Comments 62

Re: 8BitDo Reveals Its New Customisable Arcade Stick For Nintendo Switch, Pre-Orders Now Live

AdaptiveLynn

@TYRANACLES There's a lot to be said about 8BitDo overall. The GBros. adapter has flaws, but was still a great purchase. But you're here for the arcade sticks.

The N30 Arcade Stick is good. It's a personal favorite, has a great Bluetooth signal (the range was legitimately startling), updates without too much trouble. The first unit was dead, the second one had an odd bug that rebound its buttons nonsensically until it was plugged into the Switch (haven't had the chance to experiment with other fixes and never contacted support since it never happened again), our roommate's was just fine overall IIRC, it updates just fine (and that probably would've fixed the bug).

My one "major" complaint for the original stick is that it uses a Type-A port and a USB A-to-A cable. "Device" ports (i.e.: the one on your controller, mouse, printer, etc.) should never be Type-A for any reason AT ALL. It's an easy fix with an A-to-C adapter, though, and the new model just uses a recessed Type-C port anyway, so they basically fixed the stick's one truly glaring design flaw. I also wouldn't expect that bug to appear in this model given its new PCB and software-programmable firmware.

Re: Switch Lite Is "Generating Its Own Demand, Without Negatively Impacting" The Original System

AdaptiveLynn

@KitsuneNight Ohhh yeah, big time. The grille should've been aluminium or at least a separate piece rather than being attached to the screenplate... which in turn should've been easier to divorce from the digitizer - have you EVER seen a custom Switch faceplate? No, probably not, because that would require far more effort to replace. Most end users would have to pay out the nose, replacing the digitizer with the faceplate.

Re: UK Doctors Can Now Refer Young Patients To Be Treated For Video Game Addiction

AdaptiveLynn

Cool. Let's give all the idiots fuel to stigmatize games more. This needs to burn at the stake NOW. It should have never made it into the ICD and needs to be removed post haste.

And what it DESCRIBES needs to be melded with gambling disorder to replace both with a more flexible diagnosis such as "behavioral addiction disorder."

If you take away the controller, they'll pick up the magazine... or the bottle... or the dice... or the needle. It's a pathological pursuit of dopamine and stress relief. NOT A PATHOLOGICAL PURSUIT OF LEVEL UPS AND LOOT BOXES.

Can't wait to see every religious parent and otherwise out-of-touch moron double or triple their "gaming is unhealthy" garbage.

Re: We Never Expected To See 'BDSM' On Nintendo Switch, Luckily It's Not What You Think

AdaptiveLynn

@Whyita Actually, as someone who isn't straight, I can tell you definitively that being gay, lesbian, bi, pan, demi or otherwise is "what people are into." So no worries there.
"I'm not into guys" or "I'm into guys and girls" is a pretty common way to say "I'm lesbian" or "I'm bi." Just because it's more nuanced and static than a simple decision that can be made doesn't mean it isn't a matter of tastes. It's literally your terms of attraction.

Anyway, big agree on the stigma-feeding language issue. First off, it's not a children's console first and foremost. It's for everyone. Second off, it's getting kinda tired seeing people bash on "impure" things like kink when there are games getting GLORIFIED over the variety of ways you can mutilate your enemies.

Re: Random: Not All Joy-Con Are Created Equal

AdaptiveLynn

@Electric-Dreams Yeah, have fun buying the official screen protector. Apparently it's hot garbage and comes off dirty.

Licensed doesn't always mean good. After all, they license gear from PDP - formerly known as Pelican - which has a history of being god awful. It was rather "fun" getting saddled with the Pelican-made, GameStop branded controller with a junky right thumbstick for Halo 1v1 all the time.

Let's also not forget that Nintendo's very own Joy-Con have that nasty "drifting" problem.

Re: Video: Check Out Daemon X Machina's 'Mission Zero' Prologue Trailer

AdaptiveLynn

@Old_Man_Nintendo Ah. So not only do you look down your nose at anyone who expresses dissatisfaction or surprise, but you make excuses upon excuses for blatant flaws and top it all off with isolation and invalidation tactics... sputum that amounts to "nobody cares about your special snowflake problems and opinions." I was right about you from the start. Nothing more than a waste of our time and energy.

