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Tag Archives: ports
Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach back to normal operations after labor shortages trigger shutdowns – KABC-TV
- Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach back to normal operations after labor shortages trigger shutdowns KABC-TV
- Retailers, manufacturers urge White House to mediate in West Coast ports labor dispute Yahoo Finance
- West Coast port labor issues persist from Los Angeles to Seattle, with supply chain frustration mounting CNBC
- 2 container terminals at Port of Long Beach closed Monday, at least 1 to be closed Tuesday Long Beach Business Journal – Long Beach News
- West Coast dockworkers disrupt trade for a fourth day, says maritime group CNN
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Nintendo Switch Ports We’d Love To See In 2023
Early in 2022, we put out a list of 14 games we’d love to have on Switch. Since then, we’ve got at least five of them on Switch, so we’re either prescient or powerful. So, in hopes that 2023 will be similarly rewarding, we’re aiming this feature at you, Doug Bowser — we’d love to see the following games ported onto Nintendo’s hybrid console. You don’t even have to credit us, we’re just that nice.
The Big Games
Wind Waker HD & Twilight Princess HD
Let’s start it off easy, eh? These two excellent Zelda remasters have been trapped on the Wii U for too long! Bring their glorious HD selves over to the Switch — bundle them together, even — and we’ll be happier than a Goron in a rockslide. We’ve already got Skyward Sword, which is arguably the hardest to port of those three games, so surely this pair can’t be far behind?
What are the chances?
Call us hopelessly optimistic, but we feel like there have been hints that this could happen for a while now, and we can’t see why Nintendo wouldn’t consider at least one of them an easy win. Still, rumours are not reality.
Super Mario Galaxy 2
Again, we’ve already got Super Mario Galaxy 1 in that short-lived Super Mario 3D All-Stars bumper pack. SMG2 is one of the best Mario games of all time, and it would be such a boon to be able to play it on Switch, maybe even before the next Super Mario game (Odyssey 2, perhaps?) comes out. It’s been a while since we’ve bounced around with our second favourite Italian plumber, hasn’t it?
What are the chances?
Honestly, who knows with Super Mario Galaxy. Nintendo gave us 3D All-Stars and then ripped it from our hands by taking it off sale (although it really isn’t hard to find even now). Behind the closed doors of the Japanese HQ, anything could be happening, but with Tears of the Kingdom on the slate, it sort of feels like it’s Mario’s turn to hog the spotlight next, you know?
Tomb Raider: Survivor Trilogy
This trilogy compilation release of Tomb Raider (2013), Rise of the Tomb Raider and Shadow of the Tomb Raider, developed by Crystal Dynamics and Eidos-Montréal, was released for PS4 and Xbox One, so it stands to reason that they’d run well enough on Switch, too. They’re rather good games (with the original being a real stand-out late in the PS3 / Xbox 360 era) that tell the origin story of the iconic character, and they all have a flair for cinematic action and some occasional tomb raiding. Not all diehard fans of the IP approve of the games, but we reckon they’re a fun time.
What are the chances?
Low-ish, we’d say. This is an anniversary year for the franchise and would have been the ideal time, but Square Enix instead announced Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light and Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris for Switch, coming next year. Still, it’s better than nothing.
Batman: Arkham Collection
It sometimes feels like the Rocksteady developed ‘main’ Arkham games have been done a disservice. Not only was the ‘Return to Arkham’ PS4 / Xbox One collection a technical disappointment, but the newest entry (Arkham Knight) has gone unloved and hasn’t had any upgrades for the latest hardware. The trilogy, nevertheless, is comprised of three excellent games that would be awesome to play on Switch.
What are the chances?
It should be technically possible, though the third entry would be rather demanding to port across. The first two games should be do-able however, and let’s not forget that we had Batman: Arkham City: Armored Edition and Batman: Arkham Origins on Wii U, and even Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate on 3DS (later in its HD form on Wii U). The precedent is there.
Will it actually happen? Considering the haphazard treatment of the games over the years probably not. Still, you never know…
Metroid Prime
With Metroid Prime 4 scheduled to be with us sometime prior to Halley’s Comet return, whispers abound that Nintendo is sitting on a remastered version of Metroid Prime, just waiting for the right time to pull the trigger and whet everyone’s appetite ahead of MP4’s arrival. We’d rather have the trilogy in a simple HD port, to be honest, but it’s not our decision.
So, what are the chances this year?
Well, assuming that Prime 4 development is progressing — however slow-and-steady that progress may be — it’s not beyond the realm of possibility that we’ll see the rumoured Prime remaster, with Prime 4 to follow. Nintendo will want to start the Prime 4 Morph Ball rolling at some point, and releasing Metroid Prime on Switch would be a great way to do that.
Or, you know, the entire Prime trilogy. We’d take that, too.
Mass Effect: Legendary Edition
We got Mass Effect 3 on Wii U, remember? Remember the Wii U and Mass Effect 3? Sitting in a tree? K-I-S-S-I-N-G? Those were the days when EA execs looked at the Wii’s numbers and thought they better go all-in on Wii U. And just look how that turned out.
What are the chances?
