond what you’re going to find in the usual shmup-to-console conversion. ESP Ra.De. Psi has a fleshed-out replay and online leaderboard system. In this system, you are not only able to post and record your own replays of the different game modes, but you are also able to download other players’ replays to study and observe. This is a powerful feature when it comes to planning your routing because you can slow down and speed up the gameplay at your leisure for careful analysis. Also present is the Arcade Challenge mode, where you can play different slices of the game in bite-sized chunks of increasing difficulty. This is an accessible way to learn ESP Ra.De. Psi and get some guidance from the developers on how to improve. It’s essentially a shmup training mode.
While playing Arcade Challenge, you will then unlock in-game currency that you can spend in a rather interesting additional mode called Iori’s Room. In this mode, the game switches over to a Gacha-style setup where you can decorate your character’s room and coordinate their outfits. It’s not going to be a mode that’s highly appealing to most players, but it is a nice addition for the fans who are interested in learning the game via Arcade Challenge and would like an extra incentive for their time and effort. Sadly, the whole thing is in Japanese so it’s going to be troublesome to navigate for non-Japanese speaking players. This mode is likely aimed at the Japanese mobile crowd who enjoy Gacha games, and if it sells more copies of ESP Ra.De., then it’s no bad thing – even if western players might not be able to fully enjoy it (let’s hope that a release outside of Japan happens).
Before getting to the review score and final summary, some missed opportunities can be pointed out. However, what’s also important to keep in mind is that, because the ShotTriggers team is so far ahead of the competition, the only basis of critique is in comparison to their previous work. In the case of ESP Ra.De. Psi then, we were disappointed to see that the game does not have a true arrange mode, like Battle Garegga Revision 2016 or Ketsui DeathTiny. Arcade Plus mode, with the addition of Alice, is in the ballpark, but since Arcade Plus is more akin to a revision rather than an arrange, there is a sense of letdown in that regard. Also, in terms of the game’s soundtrack, we were sad to note that there is only the one extra option, whereas Ketsui DeathTiny and Battle Garegga both had multiple additional soundtracks. With that said though, it is a relief that the new ESP Ra.De. soundtrack is very strong, so there is still extra value with the new music. Perhaps, in the future, M2 might be interested in adding DLC for the game in the form of an arrange mode and extra OST – but until then, there is that slight disappointment in comparison to Ketsui DeathTiny.
Conclusion
ESP Ra.De. Psi goes beyond the industry standard and lays waste to pretty much every other shmup on the Nintendo Switch – this is even better than the mighty Ikaruga, which many Switch fans see as the best example of the genre available on the system. While personal preference obviously enters into things, we feel that ESP Ra.De. Psi is the superior port thanks to all the comprehensive features and attention to detail. Plus, with Arcade Plus mode removing the previous frustrations of the troublesome boss milking scoring system, ESP Ra.De. Psi cleans up to be a massively underrated classic that effortlessly earns the title of the best shmup on the Nintendo Switch. Hopefully, this superb package will see a western release in the fullness of time so an even wider audience can sample its myriad delights.
Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa Thinks Cloud Gaming Is “A Long Way Off”
Last month, Nintendo of America’s former president Reggie Fils-Aimé predicted cloud gaming would take off over the next decade as technology steadily evolves and download speeds increase. Obviously, right now, the video game industry is still in the earlier experimental phases with projects like Microsoft xCloud and Google Stadia.
What does Nintendo’s current global president Shuntaro Furukawa think about the idea of cloud gaming, though? He was recently asked during an interview with the Japanese publication Nikkei if he thought this new technology would result in the demise of “expensive” and “dedicated video game hardware” like the Nintendo Switch.
Here’s Furukawa’s full reply, courtesy of a translation by Oni_Dino from Nintendo Everything:
It’s possible that cloud gaming could capture the public’s interest in 10 years from now, however at this point in time, I do not think that dedicated hardware will go away. It’s a long way off before we’ll really know the outcome. With that said, it would be pointless to solely focus on methods of play that can only be had on dedicated hardware. Once your audience starts saying they can play on other consoles or smartphones instead, you’re finished.
This isn’t necessarily the first time the president has shared his thoughts about cloud gaming. Speaking to investors at a Q&A last March, he revealed how he believed Nintendo’s current business of integrated hardware and software would increase in value in the future, despite advancements in streaming technologies.
