Quick programming update, this is our second last episode of the year before we take our traditional December vacation, but we’ll be running feed drops through to the end of the year of some other great episodes from the Alberta Podcast Network. Hope you enjoy them, and we’ll see you in January!

Free games

• Twitch

  • Bridge Constructor: Medieval

    • 2014
    • Classic physics-based construction puzzle game where you use a variety of materials to span different gaps and carry loads without breaking, but with a medieval twist that has you carrying provisions and trying to dump enemy troops

  • Genesis Alpha One Deluxe Edition

    • 2020 bundle of the 2019 title with an art book, soundtrack, and Rocket Star DLC
    • Roguelike first person shooter where you have to build, maintain, and navigate your ship through a galaxy filled with hostile alien and human threats. Clone and splice your crew with alien DNA, fight off infestations, and explore the vastness of space

• Epic Games

  • Elite Dangerous

    • 2015
    • Space flight simulation game that has you exploring a 1:1 scale open-world representation of the Milky Way galaxy with open-ended gameplay, where everything you do can affect the narrative of the persistent universe
    • It has full VR and flight stick support for added immersion, and has become the definitive MMO space epic
    • And it’s official- this game has now been kickstarted, developed, released, given DLC, and given away free all after Star Citizen was funded but before it was released

  • The World Next Door

    • 2019
    • Indie visual novel and match-3 puzzle game where you play a human teenager who was trapped in a parallel universe and much escape before she perishes

Continuing the Epic slApple fight

• Apple will now be reducing its App Store cut to 15% for most developers starting on January 1st
  • The best part of this is that it applies to anyone earning less than $1M in revenue per year, meaning that the small developers that need it will see a boost
  • As an added, and I’m sure calculated, bonus, companies making more than $1M a year like Epic and Spotify that were trying to use “fighting for the little guy” as ammunition in their case against Apple’s App Store guidelines will no longer have that arrow in their quiver
  • And with this gesture Apple isn’t even losing much- analytics estimate that 98% of developers would be eligible for the price cut, but they’re responsible for just 5% of the App Store’s total revenue

macOS 11 Big Sur is out now

• On first blush you can expect to see a bunch of visual changes, but if you use any firewall, VPN, or virtual machine software it’ll need an update before it will run on the new OS

One More Thing

• Third Apple event in three months
• Apple Silicon is here, and it’s pretty slick
  • The fancy new M1 chip combines CPU, security, memory, etc for maximum performance
    • Now instead of computers allocating x amount of memory to graphics, and y amount to general use, everything is fluid depending on demand
    • I’m guessing the days of RAM upgrades are gone
  • Uses a mix of 4 high-performance and 4 high-efficiency cores
  • It can offer up to 2x the performance of the latest PC laptop chip, or equivalent performance for 1/4 the power
  • It has an integrated GPU with up to 8 cores, and can run almost twice as fast the hardware in the Xbox One or Nintendo Switch, and faster than the PS4
  • It’s also got all kinds of neural engine and machine learning goodness built right in
  • And supports Thunderbolt / USB 4 (an improvement over USB3 that still uses USBC connectors
• Big Sur
  • Shiny new design with a bunch more privacy features, all built to maximize performance from the M1
  • Every app from Apple is optimized for the M1 as well, with things like Final Cut Pro rendering up to 6x faster
  • Universal apps can be built to run on both Intel and Apple Silicon, while Rosetta 2 gives you backwards compatibility with older Intel apps
    • Thanks to the improvements some programs are actually performing better on the new Macs under Rosetta than they did natively on Intel hardware
  • And now iPhone and iPad apps can be run natively on the Mac, if developers opt in
    • One example shown was Among Us, which could get interesting because it’s free on iOS but $5 on Steam
• First Mac hardware with the new M1 will be the MacBook Air, 13” MacBook Pro, and Mac Mini
  • MacBook Air will be 3.5x faster than the previous gen, and up to 5x faster GPU
    • Faster than 98% of PC laptops sold in the last year
    • Battery lasts up to 2x as long for video conferencing, offers 18 hours of video playback
    • And even with all that, they remove the fan making it completely silent
    • Starts at $999 USD, $1299 CAD
  • Mac Mini is up to 3x faster CPU, 6x faster GPU
    • It can even run the Pro Display XDR at 6k resolutions, so you can drive your $5,000 monitor with a $700 computer
    • And the price dropped $100 from the last gen, to $699 USD, $899 CAD
  • 13” MacBook Pro
    • All the same kinds of speed improvements, with up to 3x faster performance than the best-selling Windows laptop in its class
    • Up to 20 hours of video playback, doubling previous specs
    • Starts at $1299 USD, $1699 CAD
  • And all of these have education pricing as well, so if you’re in school as either staff or a student you can save about $100 USD
• Finally, in a cute little throwback, we saw the return of John Hodgman as a PC, talking about how fast he is and how you don’t need all that battery life anyway
• Updates:
  • We’re already seeing benchmarks of identically-priced macs pop up, one running Intel and the other an M1 chip, and the M1 just blows the Intel mac out of the water
    • Even in gaming, on apps not built for the M1, Rosetta 2 translates things fast enough that everything will run faster on the M1
  • Even with all that, the battery life is ridiculous- I’ve seen reports online from people that are using it for video rendering and YouTube streaming for hours while still staying above 75%
  • And developers are saying that creating native apps has been as easy as loading their project into the latest Xcode and compiling. No code changes needed.

