With games now jumping from one generation of consoles to the next, when is the best time to play something? Is there ever a best time?
Being entirely honest: You can skip Tears of the Kingdom. I don’t think it’s a particularly fun game. It’s a miraculous piece of software, the various systems interact without crashing…somehow. But I don’t think it’s a particularly fun game.
On Switch 2 you get only HDR and 4K,no new textures or better graphics. You pay $10 to utilize the console you bought over a game you have.
On Switch 3 you will need to buy it again, only for $ 120.
The flood of remakes and remasters shows how the innovation in large gaming corporations has run dry.
That’s a little disingenuous. There are other gameplay features added for the Switch 2 version.
You mean the app guide and building sharing through QR? That’s on your phone. I speak for BOTW and TOTK.
What does it being on your phone matter? As I understand it, you cannot do it on the switch 1 version of the game. It is a new feature added to the switch 2 version of the game.
1st, they could made it to Switch too, there is no need for extra console.
2nd, both games had companion apps free from community, so its a minor improvment to that
3rd, jesus christ
This is integrated to the point the app is aware where in the world you are. It’s okay to charge for new things, one reason being that people eat and food costs money.
If you want to pay, go donate to the guys that made the companion apps, not multibillion companies offering trinkets…
Oh, why i even bother, Nintendo fanboys…
Nintendo employs people who eat. Go explain why you want to freeload to someone who believes it ;)
You pay $10 to utilize the console you bought over a game you have.
I’ve read this sentence like 10 times, and I just don’t get it. What are you saying here?
Some games, not all, like TOTK, will need upgrade packs costing 10€, so you can play the game in Switch 2. They offer some enhancements to justify the paywall.
For example.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition
Release date: June 5, 2025
Upgrade details
-
Support for the ZELDA NOTES game-specific service via Nintendo Switch App*
-
Improved frame rates and resolution
-
Faster load times
-
HDR support
Ohhhhh, this is required? You can’t just pop it in and play it as-is?
A guy here in the post believes thst you can.
But when the upgrade pack describes that you unlock higher resolution, fps, HDR and faster loading screens, i can not see how.
Furthermore the upgrade pack for the Pokémon AZ says:
Pokémon™ Legends: Z-A – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition
Release date: Late 2025
Upgrade details
- Improved performance with higher frame rate and resolution
So how you are suppose to play it in Switch 2 without an upgrade pack? What you gain?
The upgrade pack will act like DLC that modifies the game to load off of internal storage on the console. That’ll be faster than loading it off of a switch cartridge. The textures will be enhanced as well, and downloaded from Nintendo servers onto your console.
So how you are suppose to play it in Switch 2 without an upgrade pack?
You just put it in and it runs. Exactly like putting a Game Cube game in a Wii. Or a PS1 game in a PS2. How is this not obvious?
What you gain?
Nothing, except now you can sell your Switch 1 and still play your original Switch games, and not have to have two consoles.
There are no new textures. Only better resolution with upgrade pack. So you gonna play 4k TOTK with the same textures.
What am i saying is this. If the upgrade pack offers 4k and better fps, what would you get without it? Will the game run on 1080p with crapy fps on Switch 2?
The most believe that it won’t simply run without installing the uograde pack. Some games get free upgrade packs and some paid.
The console is backward compatible. It will run all Switch 1 games without buying any upgrade packs.
Will the game run on 1080p with crapy fps on Switch 2
Very likely, yes. The system basically emulates a Switch 1, and emulators must add limits to virtual chips because otherwise there would be bugs.
For instance, when I first started emulating BotW, there was a 60 FPS patch. It made the game unplayable for me. The menu selections moved too fast. If I pressed Up or Down a little too long, it would jump the selection to the top or bottom. I ended up choosing the wrong thing in so many conversations that I got frustrated and turned it off. Eventually the devs released another patch that makes menus work better at 60fps.
Stuff like that is exactly what this upgrade patch will do. It fixes the game to run as if it were a native Switch 2 game, because it’s not!
There are no new textures. Only better resolution with upgrade pack. So you gonna play 4k TOTK with the same textures.
OK, I guess I misunderstood. I still think it’ll look fine. The textures are cartoony anyways, and in 4k, the objects will be so sharp. Text will probably be updated if it doesn’t already use a vector font, but I’m just guessing on that.
-
just don’t give this company any more money at this point in time.
Patient gamers FTW!
Just buy a PC. Then you don’t have to wonder about this sort of nonsense.
E: you can safely ignore this exchange, I was wrong, Switch 2 is backwards compatible and the “enhanced editions” are only $10 for the upgrade.
Don’t buy, build. It’s easier than a Lego set, and extremely satisfying when it boots up for the first time. Plus by hand picking all your parts you can ensure that you have high quality components that will last you a long time.
How are you going to build something you haven’t bought?
You know what I mean, wiseass. 😂
It’s not difficult but it is complicated, and requires specialized knowledge.
Games don’t get upgraded releases on PC? That sucks.
You just turn up the quality settings in the menu. You already paid for the texture and models, you don’t need to pay again.
In my experience the PC version usually is just the ‘upgraded’ console version, like Insomniac’s Spider-Man or GTAV where the PC release comes later. Or it’s been a free upgrade like Skyrim Special Edition where the upgrades on PC were very minimal besides the lighting engine improvements.
