What VIDEO GAME(s) have you been playing?

New Donk City was probably my favorite part so far. I'm at the Moon.

My favorite thing to take over has been the bird with the spear beak.

Keep talking about E:O and Thaadd will show up. She's like Bloody Mary, but in spaaaaace.

The kids and I have built up rich mythologies around ZELDA: BotW. Fish Girlfriend features prominently, as does Fish Boyfriend, rowr. If I can recommend the next Divine Beast, it would be the Rito Village one, up in the Northwest. That gets you a SWEEEEET power-up that helps immensely in navigating Hyrule.

It's the HEARTHSTONE world championships right now, so I am keeping an eye on that and playing some.

I agree with Barnes on the Switch though. I mean, holy shit. It's amazing. I was happy with the 3DS, which is a SNES I can carry around. But I am not unhappy with a PS4 I can carry around.

I just beat Super Mario Odyssey... at least the main part of the game. I doubt I'll spend much more time with it since I have other things to play, but we will see.

It occurs to me that Cappy could probably have done everything by himself, unless he really just needed Mario to physically pick up power moons.

I don't recall if we have a dedicated Switch thread, but I'll go ahead and ask here.

Is this just another iteration of the Wii?

I know the answer is not really, but it seems to me if you want actual hardware acceleration to play more demanding games, this doesn't seem to be the console to use.

But if you want the sort of games that made the Wii a resounding success, then this is the system to buy.
Fun games that don't take themselves too seriously outside of Zelda. Good for the family and friends.

Laba (sic?) Seems to pound that notion home. A very neat gimmick, the kind the Wii was also known for.

I'm a new found fan of the Wii, so these are good points for me. Yet I don't want to play Doom on a switch, as there is better hardware for that.

So would an apt distillation of what the switch currently is, be that it is better Wii hardware that just happens to be portable now?

Because I am curious by the switch, but still remain fully unconvinced of it's necessity to my life when I already own a PS3, a PS4, a Wii (capable of playing GameCube games), and a PSP.

Ha! Colorcrayons, we should hang out.

Plugged in, charged, I have WiiU, PS4, PS Vita, 3DS, 2DS, Mini-NES, Classic SNES, and can retrieve PS2, Wii, and Xbox360 from the garage. In the last two weeks:
WiiU -- Nothing, but kids are still playing Just Dance and Kart on here
PS4 -- Overwatch, Blu-Ray player
PS Vita -- LetterQuest
*DS -- Art Academy, Pocket Card Jockey by the kids
Mini-NES -- nothing, but we hook this up in the minivan on trips
Classic SNES -- Super Metroid

...and I have the Switch too. Do I need it? Of course not. I have thousands of hours of stuff to do. But I don't mind saying it is good. For me, the Switch is for ZELDA and other exclusives, and couch co-op. Nintendo just owns couch co-op in our house. OVERCOOKED is getting play, and we all laugh at the Jackbox games, and break those out when folks come over. Looks like Kirby is going to bring it here too.

Do you need one? No. You don't. FOMO sucks, but it's not a reason to buy something this expensive. Wait a year, find a cheap one somewhere. It's a great little system, but you don't need to go crazy to get one unless things like LABO are so powerful you can't resist.

Agreed on the hanging out part.

I understand I don't need the system, I'm just at odds about what it offers that makes it compelling enough to purchase in my case.

I mean, if it's basically just an updated portable Wii, then the answer is no since I already have a Wii and have done a lot of research and time playing to get the cream of the crop for that system for our tastes.

Updated graphics don't really matter much is that's all it offers, as Mario kart still plays just fine without the update, for example.

I get that Mario Odyssey is great among other switch titles. But I also have Mario Galaxy one and two.

I have overcooked, stikbold (super game by the way) and a few other good couch co-ops for the PS4, not to mention the other greats games like crash team racing on PS3 and the rest of the Wii library.

This is what I am trying to figure out about the switch. Is it just the hotness for it's own sake (it's new, has better graphics, etc) and 'potential' it offers?

Right now, given your set up? It's hotness. The potential is really nice, but why buy for that? You can wait for it to be realized and buy it then. No big deal. I waited on a PS4 for years, Xbox360 was enough. If LABO becomes some huge thing, you should be able to get in on that whenever, I hope. It's fucking cardboard. Nintendo should be able to manufacture cardboard reliably and not have the same infuriating supply issues they require for hardware and Amiibos.

I don't use the PS4 for couch co-op so much. We only have two controllers, and one is a little suspect right now actually. The Switch ships with two, and my bundle packed a Pro controller too, so we have three.

One thing I am not doing, but see others doing is re-buying things. I don't need KART 8 again. I have that. I don't need SUPER MEAT BOY again--I have that twice from all my Xbox and PS4 subscriptions over the years. I will be buying BAYONETTA again, because I loved that game on the 360 and didn't get 2 on the WiiU during the twelve minutes it was available. A similar story plays out for DARK SOULS.

Honestly, ZELDA was enough to bring me in. ZELDA, MARIO, and METROID are my franchises. And the hype on ZELDA was long-lived, and justified (compare to SKY WARD SWORD and TWILIGHT PRINCESS which I never finished). It's a great fit for me, but I see your reasons for not doing it, and they totally make sense.

--An aside: Is SaMoKo still around? He has 100+ hours on XENOBLADE CHRONICLES 2 and I want to hear about that.

No, Switch is not the new Wii. Wii's gimmick was all about motion controls. I personally hate motion controls. They do exist on Switch but usually you can ignore them. The real hook is being able to play proper console games in handheld mode. One device, two ways to play, and it works perfectly.

Thanks Jeb. I can now avoid the switch for a bit with sound conscious.

On topic, I finally pulled the trigger on the PS Now week long demo period.

I nearly paid the $100 for the year long subscription, but I figured I'd try it out first and see if the 600+ game library was worth that.

In short, for me it is certainly not.

There are a lot of games, but not enough good games that I don't already own to merit it.

Sony really needs to dig into their past library of games that have yet to be remastered for this to be worthwhile.

But I have played a lot of games on it during my week long period. I don't have "the last of us" yet on PS4, and playing through it has convinced me a I need to buy it since I don't have enough time in a week to finish it.

My take on PS now is that it has the potential to be the ultimate way games could be demoed, via a time allotment for each game. It's better than downloading what few demoes there are on the system.
But as a subscription service for streaming games as it stands right now, it really isn't worth it unless you're very new to the PS4 and have no games at all.

It needs a vastly larger library before it would be worth it for me. As in all current PS4 titles, and all previous console titles. There is just a large waste of potential here otherwise.

Verdict: give it a shot for the week long period given for new PS4 owners, but until it gathers considerably more steam, it should be avoided.

I have PS Now. My kids run amuck with it, they are always playing something different on it. It is a really good service but, oddly, not great for really digging into a game. Because here is the reality of it. There is always something new to play that you will pick over a PS Now game. That said, I really like that I can go in and play a little SFIV, Mortal Kombat, Nidhogg, Split/Second whatever without either having a disc or having it on my already maxed out hard drive. And it is good for those "kinda wanted to check that out" titles.