Having been stung on Wii U, EA hasn’t bothered much with Switch. Since then, EA has also decided to go all-in on Xbox, with many of their games available through Microsoft’s Game Pass. Many of the games in this list will suffer from this — if something’s raking in the chips through Game Pass, why bother with Switch, where the game will run worse and make (probably) less money? This one ain’t that likely, unfortunately.
Fallout (any of them)
It is a crime that the Fallout series only has one game on Switch, and it’s the fun-but-forgettable mobile game, Fallout Shelter, and not New Vegas, Fallout 3, or Fallout 4. We’re relatively sure that each one of these games would make a fantastic Switch port, since ol’ Bethesda did such a great job porting over Skyrim to every platform ever, and Obsidian brought us Outer Worlds and Pillars of Eternity II, but they just haven’t materialised.
What are the chances?
Weeeeeell, Microsoft now owns both Obsidian and Bethesda, the two developers of the Fallout series, so… not very likely? But then again, the Switch has Minecraft, Ori, and (apparently) will be getting Call of Duty, too, so it’s not a zero chance. But you know how complicated company relationships can be, especially with rivals. We think this would be an easy win that could revitalise the older Fallout games for new audiences, but we aren’t Phil Spencer.
Dragon Age (any of them)
Oh, can you imagine how much fun it would be to play even just Dragon Age: Origins on Switch? Surely someone at BioWare or EA can polish up a 13-year-old game for a 5-year-old console, no? And if we managed to get Dragon Age II and the glorious Dragon Age: Inquisition on the Switch as well, we would probably be glued to that tiny screen for months. If Skyrim and The Witcher 3 can do it, Dragon Age Inquisition can do it, too!
What are the chances?
Pretty low, for the same reasons as Fallout and Mass Effect: Xbox and EA are unlikely to let these behemoths out of their stables. Microsoft is more willing to share than Sony, it’s true, but EA seems to have decided that the Switch isn’t worth their precious time (proof: the travesty that is FIFA on Switch. Sigh).
Yakuza: Like A Dragon
Another regular request of ours, 2020’s Yakuza: Like A Dragon and its Dragon Quest-loving turn-based gameplay would still be gratefully received on Switch.
What are the chances?
Still low, unfortunately. You would hope that the broad audience and colossal success of Switch might make the series’ producers reconsider putting the game on Nintendo’s console, but Sega isn’t the fastest company when it comes to gauging customer trends. As much as we’d love to see Ichiban become Switchiban, we might be asking too much.
Come on — Switchiban? Giving you solid gold over here!
Grand Theft Auto V
First up, it’s the fifth mainline entry in the GTA franchise. It introduced several new things to the series, the most significant being not gating the city from the beginning. Clunky in some ways, stunningly ambitious in others, the sheer scope of Rockstar’s environments is astonishing, and exploring Los Santos on Switch would be a fine thing — it was on PS3 and Xbox 360, for goodness’ sake!
What are the chances?
Not impossible from a technical standpoint (PS3 and Xbox 360 just about handled it), but the game’s biggest innovation makes a Switch port less likely; GTA Online is still a colossal money-spinner for Rockstar, so a port of an old game to a console with a patchy online reputation probably isn’t an in-house priority. And after GTA Trilogy’s launch state and the drubbing the developers received for it, there’s probably not much inclination on Rockstar’s part to get their hands dirty with a distraction like this. A shame.
Mad Max
Mad Max deserved better. Sure, it was a middle-of-the-road (pun intended) action-adventure that pulled from the Assassin’s Creed school of design — that is, “map icons, everywhere” — but it was really fun to careen around the desert in a souped-up jalopy. It deserves to be able to get back up, brush off the dirt, and have a second chance at life on the Switch.
What are the chances?
Pretty microscopic, in no small part due to the fact that no one has thought about this game much since its 2015 release. We would put our money on Avalanche and Warner Bros. wanting to do more productive things with their time than remastering a game that received a lukewarm reception even when it was shiny and new.
Shadow of Mordor
Speaking of games that were pretty cool but faded away into the cultural soup, Shadow of Mordor! This innovative Lord of the Rings spin-off introduced us to the Nemesis System, in which your enemies not only remember you, but you form a sort of relationship with them during the course of the story, watching them rise up the ranks to lead armies before you get to fight them again. We haven’t seen anything quite like it since.
What are the chances?
Hard to say exactly, but it’s been almost ten years since this game came out. Monolith has since been working on a Wonder Woman game, although there hasn’t been much news on that front other than a ton of recent new hires. Would they have the time to polish up Shadow of Mordor for us poor Switch players?
Tales of Arise
An action-RPG from Bandai Namco, Tales of Arise is the most entry in the Tales series featuring such games as Tales of Symphonia and Tales of Vesperia. This latest game was very well-received on other platforms, and we’d jump at the chance of playing it on Switch.
What are the chances?
Various games from the Tales series have appeared on Nintendo platforms over the years — including Switch — and Arise is an Unreal Engine 4 game, which Switch supports. That said, the series producer said back in August that there were “no plans” to bring the game to Switch — before also adding the usual ‘if we see demand’ caveat.
Marvel Snap
A dark horse in the race for 2022 Game of the Year, this mobile strategy card game came from nowhere to sweep a bunch of prizes. Apparently, it’s really good. And it’s a mobile game, which is easier to port over to Switch than a whole Fallout or whatever, right?
