PS2J 338 News – Tracing Rays or Frames

Free Games

  • Epic Games

    • Surviving Mars

      • 2018
      • City building simulation from the developers of the Tropico series modelled after real Martian data that has you building a colony on Mars by manufacturing resources and constructing buildings to ensure the survival of the colonists
      • This was given away by Epic back in October 2019, so you may already have it in your library

Security updates are available for Macs, iPhones, iPads, and Apple Watches now

  • The updates aren’t flashy, and they haven’t released the fancy new watch-unlock for masks yet, but they fix a nasty vulnerability where attackers could use a malicious website to execute arbitrary code on your device, giving them the ability to hijack it
  • You’re safe if you’re running at least iOS 14.4.1, watchOS 7.3.2, and macOS 11.2.3

An estimated 60,000 US organizations, along with hundreds of thousands more worldwide, have been hacked recently thanks to holes in Microsoft’s Exchange mail software

  • A previously unidentified Chinese cyber espionage group that Microsoft dubbed Hafnium has apparently been using a combination of four newly-discovered flaws in Microsoft Exchange Server to gain complete remote control over affected systems
  • This has allowed them to siphon email communications from targets ranging from small business and local governments to banks, police, infectious disease researchers, and defence contractors
  • According to security researchers these hacks have been going on since at least January, and though Microsoft released emergency security updates on March 2nd there are still many organizations that have not yet patched their systems, leading to the Hafnium group amping up their attacks and actively scanning the internet for vulnerable systems
  • The worst part is that even if you’ve installed the security updates, if you were already compromised there is still a high chance that the hacking group has installed remote access tools on your server
  • Microsoft has commented that they’re working closely with the US Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), along with other government agencies and security companies, to provide guidance and mitigation for its customers, and encourages anyone impacted to contact their support teams for help and resources
  • In the meantime the CISA has issued an emergency directive ordering all federal departments and agencies to either update the software or unplug the servers, and they’re urging scanning all Exchange Server logs with Microsoft’s detection tool to help determine if you’ve been compromised

Rumours of an upcoming Apple event are ramping up, with signs pointing to it occurring on March 23rd

  • We’re expecting more information about iOS 14.5 and App Tracking Transparency, as well as the release of the now-essential Unlock With Apple Watch feature for times when FaceID fails because of a mask
  • Other rumours circling have the release of AirTags, Apple’s Tile-like tracker, popping up around this time
    • I’ve also seen a new beta feature called “Item Safety Features” that will alert you if there is a tracker following you that you don’t own, so that they can’t be used as easily for nefarious purposes
  • And there have been suggestions that new iPads will be coming with mini-LED displays and faster processors
    • This one seems especially likely after reddit user nanosplitter21 found an iPad case on a shelf in Target marked as being compatible with the “New iPad 11” (2021)”, and when they tried to purchase it the till said it could not be sold until April 6th

Microsoft’s acquisition of ZeniMax Media is officially complete, and they’ve publicly welcomed Bethesda, id, Arkane, and more to the Xbox team

  • The announcement wrapped up by saying that more Bethesda games are coming to Game Pass later this week, adding more value to the juggernaut subscription service
  • As of March 12 we’ll be able to play the DIshonored and Doom series, Fallout New Vegas, Fallout 4 and 76, Prey, Rage 2, Elder Scrolls Morrowind, Skyrim, and Online, The Evil Within, and the new Wolfenstein series
  • It’s a good time to have an Xbox

You might have heard that Denuvo software has come to the PS5- well the good news is it’s not as bad as you may have feared

  • Denuvo anti-cheat software made a bad name for itself causing performance issues on PC games like Doom Eternal and demanding the ability to access a worrying amount of information on your computer
  • The Denuvo piece on PS5 is actually a pretty different beast- it’s a lot more like the anti-cheat and anti-piracy software that was available on the PS4 (which was also by Denuvo)
  • All that’s happening here is that code from the same company (but not the same code that caused problems on PC) is being made available in the PS5 tools library, making it easier for developers to prevent hacking and modding of their titles

This Week In Gaming History

March 6 – 1996 – Ripper – DOS, Macintosh

  • Ripper is an interactive FMV adventure that is played out in the New York of 2040.
    • Brutal killings reminiscent of Jack the Ripper soon get personal and you, crime reporter Jake Quinlan, must solve the mystery.
  • The game plays much like other Take 2 Interactive works, such as Black Dahlia.
    • Solve puzzles and react quickly in combat settings to survive. There are 4 possible endings, and 3 hours of video footage.
  • Thank you to Jeanne and J. Jones for this interesting trivia I found on the Moby Games site.
    • Your CD-Rom drive may not be recognized if it is not designated as Drive D.
      • In addition, it appears that Ripper was not made as a Windows “native” game.
      • While it will run within a DOS window when started in Windows, problems with stuttering sound and lagging graphics are common. The game plays best from the DOS prompt using a Boot Disk.
    • If at the command prompt you accidentally type RIPER (one P) instead of RIPPER (two P’s), instead of going into the game you are greeted with a movie of a rotting apple!
    • Features an all-star cast including Christopher Walken, Burgess Meredith, Karen Allen, John Rhys-Davies, Paul Giamatti, Jimmie JJ Walker and Scott Cohen.
      • Ripper also features music from the Blue Oyster Cult.

 

March 7 – 2000 – ChuChu Rocket! – Dreamcast (North America)

  • ChuChu Rocket is an action puzzler, designed predominantly as a multi-player game.
    • You have indirect control over mice, and must guide them to the safety of a rocket, and away from a cat.
    • You do this by placing arrows on the ground, which they will follow.
    • The multi-player game is a frantic all-against-all duel, in which each player’s mice will only follow instructions of their own colour.
    • You can play this mode on your own against CPU opponents, or take on a series of predefined puzzles
  • After closing their hardware development branch, ChuChu Rocket! became the first video game released by SEGA on another console, namely the Game Boy Advance, in 2001.
  • The Dreamcast and Game Boy Advance versions of ChuChu Rocket appear in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

