With all the characters destines lying with the fabled weapon. Souls collide over the ages vying for control of Soulcaliber.

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Updates

  • After fan outcry over Assassin’s Creed Odyssey’s forced heterosexual relationship and child in their latest DLC, and despite initially saying there wouldn’t be any changes, Ubisoft has announced they’ll be changing the cutscene and dialogue to “better reflect the nature of the relationship for players selecting a non-romantic storyline”
    • They’ll also be addressing the achievement earned after the child is born called “Growing Up”, which many saw as a comment that being gay or childless was a phase to grow out of

Free games of the fortnight

  • Epic Games
    • Jackbox Party Pack (until Feb 7th)
      • 2014
      • Pack of party games playable using your phone as a controller, ranging from head-to-head trivia to made-for-streaming lie detection with audience participation

Security

  • Collection #1 has been released this week, containing more than 700M email addresses and 1.1B unique username/password pairs
    • This collection compiles more than 2000 different leaks dating all the way back to 2008
    • If you’re curious about your credentials you can go to haveibeenpwned.com and type in your email address to see if it was included
      • They also provide a secure password checker, but I’m too paranoid to use it
    • Either way, the big bullet point here is to make sure you don’t re-use passwords, and use 2FA whenever possible. Stay safe out there
  • Also, it looks like Apple’s released security updates for pretty much everything so you should update if possible

Soulja Boy is at it again, shaking up the video game world by putting his name on illegal emulators

  • We missed reporting on it before, but apparently late last year he “released” game consoles, including a Game Boy clone, that were just rebranded bootleg Chinese Linux boxes with the price cranked up that run a bunch of emulators and unlicensed ROMS
    • My favourite part is how the SouljaGame Handheld (which comes with 3,000 games) is marketed as running Switch games
  • Well in a surprise to absolutely no one he was forced to stop selling them, presumably due to legal action, and souljagame.com now redirects to Nintendo’s 3DS store
  • And now he’s back at it again, showing off his latest project that supposedly has 800 games preinstalled from consoles like PlayStation, Game Boy, and Genesis
    • He’s now saying that they’re all licensed, and that Nintendo originally approached him because they wanted in
  • To top it off, when asked if it’ll play Fortnite he said “Yes, we’re working on it.” “Not this one, on the next one you can”
    • When asked for comment, Epic Games just said “No, you can’t play Fortnite on a rooted or jailbroken device due to anti-cheat measures”

YouTube has officially banned users from sharing videos of dangerous pranks and stunts

  • After a blindfolded teen crashed into another vehicle while attempting the Bird Box challenge, YouTube is finally stepping in
  • They’ve updated their guidelines to disallow videos “that can cause death and/or have caused death in some instances”
  • Specific examples cited were the Tide Pod challenge, which had people eating laundry detergent, and the Fire challenge, which had people dousing themselves in rubbing alcohol and setting themselves on fire
    • Yes, apparently the fire challenge is a thing. The flames are sometimes not visible to the naked eye, and in many cases the resulting burns require skin grafts
    • So that was my daily dose of what the fuck this week
  • They’ve also added that they don’t allow “pranks that make victims believe they’re in serious physical danger”, and “pranks that cause children to experience severe emotional distress”
  • We have yet to see policies against hateful or racist rhetoric, but hey, baby steps