Apple Is reportedly investigating issues with some iPhone 12 models, including flickering backlights and greenish or grayish blacks

• Internal documents say that technicians should avoid servicing affected phones for now and instead tell customers to keep their devices updated, suggesting a software update is on its way to fix the issue
• This is happening even after this week’s iOS 14.2.1 update, which addressed issues with some MMS messages not being received from group chats with Android users, some hearing aids having sound quality issues when linked to an iPhone, and lock screen problems on the 12 mini

After five years, Google Photos is ending its offer of unlimited free high quality photo backups

• Starting June 1st, 2021, they’ll begin charging for storage after you hit 15GB of use
• They’re also implementing a new policy of deleting data from accounts that haven’t been used in the last two years
• Apparently all of your photos and documents uploaded before the deadline will not count against that 15GB cap, so you’ll have time to decide if you want to migrate or pay up, but if you frequently upload large photos you might be hitting that limit sooner than you think
• And everyone’s moving down a peg- Pixel users used to get unlimited storage for their original quality photos (as opposed to the high quality photos everyone else got), but now they’ll only get unlimited on high quality instead
  • “High quality” is Google’s terminology for photos that they’ve been allowed to compress for more efficient storage
• If you’re looking to migrate you’ll want to head to takeout.google.com, where you can do a dump of your Google account’s data selecting by product, or even in some cases drilling down to things like specific photo albums

Google is entering the Venmo arena with a revamped Google Pay app highlighting peer-to-peer payments

• The app can also highlight local deals and discounts nearby and give you a high-level look at your finances, if you feed it all your information
• Google has said that when you pay friends it stays private, but for the app’s advanced features you’ll need to let it scan your Gmail inbox and Photos account for things like receipts
• If you’re not a fan of Google tracking your every move, but you’re a Gmail user, you’ll also want to check out Lifehacker’s guide to the new smart feature privacy settings that Google has recently released, giving you more control over the data that Google is allowed to scrape from your inbox
  • https://lifehacker.com/turn-off-gmails-smart-features-to-avoid-tracking-1845691806

A group of Amazon employees was recently arrested for stealing over half a million dollars worth of iPhones

• An internal investigation was made after finding that some packages had different weights than expected, and found that some workers at a logistics center in Madrid were slipping new iPhones (like the 12 and 12 Pro) into orders secretly at the last moment
  • Reports are saying that the orders were placed by an accomplice, so unfortunately it doesn’t look like random Amazon customers were getting free iPhones
• Four of the five people implicated were arrested, being found with 10 iPhones in their possession, and the fifth turned himself in to police voluntarily

The UK has now proved that they are ahead of modern society as we know it, officially banning those misleading puzzle ads you see all over the place in mobile games

• Playrix, the developer of titles like Homescapes and Fishdom, has been pulled up by the Advertising Standard Authority in the UK and told that ads like those with the moveable pins puzzles between a man, water, lava, and a shark are not okay when those kind of puzzles are very infrequent in actual gameplay
• All Playrix games that I’m aware of are just match-3 tile swapping games, but they almost seem to go out of their way to hide that fact
  • The App Store page for Homescapes has seven different images, and only one of them even references the actual gameplay. The first one shown is one of those very same pin removal minigames

These Past 2 Weeks In Gaming History

November 7 – 2000 – Shenmue – Dreamcast

• On a November day when the snow turned to rain, Ryu Hazuki arrives home just in time to see his father killed by Lan Di, a man Ryu’s father obviously knew very well.
  • Ryu attempts to stop Lan Di, but is effortlessly beaten to within an inch of his life. After recovering from his injuries Ryu sets out to track down his father’s murderer, as well as uncover his family’s secrets and the mystery of the Phoenix and Dragon mirrors that Lan Di seeks.

