Off Topic Nintendo

[Rob]

This one:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07NR8QT49/ref=cm_sw_r_oth_api_glc_fabc_JS3DCF3V927C02HNVEGC?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

added 0 minutes later

It’s not the best spec or anything, but does exactly what I need for the time being. 

[Ashez]

24 minutes ago, Rob said:

This one:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07NR8QT49/ref=cm_sw_r_oth_api_glc_fabc_JS3DCF3V927C02HNVEGC?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

added 0 minutes later

It’s not the best spec or anything, but does exactly what I need for the time being. 

Looks a decent bit of kit that, decent price with a subwoofer too. You using the optic cable connection? 

[Rob]

25 minutes ago, Ashez said:

Looks a decent bit of kit that, decent price with a subwoofer too. You using the optic cable connection? 

Yeah, optic. Inputs from devices to telly, and then telly optic to the bar.

Blued to it a few times. I wanted a good budget ones and the reviews are amazing. Does what I need. Haven’t actually tried it with the Switch yet. However I’m sure there are plenty better if you’ve got the dollars to spend! 

[Ashez]

2 hours ago, Rob said:

Yeah, optic. Inputs from devices to telly, and then telly optic to the bar.

Blued to it a few times. I wanted a good budget ones and the reviews are amazing. Does what I need. Haven’t actually tried it with the Switch yet. However I’m sure there are plenty better if you’ve got the dollars to spend! 

Yeah that's the way to do it, have to admit it's alot or learning all this stuff haha. 

Yeah it does look good, I'll have to discuss it with the missus and she what she says. I don't think there is much point spending too much as at that point you may as well just go for old school surround sound which I don't want to do tbh. 

[Rob]

11 hours ago, Ashez said:

Yeah that's the way to do it, have to admit it's alot or learning all this stuff haha. 

Yeah it does look good, I'll have to discuss it with the missus and she what she says. I don't think there is much point spending too much as at that point you may as well just go for old school surround sound which I don't want to do tbh. 

I wanted to go surround sound with a proper AV unit, then started pricing it up...

I am also amazed there aren’t more Wireless surround sound setups for sale but when I stumble across them they seem really expensive and/or tricky to assemble.

[Ashez]

28 minutes ago, Rob said:

I wanted to go surround sound with a proper AV unit, then started pricing it up...

I am also amazed there aren’t more Wireless surround sound setups for sale but when I stumble across them they seem really expensive and/or tricky to assemble.

I guess the issue with wireless is lag and interference so you can't do it cheap? 

[Rob]

Just now, Ashez said:

I guess the issue with wireless is lag and interference so you can't do it cheap? 

Hadn’t thought of that! But imagine once that’s sorted one day; it’ll rule the world!

You ever owned an AV unit? I was tempted to get one for this so all inputs went in to that and then to the sound bar instead of the telly, but kinda figured my telly would probably do a decent enough job.

One day I would love to get a kickass project and screen too but don’t have the moolah! 

[Ashez]

5 hours ago, Rob said:

Hadn’t thought of that! But imagine once that’s sorted one day; it’ll rule the world!

You ever owned an AV unit? I was tempted to get one for this so all inputs went in to that and then to the sound bar instead of the telly, but kinda figured my telly would probably do a decent enough job.

One day I would love to get a kickass project and screen too but don’t have the moolah! 

I only had as I use Bluetooth headphones at work and now and again on YT the sync is alittle out which fries my brain 😂. 

No, but my dad did at one point. Tbf I've never had decent speakers for anything lol. Always basic TV speakers and shitty CD players for personal use, I like music loud though so I went the headphone route to not piss off the family haha. I always wanted a massive music system but I never got around to it and now I don't see the point. The missus has an Alexa which is okay for the way we use it, I have to admit I was surprised by how okay it is as I expected it to be wank. 

Our TV is either that quiet you can't hear it or stupidly loud though which is why I was intrigued by a sound bar. 

I was debating a projector but the missus got a couple TVs so that ideas been binned for now, maybe one in the garden some day though haha. Apparently they go decently cheap on Amazon from time to time, so a bloke at work was telling me a few months back. Can't say it's something I've ever looked into though. We had one like 18 years ago in the pub and it was shit tbh, I did watch Return Of The King on it though 😂. Jesus just looked and that was 2003, bloody hell. 

