Free games

• UPDATE

• • Battlefront 2 doesn’t have online multiplayer, only local, since the original Xbox Live was shut down about nine years ago

• Epic Games

• • The Witness
  • • Making the rounds- free on PSN just recently, and on Xbox One about a year ago
    • 2016
    • First person puzzle exploration game, a la Myst, developed by the creator of Braid

• Twitch

• • Her Story
  • • 2015
    • Interactive movie that has you searching through a database of fictional police interviews to solve the case of a missing man
  • InnerSpace
  • • 2018
    • An adventure game inspired by Journey and Grow Home that has you flying around bright, stylized environments hunting for ancient gods
  • Joggernauts
  • • 2018
    • Cute couch co-op autorunner platformer that has you jogging, jumping, and switching with friends to make it to the end of each level
  • Keep In Mind: Remastered
  • • 2018
    • A psychological indie game following Jonas, a man struggling with mental illness, on a journey of reflection and emotional growth through a world of his literal demons

Top story- seriously, it’s time to delete Facebook

• The Daily Beast is reporting that newer Facebook users are being interrupted by a message asking for their email password
• • The message says “To continue using Facebook you’ll need to confirm your email.”, and then goes on to say you can do that automatically by entering your email account’s password into a form below the message
  • In order to bypass this you need to click on the “Need help?” link in one corner of the page, and then they offer more conventional means like sending you an email with a confirmation link
  • They say they won’t store your password, but considering the massive “Keeping passwords secure” fiasco of 600M cleartext passwords kept floating around at the company for the last 7 years I think we’ve got to take that with a shaker of salt
• Not to mention, cybersecurity researchers just recently found hundreds of millions of Facebook user records on publicly accessible Amazon Cloud servers
• • They want to take all your info, and then they don’t care who else gets into it as long as they can sell it to the highest bidders

There’s a PSVR-exclusive Iron Man game coming, and I need it now

• I’m not kidding, give it to me
• Based on early demos it looks like they’ve nailed flying around in first person as Iron Man with full motion controls
• It’s apparently separate from the films and comics but using them as an inspiration, exploring Tony Stark as his own worst enemy as well as facing off against Ghost, a supervillain going after Stark and Pepper Potts
• It looks fantastic, and it’s apparently slated for release sometime this year

Apple has officially confirmed that AirPower is dead, likely due to the technical challenges of their ambitious design

• The weirdest part of this is the package for the new AirPods wireless charging case actually includes an illustration of the AirPower mat, but they’ve finally definitively decided its fate
• They wanted to let you charge up to three devices by putting them anywhere on the mat, while also giving the ability to monitor battery levels of all three wirelessly
• Very ambitious, but with the current level of tech just not feasible
• On the plus side, you can just get a few decent wireless charging pucks online for less than AirPower would have cost

Avengers: Endgame tickets are already for sale, and there’s even a way to see the movie early if you feel like being slightly insane

• In case you haven’t heard, Endgame broke records this week and had the biggest day one of any theatrical presale title ever, taking down the previous champ, The Force Awakens, in the first six hours of tickets being available
• • It got to the point where #AvengersEndgametickets was trending on Twitter with technical complaints, because the sites couldn’t keep up with demand
• Both AMX and Alamo Drafthouses in the US are running marathon screenings, leading up to a showing of Endgame, if you feel up to the 22 movie, 60 hour challenge
• And your reward? Seeing Endgame one hour before the general public
• This is definitely something that would take dedication, and we’d love to hear from any listeners that might have taken part

Gundam 40th and Hello Kitty 45th anniversaries

• • https://www.gundamvskitty.com

• To celebrate the 45th anniversary of Hello Kitty and the 40th anniversary of Gundam. They are having a crossover event!
• So far there is only a video, where Kitty is at home, sees Amuro, fighting in his Gundam on TV. Kitty gets all flustered and runs out of her house.
• Then it goes to space, Amuro still fighting, and a break in combat, has his sensors go off. He turns and sees a giant Hello Kitty mech appear. May be Big Zam sized? and the video ends there. All characters are represented in their original animation styles.

Homeworld Lego sets

• https://brickformation.com
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeworld
• A company called Brick Formation, has the license to make sets based on Homeworld.
• For those out of the loop, Homeworld is a 3D RTS. Where it takes place in space, and has lots of cool spaceships.
• It is made by Relic Entertainment, which was founded in Vancouver, and Homeworld was their first game released in 1999.
• These parts are genuine Lego pieces, since Lego has a Fair Play rule. So they are genuine Lego, kits designed, packaged and sold by Brick Formation. But the Lego company, is not affiliated with this in any way, other than being the ones that designed the building bricks.
• They are beautiful sets. They all come with a display stand, which also holds a description card for the ship. They look fantastic, because they made all the ships in the ’studless’ style of building. Where building studs are not visible in the final product.
• This quality does come at a price. A smaller ship, the Hiigaran Interceptor, which built is 12 inches long, is $250. And a large example, Hiigaran Destroyer, 20 inches long, is $575.
• If the idea of 3D RTS, all in space, makes you interested, a remaster was released in 2015, available on Mac and PC.

Tidbits

• Google’s adding a “sponsored content” (read, advertising) section to Android TV, and in their pilot program pushed the update to a bunch of devices including Sony smart TVs
• • So if you decided to shell out thousands on a nice 4K TV, and use the Android TV features, congratulations- you’re now forced to look at ads every time you use it
• Valve is teasing their new stand-alone VR setup with a swanky website
• • It’s pretty scarce on the details, but it looks like it’s called the Index and it’ll be here in May
• No Man’s Sky VR is getting some amazing reviews, and the hype train is a-rolling once more
• • And as a nice bonus, it will be playable both with the Move and Dualshock controllers (though if given the option, I think motion controls are usually superior)
• Verizon’s launching an actual 5G network this week, compared to AT&T’s logo change
• • Speeds look solid, testing out at over 760 Mbps, but you won’t see them unless you’re in specific areas of either Chicago or Minneapolis, have the Moto Z3 phone, and pair it with the 5G-enabled Moto Mod (which, with it’s extra processing, battery power, and antennas, it damn near a phone in its own right)
• Lastly, for your weekly dose of wtf, a California hospital is being sued by 81 women for secretly filming them in labour and delivery rooms while undergoing very personal procedures
• • The women say they didn’t consent, and would not have if given the choice
  • Cherry on the shit sundae, the videos were stored on various computers- some of which didn’t even require passwords to use
  • The hospital claims the cameras were there to catch a thief stealing drugs from anesthesia carts in the rooms, but that seems like a pretty idiotic move all told

Recommend American Gods: The Author’s Preferred Text

(recommended the Amazon Prime show, which is now partway through season 2 back in ep 118)

• It’s interesting to see some of the differences between the show and the book, though there will be spoilers for one in the other so choose wisely
• It’s such a great take on mythology, with gods being among us and powered by belief and worship, so you end up with someone like Media contrasting with the older gods the settlers and slaves brought with them to the Americas
• Neil Gaiman’s always a good read

Literally Misleading

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