I rarely take my laptop on holidays, preferring to stick to the iPad and the Switch for holiday gaming. And it just so happens that Divinity Original Sin 2, which I am currently playing on the PC, is also on the Switch. And through the miracle of cloud saves, I could even play cross platform! Well, in theory that is. I tried it out, and with a few difficulties it worked: I had my current save game of DOS2 on the Switch and could continue playing. Which I did and then gave up after about 10 minutes.

Divinity Original Sin 2 is a rather complex game. And the UI is on the fiddly side, often requiring you to go through a number of steps to achieve something. That is okay on the PC with a big screen, mouse, and keyboard. Trying it on the small screen of the Switch with Joy Con controls was driving me nuts. Too many things happening on too small a screen, and the controls not precise enough, and cumbersome. For example the hotbar for skills is much smaller on the Switch, so what is one hotbar on the PC becomes three lines of hotbar on the Switch. Selecting a skill and applying it to the target you want becomes a hassle. When the fight against the UI becomes harder than the fight against the monsters, it is time to stop!

These days a lot of games exist on different platforms. But frequently you notice that it is either a console game that has been ported to the PC, or a PC game that has been ported to the console. The controls feel natural on one platform, and not so much on the other. The additional problem of the Switch in mobile mode is that a 6-inch mobile screen just isn't the same as a 27-inch desktop screen. A game designed for the small screen looks clunky on a large screen, while a game designed for a large screen becomes overloaded on the small one.

As a consequence, I will take a week off from playing DOS2, and will play probably Bravely Default 2 instead. I am also still playing Shop Titans every day, and that game works pretty well on both PC and tablet. And then, because I'm not going very far, and don't have to carry the luggage, I'm also packing some of the board games I recently acquired and hadn't had much time to play yet. So, rain or shine, I think I will have a good holiday week.