What are the chances?
We think the chances are surprisingly high, actually. It’s a simple enough game, without all the confusing complications behind other card games like Magic: The Gathering, and it’s got some stellar scores. It wouldn’t be that big of a step to bring it over to Switch now that it’s proved to be mega-popular, we reckon.
That’s all the big games we’d love to see on Switch next year, but keep going to page two to find out which stellar indies and mid-size games we’ve got on our list (spoilers: one of them is Papers, Please!)…
East Coast ports like New York are winning trade war over California
A container crane stands idle at the Port of Los Angeles amid a cargo slowdown on November 16, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. The country’s busiest container port complex, the ports of Los Angeles and neighboring Long Beach, saw imports of shipping containers drop 26 percent in October compared with the same month in 2021.
Mario Tama | Getty Images News | Getty Images
The official container count may not be out, but the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey tells CNBC it will be the No. 1 port moving the most containers in the U.S. for the fourth month in a row.
Unresolved port labor negotiations and the AB5 trucking law — which concerns the employment status of drivers — have migrated trade away from the West Coast to the East Coast and Gulf ports, cementing what seems to be with each month a more likely permanent shift, and benefitting not only the ports but East Coast warehousing as well as the two large railroads that service the ports, CSX and Norfolk Southern. According to ITS Logistics which monitors rail cargo trends, the volume of freight moving out of the East Coast doubles that of the West Coast.
“The port is working extremely hard on making it the most attractive port for ocean carriers and cargo shippers,” Richard Cotton, the executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, told CNBC.
There are a variety of reasons why trade is being diverted, but Cotton said the message that shippers and cargo carriers are sending is also about diversification. “They don’t want to have all their eggs in one basket so what we see happening in terms of the decline of other ports, is that much of it has come to the Port of New York and New Jersey,” he said.
“The Atlantic Ocean region volumes are high once again, as shippers continue to avoid the West Coast due to the uncertainty of the IWLU contract negotiations,” said Paul Brashier, vice president, drayage and intermodal at ITS Logistics.
The International Longshore and Warehouse Union and Pacific Maritime Association (which represents the terminals and ocean carriers) have been engaged in a labor dispute for much of this year.
New York first topped California in cargo volume in August.
While volume remains low on the West Coast, the elevated ocean dray on the East Coast started back in January, “when all of the smoke around IWLU started,” Brashier said. “And honestly, we can’t see these trends changing in 2023 until there’s a resolution on that contract,” he added.
East Coast ports making major investments
East Coast ports like Georgia, Virginia and Maryland have been increasing their investment to accommodate the increase in rail capacity. The Port of Virginia is currently deciding if it will open a second inland port. This long-term infrastructure investment is attracting ocean carriers like MSC that have announced plans to build new terminals at the ports of New Orleans and Baltimore.
“What is attracting the trade is the long-term investments the East Coast and Gulf ports are making to meet today’s trade demands,” said William Doyle, executive director for the Maryland Port Administration “Our mix of public-private partnerships have resulted in the investments of the Howard Street Tunnel, investments at our Seagirt Marine container terminal and Dundalk Marine Terminal (berths and on dock warehousing), and dredging. This is just the beginning.”
Private sector investment and state funding have also fueled port investment in Georgia. The Mason Mega Rail Terminal is a $220 million project for the Georgia Ports Authority. At 85 acres and 18 working tracks, the rail yard is now the largest of its kind for a port terminal in North America.
“The expanded infrastructure doubles the Port of Savannah’s previous rail capacity to 2 million twenty-foot equivalent container units per year, and allows Georgia Ports to better serve major inland markets such as Atlanta, Birmingham, Chicago, Memphis, Dallas, and New Orleans,” said a Georgia Ports Authority spokesperson.
The Port Authority of Virginia tells CNBC it does not see any lull in future investments.
“We move more than one-third of our total cargo volume by rail and with our investments, we believe we can push that number to somewhere near 40%,” said Stephen Edwards, CEO and executive director of the Virginia Port Authority. “We’re creating a superior rail operation – on-dock, double-stack and served by both of the East’s Class I carriers — that reaches deep into many of the Midwest’s traditional manufacturing and population centers.”
Edwards added they are also adding landside capacity and capability, channel depth, and see more private investment in Virginia by port users – logistics companies, warehouses, distribution centers, manufacturing, etc. Total investments in their rails, terminals, and widening and deepening of Norfolk Harbor is $1.4 billion.
Cotton also was confident that New York’s gains will be lasting, especially after five years of investments.
“If you compare today’s performance to prior years, it has absolutely stayed at an extraordinary level above the prior years. We are not seeing the decline the other ports are seeing,” he said. “The port will continue to set records for the rest of the year and we think that trend will continue. There may be seasonal declines, but the port is hitting on all cylinders.”
CSX, Norfolk Southern rail expansion
CSX said it cannot provide container volumes since the ports maintain and publish the data, but it is seeing growth in the movement of containers.
“CSX continues to see the East Coast ports as a growth opportunity as volumes shift from congested West coast gateways,” said Cindy Schild, CSX spokesperson.
Broad assets are underway, she said, to expand all aspects of port container handling capacity across the Eastern seaboard (e.g., on-dock rail capacity increases, inland port investments, new marine terminals, and terminal expansions, dredging, as well as near dock transload facilities.)
