Am I the only one who loves driving between tracks? It’s the most unique and fresh thing about this Mario Kart and changing / removing it out of the game would make it feel like every other Mario Kart to me.
Yup. It’s flat, boring as shit nothingness that just causes win more-ing for those in the lead and causes the tracks that have an ounce of design in them to be 1 lap.
The courses themselves are dull as hell compared to 8 but the traversal reduces it down to “I don’t even want to play this game” territory; so I’ve already stopped playing the 1 new game for my new console lol
Judging by the descriptions given by another user these “between track” drives are A. Part of the race and removing actual time on the actual tracks, and B. Not optional. Those things together make for some seriously bad game design.
I’ll add some context, as I actually own a Switch 2 and Mario Kart World.
The game is full of “intermission tracks”, where the next race starts at the previous track and you effectively drive to the next track for the first two laps, then complete a single lap of the destination track. For example, in the Mushroom Cup, rather than start the second race at Crown City, you’d instead start at Mario Bros Circuit (the 1st track in the cup), drive to Crown City for two “laps” then complete a single lap of Crown City.
Many people voted Random in online multiplayer instead of picking one of the three interconnecting tracks, because the intermission tracks frankly suck for the most part, and are just straight-line roads. By picking Random, the game would actually pick a completely different course and you’d do a standard 3-lap race, like you would by selecting the course in Time Trial mode.
At least that’s what used to happen, before the latest patch… Now, random actually picks one of the three interconnecting courses, and no longer picks a random course.
To be honest, I think intermission tracks only really work in Free Roam and Knockout Tour. It doesn’t feel innovative to effectively drive to the next racetrack when you still have to wait between race results and loading screens.
This explanation helps a lot. I was watching Maxamillion_Dood play online and it seemed like every other track they selected was random. And when it wasn’t he clearly didn’t know what lap they started on. Like the race would be over the first time they crossed the finish line. Everytime that happened Max was confused. Even to me as a viewer that seemed weird. I couldn’t tell what was going on either. First time I ever watched a Mario Kart game and had a hard time telling what was going on.
Anyone who knows how Mario Kart World works well enough to be bothered by this change already gave Nintendo $500 for the game. What are they gonna do? Refund it to Walmart?
I didn’t buy and don’t have the console. But either way, refunds wouldn’t “hurt” Nintendo the way they would on a platform like Steam - you can’t refund Nintendo digital products, and even if Walmart accepted a return on a Switch 2 with the digital account-based (non-transferable per TOS) Mario Kart redeemed, Nintendo already made their sale by getting the thing on a Wal-Mart shelf in the first place.
It’s just silly to see a comment about “keeping” giving Nintendo $80 for mario kart when the people affected by stuff like this… Already gave Nintendo $80/$500 for Mario Kart. The “support” has already been delivered.
Not only that, the three available choices are "intermission tracks", that is the half tracks between courses. These are not full 3-lap courses, and are significantly more boring and shorter than the 3-lap courses. They're more likely to appear in the "random" selection now.
Haha, that also came to mind, it’s pretty poor. Paraphrasing: "Users on Metacritic saying it “ruined” the online mode - an indicator that they are very displeased. "
This was suggested in another repost of this article. It does really have that vibe, yes. It’s giving off this uncanny valley feeling of journalism. Lots of words, that… kinda say something?, but there’s a lot of like, overlap? I’m having a hard time explaining it.
Definitely pumping up the word count. The paragraph used to come around to the fact that Metacritic (not steam) is the site where SMKW is being review bombed gave me visceral feelings of anger.
Now, the fans has taken over on Metacritic by starting a review bomb, the user score of Mario Kart World has dropped from 8.3 to 7.7 in just a few days and that is definitely big. We can see tons of negative reviews, and it truly looks like the players aren’t happy at all.
The message is clear, the new update has ruined the entire online gaming experience. We saw many reviews using the word “ruined” which clearly shows how upset these fans are.