• Shenmue is a hybrid game that incorporates elements of life simulation, adventure and fighting with light role-playing.
  • The game is set in a 3D environment that can be freely explored by the player.
  • Much of the gameplay involves talking to Ryu’s friends and the various people around town, hoping to find hints or clues that lead to the next step in the story.
  • Any details Ryu learns are written down in his notebook for future review.
  • Ryu can buy items from stores or try his luck with capsule toy machines, but most items that can be bought have no purpose outside of filling his inventory.
  • Ryu can also visit an arcade and play accurate versions of Hang-On and Space Harrier, as well as games like darts and pool.
• Ryu is a trained martial artist, and while a true martial artist knows it is better to avoid a fight, sometimes it is still necessary.
  • Ryu can train his moves, either by repeatedly doing them while training, or by sparring with his friend Fuku-san, which constitutes the role-playing element of the game.
  • Fighting system is similar to that of Virtua Fighter, although with toned-down air juggling.
  • Ryu’s training also gives him heightened reflexes, and sometimes during a cutscene the player will have only a moment to press a button (displayed onscreen) to get Ryu out of danger.
  • Failing an input prompt is not always fatal, but whether Ryu survives or not depends on the danger he was in.
• Included with the game is the Shenmue Passport disc.
  • On this disc players can receive tutorials about various aspects of the game like mini-games or the battle system, watch cutscenes they’ve already seen in the game, and listen to music from the game.
  • This disc also includes the option to go online to a special site where players can review world-wide mini-game rankings, get hints for the game from Nozomi, review game maps of Yokosuka, trade uncommon items found in the game for even rarer items only available on the passport, and visit the official homepage.
  • This service went offline along with the rest of SegaNet, and all online features are currently impossible to access.
• Neat Facts:
  • Shemue appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.
  • In the 2008 Guinness World Records Gamer’s Edition, the Dreamcast version of Shenmue is listed as the most expensive game ever to develop at $70 million.
  • Shenmue features the ability to play Space Harrier and Hang-On, the original 80’s arcade games made by Sega.
    • Both games were also created and designed by Yu Suzuki, the story writer of Shenmue

November 8 – 2005 – Gun – GameCube, PS2, Windows, Xbox

• I remember loving my experience with this game.
  • Everyone called it Grand Theft Auto in the Wild Wild West, even though it is made by Neversoft, famous for the Tony Hawk games.
  • This released 5 years before Red Dead Redemption by Rockstar.
• Set in 1870, you are Colton White, a young gunslinger whose father is killed by an Indian tribe led by Reverend Reed.
  • Just before passing away, your father hands you a token and reveals you are not his son.
  • Sworn to avenge his death, you pursue the killers and unravel the secrets surrounding the item.
  • Although you are on your own, temporary alliances can be formed with townspeople, Apaches, and posse members, but watch your back as they can turn against you

November 9 – 2004 – Halo 2 – Xbox

• In the sequel to Halo, Spartan-117, better known as the Master Chief, has returned to Earth, where he is promptly needed: despite all precautions taken, the Covenant have discovered the location of humanity’s homeworld and are launching their attack.
  • For some reason, however, their fleet is much smaller than expected.
  • To solve this mystery, the Chief must return to the stars, learning more about the mysterious Halo rings and their constructors.
  • Meanwhile, the Covenant Elite who commanded the fleet at the Halo construct is blamed for the destruction of the ring and branded a heretic.
  • The High Prophets grant him another chance, however: he is made the Arbiter, a special operative for the Prophets, ordered to carry out impossible missions.
  • He will be dealing with dissent and rebellion among the Covenant – a conflict where he might find himself to be on the wrong side.
• The multiplayer component of the game has been greatly expanded.
  • On the Xbox, Xbox Live is now supported in addition to split screen and system link.
  • The campaign can be played by two players in split screen.
  • Competitive game types include Slayer and Team Slayer (standard free-for-all deathmatch), Capture the Flag, Assault (planting a bomb in the enemy base), Territories (controlling sections of a map for a certain amount of time), Oddball (finding a skull on the map and then holding on to it as long as possible) and more.
  • All types have several built-in variants and can also be customized further.
  • Players can choose from Spartan and Covenant Elite skins.
• Neat Facts:
  • Halo 2 appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.
  • In the US and Canada alone, 2.4 million copies of the game were sold in the first 24 hours of its release.
    • That averages out to roughly 27 copies a second.
  • The game had 1.5 Million preorders before its release, making it an XBox “Platinum Hit” months before it was even released
• Personally: This is the first game Josh preordered the collectors edition and strategy guide.
  • He remembers leaving high school at lunch to pick it up.