“All of these developments will benefit CSX. There is a high degree of correlation between port TEU throughput and our intermodal, as well as carload, rail volumes,” Schild said, adding that interest from port authorities and other stakeholders in inland port container initiatives are also on the rise.
The creation of inland ports can enable rails including CSX to connect to global markets otherwise served by trucks.
“The development of inland ports has an added benefit for port authorities and communities by alleviating congestion and reducing emissions from truck traffic at port, as well as efficiently increasing overall port throughput capacity,” Schild said.
Norfolk Southern told CNBC it is primed to take advantage of this trade shift.
“Strategic corridor investments and the opening of a dozen new intermodal facilities since 2014 have created the capacity and productivity to support volume growth on our network,” said Ed Elkins, executive vice president & chief marketing officer. “As the global economy becomes even more reliant on the East Coast for supply chain needs, we see a great possibility for smart, sustainable growth.”
West Coast port decline
Cargo volumes on the West Coast remained soft at the Port of Los Angeles in November, which saw a 21% decrease year over year in volumes. Overall, the port moved 7% less cargo in the first 11 months of 2022 compared to last year, which was an all-time record.
“Imports into the United States have begun to level off, in addition to cargo that has shifted away from West Coast ports due to protracted labor negotiations,” said Port of Los Angeles Executive Director Gene Seroka during a media briefing on Thursday. “In the months ahead, we’re going to have to work harder and smarter to earn cargo back. Every ship, every train, every truck needs to be handled with the top-level service our customers expect and deserve.”
The trend of trade continuing to move to the Port of New York and New Jersey over Los Angeles can be tracked in FreightWaves SONAR charts, which shows the incoming vessel capacity.
The Port of Long Beach processed 588,742 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) last month, down 21% from November 2021. Imports slid 28.4% to 259,442 TEUs. Exports increased 13.8% to 124,988 TEUs.
“While some import volume has shifted to other gateways, we are confident that a good portion of it will return to the San Pedro Bay,” said Port of Long Beach Executive Director Mario Cordero. “As we move toward normalization of the supply chain, it’s time to refocus our efforts on engaging in sustainable and transformative operations that will secure our place as a leader in transpacific trade.”
During the first 11 months of 2022, the Port of Long Beach has moved 8,589,553 TEUs, down just 0.5% from 2021, which was the port’s strongest year on record.
While the East Coast gains are significant, there was a “leveling” off of imports detected on the East Coast in November, according to port TEU data from the CNBC Supply Chain Heat Map.
The CNBC Supply Chain Heat Map data providers are artificial intelligence and predictive analytics company Everstream Analytics; global freight booking platform Freightos, creator of the Freightos Baltic Dry Index; logistics provider OL USA; supply chain intelligence platform FreightWaves; supply chain platform Blume Global; third-party logistics provider Orient Star Group; global maritime analytics provider MarineTraffic; maritime visibility data company Project44; maritime transport data company MDS Transmodal UK; ocean and air freight rate benchmarking and market analytics platform Xeneta; leading provider of research and analysis Sea-Intelligence ApS; Crane Worldwide Logistics; DHL Global Forwarding; freight logistics provider Seko Logistics; Planet, provider of global, daily satellite imagery and geospatial solutions, and ITS Logistics provides port and rail drayage services in 22 coastal ports and 30 rail ramps throughout North America.
Persona 5 Royal’s eagerly anticipated console ports put to the test
Persona 5 is one of the most celebrated JRPGs of modern times, packing a compelling, character-driven story, a satisfying turn-based combat system and a confident sense of style. Technically speaking, it’s a very curious game: essentially, it’s a PS3 title at its core with assets and rendering tech built around Sony’s 2006 system, but ultimately released in 2016 on PS3 and PS4. An expanded re-release dubbed Persona 5 Royal came out a few years later on PS4, loaded with new content, gameplay improvements, and visual tweaks. After a three-year wait, that version of the game is finally out on non-PlayStation platforms, including current-gen console releases and a much-requested Switch port. So how does this PS3-derived game scale up to PS5 and Series X and is the Switch release everything it should be?
Persona 5 had a bit of an odd gestation. It was developed solely with PS3 hardware in mind, but after missing a few release dates it ended up shipping on PS3 and PS4 in the fall of 2016, as one of the last major titles to hit Sony’s seventh-gen system. Models are stylised but low-poly, environments are boxy and use basic baked lighting, and texture resolution is poor. The PS4 version of the game benefitted from a 1080p rendering resolution and UI but left everything else unchanged – a very barebones conversion of the PS3 code.
With Persona 5 Royal, you get the sense that Atlus tried to make the game fit a bit better on last-gen hardware. Some of the more egregious-looking textures in the original game are replaced with higher-res assets. New artwork adorns many of the game’s buildings and streets. Depth of field is added in certain gameplay segments, while 2D elements are redrawn with smaller text and new overlays. Lighting and colour grading are also reworked, with the updated game having a brighter, punchier look. These are the sort of differences that are only readily apparent in side-by-side comparisons, but the improvements are there. It’s definitely still a PS3 title at heart of course – which perhaps makes it ideally suited to the Nintendo Switch.
