Nintendo Switch 2: The Next Evolution in Gaming

🐝The gaming world is buzzing with excitement as rumors and leaks surrounding the highly anticipated Nintendo Switch 2 continue to surface. While Nintendo has yet to make an official announcement, industry insiders and reports suggest that a successor to the best-selling hybrid console is on the horizon. 

📆Expected Release Date

Though Nintendo has remained tight-lipped, reports from reliable sources indicate that the Switch 2 could launch sometime in 2025. Some analysts predict a late 2024 reveal with an early 2025 release, following a similar timeline to the original Switch's announcement and launch.

🤓Hardware and Performance Upgrades

One of the most anticipated aspects of the Switch 2 is its upgraded hardware. Leaks suggest the console will feature a custom NVIDIA chipset capable of delivering enhanced performance, including support for ray tracing and DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling) technology. This would allow for smoother gameplay, better visuals, and improved power efficiency. Additionally, reports indicate that the Switch 2 may support resolutions up to 4K when docked, a significant upgrade from the current model’s 1080p output.

🔄 Backwards compatibility

Fans have been eager to know whether their existing Switch game libraries will carry over. While there is no official confirmation, several leaks and patent filings hint at backwards compatibility, allowing players to enjoy their favorite Switch titles on the new system. This would be a crucial move by Nintendo, ensuring a seamless transition for its massive player base.

🌚New Features and Improvements

Beyond raw power, the Switch 2 is rumored to introduce new features that enhance the hybrid gaming experience. Some possibilities include:

• An OLED Display: Following the success of the Switch OLED model, the next-gen console may adopt an even more advanced screen technology for improved colors and contrast.

• Longer Battery Life: With advancements in hardware efficiency, the Switch 2 could feature extended playtime on the go.

• Better Joy-Cons: Nintendo may finally address the notorious Joy-Con drift issue with redesigned controllers featuring improved durability and responsiveness.

• Faster Load Times: Thanks to a potential SSD storage solution, the new console may significantly reduce loading times, making gaming smoother and more immersive.

🎮Game Lineup and Third-Party Support

A new Nintendo console wouldn’t be complete without an exciting lineup of exclusive titles. While no games have been confirmed, speculation points to potential titles such as a new 3D Mario game, a fresh Zelda adventure, and possibly Metroid Prime 4 optimized for the Switch 2. Additionally, with upgraded hardware, the console is expected to receive stronger third-party support, bringing more AAA games to the Nintendo ecosystem.

💰Price and Availability 

Pricing remains uncertain, but industry estimates suggest the Switch 2 could launch between $399 and $499, depending on its hardware capabilities. Given the global demand, securing a unit at launch may be challenging, so pre-orders will likely be crucial for early adopters.

💭Final Thoughts

The Nintendo Switch 2 has the potential to be a game-changer, continuing Nintendo’s legacy of innovative gaming experiences. While we await official confirmation, the rumored improvements and features make this an exciting time for gamers worldwide. Stay tuned for more updates as we learn more about what could be Nintendo’s most ambitious console yet!

What to Replay?

Being inundated with such a massive library I find myself constantly replaying games. From PC to handheld I'm all about good replay-ability.

So for me my instant go to replay games are:

Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction (PC) 

What makes it re-playable: Each time you play it it's random. The loot, the maps, the enemies. All of this makes it my most re-playable game.

Age of Mythologies with Titan expansion (PC)

What makes it re-playable: Playing against the bots on Titan difficulty keeps my on my toes and has me working on constantly perfecting my skills with each class. 

Final Fantasy VI (GBA)

What makes it re-playable: To be able to take one of the best RPGs (personally my favorite RPG) with you is amazing! If you haven't played it, you are doing yourself a disservice of an epic tale and fantastic game-play.  

Left 4 Dead (PC)

What makes it re-playable: It reminds me why FPS games can be challenging but a fun time with your friends.

Killing Floor (PC) 

*Is there a trend here with PC games? 

What makes it re-playable: The random themes, the crazy hordes and trying to survive with your friends and usually strangers from all around the world. It's addicting, crazy and all around fun. 

Tetris (NES)

*I'm only naming 1 NES game but I could do a list on just this platform alone that would stretch on for days

What makes it re-playable: It's Tetris, it's simplistically hard and the music was trance like.

What's your favorite game to replay? Leave it in the comments section and if you have a topic you would like me to post about leave that in the comments section too! Happy gaming! 

 

Lets talk about some movies

The summer movie mayhem is already upon us and this year looks to provide something for every movie genre type. A classic is reborn and re-imagined, comics come to life once more and something different stirs a bit of emotion.

