Why do people like Nintendou games?

[Misery]

That's the biggest problem IMO, power wise, even Nintendo's very latest desktop hardware runs at about the equivalent power of a low spec gaming PC that would run Doom, a 29 year old game nearly, if you're extremely lucky.

It's not a problem though. Again, you REALLY dont need much power with today's games (comparatively). The idea that you do is a myth, and a bad one.

But yeah, most modern games will run on a potato. I mean, ALL of the consoles are weak. All 3 of them. Very weak compared to most PCs. Even my previous PC, which is "missing a few screws", to put it nicely, utterly outpaces the things in every conceivable way. Hell, my previous laptop, which was utter junk, also completely stomps all three of them (and I freaking HATED that thing).

But all three consoles will still run anything without issue despite that comparative "weakness". The only true difference is hardware differences and similar things, and that ends up only affecting internal development... stuff the consumer will never see nor hear about (unless something bugs out, some developers may explain some of the process when that happens).

There was a time, back in the 90s and 2000s, when "power" was at a premium. When consoles were *incredibly* weak, and PCs were complicated... you had to carefully check the required specs of any game you wanted to buy, and it was fairly common that you'd find your machine wasnt powerful enough to handle whatever it was. The installation process for most games was a confusing mess, and having to deal with driver updates was even worse.

That is all in the past. Hell, with PCs, I genuinely dont remember the last time I actually looked at required specs for a game. Nor do I remember the last time I had to manually deal with drivers and such (Steam just does all of that itself). If I had to guess, it was probably at least 10 years ago. And the consoles are the same. There's no real wondering "does this game actually run WELL on this console? Is this the console I should buy it on, due to that?" It's not like the SNES running Star Fox, where you could expect it to go at like 2 frames per hour. Or the N64, with it's infamous "fog", or the Playstation and the crazy amount of "popup". Most games are smooth as butter with no visual issues, unless the developer is awful at their job. You mention something like Doom (the original), but *any* PC... even some craptastic business machine... can run that effortlessly now.


The one exception to all of this is virtual reality. You want that to work, and work PROPERLY, without side effects... you need one hell of a powerful machine. There's a reason my PC's cost was so freakishly high, and that's why. I wouldnt have bothered doing such a thing otherwise. And yes, I'm aware the PS4 has VR, but... let's just say that it has "issues". Anyone into VR will want a Rift, Vive, or some form of WMR (many different brands for that one now). And that also means a beefy PC that can truly handle it, otherwise you get.... problems.

$4500 for a PC. Holy cow. A decent, top of the line gaming rig shouldn't have cost you more then $1000, I know. I build PC's for A living and I'll bet that machine you got is probably only 10% faster( if your lucky) then a $1000 gaming rig. There are professional gamers out there the play for a living and pay about $8000 to max out there machines and they're only getting about 20% more performance then a $1000 rig would do. They can justify that cost because the difference between losing and winning can be several thousands of dollars in prize money. Plus they also get sponsored as well. Anyway's, my point is. If you spend that much money on a gaming rig. Unless you're a professional gamer? You got burned.

Nah, this is all stuff that was gone over VERY carefully. My father is the one that paid for this, and he does not make such purchases lightly. Either everything is fully understood, or whatever it is doesnt get bought. The family's... er.... "financial status"... would not be what it is if he just paid for things without truly researching it.

I also went over it with a variety of developers that I know, since they're all about technical aspects like that... it's what they do, after all. One in particular always builds everything himself, and is *really* into VR, with all the implications that brings.

Not to mention that this was all easily tested with a variety of benchmarking programs. To say that the difference between my $1200 PC (or the recently bought $1500 laptop), and the new one, is massive, would be a monumental understatement. Again, not only was this specifically intended to run full VR *perfectly* at all times no matter what, but gaming is also my core interest. The focus of my existence, if you will. I may not be a "professional" gamer, but I still have good reason to want such power even beyond VR itself. The fact that I do actual development as well as internal testing for a variety of games also adds to it. Professional gaming isnt the only reason someone might want such a thing.