The Switch translation of Persona 5 Royal is indeed a full and feature-complete version of the game without any fundamental cutbacks, meaning that the same structure, style, and gameplay of the other console releases is present and correct. On the technical side, there are aspects worth praising as well: loading times are still mercifully brief and effectively masked by short animations, and despite a pretty large reduction in file size, the animated cutscenes are largely free of visible artifacting.
However, I came away with mixed feelings on the ultimate result. There are a few major issues here. Firstly, texture resolution has taken a substantial hit across the board. Switch is using texture assets derived from the Royal version, but they are significantly degraded relative to their showing on PS4. At worst, the results can look a bit mangled and in some cases we get missing material properties. This also has a knock-on effect on the game’s baked shadow, all leading to the conclusion that the port isn’t quite up there with the PS4 version. Not only that, rendering resolution has been cut back. In docked mode the game renders at 1440×810, slightly above 720p. Portable play is pared back further to just 960×540.
Persona 5 is a game that depends enormously on raw pixel count to resolve fine details, like the thin lines that surround character models. It presents a very high-contrast aesthetic without any sort of image treatment, lacking even a simple post-AA, so aliasing and other visual deficiencies are on clear display. At 1080p image quality is somewhat marginal already but at 810p the image looks quite messy. It’s not too bad, but I was expecting a stronger result here: fundamentally, Persona 5 Royal is still a PS3 game at heart, and many seventh-gen efforts run at 1080p in TV play on Switch.
| Console | 3D Resolution | UI Resolution | Performance |
|---|---|---|---|
| Switch | 810p/540p | 1080p/720p | 30fps |
| PlayStation 4 | 1080p | 1080p | 30fps |
| PlayStation 4 Pro | 2160p | 1080p | 30fps |
| Xbox One S | 900p | 900p | 30fps |
| Xbox One X | 2160p | 1080p | 30fps |
| PlayStation 5 | 2160p | 2160p | 60fps |
| Xbox Series X | 2160p | 2160p | 60fps |
| Xbox Series S | 1080p | 1080p | 60fps |
But it’s the portable mode that truly disappoints. At 540p, Persona 5 Royal is rendering about 56 percent of the full 720p panel resolution – and it shows. Expect a blurry and imprecise resolve with a clumsy handling of distant detail. This is far from the pixel-precise 720p I was hoping for. At least Atlus has opted for a bilinear scale here, unlike some other recent low-res Switch releases, so aliasing artifacts aren’t unnecessarily highlighted. And the UI seems to render at the console output resolution in both modes, so it tends to look much cleaner than the 3D content. The one plus point? All 3D elements play out at 30fps with no problems whatsoever, so at least performance is consistent.
I was disappointed by Switch, but results improve as we scale up to more capable kit. In terms of basic visual features, it’s just about what you’d expect – essentially, we’re getting the PS4 version rendered at different pixel counts. There are no readily apparent differences in texture quality, shadows, draw distance, or anti-aliasing. But higher resolutions hugely improve Persona 5’s image quality, and there’s a big spread here. PS4 delivers a 1080p image as previously mentioned, as does the Xbox Series S. PS4 Pro, Xbox One X, PS5 and Xbox Series X all turn in a full 2160p resolve without any oddities to suggest a non-native presentation.
Those are all fairly straightforward – but there are two exceptions. Firstly, PS4 Pro and Xbox One X get a 4K 3D resolution, but miss out on a 4K UI, getting the same 1080p 2D art as PS4. And the Xbox One S counts in at just 900p for 3D content, and appears to have a 900p UI as well, which feels strange and out-of-place given the age and visual complexity of this game. A 1080p showing seems like it would be well within the capabilities of the Xbox One, despite its limitations in more demanding software.
Stacking the consoles up side-by-side there’s a big difference in basic image resolve. Persona 5 has no anti-aliasing of any kind, so increased rendering resolutions massively improve the consistency of the presentation. Detail that looks barely coherent on One S is clear and sharp on One X, for instance. However, even at 4K, there’s still plenty of jagged edges and image breakup on fine details, like character outlines and highlights. Performance does at least clock in at pretty decent levels. To break it down, Persona 5 Royal targets 30fps on last-gen machines and 60fps on current-gen. And just like Switch, that target is effectively met, as across all my hours of testing I didn’t see a single framerate drop in 3D content on any home console platform. Regardless of system, you should expect a very consistent experience here.
Persona 5 has a lot of fast animation without motion blur of any kind, so cutscenes and complex attacks can be a bit hard to follow in real-time on last-gen consoles. Everything has a staccato, slightly choppy appearance that arguably fits well with the game’s anime stylings but doesn’t always feel great to look at. The boost to 60fps on current-gen machines basically resolves these issues, with much cleaner animation in motion. At 4K60 on PS5 and Series X, the game looks particularly pleasing – a sharp, crisp, and smooth rendition of Persona 5 that manages to hold up remarkably well.
There is one last platform to take a look at: the Steam Deck. Valve’s Linux-based portable seems like it might be able to get us the best of both worlds – a portable experience that rivals current-gen consoles. And initially, that’s exactly what you can get. Running the Steam Deck at 1080p resolution, I was able to run the game at max settings at 60fps in the opening sections without issue with more or less identical visuals and performance to the Series S. The Steam Deck even reported fairly light levels of utilisation, with low GPU clocks and minimal CPU usage.