[Rob]

1 hour ago, Ashez said:

I only had as I use Bluetooth headphones at work and now and again on YT the sync is alittle out which fries my brain 😂. 

No, but my dad did at one point. Tbf I've never had decent speakers for anything lol. Always basic TV speakers and shitty CD players for personal use, I like music loud though so I went the headphone route to not piss off the family haha. I always wanted a massive music system but I never got around to it and now I don't see the point. The missus has an Alexa which is okay for the way we use it, I have to admit I was surprised by how okay it is as I expected it to be wank. 

Our TV is either that quiet you can't hear it or stupidly loud though which is why I was intrigued by a sound bar. 

I was debating a projector but the missus got a couple TVs so that ideas been binned for now, maybe one in the garden some day though haha. Apparently they go decently cheap on Amazon from time to time, so a bloke at work was telling me a few months back. Can't say it's something I've ever looked into though. We had one like 18 years ago in the pub and it was shit tbh, I did watch Return Of The King on it though 😂. Jesus just looked and that was 2003, bloody hell. 

That’s one thing I’d say with the sound bar: I find it can be quiet or LOUD depending on what you are watching. Now TV is loud: YouTube quiet... unless it’s adverts. Depends how much you want to bother the neighbours I guess 😂

I bet LOTR was great there. That’s the films I used to love on my old surround sound back when I lived at parents funnily enough. 

[Ashez]

3 hours ago, Rob said:

That’s one thing I’d say with the sound bar: I find it can be quiet or LOUD depending on what you are watching. Now TV is loud: YouTube quiet... unless it’s adverts. Depends how much you want to bother the neighbours I guess 😂

I bet LOTR was great there. That’s the films I used to love on my old surround sound back when I lived at parents funnily enough. 

Sky and that we have to have the TV volume at like 20-30 to hear it yet YouTube is really loud for us 10-15 haha. It's so frustrating! 

Too right, films like that you want the full experience. Sound tracks and sound design in general is something I've learned to appreciate alot more in recent years. Back in the day no matter what the game I'd usually play it on mute and listen to my own shit, I was such a moron haha  

[Ian]

I’ve got our sound bar just going through the tv for everything. The volume change from different sources can be a right pain.

I have an amplifier and a left and right speaker set up at home in my room up at Seahouses though. I just had the music going through a games console as a CD player and it was a nice system.

Just looking now in here to see if these’s room for the speakers lol.

Edited April 2, 2021 by Ian

[Ashez]

9 hours ago, Ian said:

I’ve got our sound bar just going through the tv for everything. The volume change from different sources can be a right pain.

I have an amplifier and a left and right speaker set up at home in my room up at Seahouses though. I just had the music going through a games console as a CD player and it was a nice system.

Just looking now in here to see if these’s room for the speakers lol.

A console as a CD player, those were the days. Damn the PS2 was advanced being able to play games, CDs and DVDs! 

[Rob]

On 02/04/2021 at 23:03, Ian said:

I’ve got our sound bar just going through the tv for everything. The volume change from different sources can be a right pain.

I have an amplifier and a left and right speaker set up at home in my room up at Seahouses though. I just had the music going through a games console as a CD player and it was a nice system.

Just looking now in here to see if these’s room for the speakers lol.

Do you find any sources are ever a bit ‘fuzzy’?

[Ashez]

This is so cool 

My online ran out like last week though, I'll get it again at some point but I wasn't in any rush. 

[Ashez]

👏👏👏👏👏👏👏

 

[Ashez]

One to keep an eye on @Rob

There is a Switch version so I hope that compares well. This has real potential imo, looks awesome but maybe a little slow. Looking forward to seeing more either way. 

[Rob]

8 minutes ago, Ashez said:

One to keep an eye on @Rob

There is a Switch version so I hope that compares well. This has real potential imo, looks awesome but maybe a little slow. Looking forward to seeing more either way. 

Thanks mate. Will add it to watch later for tonight.