I believe that our core value, the unique entertainment experiences that can only be achieved through the development of integrated hardware and software, will further increase in value. Delivering unique entertainment that only Nintendo can create will continue to be our top priority.
Although it might not seem like Nintendo is ready to embrace cloud gaming, there have actually been some cloud games released on the Switch, such as Assassin’s Creed Odyssey. For now, though, these experiences remain exclusive to Japan.
Is the future of gaming in the cloud? Share your thoughts down below.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 01-06-2020, 03:44 AM - Forum: Lounge
- No Replies
Gorgeous Avengers 4K Blu-Ray Box Set Discounted To Lowest Price Yet
Marvel's Infinity Saga spanned a whopping 23 movies, but the four Avengers movies will always be seen as the tentpoles. Last August, Best Buy released a gorgeous steelbook box set featuring all four Avengers movies in 4K UHD Blu-ray, Blu-ray, and digital. Though it usually goes for $150, collectors can pick it up for $50 off right now.
Includes 4K UHD, Blu-ray, and digital versions of all four Avengers movies
At $100, this is the lowest price we've seen for the Avengers 4-Movie Collection, besting the $120 Black Friday price. The Best Buy-exclusive box set includes four individually packaged steelbooks, each emblazoned with the Avengers logo.
Make no mistake about it: This is a really good deal. Individual (non-steelbook) 4K UHD versions of the Avengers movies go for around $30 each. You're getting each movie for $25, with the added benefit of this being a collector's item that will likely become scarce in the coming years (maybe even months).
As an added bonus, the collection includes an exclusive letter written by Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige.
Even in an era where streaming services dominant home media, Best Buy often releases attractive Blu-ray box sets. Star Wars fans will want to check out Best Buy's Skywalker Saga box set, which includes all nine mainline films and is available to pre-order now.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 01-05-2020, 07:09 PM - Forum: Windows
- No Replies
CES 2020: Lenovo powers up new gaming devices, monitors
At CES, Lenovo continued revealing its releases with gaming laptops, an eGPU and monitors.
The new Lenovo Legion Y740S is Lenovo’s thinnest and lightest gaming laptop yet with up to eight hours of battery life [1]. It’s got up to 10th Gen Intel Core i9 processors (coming soon) reaching more than 5 GHz and Q-Control, with which users can shift gears with a simple press of their Fn+Q keys. Jump into Performance Mode for higher frame rates, down-shift into Quiet Mode for better battery life to watch a movie or stay the course in Balance Mode for day-to-day usage. Made with long-term gaming usage in mind, enjoy the new tactile feel of the Lenovo Legion keyboards, featuring quick response time with 100% anti-ghosting, improved ergonomic key size and responsive switches designed for smoother typing and gameplay. An anti-oil and abrasion-resistant coating amps device durability compared to previous generations.
With a display up to 600 nits bright and VESA certified with Dolby Vision, it has a 60 Hz refresh rate so washed out images are a thing of the past. The vivid picture quality is matched with up to 32GB DDR4 of memory, 1TB PCIe SSD [2] storage capacity and a thermal design with five-point sensor array and quad fan for four times the cooling when playing graphically intensive titles. Play action-packed multiplayer online battle arena games at the perfect angle with a new flexible 180-degree hinge. It starts at $1099.99 as a configure-to-order (CTO) offering.
Players can add to the power of the Y740S with the Lenovo Legion BoostStation. It serves as the gaming hub or performance box eGPU that fits on virtually any playing surface at just under 20lbs (9.07kg). Mixed-reality features (augmented or virtual reality) are supported with applicable specifications via the eGPU. It starts at $249.99 as a standalone accessory or option to bundle a NVIDIA GeForce RTX2060 or AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT GPU.
Both are expected to be available starting in May 2020.
Stay focused on the game with the new Lenovo Legion Y25-25 Gaming Monitor with a 24.5-inch, Full HD IPS panel display built into the near-edgeless chassis. Crank up refresh rates all the way to 240Hz—more FPS means that more data flows between the GPU and monitor, helping to eliminate tearing in most multiplayer games. It comes with anti-glare panel and up to 400 nits of brightness and is TÜV Rheinland Eye Comfort Certified to reduce eye strain. Its ergonomic stand enables a myriad of comfortable playing angles including tilt, lift, pivot and swivel; the VESA mount allows for on-wall display.