In Japan: Man arrested for selling a modified figure

  • From Anime News Network dot com
  • 39-year-old man has been arrested in Ibaraki Prefecture
    • Under suspicion of modifying and selling Love Live! character figures without permission
    • Used the head from a Love Live! Nico Yazawa figure
    • Attached it to a Girls und Panzer Darjeeling figure
    • Sold the modified figure without permission on an auction website around September 6
      • The figure reportedly sold for about 3,000 yen (about US$27)
    • Ibaraki prefectural police discovered the figure through a “cyber patrol” in the fall
      • Police confiscated about 1,000 female character figures from the man’s home and are investigating for the possibility of additional crimes
      • Police discovered suspicious deposits into the man’s bank account
        • 8.5 million yen (about US$77,000) in a 2 year span
        • According to authorities, the man sold figures for prices ranging from 1,000 yen (about US$9) to 15,000 yen (about US$137) each
  • As I am out of touch with Anime I wanted to see where these characters are from
    • Info also from Anime News Network
  • Love Live!: School idol project
    • Where the head of the modified figure is from
    • Genres: Comedy, Drama
    • Themes: Idols, music, school
    • Questionable content: Mild
  • Girls und Panzer
    • The body and base of the modified figure
    • Genres: Action, Comedy, Slice of Life, Tournament
    • Themes: School, Tanks
    • Questionable content: Mild
    • First line of the plot summary
      • In this world, Sensha-do (戦車道), the art of tank-combat, is a traditional Japanese martial art for girls.
    • I may need to see this one.

Wisconsin Man attacks house with axe, after he thought his wife damage his action figure collection

  • From Global News
  • Madison police responded to a domestic disturbance call after the suspect called 911 to report himself to police.
  • Police said the man used a log-splitting axe
    • Destroyed a TV, the stand it sits on, a laptop and a bunch of other items inside his house
    • Smashed the family car
      • Chopped off both side mirrors
      • Eventually striking the windshield with such force that the axe became stuck
    • The suspect’s wife was not home at the time
  • The suspect was arrested for domestic-related charges of disorderly conduct and felony damage to property
    • Police estimate the man caused about $5,000 in damages
  • For an unsatisfying ending to this report
    • The fate of the man’s action figures is unknown

Entire city kept quiet to preserve sounds of legendary violins 

  • Classic FM dot com
  • The city of Cremona, Italy
    • Is home to some of the world’s finest violins made by Antonio Stradivari
    • All the locals are keeping quiet to save the sound of one precious instrument.
  • Who is Antonio Stradivari
    • A 17th and 18th-century violin maker who created some of the finest string instruments in history
    • Today, his instruments are on display in various museums and are used by only the finest musicians
  • The project is called ‘Stradivarius Sound Bank’
    • To compile a database of recordings of the tones and sounds of four instruments selected from Cremona’s Museo del Violino
    • To perfectly capture the sounds of these iconic instruments, any outside noises have to be kept to a minimum
  • Cremona’s mayor, Gianluca Galimberti, has implored citizens to avoid sudden and unnecessary sounds
    • The cobbled streets around the recording sessions are being closed off for five weeks as the recordings go underway
    • To avoid noise vibrations reverberating in the microphones and ruining the recordings
    • They’ve even cordoned off the surrounding streets
    • The auditorium’s ventilation and elevators were turned off
    • Even the auditorium’s light bulbs were unscrewed
  • Why So much effort?
    • These instruments’ sounds change over time
    • Fausto Cacciatori, curator of the Museo del Violino, told The New York Times
      • Each Stradivarius has “its own personality” but that their distinctive sounds “will inevitably change.”
      • “It’s part of their life cycle”
      • “We preserve and restore them, but after they reach a certain age, they become too fragile to be played and they ‘go to sleep,’ so to speak.”
  • Leonardo Tedeschi, who came up with the idea for this project
    • Said: “This will allow my grandchildren to hear what a Strad sounded like. We are making immortal the finest instrument ever crafted.”
  • Josh’s commentary
    • This is awesome as violin is my favourite instrument
    • And when they are done this has the potential to be the most expensive music plug-in ever 

