Breath of the Wild is perfectly playable, has a perfectly reasonable performance profile given its scale and the hardware it runs on, and it is - and always will be - an incredible game.
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I recently played Breath of the Wild again and it has already aged badly
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What if the average gamer actually don't care that much about higher performance standards but this demand is artificially created and marketed to justify new boxes?
4th to 5th gen games kind of had a downgrade in overall performance but nobody gave a shit back then because holy shit 3D games! 5th to 6th gen even your grandma could see how more complex were the 3D models and stuff. 6th to 7th gen was justified with HD tvs and then normal people started to talk about resolution and frames per second because, yeah, new boxes needs to be justified somehow.
Not saying fast loadings and smooth performance aren't really great in the new consoles, but regarding the lack of it as the game not aging well while it's probably the current main reference for open world games, is tasteless to say the least. Those people obsessed with performance even likes videogames for starters, or it's all about the tech fetish? I honestly don't know.
But that's the thing. It can't. Not without downgrading the game's scope and complexity.
I get not liking stuff and opinions, everyone have different tastes. What I don't get is saying people have no standards when they enjoy something, or don't care for what people like the Op care about. A 60 fps game is not magically a 10 out of 10 and a 30 game is not automatically a bad game.
Exactly. It's nice to know the ins and outs of a game's technical stuff, but you can't make it the primary reason to enjoy the game or not.
BOTW has not aged badly at all. It's still the best open world experience out there.
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I entered this thread expecting some actual game design analysis or look back on the game but it's just the same exact stuff about resolution and framerate you see every time lol. Like, how do people not get tired of discussing this in general? I'm a programmer and I can't really understand it tbh. But it's fine ig, to each their own.
The game on CEMU is night and day compared to the switch version. However that's not the games fault, obviously, it's the switch I guess. BotW is still quite good compared to Fire Emblem
The switch is okay for what it is, but yeah a new switch pro would be fantastic. I just don't know if it needs to come out in 2021. If a delay to 2022, allows it to have a really good Nvidia GPU, I'd rather wait.
The switch is okay for what it is, but yeah a new switch pro would be fantastic. I just don't know if it needs to come out in 2021. If a delay to 2022, allows it to have a really good Nvidia GPU, I'd rather wait.
It is because of these things that people cannot stand gamers.
How the game performs on the system(s) it is released on is measured on it's performance. The games frame pacing is uneven. Yeah it's a little better than released but as but with other open world games now getting 60 fps options, a game struggling to hit 30 frames is going to a be bit more noticeable than before when we had less open world games with high frame rate options. So compared to options available now yeah the game looks a little worse. And yeah all video games age that's not some big reveal. Some age better and that is usually due to design style and the performance of the game in the system.
It's a game that would benefit from a much much more powerful new switch. I just don't know how expensive that machine would have to be for me to enjoy it.
This is an enthusiast site though. In context would you expect anything else?
A good framerate is nice, but honestly, unless it gets Dark Souls 1 on original consoles in Blighttown bad or outright freezes for a second or two, a mediocre framerate doesn't really bother me.
I liked BOTW, but I absolutely liked it IN SPITE OF the chunky performance, occasional blurriness, and ugly shadows.
That's the "fault" of the hardware and not the game, but the game is an exclusive to that hardware made by the company that made the hardware, so... it's hard to decouple those things.
That's the "fault" of the hardware and not the game, but the game is an exclusive to that hardware made by the company that made the hardware, so... it's hard to decouple those things.
Yeah, imagine a gamer talking to someone who bought a Switch during the start of the closedown. "Yeah, that doesn't even do 4K or 60fps, what a loser!"
Yeah it very rarely drops below 30fps when docked on Switch outside of one particular small area I won't mention for spoiler reasons.
It's dynamic 900p and certainly looks a little soft on a large 4K TV but I've seen far worse especially on Switch. It holds up far better on a 1080p TV imo.
In general I still think it looks great because of it's artstyle. The textures are it's biggest let down visually but I feel like people have forgoten this game was designed around the limitations of a Wii U which had CPU technology from 2000 in it and only a single gig of very slow RAM lol.
BotW 2 will look much, much better due to being designed around the specs of the base Switch which has a much better CPU, 3x more / faster RAM and a much more modern GPU compared to Wii U.