[Ashez]

What I've Been Playing 

March 2021

Stupidly late again.......Partly because I'm still stupidly busy and partly because I couldn't be arsed. It's here now though which is all that matters, writing the last update late just meant I kept putting this one off. I should be able to get back on track now though, especially as the next few installments will likely be pretty short. It's since Xenoblade, that game was so incredible everything after it has felt so underwhelming I've lost that drive. I've been there after a number of big experiences and it wares off eventually. It's like when you finish a big FMM save, from my experience getting into the next can be a challenge. 

Switch

Need For Speed Hot Pursuit Remastered - As I revealed in the previous post I picked this game up to scratch a Need For Speed Most Wanted itch but did it deliver? Unfortunately that's a complicated answer. I'll start by saying Hot Pursuit Remastered is a really good game and boy does it feel fast, some of the races on this game are incredibly intense. The handling is tight and responsive, the sense of speed is incredible, each car feels unique and the tracks are pretty fun. However a Most Wanted like Hot Pursuit is not which is where my issues begin. I really enjoyed the game to a point but it's nothing like Most Wanted which meant the itch remained unitched and the game ended up feeling none fulfilling. Basically Most Wanted was an open world racer with progression and personality as you do up cars and improve race by race, Hot Pursuit however is a level select racer with default cars which seriously lacks progression. It's still really good but just not what I wanted, I did look into the game a decent amount before purchase and I thought it would win me over even though it was different but unfortunately it wasn't able to. Anyway I suppose I should talk about Hot Pursuit more. As I said the game is basically a race to race straight racer where you unlock cars as you go, most races allow you to pick from a limited selection of cars but the choice I often found lacking. As for the races you have multiple types with the straight races being my favourite by far, the others were time trails which I found extremely tight on the time requirements and police chases. Personally one of my favourite parts of Most Wanted was the police pursuits but in Hot Pursuit I absolutely hated them. In this game the police chases basically turn the game into Mario Kart on cocaine as you have various weapons which basically function similarly to Mario Kart with an EMP acting like a Green Shell, Nos as a mushroom, Turbo as a Golden Mushroom and spike stripes function like bananas. The fact your car can total or you can be arrested if caught while being unable to lose the police made these races incredibly difficult as not only were you trying to avoid crashes, weapons, traffic, rivals and police you are trying to win long races. On a later 10+ minute race I was first, going across a cross roads surrounded with yellow arrows stopping you going that way, but that doesn't stop the AI as traffic spawned out of nowhere and T-boned me, totalling my car and making me have to start again, shit like that is infuriating. Most Wanted is a very hard game, I have memories of basically screaming at the TV trying to conquer The Blacklist but the progression made it rewarding while this was just a chore. Speaking of infuriating the rubber banding in this game is so bizarre, early on if anything the game feels too easy as you get plenty of chances to fix mistakes as I often won first place in the final straight, however later on the game became brutal as even in races I felt I raced as close to flawlessly as I could I never even saw first place after the start of the race. Thankfully to progress you don't need to win each race as placing in the top three is fine, in the end I decided to make sure I won the races but I was less strict with the other modes like the time trials where I'd settle for a silver medal (I think I settled on 3 or so bronzes). The game has 78 races which will give you around 20 hours game time easily, I think I ended up on basically 19 hours. This however is completely ignoring the 50 odd races where you pay as the police as this mode didn't interest me in the slightest. So I would say Hot Pursuit is a good game, it runs well and looks fantastic but it just wasn't the game I wanted, I'm just going to live in hope of a Most Wanted Remaster tbh, I remember getting NFS Carbon on release and I hated it which was the last game I played in the franchise, so while I enjoyed my return enough it's just not up to the level of the original Most Wanted. 

Game Of The Year

Spoiler

 

New Releases

1.
2. 
3. 
4. 
5. 

First Time Played This Year

1. Xenoblade Chronicles DX
2. Yokus Island Express
3. Red Faction Guerilla Remarstered
4. Need For Speed Hot Pursuit
5. Max The Curse Of Brotherhood

 

Recent Pick Ups

Digital 

Spoiler

 

A developer put all their games on deep sales due to their anniversary so I picked up a couple 15p titles with Gold Coins as why not. 

