Otoemetry

@JimNorman is there something going on with the UK charts at the moment? Two Mondays in a row now we've not had any reports posted ☹️

@JimNorman no UK charts this week? Desperate to see how M&L and Jamboree are doing!

OMGGGGGGG 🤯😍😍😍
I had no idea there was even an anime! I'm so excited by all this, Sakuna was amazing. So many great announcements lately 🎉🥳🎊

If the OG Switch sells this many units every week it will pass the 20 million mark in less than 4 months, considering its age and the fact that the OLED is so popular this is astonishing!

@LikelySatan edit: so I wanted to double check the veracity of my little factoid and turns out I was mistaken, guess that is what you get for reading internet comment sections and not checking something before you pass it on 😅

@NintendoWife it's definitely its own beast, less story driven and more exploration heavy than the numbered sequels, however there are also series standards that are just quintessentially "Xenoblade" so I think it's a good entry into the franchise. Barring one or two infamous clunkers the music in X is sublime, I used to just roam the enormous world listening to the music because it is so amazing... the Noctilum and Sylvalum biome themes in particular are spectacular!
I envy newcomers to the series because this really is the most underrated game of the Wii U era and you're in for a treat!

This announcement has given me a reason to look forward to something after the death of my sister this March, I was dreading the anniversary and as much as I know it will still be incredibly difficult at least Nintendo has given me this dream come true distraction ❤️

@Shepdawg1 agreed! I don't think it'll happen but it's the last game I really want to come to Switch

@Geit_de that's what I thought, testing their capacity to bring the MMO stuff from XCX to Switch on a larger scale than what was on Wii U

Literally don't notice which is weird because I definitely noticed in the Link's Awakening port, though I was not particularly bothered.

Didn't vote in the second pool because it wasn't an option to say that I noticed but didn't care.

Super helpful, thanks @AlanaHagues

@axelhander what? Now I know you're just trolling.

@axelhander I don't appreciate your inference that I'm dumb based on an erroneous assumption that I've watched a video when I've no idea to whom or what you're referring. You are wrong here, generative AI models take artworks created by human artists and use them to "learn" how to recreate those styles in different ways. I have several artist friends who have had their art stolen in this way and it absolutely is theft, the model's purpose is to take the human creative out of the equation therefore you're stealing the years that artist has spent honing their craft. Genuinely do not understand your position on this, if you create an artwork you own it, it's very simple.

@ChromaticDracula did you find out about the physical cart? Definitely interested in picking it up physically 🙂

@axelhander I won't disagree that AI can be an incredible tool for good, however there are different kinds of AI and the excellent tools aren't the ones being used here... GenAI models are built on mass scale art theft (current AI techbros are trying to argue than anything posted publicly on the internet is fair game with incredible disregard to copyright and ownership law) and using them to generate assets as they have done here is simply stealing from enough people to smoosh enough parts together to get something out the other end that looks vaguely original.
Machine learning to aid in disease detection, AI processed upscaling, these are useful applications for the tech but unfortunately the worst people in society are actively pushing AI to replace artists and I really don't think that's ok

@GravyThief I came to say something similar, AI currently has such a broad meaning it's partly useless in actually explaining what's going on. AI being used to upgrade textures during a remaster of an old game? Brilliant time saver for time-pressed devs. Generative AI models used to supplant real life human artists and create art assets for corporations who don't want to pay for human creativity? Awful product of late-stage capitalism where the never ending quest for higher profits enshittifies everything around us... and probable copyright theft depending on the model used.

(Edit: AI can also be used in other settings that I didn't think were necessary to mention, but the data processing gravy thief spoke about is an excellent use of AI in medicine for things like cancer detection. Machine learning can be put to excellent use where humans could not hope to compete, it's the creative arts where AI has to steal from unwilling creators in order to concoct an amalgamation from the pieces where I think the profit motive is currently pushing the tech in order to get in on the creative pie without any of the necessary skills or dedication)

@PinballBuzzbro level 5 is not a Nintendo owned developer

@axelhander generative AI models aren't inventing anything, they're fed stolen artworks (by huge numbers of unknown artists who were never asked if they agreed for their property to be used in such a way) scraped from the internet by shady developers. GenAI is theft, simple. Plus it has enormous environmental costs as a result of the processing power required, Google's emissions rocketed by either 50% or 150% (sorry I can't remember which is the right figure) solely due to the increased consumption needed to run their AI programs

@Gryffin these aren't copyright lawsuits, patent infringement is nothing to do with plagiarism

@Savage_Joe looks like Nintendo and TPC disagree with your assessment

@JohnnyMind looks like you spoke too soon! 😅

@CaleBoi25 omg can you imagine a Sidon amiibo? 😍😍😍 (And I guess Riju too 😅)

@SoIDecidedTo I think that highlights how tricolour matches don't work in their current form, if you're on the same team within the match then you shouldn't be able to splat each other. I don't much enjoy the concept in general but it just seems ridiculous to have 4 players from one team and two players each from the other two, it's a recipe for poor outcomes in my experience. Or maybe I'm just not good 😅

As the son of a farmer and a sometime professional gardener I can confirm farm-sims bear little to no resemblance to real life farming and only a passing familiarity to hobbyist gardening 😜

@8bitKirby these are UK charts on a UK based website, if you're not interested why bother clicking?

