PS2J 305 News – Willed DLC Spaceship

Free Games

  • Epic Games

    • Pathway

      • 2020
      • Isometric strategy adventure game set in the wilderness in the 1930’s that has you exploring the strange unknown. Unravel long-forgotten mysteries of the occult, raid ancient tombs and outwit your foes in turn-based squad combat

  • GOG

    • The Witcher 3, if you own it on a connected account like PS4, Xbox, Steam, etc

      • 2015
      • Action RPG that focuses on narrative and worldbuilding as you go through the land taking on quests and slaying monsters, all the while searching for your missing adoptive daughter before she’s caught by the Wild Hunt
      • The free edition will match what you own on the connected service, either base game or GOTY edition. Players that bought the DLC separately unfortunately don’t get any consideration

The Supreme Court of the US issued a historic decision on workplace protections, ruling 6-3 that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity is illegal under an existing Civil Rights era law

  • The existing law, Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, bars discrimination on the basis of sex. The justices has determined that it extends beyond just the gender you were assigned at birth to your orientation and identity as well
  • Before this, LGBTQ+ workers in more than half of the US had no legal protection against discrimination, and could be fired, demoted, or paid less because of who they are
  • Even multiple educators lauded as Teacher of the Year in different states were discriminated against, bullied, threatened, and fired because of their identity and what they do in their spare time, like counselling LGBTQ+ youth or other non-heteronormative community outreach
    • One was even placed on administrative leave for mentioning her same-gender fiance during a welcome-back presentation to returning students

A new company called OpenCore Computer, with no official affiliation with the OpenCore Bootloader, has launched a commercial Hackintosh computer that has Apple’s lawyers salivating

  • The OpenCore Bootloader is a piece of software developed by enthusiasts that, in theory, would allow you to run macOS on standard PC hardware
  • Apparently a group has taken advantage of that free software to create OpenCore Computer, who claims that they hope to make Mac Pro style workstations more accessible. And you can get a pretty solid system for a bit over $2G USD
  • The problem is that Apple’s licensing agreement, since macOS is completely free, is that it should only run on official Apple hardware. Building your own Hackintosh is a grey area at best, and doing it professionally is solidly illegal
  • They seem to know that their work is fishy right from the get-go too, with payments only accepted in Bitcoin to try and get around the licensing in regards to accepting payments, and using an escrow service so that they get your coins through a middle-man after shipping
  • At the end of the day, if you want a Hackintosh you’re probably better off going on Reddit and following a pre-existing guide. It’s not terribly hard, especially for a hobbyist. And someone who needs the full performance of a Mac Pro would be better off either buying the real deal or switching to Windows, since I doubt the after-market support is up to snuff

EA revealed the upcoming Star Wars: Squadrons, and the details they’ve let loose so far are a radical departure for the company

  • There’s not a lot about gameplay yet, but the trailer looks really cool
  • The biggest shocks are that it’s cross-platform, has a single-player campaign, supports VR, will sell for $40 USD with no microtransactions, and is releasing on Steam rather than Origin
    • If they throw in stick and throttle support this could be a legitimate competitor with the likes of Elite: Dangerous
  • The news, unfortunately, has left many people that were still hoping for a Titanfall 3 disappointed that the “Where Pilots come to play” promo material was completely unrelated

Reddit user RobertAPetersen has set up a really slick shortcut for iOS for if you get stopped by the police

  • Triggered by telling Siri “I’m being pulled over”, it pauses your music, turns down screen brightness, turns on Do Not Disturb, sends a text to the contacts of your choosing with your location letting them know you’re being pulled over, then starts recording video with the front-facing camera
  • And after you’re done recording it will send the video to any contacts you specify and give you the option to upload it to the cloud
  • This is a really good idea even for just my low-level paranoia about police, and I’m white. For people of colour these kinds of tools are a godsend for accountability that clearly just isn’t there in law enforcement