Besides. Even if we had gotten "burned", well... I wont go into detail, but let's just say that $4500 doesnt really put a dent in anything. I doubt I would really need to explain that further to show what I mean by it.

 

[Southern Discomfort]

The one exception to all of this is virtual reality. You want that to work, and work PROPERLY, without side effects... you need one hell of a powerful machine. There's a reason my PC's cost was so freakishly high, and that's why. I wouldnt have bothered doing such a thing otherwise. And yes, I'm aware the PS4 has VR, but... let's just say that it has "issues". Anyone into VR will want a Rift, Vive, or some form of WMR (many different brands for that one now). And that also means a beefy PC that can truly handle it, otherwise you get.... problems.

Yep. I have a i7 4790 and a GTX 970, the baseline Nvidia graphics card for VR and there's VR games that I can't run! Not like I really want to play Fallout 4 though.

Having said that though, I can play Skyrim in VR just fine. No motion sickness, nothing. It's great. Not in a major rush to upgrade the graphics card though. VR is fun but not the be and end all for my gaming experience.

 

[Misery]

Yep. I have a i7 4790 and a GTX 970, the baseline Nvidia graphics card for VR and there's VR games that I can't run! Not like I really want to play Fallout 4 though.

Having said that though, I can play Skyrim in VR just fine. No motion sickness, nothing. It's great. Not in a major rush to upgrade the graphics card though. VR is fun but not the be and end all for my gaming experience.

Yeah, I wouldnt want to play Fallout either, heh.

In my case, the thing that got me interested in VR in the first place is something called New Retro Arcade: Neon. If you dont know what it is, well... just look it up, it's better than me trying to explain it. That kind of experience though that it provides is heavily influenced by the power of the machine running it. Immersion is a major aspect of it (whereas plenty of other things, I am more interested in pure gameplay) and I wanted it to be *perfect* as I knew it'd be THE thing I constantly coming back to. I'm talking like hundreds/thousands of hours worth of using it. And considering what it is exactly and the nature of it, it's built for that. Only problem with it is that setup was a freaking nightmare. Took me ages to get a full arcade running correctly the first time. Bloody roms. So worth it though. I had my brother try it out when he was visiting, and his response while in it was "This is so amazing that I'm almost in tears". Haha.

And then I ended up becoming quite the enthusiast when it comes to VR. So I've been *very* happy with that PC and it's ability to run it all to perfection.

Well, almost perfection. If you've used VR much, you've probably seen what happens when a game/program bugs out. Things get weird. No amount of "power" prevents THAT.


And yeah, I managed to avoid motion sickness myself as well. I consider myself lucky... I know a number of people that have VR themselves, and pretty much all of them cant handle much movement and DEFINITELY cant handle spinning, even after they've spent alot of time with it. And here I am playing games where I slide and spin all over the place. And I freaking LOVE it. Such fun! Not that I'm against games with teleporting motion and snap turning though. Totally fine with that too, even if it's not quite as entertaining. I will admit though, the first time jumping into it was more than a little scary. It can be an intense sensory experience.

The only thing that gives me trouble is some games that have alot of intense physical motion. You know, like having to move around alot to aim or shift position physically to dodge stuff. Loads of fun. But leaves me very sore. Well, that and also the Accursed Cable. Ugh. I hate getting tangled in that thing!

 

[Southern Discomfort]

Not that I'm against games with teleporting motion

I will look that up.

I like to think that games like Robo Recall and Super Hot VR are the evolution of rail shooters like Time Crisis. Those games were so much fun at arcades.

 

[Misery]

I will look that up.

I like to think that games like Robo Recall and Super Hot VR are the evolution of rail shooters like Time Crisis. Those games were so much fun at arcades.

Aye, quite true. Though I havent actually tried those yet. I do have Robo Recall but havent gotten around to it yet. I will be buying Superhot, as I loved their first game, and love their new roguelike/lite/something/weird-thing one even more. I can only imagine that their VR one must also be grand... that developer, they really know what they're doing.

I honestly though tend to be into things a bit more involved than just standing shooters though.

Right now, I'm really into this:

Just as intense as it looks. A roguelike/lite/whatever sort of game, Iv'e found a few such things on VR. Polybius is another favorite (made by Jeff Minter), which I could also refer to as "Total Sensory Chaos: The Game". It is hard. It is wonderful.