November 10 – 2020 – Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla – PS4, Windows, Xbox One, Xbox Series

• Assassin’s Creed Valhalla leverages the Smart Delivery technology – buy the game once and play it on either Xbox One or Xbox Series X when both the console and that version of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla are available
• In Assassin’s Creed® Valhalla, become Eivor, a legendary Viking raider on a quest for glory. Explore England’s Dark Ages as you raid your enemies, grow your settlement, and build your political power.
  • Lead epic Viking raids against Saxon troops and fortresses.
  • Dual-wield powerful weapons and relive the visceral fighting style of the Vikings.
  • Challenge yourself with the most varied collection of enemies ever in Assassin’s Creed.
  • Shape the growth of your character with each choice and carve a path to glory.
  • Explore a Dark Age open world, from the shores of Norway to the kingdoms of England.
  • Personalize your experience by growing your clan’s settlement.

November 11 – 2011 – The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – PS3, Xbox 360

• I remember waiting in line for the midnight release for this game
  • One of the few Collectors Edition statues I have proudly displayed.
• Two hundred years after the events described in Oblivion, the continent of Tamriel is in turmoil.
  • The Emperor’s throne remained without heir; the Blades, Empire’s elite guards, have been disassembled; elven nations began capturing territory from the Empire.
  • The assassination of the King of Skyrim, Tamriel’s Northern-most province and home of the Nord race, led to a civil war between those who wish independence for Skyrim and those who wanted it to remain under the Empire’s control.
• The game contains some features that were introduced in Fallout 3.
  • Enemy level-scaling is done in a similar way, as opposed to the more intrusive system of Oblivion.
  • The player may hire other fighters to follow the hero around and lend a helping hand in combat.
  • Also, the lockpicking system of the previous installment has been replaced by the lockpicking methods of the recent Fallout games.
  • Conversations with NPCs now occur in real time rather than “freezing” time as in Oblivion.
• This games impact is no joke as it is nearly ten years old, and still referenced and refereed to as a great example of adventure games.

November 12 – 2001 – Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty – PS2

• In 2007, two years after the Shadow Moses incident, Solid Snake – now working for a freelance organization known as Philanthropy – infiltrates the oil tanker U.S.S. Discovery, investigating the development of a new Metal Gear-type weapon.
  • A confrontation with a Russian military group as well as an old acquaintance from Snake’s past adventure leads to a massive detonation, after which Snake is presumed dead.
• Fast-forward to the year 2009: the player takes control of Raiden, a rookie agent operating under the order of the Colonel, apparently member of a reformed Foxhound unit.
  • His initial assignment is to infiltrate the offshore clean-up facility Big Shell and rescue the President of the United States of America, who was kidnapped by members of a terrorist organization known as Sons of Liberty.
  • However, the matters become increasingly complicated as almost everyone Raiden communicates with appears to have a hidden agenda, and it is hard to tell a friend from foe…
• The Snake swap to Raiden is a bait and switch that gamers still reference to today.
• Neat Facts:
  • Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.
  • In order to cover up the character Raiden, the promotional trailers for the game showed several scenes with Solid Snake in different scenes.
    • In the final game, Raiden is involved in the same scenes, but in Snake’s place. Hideo Kojima used computer tricks to cover up Raiden and no one knew of his existence until the game was released.
    • However, the manual spoils the surprise on its very first pages.

November 13 – 2011 – Super Mario 3D Land – 3DS

• Super Mario 3D Land is a three-dimensional platformer which takes cues from the series’ side-scrolling instalments.
  • Mario starts a point in each level which he must traverse to reach a flagpole at the end.
• Josh loved this game
  • Josh “This games is what I wanted Mario 64 to be. It felt like the classic Mario but instead of just side-scrolling, it was 3D. And the 3D feature really popped with the bold color palette. I 100% this with joy and might dig it up and play it over the holidays.”