Of course they do. They just don’t require you to buy the game again (typically). Or if they do, it’s at a deeply-discounted price via DLC.
Then I think you missed the point of the article.
…is the point of the article not that you have to time your purchase according to the hardware?
Today, games move around with you or are re-released/remastered, making the decision about when to play something less obvious than it may seem. There may be even better examples, but Gears 5 (a game I think is a little underrated if you’re wondering), is a brilliant achievement on Xbox One considering the hardware, but it’s significantly better on Xbox One X, and even betterer on Xbox Series X. If you’re not someone who replays games (some of us barely have time to play them a first time), there are some decisions to be made about what you play and when.
Author ponders where is the perfect time to play a game because they get improved versions so commonly now. What platforms they release on isn’t that relevant because I’m not going to be able to play Crysis remaster on a Nvidia GeForce 8800GT like the original, no?
they get improved versions so commonly now.
They get “improved” versions that they have to buy a second time on new hardware.
I’m not going to be able to play Crysis remaster on a Nvidia GeForce 8800GT like the original, no?
I’ve no idea, but its very plausible if you bought higher end hardware at the time.
There is backwards compatibility on all consoles at the moment, and it’s likely to become a standard moving on. I can play Crysis from X360 or remaster from XOne on my Series X.
My point with that 8800GT is that you need new hardware for the remaster anyway so it’s pretty much like consoles.
They do sometimes. It’s just that the originals can be easily improved with some free mods most of the time.
Im going to emulate this. Recently I was able to afford me a new PC with a Ryzen 5600X CPU with a RX 7600 GPU, it’s time to gaming for me.
I bought it at release and emulated it 2 days after. Much smoother on PC, even with shader recompiling. Only reason I did it was to remove the duplication patches, but the improved graphics fidelity was a major side benefit.
It runs and looks SO MUCH BETTER on the computer. And MODS!
Any guides on how to get started? Would love to do a totk and botw run on pc
Ugh I only have a link to the guide I used on Reddit, but since I did this, both emulators have been taken down.
https://www.reddit.com/r/totkmods/comments/149jes8/tears_of_the_kingdom_yuzu_setup_guide_60_fps_up/
It will still work if you can get the software tho!
with upscaling and antialiasing as well…
Mmmmmm delicious beautiful graphics… at 60+FPS… with graphics filters to make the color POP…
Emulate it. I’m pretty sure that there are active forks of Switch emulators that lay low.
Either wait for the switch 4, or just port it to pc and enjoy
If you already have a Switch then play it now. If you don’t, then wait.
Nintendo has always had my favorite exclusives. My whole life, I’ve been guiding Mario, Link, and Kirby directly into pits hundreds of times a day. I just don’t think I can keep feeding Nintendos greed anymore and I’m a little sad that that part of my life might be over.
Pirate it, then store it? Then you could keep all your favourites forever.
Nintendo fucked me over with the WiiU and Zelda BotW… won’t buy anything from them ever again
What did they do?
They released a game for a console you already owned, and then released it again on the new console, and people got mad? I dunno.
I loved my Wii U, and loved playing BotW on it. I guess it wasn’t designed to use the control pad in any special way, which was a bit of a drag, but it played great.
They didn’t release it again. It got delayed and delayed, then optimized for the Switch and released on both consoles at the same time. It runs bad on the WiiU and you can see that some game mechanics where designed with the 2nd display of the WiiU in mind but then got stripped down to work on the Switch.
I played the entire game on the WiiU, plus the DLC. Collected almost all the koroks too. The game ran fine, I noticed zero issues and thought it looked gorgeous. So, I’m not sure what the fuck you’re smoking.
Oh also, all those fun videos that came out around that time of people modding the game? You know, the ones where you could be Steve from Minecraft and fight giant Shrek’s instead of Hinox’s? All of those were from a WiiU emulator, not a Switch emulator. Because the game ran just fine on the WiiU software.
I’m still waiting for xbox 12 before getting skyrim…
For me the answer is pretty clear, right now with my overclocked Switch 1, I get above 40 FPS most of the time (60 in certain areas) with BOTW and also I am using Fizeau to improve the colors to make it look more like a Switch OLED (it even looks great on the TV), I don’t expect TOTK being too different.
40 FPS? lol thats sad
It is pretty good for a system that is capped at 30 FPS though, and 40 FPS is the very minimum it reaches, it usually stays around 50-60, but we all already knew the Switch 1 internals were underclocked.
I think I could aim for a more stable 60 FPS but my Switch still has the OG thermal paste and the environment where I live is hot, so I am more than comfortable with what I can get without harming my Switch in this scenario.
I’m playing it on the Switch 1
Switch 2 is a dud. No OLED
I imagine they expect releasing a version without OLED first and one with OLED later will give them double sales with many nintendo fans, just like what happened to the switch.
Yeah, i expect a Switch 2 OLED model in 2 years. Maybe 3 years, if sales keep going.
OLED VRR is a big problem and holding a small OLED screen close to your face when VRR flickering is happening would be very annoying.
It may be a miniLED since it supports HDR which honestly wouldn’t be terrible. Would even make it brighter than an OLED
They chose VRR over OLED, which is, in my opinion, a good choice.