Also liking strategy games such as Lazerbait (free on Steam, boy do I love that one). It can be hard to find good stuff though. There's too many games out there that are very short "experiences", whereas I want stuff with replay value.

There's some horror games I want to try too (like Dreadhalls) but I havent done that yet. Those are going to be a bit more... intense. Horror experiences in VR are a very different beast from non-VR, as I've already discovered.

I also really like SteamVR in general. I hadnt expected that whole thing to be so good, being a free part of Steam itself, but I've found so much awesome stuff on there. Even a couple of places inspired by the SCP Foundation. I've spent many hours in here, and I check it daily for new things.

And Google Earth. Didnt go in expecting much out of that one. But it's just grand, and the first thing I show to new players.

Also, music visualizers are nice. DMT for instance.

And then there's Chroma Lab. I've shown that one on this forum before. It is freaking brilliant. It's the second thing I show to new players, and it's the one that blows their minds. I've spent alot of time in there screwing around. Strongly suggest looking that up... there's nothing else like it.

What else... oh, Xion. I love shmups, like, alot. That's basically what that one is, but you hold the ship in your hand and move it that way while trying to dodge 5 billionty bullets as a huge procedural level flows around you. That one is something special but I always end up overheated and sweaty after playing it.

Also anything made by Phr00t. I know him on Steam, and he makes some really amazing, unique, and extremely surreal games with alot of replay value. All of his games are playable either in normal mode or full VR.

Lastly, Sublevel Zero: Redux. If you remember Descent, well... yeah. Like that. It's pretty great.

And some games I have but havent tried yet are Duck Season, Reficul, and Spooky's Jumpscare Mansion (loved the normal version of that one, quite entertaining).



Anyway, just some suggestions while on the topic of VR. Alot of these things will run on weaker machines, though obviously some aspects may be toned down a bit. Chroma Lab is the one that benefits most from a powerful machine, but it can be tailored to run on anything.

All of these games work with touch-style controllers. Well, except for Spooky. But that one will still be good even without that.


And I also just spotted that Space Pirates And Zombies 2 is playable in VR. I find that moderately baffling. I must try it.

 

[NothingToSeeHere]

I play Nintendo games because they're fun. I also play PC games because they're fun, but I find that Nintendo games are better for playing with friends while drinking cocktails.

You'll probably eventually learn not to separate things into 'stuff for kids' and 'stuff for adults'. It's a pretty common mindset in teenagers I think, but once you're old enough to not care so much about seeming grown up you may well realise that a lot of things that are made for kids are really great for adults too.

Things 'for kids' that my adults friends and I have enjoyed over the past few months: lazer quest, building a lego death star, a soft play zone (did you know that some soft play zones have adult nights?! It's awesome!), going on the flumes every single time we go swimming (several times a week), a waterpark, the kiddy rides at a theme park (the teacups made me sick) etc. Life is much more fun when you care about what you enjoy more than what is appropriate for your age group.

 

[BrokenBoy]

I have a 3DS and I'm planning on getting a Switch soon. I really liek Nintendou games now but the problem with having consoles with weak power is that the frame rate will suck.

Game devs should prioritize framerate over resolution. I can't believe the PS5 tech demo is running at 20 FPS

 

[Misery]

I have a 3DS and I'm planning on getting a Switch soon. I really liek Nintendou games now but the problem with having consoles with weak power is that the frame rate will suck.

Game devs should prioritize framerate over resolution. I can't believe the PS5 tech demo is running at 20 FPS

Eh, it's the same as always: They prioritize whatever looks shiny or has big numbers they can boast about, since in the end, that's what sells, and that's all they care about.

 

[BrokenBoy]

I'm currently on my fourth 3DS console (it's an N3DS XL) and I run custom firmware so I can use emulators, romhacks, homebrew apps, etc. It can also run original DS games now which means I can play all the games I missed out on over the past decade. I recently decided to play Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors despite the fact that I've already completed the Nonary Games version on the PS4.

Omg I'm doing the same! I love 999!