Hopefully we'll have the option of 1080/60fps or 4K/30fps on Super Switch by the end of this year thanks to DLSS.
Being a gaming enthusiast means more than being obsessed with resolution and framerate to the point of becoming a condescendent gatekeeper.
Still, in this age, the frame-drops in the forest in botw are laughable. Nintendo should do better.
User banned (3 days): antagonistic trolling. Previous recent warning for hostility.
"Having fun? But the game only runs at 30 fps and dips into the high 20s sometimes! Look at the ugly shadows! It's not even native 1080p, how can you play it on a 4K OLED and not vomit? How can you have fun like this? No, really, how? Please stop having fun."
I think you should start by not assuming the discussion around performance is being had in bad faith. I assure you that I like video games. I don't think that the demand is artificial, we're just naturally going to be looking toward the next ways gaming can improve and load times/performance issues have been particularly egregious these last few gens.
As to your second point, I genuinely believed Nintendo got crept on quickly with the rise of the SSDs. There are a lot of obvious ways BOTW could have been improved with it and I think developers having less technical constraints to worry about between them and their visions is a good thing.
The OP is phrased in sort of a baity way that I think muddles the true point being made here, but a lot of the replies probably would have been the same anyway since Nintendo fans always get cagey when the obvious technical constraints of their hardware come up.
I would call this more a hot-takes site than an enthusiast site. Regardless, I would say most enthusiasts still have self-awareness.
That's Nintendo for you. They keep making games for hardware that isn't doing their work justice.
I absolutely love playing games at smooth frame rates and it's sometimes hard to go back to poor performing games for me these days. That being said BotW doesn't bother me. It's always felt pretty smooth overall and I've never felt like I was losing at any point due to lag as the lag typically happens when there's tons of effects on screen.
Don't get me wrong, I really prefer 60fps even if that means lesser visual fidelity but this is an unrealistic metric, especially when applied to a portable. Even a Switch Pro will be what? Maybe comparable to the vanilla Xbox and PS4?
If you're enjoyment of games is so absurd that it completely hinges on their technical performance and nothing outside of a locked 60fps at 1080p is playable to you why on earth did you buy a Switch?
Lol these threads are so transparent but make for a good laugh
Lol these threads are so transparent but make for a good laugh
If they were actually enthusiastic they would just solve their problems by buying a computer. But that suggestion is met with hostility because they just want to complain on the internet and not actually fix it.
You'll see 30fps become perfectly playable again once PS5 and Series X drop cross gen games and AAA single player next gen only open World games go back to 30fps lol.
Right there with you OP.
I enjoyed my time with it, but I would have enjoyed it a lot more and would definitely go back to play it more if it wasn't released on dated crippled hardware.
Maybe the switch pro or whatever it's called will bring it somewhat close to the current standard of console hardware (doubt it), but as much as the switch is a great handheld, it's a terrible home console. BoTW on my lg CX looks like a blurry mess and runs terribly compared to just about every modern game. AAA zelda games should not be treated so poorly by Nintendo.
I enjoyed my time with it, but I would have enjoyed it a lot more and would definitely go back to play it more if it wasn't released on dated crippled hardware.
Maybe the switch pro or whatever it's called will bring it somewhat close to the current standard of console hardware (doubt it), but as much as the switch is a great handheld, it's a terrible home console. BoTW on my lg CX looks like a blurry mess and runs terribly compared to just about every modern game. AAA zelda games should not be treated so poorly by Nintendo.
Not sure I love the idea of Nintendo tamping down their ambitions to conform to 60fps standards. Yes, they should do their best to target that, but I'd much rather play BotW at a semi-stable 30 than get a pared-down vision at 60. I'm sure they'd love to hit arbitrary technical "standards." but Nintendo still seems to put gameplay design over technical ambition. If they can marry the two, they tend to go for it, but their design philosophy isn't and hopefully never will be "Make Digital Foundry Happy"
The issue with your comparisons is that movies are almost never 720p. With them usually being film, they're at about 4K level, or at least 2K when it comes to films with heavily special effects. 30fps meanwhile, has been a general standard for 3D games for quite some time outside of particular genres. Yeah, some are 60fps, but it's almost always the exception rather than the rule.