I think back to the days when I was younger and I spent the summers at my abuelos. The days were filled with imaginary scenarios inspired by video games, comics and the classic movies we used to pick up with my abuelo's huge satellite dish.

Yeah she's a beauty!

We used to pick up all sorts of channels from countries all over the world. I remember watching Tarzan in black and white, King Kong and of course Godzilla in Japanese. We were captivated with theses legends and brilliance in cinematography. So much so that I drag myself to watch the lame attempts at remakes, that all leave me craving the originals. This summer will our appetite for a classic be satiated with the remake of Godzilla...? It's on my next to see list but it seems mediocre at best. With Bryan Cranston from Breaking Bad and Malcolm in the Middle blasted all over the trailer. It's a grasp to entertain a younger generation and invite the older generation along for the ride. This poor Godzilla with his tiny head that every time I see it I feel like the little girl from Despicable Me 2 describing how a bald head makes you a boy, I even make the little hand gestures (click the link to see the scene). If nothing else I expect to see buildings being destroyed, people running and trying to solve a tiny headed dragon-monster problem to some odd success and maybe a love story thrown in for giggles. Time will tell but with a score of 7.6 on on IMDb it shouldn't be all that bad.

Official Trailer for Godzilla 2014

Another trip down memory lane as we make a pit-stop at X-Men: Days of Future Past. I remember watching the animated series religiously with my cousins and pretending to be different X-Men characters, almost always Rogue as she was freakin' awesome! The comics had amazing art and graphic stories that gripped each reader.

Come get some!

Looking at the story line as an adult you see the theme is equality for all and that with division and inequality nothing can exist. This next chapter in the bountiful library of X-Men movies looks to show just that with the introduction of the Sentinels, only chaos and destruction follows. These giant robots that were created to capture or kill all mutants are not just lame robots to their masters. Some show their own independence and take things into their own large mechanical hands. These creations by the humans are shown as the major villain in this installment. They are what brings the mutants together to battle them from the future and into the past, to create a better existence for all.

Official Trailer #3 X-Men: Days of Future Past

The last stop on this trail of hope and wonder is something new but familiar. This movie stirs something inside the child that dwells deep down in all adults. Boxtrolls is a stop motion adventure produced by Laika (ParaNorman and Coraline). It's the tale of an orphan that is raised by creatures that live underground and collect trash, called Boxtrolls. This is based off the novel, Here Be Monsters! by Alan Snow. The story is fantastical with imagery similar of Roald Dahl (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) where fantasy and reality collide.  

Something with stop motion animation and the detail work that goes along with it, reminds me of how creative we used to be as children. The world was something that we could mold and make whatever ever fantasy we had come true. This story looks enchanting and something I will be checking out on opening weekend, September 26th.  

Boxtrolls 2014 Trailer-Behind the scenes

Let me know what movie you are looking forward to and check back often for updates or new posts. 

  

  

Old, New and the stuff in between...

Hola to all my random blog followers or stumble uponers. It's been a hot crazy minute since I have posted anything and today just felt like a good day to write something.

Updates - Gameage is still happening but working all the time is also happening.

What I'm playing right now - Age of Mythology, Animal Crossing New Leaf and Lego Harry Potter Years 1-4 (360).

Age of Mythology is a RTS and it's on PC. It originally came out in 2002 and an expansion pack (yeah those things before DLC) was released in 2003. The game was a spin-off or upgrade from the Age of Empires series. You start out with a settlement with a few settlers to help you advance. Your settlers help gather resources to allow you to advance your eras and technology. Your map in the beginning is blacked-out and you need to explore to find what areas are safe and what areas are inhabited by enemies.

The ultimate goal is to take over the world with the best technology, warriors and gods destroying anything that gets in your way.

The expansion gave you the power of Titans, which in a nutshell are super huge gods that fight along-side you. To achieve the power of the Titans you need to advance to the last era.

The video below (while grainy) provides a nice teaser as to what to expect from Age of Mythology: Titans

Animal Crossing New Leaf is on the 3DS and plays just like its predecessors on the Game Cube, DS and Wii. You create your village, you get a house with a mortgage. So what does a villager in a fluffy animal filled town supposed to do to pay off their mortgage, you might ask? Well collect and sell: fish, fossils and bugs of course! Yes that's correct, you spend all of your time either collecting and selling or talking with your neighbors, who are all animals. My favorite neighbor right now is Stinky (no I didn't name him that) who is a cat that wears a wrestling outfit. All-in-all this is cute game that is totally addicting.

