Rants
Contents
Some rants about badly designed products etc. stuff that could
fit into a blog article but not really technical.
Headphones
Superlux HD662F
My first headset was a carefully selected (price / quality)
closed back Superlux
HD662F, i was quite satisfied for some times from this cheap
buy in term of quality and durability, my main wish was a 'studio'
quality / monitoring headset so i mostly wanted a neutral frequency
response and good comfort, this kind of headset can go crazy in
term of price but the HD662F delivered all of this for me, it
seemed to have good frequency response curve from tests i saw on
boards.
Sadly the HD662F wasn't perfect, mine had cables fraying issue
after 7 years of usage which was a minor issue since it worked but
it sadly started to have cable connection issues as well so i
decided to buy another one since they were pretty cheap.
The second HD662F had connection issue after 2 years of usage
which was quite frustrating since the first one lasted much longer,
i don't know if it is build related (bad luck) or perhaps
aggravated by my setup since i had a different desk / chair between
both and the long cable was often stuck below my chair
wheels.
There was perhaps quick fixes to solve the issue but i thought
it was a design issue anyway, an easily replaceable cable entirely
solve this case (with a minor bump in price) thus i started to look
for a headset with a replaceable cable.
Earpad durability was good although they are quite low in term
of comfort, i changed them only once for the 7 years case.
All in all this cheap headset would have been the most durable
if the cable was entirely replaceable !
Rode NTH-100M
I chose this headphone due to 3 factors :
- replaceable cable due to my experience with the Superlux
HD662F
- has support for the NTH-Mic condenser microphone which was
attractive as i could use it in audio conference instead of my
phone, seemed good quality as well so i could perhaps use it for
other stuff
- brand / price (way more comfortable cushion, build quality due to better materials / experience etc.)
It was much pricier (8x more) than the Superlux although still
quite attractive for all it does compared to other products on the
market,
sound quality seems also quite good.
I also needed to buy the VXLR mini-jack 3.5mm to XLR adapter
also sold by Rode and use the splitter cable to have both mic /
audio on my ONYX Producer 2-2 audio interface. (don't forget to
switch +48V button to have correct audio level for the
mic)
First feels were very good, i thought it was of much higher
level than the Superlux in term of comfort or even overall quality
and features. It also had adjustable headband compared to the
Superlux.
Then issues appeared, there was cracks on the plastic part
that hold both earcup after less than 2 month and it eventually
broke almost completely, this really frustrated me due to the price
and since i thought Rode was a quality brand and would design
durable products with all the experience they got...
this eventually broke completely
It seems it is either bad luck product with production issue
or a design issue again with too little product testing, my feels
goes to the second case as i feel the parts that hold the earcup is
quite thin for all the pressure it may experience, this is also a
global issue, many peoples reported such thing with this product
and Rode was forced to apply lifetime warranty on the product...
which looks like they are quite aware of this.
There is a cheaper solution than going for a replacement
fortunately : the almighty duct tape !
So i Just duct taped this part with several layers, the fix is
great and hold the part without issues, it remains flexible so
there is no disadvantage except aesthetics.
my fix, 100% working and durable, back to
usable product again
Another design issue is that my hair sometimes get stuck into
some movable plastic part.
Even for all the features the Rode has i still think the
HD662F managed to be better than the Rode although not easily
repairable, time will tell if it is as durable with the adhesive
tape...
2024 update : Now it have a connection issue as well sometimes
(sound in only one ear)... what a shitty product !
Plantronics Backbeat PRO 2
I bought this wireless headset in 2018 for office usage, i was
mainly attracted by the noise cancellation feature, it was fairly
cheap at the time (cheaper than the cheap Rode above) with
seemingly good build quality.
Sound quality was not a focus but it is correct anyway,
focusing on bass, sometimes has too much bass though, the noise
cancellation feature is ok for the price although not very
powerful.
All in all i think it is a mediocre to okay headset although
bad for audio conference (due to Bluetooth
profiles issue), i especially like the nice and comfortable
cushion but there is two product issues after years of usage
:
- the cushion although very comfortable (even compared to the Rode) are not durable, replaced them 3 times after 4 years and i don't use this headset often, would probably needs to be replaced every 6 month with a frequent usage...
- has a feature which detect when it is head mounted and cut the
output off when unmounted, this feature is very hit and miss for
me, too sensitive and cannot be disabled easily...
After some years of usage the head mounted detection feature
is even worse than it was leading to many frustrated moments where
it cut the sound output after some light head move... a bad product
design all in all and i wouldn't recommend this headset for this
alone.
Video Games
Mass Effect 1, 2, 3
vs Star Control 2
Always wanted to play Mass Effect since its release in late
2007 and finally took it to completion in 2024, it was well
received at the time, some peoples compared it to Star Control 2
(1992) and i can see why since there is similarities although in 3D
(mako, planets gameplay, lore or even music) and with a shooter
gameplay, it is a good game to my opinion especially for a 3D game
in late 2007... but it didn't have the same impact on me as when i
played Star Control 2 in early 2010s and here is why :
- the beginning was tiresome and boring, being stuck in the
citadel for a while... for me the game start once you gain access
to space
- the lore felt restricted, it is not as wild, diverse and fun as
Star Control 2, it is well made but it is way too conventional;
shallow, generic and boring, follow norms too much, too
human-centric
- gameplay was tiresome and i felt some parts were made by
sadists... such as the heavily repetitive planets gameplay with the
mako, especially on worlds with huge hills... another tiresome
gameplay thing was the melee rushing enemies or the rocket launcher
abusive ones when the player doesn't even have the equivalent
weapon to counteract; why ? also explosives everywhere (same in
ME2)... perhaps the gameplay just didn't age well and they were
still figuring stuff out at the time, anyway it is pretty mild for
a FPS
- i dislike the abuse of invisible walls everywhere to prevent
the player from falling (same in ME2), this impact the gameplay in
Mass Effect because the player path is often blocked for no
reasons
- the copy pasted buildings / spaceships interior is mediocre, same as backtracking... i see all this as a cheap development / budget trick typical of these game studios doing business
- the cities are actually pretty limited size wise, you'd expect
a huge area but no, many invisible walls etc. same in ME2, it does
a great job at appearing as bigger though
- the UX was bad... especially the inventory or when skipping
dialogs, the HUD UX was ok
- it was not as lively, one thing i enjoyed greatly in SC2 was
the dynamic map with the enemies slowly progressing as you play and
which can eventually wipe all the galaxy out (it is admittedly a
pretty hardcore feature though :D), there is choices to make
sometimes (more in ME2) but it is focused on characters with bits
of romance, choices are carried over to the sequels though which is
a nice feature.
One thing that Mass Effect does very close to the SC2 vibe is
music, i find it pretty similar at times but again perhaps too
smoothed out, it still doesn't reach the same high as SC2 music to
me because SC2 music was a crowd-sourced
effort, it has huge diversity. In Star Control 2 tracks were
composed by various folks of the MOD community adding huge
amount of personality and identity to the game (same for fonts,
graphics etc.), from ambient to industrial, rock or electronic
music, it has this unique crafty feels with quality variations
(even goofy !) that is difficult to expect from a rising 2000s
video game company doing usual business.
Now SC2 isn't perfect as well, it has a similar boring
beginning with the spaceship being very slow (especially the slow
rotation) but the lore and exploration kick off way faster and the
exploration is actually necessary for survival and progression,
exploration is also the main initial goal by finding out what is
out there and it is fun by adding arcade elements instead of
gimmicks, this hook me quite early in SC2 along with the ambient
vibe, it has an immersive vibe and parts of that is also because of
how it begin. Planets gameplay can also be seen as repetitive later
in game but still has more variations, hazards actually do
something.
All in all i enjoyed some parts of Mass Effect 1 due to the
sheer amount of references such as Babylon 5, Battlestar, War of
the worlds, Firefly, Star Trek, Star Wars or SC2 and some planets
environments but overall it didn't provide anything new for me and
the gameplay was cumbersome most of the time for a shooter / RPG,
it was a good start though, the side missions and space opera story
and the way it unfold is okay but took some times to get in, the
lore lacks huge amount of diversity though.
Mass Effect 2 : Played it to the end and i liked some parts of
it but it carried over far too long, the UX style felt heavier
although overall simpler but the gameplay is slightly better
overall (hack games were fun although not really challenging after
a while and thus doesn't serve any purposes), the galaxy map
actually looks more like SC2 (you can go around with the spaceship)
but they removed the Mako (they replaced it by the Hammerhead which
has a linear and mediocre gameplay), planet landing is just regular
linear missions now, this part wasn't perfect in ME1 but i liked
the barren planets environments and exploration, the planet scan is
tedious and doesn't offer anything in term of gameplay (did they
took the idea from Ironseed ?), planet
scan is even useless because if you are like me scanning all the
planets obsessively you will get way too much useless resources,
the scan only serve the purpose of finding side missions after a
while, so much wasted time ! Soundtrack seems to be of lesser
quality also, i didn't like the endless waves of enemies in some
missions which felt like a loose way to lengthen the game, there is
also very limited variation in enemies, the characters unlocking
and loyalty system was quite fun though (common in BioWare
games, i liked this as well in Dragon Age: Origins), most
liked character is perhaps the Geth one since it is a bit
refreshing and a nice surprise (too bad i lost it at the end), the
Overlord mission was also nice with a huge reference to System Shock. The
ending was okay although not as epic as i thought, there is choices
to make at least.
Mass Effect 3 : This one has a story that is quite close to
Star Control 2, i liked the beginning so far, the galaxy map has
improved with less hassle on scanning etc. although they replaced
it by backtracking on reapers invaded worlds... the gameplay is
slightly improved overall and the world is also slightly more
detailed, soundtrack is a bit more like the first, the EDI part was
fun, i like the scale of the reapers invasion which is quite
similar to the Ur-Quan one.
So final verdict on all ME ? They are definitely okay space
opera for the year they were released but with severe gameplay
flaws, it improved on each iteration though, BioWare focus on
characters and the choices you make is perhaps where it shine
although the lacks of diversity bothered me, all the 3D stuff
(animation, environment etc.) is also quite good (cannot replace
imagination though !), i feel like the lore was much more
restricted than SC2 but there is a great game to be done if the 3
were mixed together with some changes.
Din's Curse
The gameplay of this game is... cursed ! This game is a Diablo
1 clone with light town management thrown in, i love the concept
(shared by all Soldak
games btw!), raw aesthetics and overall world dynamics (quite feels
like a "living" world) but come on... it is not fun at all unless
you like to be punished constantly by the game designer, it is too
dependent on character build (+ randomness) and the monsters
respawn hellfest is just infernal, in the end you just end up
wasting huge amount of time bashing endless amount of monsters to
get random quests completed with town attack event in between if
you fail to do them in time so if you are in the middle of
somewhere and an event happen you end up having to backtrack to
town and hope that no important NPC was killed, sometimes your
quests just fail a few seconds after you took it (failure is
literally embedded in the design which is ok but the result is lots
of backtracking and wasting time), rinse and repeat etc... just
tiresome, can see huge potential in co-op though !
The 2019 sequel Din's Legacy is much more fun to me,
it share the same ideas but i found it much more fair and balanced,
it is a Diablo 2 clone so not just limited to underground dungeons.
Also recommend Drox Operative games which is Diablo as if it was in
space with some 4x
ideas !
About Soldak
games: Not really a rant but i find all their game interesting
design wise even if they have some flaws because they are all based
on the same concept that they iterate on since mid 2000s, they also
share the same UX and their idea works as in all their game share
this unique 'living' feel, it give them a distinct
character.
Random
- Deleted videos on YouTube showing up as deleted but without
metadata anymore (title at least) is a damn plague, i had a way to
dodge that by asking for my data from time to time but they don't
even show the title anymore in the metadata... (i think they used
to ?) fortunately there is tools...
- YouTube playlist is quasi unusable with high amount of videos and the endless scrolling of doom unless you just change the URL... perhaps that is why they limit it to 5000 videos !
- Formal verification of software programs are a very useful
resource for maximum efficiency and reliability in defense programs
(aerospace etc.), an interesting example of how a mix of seemingly
innocent mathematics and software engineering can be reused for the
gloomy stuff (but not only fortunately), seems the main source of
funding for this in the US is the DoD itself.
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