Is it possible that this is ESL instead of LLM? Or maybe a mix of both? I’m getting way more ESL vibes from the first paragraph, but the generally meandering nature of the piece does point to an LLM too.
I think ESL could be a factor. Definitely LLMs have better English prose than this. I’m so used to seeing long running AI slop articles answering basic questions in 1000 words (rather than 10) and this reads similar.
Their ultimate play is to turn gaming into the same model as Spotify. You no longer own games, but subscribe to a service that allows you to play them.
We already no longer own games. It’s been that way since the DMCA robbed consumers of digital ownership. If your game includes DRM or a EULA, you don’t own it.
I’ll be honest: as much as I love Xbox—I still have my OG and a 360—PC gaming has completely leapfrogged it in terms of value.
The whole appeal of the original Xbox was that it brought PC-style gaming to consoles. I never liked playing FPS games on console until Halo came along and proved it could actually work.
But over the last 15 years, Valve has basically turned PC gaming into a console experience. These days, instead of hooking up an Xbox to my TV, I just connect a PC tower. Honestly, it’s way easier than it used to be.
The last console that really offered something unique for me was the original Switch, mostly because it made going from handheld to TV effortless. But with the new wave of handhelds running SteamOS or Bazzite, that same seamless experience is now possible on PC hardware.
If Microsoft can make Windows as smooth and intuitive as SteamOS, then maybe they’ll be back in the game.
Eh, ditching a dedicated console is a bad idea, as I love the staying power and gaming power inherent in that form factor! Perhaps, if they have a docking method for this hardware, I’d potentially be interested in it. However, I’d still get a Steam Deck or Legion Go S before an Xbox Handheld. Edit: Not at the proposed price point, I would certainly not get this handheld…They are forgetting the reason why handhelds can be appealing, they’re lower price points but decently powerful systems.
You can dock a Windows 11 handheld, but it’s not exactly seamless. You have to dig into Settings, disable the handheld’s own display, and tell it to use the TV instead. No problem for me, but most people won’t bother. Hopefully, the next “gamer-specific” version of Windows makes this automatic when you dock.
That’s why I ended up dual-booting the Legion Go with Bazzite. Navigating with a controller is just easier, and I’m not waiting six months for another Windows version I might have to pay for.
We paid C$900 for the Legion Go, and honestly, it was worth the premium for three main reasons:
The controls: Think Joy-Cons, but better. They’re detachable, comfortable, and feel great in the hand.
The display: An 8.8” screen, 1600p, 144Hz. Gorgeous and smooth.
eGPU support: Plug in an external GPU when docked, and it turns into a serious gaming machine.
I get that some people just want a cheap handheld. But my wife—who’s not a PC enthusiast (her favorite game is Little Kitty, Big City)—thought it was worth it. It was still cheaper than her iPhone 16e.
Seamless docking is what I am after, I will look into the Legion Go S and see if the docking in seamless for the SteamOS version. If so, that would be a huge selling point for me! To be fair the Legion Go S seems to have a better layout spread than the current Steam Deck (Valve made sure to make a Steam Deck Dock at least). The Steam OS version is also cheaper than my iPhone 15 Plus, so it also has that going for it and I can pick it up from Best Buy. Even if there is no docking, I might still pick it up for a better gaming in my apartment or out and about.
I came across something interesting with a FireTV stick. It’s got Amazon’s Luna cloud gaming service on it. It looks like it really wants to push Luna+, a paid subscription tier. However, they also have connections to several other gaming services, which supply games you can play outside of the sub. Most don’t seem to supply many games (EA, Epic, Ubisoft). But GOG on the other hand supports many Luna games! I’m not even sure how many. It’s probably not a ton, but still. My personal collection with GOG is only represented by a fraction that are actually playable on Luna. A bunch of games I’ve gotten free, too, since Prime Gaming has provided them for being an Amazon Prime member, along with helpful community members pointing these things out when they come around! GOG also does a pretty good job of displaying which games have Luna capability on their site. They seem to be leaning in on this.