Competitive Farming E Sports 

  • From Kotaku
  • Makers of the Farming Simulator games
    • The Swiss game studio Giants Software announced Wednesday it’s decided to make the series into a full blown esport
    • They are committing 250,000€ ($284,803 US), in prize money to the establishment of a Farming Simulator League
      • Yeams of three will compete to see who can be the best at stuff like stacking bales of hay
    • Farming Simulator is not lighthearted like Harvest Moon or Stardew Valley
      • Serious farming equipment used by actual farmers today
      • The accuracy of equipment use has most players most players using steering wheel set ups
  • Giants Software said in a press release
    • The new Farming Simulator League will be built around teams of three
      • And will challenge them with competing across a number of different farming-based tasks.
    • The inaugural season of the league will focus on 10 separate tournaments, each hosted in Europe at events like GamesCom and Paris Games Week
      • With a point system to determine which teams will make it to the Championship tournament at FarmCon 2020
  • An interview with Esports Observer, Giants Software CEO Christian Ammann said
    • The plan is to have teams backed by farm-tech manufacturers rather than the usual gaming companies and esports organizations
    • There’s still not a lot of detail about how the upcoming league will be structured
  • For Farming Simulator fans
    • The 3 v 3 competitive mode will be launching in Farming Simulator 2019

WarGroove comes to Nintendo Switch February 1st 

Site – https://wargroove.com/
From Indie publisher Chucklefish Know for

  • Starbound
  • Stardew Valley

Site also says it is coming to Steam, Xbox One and PS4

  • But I saw the Switch ad first

Looks like Advance Wars/Fire Emblem

  • Customizable battlefields
  • Custom campaigns
  • Online multiplayer skirmishes
  • Competitive Play
  • Co-Op Play

4 Warring factions

  • Lets take the Quiz now with Alan!
  • I got Cherrystone
    • You’re known by your friends as ‘the dependable one’, a trust-worthy type, loyal to those you care about. You’re a deep thinker, using your knowledge to your strategic advantage. Your only real flaw is your tendency to get distracted by petting dogs in need of belly rubs! Who can really blame you for that?
    • There is something I like about each faction
  • Cherrystone Kingdom
    • Traditional look of European Knights 
    • Silver armour and red cloth
  • Heavensong Empire
    • Outfits have a Samurai flair
    • They also wear Golden animal masks that reflect their role and discipline 
    • Cloth and leather armour, yellow is their primary colour
  • Felheim Legion
    • Viking look
    • Undead and supernatural beings in their ranks
    • Blue cloth and heavy brown wool for their outfits
  • Floran Tribes
    • Plant people, some very humanoid
      • Looks like Dryads
    • Celtic and/or Druid look
    • Primarily green, they have a natural colour palette

I like the look a lot, going to want to watch some gameplay and maybe pick it up for myself.

Tidbits

  • Move over Korea, Google’s new AlphaStar AI system is crushing pro Starcraft II players
    • Even after it was tweaked with slower-than-human reaction times and fewer actions per minute than professional human players it managed to win 10 of its 11 matches
  • Metroid Prime 4 is being delayed after Nintendo decided to reboot the project and shift development back to the series’ original developer, Retro Studios
    • In a development update video they said that they didn’t make the decision lightly, but the existing development hadn’t reached the standards they were looking for
  • Windows 10 Mobile is becoming de-supported this December
    • In other news, Windows 10 Mobile is apparently still supported in 2019?
    • They’re recommending that users switch to an iPhone or Android device, since they’ll stop releasing any updates on December 10, 2019, which is amusing after their funeral procession for the iPhone when it released
  • Get ready for the bounty of Pokemon movies on its way
    • Detective Pikachu sequel is already in development, and they’re working on adapting Red and Blue as well as a spinoff centered on Mewtwo

Ale & Blood mini review

  • Really entertaining novella in the Bring Down Heaven series by Sam Sykes
  • Great taste of his style if you’re interested but didn’t want to commit to a full novel

Recommend Newsflesh trilogy by Mira Grant (and all the side novellas)

  • Summary from GoodReads
  • The zombie apocalypse happened more than twenty years ago. Contrary to popular belief, we didn’t all die out, largely because we’d had years of horror movies to tell us how to behave when the dead start walking. We fought back, and we won…sort of. The dead still walk; loved ones still try to eat you if you’re not careful; the virus that caused the problem in the first place is still incurable. But at least we lived, right?
  • The Newsflesh Trilogy is a story about blogging, politics, medical science, espionage, betrayal, the ties that bind, the ties that don’t, how George Romero accidentally saved the world, and, of course, zombies. It’s thoughtful horror, and horrific science fiction, and I’m very fond of it.