Oh well... at least the compilation efforts were intrinsically satisfying.

Re: Video: Check Out Daemon X Machina's 'Mission Zero' Prologue Trailer

AdaptiveLynn

@Old_Man_Nintendo Re: DXM post-beta notes
HO yeah, that was priority #1 right out the gate. Didn't get an email that we know of, but we took straight to Twitter and got right on that @mentioning and hashtagging business.

That said, I'm not holding out any hope at all that they noticed and/or cared about those suggestions. I consider the presence or absence of a rich Outer experience to be a coinflip scenario entirely at best.

  • Outers will not have weapon customization. I will be happily surprised if they do, but I am entirely certain they will not.
  • Infiltration levels MIGHT happen. Infiltration segments in levels might be a bit more likely. I am absolutely certain that if they do happen, my input had nothing to do with it.
  • Cooperative play was another request. It was confirmed later, and I am absolutely certain that my input had nothing to do with it. Most likely, this is a carry-over from later Armored Core titles.

Re: Video: Check Out Daemon X Machina's 'Mission Zero' Prologue Trailer

AdaptiveLynn

@Old_Man_Nintendo "How many times has Nintendo burned you?"

  • Tends to feel like they don't care about Metroid, frankly. They're too busy making Mario and Zelda titles.
  • Samus Returns is physically painful to play in part because of their moronic can't-be-disabled aiming mechanic.
  • Splatoon AND Splatoon 2 restrict right thumbstick when in motion control mode, making the first game impossible for me to play and the second game REQUIRE handheld mode because thumbstick aiming is bad in most games and motion controls alone mean you'll be spinning and spinning and spinning all day.
  • How many wires does Splatoon 2 require, again, in order to play with voice chat? How many DEVICES? Now, how many wires does Fortnite require on the same system? Just one? Through the console's built-in TRRS jack? This proves that Nintendo could've actually baked it into the game, or failing that they could've fixed it retroactively.
  • Clunky menus in Breath of the Wild. No touch input despite being native to a system with touch input. RIP quality of life.
  • Smash Ultimate has some kind of weird control lag going on that all the Smash nerds keep snarling about. I don't remember the details well.

Admittedly, though, the majority of burns come not from the games, but from the consoles. Almost all of them are software-related, however.

  • Friend Codes were bad and are still in use. No unique-name or email type functions on the horizon.
  • Nintendo ID is permanently bound to the Wii U.
  • No Bluetooth audio for the Switch, despite using Bluetooth hardware. The Switch Lite has the same problem. We shouldn't have to buy 3rd party hardware to make up for a software restriction that doesn't benefit anyone, Nintendo included.
  • Extremely rudimentary and clunky library management on the Switch that only works fluidly for small libraries.
  • Single-parent-only parental control app. Said app also places blanket rules over an entire Switch and cannot restrict per-account. And if you bring up "accounts don't have passwords," you'll just be ousting this as a compound flaw.
  • The ENTIRE system governing the "3rd party docks brick Switch consoles" fiasco, which save for Nyko's awful blunder is 100% Nintendo's fault for taking a USB Implementer's Forum specification connector and communication standard and BREAKING specifications in a bunch of ways without communicating the differences to their users or industry partners and instead just doubling down on their Apple-esque "just buy our in-house accessories" rhetoric.
  • The amount of clunky, mangled, UX-devoid decisions put into every console's UI since the Wii, with the DS family's menu system frankly being some of the most irritating to use overall and the 3DS and Switch having no excuse given the amount of role models they now have running around.

Nintendo makes great games. They have no understanding of User Experience.

Re: Video: Check Out Daemon X Machina's 'Mission Zero' Prologue Trailer

AdaptiveLynn

@graysoncharles re: bad taste
Agreed. It held a great deal of promise and was exciting to play, but aiming was uncomfortable at best and the arena rebound was absolutely crippling.

There are things I'd like to see that aren't listed in the changes, though, chief among them being significant portions of gameplay that push or force Outer (pilot) deployment. You are able to exit your Arsenal at any time. This should absolutely be pushed as a platform for mission-altering infantry combat and facility infiltration, with some being the end goal ("get in there and steal these documents") and some being progression gates ("Get to the security office to open the door for your Arsenal").