Escape Doodland - Switch - 15p/Gold Coins - This is some kind of endless runner with an interesting art style. 

Mana Spark - Switch - 15p/Gold Coins - Mana Spark is one I've debated multiple times as it's always caught my eye, it's an action rouge like I believe. 

Akane - Switch - 15p/Gold Coins - IIRC Akane is an endless beat em up or something. As you can tell I didn't really look into these titles much lol. 

 

Physical 

Lego DC Super-Villains - Switch £13 - I was deep into the Snydercut hype as that movie is incredible, seriously watch it! Anyway as I was in a DC mood seeing Lego DC Super Villains at an all time low price of £13 was a no brainer. 

The April update will be out shortly and it's another one where I've only played one game. Yep throughout April I only found 13-15 hours to spend with the Switch. I need to sort that out and sharpish! 

[Ashez]

These just turned up @Rob 

Used Platinum MyNintendo points for a few physical rewards, a Animal Crossing bag and a Club Nintendo Calender. Use your platinum points and then just pay £1.99 postage. 

These posters cost 300 Platinum points (the ones you get for doing basic shit, playing the mobile games, opening the Eshop etc). So 300 points and £1.99

They're stunning! 

[Rob]

2 hours ago, Ashez said:

These just turned up @Rob 

Used Platinum MyNintendo points for a few physical rewards, a Animal Crossing bag and a Club Nintendo Calender. Use your platinum points and then just pay £1.99 postage. 

These posters cost 300 Platinum points (the ones you get for doing basic shit, playing the mobile games, opening the Eshop etc). So 300 points and £1.99

They're stunning! 

Look amazing.

[Ashez]

I'm not sure it's for me or not but this looks awesome! 

 

[Rob]

That looks really smart. Like you, it’s probably not for me but it’ll have blown ‘younger Rob’s’ mind

[Ashez]

6 minutes ago, Rob said:

That looks really smart. Like you, it’s probably not for me but it’ll have blown ‘younger Rob’s’ mind

It's a budget release at $30 which makes it appeal alot more, i assume it'll be £30 here as well, as I can't see them selling it for £22 here which is the conversion. 

They've just released their financials. 

Over 84m Switch's have been sold! 84m! Wow! Remember the WiiU sold 14m units! Software sales of over 587m! It's now outsold the Xbox 360, the PS3 is the next target of 87m but then you're into the 100m+ consoles (Wii, PS1+2+4, Gameboy and DS). 

MK8D still leading the way at 35.39m units! That's why we don't have a MK9! Yet to think 49m consoles don't have MK8D 😮

Animal Crossing has exploded though and is catching up fast at 32.63m units! To think MK8D is 4 years old and AC is just over a year old. Utter madness. 

[Rob]

Those stats are incredible. Absolutely amazing. What a generation for Nintendo.

But wtf are those people doing without MK?!? I know it’s on the U too, but... still!

[Ashez]

30 minutes ago, Rob said:

Those stats are incredible. Absolutely amazing. What a generation for Nintendo.

But wtf are those people doing without MK?!? I know it’s on the U too, but... still!

MK8 "only" sold 9m copies on WiiU. I know four people IRL with Switch's top my head and only two of those have MK8, one had it on WiiU though so didn't bother getting it again. 

I bet they regret calling it Deluxe as I think that's the only reason now why we don't have DLC. It's free money but they sold MK8D as a complete edition and I can imagine Nintendo not wanting to go against that. 

Ring Fit Adventure has sold over 10m copies ffs, the Switch just prints money!! 

[Rob]

4 minutes ago, Ashez said:

MK8 "only" sold 9m copies on WiiU. I know four people IRL with Switch's top my head and only two of those have MK8, one had it on WiiU though so didn't bother getting it again. 

I bet they regret calling it Deluxe as I think that's the only reason now why we don't have DLC. It's free money but they sold MK8D as a complete edition and I can imagine Nintendo not wanting to go against that. 

Ring Fit Adventure has sold over 10m copies ffs, the Switch just prints money!! 