For shits and giggles, I ran the Steam and Xbox apps also on the FireTV stick. I only gave it a limited run, but it looks like you’ll need to keep your computer running to mirror Steam, while Xbox requires Game Pass to play games, even ones you own! Big thumbs up at least for the ease of Luna!!
Word from SkillUp is that you can still load the desktop experience the same way you can on Steam Deck, so that would make it neither locked down nor anti-mods.
Too bad there aren’t existing platforms where Microsoft and other devs could just make their games available to play on and not keep trying to monopolize everything through their service
Don’t get me wrong—I love SteamOS and Bazzite as much as anyone. But like it or not, Windows has been the backbone of PC gaming for decades. Most developers still build for Windows first. Even on Linux, you’re usually running Windows games through Proton, not true Linux ports.
And honestly, it’s not Microsoft that’s closest to monopolizing PC gaming. It’s Valve. They control 85% of the storefront market. If SteamOS takes off, I doubt most people will bother installing Heroic just to run GOG or Epic games. Sure, it’s possible—but for the average gamer, it’s more hassle than it’s worth.
What we really need is more competition. I want to see an Xbox handheld running Windows, but also a GOG Deck, an EGS Deck, maybe even an Itch.io Deck.
Hell, imagine if Apple finally woke up to gaming and made a Mac Deck. Now that would shake things up.
Hell, imagine if Apple finally woke up to gaming and made a Mac Deck. Now that would shake things up.
They have the hardware (any current gen iphone or ipad), they only need to release a version with console-like controller buttons, but they lack the willingness to really invest in games. Apple arcade is a joke compared to nearly everything else on offer.
Personally I think it’d be super cool to see some platform independent handhelds rather than something like a gog deck or an epic deck. I’ve fankensteined SteamOS to be that way but it def still prioritizes steam which ain’t great
consoles have mods these days, though they do need developer support
not everyone cares about mods, I’d go out on a limb and say most pc players don’t use mods
this new Xbox thing is not an OS, it’s an app. The device still has full windows in there and it is accessible. But when you’re using the Xbox app windows suspends many of its functions.
The next Xbox will simply be a prebuilt PC and it won’t be subsidized (or it will be subsidized less) so expect a $700-$900 price tag for the Series X, and a $500 for the Series S. It wouldn’t make sense any other way. Steam et all will be usable, as it is usable in the Xbox Ally as well.
Now tell me what would you rather buy? The PS5, which is absurdly locked down (even more so than the current Xbox when it comes to mods)? Deal with the gpu market shenanigans? Or buy the prebuilt Xbox PC that lets you play all your Steam games as well?
Mods on Xbox only exist for games where the game itself officially added mod support. I mean, sure it’s great when a game maker does that but usually it’s not as good as community-made mod support because community mods don’t require approval and can’t get censored/removed because the vendor doesn’t like it.
Remember: Microsoft’s vision of mods is what you get with the Bedrock version of Minecraft. Yet the mods available in the Java version are so vastly superior the difference is like night and day.
Console players—that are used to living without mods—don’t understand. Once mods become a regular thing that you expect in popular games going without them feels like going back into the dark ages.
I keep screaming about how the TPM 2.0 requirements of Windows 11 are insidious due to the ability to implement remote attestation now. I don’t think they’ll spring the trap immediately, but it’s locked and set and you’d be a fool to believe it won’t happen eventually.
Remote attestation allows changes to the user’s computer to be detected by authorized parties. For example, software companies can identify unauthorized changes to software, including users modifying their software to circumvent commercial digital rights restrictions. It works by having the hardware generate a certificate stating what software is currently running. The computer can then present this certificate to a remote party to show that unaltered software is currently executing.
They added mod support to MS Store/Game Pass games ages ago. If locking it down like that was their intention they would’ve never even done that to begin with.
Okay? That wasn’t the central point of their message. It seems somewhat disrespectful to respond that way, ignoring everything else they said. They have a valid point.
