ANYWAY…
Does anyone know how well the Anno games play on Xbox?
This post actually made me go and check Anno 117 on the Xbox store and currently there's a sale on the Gold Edition which effectively gives you the base game plus all the DLC released so far (including the brand new expansion) for the same price as the base game on its own.
Obviously, I bought it. First impressions are really positive, for some reason I was expecting a cut-down Anno experience but this looks every bit as involved as 1800 and the presentation is really slick. Pad controls are really sensibly done, lots of radial menus and the like for selecting stuff and while I had to tweak a couple of options to my liking, it's all starting to feel natural after a couple of hours. If you plug in a mouse though it immediately changes to the PC interface so if you are sitting at a desk or something then you can go with that.
Performance-wise it's been absolutely solid so far, can't speak for how it will be when the cities get larger but no complaints at all at this stage.
I'm actually interested to see if this makes any difference at all, because I suspect that the people who are interested in shonky decompiled ports on PC are a tiny number compared to the people that just want to buy a new Zelda game and play it on their Switch. I mean it's interesting that these exist, and Nintendo's lawyers are going to be very busy, but I reckon that most of the people downloading these things are primarily PC enthusiasts who probably wouldn't have bought the originals in the first place.
ANYWAY…
Does anyone know how well the Anno games play on Xbox?
I've played 1800 a bit on Xbox and they did a really fantastic job of adapting the controls. The game runs at a pretty steady 30fps which is fine for the sort of game it is. The main problem is that they only ever released the base game on console and it's a hugely inferior experience compared to the PC version with the mountain of DLC they released for it. I really want to like it but every time I play it I get a bit sad for what it could have been.
I haven't played Anno 117 yet but my understanding is that it will get all the PC version's DLC (it's only been out a year so there hasn't been a huge amount of it yet) and it's supposed to be pretty good. Any sort of decent sale and I'm on it.
Switch Sports Resort is excellent, with a side helping of Nintendo bollocks. Why can’t my kids dress their character with the clothes we buy from the shop? The only option seems to be changing my avatar to be an amalgamation of them, because only the main avatar can use the unlocked items. Which also means swapping the left/right handedness for every sport, every time we play, because we’re all different.
I'm not sure what you're doing different to me but I've been playing with my son, we each have our own profile on the Switch which we sign into for Sports Resort and we're each able to unlock our own stuff and use any of the unlocked items. It also remembers that I'm right-handed and he's left-handed. It seems to work exactly as I'd expect, even when we're sharing controllers. (The only slight snag is that the Mii characters can't use all the items, and the new characters are shit, but that doesn't sound like the problem you're having). How are you doing it?
Agreed, I think one of my concerns is that OoT might have seemed very small-scale and limited in comparison to modern games, but it doesn't really: there are enough side-activities and diversions for it to feel quite modern in that regard, and it's not a short game. Anyone coming to this fresh is going to be having a great time with it. It's a template that would definitely support newer games in that style, I'm sure.
However I'm sure a Majora's Mask remake is on the cards next, I mean it's a no-brainer, right?
Still trucking on with long-term projects Final Fantasy XIV and Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave, but for some more lightweight entertainment I picked up:
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (the new remake, obviously, I'm not mad). It's interesting how this has basically got a 1:1 remake while the other big game of the same era, Final Fantasy VII, got a full three-game top-down reinvention. I was a bit on the fence about this, especially having replayed around half the N64 version earlier this year, but I did get it yesterday and from what I've seen so far it's actually really lovely. They've changed more than I expected - lots of areas have been significantly rejigged to look more natural or flow better, and there are a lot more cut scenes and dialogue now - but it plays really nicely and my word it looks absolutely beautiful. It's nice getting to an area you remember from the original and just taking in how much better it looks now. I'm not wild about the obnoxiously American voice acting (I guess I could turn it off, or switch it to Japanese or something) but all the rest of it is great and really goes to show what an incredible game this was in the first place. Recommended.
Garwoofoo