Some_Donkus

Leave luck to heaven. 😬

@Paej13 Separately, and this isn’t my area of expertise, it seems that OECD’s stance is that CAHRAs don’t exist in a vacuum. In the absence of legitimate companies sourcing materials from these regions then that void is filled by organizations that do nothing to stop human rights violations. Only through actively pushing back the creep and engaging with upstream suppliers, especially small scale operations, and OECD standards adopted by the supply chain can these abuses be abated. How strongly one believes in that likely correlates to how nihilistic you are. 😜

Seriously though, where that Mario and his brother Luigi at?

@Paej13 I’m just a cut & paste guy. You have a much better handle on the situation. Just way too many people jumping to the conclusion that GI/NL wrote a hit piece about Nintendo for not actively investing in CAHRAs (and subsequently overreacting).

The takeaway from GI’s analysis is that Nintendo is following the letter of OECD guidance but not the spirit. No more. No less. They’re also not the only company doing so. But that’s a whole other conversation. I’m just here for the Mario.

Did no one in the comments section read the full gameindustry.biz article? @thomasBW84 your summary could have used more emphasis on this quote:

“ Part of that dissatisfaction is due to Dodd-Frank itself. While Maréchal says the OECD's guidance was designed to be applicable to all mineral supply chains anywhere around the world, the US law only requires publicly traded companies to file disclosures if they use 3TGs, and if those 3TGs are sourced from the DRC or neighboring countries.

As a result, some companies have decided to avoid sourcing minerals from those countries entirely, which Maréchal said misses the point of the OECD's efforts.

"Our standard is about promoting responsible investment in Conflict-Affected High Risk Areas (CAHRAs), as we call it," Maréchal says. "Because clearly in many of those areas, the extractive sector is probably the only one that has the significant potential to contribute to the local development of the economies, and as such to represent an important pillar of peace building.

"We're here to promote responsible investment in those areas. As a matter of consequence, any so-called de-risking strategy to opt out of what may be perceived to be a risky supply chain is really not in the philosophy of the guidance."

Dark Cloud 1 & 2 or nah?

Excuse me, is this where I can overreact to Sony not committing to releasing a game that sexualizes children? Thanks in advance.

Those in the US can import the drum and a physical copy of the game through sites such as Amazon.jp. The process is actually really easy. I don’t know any Japanese and do everything through the app. Even after shipping the game and drum cost approximately $60 each.

Apparently a patch that adds English to the Japanese version will be released soon.

@jimi FWIW I agree with you 99%

The last 1% is XB2. A game released in one country shouldn’t require another country’s VO to be considered complete. That’s a pretty high standard. 😉

@blackice85 Your guess is as good as mine. There’s a noticeable lack of “fluff content” in XB2 compared to XB1 and XCX. It breaks my heart to see the dev team take steps forward design wise just to overlook things like this (lack of reference material, map issues, excessive battle voices, etc).

@MsJubilee Considering how much info they throw at you in a short time it’s a crime they didn’t implement this. I’m not going to look up combat guides and risk spoilers because I blinked and missed an explanation.

The map is definitely at the top of my list of necessary improvements so I’m glad to see it’s being patched. But got dang they need to fix battle voices first and foremost. I won’t spend a cent on DLC until that’s fixed.

@Rhaoulos No one* expects a site to be run for free. That’s why there all those ads plastered all over the site. The difference is that those are easily recognized as ads.

It’s when an article such as this is posted with embedded affiliate links and zero disclosure of that fact that a problem arises. For all we know this is ad space masquerading as an article purchased by one of these affiliates.

While I don’t think NintendoLife is necessarily up to anything nefarious, the lack of transparency in this instance is noticeable. NL’s editor(s) seem to disclose when financial consideration is given by companies but they definitely go back and forth on whether or not they disclose embedded affiliate links.

Because of that it’s completely understandable for someone like @YamAsereht to question the objectivity of posted content.

*reasonable

@RyanCraddock Thanks for the reply. Your review isn’t the only one that omitted details about the online features so I was mostly curious about whether or not they existed on the Switch version.

Playing through the game I got the impression that the online ranking and OC sharing were meant to be the main focus of the game (hence the short campaign). It just wasn’t fully realized and/or not communicated well throughout the course of the game.

I agree that the playing as the avatar on its own was underwhelming. In the flip side of that I really enjoyed the levels where Sonic and the avatar team up. The avatar’s abilities were enough to mix up the gameplay for me. Plus I really enjoyed the way the two characters interacted during the levels and changed focus based on what ability you were using. Even that cheesy pop rock song left me smiling.

It’s dumb because I’m not part of the OC fanbase but still felt like they did a really good job catering to that demographic.

Edit: IIRC the daily mission boost is an XP modifier so it shouldn’t affect scoring

Questions for the reviewer:

Does the Switch version feature the online ranking system and avatar rental?

If yes, did you spend any time with them?

If no, do you think having those features would have impacted the final score?

I’m curious because most reviews don’t seem to touch upon these features at all. And while I’m not sure they would have an impact by themselves the online rankings require you to play on Hard mode and that could be where the game really shines.

I actually had fun with the game. The campaign is really short. My daughter beat it in a few short hours on Normal. I miss the nostalgic coated candy shell of Generations but I feel like the gameplay was tighter in Forces and was very even throughout. Generations started to drag towards the end for me because of junk like Planet Wisp. If you enjoyed the gameplay of Generations you’ll at least enjoy a rental of Forces.

(original character do not steal)

@tanookisuit Forgive me if someone else has stated this already but scalpers aren’t a huge issue with LRG releases. The LRG staff is very forthcoming with info other publishers won’t release. If they say 1% of copies make it to eBay, et al I’d trust that figure.

The bigger issue, and a data point they haven’t released to my knowledge, is the number of collectors who double or even triple dip on LRG releases. This is an issue that kinda forms the core of LRG’s business model. Excluding special editions they will also print “variant” versions which is the same standard release except with the alternate cover art facing out.

Someone going for a complete sealed collection then finds themselves in the position of having to buy 3x copies (Collector’s edition and 2x standard editions to have each cover). At the very least I’d say most people buy at least two copies. Even I’m guilty of this with Night Trap (1 CE, 1 SE) and I’m not a completionist.

This is some great looking DLC. I'm just curious how they got the game to run higher than 4 FPS for the trailer. 😂

@Heavyarms55 So because you know you were shortchanged on hardware it's okay? Got it. 😉

@Heavyarms55 So you're okay with purchasing additional hardware despite the fact that NBA2K18 should be able to fit on the internal memory already present in the Switch (at least in theory)? Would you be this calm if it were Sony or Microsoft telling you that a game required the purchase of a second HDD just to play it?

Remember when Donkey Kong 64 required a RAM pack and it was packaged with the game?

Remember how Animal Crossing GCN required an entire 59 block memory card for saving your village and one was packaged with the game?

Here we are 6 months since the Switch was launched and several supposedly physical games are requiring large downloads and the purchase of additional hardware. There's more on the horizon but Nintendo's leaving us holding the bag.

I'm really curious how sales of the Switch version of NBA2K18 hold up compared to PS4 and X1. If I had to choose between the PS4 and Switch versions today I'd go with the option that doesn't immediately require an additional hardware purchase.

Tinfoil Hat Time: The physical version of NBA2K18 for Switch was delayed a month so when it sells poorly it can be blamed on the delay instead of the required SD card purchase.

FWIW the game still chugs along on the New 3DS. The low frame rate, sluggish menus, and pop in for resources/NPCs is keeping me from fully enjoying the game. It's a shame that this game suffers from these technical hiccups when MH4/G ran so well on the 3DS.