The Hot Topic Returns

[Nag]

I buy disposable AA... fucking suck it!

 

Spoiler

😘

 

[spatular]

46 minutes ago, DisturbedSwan said:

 

 

I get what you're saying about enclosed batteries losing charge over time, and they do no doubt about it but all the tech I've had that has those batteries has never lost a significant amount. I think my old iPhone went down to 88% battery health in 2 years, my iPad has 80% battery health today and I got that in 2017. My DS4's lasted the entirety of the last generation, only losing about an hour of charge, my old Switch JoyCons never had any noticeable battery charge changes either.

 

All that is much shorter term than im on about. in the last year ive used a ps2, n64, gamecube, etc. 20+ years old stuff. I want my stuff to last forever really, thats why standardised, rechargeable, easily available and replaceable batteries are much better for me.

[one-armed dwarf]

The thing about battery health as I understand with the apple devices is the performance also degrades with the health. The CPU starts to throttle, 80 percent is probably actually a bad figure taken in context. So you've got old hardware that's also running slower than it did earlier, my phone is going through this currently. I'm loathe to replace it though.

 

Tho I don't think that is relevant to the controllers really.

 

Joycons battery is irrelevant really cause the things will just break before that happens anyway

[mfnick]

Phillips recharger and 4x batteries for around £15. Keep rotating them, all good. Loads better than losing charge. 

[Jimboxy]

From my relatively substantial testing (Xbox controller, plus a 7 and 3 year old children) Ikea rechargeable batteries are the king of the reusables, they last forever and pretty cheap.

 

Also, that's the hottest "Blakey Hot Take" we've had for some time...

[DANGERMAN]

I'm with him on the argument that if you're going to be using AA you should be using rechargeable ones

 

Also just plug your controller in if it's low on charge. The last console where I couldn't play because the batteries were flat was the Wii because its the only one that can't be plugged in 

[Sly Reflex]

On 23/05/2023 at 18:23, mfnick said:

Phillips recharger and 4x batteries for around £15. Keep rotating them, all good. Loads better than losing charge. 

 

This is what I did, mainly because it was way cheaper than the charge kit. Plus I use the batteries for my wireless guitar system for work. Just worked out way cheaper.

[Nag]

No question again....😞

 

 

Quote

Nag says "what one videogame would you pick where you just can't agree with the general consensus of review scores... either you think it's rated far too highly or way too low in your opinion?"

 

[OCH]

As leading as the pic is, I would agree with GTA. I liked the original "micro machines" GTA and GTA 3 was groundbreaking in a series evolution way. To a point. The 3D series is just so dull though. Maybe it just comes down to my temperament, but I find the format of GTA mind numbing. Destroy All Humans and/or Hulk: Ultimate Destruction. They take the open world sandbox and make it fun. GTA just doesn't.

[one-armed dwarf]

We were talking about them, so those Insomniac Spiderman games. I liked the first one, but it rated to me as a decent 7/10 with really good mocap and an entertaining take on a very familiar story. But it was also basically just a Ubisoft game at the end of the day, but with better traversal

 

I can't get into its sequel cause it's the exact same setting, even on PC with all bells and whistles I've literally been here before.

 

In the opposite direction, Pathologic 2 (70 MC). Edge gave that one a 9 though which is what I'd give it as well

[mfnick]

Zelda BOTW is the one that stands out to me most at the moment. I’ve gone over why I think it’s got way too many issues to be a 10/10 here last few days so won’t repeat myself. Not a bad game at all but in no way should it be reaching those scores. 
Elden Ring is way up there too for a lot of similar reasons but I get why with that one a little more. 
 

As for the other way round, I’ll have a think about that. Most games I love which aren’t as critically acclaimed are ones I can still understand why they didn’t review that well. 

 

[OCH]

7 minutes ago, mfnick said:

Most games I love which aren’t as critically acclaimed are ones I can still understand why they didn’t review that well.

Asura's Wrath and Killer7 are two examples of that for me. I adore them both. But understand why they aren't for everyone.

[Nag]

I think one for me is Days Gone... it's really underrated in my opinion, I don't remember it being particularly buggy or running poorly and for an open world game it was actually pretty interesting especially with the hoard mechanics.

 

It's been a few years since I played it and maybe I'm not remembering too well but I'm a little sad that game will never get a sequel.