More Outer customization as well, including weapon loadouts.

Re: Video: Check Out Daemon X Machina's 'Mission Zero' Prologue Trailer

AdaptiveLynn

@Old_Man_Nintendo "Cool so basic game development? You all act like you have never played an alpha or beta demo before"

Nah. Just been burned too many times. Your "far too busy to be bothered" characterizes such things very nicely.

That said, I think I would rather pass on engaging in significant discourse with someone who stands on ideals such as "videos are sufficient demonstration," "take what they give you or be silent and leave," and "you're meaningless/unimportant/irrelevant." The first one is deeply irksome alone. The latter and median are wholly and absolutely condemning even individually.

Re: This Tiny Nintendo Switch Dock Has Just Obliterated Its Kickstarter Goal

AdaptiveLynn

@60frames-please Honestly that's would've almost been a better idea than a whole new console. GRANTED the smaller size certainly makes it more attractive for on-the-go play... especially for games that fill it better (Breath of the Wild loses a lot in handheld mode due to the particulars of its visual scaling. I'd go so far as to suggest different default FOV and camera position settings between modes on any games like it).

Re: This Tiny Nintendo Switch Dock Has Just Obliterated Its Kickstarter Goal

AdaptiveLynn

@60frames-please Yeah, and like... as much as people complain about the price, it's very nearly sold at cost. People especially get upset when they find out that a very tiny percentage of its total volume is electronics, but... it's still by far the most expensive part. Most USB-C hubs like this cost $50-70 USD, so there's the lion's share of your Switch dock pricetag already!

Add a $20 charger, and up to $20 combined for the shell and HDMI cable and you're actually looking at a reasonable price for the kit.

Also, for funsies, let's consider that the Switch Lite's $200 price compared to the original $300 involves cutting out $80 Joy-Cons (replacing them with integrated controllers likely dropping the price to $20-30) and $70-80 dock computer, shell and HDMI cable package.

Re: This Tiny Nintendo Switch Dock Has Just Obliterated Its Kickstarter Goal

AdaptiveLynn

@60frames-please The main rules of engagement are as follows:

1.) Don't use the Nyko dock. It blasts the CC pin (pairing & negotiation pin) so hard on first connect that it's a miracle anyone's Switch has survived it. It's a massive defect with the Nyko dock specifically.

2.) If you're using an A-to-C cable, make sure it has a 56k Ohm resistor. A 10k cable can damage the charger, making it misbehave and turning it into a one-round revolver. Click. Click. Boom.

3.) Make sure the dock uses NON-EMULATED (looking at you, Nyko) USB Power Delivery. A recent reverse-engineering breakdown showed that while Nathan K's report that the Switch doesn't implement PD correctly, the way it consistently behaves is still well within its own safety margins.

4.) Nintendo made their dock's plug smaller for a loose grab-and-go feel when removing the Switch from its dock. Normal USB-C plugs click into place nice and snug as you've probably noticed, yet that is absent in the dock. "Ninny" also didn't release specs, as usual, so copy cats don't have a size spec to conform to. If their tooling is bad, they might space things poorly or have frayed copper, potentially causing a short circuit. Whether this is a significant concern or not is up in the air right now, but you might wanna take a peek inside the plug if you can.

Re: Video: The "Impossible" Ports That Shouldn't Exist On Nintendo Switch

AdaptiveLynn

@johnvboy Fair! The main thing I was getting at was that contrary to what the AAA industry seems to think, console horsepower doesn't sell games. Good textures are always a must because that's where the lion's share of your aesthetic detail comes from. But as NICE as it is to see amazing weather effects, specularity, physics-based rendering, etc. and how AMAZING raytracing looks... ...who actually missed those things when playing Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey?

Fine graphics help you to realize your creation's aesthetic potential. Physics-based rendering in both video AND audio can be used to create new experiences, such as using physics-based audio propagation (only seen a couple of games even attempt this, sadly) to give players a whole new range of sensory tracking that can allow new ways to navigate worlds and track targets.

But as amazing as avant-garde developments are, you can still always take pixel graphics and hand-drawn sprites and spin them into an amazing experience.