For more content, Patreon supports get access to upcoming ideas and more!

A huge thanks to Dalton, our favourite fan. And thanks to all our Official Fans that support us.
And if you want to support us too, its as easy as clicking this link!

Also, make sure to check out RIPT Apparel for sweet 24 tee shirt designs. And don’t forget to use the coupon code PS2JSHOW for 10% off!

We are a proud member of the Alberta Podcast Network powered by ATB

And talk to us in the comments!
Or…

Discord Server
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Facebook

Netflix has a fun update that flew under our radar. Bungie breaks free from EA. This week’s bad description, might be too easy. Alan gave a movie a shot when he expected the worst.

I want to not have to use ‘fans’. Cause they are the friends we haven’t met yet, and friends are just the family you aren’t born to. That logic, I’m going to refer to our listeners as ‘fanily’

Netflix has a cool little update!

Bojack twitter posted an update

  • Unflattering pic

You can change your profile pic to be a character from many other Netflix exclusives

  • Bojack
  • Big Mouth
  • Stranger Things
  • Orange is the New Black
  • Defenders
  • Total of 25 different categories
    • Including “The Classics” which is the updated original pics

Choose Your Own Adventure publisher suing Netflix over Bandersnatch 

  • Bandersnatch is really interesting! 
    • Choose your own adventure show
    • Part of the Black Mirror universe/collection? 
  • Thanks to Alaina for telling me to check it out!

Sonic Crash Course Board Game 

BoardGameGook Details

  • 2 – 4 Players
  • 30 – 45 min playtime
  • Weight 2/5
  • Designed by Sean Mcdonald
    • Train Heist (2013) 6.7 on BGG
  • Published by IDW
    • Machi Koro

Best review is based on the Kotaku Review

  • Review written by Luke Plunkett
  • Pick your miniature!
    • Sonic
    • Tails
    • Knuckles
    • or Eggman
  • Gameplay has players building the track as they move forward
    • Items appear to give players a boost
    • Almost like Mario Kart
    • Spikes and enemies can also pop up on the track
  • I am interesting in playing it at a cafe
    • The theme looks on point
  • The concern is variety
    • The variety of track pieces seem lacking
    • Luke suggests a board game called Battle Racers, for a more in-depth race experience

Reminder- The Wii Shop Channel is closing on January 30th!

  • Make sure you’ve purchased and downloaded anything you wanted and put it on the consoles you like, because everything from re-downloading to the Wii System Transfer Tool will be shut down

Update: The Twitter account for the Westworld mobile game we talked about last week has announced that it has been removed from app stores effective immediately, and it will officially be closed on April 16th. In-app purchases have been disabled, and any users with in-game currency left over should spend it before things are shut down

  • It looks like the “amicable solution” here was for WB to completely bail on the entire product

Big news from Bungie- after 8 years they’ve officially cut ties with Activision

  • It seems like things came to a head after Activision expressed disappointment with the new Destiny expansion during an earnings call, basically complaining that it was too focused on end-game players and how they want to “drive stronger engagement and in-game revenue generation”
    • Many were worried that this was a signal the micro-transactions would go back to how bad they were when Destiny 2 first launched, with a lot of content locked away behind dollar signs
  • Bungie released a statement thanking Activision for their partnership, and announced that the publishing rights to Destiny will go with Bungie when they leave
  • Looks like even though they’re working on new projects the Destiny community can still look forward to content and support while Bungie self-publishes their content
  • That said, it’ll be interesting to see how the game evolves- Activision likely wasn’t behind all of the problems with Destiny, but if nothing else this will mean the game stays more true to a single company’s vision. Time will tell what that vision is like

Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is in the news this week after its director apologized for forcing characters into a heterosexual marriage