Ring Fit.. 10m. Madness

[Ashez]

What I've Been Playing 

April 2021

Alittle late but this should see me back on track! April was another slow month but May has improved with me finally being able to be drawn back into games. Need For Speed and this updates featured game just never had that pull on me yet May so far at least has seen one game that I can't put down! 

Switch

Lego DC Super Villains - As I said in the previous update I was on a DC kick thanks to the awesome Snydercut release of the Justice League, so I jumped straight into this title. If you've ever played a Lego title you've basically played this as every game is very similar, thankfully however this one offers the twist of you mainly playing as famous DC villains. The story starts with the Justice League disappearing due to the Justice Syndicate who are basically the evil Justice League from another earth (they're usually called the Crime Syndicate) , they're pretending to be good guys while searching for the Motherbox which Darksied is after. Due to the disappearance of the real Justice League the DC villains come together to save their earth while trying to save the real Justice League. The story takes you to many famous places in the DC canon from Gotham, to Oa, to Apokolips and even to the world of giant Gorillas to meet up with Grodd, this game basically hits all the points you'd want it to. Another extra wrinkle is you play as your own created character which you can build how you like with various designs and powers at your disposal, this character does play an important role in the story but in truth I wasn't that fussed about him and in gameplay I usually just switched to actual DC characters. Speaking of gameplay Lego DC Super villains is your typical Lego platformer with puzzle, collectathon and beat em up elements where you have almost sandbox levels where you need to break blocks to build contraptions to beat the current hurdle, it's all fairly easy and routine tbh, it really is the perfect game for an adult to sit down with a child to play. Unfortunately I always forget I'm not that fond of the Lego games formula but I find them enjoyable enough due to their wacky stories, deep cuts with character options, the cut scenes, the Easter eggs and the humour. It's not the type of game you'd marathon through but playing a section here and there is fulfilling and great fun, the story actually made me laugh a few times but just seeing all the lesser used DC characters highlighted made the title well worth my time. I think my final play time was around 12 hours which doesn't include any of the free roaming where you can replay levels as any character, so for £13 I'm a happy man.

 Game Of The Year 

Spoiler

 

New Releases

1.
2. 
3. 
4. 
5. 

First Time Played This Year

1. Xenoblade Chronicles DX
2. Yokus Island Express
3. Red Faction Guerilla Remarstered
4. Need For Speed Hot Pursuit
5. DC Lego Super Villains 

Max The Curse Of Brotherhood drops off the list. 

 

Recent Pick Ups

Physical

Darksiders Warmastered - £16 - Switch - I've wanted to play this game for like ten years so I'm thrilled to finally have it in my collection. I actually have it on WiiU thanks to a Humble Bundle but that version apparently has issues so I always avoided it. It was one of those games I was waiting to hit the right price and it just didn't happen until recently, the sequels would often drop below £20 but the original held its price until this recent drop. From what I'm led to believe Darksiders is a Zelda clone with combat more akin to Devil May Cry which is exactly why this has been on my want list for years! Hell even Mark Hamill is in this game! 

Digimon Story CyberSleuth - £18 - Switch - When you think of impulse buys this comes to mind as I saw the deal at a moment of weakness. As a kid I loved Digimon but it's a franchise that never stayed with me unlike Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh. This title is a collection of two games originally found on the PlayStation Vita and I picked it up to see if I could get back into the franchise. Admittedly the price was just right as I know previous Nintendo Digimon games are expensive as I've tried to get the DS games in the past so I decided to grab this while I could, I am terrified about the amount of content this collection has however as it's apparently hundreds of hours worth of RPG gameplay. At least if I never actually play it I'll have the trinity of Pokémon, Digimon and Yu-Gi-Oh on my Switch shelf. 

[Ashez]

@Rob

 

[Rob]

9 minutes ago, Ashez said:

@Rob

 

Thank you very much. Added to watch later when the kids are in bed. 

[Ashez]

9 minutes ago, Rob said:

Thank you very much. Added to watch later when the kids are in bed. 

I'm typically not a fan of his content (I think he aims younger audience wise) but that video is ace tbf. The one filming is from the Game Chasers which I love, I actually like Wood on that show I just don't like his actual content usually haha.