March 8 – 2011 – Dragon Age II – PS3, Windows, Xbox 360

  • Plot:
    • One of the key events early in the first game was the destruction of the village Lothering by the Darkspawn.
    • However, we weren’t told that there was at least one person who survived the onslaught: a human named Hawke.
    • Having become a refugee, Hawke travels to an area known as the Free Marches – more specifically, the city of Kirkwall. Hawke’s family shares the fate with many other Ferelden refugees; the authorities of Kirkwall are suspicious of the newcomers, and the path to financial stability is anything but easy.
    • Meanwhile, the appearance of the mysterious race of Qunari heralds more trouble to the inhabitants of Kirkwall, as does the growing tension between the Templars and the mages.
    • Hawke is caught in the middle of these political and social conflicts – what shall be the hero’s own path?..
  • Dragon Age II uses a “framed narrative” format: the story is narrated over a decade later by one of Hawke’s companions.
    • Similarly to Alpha Protocol, the narrative is rather flexible; motivations and events vary depending on the player’s moral choices during the game.
    • The game also adopts the “wheel-based” dialogue system from Mass Effect games: short responses that reflect different tones and attitudes the player wishes to choose for Hawke.
    • Also similarly to Mass Effect, the main character’s race and name cannot be changed; however, everything else (appearance, gender, classes) can be freely customized.
  • The combat system is quite similar to the one used in the previous Dragon Age game (which, in its turn, dates back to the combat style used in Baldur’s Gate), though it has been noticeably sped up.
    • Hawke can only be human, but the player can customize his or her physical appearance and character class (warrior, mage, or rogue).
    • The player controls Hawke and up to three active party members, either “programming” their actions by assigning actions that should be taken under certain conditions (for example, healing a party member if his HP drops below 20%), or issuing commands to each character manually.
    • The ability tree is also similar, the player being able to learn new abilities as the characters level up. Many abilities from the first game return, but some are absent or replaced with new ones.
    • The abilities are divided into various disciplines, which correspond to the fighting style of the character.
  • Cancelled expansion
    • An expansion to Dragon Age II, named Exalted March, was planned, but cancelled before announcement.
    • Bioware’s reasoning was that other opportunities for the franchises came up, and that there was no room for it because Bioware’s team sizes are fixed and all of them were busy with projects.

March 9 – 1998 – Yoshi’s Story – Nintendo 64

  • Loosely based on the Super Famicom/SNES game Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island, Yoshi’s Story follows the adventures of six Yoshis as they search through sunny woods, dark caves, soaring mountains, steaming jungles, vast oceans, and gloomy castles for the Super Happy Tree, which has been stolen by the dreaded Baby Bowser.
    • Yoshi can walk, run, swim, leap, flutter, and fire his payload of eggs. The action takes place in storybook “pages” made up of bookmaking materials and other familiar textures, including cut-paper forests, denim clouds, inflatable plastic islands, and stacks of colored spools.
  • The game pioneers use of the Rumble Pak as a key element of the gameplay experience, the player being able to feel invisible but treacherous currents when Yoshi swims through oceanic depths.
    • The Rumble Pak can also help the player locate hidden fruit or other objects by rumbling when Yoshi smells something.
    • With a light touch of the Control Stick it becomes possible to float on a leaf, ride a friendly dragon, and tiptoe past a swarm of angry bees.
  • Cancelled GBA Port
    • One of the first Game Boy Advance demos was a level from Yoshi’s Story.
    • However, it was eventually decided that the downgrades would be too significant, so it wasn’t made into a full game.

March 10 – 2009 – MadWorld – Wii

  • MadWorld is a stylish action beat-em up game, that puts player in the role of a police detective gone rogue and taking part in a violent TV show, in which contestants are encouraged to mutilate each other in increasingly violent and gruesome ways.
  • The game’s unique presentation is achieved through a three-colour palette scheme.
    • All the environments, objects and characters are rendered in black and white, as if drawn in a comic book.
    • The only other colour present is red, which accounts for the gallons of blood flowing from the victims of Jack, the game’s protagonist.
    • Aside from being inspired by comic books, MadWorld’s presentation is also taking hints from the competitive TV shows, with two over-enthusiastic hosts commenting every event happening in the game.
  • The core of the MadWorld experience is a series of challenges, player must take part in.
    • Each challenge presents a confined arena, in which player should score points by defeating his enemies in the most elaborate way possible and take part in the so-called Bloodbath-Challenges, which present additional rules and timed mini-games (like ManDarts or ManGolf) for racking up the points.
    • Once a sufficient amount of points was met, players must fight a unique boss enemy for the current challenge.
    • When boss is defeated, the player will be free to proceed to the next challenge.
  • The game also features a heavy use of quick time events in conjuncture with Wii motion-sensitive controls for the finishing moves, mini-games and general tasks, such as avoiding being hit by the enemy.

March 11 – 2014 – Titanfall – Windows, Xbox One

  • Titanfall is a first-person multiplayer shooter for up to twelve players simultaneously.
    • Set on a war-torn planet with two factions (Interstellar Manufacturing Corporation (IMC) and the Militia), it features battles between pilots on foot or boarding large mech-style Titans.
    • The game can be played in six game modes: Attrition (team deathmatch with hostage rescuers against kidnappers), Capture the Flag, Hardpoint (capture and hold three locations), Last Titan Standing (last player alive wins, all players start in a Titan), Pilot Hunter (score for the team by killing pilots, not Titans – at the end of the match there is an epilogue where respawns are disabled and the losing team needs to reach an evacuation point/dropship for additional experience points), and Variety Pack (mix of all game modes).
    • There is also a Campaign mode for each faction with a mix of different game modes and bits of story between each mission.
  • The game is fast-paced and while on foot pilots are able to wall jump and link jumps in a parkour style using a jet-boosted belt.
    • In a general game players start by choosing a pilot type.
    • Some of the available weapons include assault rifles, SMGs, shotguns, sniper rifles and smart pistols.
    • During the match a timer counts down (generally three minutes) until a Titan can be deployed.
    • The timer countdown can be shortened by killing other players.
    • When a Titan drops down from the sky a pilot can board it. Playing as a Titan has completely different movement, but it is still agile.
    • The pilot’s double jump is for instance replaced by a dash as a Titan cannot jump, crouch or seek cover.
    • A Titan has very different weapons and is much stronger to take on other Titans.
    • It can be ejected at any time when under attack and it is possible to issue commands to have it follow or guard you.
    • Other players can attempt to board and throw out a player.
    • These can be repelled by activating electric smoke and a Titan has also distinct abilities such as the vortex blocker to stop incoming projectiles, gather them and return them in midair.
    • It is also possible to crush pilots.
    • When a Titan is destroyed a new countdown timer is started.
  • Other game elements include burn cards (up to three per match) for temporary power-ups and AI-controlled minions with three types: grunts, marvins and spectres.
    • The game has a persistent experience system and pilots can level up.
    • This influences for instance the loadouts for both pilots and Titans prior to each match.
    • The available slots for pilots offer room a primary weapon with mod and/or attachment, an anti-Titan weapon, sidearm, tactical ability (for instance cloak, stim or active radar pulse) and kits with specific abilities for different tiers.
    • For a Titan the loadout consists of the chassis, primary weapon with mod, tactical ability, ordinance weapon and different kits.