It will start at $319.99 and is expected to be available in June 2020.
Curved monitors make gaming more immersive and comfortable, as the curve simulates a more natural viewing experience for your eyes, neck and head—allowing the gamer to see all the action at once.
The new 31.5-inch Lenovo G32qc Gaming Monitor has near-edgeless bezel QHD (2560 x 1440) screen resolution for clear visuals and superior picture quality. Catch every player movement with its wide viewing angle, high-screen brightness and excellent contrast ratio. It’ll start at $319.99 and is expected to be available in March 2020.
Or, choose the heavy-duty yet compact 27-inch Full HD (1920 x 1080) resolution display on the Lenovo G27c Gaming Monitor—both monitors have a curvature of 1500R for complete game immersion. The latter is engineered to deliver virtually tear-free and stutter-free gameplay and is capable of an amazingly high refresh rate of up to 165Hz, helping to rid gaming distractions such as choppy images, streaks and motion blur. It will start at $219.99 and is expected to be available in March 2020.
While the Lenovo G32qc Gaming Monitor offers a speedy 144Hz refresh rate, both monitors give users a high-speed 4ms response time for ultimate clarity and to help eliminate ghosting. Both curved gaming monitors are TÜV Rheinland Low Blue Light and Flicker Free Certified to help protect gamers’ eyesight during those uninterrupted sessions. They’re available with adjustable stands for ergonomic positioning, as well as a VESA mount for users who prefer to affix their displays to the wall. Easy access to HDMI, DisplayPort and audio out makes for seamless connectivity to gaming rigs for a better user experience.
Find out more about these and other gaming accessories at Lenovo.
[1] With 60Whr battery and 95W power adapter. All battery life claims are approximate and based on test results using the MobileMark 2014 ver 1.5 battery life benchmark test. Actual results will vary and depend on numerous factors including product configuration and usage, software, operating conditions, wireless functionality, power management settings, screen brightness and other factors. The maximum capacity of the battery will naturally decrease with time and usage. See https://bapco.com/products/mobilemark-2014/ for additional details.
[2] Actual available capacity is less and varies due to many factors, including formatting, partitioning and operating system, etc. which utilize part of this capacity. The available capacity may change with software updates.
Feature: Feral Interactive On The Pleasures And Pitfalls Of Porting To Switch
Against all the odds, Nintendo Switch has hosted some stunning third-party ports since launching back in 2017. Disproving the idea that third-parties and Nintendo platforms don’t mix well, Switch has attracted some truly excellent (and unexpected) games that manage to squeeze performance from the console’s modest mobile chipset that few believed was possible. Where there’s a will there’s a way, it seems, and a handful of porting houses have worked wonders on Nintendo’s hybrid handheld.
One of those developers is Feral Interactive, the studio responsible for bringing both GRID Autosport and Alien: Isolation to Switch. Both games are masterclasses in porting to the console and, incredibly, they represent the first two games the developer has brought to any dedicated home console since the London-based company was founded in 1996.
“Feral began with the aim of bringing AAA games to the Macintosh platform and we built up a lot of experience doing just that,” says Edwin Smith, Feral Interactive’s Head of Design. “Over the last several years we have extended our activities to include Linux, iOS, Android and most recently Switch. We started working with Switch because it seemed capable of handling some of the games that we had brought to other platforms.”
Given Feral’s history of quality port work on other platforms, it’s unsurprising that the end results on Nintendo’s console have been impressive. While there are benefits to working on a specific device, each one has its specific drawbacks, too. “Having a single piece of hardware to target simplifies the development and QA tasks, all other things being equal,” Smith explains. “Having said that, all other things are rarely equal…the Switch CPU is not as powerful as most recent mobile handsets so you have to eke out of it all the performance you can and that means lots of performance analysis and optimisation, and that takes time and effort.”
When it comes to the two Switch games the company has worked on so far, it’s clear that that time and effort has been well spent. Feral is not alone in producing stunning work on Switch, but for every incredible port there’s another bare-bones or sloppy effort which only sets apart the quality examples further. With GRID on Switch the team went out of its way to provide players with graphical options to tailor the experience to their individual tastes, providing three distinct visual modes enabling the player to choose between graphical loveliness at 30 frames-per-second, smooth performance at 60fps or a handheld-only energy-saving mode to make Switch’s battery last longer. A free HD texture pack for the cars was also made available as a separate download, giving players even more choice over how much space the digital-only release takes up on their console.
