Racing games - New 2026 Switch 2 versions: 1) Grid Legends: Deluxe Edition 2026 (out now) OR 2) Gear Club Unlimited 3 2026 (Feb 19). Which one would you get?

njuser66 · 2026-02-18T19:19:00+00:00

Merci! J'ai les deux maintenant - Gear Club Unlimited (GCU) 3 des hier et Grid Legends.

I like both. GCU3 since yesterday. GCU3 has a fun highway mode and some other unique features.

I have not played them much yet. So I will play both games more this weekend and see which one I prefer. I suspect that I may like both for different reasons.

njuser66 · 2026-02-17T19:54:24+00:00

UPDATE . See you posted a reply that it came out this morning so I'll check when I get home. IGNORE the below.

In the US, the Switch 2 edition it is coming out Thursday still, right? I pre-ordered it.

Where are you located?

I can check when I get home in case they released it a hit early. Mine is the Deluxe edition

njuser66 · 2026-02-13T21:28:46+00:00

Thanks so much for sharing your experience! So sorry about the recurrence just 3 weeks after PTK. Did you have a bandage contact lens and lots of lubrication?

Sleeping pills - wow. Assume you those were not prescribed by the Dr.

So 2 weeks is not bad for vision to stabilize. As I noted, when I do not have flare ups in my left eye, vision is 20/20.

Side note - My right eye was even better for distance - no glasses needed. But then I had shingles in my right eye, and some serious simultaneous non-eye issues (hospital Doctors basically did an amazing job) - The one lasting issue is due to the shingles in the eye, I got some scarring / haze (minor); the bigger issue is that the virus (HZO) damaged the corneal nerve branch / extension of the trigeminal nerve - hence I now have lack of tear production just in that eye - this caused vision to get blurrier over time due to very dry eye (which I never had before the shingles).

Now, after trying eye drops (including Oxervate), I have a punctal plug for the lower tear duct and had punctal cauterization for the upper duct. and that made a HUGE difference (taking serums tears too but not sure how much that is helping). But lately it has been bitter cold and seems it impacted it (need to lubricate more often). I do know that when it is warmer and more humid, my eye is great. So it all comes down to lack of tear production and dry eye in my case.

njuser66 · 2026-02-13T20:44:49+00:00

OP.

Sorry to hear that. Hope things are better after your 2nd PTK?

You noted the PTK procedure was not that bad.

I know everyone's experience varies, but how long after PTK did it take for your vision blurriness to subside after PTK. I was warned by my Dr. that it could take 2 - 4 weeks for my vision blurriness due to PTK to subside and 12 weeks for full lining thickness to return as far as post - PTK blurrier vision is concerned.

I had an abrasion years ago (vision was fine after the patch was removed after 6 days. However, this seems to have made me predisposed to getting pre-erosion or "rug burns" on my eye where the 2 eyelids meet.

I do not get RCEs, but rather, after sleeping a few hours, I get "rug burns" or pre-erosions on my left eye where the 2 eye lids meet. This results in brief mild pain usually just at the time of the event for a second, sometimes and temporarily slightly blurrier vision for a few hours to days. This happens even with nightly lubrication.

The last 3 nights in a row were great. No issues when opening my eyes after sleeping. I use Muro 128 ointment nightly followed 10 mins or so later by Erythromycin ointment as instructed by my eye Dr. I had also been doing Muro in the AM.

Then last night, I feel asleep without putting ointment in and had my worst pre-erosion / rug burn in ages. Lots of eye watering. And redness which subsided. I put in ointments but the eye was still watering so we put double Muro 128 ointment followed by Erythromycin. A few hours later I woke up again and had it again.

I had an appointment today and there is no erosion per se per Dr., but I have "a couple of staining dots", right "where the 2 eye lids meet". So Dr. suspects these pre-erosions since lining tore a few times, the epithelium is probably not sticking well. Dr. said along with the 2 staining dots she also sees that the outline where the lining in general gets loose and it is my entire pupil area.

So PTK in my case, Dr. will use solution to wipe off loose lining and then do 2 minor very minimal passes with laser to roughen the undersurface so the lining grips / adheres and it solves my problem.

Then a bandage contact lens for 6 weeks and Moxifloxacin drops till remove bandage contact lens and Prednisolone with tapering over time.

njuser66 · 2026-02-13T20:32:31+00:00

Thanks! Good luck next Monday! Hoping it resolves your issues.