March 12 – 2018 – Oedipus Dating Sim – Windows

  • “Thousands of years ago, lived a man named Oedipus, king of Thebes and slayer of The Sphinx.
    • A man whose fate was to kill his father, Laius, and then marry his own mother, Jocasta.
    • But what if he could have gamed the system and cheated his own fate?”
  • With the generous help of three fates and Dionysus, the Olympian god with his own TV show, your task is to find a date for Oedipus
    • But it won’t be as straightforward as it seems. At first, you won’t know their true identities.
    • Once you romance each character to a certain level, their true identity will be revealed to you.
    • After that, you must avoid pairing Oedipus with Jocasta.
    • A piece of cake, right? Well, other complications will certainly arise and maybe, with a little ingenuity, you can even end up with Jocasta and not be punished for it. But how?
  • This game was designed with replayability in mind.
    • That means that there are many different choices to make, with lots of nooks and crannies to explore.
    • While the overall structure of having 15 days with 4 time periods each remains the same every time you play, each character’s American name, location in the Casino Hotel and alcoholic beverage of choice will change.
    • If you have additional questions not answered by the dialog trees, you can also try typing the question directly to the character.

Tidbits

  • Tesla has admitted to California that their ‘Full Self Driving’ mode is not actually capable of being fully self driving
    • The feature costs Tesla owners up to $10,000 to unlock on top of the original purchase price of their car, but according to correspondence between Tesla’s general counsel and the California DMV it is not an autonomous system, and currently no features on the car make their vehicles autonomous
  • Utah legislature has passed a bill mandating a default “porn filter” on any electronic devices sold in the state starting in 2022
    • What exactly that might entail is anyone’s guess, and how they plan on enforcing it is an even better question
  • T-Mobile announced that, starting April 26, they’ll be selling their customers’ web and mobile app data to advertisers unless they specifically opt out
    • A spokesperson said “We’ve heard many say they prefer more relevant ads so we’re defaulting to this setting,”, and I’m sure this has nothing to do with advertising companies paying top dollar for tracking information going forward
  • Apex Legends hit the Nintendo Switch on Tuesday, and early reactions are that is just isn’t very good, running at both lower resolutions and frame rates than other platforms and leaving its players at a competitive disadvantage
    • Worst part is that, though you can opt to only play with other people on Switch, by default you’re thrown into the wild with all the players on other consoles that can see and react better than you can
  • Daylight savings is coming up this Sunday, and since it happens twice a year it’s a good reminder to do general maintenance like clean your gutters, change the batteries in your smoke alarms, and rate/review us!

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PS2J 313 News – Stifling Innovation

Free games

  • Twitch

    • Truberbrook

      • 2019
      • A point-and-click sci-fi mystery adventure game with hand-made scenery and stop-motion elements married with 3D animation

  • Epic Games

    • Remnant: From the Ashes

      • 2019
      • Third person action RPG shooter that borrows mechanics from the Soulsborne games with the addition of more gunplay on top of melee combat, where the earth has been decimated and overrun by an interdimensional evil called the Root

    • The Alto Collection

      • Alto’s Adventure
        • Join Alto and his friends as they embark on an endless snowboarding odyssey. Journey across the beautiful alpine hills of their native wilderness, through neighbouring villages, ancient woodlands, and long-abandoned ruins.
      • Alto’s Odyssey
        • Join Alto and his friends and set off on an endless sandboarding journey to discover its secrets. Soar above windswept dunes, traverse thrilling canyons, and explore long-hidden temples in a fantastical place far from home.

Trump has apparently issued executive orders that will ban not only TikTok but also WeChat from operating in the US if they aren’t sold by their Chinese-owned companies by the end of September

  • As we’ve reported Microsoft is already looking at buying TikTok from its parent company ByteDance, but this is the first we’re hearing about anything to do with WeChat
    • WeChat started life as a popular chat platform, especially for communicating with people in China as other US messaging apps are banned by the Chinese government, but has grown with abilities like transferring money and shopping online
  • Trump’s order alleges that TikTok “automatically captures vast swaths of information from its users,” such as location data and browsing and search histories, which “threatens to allow the Chinese Communist Party access to Americans’ personal and proprietary information — potentially allowing China to track the locations of Federal employees and contractors, build dossiers of personal information for blackmail, and conduct corporate espionage.”
    • There’s some basis to these worries, since a Wall Street Journal report found that the app tracked Android users’ MAC addresses for over a year, as recently as November 2019
      • A MAC address is a globally-unique identifier for any device that connects to a network, and is normally blocked so they had to build a workaround to even get the information
    • The order also claims that the platform censors or disseminates content in keeping with the Chinese Communist Party’s agenda, citing “when TikTok videos spread debunked conspiracy theories about the origins of the 2019 Novel Coronavirus.”
  • And the one for WeChat is pretty similar, but also includes a ban on financial transactions with its owner Tencent
  • I can see where this is all coming from, but as TikTok said in a statement it sets a dangerous precedent in forcing foreign companies to sell to American ones if they want to operate in the US
  • And you have to wonder how much of this is fuelled by the stunt organized by many TikTok users which had them registering for thousands of tickets to the Trump campaign rally in Tulsa but not showing up, which likely contributed to the sparse attendance
    • As we’ve seen before, when something hits Trump’s ego he’s likely to lash out in toddlerific fashion
  • It’s gotten to the point where TikTok is apparently planning to sue the Trump administration, challenging the executive order and arguing that the action is unconstitutional as it does not give the company a chance to respond
    • They also state that the national security justification is baseless, according to a source talking to NPR, and that it’s built on pure speculation and conjecture

Epic Games has decided to take on Apple and their App Store in a calculated move regarding in-app purchases

