Ham-n-jam

@BlackenedHalo yeah I won't lie, the quick cooldown feels really broken early game and I don't think they adjusted the balance at all to account for it. And the meter gets huge towards the end as you increase your survey rate. But what that does allow for is you to take on the bosses pretty underleveled which is really fun, plus way more build options for hitting infinite overdrive since you can now spam at the start to get the overdrive count up really quickly with e.g. sliding slinger. I think it's fair enough to say it's a busted mechanic if you were a fan of 2015's game balance tho. Maybe they should've limited it to like 5 quick arts per fight or something tbh

The new quick cooldown mechanic is seriously a gamechanger for pacing and makes the early game combat way more engaging before you unlock overdrive. The numerous QoL improvements such as less time being forced to use Elma and Lin for every mission and some map improvements makes unlocking and tracking down affinity quests much easier to manage. Visuals look great for the Switch.

As someone who didn't like how different XCX was from XC1 back in 2015, I'm surprised with how much I'm enjoying it now because of the gameplay updates. It's main story is unaltered tho, so compared to other games in the series it still feels a bit all over the place. It's a bit poor and meandering in parts, and imo the silent blank slate protag detracts from the main story more than it enhances it, so gotta dock a few points there. Still a really fun game overall with tempered expectations tho. Just got up to the extra story content so we'll see if that's any good soon.

@TechaNinja ahhh yeah, like if it's doing some interpolation/blending every 2 frames together during compression to get a smoother motion rather than just dropping every 2nd frame I think that makes sense, pretty cool to know

@Warlenos higher handheld framerates would be pretty nice for indie games. I'm honestly hoping the Switch 2 screen is only 720p still so it's way more feasible to get games running at crisp native 720p on portable at decent framerates lol

@V_v yeah seems like a weird demo because half of those games run at 60fps natively (like Skyward Sword and Hollow Knight), and it's probably impossible to see the 120fps difference because youtube vids cap out at 60fps anyway lol? I guess the main thing they were trying to show is fps counter in the corner to give ppl an idea of what an overclocked switch is capable of.

Tears of the Kingdom at least does look way smoother at 60fps compared to the target 30fps it usually runs at.

For the Switch 2, if used correctly I think DLSS has a good use case considering the lower specs. I'd rather play with AI upscaled resolution than what we have now with the current Switch if that's the alternative.

I just really hate the over reliance on DLSS, frame generation and TAA effects that's plaguing PC games atm. If I'm paying a bunch of money for a nice graphics card, I want to run games with the premium experience with high native resolutions and real frames, avoiding all the ghosting and latency issues that come with AI techniques. It seems to be getting used as a crutch by companies that aren't optimising their games well. I hope the Switch 2 can force companies to optimise for lower spec machines.

Emulation is so awesome for game preservation, I hope this one can avoid the takedowns. I'm also finding that for home console games especially, emulating them ends up being the best way to replay them. Just played some Mario Kart Wii 4 player splitscreen on my PC with a 60fps splitscreen code and it legit plays so much better than on the og hardware.

I'm hoping some years from now Switch emulation gets really good to the point I can replay the Xenoblade trilogy at a higher res without stutters, it would look insane.

@Anachronism will be an interesting one if they manage to port Wilds, I'm hearing the performance was pretty rough in the Beta across all of the consoles, all of which will likely be better spec'd than switch 2 aye. Maybe they can pull it off with some upscaling or optimisation magic

I gotta confess, I actually prefer the joycon's split buttons over a D-pad for a lot of games. Split buttons are great in precision platformers like Celeste, cuz they make it impossible to accidentally hit a diagonal input. You can totally accidentally input a diagonal on the pro controller D-pad even if your thumb is only on the Up or Down if you press it at a funny angle.

I really miss the driving physics of DS, Wii, and 7. I could never get used to 8 for some reason, the characters in general feel like they have way bigger turning arcs, and they're all really heavy. Toad used to go f****** FLYING across the track when hit by a boosting Bowser in MKWii lmao, bring that back pls

@Serpenterror given the Switch 2 direct happening soon I'd wager that we're close enough to launch now that the design won't change much, but still it's kind of crazy to see some examples like how much the Wii U gamepad design changed from the first prototype they showed off:

https://preview.redd.it/97xopzmxdlq61.jpg?width=1080&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=9d5f105e7c57497d3a749c040bfd933082838531

Hoping for sub-$600 AUD, but depends on the features and specs really

Almost disappointing in a way to see a pretty low effort port doing really well tbh. It's a great game for sure, but when you compare it to something like Metroid Prime Remastered which got a NICE facelift and released for a lower price, it's hard to justify that price tag. Ah well, if you've got the money for it...