  • The game has previously been hailed as a step forward, in which you can play as a man or a woman (a series first) and, though you’re presented with a potential partner of the opposite sex, you can choose to pursue same-sex romance options (or just run around and not romance anybody, as you prefer)
  • Unfortunately the latest DLC pack, Legacy of the First Blade, breaks that thread and has your character getting married and pumping out a kid
  • It may seem like it’s not a big deal but these kinds of games have players building up a personal story for the characters and how they interact, and this kind of sudden jarring change removes a whole layer of immersion for many players
    • A lot of fans feel that it’s entirely at odds with how the main character is developed leading up to that point, with little to no motivation for the sudden personality switch
  • According to creative director Jonathan Dumont the intention was that it was a child to carry on your bloodline to the lineage of assassins shown elsewhere in the series, and to let players choose between a utilitarian view of continuing your legacy or forming an actual romantic relationship, but the clarity and motivation was poorly executed
    • There are no plans to change the current DLC, but he’s said that future chapters will be mindful of how they missed the mark

Apparently EA just can’t get enough hate as it is, so they’ve gone ahead and cancelled yet another Star Wars game

  • This one has a bit of a history- it started at Visceral Games, and would have been a linear action-adventure game directed by Amy Hennig, the same woman that directed the Uncharted franchise
  • Then EA closed Visceral back in 2017, and rebooted the game at EA Vancouver into something open-world with the excuse that single-player linear games are dead
    • Thank you Spider-Man and God of War for proving them oh so very wrong
  • There are rumours that this one (where you would play as a scoundrel or bounty hunter exploring various open-world planets and working with different factions) was cancelled because it wouldn’t come out soon enough, which seems like a weird reason to keep rebooting projects
    • Apparently they might be starting work on another smaller-scale Star Wars title, but people aren’t holding on to much hope that it will amount to anything
    • For me, hope for a good SW game from EA died with 1313
  • On the plus side, Respawn’s Jedi: Fallen Order is still slated for a fall 2019 release. So that’s something

Interesting legal news from the US- federal judge Kanis Westmore has ruled that FaceID and TouchID can’t be compelled by law enforcement

  • Ruling basically applies the same rights against self-incrimination to biometrics that previously applied only to passcodes
  • Westmore wrote: “If a person cannot be compelled to provide a passcode because it is testimonial communication, a person cannot be compelled to provide one’s finger, thumb, iris, face, or other biometric feature to unlock that same device. The undersigned finds that a biometric feature is analogous to the 20 nonverbal, physiological responses elicited during a polygraph test, which are used to determine guilt or innocence, and are considered testimonial.”
  • This could still be overturned, and there are already cases where judges have allowed authorities to compel biometric phone unlocks in the past, but it shows that the legal system is slowly catching up with modern tech
  • In the meantime, just a quick reminder since I’m a paranoid guy, if you restart your phone or bring up the emergency screen on an iPhone by hitting the power button 5 times quickly it will disable TouchID and FaceID, and force a passcode unlock which has always been protected

Tidbits

  • Netflix is being sued over their interactive movie Black Mirror: Bandersnatch
    • Apparently they’ve been in negotiations with Chooseco, a publishing company specializing in children’s books, over the Choose Your Own Adventure trademark for years but never actually gained permission to use it
    • Chooseco is suing for $25M in damages, saying Bandersnatch benefits from association with the Choose Your Own Adventure series without actually getting the license to use the name
  • The final season of Game of Thrones will be coming on April 14th, and they released a teaser on YouTube to get the hype-train rolling!
  • PlayStation VR has released its third digital “demo disc”, featuring superstars like Moss, Thumper, Superhot VR, and Astro Bot Rescue Mission
  • There’s an interesting theory going around that Facebook’s ’10 Year Challenge’ could be a way to train facial recognition on age progression
    • Rather than having to comb through user photos, they’re having clean, simple, helpfully labelled sets of photos that they could use to teach computers what people are likely to look like as they get older

Titans mini-review

  • Pretty solid, once they got “fuck Batman” out of their system
  • Took the characters in interesting directions, and gets you invested right before the evil season finale cliffhanger

Recommend Venom (2018)

  • I was expecting some mindless action, but I found myself caring about the plot and characters
  • The symbiote’s characterization is a little sudden, but it felt fresh and interesting
  • Solid superhero movie even for people that don’t like Spider-Man

Were back and there is free games of the month! Josh talks about some new things for the future. Alan recommends something for your health. Josh has his first Bad Description challenge.