Re: Deals: Starlink: Battle For Atlas Starter Pack Drops To A Ridiculous £9.99 In The UK

AdaptiveLynn

@Moose_4 It is absolutely true. You do not need the toys to play this game. We only have the Arwing starter pack and enjoy it as-is. A few things are inaccessible without certain pilots or weapons, but those are totally optional (some fast-travel points, maybe, and some upgrades associated with certain character classes) and if you're desperate for them, you can always buy them off the Switch eShop.

Re: Video: The "Impossible" Ports That Shouldn't Exist On Nintendo Switch

AdaptiveLynn

@Heavyarms55 I can see where you're coming from, I just don't necessarily share the sentiment. On this site at least you're not gonna get any arguments that the Switch is an "inferior console." No, it's a gameplay POWERHOUSE and for actual gameplay experience runs circles around the competitors. Xbox and PS4 bring nothing but raw processing power and some camera hardware to the table for developers to really dig into and capitalize on for unique and intrinsically valuable gameplay experiences.

But also on this site, most everyone already knows the woes of the Switch's lackluster processing power in comparison to those consoles (its rightful peers, whereas tablets and phones have no business in the same stadium as the Switch) and the collective sighs of disappointment at reports of this game or that being denied Switch ports because of that. PREY comes to mind.

Think of it this way: "A challenge was presented. They said it was impossible. But it wasn't. It "shouldn't be real." But it is. The odds have been beaten. The myths have been busted. It CAN be done. It HAS been done. We've WON. It's HERE. And lo ye naysayers listen close for THIS is what we can accomplish!"

It isn't negative. It's cheeky and boastful. It's thumbing the nose at the impossibility. It's like watching a sports competitor rise up and stomp their handicap flat... and this is exactly the kind of phrasing you'd hear in that context.

Re: This New Device Lets You Use Airpods And Other Bluetooth Headphones With Your Switch

AdaptiveLynn

@Friendly If Bluetooth is ON the Switch and you KNOW it's on the Switch then why on EARTH are you calling headphone pairing "extra features" and acting like we WEREN'T shortchanged and DON'T have grounds for outrage?!

We ARE outraged because we DID get screwed over. We DID get shortchanged. They DID cut out one of the most overwhelmingly common use cases for Bluetooth on the face of the planet and for what?! So they could make us use our smartphones and a tangle of cords to play Splatoon? Something everyone HATES and another development studio EASILY circumvented by jamming a TRRS plug into the TRRS jack and installing a comms package in their game because there isn't a SINGLE hardware limitation involved in this???

Your "roll over and take it" mentality is SICKENING. "Fill in a ‘missing features’ ticket and wait for a revision"? Is that a joke? You think anyone here's gonna just sit and wait and wait and wait for Nintendo to probably NEVER fix this? And in the mean time, what? They don't get to play Mario Maker 2, or Star Fox Link, Cadence of Hyrule, Super Mario Odyssey, or any of the other Switch exclusives, they don't get to play them with FRIENDS, they don't get to experience them solo, nothing, nadda, the end.

"If you don't like what's for dinner, don't eat it" is a genre of argument I'm sick to death of hearing. No, I'm gonna shovel it down because going hungry SUCKS and HURTS in a thousand different ways and then I'm going to let the person cooking know that it was a sub-par experience, I'm going to tell them what was wrong, and THEN I might actually have a chance at having a good meal there next time. And if they sit on their hands and keep serving the same crap without any revision for a year, I'm gonna be MAD because in this idiot capitalist world I have every last consumer RIGHT to be!

Re: Video: The "Impossible" Ports That Shouldn't Exist On Nintendo Switch

AdaptiveLynn

@Heavyarms55 I get where you're coming from and it's a pretty valid point. But the idea here seems to be that they "shouldn't exist" because "that's impossible!" They're simply titles that are believed to push so hard that a lighter weight device shouldn't be able to run them.

That said, it almost seems absurd to have DOOM on this list for that exact reason. It's a powerful and MOSTLY gorgeous game, yes (here's looking at you, Hayden's weird limb blur), but it also seems frighteningly efficient and granular in its graphics implementation.