I’m sorry as well. It’s just I’ve been treated poorly for having a Deck as it is. I was just recently gifted a PS5 and Series S after having One S for god knows how long now. So, yeah, forgive me for snapping, but I have no interest or motivation to upgrade. I just want to have fun.
Valve isn’t making their next Steam Deck anytime soon because the technology doesn’t exist yet. You can crank up the wattage and put in a bigger battery, but those things make the handheld larger, heavier, and hotter, so they’re not interested. This is a bottleneck from AMD and their R&D.
But especially due to live service anti cheat and Game Pass, I agree that there’s a potential market for this strategy. There’s certainly no way they compete with Sony by doing what consoles have always done.
“…we aren’t thinking about new hardware until next year at least” doesn’t mean that they aren’t working on it now. And they seem to have low confidence that said new hardware will even make it out next year. Yes, we are likely years out from a new Steam Deck, and you shouldn’t plan on one being imminent. That’s not the same thing as them no longer working on it.
Yes, I did. I also didn’t read between the lines and take that to mean that they’re not working on it, investing in it, etc. It just means that we can’t predict the future, and what makes sense now might not make sense in a few years when the technology does exist. The Outlook section was the author’s conjecture of what could come to pass, but he can’t predict the future either.
That was seven months ago, and it’s very clear. Successful gaming hardware usually starts prototyping the next one very quickly, even if it’s years away. If they didn’t, then they’d always lag far behind the latest technology. Valve don’t know the year. With tariffs alone, trying to set a release date for a new piece of hardware could be a nightmare.
Not one of my responses was intended to be hostile or patronizing, but tone can be hard to convey via text. I’m sorry if you took it that way. I was merely pointing out that you arrived at a conclusion that they didn’t state definitively in the article we both read.
Apple does have the technology though… imagine a steam deck with the m series chip? An m4 pro could run basically all modern games on a small screen at 60+ fps with the right software…
Way ahead of other ARM chips doesn’t mean that they’re ahead of the best that x64 has to offer, so that’s why games are still built for x64. The transition to ARM may happen someday, but Apple jumped the gun from a gaming perspective. Solving the software problem isn’t just getting SteamOS to run on it, but to get games built for x64 to run on it, and that’s not an easy problem to remedy. Even if it was solved, it likely would not result in better performance than we can get out of AMD’s x64 chips for x64 games on handhelds.
That’s not really how any of this works. Apples m4 are ARM CPUs. Games have to be built specifically for arm to run correctly. Most games in the PC ecosystem are built for amd64 or x86-64. If those same games were built specifically for arm then they’d probably run quite well but since most aren’t and game devs aren’t likely to go back and port an already finished and sold product to a new cpu architecture they’ll probably run worse. Apple did provide a compatibility layer for other archs to arm IIRC but that’s more overhead for the same games and I don’t know how that’ll impact performance. My point is really just it’s not a clear cut situation of “my games will run better on more efficient cpus”.
I own the original LCD Steam Deck. Still a fantastic device.
But after trying the newer handhelds, I have to admit: the upgrades are anything but minor. Visually, it’s a bigger leap than the jump from DS to DSi. The difference is immediately obvious.
They may very well be on to something (anyone who thought about this for a bit after the first announcement, could figure out this strategy, but it doesn’t include an important factor). Xbox is predominantly a console that lives in the living room. The most expensive Xbox series x is currently available is $729.99. The handheld they modeled this off is currently $899.99. The price increase when this handheld and it’s predecessor consoles have been popular in majority US markets, during a financially unstable time where there exist things like the switch 2 and the Lenovo Legion series of handhelds, not to mention ROG’s other handhelds may make this untenable to consumers. It’s a great idea for them to drop a handheld with an Xbox interface. It’s not a good time.
It’s sad that so many people are willing to buy new devices with lithium ion batteries in them when much of the cobalt used in the production of them is mined via slave labor in Congo. I’m sorry but open world Mario kart and higher fps in your games isn’t worth slavery.
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