More Dragon Quest XI details, new scans
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in 3DS, News, Switch | 3 Comments
Dragon Quest XI may have been shown off at Jump Festa last week, but Square Enix isn’t done sharing news about the game. The latest issue of V Jump offers up even more with additional images and details.
First, here are the new details:
– The protagonist has a strangely shaped birthmark on his left hand; something happens when it glows
– Emma is a close friend of the protagonist who says she’ll undergo the ritual to climb “God’s Rock” with him
– V Jump asks, “What is it that they see there?”
– The Great Tree of Life floats in the center of the world
– It is said the hero can commune with the soul of the Great Tree
– The protagonist’s home village of Ishi is a small and quiet village located in the valley
– In battle, the 3DS version shows both the party and monsters in 3D mode, and just the monsters in 2D mode
And now for the scans:
More: Dragon Quest XI, Japan, Square Enix
Nintendo holding three Switch preview events in Germany in January, ticket raffle via My Nintendo
Posted on 8 years ago by Matt(@OnePunchMaz) in News, Switch | 3 Comments
Following the big Switch presentation on January 12th/13th, Nintendo will be holding various preview events for press and fans all over the world. Yesterday, Nintendo announced that a total of three so-called “Fan Events” will take place in Germany, where people will get a chance to try out the Switch. Here are the details for these events:
- January 13th, 9 AM: Frankfurt
- January 17th, 5 PM: Munich
- January 24th, 5 PM: Berlin
Nintendo is giving away 12×2 tickets for each of these events via My Nintendo. My Nintendo users with a permanent residence in Germany can take part in the ticket raffle here. Note that Nintendo is holding a separate raffle for each of the three events, and you can take part in all three of them if you wish.
Further details about these events have not yet been announced. It’s currently not known if they will be open to the public as well or if they will be invite-only. Also, the Frankfurt event will take place only 4 hours after the Switch presentation in Tokyo is scheduled to start, so it’ll be worth keeping an eye on that one especially for early impressions of the Switch.
More: Europe
New Zelda: Breath of the Wild screenshot (12/21/16)
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Screenshots, Switch, Wii U | 16 Comments
Nintendo is continuing its promise of delivering regular Zelda: Breath of the Wild screenshots leading up to launch. Get a look at the newest image just shared on the series’ Facebook page above.
Michael Pachter has heard from devs that Switch “is the easiest of the big three to develop for”
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch | 77 Comments
One of the bigger questions surrounding Switch is how much support the platform will garner from third-parties. Nintendo will no doubt be supporting it with its full force, but being able to fill in the release schedule from outside companies certainly helps.
We’ll get a better idea about third-party support for Switch in January, but a new off-hand comment from Michael Pachter is at least encouraging. In the latest episode of Pachter Factor, the industry analyst said he’s “heard from developers that Nintendo is the easiest of the big three to develop for.” He’s of course referring to Switch in relation to the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
You can watch the full episode here. Pachter ultimately concludes that third-party support will come down to whether games can be ported for a reasonable cost.
Different settings for docked / portable Switch modes spotted in Unreal Engine 4
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch | 88 Comments
Over the past few weeks, we’ve heard more and more about different modes for Switch when it’s docked and when the device is being played as a standalone unit. That culminated with a report from Digital Foundry just a couple of days ago. The publication claims that Switch, when in portable mode, runs at 40 percent of the clock-speed of the fully docked device.
Unreal Engine 4 version 4.14 released about a month ago. One developer has now come across some interesting discoveries which lend credence to some of the recent speculation.
More: top
Switch supports Vulkan and OpenGL 4.5
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch | 120 Comments
Switch is now confirmed to support both Vulkan and OpenGL 4.5. The Khronos Group certifies the console as a Vulkan 1.0 conformant implementation. Moreover, it shows the OS as “Nintendo OS” and it passes the Vulkan 1.0.1.0 CTS. Switch is listed as hitting OpenGL 4.5 and OpenGL ES 3.2 conformance as well.
That’s a lot of technical talk, but it should only mean good things for Switch owners in the end. This essentially means that developers should have an easier time creating games for the system.
Seasons of Heaven debut trailer
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Switch, Videos | 21 Comments
Any Arts Production has released the first full trailer for Seasons of Heaven, its new game in the works for Switch. We’ve included it below.
More: Any Arts Production, Seasons of Heaven, top
Nintendo FCC filing for a “Wireless Gaming Device” appears, likely related to Switch
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch | 4 Comments
A new FCC filing popped up from Nintendo today with the model number HAC-016 as a “Wireless Gaming Device”. HAC is widely believed to be the code for Switch, meaning this should be some sort of device for the platform.
The confidentiality release date ends on June 18, 2017. That likely means we won’t be officially hearing about whatever this thing is until then. The one image we have, shown above, is from the Label Location document.
Rumor: Switch’s CPU and GPU clock speeds revealed
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in Rumors, Switch | 149 Comments
Digital Foundry and Eurogamer have a new report about the specs surrounding Switch. The big takeaways here concern the console’s CPU and GPU.
Below is a notable excerpt from the new report today:
“As many have speculated, the new Nintendo hardware does indeed feature two performance configurations – and the console is categorically not as capable in mobile form, compared to its prowess when docked and attached to an HDTV. And we can confirm that there is no second GPU or additional hardware in the dock itself regardless of the intriguing patents that Nintendo has filed suggesting that there might be. With battery life and power throughput no longer an issue, the docked Switch simply allows the GPU to run much faster. And to put it simply, there is a night and day difference here.
Where Switch remains consistent is in CPU power – the cores run at 1020MHz regardless of whether the machine is docked or undocked. This ensures that running game logic won’t be compromised while gaming on the go: the game simulation itself will remain entirely consistent. The machine’s embedded memory controller runs at 1600MHz while docked (on par with a standard Tegra X1), but the default power mode undocked sees this drop to 1331MHz. However, developers can opt to retain full memory bandwidth in their titles should they choose to do so.
More: top
Dragon Quest XI again confirmed for Switch
Posted on 8 years ago by Brian(@NE_Brian) in News, Switch | 13 Comments
Dragon Quest XI was first suggested for Switch when the game was originally announced last year. Square Enix then seemed to reconfirm it in an issue of Japanese magazine Nintendo Dream.
Dragon Quest XI finally resurfaced this weekend, but Square Enix didn’t have anything to say about Switch. Only the 3DS and PlayStation 4 versions were mentioned. In fact, the Switch logo isn’t even on the game’s teaser website.
There is good news though, as Dragon Quest XI has again been confirmed for Switch. A new entry on Nintendo’s Japanese blog shares the news. Unfortunately though, we don’t have any specific details. The common consensus is that Dragon Quest XI on Switch will take after the PlayStation 4 release. Maybe Square Enix will have more to say when the new console is officially unveiled in January.