There are a number of factors in [evaluating a potential port], not least our enthusiasm for the game as a game.
While it’s tempting to see these port houses like M2, Saber Interactive and the like as tech ‘wizards’, the reality often comes down to simple hard graft and time. “The elapsed time for each [game] was less than a year,” Smith reveals, “but in terms of man months we’ve had different teams working on different problems so it’s hard to give an accurate figure. Getting the games up and running was relatively straightforward. However we spent a lot of time tuning visual effects, controls and performance hotspots.”
Interestingly, it seems both Alien: Isolation and GRID came about more organically than you might expect, with neither being the result of a specific pitch from either Feral or the games’ respective developers/owners. “We are lucky to have long-standing relationships with both SEGA and Codemasters. A decision to bring a particular game to a particular platform tends to come out of our continuing conversations with our partners rather than a discrete event such as a pitch.”
Feral has partnerships with some of gaming’s biggest names – Square Enix, 2K and SEGA to name just a few – and while it maintains a dialogue with all partners throughout development, the team finds it most productive to keep contact to a relative minimum. “There is always regular contact with partners throughout a project that includes a range of companies, licensors, card vendors, platform holders, etc, The frequency of interaction and intensity of information flow varies by project and stage of the project. The ideal scenario is enough exchange of information, but no more to get the project done in a timely way at a quality with which everyone is happy.”
Of course, the notion of bringing a game – any game – to Switch is easy enough to dream up, but that’s just the start of a process. Potential projects undergo an evaluation which includes, perhaps surprisingly, whether the team actually likes and enjoys the game in question. “There are a number of factors in that process, not least our enthusiasm for the game as a game. But also, technical feasibility, sales potential, platform suitability, code quality, etc. If we are unable to port a game to the level of quality we wish to achieve, then we do not proceed, and occasionally that has happened. You see quite a few ports, which have dropped a number of features from the original game or else are released to run on a limited range of the latest hardware. We think that is self-defeating in that it generates disappointment rather than enjoyment.”
Some [players] don’t immediately understand the implications of an [in-depth Digital Foundry-style technical] analysis, but people are smart, if they are interested they figure it out, and it’s good to have knowledgeable customers.
On the subject of missing features, anybody who played GRID on Switch at launch will have noticed that the multiplayer mode wasn’t included to begin with. The local and splitscreen components instead arrived in December and online multiplayer is scheduled for later this year. “We wanted to manage the development risks,” Smith elaborates. “Part of that was to separate some of the major ones and so stage development and release. The initial aim was to make the best possible single player racing experience on Switch in a given time frame. If we achieved that, we felt that we would be in a good position to offer additional functionality via patches.”
Breaking development up in this manner might seem risky if the initial offering fails to sell sufficiently well, but by splitting multiplayer modes off and patching them in later the team has been able to give each aspect of the port the attention it deserves. “Similarly by first offering local multiplayer and splitscreen we have been able to focus on the multiplayer experience per se without having to worry about all the online issues that need to be solved.”
Whatever your opinion on this compartmentalised, staggered method of development, it has worked very well for Feral and the results speak for themselves. In the case of Alien: Isolation, Digital Foundry has argued that the Switch version actually looks better than its counterparts on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. While this praise must be encouraging to the team, knowing that the work will be analysed in such forensic detail, with side-by-side comparisons drawing attention to any minor inconsistency, must put additional pressure on the developers.
“It does add pressure,” Smith confirms, “but in a good cause. Reviewers such as Digital Foundry set a standard by which developers know their efforts will be judged, and setting the bar high is good for everyone, players, platform holders and developers. It is true that some don’t immediately understand the implications of an analysis, but people are smart, if they are interested they figure it out, and it’s good to have knowledgeable customers.”