I like Echoes of Wisdom for the funny janky exploration (especially fun running around death mountain early in hero mode) and some of the puzzles, but gotta admit the only time I really had fun with the combat was in Link mode lol. I'm down to try more experimental Zeldas like EoW, but I really would like the next game to be a new take on the traditional formula like A Link Between Worlds was.

DS phat all the way. I got a DS pretty late (after even DSi was out), picked up a cheap 2nd hand DS phat and fell in love with that chunky-a** early 2000s tech silver design. That beast survived straight drops onto concrete.

Something interesting to note is that in the og Japanese script, the BLADE acronym stands for Beyond the Logos Artificial Destiny Emancipator, which might give the Malos theory a bit more credibility (Malos = Logos).

Imo the voice does sound way different from Malos tho. I'm also 100% expecting the Black Knight character design to be altered under that big hood to whatever they need for the story lol, check out the huge difference in character design between Addam in base game XC2 and in Torna.

Loved Superstar Saga and Bowser's inside story, but got pretty burnt out by the poor pacing in Dream Team Bros... If the user reviews are good might be keen to give it a shot, but there's also so many banger games I have to catch up on first

@Minako-Meleph same man, I'm excited to play X again and I hope it does well, but at the same time I'm low-key praying the next Xeno game is another fantasy style one lol. The varied takes the mainline games have on the concept of the titan landmasses is still so cool to me. I'm sure Monolith has some more crazy world designs in the works

@Cyberweasel89 yeah I agree with what you're saying about the bust slider removal. It's stupid that it got removed when it was something that was already coded into the game, and it's lame for anyone that wants to play as a girl. Even tho I'll play as a boy it's also a bit lame that all the other online players' character NPCs that pop into the game world are just that little bit less unique from each other.

I think the arguments about the 13yo censorship are usually talking about Lin's more conservative armour design changes rather than the Cross/Rook bust slider stuff tho? I feel like the sentiment of most reasonable people is that they're okay enough with Lin's armour changes, but they're against the bust slider removal.

Tbh didn't like how different it was from XC1 when I played it back in 2015 because I love that story, the characters, the world and the more fantasy style setting and music. That being said, I still enjoyed the game quite a bit, and I'm keen to give it another shot with different expectations this time around.

I'd recommend fans of mainline XC that haven't played XCX yet to be wary it's pretty different from those games both in terms of tone and gameplay, but it's definitely worth trying out.

Yea nah YouTube music already has pretty much every game OST on it thanks to it also pulling videos from normal YT onto it, as well as all the other kinds of music I listen to of course. Seems like too much of a hassle to be switching apps just for a very limited selection of game soundtracks lol

Gotta admit the removal of the boob slider is still a strange decision, it's hard to argue that the removal of a character customisation option is a good thing. I'll probably be playing as a guy character anyway so idrc lol

Breakable weapons were really cool in BotW and felt good to shatter throw, but I hate how extra fragile they made them in TotK. They really really wanted you to fuse weapons, but the fusion mechanic is so cumbersome to perform (especially mid-combat) and broke up the flow too much for me to be bothered doing it half the time.

@Buizel agreed, conceptually adding in extra lines sounds nice, but you also need to consider that your eyes would need to dart all over the place left/right and up/down to read it, which would get tiring pretty quickly and it might not even be faster.

For people wanting to try something similar, you can actually just use the + pause menu and pick an echo from the grid

@the_beaver ahhh ok, I've transferred the update over to internal storage now and the desert area is running almost flawlessly now. Still tanking frames all the time in the rainforest and tree-dense areas, I think my day 1 switch is struggling lol. Glad to get any improvement tho, thanks dude!

@the_beaver damn, I got excited for a sec thinking there was an ez fix until I remembered I bought this one physical, lol

The game looks really nice, but the constant stuttering makes me miss A Link Between Worlds' solid 60fps, iirc that game had really solid performance

@gcunit same thing happened to me with the SoS demo, looked and sounded awesome but the writing was pretty terrible. I remember checking the Steam discussions about the demo and apparently part of it was because a lot of that dialog was written just for the demo in an attempt to prevent full game spoilers, so it was pretty jank.