  • Earlier this week, Epic introduced a new direct payment option in the Fortnite app for iPhone and iPad, allowing players to purchase in-game currency at a discount by bypassing Apple’s in-app payment framework and giving the money directly to Epic Games
  • The problem with that is Apple’s App Store guidelines are specifically against that, saying that not only do purchases of in-game currencies need to go through the App Store, but also that you’re not even allowed to tell someone about other purchasing options
    • This makes sense to a point, because Apple generally gets 30% of App Store sales and if someone could say “Hey, pay on our website and it’s cheaper!” then that revenue would drop significantly
  • Epic Games knows exactly what they’re doing in flouting these regulations though, and in an FAQ they described not only Apple’s but also Google’s 30% commission as “exorbitant”, leading them to introduce an alternate payment system to offer 20% discounts
    • If you’re doing the math at home, I guess they’re grabbing that extra 10% for themselves
  • So just hours after the new payment option was brought online, Apple pulled the Fortnite app from the App Store
    • In a statement provided to MacRumors, Apple said that Epic Games knowingly violated the App Store guidelines, and just because they want to push for a special arrangement doesn’t change the fact that the same set of rules should apply to everyone
    • One thing to note, this doesn’t stop anyone from playing the game if they’ve already downloaded it, it just stops new downloads
  • Shortly afterward, Epic announced a new Nineteen Eighty-Fortnite short riffing on Apple’s 1984 ad and likening Apple to Big Brother
    • The fact that they had this ready in the chamber shows they knew exactly what they were doing when breaking those rules and how Apple would react
    • And they’re definitely going guns-blazing, claiming at the end of the video that “Apple is blocking Fortnite from a billion devices”, even though as we previously said anyone that already downloaded it can still play
  • Then Epic Games filed a pre-prepared lawsuit against Apple for pulling Fortnite, accusing Apple of being “the behemoth seeking to control markets, block competition, and stifle innovation”, imposing “anti-competitive restraints” and using “monopolistic practices in markets” against developers
    • It’s a little hard to justify this though, since Apple basically built a walled garden and made it attractive enough for people to want to play in it. Just because you break the rules and get kicked out doesn’t mean they owe you a spot inside.
  • Epic says it’s not looking for a cash payout, but instead wants to secure relief in the iOS app distribution and payment processing market for consumers and developers
    • Digging in to the lawsuit, it looks like they’re using this situation as a wedge to argue that iOS should be as open to third-party software as the Mac is. In fact, they’re almost saying it’s illegal not to be
  • At this point is feels like Epic Games is jumping on the antitrust bandwagon, protesting that Apple’s not making enough space for them to thrive, but I wonder how it would feel if this kind of thing was applied globally.
    • Look at Fortnite- it has a huge audience and I have no way of making money off of it. If I draw a gun skin and want to sell it inside of Fortnite there’s no way for me to do so. Because Epic is stifling my innovation and imposing anti-competitive restraints by forcing people to use its own currency inside the game instead of giving players a chance to give me money for my work.

Microsoft’s rumoured Xbox Series S has been confirmed by leaked controller packaging, and the controller’s pretty nice too

  • The new Xbox controller has slight design tweaks all over the place, with a redesigned d-pad, textured triggers, a new share button, and a slightly smoothed out shape
    • It reportedly even works on the current generation Xbox One, with onscreen graphics matching the updated controller
  • The packaging specifies that the controller works with the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S consoles. The Series X has already been announced, but this is the first official word we’re hearing of the Series S
    • The S is expected to run the same CPU as the Series X, but with less RAM and a slower GPU
  • Twitter user @zakk_exe managed to buy the controller from someone on the online classifieds app OfferUp who “got it from a homie”

Facebook is facing yet another lawsuit over how the company uses the personal information of its users, this time because of Instagram

  • Last month Facebook offered a $650M settlement for illegally collecting biometric data via its photo tagging feature
    • If approved, affected users could be paid up to $400 each
  • Now a new case has been filed in California, accusing Facebook of collecting, storing, and profiting from the biometric data of over 100M Instagram users.
    • The biggest problem is that there was no consent involved, and users weren’t even made away of the data harvesting.
    • Instagram apparently let people know at the start of this year, but it’s believed to have occurred for some time before that
    • The lawsuit states that the unauthorized collection of this info would be a violation of Illinois privacy law, in which case Facebook could be forced to pay up to $5000 per violation

This Week In Gaming History

August 8 – 2013 – Cookie Clicker – Browser

  • Cookie Clicker is an endless game where the entire point is to gather cookies, then use them to buy items and upgrades which do nothing but gather cookies even faster.
  • It is highly regarded as the first, at least, the most influential incremental clicker game.

August 9 – 2018 – Discord Nitro Beta Releases

  • On the Discord Blog, this was posted “Today, we’re slowly rolling out a beta test to about 50,000 of our Canadian players and will be expanding to more over time. These players will see an upgraded version of Discord Nitro that has access to a curated selection of games along with the current subscription perks. They’ll also see a new Discord Store tab in the home screen with individual games for purchase.”
  • Released on the Beta, the following games for Windows:
    • Bridge Constructor
    • Dandara
    • Darksiders: Warmastered Collection
    • Darksiders II: Deathinitive Edition
    • GoNNER
    • Kathy Rain
    • Kingdom: New Lands
    • Metro: Last Night – Redux
    • Slime-san: Superslime Edition
    • Super Meat Boy
    • System Shock: Enhanced Edition
    • Tormentor X Punisher
    • de Blob

August 10 – 2004 – Ben’s Game – Windows

  • A special 3d game designed by Ben Duskin and LucasArts. Ben is a 9 year old with Leukemia. Ben worked with the Make-A-Wish foundation to find a developer for Ben’s game. Ben wanted to make a game that would help kids battle cancer.
  • The game involves a changeable character riding a skateboard over an imaginary playing field, made of red blood cells and cartoon representations of viral infections. The character collects innoculents to shoot at his enemies. The player pivots his character in order to steer around objects and collect bonus shots.

August 11 – 1993 – Samurai Shodown – Neo Geo

  • In early feudal Japan, a man named Shiro Tokisada Amakusa preaches a heretic religion. Little does anyone know that Amakusa is really a servant of the evil Ambrosia, who had possessed and taken over Amakusa’s body, as Ambrosia wishes to shroud the world into eternal darkness. Now, the player must select from out of 12 fierce warriors and plus 3 bonus characters in order to fight for the honor of defeating Amakusa once and for all, while fulfilling a specific mission for each and every warrior in the game.
  • The Genesis version of the game does not however include the Earthquake which has been removed due to its 16-bit memory capacity and technical size limitations.

August 12 – 1981 – PC-DOS Included Game – DOS

  • Included with IBM’s PC-DOS was Microsoft’s BASICA (Advanced BASIC) interpreter and several programs, one of which was a game and hence is of interest to us: DONKEY.BAS.
  • Directing a sports car on a stretch of rural road, the player must beware of donkeys roaming its picturesque lanes. Spot a donkey ahead and the player must quickly determine whether to switch lanes with the space bar before the car’s course brings it into a messy head-on collision. With each burro successfully traversed, the car moves a little higher on the road — closer to earning a point for the player (after passing eleven mules) but also giving less response time between the appearance of the titular donkey and its potential impact.
  • The game credits two people for coding the game
    • Neil Kozen, whose other credit is for designing Forza Motorsport
    • Bill Gates

August 13 – 2013 – Papers, Please – Steam

  • Papers Please is a simulation game based on the life of a immigration inspector charged with checking passports at the border of a fictional communist state, Arztoska.
    • The game is set after the conclusion of a six year war with neighboring Kolechia, the war has moved the combatants boarded and left the city of Greznin split.
    • Kolechia controls the west and Arztoska the east. The game begins with the player being selected for border duty in Arztoska’s monthly labor lottery. He (the player character is unnamed) and his family are relocated to the city of Greznin.
  • A powerful game paralleling the Cold War in Europe.