We have had a blast working on GRID Autosport and Alien Isolation. We are confident that they won’t be the last games we bring to Switch
Of course, it’s impossible to please everyone. A small number of players noted input latency while playing the Switch version of Alien: Isolation and Feral responded saying this was partly the result of triple buffering and will remain present as part of a development ‘trade-off’. “Every game has some form of latency,” Smith explains, “as any input from the player has to do several things before any correlate appears on screen: the player presses a button on the controller; the Controller reports the input to the main device; the device reports the movement to the game; the input is processed by the game; the GPU draws the frame; the frame is rendered to the screen. Every step of this process incurs a small delay. Some players are very sensitive to these delays, but the majority of people don’t perceive them.”
“The trade-off here was between incurring a little extra input latency perceived by a very small faction of players versus displaying screen tearing, which would be seen by everyone. We chose the path, which affected the fewest players.” Given the inevitable compromises required when porting games effectively, it’s hard to argue Feral didn’t make the right choice here. Personally, we find screen tearing interminably distracting but everyone will have their own preferences.
With more powerful hardware, fewer compromises are necessary. A potential ‘Switch Pro’ would expand the possibilities for everyone, although Smith mentions a more surprising area he’d like to see improved with new hardware. “We assume the next version of the Switch will have more computing power, but less obviously support for analogue triggers on the joy-cons would be very welcome for racing games.” Indeed, Feral went so far as to include GameCube controller support in GRID Autosport, just another example of the studio going above and beyond in search of the best possible gaming experience on Switch. This year’s update will see Labo controller support added, too.
With Sega/Creative Assembly and Codemasters seemingly pleased with the team’s efforts (“They seem very happy”) and Nintendo itself being “a pleasure to work with, responsive, helpful and supportive”, we’re certain we haven’t seen the last of Feral Interactive on Switch. Smith is enthusiastic about the console and the studio’s work on it. “We have had a blast working on GRID Autosport and Alien Isolation. We are confident that they won’t be the last games we bring to Switch, but we will all have to wait and see.”
Whatever the future holds for Switch and third-party ports, Feral Interactive’s involvement will be a sure sign that potential future releases are worthy of investigation. ‘Port-begging’ might have become a dirty word, but with games like Witcher 3, GRID Autosport and Alien: Isolation showing just what’s possible on Switch, it’s hard not to imagine what could be with the right people on the job.
Many thanks to Edwin for his time, and to Timur at Feral for helping set up this interview.
The 10 Best-Selling Physical Video Games Of The Past Decade Within The UK
Yesterday, physical games sales data for the UK revealed the best-selling titles of 2019. To nobody’s surprise, FIFA 20 took out the number one spot, with a total of 1.5 million sales. Nintendo also had a reasonably good year in this part of the world, with both Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Pokémon Sword (not including PokémonShield sales) making the cut.
Despite a strong year for Nintendo titles, no first-party games from the Japanese company have performed well-enough sales-wise to earn a spot in the UK’s top 10 best-selling physical games of the past decade. As you might have already noticed at this point, the game that did take out first was Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto V, followed by Activision’s Call of Duty: Black Ops and in third place was Minecraft, which has at least been released on multiple Nintendo platforms.
The rest of the list is comprised of two other COD games and EA’s FIFA series takes up five spots on the chart. That’s FIFA 14 in fifth, FIFA 13 in sixth, FIFA 15 in seventh, FIFA 11 in ninth and FIFA 12 in tenth place. Unfortunately, sales figures were not provided by the GfK.
1.
Grand Theft Auto V
2.
Call of Duty: Black Ops
3.
Minecraft
4.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3
5.
Fifa 14
6.
Fifa 13
7.
Fifa 15
8.
Call of Duty: Black Ops II
9.
Fifa 11
10.
Fifa 12
As already noted here, FIFA 20 was the best-selling video game in 2019 within the UK. Clearly there are no signs of its popularity slowing down anytime soon, even after all the uproar last year about microtransactions and loot boxes.
Are you at all surprised by this list? Did you expect any Nintendo exclusives to make the cut? Share your thoughts below.
Warframe Takes Co-Op Space Combat to Next Level with Empyrean
Since July 2018, our development team has talked about giving Warframe players something different than the tried-and-true procedurally generated corridor shooters and open-world expansions they have become used to. They have wanted to expand Warframe’s gameplay into real-time, ship-to-ship space combat.
With
that first Railjack demo shown at TennoCon one-and-a-half years ago,
they turned a wild, nearly impossible dream they once had with our original
third-person action-adventure, Dark Sector, into a reality. Empyrean,
available now on Xbox One, is just that. Warframe players now have the
keys to a powerful battleship and dares them to fly into fast-paced, all-out
battleship combat.