Re: Video: The "Impossible" Ports That Shouldn't Exist On Nintendo Switch

AdaptiveLynn

@JR150 Nintendo has understood something very well since the Wii: Graphics don't make good games. Power can offer the backbone for a fine open-world game like Monster Hunter: World or Final Fantasy XV, but we still have Starlink which is an open WORLDS (plural) game with plenty of persistent action going on in the background.

Bottom line, a good processor helps but it doesn't bring home the bacon. Period. And as disappointing as it is to see a game's luster stripped out to work on the Switch, we PC gamers have more than enough experience with doing exactly that by our own hands to get games working. It's much better to play a game than to look at pretty pictures of it or ponder what it's like to play, and having a Switch in-hand at the park, in a waiting room or in the backseat of a car with your favorite game has much more value than preserving all the pretty pixels.

The real problem with the Assassin's Creed port we read about is that they couldn't get it to run smoothly.

Re: This New Device Lets You Use Airpods And Other Bluetooth Headphones With Your Switch

AdaptiveLynn

@Friendly USB-C and Bluetooth. USB 3.0. capacitive touch. 3.5mm TRRS headset connector. Micro SD. Need I find more standards it uses? I got personal because you decided your personal use case was a nice way to invalidate consumer demands.

And yeah. I feel we're all a bit entitled to proper and well-implemented functions on a $300 device. Don't so when it's getting the company sued over an epidemic of hardware failure.

Re: This New Device Lets You Use Airpods And Other Bluetooth Headphones With Your Switch

AdaptiveLynn

@Friendly "extra features"? You mean fully functional implementation of not-extra features because there's nothing "extra" about the communication standard used for the controllers that come with it? That's a funny definition of "extra" you've got there.

Bluetooth controllers. Bluetooth headphones. It's a failing. Period. Nobody made it a problem except for Nintendo and your personal use case is paltry against the overwhelming voice of the mobile electronics consumer base. Take your self-important putdowns against rightful consumer expectations for proper implementation of industry standards and go back to your granpappy's hovel in the woods.

Re: Pre-Orders Open For 8BitDo's "Most Advanced Controller" Ever

AdaptiveLynn

@SwitchForce First off, the Switch does NOT use WiFi to communicate with its controllers. It uses Bluetooth, which allows all first-party controllers to be used on PC or mobile. In fact, Steam has native support for the Pro controller!

Second off, ALL 8BitDo devices use Bluetooth. This includes the N30 Arcade Stick I OWN, which requires no non-Bluetooth adapter for any platform and no adapter at all for Switch!

Re: Hyper Light Drifter Dev Reveals Its Next Project, Solar Ash Kingdom

AdaptiveLynn

Sweet!
Have to say, though... in an age where people already basically dehumanize game devs, is it really okay to refer to an indie studio as "it"? I mean, who refers to a rock band as "it"? And there are all of nine people for HLD and eleven for this one.

By contrast, BioWare has around 800 employees. At that point, it's somewhat understandable. You aren't referring to a team anymore, but a major studio company working under corporate expectations.

Re: Review: VSR: Void Space Racing (Switch eShop)

AdaptiveLynn

4/10
It's novel for a moment, but it's so extremely limited that it just doesn't hold up beyond that. Redout was far more compelling.

There are a mere 8 stages unlocked by completing previous stages in "Single Race" which pits you against 7 AI pilots.

The only aspect of gameplay is the physics. There are no interesting rule-sets like limited health or last-place-elimination, there are no powerups, no shortcuts or twisted little tricks, and very little in the way of topographical value since your course is a series of rings, making world geometry little more than a simple obstacle no matter the level.

The complete lack of online play and restriction to two player split screen make any competitive enjoyment of the game nigh-impossible.

No matter how you look at it, this game feels unfinished, like a beta or a demo. Not "bad," and it was interesting to experience, but it didn't scratch an itch and it certainly isn't "good."

Re: Talking Point: Could Nintendo Ditch Physical Media With A 'Switch Lite?'

AdaptiveLynn

From someone who's adamant about pursuing physical media over digital, absolutely NOT. We have multiple games from the eShop that have physical versions and absolutely regret it.

For starters, Nintendo can't make a good library explorer to save their lives. The Switch is the most barebones piece of junk in that regard.
Next up you've got the matter of eShop transience.

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