August 14 – 1989 – Altered Beast – Sega Genesis, North America

  • You are a hero raised from the dead by the god Zeus to rescue his daughter Athena.
    • With scenery inspired by Ancient Greece, you have to fight hordes of undead and demons, with a boss at the end of each level until you meet the god Neff, who holds the girl captive.
  • Made by Team Shinobi, creators of the first Shinobi game, as well as Golden Axe
  • Fun podcast fact, the bit crushed audio from this game “Rise From Your Grave” is used as a bumper on the Last Podcast On The Left.

Tidbits

  • Researchers are rejoicing over changes to the names of human genetics, all because of Excel
    • Apparently there were genes with names like “Membrane Associated Ring-CH-Type Finger 1”, which was abbreviated to MARCH1. The problem was that Excel would automatically format that as the date 1-Mar and confuse data with no way to turn the feature off
    • There are manual options to prevent this, but they need to be applied to each spreadsheet and for many people that aren’t necessarily power users the data would just end up corrupted each time it was exported
  • Control is taking fire for how it’s unveiling the new Ultimate edition as part of the release of its second expansion
    • The Ultimate Edition will come with all updates and content, including both expansions, and see a Steam release for the first time
    • The problem is that only people who buy the Ultimate Edition will get an upgrade to the next-gen version when it comes out for the Series X and PS5
      • People who bought the game day one, or even those who purchased the season pass, will not get the free upgrade on next-gen consoles and would need to buy the game all over again
  • MIcrosoft’s new Surface Duo Android tablet finally answers the burning question “Hey, how much would it cost to slap a hinge on two 6” tablets?”.
    • The answer is apparently $1400 USD
  • Halo Infinite has officially been delayed until 2021, citing COVID-related impacts and other development challenges and saying the extra time will help them deliver the most ambitious Halo game ever
    • I’d quote Miyamoto about this, but as we’ve seen over the years with No Man’s Sky and Duke Nukem Forever development time doesn’t necessarily equate to quality

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

Thank you Renée, and check out her podcast that Josh works on, Ravage Love.

And thanks to the rest of our ‘fanily’ that support us.
And if you want to support us too, its as easy as clicking this link!
And talk to us in the comments!

PS2J 289 News – No Bars, No Cars

Marvel Villainous – August 2020

Free Games

  • Epic Games

    • Faeria

      • 2017
      • A turn based collectible card strategy game that takes place on a dynamic hexagon-based board set in a fantasy universe

    • Assassin’s Creed Syndicate

      • 2015
      • The ninth instalment in the open world action adventure Assassin’s Creed series that introduced new traveling systems, and refined combat and stealth mechanics, it was seen as a large step forward after the previous game, Unity

Update: GeForce Now seems to have lost access to its library of Activision Blizzard games due to a misunderstanding

  • According to an investor conference call Stadia isn’t part of Blizzard’s Overwatch deal with Google after all, as we speculated last week
  • From the sounds of it there was some confusion about whether they had permission to continue offering them post-beta, and they do hope to negotiate a new agreement and get the games back online in the future

In a cautionary tale, a journalist for the Guardian was stranded this week when her internet-connected rental car lost connection

  • The car sharing service, Gig Car Share, is marketed as something you can just sign up for on your phone and instantly rent a car
  • Unfortunately when Kari Paul and her partner, on a long-weekend road trip outside of the city, decided to pull over and take a quick hike, they found that they could no longer start the car
    • A customer service rep told them that there was an issue with the car’s software that couldn’t be fixed because there wasn’t enough cell service for a reset that the vehicles require every few hours, so they needed to be towed- they had found a 40-mile stretch of highway with no cell service, and phone support couldn’t restart the car’s systems remotely
      • Initially they were just taken back into cell range and told to wait, but after another rep said they should sleep in the car and try again in the morning they gave up and paid out of pocket for a tow back to their bed and breakfast
  • Five hours, two tow trucks, and more than 20 calls to customer service later, they finally got the car to start again
    • Once they did get it going, the rep on the phone said “Can I give you one more piece of advice? Get the hell out of there – now.”
  • So what can be done? Well buried in the company’s website is mention of the Gig Card, an RFID card you can use to lock or unlock the cars in areas of poor cell service. It won’t prevent the software issue Kari saw, but it could help in other cases
    • The downside is that the cards are a little antithetical to Gig’s “sign up and go” idea- it takes two weeks to receive them, and there’s very little marketing to let people know about how necessary they could get on long drives
  • Ultimately she was refunded, given an additional credit, and she’s being sent a Gig Card for long trips in the future. And hopefully this story can help save others the same trouble she went though

The reviews are starting to come in for the new Motorola Razr, and they’re not looking good

  • The look and feel seem pretty cool, and they’ve definitely nailed the nostalgia factor
  • Unfortunately there are some pretty serious trade-offs involved, especially with the screen
    • First off it’s made of plastic, compared to Samsung’s Galaxy Z Flip which is using a similar form-factor with a folding glass screen, so that’s some tough timing
      • And because it’s a flexible plastic you can feel the dips and bumps of components underneath, instead of a solid surface as we’ve grown accustomed to with our phones
        • It’s even to the point where, in their Caring for the Razr video, they mention that bumps and lumps are normal
    • Input has also been seeing many issues with the device, having a large air bubble appear at the fold where the display seems to be peeling away from the lamination
      • After a week of use it looked like the flexible display stopped unfolding completely, even though the protective plastic front did, leaving a gap between the two along the hinge
      • The damage isn’t just cosmetic, either- there’s a strip of broken pixels where the screen started peeling away, and touch and taps are virtually unresponsive
      • Their theory is that it had something to do with temperature- the device was used in just below freezing temperatures and brought back into warm rooms a couple of times, so that could be something, but it’s not exactly unreasonable behaviour
        • Speaking of temperature, that’s also the theory behind an issue with the Samsung Galaxy Z Flip- one customer reported receiving the device, unpacking it, and flipping it open only to be treated to a loud cracking noise and a series of fractures in the glass along the hinge
      • Motorola responded to the story by saying they don’t recommend storing it in temperatures below -20C and above 60C, but in this case we’re talking about -1 so it should be covered under their standard warranty
    • It also seems to be the norm with these flexible displays that, even when they’re working perfectly they just can’t hit the same quality as their stationary brethren- everything looks washed out and dim compared to flagship Android and iOS devices
  • There are also reports of Motorola’s fancy hinge regularly having an embarrassingly obnoxious creaking noise, which they say is “intrinsic to the mechanical movement of the phone”
  • On top of that, the camera can be compared to phones that cost a fraction of the price years ago- it has a 16-megapixel sensor, but movement, shadow, or low light all seem to be too much for it. The Verge even had trouble getting it to focus on faces
  • The battery power has also been reported to be underwhelming, even with the midrange hardware running the phone
  • The $1500 device seems to be mainly defined by its gimmick, when all of its compromises are outshined by the just announced Moto G Power that goes for $250

We skipped the question for a Valentines theme segment, so picking up from a couple weeks ago…

If you’re life had a video game soundtrack, what game would it be from?