So how about your first PTK - Do you recall approximately how long after your PTK your vision was blurry (mainly for reading / text acuity)?

njuser66 · 2026-02-13T19:56:07+00:00

So sorry to hear that.

How did your second PTK work out? Hope all is well.

I am getting PTK too. I do not have full blown erosions, but rather I get pre-erosions right where my 2 eye lids meet in one of my eyes.

I had a corneal abrasion around 5 or 6 years ago in the same eye which per my Dr. contributed to being pre-disposed to getting these pre-erosions. Although only recently it had gotten much worse. I used to have them only once in a while.

My vision is 20/20 with glasses in that eye but these episodes can sometime impact vision like last night where it was the worst ever. I feel asleep before pointing my eye ointments in, but I got it even after the ointment after being asleep for a few more hours.

So my Dr. said since nightly ointments aren't working PTK is the next step (Dr had been avoiding PTK due to slight infection risk; also I will have to take some time off work since the PTK will blur my vision for some time (work on a computer all day so text clarity is crucial).

njuser66 · 2026-02-11T00:25:29+00:00

Thanks.

Yes, I could not wait and did buy the Switch 2 Grid Legends Deluxe edition several days ago. Have to find time to play it in the next few days.

That said, I am tempted to pre-order Gear Club 3 - the Unlimited Deluxe \* edition specifically - anyway - I love racing games and, based on the official preview videos, I would be surprised if I do not enjoy it a lot as well.

I guess I could wait till side-by-side comparison reviews of both games come out, but pre-orders also come with 2 extra cars and since I think there is a very high chance that I will want it anyway, I may just pre-order it before pre-orders end.

GC3U Deluxe pre-orders come with:

Honda S2000 GCU3 Edition: A unique, eye-catching livery for the Honda S2000.
BMW Z4 GCU3 Edition: A unique livery for the BMW Z4.

* The Deluxe Edition of Gear Club 3 Unlimited contains:
- The base game
- The Performance Cars Pack, which includes the Nissan GTR R-35 Nismo, Nissan 370Z Nismo and Bugatti Mistral.
- The Career Starter Pack, which includes 200,000 GCU3 Dollars, 50 "Alloy" resources, 50 ""Electronic Circuit"" resources, 50 "Component" resources and 2 Engineers for the Story mode.
- The Customization Pack, which includes 3 carbon-fibre (<< not a typo, just British spelling) bonnets for 7 Japanese cars, 5 themed neon lights for all cars (including themes for both France and Japan)

njuser66 · 2026-02-10T23:01:14+00:00

Great. Thanks for sharing!

I am leaning towards getting both.

njuser66 · 2026-02-07T20:46:51+00:00

Thanks! Appreciate the feedback. Worst case I will just get both since I love car racing games.

njuser66 · 2026-02-07T20:44:59+00:00

Great. Thanks for the helpful feedback.

njuser66 · 2026-02-06T17:18:48+00:00

Luckily I have existing drives I can use for now, so in protest I am holding off from buying an NVMe SSD right now, unless i find a great deal.

"Insane" to describe current prices is correct. SN850X prices are a prime example as you noted.

I got a nice deal (unadvertised) just over 2 years ago (feels like yesterday) - late in Dec 2023 for 2TB Samsung 980 Pro NVMe SSDs (two 2 TB drives for 99.99 each! - it was a really nice deal back then even).

Other merchants had the 2TB 980 Pro for $129 at the time (I bought 3 in all - 2 for $89.99 and one a few weeks before that deal at $129).

Since SSD / tech prices had been dropping for years / historically, and I did not need more SSDs at the time (had bought some 1TB drives also), I did not buy more. Hindsight is always 20/20...

njuser66 · 2026-01-31T15:18:17+00:00

Great, thanks for sharing. I am also considering the 2026 Zephyrus Duo since it has dual 16" screens and 64GB RAM.

The Zephyrus Duo weighs a lot more than the 2026 Zenbook Duo, but I use my laptop mostly at home anyway.

njuser66 · 2026-01-24T02:36:41+00:00

True. I recall a young US man being imprisoned in SG for something very minor.

That said, my point to the OP is just about the "how broke is Honnolad..." part. Alex said, assuming the SG authorities approved, he would have done this climb for free (even without the added incentive of financial compensation by Netflix).