Today’s bad description:
“After his girlfriend is abducted by the stubborn antagonist. Tradesmen is forced to pursue through a dangerous construction site.”

A new year means a new list of the top 50 worst passwords of the year!

  • Bad news, #49 is joshua
  • Then we have some classics, like #43- letmein
  • New ones, like #39- harley
  • A new twist on qwerty at #26- zxcvbnm
  • The double-devil at 1#4- 666666
  • Down from #4 last year to #9 this year- qwerty
  • And for the 5th consecutive year:
    • Exactly what it says on the tin at #2- password
    • And continuing its reign as the #1 worst password- 123456

Bethesda just keeps shooting themselves in the foot over Fallout 76 – and I’m not even talking about the game itself!

  • First there was the Power Armor Edition of the game that came with a functional power armor helmet (which was pretty cool) and a bag to carry it that was supposed to be durable canvas, but was instead cheap, flimsy nylon
    • Even after shipping the product listing showed the original canvas bag that was advertised
    • Eventually the listing was updated to say nylon, but the picture still has not been updated
    • The initial response from Bethesda support? “We are sorry that you aren’t happy with the bag. The bag shown in the media was a prototype and was too expensive to make.”
    • They then offered 500 Atoms (about $5 worth of their in-game currency) to people that contacted support with proof of purchase
    • Then a week later they finally announced plans to make things right and manufacture proper canvas replacement bags
      • If you bought the Power Armor Edition you have until January 31st to submit a ticket at beth.games/2QDropM to get the replacement when they’re ready
    • But wait, there’s more!
      • Many users, after submitting tickets for the replacement, were shown all of the other users’ replacement tickets including addresses, emails, and partial credit card info
      • The problem was fixed in about 45 minutes, but they confirmed that 65 tickets containing personal information were exposed in that time
      • Apparently they’re contacting customers that were affected, but that’s not really a genie you can put back in the bottle
  • Then, to cap it all off, Nuka Dark Rum brought us a whole new fiasco
    • The idea here was that it would be a dark rum in the iconic Nuka Cola rocket bottle- pretty cool, right? Maybe even worth the $80 they were charging
    • Well after they started shipping, a note appeared at the tail end of the website talking about “the story of the intentional and complex design of the Nuka Dark Rum product”
      • Because you know any time you have to tell people something was intentional that really inspires confidence
    • It goes on to say how no corners were cut, and “it cost over 2X what it would have if we would have simply cast a glass mold”
      • Concerned yet?
    • They apparently decided that a glass bottle alone wouldn’t be dramatic enough, even though I think a glass rocket bottle would be pretty great all on its own
    • Which brings us to my favourite line- “Over 100 hours were spent just writing the code to create the 3D-printed prototype of the shells”
    • So they 3D printed a giant novelty plastic shell for a standard bottle- 13 inches tall and 6 inches wide
    • The cap is kind of neat, where instead of a screw-top it’s an integrated cork, but I’ve seen some videos of people trying to pour the rum and the plastic shell definitely doesn’t play nice with the glass bottle inside

Tidbits

  • According to the New York Times, Facebook is selling even more of your personal info than we thought!
    • Not only did they give companies like Microsoft, Amazon, and Sony access to data on all your friends, but they also gave Netflix and Spotify the ability to read your private messages
  • The FCC in the US has reclassified text messages as an “information service” instead of a telecom service
    • What does this mean? They basically just repealed net neutrality for your text messages
    • Masked as a way to allow telecom companies to block spam messages, it also dismantles protective regulations and gives them the ability to censor or favour speech as they choose, potentially blocking or editing your message if they feel like it