Anita B on Twitter
  • Bastion
Thanks for all the shares! But this question didn’t pan out to get many answers.

Josh really enjoyed the Sonic Movie

Josh is still hooked on Slay the Spire

Tidbits

  • The Witcher 3 on Nintendo Switch is getting a pretty slick update, adding new graphical options and cross-save support for the PC version
    • CD Projekt Red has confirmed to Polygon that they’ve added touch control support, save integration with GOG and Steam, more languages, and the ability to adjust video options like depth of field, anti-aliasing, motion blur, and chromatic aberration
    • Modders had actually already found a way to tweak those settings to increase The Witcher’s framerate on the Switch, so official support is a nice bonus
  • Apple was officially smacked down this week by the California Supreme Court in a bag search case, so they’re now forced to pay employees kept waiting for bag checks before they’re allowed to leave work
    • The case dates back to 2013, and had employees saying they were kept up to 45 minutes after their shifts, off the clock waiting for managers during busy times
  • Sonic the Hedgehog has officially achieved the biggest opening weekend of any video game movie, sitting at $57M in the US
    • The previous record holder, Detective Pikachu, only made $54M

We want to know,

If you could have any video game weapon Nerf’d, what would you like to see?

 

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Thank you to Karen, giving us the incentive to be more creative!

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And talk to us in the comments!

PS2J 282 News – Hot Mario

Free games

  • Epic Games

    • Rayman Legends

      • 2013
      • Action platformer in classic Rayman fashion that has up to four players simultaneously making their way through levels, collecting Lums, and defeating enemies

  • Sony

    • Titanfall 2

      • 2016
      • First person shooter that prioritizes fluid movement and adaptable tactics, and then you drop a gigantic robot in the arena and wreck shop
      • The sequel also introduced a single-player campaign with a buddy-cop / Half-Life feel

    • Monster Energy Supercross

      • 2018
      • Arcade motocross racing game that lets you customize your rider and bike for single-player or against racers all over the world

  • Microsoft

    • Insane Robots

      • 2018
      • Roguelike turn-based card battle game that has you leading a robot rebellion through randomly generated survival arenas

    • Jurassic World Evolution

      • 2018
      • Business simulation game based on 2015’s Jurassic World, where you build a dinosaur park on the Las Cinco Muertes Archipelago

    • Toy Story 3

      • 2010
      • A platformer loosely based on the film of the same name that also includes a free-roam Toy Box mode set within the fictional Woody’s Roundup television series

    • Castlevania: Lord of Shadow – Mirror of Fate HD

      • 2013
      • Side-scrolling action-adventure game that reveals the story of the Belmonts as they battle across generations against the forces of darkness

Google’s Stadia launch is making waves with its underwhelming performance in the wild

  • Apparently despite Google’s insistence that games will run in 4K resolutions at 60 fps, Bungie has stated that the Stadia’s version of Destiny 2 renders at 1080P and then upscales to improve the quality
    • This appears to be a common strategy, with Red Dead Redemption 2 also rendering at 1440p and upscaling after the fact
  • Google’s released a statement basically saying that they support 4K and 60fps, and they give developers “the freedom of how to achieve the best image quality and frame rate”
    • They went on to say that they expect developers will be continually improving gameplay and graphics as time goes on
  • Still, after Google’s vice president announced that all games at launch would support 4K, this is a bitter pill to swallow for many who spent almost $200 on the platform and signed up for the $10/month service in addition to the cost of the games themselves
  • In an effort to ease the pain of new users Google’s given a couple of free games to early adopters- Farming Simulator 19: Platinum Edition and Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition, and refunds for both for people who recently purchased them at full price

Valve revealed more details about Half-Life: Alyx, and it looks gorgeous

  • The graphics are just beautiful, and gameplay seems to be the familiar mix of shooting and problem solving that Half-Life fans are used to
    • They’ve also brought gravity gun-like mechanics with the gravity gloves, which seem to allow for full-scale gameplay in smaller rooms by letting you catch and bring stuff towards you that you can’t otherwise reach
  • The game can apparently be played either sitting, standing, or with roomscale movement, and players can use finger-tracking or trigger-based controllers to either teleport around or walk smoothly with an analog stick
  • It’ll officially support the Valve Index, HTC Vive, Windows Mixed Reality, and Oculus Rift headsets. The Oculus Quest will also work when connected to a PC
  • That PC is going to need some beefy specs though, with Alyx’s minimum requirements including mid-high range processors and graphics cards, as well as 12GB of RAM
  • It will apparently be a “full-length” game, hitting Steam in March 2020, and preorders are available for $60USD. Owners of the Index will get it for free

Facebook has acquired Beat Games, the developers of Beat Saber, and I’m not sure how to feel about it

  • On one hand, Beat Saber is an amazing game and the team behind it deserves all the money and recognition
  • On the other, Facebook is my least favourite company and I can’t help but think there’s going to be a combination of nickel-and-diming and privacy invasion coming soon
    • They’ve already announced Facebook support incoming with “social features, new modes, music, and more”
  • Apparently the dev team will join Oculus Studios to continue work on all currently supported platforms, and current plans for 360 degree levels and more music remain unchanged

And last we have a blast from the past for you- contaminated romaine lettuce has hit once more, causing 67 cases of E. coli across the US

  • You might remember this from way back in episode 191, 193, and 226
  • This time the outbreak has been linked to romaine grown in Salinas, California, and the CDC is advising consumers and retailers not to eat, sell, or serve any romaine grown in the region
  • If you’re not sure where your romaine came from it’s best to just toss it to be safe

Deathwing crashes Heroes of the Storm

Deathwing breaks many conventions of what people are used to with a hero in Heroes of the Storm.
He is the largest playable character in the game, making him a massive target. Even larger than when Alexstraza, uses her dragon form, but Deathwing will always be in his dragon form.
He is a melee bruiser, with energy instead of mana. He has huge advantages, and its balanced by extreme weaknesses.

His strengths

  • Deathwing is permanently Unstoppable. He is immune to all crowd control effects
  • He does area damage
  • All his abilities are not only strong, but cannot be interrupted
  • He has a high health pool, and a ton of armour
  • He has global mobility
  • And Crowd Control abilites

His weaknesses

  • He is unaffected by allied abilities, that’s no buffs or heals
  • Poke damage can’t be healed easily, so its quite dangerous
  • With a massive health pool, percentage-damage attacks do quite a lot
  • His abilities have a obvious wind-up, all his attacks are telegraphed
  • Once he uses Dragonflight, his options are limited

His abilities

Passive

  • Aspect of Death

    • Deathwing has 4 armour plates which grant 10 armor each. Each quarter portion of his health lost, loses a plate. And health gained does not restore armor plates. Only Dragonflight will heal are restore armor plates.
    • Deathwing is unstoppable and deals 100% additional damage to heroes.
    • And his contempt for even his allies prevent them from using friendly effects on him.

