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Dufniall

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Posts posted by Dufniall


  1. 15 hours ago, Happenstance said:

    Anyone ever used the Steelseries Arctis 9 wireless headset? My headphones seem to be starting to die so I thought I might switch to a low latency wireless pair and those Steelseries ones seem to have reviewed well and look relatively normal in comparison to a lot of headsets these days.

    Not with the 9 wireless, but I have the wired Arctis 3. Quite happy with it, of course you lose some functions with the cheaper model (like 5.1 dolby), but I really like the build of it which is similar to the 9. The elastic headband is very comfortable and the retractable microphone is nice for when you just use it for audio.

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  2. Going to throw my impressions into spoiler tags as I'll be talking about bosses and items and whatnot.
     

    Spoiler

     

    So after 8 hours ingame time the credits rolled, with 47% item completion. I'm guessing my real time is a bit longer, as for example I spend at least 2 hours at Raven Beak! Overall I really enjoyed the game. It looks great, the 2D environments with the 3D backgrounds and the occasional shift to 3D (during boss battles and cutscenes) gives it a lot of dynamic. The soundtrack hasn't really stuck but it did a good job in setting the atmosphere.

    The most important thing is Dread does what a good Metroidvania should do: Change you from an almost helpless character to an unstoppable powerhouse. The reason you lost your abilities feels a bit cheap (physical amnesia?), but I guess you need a reason to set you back to square 1.

    Samus controls amazing, apart from 2 niggles. I'm not keen on the missile mode, and would have preferred a dedicated missile button. I also had some trouble with the Space Jump. The game does have quite an elaborate control scheme, and fully powered up there is a lot you have to take into account and virtually every button on your controller is used. I think the game would have been more interesting if they scrapped a couple of abilities for the means to keep it simple and focus more on other abilities. The cross bomb for example feels completely obsolete bar 2 or 3 times the game requires you to use it. Same for the Storm Missile (although that at least packs a ton of damage).

    I'm also not that big of a fan of the Shinespark/Speed Boost gauntlets. It makes collecting items a bit of a chore and although it does test your abilities, I would have liked a bit more variation (more morph ball puzzles, or enemy gauntlets instead of mostly relying on the Speed Boost).

    I had to get used to the pace of the game, Samus is fast! But I love how you can blitz through areas. The world itself is interesting enough, nice to see a good variety of enemies and the way they change after the X is introduced is great. Bosses are spectacular, could have done with a couple more! The areas, although different in setting, don't have the impact of really stepping in another environment like the Prime games have.

    The EMMI bits I actually enjoyed, although I hardly used the stealth but just ran like mad to get away from them. They did offer a nice change of pace. It's curious the story doesn't explain much about the mini Mother Brains you require to take down the EMMIs, wonder what's the story behind them.

    As far as the plot goes it's good, love Samus's development at the end. I disliked the voice of ADAM (in a world that heavy on tech surely AI doesn't sound like an 80s movies robot)?

    But despite these points of critics I loved blasting through it. The Metroid universe is a great one to explore, Samus is surely one of Nintendo's most interesting (if not the most interesting) characters and MercurySteam did a great job here. I hope this leads to a Metroid: Other M kind of sequel, that would be great to see.

     

     

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  3. So the DLC is €24,99 standalone, or included in the NSO Expansion Pack which will cost €39,99 a year (how cheeky of them to drop the NSO Expansion Pack price in this!). That's pretty steep, both for the DLC as for the NSO+.

    Edit: Edited in euro signs. In pounds it's 22,49/34,99.

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  4. One thing that always annoys me is that if I'm looking to buy something, it pops up in advertisements. Even after having bought that product, it keeps popping up in an advertisement. There should be a "I've already bought this, get it out of my feed" button.


  5. Unfortunately my PC has a 6th gen processor so no update for me. My work laptop is 10th gen, but knowing ITs speed it will take a while before they will roll out W11 in the company.

    It's too bad, I always like trying out the new OS but don't have a chance yet.


  6. Just now, Dcubed said:

    Wow.  KH1&2 collections being Cloud versions is pretty dang shit.  S-E really just couldn't be arsed could they?

    Are they all cloud versions? I thought I saw that only KHIII is a cloud version? Would love to pick up the 1.5 and 2.5 game, but not if it's in the cloud.


  7. To me the Switch has been a great console so far. As I play mostly handheld (has been the case since the Game Boy), having one machine for both handheld and TV play is a godsend. I'm excited to get my hands on the OLED for the better screen as I think I will get a lot of enjoyment out of it.

    Plenty of highlights to talk about. Breath of the Wild obviously is one of the greatest games ever made and it is such a joy to play. But Splatoon 2 is one of my favourites. I just love the whole setting, vibe, and mechanics of the game. Another highlight has to be Astral Chain, such an impressive game.

    The Switch has been the machine to make me love Platinum. Never owned a WiiU, so I finally got to play Bayonetta 1 and 2, plus The Wonderful 101. Next to that there are a lot of great games available, from lovely indies such as Hollow Knight and Axiom Verge 1 and 2, to fun third parties such as Immortals Fenyx Rising and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1+2 Remastered. There really is something for everyone and looking back I've already played so many great games on it. It's also a lovely pinball machine.

    But my most favourite thing about the Switch is that it has brought back community gaming. I joined the Mario Kart League again which was amazing and fun every Thursday. Dropping in random Smash Bros. nights is always good, and recently Monster Hunter Rise has been an amazing multiplayer experience. Playing random games online with N-E and Discord people like Rocket League, or the Beat 'em up Collection. Having parties and trading sessions or just random visits in Animal Crossing. And finally the Mario Maker 2 building challenges here on N-E. It's a shame a lot of that community play has dwindled a bit now, but they have been great and I would love for it to be more active again.

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  8. If you have an NSO subscription you can give the game a go for free until 19/09. It's also 50% off on the eShop at the moment.

    I gave it a go for about an hour or so yesterday, and not sure yet what to think. There are some good bits in there, but so far it's been a bit repetitive. I picked up some new weapons though so that may mix it up a bit. Looks okay enough, and it has a lot of potential but I wonder if that ever comes to fruition. I do like the setting though, customizing a giant mech and taking that for a spin, what's not to love?

    I hope to get some more hours in before the trial ends so I can decide if I want to buy it or not. Anyone here played it? What are your thoughts?


  9. A new system update, 13.0.0, has been released for the Switch. Adds Bluetooth support for headphones (although microphones are not support so no voice chat over Bluetooth), and it limits the number of connected controllers to 2.

    It also adds the option to update the LAN port of the Switch OLED via firmware. It also adds an option to download in sleep mode over LAN. Not sure if this also works when using an adapter or only with the integrated LAN port on the OLED.

    Further, the system now shows if you are on a wifi 2.4 or 5.0GHz connection.

    Curious to test out the Bluetooth headphone option, if it's any good or lags like mad.

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