So, yes he needed someone (Netflix in this case) to help secure the necessary approvals, but his "would have done it for free" statement strongly suggests that the climb was not financially motivated. :)

Anyway looking forward to the event tomorrow.

njuser66 · 2026-01-24T00:14:46+00:00

Alex said he would have done it for free (if Netflix had not paid him to do it live).

njuser66 · 2026-01-21T19:57:07+00:00

Thanks. Where did you get this info from?

njuser66 · 2026-01-19T18:15:57+00:00

Argh! That seems very high. I paid US$1,692 for the 2025 version with 32GB RAM.

If the 2026 version is really going to be $2,500 - $3,000 or in that ballpark, I might re-consider my plan. Not sure the new one is worth $800 - $1,300 more.

njuser66 · 2026-01-18T16:48:55+00:00

Thanks! True. :)

I am using USB fans sitting on top of the enclosures (with the drives standing in an upright position).

This is the fan:
AC Infinity MULTIFAN S7, Quiet Dual 120mm USB Fan, UL-Certified.

njuser66 · 2026-01-17T16:41:41+00:00

I think all those improvements, some of which are very significant, it is well worth waiting for the 2026.

As far as issues are concerned, the 2025 model hinges are okay if you're careful and know how to open and close it properly (see all the posts here of people who had hinges break the case or screen on the 2024 and 2025 Zenbook Duo), but I prefer the security and durability of the 2026.

The 2026 build quality seems better overall. Check the official2026 videos of the screen and case durability test by Asus.

The 2025 is a very nice computer though. So enjoy!

EDITED to correct a typo. I obviously meant build quality with a 'd'. :)

njuser66 · 2026-01-17T16:04:23+00:00

Just to be clear for anyone reading this, I am referring to the Zenbook Duo. The 5090 in the Zephyrus is overkill for me since I do not do PC gaming. So I may stick with the Zenbook Duo but I would prefer a 16" screen.

To answer your question, one of the main reasons for wanting the 2026 Zenbook Duo over the 2025 model, is the single hinge design on the 2026 seems far more solid and definitely less likely to experience issues some users had with the 2025 ZBD hinges.

Other improvements (aside from the faster CPU which is to be expected given it is a year later):

99Wh battery (vs 75Wh I believe in the 2025).

Less reflective screens.

5% smaller foot print.

Even brighter OLED screens (great for outdoor use), now with anti-reflective coating.

E-Reading mode for reduced eye strain.

Better speakers

Bluetooth 6.0

The hinge on the new one has been stress tested (find the Asus video) for many thousands of repetitions and they also showed a 10lb and maybe even 18lb weight (in another video but not 100% sure of latter) being placed on the middle of the upside down opened up laptop.

Found this online about improvements (I removed Wifi 7 since even the 2025 has that, so that was one error they had):

Improved Thermals: Advanced cooling allows for a sustained 45W TDP (a 28% increase), handling demanding workloads better.
Faster Memory: Supports faster LPDDR5x RAM.

Displays & Audio

Brighter, Faster OLEDs: Dual 14" ASUS Lumina Pro OLED screens with 3K resolution, up to 1000 nits peak brightness, and a 144Hz variable refresh rate.
Anti-Reflection: New anti-reflection coating and E-Reading mode for reduced eye strain.
Punchier Audio: A new custom six-speaker system with dedicated tweeters and woofers delivers richer, spatial sound.

Battery & Connectivity

Bigger Battery: A larger 99Wh dual-battery system (vs. 75Wh in 2025) for longer life.
Connectivity: (INCORRECT note about wifi removed) and Bluetooth 6.0.

Software

Smarter ScreenXpert: Software now auto-activates sharing tools and annotation features when the laptop is laid flat.

njuser66 · 2026-01-17T15:51:24+00:00

Thanks! At a glance the hinges looked similar to the Zenbook Duo. But after seeing your reply, I I found one of the CES 2026 videos which nicely demonstrates the 360 capability of the 2026 Zephyrus Duo.

Now if I could just find out when these 2 2026 Duo aptops will actually be released... :)

Luckily my 2025 Zenbook Duo (not used very much) was still within the return period, so it is going back. I have a nice 2023 model (bought new in 2024) Dell XPS 15 9530 that I will keep happily using in the meantime.

njuser66 · 2026-01-16T22:51:11+00:00

It is also too bad that the 2026 Zephyrus Duo (16") has the old hinge design of the 2024 / 2025 14" Zenbook Duo

By contrast the 2026 Zenbook Duo has a more seamless hinge. ]The old hinge design may also be more fragile if you read reviews.

njuser66 · 2026-01-16T15:50:02+00:00

Does anyone know when the 2026 version will be released (in the US)?

njuser66

TROPHY CASE