Mount

  • Dragonflight

    • 45 Second cooldown
    • After 3 seconds, fly into the sky, becoming immune to all effects and gaining 2.5% Health per second.
    • Taking or dealing damage puts this ability on a 5 second cooldown.

1 Key

  • Form Switch

    • Switches Deathwing between Destroyer and World Breaker forms, each granting access to two unique Basic Abilities.

Q

  • Molten Flame

    • After 1.5 seconds, Deathwing breathes stream of flame. Drains 30 Energy per second.

  • Destroyer – During Dragonflight

    • Slam down to the ground, dealing damage to enemies in the area and gaining access to Destroyer form
    • Can be in air however long you want.
    • Can land on any point with vision.
    • Other abilities have a 3 seconds cooldown after landing.

W

  • Incinerate – Destroyer Form

    • After 0.75 seconds, Deathwing flaps his wings, dealing damage to nearby enemies.

  • Lava Burst – World Breaker Form

    • After a 1 second delay, deal damage to all enemies in the area and create a pool of magma that deals damage and slows enemies. Lasts 6 seconds.

  • World Breaker – During Dragonflight

    •  Slam down to the ground, dealing damage to enemies in the area and gaining access to World Breaker form

E

  • Onslaught – Destroyer Form

    • After 0.5 seconds, Deathwing lunges in a direction dealing damage to enemies and slowing them by 35% for 2 seconds. Deathwing bites enemies at the end of the lunge, dealing additional damage.

  • Earth Shatter – World Breaker Form

    • Create a fissure of earth that deals damage to enemies hit and stuns them for 0.75 seconds.
    • Attack comes out in a cone, only effecting the edges

R

  • Cataclysm

    • After 2 seconds, Deathwing flies in the targeted direction, dealing damage on impact and leaving scortched ground that deals damage over time. Lasts 6 seconds.
    • Deathwing starts with his epic ability, but it starts on a 270 second cooldown at the beginning of a match.

Amiibo releases while we’re gone!

  • Good news for Canadians, Best Buy pre-orders have been really good for amiibo lately
    • In my experience at least
  • Shovel Knight
    • 3 Pack!
      • Plauge Knight
      • Specter Knight
      • King Knight!
    • Golden Shovel Knight
  • Smash Bros
    • Ricter
    • Dark Samus

 

Be safe holiday shopping with BBB 

  • Holiday shopping is fun, but be safe
    • It’s black Friday sales the weekend of this episodes release
    • and Christmas shopping is up while we are taking our December break
  • When sales are on, so are the scammers
    • If a sale looks too good to be true, it probably is
    • The Better Business Bureau is here to help!
    • You can search by keyword
    • Scam Type
    • Country
    • And even Date Reported
  • Make sure you talk to your less techsavvy family and friends
    • Don’t click links in unexpected emails
    • Don’t use links provided
      • Navigate to the site yourself
      • Use caution when using a link that is required for a promotion

 

Tidbits

  • Apparently Apple will be revamping their software development processes after the buggy launch of iOS 13, implementing “flags” to allow software engineers to selectively enable or disable unfinished or buggy features in testing
  • According to Phil Spencer, Microsoft’s Head of Xbox, VR support is not in the cards for the next Xbox (currently known as Project Scarlett)
    • In a statement to gaming site Stevivor, Spencer said that he thinks VR is isolation and games are a communal, kind of together experience
  • No Man’s Sky is getting yet another huge, free update- this time letting you upgrade your favourite ships all the way up to S-Class
    • The new upgrade system is being introduced alongside a lot of other pieces like a ship salvage system, inventory upgrades, the ability to have multiple multitools, and a ton of other quality-of-life improvements

Alan’s Top Recommendations of the Year!

  • Movie
    • Spider-Man: Into the Spiderverse (ep 230)
  • Netflix series
    • Russian Doll (ep 239)
  • Book and series
    • The Calculating Stars (ep 242)

 

Literally Misleading

Last Week:

Reddit User – red_4
An ex-con makes it big.
Ant Man

 

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

A huge thanks to Dalton, for supporting us for so long. We really appreciate his support over the years.

And thanks to all our ‘fanily’ that support us.
And if you want to support us too, its as easy as clicking this link!
We are a proud member of the Alberta Podcast Network powered by ATB
And talk to us in the comments!

PS2J 271 News – Life Without 3D Touch

Free games

  • Twitch

    • Yoku’s Island Express

      • 2018
      • Side-scrolling Metroidvania platformer where you can only jump by using pinball paddles to push a ball that drags your character behind, in an open world with many bumpers, tracks, and ramps for different pinball mechanics

    • Stealth Inc 2: A Game of Clones

      • 2015
      • 2D puzzle platform stealth game that has you taking control of multiple clones to explore the facility in which you were born

    • Chicken Assassin: Reloaded

      • 2016
      • An RPG beat-em-up that plays like a clicker- you can upgrade your stats, weaponry, and equipment, then mash buttons to beat up the bad guys and get your girl back

    • Manual Samuel

      • 2016
      • 2D adventure sidescroller where you try to make it through a normal day performing all your bodily functions completely manually, a la QWOP

  • Epic

    • Conarium

      • 2017
      • Lovecraftian horror adventure game inspired by At The Mountains of Madness, that has you exploring an Antarctic base to discover the fate of your expedition through notes, journals, and and strange visions

Apple’s By Innovation Only event was this week, and here are some of the highlights:

  • Apple Arcade looks fairly solid and will only cost $5 a month with full family sharing. None of the games will include in-app purchases, and they’re all exclusive to Apple Arcade on mobile
    • The big standout for me was Sayonara Wild Hearts, a neon rhythm racing game with a ton of style, that’s also coming to Switch and PS4
  • Apple TV+ is also hitting for $5 a month, which makes competing services look pretty expensive by comparison, but the content is slowly coming together
    • Netflix and Amazon Prime are a fair bit more with a ton of back catalog, and Disney+ is only slightly more expensive with their huge vault of works
    • One interesting note though, every Apple device sold from now on will come with a free year of Apple TV+. Whether that means only the first time or every single purchase remains to be seen
  • There’s a new entry-level iPad model that works as an updated alternative to the fancy iPad Pro
  • The Apple Watch Series 5 will officially have an always-on display, with the screen staying dim until you raise it, and apparently the exact same battery life as current models
    • They’re also bringing in more case materials like ceramic and titanium
    • And the Series 3 seems to be the new budget model, with the Series 4 being completely replaced
  • And, of course, the iPhone
    • We’ve got three new iPhones:
      • iPhone 11, which is the updated iPhone XR, has the same liquid retina display with a ton of new guts to make it even faster than before
        • They’ve also tweaked the dual camera system on the back to use a standard and ultra-wide angle lens, instead of the old telephoto, so they can use their computational photography to work with even more information
          • It also allows them to finally have a Night Mode, which Google’s been rocking for about a year now
          • The new camera system does come with a gigantic square camera bump, which leaves many wondering why not make the whole device the same thickness and add more battery life (though they did manage to add an additional hour, which is nothing to sneeze at)
      • Then the iPhone 11 Pro, the new OLED model replacing the XS, with a very fancy super duper crazy bright and accurate fancy display ™
        • It also comes in a new color, midnight green, that feels Boba Fett-esque. Pretty slick
        • For the most part it’s got the same new fancy guts as the iPhone 11, but in addition it’s got a third lens to keep the telephoto in play with the other two.
          • Apparently it will use a feature called Deep Fusion to fuse 9 separate exposures with the combined lenses into a single image
        • It’s also got slightly faster cellular data, which is kind of whatever at this point. It gets to a point where the speed gains become less and less noticeable
        • Unfortunately this model is also killing my baby- 3D touch is dead, replaced by haptic touch
          • 3D touch was brilliant, where you could press slightly harder on the screen to do things like get shortcuts or move your cursor around with your thumb on the keyboard, but required an extra suite of sensors under the display
          • Instead all the Pro models have the same Haptic touch brought to us originally in the XR because the display just didn’t work with the tech- you just do a long press, and the haptics give you a light tap on the thumb. So it’s a glorified long press, which we’ve had pretty much the whole time anyway
        • All this comes alongside 4-5 more hours of battery life for the base and Max models, respectively, which is bonkers year-over-year improvement while adding more tech
      • This year’s iPhones also bring a new chip for ultra wideband technology, leading many to think that their Tile competitor is coming soon since that would allow for much more accurate location tracking of devices
        • One demo found inside the new iOS files has the ability to look around your room for a red balloon, then follow the string to the missing device
 

Awesome looking game that’s got about a month left on Kickstarter, called Savior.

Story
Savior is an open-world, action-adventure platformer, centered on rebuilding the divided planet of Arcadia. You’ll be empowered to save the people you discover from problems like hunger, superstition, tyranny and destruction. As you help the Arcadians regain their lives and thrive, you’ll earn experience, abilities, powerful tools and allies to aid you in your quest.
You play as Sam, a stranger with no possessions or memory.  As you explore, you’ll learn of your origin and place among the characters you encounter. Battle, evade and persuade your enemies to join you in rebuilding a broken world.
Combat
We wanted combat to feel as real and engaging as possible. To that end, every block, dodge and strike is clean and reactive. NPCs have attack patterns that you’ll learn over time, so fights are quick as you come to anticipate your opponent’s reactions.
  • Strike 6-Directions – Strike up, high (standing), low (crouched), down (when airborne), or behind you high and low. Hit targets all around you with ease.
  • Block – Auto-block most attacks with one button. Blocks will cost you ground and stamina. If you block exactly on the strike timing, you’ll instantly counter-attack.
  • Dodge – By crouching before a high strike or jumping just before a low strike you’ll open up a window of vulnerability in your opponent. Strike fast for a guaranteed hit!
  • Be Unconventional – When encountering an aggressor, you’ll have options. Douse them with water, intimidate them with staff spins or impress them with epic dance moves!
Parkour
Savior is an open-world game where you’re free to cover the same ground multiple times. So we’ve made simple travel as fun as possible. We’ve added a flurry of movement enhancements to make running and jumping more thrilling and varied.
  • Context-Sensitive Jumps – Jumps to walls, ledges, high targets, low targets, water, off cliffs etc. will get their own animations that flow together.
  • Wall Jump – Special gear will let you cling to walls and climb ravines like a spider monkey that sweats crazy glue.
  • Slide/Roll – Explore every crevice of Arcadia by learning to get small and round. Push down at a run and you’ll slide through your opponents legs!
  • Dash/Double Jump – Add a second boost to your jump or your run. Blast up or forward to reach new areas, just get around faster, or knock over foes.
Diplomacy
You can win opponents to your cause with your words and actions. They’ll remember encounters and build a positive or negative relationship with you. Over time you can convince them to abandon hostility and help you rebuild Arcadia.
  • Complete Quests –  Quest to gain favor, secrets, and powerful items. Plus you’ll change your surroundings in lasting ways that will make your way forward easier.
  • Choose Your Style – Talk people into joining your cause. Fight them until they relent. Or make their favorite meal or douse them in water. Get creative!
  • Debate – Part of your arsenal will be solid arguments. Only some will respond to a good argument right away, but you can plant seeds of doubt that grow over time.
  • Build Reputation – As you become known, NPCs will treat you differently. Get discounts at shops, help with quests and access to secret areas and equipment.
  You can back the project until October 10th, 2019. Then as Kickstarter does, they get the funds to work on it, or pledges are not taken.
  • They will release on Steam, but they have added Xbox One, PS4 and Switch as stretch goals. My speculation, is that those goals are to pay for the license for those platforms.

Tidbits

  • Facebook’s released their new dating service in the US, and as usual it had a ton of security and personal information pitfalls
    • If you really want to check it out, Lifehacker has a great breakdown of what information is visible to whom
  • Apparently the Galaxy Fold, that $2000 terrible phone tablet thing, is rolling out slowly around the world this month after an announcement on the 5th
    • Unfortunately it looks like Samsung is cancelling everyone’s preorders dating all the way back to April
    • They’re saying they’re revamping the entire purchase experience, along with the slow rollout, so everyone that did preorder gets $250 in store credit
  • Ironically, after Google went on about needing tracking cookies to prevent users being fingerprinted by things like fonts (we discussed in 269), Google-owned app Crashlytics has started installing fonts with a custom identifier embedded that any app can use to identify users
  • New legislation is coming to California forcing independent contractors in gig-worker roles to be treated as employees, and Uber is trying to say it doesn’t apply because drivers aren’t a core part of their business, which seems like a bold choice

Alan Recommends Philips Sonicare

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

A huge thanks to Karen, for believing in us for so long.
And thanks to all our ‘fanily’ that support us.
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A Facebook Page exists as well.

PS2J 245 News – All Your Email Are Belong To Us

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

  • 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

(Game) Sometimes fitting in isn’t the best thing for you, as the ones that do literally disappear.

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A huge thanks to Dalton, for believing in us for so long. And thanks to all our ‘fanily’ 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 Twitter and Instagram @ps2jshow Facebook

PS2J 191 News – Square to BOY!

An Edmonton teacher is setting up future dungeon masters. An old tech enthusiast gets slammed for selling obsolete software. Josh recommends a subreddit to undo a nasty habit. Alan is killing wolves with his virtual son.

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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