Current Events > I've had the nintendo switch for 3 weeks now, impressions

(+) Yeah! (+)

Pros:
- designed with couch co-op in mind. The best way to play videogames IMO. Other consoles and PC gaming seems to be moving more towards online gaming but I'm glad nintendo gets the desire to play with your friends sitting next to you. It's got people I know who aren't "gamers" playing proper games, and I really like that.
- being able to play fully fledged games anywhere instead of shitty half baked mobile games is pretty amazing
- battery life is impressive
- controllers are easy
- charges quickly when not being used
- joycons are a feat of clever UX engineering
- Breath of the Wild and Mario Odyssey are just something else
- the docking process is delightful. Nothing to select or change, you just put the switch on the dock and it transfers instantly. That's very nice.
- generally the experience of pulling it out and playing is fun and accessible and doesn't ever feel like an ordeal.

Cons:
- Kind of shitty that you can't charge and play with it resting on a desk at the same time. I'm guessing it was a hardware space issue, or maybe they didn't think people would play and charge at the same time? Either way it's a bit annoying.
- Everyone is complaining about the stand being flimsy but I'm more annoyed by how limiting it is from an angle perspective. Tried to use it on the train and the screen was pointing towards my sternum. I ended up just going handheld. Between this issue and the one above I don't actually use the stand option at all.
- No bluetooth headphones? I don't even use bluetooth headphones but this seems like a bit of an oversight. Or maybe just a hardware issue.
- their online shit is downright terrible in every way. Can't chat to friends, no basic app support like youtube or netflix (bearing in mind this was standard in the previous gen for xbox and playstation). You design this affordable high powered tablet device with a pretty solid screen with touch screen capability, and I can't watch videos on it? Come the fuck on.
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i will never understand why nintendo routinely can't get anything right with online
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Muffinz0rz posted...

i will never understand why nintendo routinely can't get anything right with online

I think it's because theyve always been a toy company at their heart, focused on the art of fun/play. They never relied on cutting edge technology, so when the time came for the internet to revolutionize society, they had absolutely no interest in learning how to utilize it.
Ever since then they've been in this awkward position of playing catch up while also trying to play it off as "that's not necessary for our games" since they don't want to actually own up to what a big mistake it was.

Like, I love Nintendo to death but it's mind boggling how they refuse to modernize their online functions with their products. It's not even just video games anymore, everything is internet-based now. We have fucking rice cookers that have online functionality now. There's no excuse anymore.
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It's odd that you're trying to play in tabletop mode while charging, but I guess it's kinda weird that you can't.
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DarkChozoGhost posted...

It's odd that you're trying to play in tabletop mode while charging, but I guess it's kinda weird that you can't.

It's a common complaint from what I've heard. For example say you went to a friend's house and you didn't bring your dock, and you wanted to play 2 player, how do you do it without someone hogging the screen? Someone will have to hold it if you want to charge. Or say you have a long train journey from london to edinburgh and you want to play the entire way, are you going to hold the screen the entire time just so you can keep it charged? I can think of a few situations where it would be good to be able to charge and not hold the screen while playing.
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pinky0926 posted...

Or say you have a long train journey from london to edinburgh and you want to play the entire way, are you going to hold the screen the entire time just so you can keep it charged

Yeah. I prefer handheld mode to tabletop mode 90% of the time. The only exceptions are multiplayer (if I'm somewhere without a dock) or if I really need the motion controls for something.
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DarkChozoGhost posted...

It's odd that you're trying to play in tabletop mode while charging, but I guess it's kinda weird that you can't.

It isn't as common of an issue as the internet would lead you to believe, but it is incredibly odd that they would market one of the most important features as being tabletop mode, but then design it so you need to buy a $15 stand to prop it on, to make sure it doesn't run out of battery when doing so.

Personally the only time it was an issue for me was when I took it on a train trip last year.
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For some reason I thought they patched in bluetooth headphones recently.
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Not being able to back-up saves or at least move them to a micro sd is a big con. I was lucky enough that when my first Switch died I had only just started Zelda but they really need to do something about that

If the charging port was on the top to charge and play while using the stand then you'd need to dock the Switch upside down. I'd say that's why it's designed like that. You can get a stand that works around it. Thinking about it if it was swapped around it would also mean the hot air would be venting towards your body/crotch during handheld play too lol.

Not sure about Bluetooth headphones. The Switch does have Bluetooth support. If you have USB wireless headphones you can use it while docked. I use the PlayStation Gold headset with it. This was randomly included in a firmware update so I'm not sure if many people know about it.
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Can't wait until you can homebrew it for save backups
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