Starting
with three gorgeous new space environments, Earth, Saturn, and Veil Proxima, Warframe
players must build a Dry Dock and the Railjack battleship, rally together their
clan, and launch into the wild unknown of deep space. In these all new
tilesets, Tenno (players’ names in game) will crash head-on into hostile
Grineer forces in next-level, team-oriented cooperative play.
This
first stage of Empyrean is designed as a real, honest-to-goodness
cooperative experience. Solo players will still
be able to enjoy Empyrean, but the difficulty and progression is
balanced around two-, three-, and four-player crews. Come 2020, we’ll bring
enhanced solo capabilities and even more surprises!
Starting
today, Empyrean will be an intense rush for both new and veteran Xbox
One players. By shooting waves of opponent Fighters and Crewships from the
pilot seat or gunner positions, we hope to capture some of those early
Millenium Falcon moments from “Star Wars: A New Hope.” You might just
reflexively yell to your teammates, “Don’t get cocky kid!”
Blasting like a bullet from the Archwing Cannon into enemy vessels to commandeer or destroy their ships might feel a touch like our version of those powerful action scenes from “Captain Marvel.”
Before and during each fight, players will experience Empyrean’s new on-board ship systems. Starting with simple Railjack aesthetics like giving your ship a name, selecting colors or skins, and moving on to constructing weapons, armor and actual ship powers, players will uncover deep, rich systems designed to fulfill their space ninja — and now, space pirate — power fantasies.
All
of this, while working together to take down enemy ships, putting out fires,
welding holes in the hull, boarding enemy craft, being boarded by enemy craft,
and more, create a unique urgency and gameplay tension totally new to Warframe.
Over the holidays with family and friends around, there is nothing quite like a great cooperative experience, so we think you’re going to love Empyrean. So, give it a shot. Warframe is free and available now on Xbox One via the Microsoft Store. And don’t forget to visit our forums to start a conversation and let us know what you think!
Hardsuit Labs is currently looking for a technical artist specializing in VFX to join the Bloodlines 2 team. With a unique combination of artistic and technical expertise, the person who fills this position will be the bridge between our artists and engineers. Technical Artists at Hardsuit Labs are comfortable authoring surface and particle based materials as well as full-screen post-processing effects. On a daily basis, Technical Artists use creative thinking skills to resolve technical challenges and limitations while keeping in line with the art style and design pillars of the project. They show an interest and aptitude for solving problems that affect multiple interdisciplinary teams and stakeholders.
You
You have a well-developed creative background, understanding of core design principles, and sensitivity to dealing with creative issues within technical constraints. You’ll employ your expert-level knowledge of 3D tools and problem-solving skills to build tools, maintain pipelines, and provide technical support for other artists. Ensuring that art assets can be easily integrated into the game without sacrificing the overall artistic vision or exceeding the technical limits of the chosen platform will be your number one priority. Teamwork is key at Hardsuit Labs and you must love working in a team fostered environment.
Basic Qualifications
Excellent troubleshooting and debugging skills are an absolute must.
Experience shipping games on multiple platforms.
Minimum 3 years of professional game development experience, including UE4 in-engine experience
Expert knowledge of modern PBR-based shader authoring. HLSL, Cg, advanced Node-based UE4 materials or similar experience will be considered.
Experience using Houdini, Houdini Engine, or similar software to build procedural game-centric content.
Proficiency with modern DCC suites such as 3DS Max or Maya preferred. Expertise in other 3D software packages will be considered. Photoshop required.
Ability to ensure levels and other content are meeting memory budgets and performance targets.
Passion for making and playing great games, with an awareness of current titles and industry trends.
Preferred Qualifications
Experience with level management and optimization on a console project.
Strong knowledge of modern game environment art principles and techniques.
Ability to troubleshoot and fix complex workflow issues in artist software, version control systems, and game engines.
Whether you’re just starting out, looking for something new, or just seeing what’s out there, the Gamasutra Job Board is the place where game developers move ahead in their careers.
Gamasutra’s Job Board is the most diverse, most active, and most established board of its kind in the video game industry, serving companies of all sizes, from indie to triple-A.