[shinymcshine]

The critic scores for this were bizarrely awful (Destructoid gave it 3/10) albeit the user scores are a more reasonable balance of an enjoyable RPG (that's somewhat more in the style of Fable than Elder Scrolls).

 

 

[DANGERMAN]

Mario Odyssey. I honestly think it only scored so well because of its name and the press (American especially) adoring Nintendo. It's not a bad game, there's some great moments in it, and it's amazingly well polished, but for the most part it's a so so platform game, or character action game I guess, because a lot of it doesn't really involve much platforming. The song and dance routine I think shows that nostalgia was a factor with its critical reception, it was all that got talked about.

 

again, not to suggest its a bad game, but there's much better Mario games imo

 

 

To go the other way, I thought that Thief remake got a bad wrap. Maybe it was much worse on consoles, and it did have performance issues on pc, but I loved it. The atmosphere is great, it could be creepy at certain points, and the stealth worked really well. But getting around the city was a bit of a pain in the arse thanks to some peculiar level design, that paired with it having performance issues and having a slight unfinished feeling (there's a cut scene towards the end that just comes out of nowhere). Get past that though and it's a really good game that didn't deserve the critical kicking it got

[HandsomeDead]

To me Mario Odyssey was the real star of the Switch launch period so I don't agree with that.

 

I just don't fret too much about this kinda subject.  There's a bunch of critically acclaimed games I don't vibe with but I just don't think much about them.  I agree with Dwarf with Spider-Man.  I played a few hours of it and knowing my feelings on Horizon: Zero Dawn I ended up just not bothering with Ghost of Tsushima or Days Gone. That isn't as critically acclaimed but this mold is one I don't often get much enjoyment out of.

 

There's also games I like quite a bit that were critically slammed but the problem is I mostly see where they were coming from so there isn't much point in getting defensive.  Devil's Third and Starfox Zero come to mind.  I don't play as many games now so I've not explored the rubbish tip as much as I'd used to but I think there's only Wanted: Dead that's somewhat current that I want to play.

 

I definitely hear people talking positively about Balan Wonderworld, I dunno if anyone from here is like that.

[Sly Reflex]

The Last of Us.

 

Rubbish game. Nice to look at and that's about it. At least it spawned a decent tv show.

 

Uncharted 2.

 

Rubbish game. Nice to look at but god awful to play. Like the other ND game it feels so woolly to control. Druckman is a tv producer trapped in a game directors body.

 

Breath of the Wild.

 

Should like it. Don't. Every thing feels like it's going out of your way to waste as much time as possible whilst providing the least amount of pleasure. I think I'd rather pull a shift than have to play this game.

 

Vice City.

 

Presentation is everything. Gameplay and map are not. The weakest of the GTA games. Absolute banger of a soundtrack and setting though.

 

Mario Galaxy 1 and 2.

 

I hated these games. Didn't finish either. Wanted to like them. Didn't. Blame part of it on the game and part of it on the abomination of console they released on.

 

God of War III.

 

I didn't hate this as much as the other games on this list, but I didn't like it half as much as I did with the previous GoW games. They turned it up to 11 with Kratos being a insufferable cunt. Massive inconsistencies in game in regards of damage and how it was taken by your character. Chickened out on the ending as well.

[HandsomeDead]

This is why Sly has a shit taste.  Can't be trusted.  Too narrow minded 🙂 

 

Exposed.  Self report.

 

But I agree Uncharted 2 is a game that is representative of its time... A bad time.

 

God of War 3 really fucking sucks in terms of story but it probably is the best in terms of combat mechanics. I hate it for that.  The best to play is attached to the most pathetic shit.

[one-armed dwarf]

They figured out how to make a game that plays well with TLOU2

 

Its still a game I dont know I like that much, but is close to MGSV when it comes to stealth TPS excellence  and not to be dismissed cause of earlier efforts

[HandsomeDead]

Even TLoU1 has more than enough interesting stuff to do, especially compared to other games of its time, and then you have it's compelling narrative on top.  People really tried to sell the idea it was all story and a shit game but it's objectively wrong and I will always push back against that.  There was a multiplayer game tied to it that was just the gameplay part of the game and it fucking ruled.

 

That narrative needs to be fucking nipped in the bud.