Unfortunately, as soon as I got into the city areas, I experienced some harsh performance drops for seemingly no reason, without a corresponding spike in utilisation or clock speeds. Lowering resolution or settings had no effect in my testing – the drops remained regardless of what I tried. Early dungeon sections also exhibited serious FPS issues. Capping the frame-rate to 30fps using the in-game frame-rate limiter seemed to work fine however, and ended up being preferable to the SteamOS limiter as it incurred a much smaller increase to input latency. Switching the display to 40Hz is another option for a smoother, consistent experience. These would be my preferred ways to play on Steam Deck – but I don’t think the Deck is particularly well-suited to this kind of game.
And that’s because Persona 5 has a sharp, bold colour scheme that makes extensive use of pure black. Plenty of UI elements and darker 3D content are intended to be completely black. Unfortunately, the Steam Deck’s IPS LCD display is fairly mediocre by modern standards and lacks the contrast ratio to really do Persona 5’s art justice. Dull gray tones tend to dominate the image, particularly in areas at night. The Switch OLED ends up producing a much more visually dynamic image in my opinion for portable play, with a bold, punchy look with beautiful pure blacks. It offers much lower-res 3D but packs display technology that is a better fit for this particular title. It’s not an easy choice, but if I had to choose I think I would lean towards an OLED Switch for this game.
In summary, Persona 5 Royal is a highly engrossing, unique title that packs serialised, TV-style storylines into a 100+ hour single-player adventure. Relative to the original game, this is more of a remix than a substantially expanded title – I’ve beaten both and my sense is that there’s probably about 15 or so hours of additional content here, in addition to various gameplay tweaks and enhancements. But this is definitely the best version of Persona 5, and now it’s available to play across essentially all modern systems. The game scales fairly predictably across the more capable home console platforms, but these ports don’t seem to translate Persona 5’s PS3-era tech very efficiently, so more power-constrained consoles – the Switch in particular – come in with serious visual compromises relative to the PS4 release. There’s no bad ports here necessarily, just a couple that fall below expectations for modern conversions of seventh-gen software.
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Video: New Switch Hardware Won’t Stop Bad Ports
There’s been a fair number of Switch ports this year alone. Some are surprising, others long-awaited and requested, but every time a game on another system makes its way onto Nintendo’s hybrid console, there’s always a bit of a debate that often leads to a discussion of the Switch 2, Switch Pro — whatever you want to call it.
The Switch is much less powerful than the PS5 or Xbox Series X, and so whenever games from those systems (and even the PS4/Xbox One), there are always lots of questions. How will the game run on Switch? What will it look like? Does the portability override any potential issues?
We’re over five and a half years into the Switch’s life, and chatter and rumours about new hardware are getting louder and louder every year. And while many ports such as Alan Wake Remastered and Ninja Gaiden: Master Collection struggle on Switch, others such as Persona 5 Royal, NieR:Automata, and No Man’s Sky manage to shine — even with a few small caveats.
So, will new Switch hardware help even these difficult ports? We’re not so sure — or at least the lovely video team of Alex, Zion, and Felix aren’t. The trio discuss some of the best and worst ports on the Switch and weigh up the pros and cons of porting games to the system.
Check out their thoughts below, and let us know whether you agree with these three fine fellows in the comments!
No More Heroes III interview with Goichi “Suda 51” Suda – new platforms, creating the series’ finale, ports, and more
No More Heroes III [21 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/games/no-more-heroes-iii”>No More Heroes III came to new platforms earlier this month with the release of PS5 [3,497 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/platforms/playstation/ps5″>PlayStation 5, Xbox Series [2,740 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/platforms/xbox/xbox-series”>Xbox Series, PS4 [23,977 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/platforms/playstation/ps4″>PlayStation 4, Xbox One [11,442 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/platforms/xbox/xbox-one”>Xbox One, and PC [16,040 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/platforms/pc”>PC (Steam) versions, so Gematsu” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/companies/gematsu”>Gematsu sat down with No More Heroes [8 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/games/no-more-heroes”>No More Heroes series creator and Grasshopper Manufacture [255 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/companies/netease-games/grasshopper-manufacture”>Grasshopper Manufacture founder Goichi “Suda 51” Suda to discuss the game’s new elements, creating the series’ finale, if it’s really the series’ finale, PlayStation [41,153 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/platforms/playstation”>PlayStation and Xbox [21,288 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/platforms/xbox”>Xbox versions of the first two games, and more.
Get the full interview below.
Gematsu Interviews Goichi “Suda 51” Suda
Interview Transcript
Gematsu: What’s new in the PlayStation, Xbox, and PC versions of No More Heroes III?
Goichi Suda, Producer and Director: “First, there’s the fact that these are different platforms, so I believe you’ll be able to play with improved graphics and a stable 60 frames per second frame rate.
“Also, the biggest new feature is the addition of the Japanese voices. We’ve got an amazing Japanese voice actor cast in this game. A lot of people out there watch Japanese anime, so I think you’re likely to hear some familiar voices in this installment. Some fans have said it feels like a Gintama-style lineup, but a lot of the Gintama family actually took part in the game, so that’s one of the main cool things I’d like everyone to check out.