Open-world games in general almost always had poorer performance and graphical fidelity compared to it's contemporaries, they're extremely technically demanding games. Look at many open-world PS2 games like the GTA series or Shadow of the Colossus, tremendous graphical or technical sacrifices need to be made to get them to even be playable.
Obviously it's nice to want a game like BotW or similar to be 60fps and higher resolution, but you obviously need to keep in mind the hardware limitations. A game like BotW at 1080p 60fps on the Switch would require tremendous sacrifices at least graphically, if it was possible to get it working at all. To have a game that is open-world AND has beautiful graphics AND is 60fps AND is max resolution is...nice, but when considering the hardware platform you definitely can't have it all.
I'm sure Nintendo balanced graphical and technical performance the best they possibly could at the time and keep the scope and depth of the game. But to consider 30fps with occasional dips to be "poor performance" when it's practically been the norm for years is...quite frankly, absurd.
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I would argue that, historically, Nintendo develops games for the hardware they have in their hands, BOTW is not exception, it was developed for Wii U, a machine where every complex game was a 720p game, and they treat framerate as a design decision. Zelda is a 30 fps IP, that's all that there's to it.
BotW isn't a >30fps game though
it's only gotten better with age for me. ironically one of the ways it got better was the framerate issues got patched. absolute gem of a game
I mean it hasn't aged poorly. Under 30fps for a game in 2017 was still bad lol, it's not like standards have suddenly gone higher. It's just the same fantastic game with technical issues that it was on day 1 lol.
You went through OP's post history and thought this was good enough to post as some kind of gotcha?Looking at your post history perhaps you just have a problem with the Switch in general and it's not Zelda which is the problem?
Im playing it for the first time right now. There's only been 2 scenarios for me that consistently cause frame drops: Using the magnesis rune and the southern jungle area. Those frame drops are annoying but thankfully I'm getting a near locked 30 outside of that.
I do agree the resolution seems a bit low. I'd also like the draw distance for smaller objects to be better. But really these are only small issues for such a good game.
I do agree the resolution seems a bit low. I'd also like the draw distance for smaller objects to be better. But really these are only small issues for such a good game.
I got a question, weren't TLOU2 and GoT 30 fps when they released in 2020? Aren't those dated and unplayable games as well? ( I know that GoT got a 60 fps update). Let's keep it pre-PS5.
PS. I think those games are awesome, btw.
PS. I think those games are awesome, btw.
BOTW is the only Zelda I beat, therefore it is the only good Zelda game, despite performance issues. facts.
I booted up BotW again a few days ago just to feel its atmosphere. Ended up playing for 3 hours.
So basically, every non-60 fps video game is bad/terrible for you?
Man have I got news for you....
Man have I got news for you....
People like yourself are being far more of a "condescendent gatekeeper" than OP is. It should be okay to speak about preferences on technical aspects without all this bullshit.
"Having fun? But the game only runs at 30 fps and dips into the high 20s sometimes! Look at the ugly shadows! It's not even native 1080p, how can you play it on a 4K OLED and not vomit? How can you have fun like this? No, really, how? Please stop having fun."
Posts like the above... are, imo, far worse than anything in the OP.
I put about two dozen hours into Breath of the Wild before kinda burning out on it, and the technical aspects were definitely part of it. In addition to the framerate problems, it also just has pretty poor IQ, and it's less legible at a distance (or undocked!) because of that.
As a PC player used to triple-digit framerates, even locked 30 is just unpleasant and hurts my immersion. I'm replaying Nier Automata right now, and every time the game drops to 30fps fixed for a cutscene, it feels like the game is breaking.
I still think PC/Switch is the best two-platform experience overall, but it is hard overcoming how many games look and feel on the latter.
As a PC player used to triple-digit framerates, even locked 30 is just unpleasant and hurts my immersion. I'm replaying Nier Automata right now, and every time the game drops to 30fps fixed for a cutscene, it feels like the game is breaking.
I still think PC/Switch is the best two-platform experience overall, but it is hard overcoming how many games look and feel on the latter.
I mean if you quote my one meme post instead of the many others where I laid down my arguments it's super easy to make me look bad.