November 14 – 2000 – Star Wars: Demolition – PlayStation

• Star Wars: Demolition is a vehicular combat game set in the Star Wars universe created by both Luxoflux and LucasArts using the Vigilante 8 game engine.
  • Luxoflux also made True Crime: Streets of LA and New York
  • Its premise is that the Galactic Empire declares they’ve officially banned Jabba the Hutt’s podraces. Jabba creates a more life-threatening vehicular combat contest to replace the sport of podracing.
  • Several combatants enter the competition.
    • Boba Fett enters, opting to use only his jetpack.
    • Fellow bounty hunter and occasional partner Aurra Sing also enters, a swoop bike her vehicle of choice.
    • Other opponents mount various forms of tanks, landspeeders, and even a rancor to compete in this battle to the death.
• The reviews are not amazing
  • Aggregate score for the PlayStation version is 57%
  • While the Dreamcast version, which was released later, climbed up to 65%

November 15 – 1999 – Neopets – Browser

• Neopets is a pet simulation set in the fantasy world of Neopia.
  • The game’s core revolves around adopting and caring for up to six of the eponymous creatures.
  • Pets can be fed, played with, given medicine when ill, and trained for battle, just to name a few basic activities.
  • In order to customize a pet and make it truly unique, its owner may use special items to change its species and color, give it a Petpet, and equip it with various clothing items.
  • None of these activities are mandatory, though some site features may be closed off until the player has done them.
  • If a user decides they no longer want one of their pets, they can either leave it in a special adoption area for others to claim, or send it to a specific user.

November 16 – 2004 – Dragon Ball Z: Budokai 3 – PlayStation 2

• All the power of DBZ is yours.
  • A Hall of Fame cast of the greatest DBZ, DBGT and DBZ movie characters meet for first time for some of the fastest paced, highest intensity battles ever seen.
  • New abilities include, for the first time on PlayStation 2, the ability to fly at will in a DBZ fighting game.
  • Pummel your foes on the ground and in the air.
• It was a fast paced 2D fighter with awesome DBZ flair
  • You can teleport behind knocked backed characters to counter
  • Power up while your opponent is stunned
  • Have epic button mashing when your beam attacks clash
  • Go into Hyper Mode to rush down your opponent
    • You can go into Dragon Rush which is a chance game, the attacker secretly presses one of four buttons and if the defender can guess it, they end the onslaught
• With 44 characters!
  • 1. Goku
  • 2. Kid Goku
  • 3. Kid Gohan
  • 4. Teen Gohan
  • 5. Gohan
  • 6. Great Saiyaman
  • 7. Goten
  • 8. Vegeta
  • 9. Trunks
  • 10. Kid Trunks
  • 11. Krillin
  • 12. Piccolo
  • 13. Tien
  • 14. Yamcha
  • 15. Hercule
  • 16. Videl
  • 17. Supreme Kai
  • 18. Uub
  • 19. Raditz
  • 20. Nappa
  • 21. Captain Ginyu
  • 23. Recoome
  • 24. Frieza
  • 25. Andriod 16
  • 26. Andriod 17
  • 27. Andriod 18
  • 28. Dr. Gero
  • 29. Majin Buu
  • 30. Super Buu
  • 31. Kid Buu
  • 32. Dabura
  • 33. Cooler
  • 34. Bardcok/Turles
  • 35. Broly
  • 36. Omega
  • 37. Saibamen
  • 38. Cell Jr.
  • 39. SSJ4 Goku
  • 40. SSJ4 Vegeta
  • 41. Gogeta
  • 42. SSJ4 Gogeta
  • 43. Vegito
  • 44. Gotenks

November 17 – 1998 – Eggs Of Steel – PlayStation

• In Eggs of Steel, the player takes control of Charlie the Egg, a night watchman at the MOM Steel Factory.
  • However while on break, the machines start up and it is up to Charlie to stop it by hitting the reset button hidden on the other end of the factory, but to do this Charlies must face hazardous obstacles and bad guys trying to stop him.
• Eggs of Steel is a flip-screen platformer, using prerendered 3D backgrounds, a technique similar to Resident Evil.
  • The gameplay involves jumping onto ledges, climbing pipes and avoid flying obstacles such as girders.
  • Also Charlie will encounter bad guys along the way that he can take out with his “Egg Roll” and use his trusty wrench to trap and take out the baddies.
• There are 43 levels and 12 different bosses along with power-ups such as donuts that will increase Charlie’s health.
  • The story is told through thirty minutes of full screen animation and music composing of jazz, salsa and even Polynesian.