“After playing through it in English, you could try playing with the Japanese voices next… A second playthrough in Japanese. I feel like that’d be a great way to enjoy the game.”
With No More Heroes III coming to PlayStation and Xbox, is there any chance we could see No More Heroes 1 and 2 come to those platforms?
Suda: “No More Heroes 1 and 2 are currently only playable on Steam and on the Switch [12,301 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/platforms/nintendo/switch”>Switch, and I do feel that it would be best to make them available to play on a wider variety of platforms, so that’s something I’d like to collaborate on with Marvelous [1,225 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/companies/marvelous”>Marvelous and make happen eventually. I can’t make any promises right now, but that’s where we are at the moment.”
No More Heroes III arrived 11 years after the last numbered entry. What was it like to finally create the sequel fans have been demanding for years?
Suda: “Yeah, 11 years is a long time; like longer than the usual lifespan of a platform itself. The game we had developed on the Wii [240 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/platforms/nintendo/wii”>Wii ended up jumping generations and landing on the Switch, and it was, hm, how do I put it… It actually felt like we were able to come back to the world of No More Heroes pretty smoothly. But even within our studio, first, we needed to ensure that people knew about No More Heroes 1 and 2. What sort of games they are, and how much the fans loved them… I feel like that was our actual starting point.
“So obviously, we had our own image of what kind of III we wanted to create, but there’s also the III that the fans wanted to see; the III they were imagining. So in development we tried to make sure that those visions of III overlapped as much as possible.”
Was there anything that you wanted to do in No More Heroes III, but couldn’t due to budget-related or technical limitations?
Suda: “Well, I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t. That’s a tough one. Of course there were lots of things we wanted to do, and I’ve spoken about this in lots of interviews before, but we initially envisioned having 100 bosses, and having more playable characters apart from just Travis; those were some ideas we considered. Also, it was going to take place in not only Santa Destroy, but a place called Utopiland as well. We wanted to create an entire freely traversable map. I had really hoped to accomplish all of those things, but due to factors like the sheer volume of the game, scheduling, budget, etc., we ended up having to scale a lot of stuff back.
“But we really wanted to focus on Travis’ story, you know? So by having other characters also be playable, I felt like that would sort of dilute Travis’ own final battle. Since what we have now is due to scaling all that stuff back, in the end I think it turned out to be a good decision.”
Are you satisfied with how it turned out? Is there anything you would change?
Suda: “Yeah, I’m satisfied with the game, but since release, a lot of fans of 1 and 2 have mentioned… (laughs)…
“So in 1 and 2, you were able to swap out the Beam Katana, right? You could upgrade it, and you could get new weapons, and the selectable weapons were one of No More Heroes‘ main features. But we got rid of that for III, and focused on the Blood Berry instead.
“To be honest… I wish we’d added more weapons. I wanted to have three types of weapons, and that’s honestly one of my regrets. So in the future, if we do a remake or remaster or something, like maybe 10 years or so from now, I want to be sure to put stuff like that into the game, if it happens. But again, I can’t make any promises at the moment.”
You said No More Heroes III would be the end of the line for Travis and No More Heroes. But is this really the end? Is there definitely no No More Heroes to come?
Suda: “I mean, Hideo Kojima [137 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/people/hideo-kojima”>Hideo Kojima said he was done with Meta [21 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/platforms/meta”>Metal Gear Solid like two times, but we still got more (wink).
“As for it being the final game, and Travis’ final battle, I think of it as Travis’ retirement, or an honorable discharge.
“But, yeah… Like with all the pro wrestlers out there, a lot of times they’ll retire, and then make a comeback. For example, some of my favorites, like Terry Funk, or Atsushi Onita, who’s legendary in Japan for his deathmatches. They’ve retired so many times. Each time they retire, they make a comeback. I’ve seen Terry Funk retire like three times. And every time, he returns to the ring.
“So, when it comes to Travis, well… He does love pro Wrestling [2 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/genres/wrestling”>wrestling, and his ‘retirement’ could possibly just be a little break. I don’t know. I’d prefer to leave it up to him, and see how he feels about it.”
If you could make a spin-off game in the No More Heroes series in any genre, what would it be?
Suda: “Hm… for any genre? Right now, it’d be with FU, the character who really blew up in III. He became such a breakout character, and I feel like we were able to create the perfect opponent for Travis’ final enemy, but FU… did he really, actually die in the end? Is he still alive? Even I don’t know.
“If FU were still alive… I feel that his story would still have a ways to go, so I’d like to do FU’s story. FU goes to Hell, and comes back from Hell once again… I wonder if we could make a hack ‘n’ slash game out of that story? That’s probably what it’d be.”
Travis Touchdown vs. Mondo Zappa vs. Juliet Starling vs. Garcia Hotspur. Who wins?
Suda: “Wow, that’s hard. I don’t think I’ve been asked that before.
“Hm, who’s strongest? You know, I’d really like to see that fight. You know, in 2028… Grasshopper is gonna have its 30th anniversary. It’d be cool to make a Grasshopper All-Stars game, Battle Royale [18 articles]” href=”https://www.gematsu.com/genres/battle-royale”>battle royale-style, where all the characters would compete with each other. We’re actually discussing that at Grasshopper right now. If it ends up happening, then we may know the answer then. Who’s the strongest…?”