Now I need a horseback Zelda amiibo please Nintendo!

@Sephazon are you aware of the round enemy in the burrows that sometimes gets stuck in an invincible state? There's a locked room you can't escape where I got stuck when he was the last enemy left and I couldn't kill him but I had recently saved anyway so it was easy to reset, I just thought I'd mention it as it happened to the same enemy elsewhere so it must be a bug with all of them. Nothing serious but worth patching out if possible, it's quite an achievement that that is the only problem I've found in two playthroughs!

If anyone's curious about the egg, imagine Hollow Knight's delicate flower quest mixed with the path of pain... thankfully it's mercifully short and totally optional but was absolutely one of the times I turned the game speed all the way down to slowest 😆

@Sephazon omg I have to tell you I love this game so much! I hope it's been a success for you, but if you don't do something about that unexplained ending I won't be happy! 😜

@Desrever I've got one of those! Pre-order bonuses have gone downhill since

@Olrun I'm so glad, it really deserves to be a success!

@Olrun just finished 100% completion today and can confirm zero crashes or freezes, though there was one bugged enemy that got stuck in an invincible state while I was in a locked challenge room but I hadn't long saved so it was an easy reset. Only encountered it twice in the whole run through and it only mattered in that one room so I'd say that's pretty good going!

@Olrun yeah I've not noticed any issues but I'm not particularly sensitive to that kind of thing anyway, I don't think my terrible eyesight is even capable of seeing the difference between various frame rates 😅

@PikaPhantom Bō runs fine on my OLED but I'm finding the difficulty to be a bit intense, I've had to play on the "slowest" setting (i.e: easiest) for a number of very early game bosses since the game wants you to juggle yourself using complex controls and I just can't use my fingers that fast... at least not on normal speed.
It's not like I'm just a bad gamer either, I've completed most of HollowKnight's pantheons so I know I have some skill when it comes to difficult Metroidvanias but the controls here are quite taxing I think.

Hey @AlanaHagues you missed Bō: Path of the Teal Lotus, what gives? 😜
Also wondering if you're planning a review at any point?

@sunspotty do they not investigate reports submitted in game via the lobby terminal? I report issues on there frequently so I'd hate to think that it's been a complete waste of time

@Chlocean people rag on the XCX soundtrack but some of my favourite Xenoblade music comes from that game, the Sylvalum night theme is exquisite

@Qwiff I'm expecting a deluxe edition of TotK as a launch title with extra story content, my personal wish would be the actual rebuilding of Hyrule but I don't think Nintendo cares much for that kind of concept

@PikaPhantom weird it wasn't included in the direct then, maybe it points to an upcoming indie showcase?

@JohnnyMind so you've got to find 3 other friends to play the four swords campaign?

@Coffeemonstah huh I've been keeping an eye on Bō: Path of the Teal Lotus because I'm a massive weeb (😅) so I'm shocked this wasn't in our direct considering it's previously been confirmed as a Switch release, maybe they're having localisation issues? Hope it will just get a news feed announcement closer to the time and still release on that date because I don't wanna wait longer than Japan! 😆

@timp29 Stray has been out on other consoles for years, I think it was a game of the year nominee the year before last

I let the rumours get the better of me so I'm a bit disappointed not to see a Xenoblade chronicle X port announced, though I reckon we've got another direct coming in September before the console reveal next year so there's always a chance it'll be a winter release. Some excellent reveals otherwise but I can't shake that disappointment just yet

@UltimateOtaku91 @epicgamner I reckon we won't see the Switch 2 reveal until next year so this is probably a good shout, also keeping my hopes up that Monolith finally brings XCX to Switch 😅🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻

The Xenoblade X port rumours got me and I'm annoyed I let them get my hopes up, oh well here's to the September direct I guess 🤷🏼‍♂️

@Sakogha what on earth are you talking about?

@Ulysses I also voted for Okami! I've wanted a sequel ever since getting the Wii-make and showing it to all my friends because of how beautiful I thought it was 😆 well, still is! I think Ammy would make an excellent Smash fighter too, a man can dream 😅

@FirstEmperor I have never known "just about" to mean "nearly but not quite" and certainly followed by the word "beats" would imply the phrase meant it was close but still achieved, like the phrase "only just" would mean something was completed but done so very recently or by a small margin.

@Vegeta937 I cannot possibly fathom how you could interpret those words in that way