But yea, seems like poor writing/characters is still a huge issue in the full game too aye. This guy Misshapen Chair did a really good video on it for anyone interested (spoilers obvs):
https://youtu.be/ddlxA7gi-G4?si=Evx91LffZC3Va3rP

What's up with the crazy short battery life, is the old rumble tech really inefficient or something? I'm missing the days of 80hr battery life in the Wii U pro controller man, constantly having to recharge sounds painful

The game release schedule will prolly suffer now that pretty much every Wii U game has been ported lol

Also seems to me that a lot of people aren't super interested in the recent Wii and 3DS ports unless they're high-effort upgrades over the original (think Xenoblade definitive edition and Paper Mario TTYD), so good quality ports from older systems will also take a while to develop.

I feel like Xenogears would also be a good fit for 2D-HD. The sprites already look fantastic, all the visuals really need are a nicer UI, plus maybe a few modern shaders. The main challenge for a remake would be trying to improve the combat system, QOL updates and improved story pacing.

@Pillowpants yeahh, it's a bit hard to tell without playing it myself but I feel like they kinda missed the mark with the sword combat too. It doesn't have the same risk/reward as the original game where Link is locked in-place for a decent amount of time while being restricted to thrusting in 4 directions, which made positioning very important. But if they're going down the 360 degree swinging route, the enemies lack the speed of A Link Between Worlds/Link's Awakening remake that made them more likely to punish whiffed attacks/poor spacing

Touhou Luna Nights was such a banger game, I hope the mechanics in this one are fun too

my first wife divorced me for spending all our savings on funko and my 2nd wife is threatening legal action if i buy this game but i think it'll be worth it, it looks so epic

@sanderev lol yeah I play the PC MH games too which are pretty fun. Not sure how much you know about the changes between the MH games, but after 4 Ultimate (and especially after Generations) they started feeling pretty crazy different to play.
4 Ultimate is still my all-time fave, it's got great balancing and a really solid lineup of monsters - so it's sad that this game is pretty much dead at this point without emulation, which is now also dying lol

@riderkicker yeah man, it's legit so much nicer playing with a proper right-stick instead of the gimped new 3DS nub lmao, definitely the way to go if you're considering a replay

This is really sad, I was using Citra with my mates to play some Monster Hunter 4U recently, all of us having owned the 3DS game. It's so much nicer being able to play it with a proper controller and bigger screen, it's lame to see development getting cut.

kinda waste of resources lol, i like the og version but it still looks alg and plays well, no real reason to rebuy it

Mario containment chamber Mario containment chamber

How sick would this be if they cut to Moebius battle theme when you reach top 10 lol

I wish they would consider taking the healing system from another game or hell, even from past Zelda games - the current pause-to-fully-heal every time I'm hit mechanic in these last 2 games is kinda awful for game balance and challenge

Really would be ideal if we could just buy 1 console/PC and play everything on it - at the end of the day you're still playing the same game and having fun, you just get to choose if you wanna be a graphics snob and go for high-end or maybe go for something portable, etc.

Having the choice is nice

Weird that it feels like there's no more big games (that interest me) to look forward to after XC3's DLC and Zelda came out? lol

Seems like they're switching focus to prepping stuff for a new console which is alg with me, good time to catch up on some indie stuff too

@Hajilee yea I've noticed that lag too?? Tryna figure out if it was intentional or not, maybe it's supposed to give you a sec to read the bonus effect of the gear, or otherwise it's literally just taking a sec to load in the model? Either way, feels pretty bad coming from BotW

man the hylian shield 2DS is my least favourite tbh lol, looks way too loud with the contrasting colours and the gradient shading on the patterns

yee just like @JayJ I have a soft spot for the DS Lite gold's off-center simple and clean design, also like the black og 3DS design - looks really luxurious with the black n gold colour scheme

It looks pretty bad visually, but at the same time really fun to play, pretty sweet you can make and share this sort of stuff in Halo

@sixrings I thought this post was ultra sarcastic bait when I first read it given how dire the switch port is but I really can't tell anymore lol

@anoyonmus oooo man that's even stranger haha

@anoyonmus Interesting, definitely prefer the name Fatal Frame but didn't know it was called Project Zero in Japan too

Any idea why this is called Project Zero rather than Fatal Frame? Project Zero makes it sound like it's in alpha and hasn't been properly revealed or something lol

I don't know if they can top V3, that ending is just insane and an awesome way to end the series

I heard it was like a challenge that they had to quickly ink over the enemy colour so that they don't get banned LOL