Will you please share a final message for the fans before you sign off?
Suda: “To everyone who’s played No More Heroes, thank you for playing—and for buying—the game.
“The character of Travis Touchdown has been beloved, watched over, and supported by gamers, and made it all the way to III. After that… lots of people want another sequel, and we just discussed having a possible spin-off, but I would love to have the world of No More Heroes continue on; to see it connect to something. We’ve received many similar comments, but… Travis really just kinda does what he feels like, and not even I have any idea what he’s gonna do next. But someday, if Travis says he wants to get crazy again, to fight again, then I’ll speak with Marvelous and in maybe 10 years from now… maybe even further out… It might end up being a long wait, or Travis may end up just staying retired. He may just live out the rest of his life in peace, in paradise.
“But still, I want to thank everyone so much for supporting No More Heroes! We still have no idea what’ll happen to Travis Touchdown, but I hope you’ll keep supporting us! Thank you very much!”
Do You Actually Want Switch Ports Of Wind Waker And Twilight Princess?
There’s always a Switch rumour these days. When it’s not “new Metroid”, it’s “Switch Pro”; when it’s not either of those, it’s “Zelda remakes”. The latest rumour is a Nintendo Direct focused on Zelda ports, and maybe a Metroid, which means chances are high that it’s actually about the Switch Pro, right?
Now, we’re pretty hyped about the possibility of Wind Waker and Twilight Princess on the Switch, even as we scowl at Nintendo for making it so hard to play those games any other way, and presumably (if the rumours are true) making us pay full price for each one again. We know we’re not alone, too — the social media hype is pretty real right now.
But we can’t be trusted. We’re all terrible Zelda-heads over here (it’s a prerequisite for being hired, obviously) and we welcome the opportunity to re-explore the two ruined Hyrules while we wait for Breath of the Wild 2. But are we being too forgiving in the face of Nintendo’s remakes? Should we be tired of being fobbed off with old stuff? Is it even real in the first place? Over to you:
Tell us your general thoughts on all this Zelda rumour stuff in the comments below!
Solomon Islands Bans U.S. Navy Ships From Ports After China Security Deal
The Solomon Islands has created a moratorium on U.S. Navy vessels entering its ports, American officials said Tuesday. The ban, which was revealed by the U.S. embassy in Australia, comes after a U.S. Coast Guard vessel, the Oliver Henry, was prevented from making a routine stop at a port last week when the local government would not answer a request to refuel. The Solomon Islands has seen its relations with the U.S. deteriorate this year after signing a security alliance with China in the spring. Western allies have been concerned about what the deal could mean for Beijing’s influence in the Pacific. “On Aug. 29, the United States received formal notification from the Government of Solomon Islands regarding a moratorium on all naval visits, pending updates in protocol procedures,” the U.S. embassy in Australia said in a statement Tuesday.
Read it at Reuters
Solomon Islands to ban U.S. navy ships from ports – U.S. embassy
Solomon Islands’ Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare remotely addresses the 76th Session of the U.N. General Assembly by pre-recorded video in New York City, U.S., September 25, 2021. REUTERS/Eduardo Munoz/Pool
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SYDNEY, Aug 30 (Reuters) – The Solomon Islands government has told the United States it will place a moratorium on navy vessels entering its ports, the United States embassy in Canberra said on Tuesday.
The notice follows an incident last Tuesday when a U.S. Coast Guard vessel, the Oliver Henry, was unable to enter Solomon Islands for a routine port call because the government did not respond to a request for it to refuel and provision.
The Solomon Islands has had a tense relationship with the United States and its allies since striking a security pact with China earlier this year. read more
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“On Aug. 29, the United States received formal notification from the Government of Solomon Islands regarding a moratorium on all naval visits, pending updates in protocol procedures,” the embassy said in a statement.
A spokesman for Solomon Islands Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare earlier denied the reports of a moratorium, and told Reuters that Sogavare would make a speech on Tuesday afternoon.
Sogavare would make a speech to welcome a U.S. navy hospital ship, Mercy, which arrived in Honiara on Monday for a two week mission, he said.
The embassy said Mercy had arrived before the moratorium.
“The U.S. Navy ship Mercy received diplomatic clearance prior to the moratorium being implemented. We will continue to closely monitor the situation,” the embassy said.
Last week, the U.S. Coast Guard vessel Oliver Henry was on patrol for illegal fishing in the South Pacific for a regional fisheries agency when it failed to obtain entry to refuel at Honiara, the Solomons’ capital. read more
A U.S. State Department spokesperson on Monday said the “lack of diplomatic clearance for the Oliver Henry was regrettable”, and the United States was pleased the Mercy had received clearance.
The Mercy’s humanitarian mission, together with personnel from Australia and Japan, will include community health outreach, engineering projects, and discussions on disaster relief.
Separately, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said it was regrettable that “we’ve seen the Chinese try to bully and coerce nations throughout the Indo-Pacific to do their bidding and to serve what they believe their selfish national security interests are, rather than the broader interests of a free and open Indo-Pacific”.
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Reporting by Kirsty Needham in Sydney and Michael Martina in Washington; Editing by Himani Sarkar
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.