The video below is from E3 2011 and is an original trailer

Then we have Lego Harry Potter Years 1-4 for the Xbox 360. Yeah we just got this yesterday (Target had it as-is for $5.00) and it came with the first movie. We haven't actually started it yet but I have played all of the Lego Batman games, Lego Lord of the Rings and Lego Pirates of the Caribbean so I'm expecting about more or less the same but with a Harry Potter story line. You break stuff, collect Lego pieces, build awesome Lego stuffs and repeat through several stages. Not going to lie, I love this. It brings me back to when I used to play old Nintendo games and you just ran around and did stuff and the story progressed and you had fun gaming.

The video below is the trailer 

Thank you for stopping by and reading what I have to say. I am working on getting back on track with writing and of course I promise to continue to be a gamer and still be girly! :)

What are you looking for?

This year is looking like an awesome game year. I have a new poll up that needs some votes. The list includes:

Diablo 3
The long awaited sequel to Diablo 2 is finally being released, but not before tons of beta testing.

The Last of Us
This game looks amazing! The trailer shows in game graphics which rival most cinematic cut scenes in games. Another take on a ravished post apocalyptic society but with graphics like those seen in the trailer this could be a buy at launch date title.

Bioshock Infinite
The next Bioshock game, as you can see in the video, like The Last of Us looks graphically amazing. Taking a whole new approach to the series by no longer being in the deep dark murkiness of the ocean but outside in the bright open floating city.

Resident Evil 6
You can hold your gun and walk too, maybe! Enough said. This game follows the two great male characters from previous Resident Evil games, Leon and Chris, through a split story that takes our heroes to China and Washington.

Cactus time!!

Awesome submission by my awesome chicofriend :)))


When it goes live everyone should vote on it so it can get printed :)))

Purse v. Game

The other day I was posed with an odd situation.

A friend had explained to me that he was interested in buying a "sports" type game that is new. The new price of this game is roughly $60 but being like the rest of us he too is burdened by the ewwwy economy and said that a reasonable price for the game was $40. Now my automatic dislike for sports games and the little to nothing new that they offer with sequels I began a sort of rant that even $40 was not a low enough price for the game. So eventually we ended the discussion agreeing to disagree and the night concluded.

The very next day I encountered a purse, yes a girly object of little necessity versus great want, that I felt compelled to have. Now, I rationalized that it was not acceptable to spend full price on the purse but it was on sale for $44, only slightly more than what my friend was willing to pay for the game he wanted.

How could I rationalize it was alright for me to spend just about the same amount for something that serves very little difference from what I already have and not find that same rationalization for this game my friend wanted? Am I too girly and not hardcore enough to be called a gamer?

This brings me to the point of this little tale, want versus need, gaming versus being girly. As a female gamer I work on keeping a happy balance with my hobby and my femininity, but is that actually possible? Am I as hardcore as the boys or do I lack that intensity because I find just as much enjoyment from the girly things?

Let me know your opinions in the comment section. : )

Test your NES knowledge

As I was stumbling this evening I came across a fun Nintendo quiz. As I'm working on a NES play through this quiz fits right in.

So I'm a noob at this NES quiz, but how well do you think you know your Nintendo games? Take the quiz and post the results in the comments. Good luck!

NES Quiz
Click on the link to test your Nintendo game skills.

Oooops for A

So I stand corrected on my ABC play through set. I actually do have a game that starts with the letter A and it is, drum roll please, Al Uncer Jr.'s Turbo Racing.

Turbo Racing is similar to other Nintendo racing games, especially similar to Rad Racer with some subtle differences. Some added game elements are: car upgrades, pit stops and three game play styles.

Here is my sample of Al Uncer Jr.'s Turbo Racing


Next is Beetlejuice based off the feature film and animated series. You play as the ghoul with most Beetlejuice who is trying to scare away the Deetz family. It's a side-scrolling game for the most part, with some overhead game play scattered throughout the game. Exploring through the Maitland house you get scare upgrades to assist with the many enemies and bosses.

Here is my attempt at Beetlejuice

Going Back to the Future

Going back in time to when I learned the alphabet with a play through set of all my Nintendo games from A ,or in this case, B through Z.

First on the list is Back to the Future 2 and 3. Developed by Beam Software the game is a combo of sorts squishing the the last two movies in the series into one not so good game. A single player game for the NES that didn't offer a save feature, a map function and is lengthy, is talked about as being one of the worst games ever.

I have had this game since childhood and I have never gotten past the first stage and never experienced the part 3 section of the game. It is kind of sad that Back to the Future 2 and 3 was so horrible because the first game in the series, while hard, is beatable and fun.

Here is my most recent attempt: