2025-09 summary

During September, Daniel reviewed numerous newly released or newly tested games and devices, generally expressing strong disappointment. Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater was rated 3.2/10 for bland visuals-only upgrades, shallow combat, and weaker writing than earlier series entries.

Hollow Knight: Silksong was reviewed repeatedly and inconsistently across multiple recordings: some sessions praised its art, music, and Switch 2 performance, while others (including a £16 purchase later regretted) criticized bland combat, missing features (double jump, map, sprint), navigation confusion, currency-loss death mechanics, and blurry 4K scaling, with scores ranging from roughly 2 to a more favorable early impression before turning negative after lost progress.

Daniel compared the Switch 2 favorably to the newly released Lenovo Legion Go 2, citing better portability, lower price, and ergonomics, while questioning the Legion Go 2's practicality for public/travel use.

Hades 2 gameplay on Switch 2 was described involving Arcana, sigils, nectar, and character interactions with Artemis and Dora, with uncertainty about whether a character named Molly is one of the father's brothers.

A game session (Borderlands 4-related, based on Kairos/Timekeeper/Order/Vault Hunters lore) depicted a prison break to rescue Eamon, alongside severe technical performance issues achieving only about 40 FPS despite lowered settings, with uncertainty over DLSS's role.

Daniel streamed a Silent Hill game on a low-spec PC, criticizing corridor design, confusing puzzles, and poor performance, planning to refund the £70 purchase after roughly two hours; he discussed streaming platform dynamics (Kick, YouTube copyright claims) and future PC-building plans with an RTX 5090, ultimately quitting due to frustration and feeling unwell.

Borderlands 4 was rated 3.2/10, criticized for repetitive gameplay, long tutorials, small magazines, bullet-sponge bosses, a £60 price without meaningful innovation, and poor frame rates (30–45 FPS) on an RTX 4050 laptop despite lowest settings.

Silent Hill F was rated 3.5/10 with a planned refund, criticized for its Japanese setting/protagonist change, repetitive mazes, simple puzzles, basic combat, and poor performance on an RTX 4050 laptop at a £70 price; uncertainty remained about the laptop's RAM amount and whether weapons could be upgraded.

Daniel compared the iPhone 17 Air to his 2020-purchased iPhone 12 Mini across design, specs, app launch speed, and Geekbench 6 benchmarks, finding the 17 Air faster and better-specced, though a display refresh-rate difference was not noticeably perceptible and a GPU benchmark run had to be restarted.

Daniel briefly compared the iPhone Air and iPhone 17 Pro Max on design, camera capabilities, and shared specifications (A19 chip, ProMotion display), declining to recommend either model and leaving his own purchase intent unresolved; camera wide-angle details were described inconsistently.

Negative reviews of newly released or purchased games (Metal Gear Solid Delta, Borderlands 4, Silent Hill F, Hollow Knight: Silksong) dominated September content, frequently citing repetitive mechanics, poor technical performance, and pricing concerns.

Hardware comparisons were a recurring theme, including Switch 2 vs. Lenovo Legion Go 2, and iPhone Air/17 Pro Max vs. older iPhone models.

Recurring technical performance complaints, including frame rate issues, DLSS/graphics settings adjustments, and future PC hardware upgrade plans (RTX 5090).

Streaming platform dynamics were discussed, including Kick/YouTube revenue, automatic category updates, and viewer behavior.

Daniel played the newly released Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater remake.blackboard, rating it 3.2/10 and criticizing its use of the Unity 5 engine, shallow CQC combat, inferior stealth versus Splinter Cell, and questionable choice to remake MGS3 over earlier entries.blackboard

Daniel played Silksong on Switch 2, finding combat bland compared to Hollow Knight, encountering confusing controls, and dying to the boss The Moss Mother while attempting to heal before eventually defeating it.

Daniel compared the Switch 2 favorably against the newly released Lenovo Legion Go 2, recording the comparison in one take, checking recording time, and noting Silksong's Switch 2 release.

Daniel played Hades 2 on Switch 2, navigating mechanics like sigils, Arcana, bones, nectar, and the Daedalus Hammer, alongside dialogue involving Artemis, Dora, and family relations.

A narrative involving a prison break on Kairos to free Eamon was played, with the player adjusting graphics settings to low and ultra performance due to lag.

Daniel played Hollow Knight: Silksong for the first time on Switch 2, appreciating its art and music initially, collecting an unidentified red item, then losing significant progress and expressing frustration.

Daniel played Hollow Knight: Silksong on Switch 2, praising visuals and audio despite the screen going black at one point and missing features like sprint, double jump, and a map.

Daniel streamed a Silent Hill game on a low-spec PC, encountered puzzle and navigation difficulties, acquired a key after a prior one failed, solved a symbol puzzle, considered searching for a door combination online, and ultimately quit due to feeling sick, bored, and annoyed. The Kick stream category updated to Silent Hill F during the session.

Daniel reviewed Borderlands 4, rating it 3.2/10 and concluding the game is terrible due to repetitive mechanics, long tutorials, and poor performance on an RTX 4050 laptop.

Daniel reviewed Silent Hill F negatively, rating it 3.5/10 and planning to refund it, while streaming live gameplay on Kick that included pipe combat, pills, and Japanese dialogue, noting the stream category updated automatically.

Daniel compared the iPhone 17 Air to his own iPhone 12 Mini (purchased in 2020), testing app launch speeds and running Geekbench 6 CPU and GPU benchmarks, rerunning an initial GPU test that did not complete.

Daniel purchased Hollow Knight: Silksong for £16, played it on Switch 2, and ultimately rated it 2.5 out of 10, expressing regret over the purchase.

Daniel briefly tested both the iPhone Air and iPhone 17 Pro Max for about 10 minutes before being asked to leave, comparing their design, cameras, and shared specifications.

Daniel rated Hollow Knight: Silksong 2 out of 10, criticizing Hornet's combat feel, dodge mechanics, weapon upgrades, world design, and severe frame drops on high-end hardware, recommending replaying the original Hollow Knight instead.

How Snake carries or applies multiple camouflage outfits was left unexplained.

The function of certain Silksong control inputs and the purpose of some environmental features and resting areas remained unclear.

Whether the recording reached ten minutes and whether Legion Go 2 fan noise would be embarrassing on a plane were left uncertain.

Whether a character named Molly is one of the father's brothers in Hades 2 was uncertain.

Whether DLSS was enabled or responsible for performance changes in the Kairos-related gameplay was unclear.

The function of a collected red item and navigation direction in Silksong were unknown to Daniel.

The cause of the screen going black during Silksong gameplay was unknown.

Uncertainty persisted around a character's appearance (possible graphical glitch), navigation, and puzzle-solving requirements in the Silent Hill game.

Daniel could not recall the exact RAM of his laptop and was unsure whether in-game weapons could be upgraded in Silent Hill F.

Uncertainty remained about perceptible differences between 60Hz and 120Hz displays, missing benchmark entries for other iPhone 17 models, and the cause of a stalled GPU benchmark.

Uncertainty existed about whether Silksong has a central hub/teleportation mechanic and the identity of a spotted in-game entity.

The exact price of the iPhone 17 Pro Max, conflicting statements about the iPhone Air's wide-angle camera, and Daniel's ultimate purchase decision between the two phones remained unresolved.

Whether Daniel's negative view of Silksong might change with further play remained uncertain.