November 18 – 2001 – Nintendo GameCube

• The GameCube is the first Nintendo console to use optical discs as its primary storage medium.
  • The discs are in a miniDVD-based format but the system was not designed to play full-sized DVDs or audio CDs unlike its competitors, and mainly focused on gaming instead.
  • The console supports limited online gaming for a small number of games via a GameCube broadband or modem adapter and can connect to a Game Boy Advance with a link cable, which allows players to access exclusive in-game features using the handheld as a second screen and controller like a Wii U.
• Josh says “Still the best controller Nintendo designed”

November 19 – 2019 – Shenmue III – PlayStation 4, Windows

• Shenmue III is an action-adventure game developed by Ys Net, published by Deep Silver for Windows and PlayStation 4 and produced by Shibuya Productions.
  • Like the previous Shenmue games, it consists of open-world environments interspersed with brawler battles and quick time events.
  • It features a day-and-night system, variable weather effects, non-player characters with daily schedules, and various minigames.
  • The story continues teenage martial artist Ryo Hazuki’s quest to find his father’s killer in the mountains of 1980s Guilin, China.
• At E3 2015, following years of speculation, Suzuki launched a Kickstarter campaign to crowdfund Shenmue III, with Sega having licensed Shenmue to Suzuki’s company Ys Net.
  • It became the fastest campaign to raise $2 million, in under seven hours, and ended the following month having raised over $6 million, making it the highest-funded video game in Kickstarter history at the time.
  • Further funding came from Sony and Deep Silver and crowdfunding on other platforms.
• Shenmue III was released on November 19, 2019, 18 years after Shenmue II. It received mixed reviews, with critics divided over its similarity to its predecessors; some described it as outdated, while others praised its faithfulness to the franchise.
  • Retail sales were low, but exclude digital sales and copies sent to Kickstarter backers.

November 20 – 2007 – Rock Band – PS3, Xbox 360

• Rock Band, by the original developers behind the Guitar Hero games, takes the concept a step further.
  • Instead of solely playing the guitar along with songs, this game allows players to start a full virtual band with up to four players, with different sequences for each of the three supported peripherals: guitar (electric and bass), drum and microphone.
  • Gameplay is based on hitting scrolling notes on the screen in time (scrolling vertically for drum and guitar), and getting the right pitch for the vocals (scrolling horizontally at the top of the screen, along with the lyrics).
• Josh says “This game is nothing but good memories. I recently hauled the old hardware from my parents place to play this again. However the guitars are worn out, and the drums are missing a few pieces. Love the memories of playing this with friends.”

Tidbits

• There’s a rumour going around right now that Sony is looking to acquire Bluepoint Games, the team behind remakes like Shadow of the Colossus and Demon’s Souls, which would be amazing
  • People are saying that they would likely be set to work on a new IP, but the reddit rumourmill is speculating on a modern Soul Reaver release (which would be amazing)
• TikTok is saying that the Trump administration seems to have forgotten about its planned ban of the service, with approval of the sale to Oracle seemingly stalled waiting at the government’s Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States
  • The deal has since been granted an extension, but this app that Trump was claiming was a clear and present national security issue seems to have fallen off of his radar completely
• Just a reminder for everyone, Zoom is still a lying, garbage company even during the pandemic
  • The FTC is saying that Zoom has lied to users for years about end-to-end encryption, maintaining the ability to access the content of its customer’s meetings and violating health information privacy laws, but instead of any kind of punishment Zoom is just saying that they’ll upgrade their security practices
• BioWare has announced Mass Effect Legendary Edition, featuring a remastered trilogy (not you, Andromeda) with all its DLC
  • Players can expect updated visuals and technical features with higher resolutions and faster framerates coming to consoles and PC in spring 2021

PS5 mini review

• Damn it’s big
• The setup process was slick
• If you have your PS4 games on an external drive you can just plug it in and any PS5 versions will be automatically downloaded
• Astro’s Playroom is a fair bit of fun
• Demon’s Souls is gorgeous and feels great
• Load times are almost nonexistent
• The controller is pretty amazing, the speaker is surprising, and the haptic triggers are ridiculous