8 years after its successful Kickstarter campaign and still with no release in sight, Star Citizen has now become the most expensive game in history

  • With them still pre-selling copies of the game and different in-game rewards like ships and skins, they’ve managed to surpass the development costs of both GTA V and The Old Republic with a whopping $350M invested to date
  • At this point with all that money and still just sitting at Alpha 3.9 they really have no incentive to ever release, and I’m beginning to think that my $30 pledge for a ship and lifetime insurance might just amount to the JPEGS they already emailed me
    • On the plus side, since I backed it so early they gave me a bunch of extra stuff like a BB-12 Manned Maneuvering Unit and a Preacher Armament Inquisition XXII Gatling. So that’s something, whatever those are
  • In the time since Star Citizen was first funded, Elite Dangerous was Kickstarted, developed, released, given DLC, and is now considered to be an older game

Mei added to Heroes of the Storm

  • The louder people in the Heroes of the Storm fan-base cries out
    • Very similar to the complaining of Fire Emblem characters being added to Smashm
    • I am happy for any character added to either game, more the merrier
  • She is a Tank character, which is different from her Overwatch role of DPS
    • Strong with Crowd Control, Mobility and Survivability
    • Weak against Siege and Burst Damage
  • Her active trait is Cryo-Freeze
    • Mei encases herself in ice gaining a temporary decaying shield and heals up to 35% max health
  • Q is Snow Blind
    • Throws a snowball that hits enemies in an area
    • Deals damage, slows by 35% and Blinds for 1.5 seconds
  • W is Blizzard
    • Snowball creates a blizzard at target location for 2 seconds
    • Enemies take damage every .25 seconds, are slowed by 7% and stacks up to 35%
    • When the Blizzard ends, enemies take extra damage and  and are stunned for 1.25 seconds
  • E is Icing
    • Mei slides quickly in the targeted direction
    • When the effect ends enemies at Mei’s location are knocked back
    • They also take damage and are slowed by 80%, decaying over 1.5 seconds
  • Mei’s first Ultimate is Avalanche
    • After a .5 seconds, a massive snowball rolls forward and consumes enemy heroes in its path
    • At the end of its path it deals huge damage to enemies and stuns them for .5 seconds per hero
  • Mei’s second Ultimate is Ice Wall
    • After a .75 delay an impassible wall emerges and traps enemy heroes in it
    • After 2.5 seconds, the wall crumbles and trapped heroes are freed and slowed by 75% decaying over 3 seconds

Pokemon Snap 2

  • From the Pokemon Twitter
    • We got a minute teaser
  • Shows it will be similar to the original
      • Taking pictures from a safe capsule on a track
        • The one in the trailer uses a invisible tack seen through augmented reality for the character inside
      • Apples are going to be used as bait again
      • Digital camera upgrade
        • Tracks subjects like newer smartphones can
  • New Pokemon featured
    • Seems like an Alola area with all kinds of pokemon
    • The first game did not feature all original 151
      • It will be interesting to see all that are actively in the game
        • And those referenced, like Mewtwo was a constellation
      • Also a pidgeotto swoop on a magikarp

Tidbits

  • Google has committed $175M toward supporting black businesses, and announced plans to increase underrepresented people in its leadership by 30% by 2025
    • It’s a start, but with black employees accounting for less than 4% of their workforce Google still has some work to do with diversity
  • The European Union has opened anti-trust investigations against Apple this week, following complaints by Spotify and Rakuten over Apple’s 30% cut on subscriptions and ebook sales through apps on its platform
  • Slay the Spire has released on iOS, and it’s a ton of fun with a bunch of asterisks
    • It’s a roguelike deckbuilding card game and not bad for $14 CAD, and I’ve been playing it a lot, but the mobile port is missing a lot of polish
    • It’s very faithful to the original, which is great in some ways for people who want a familiar experience but not so great in others- simple things like trying to read your cards is a bit of a mess, since they magnet directly under your fingertip, and on an iPhone without a home button if I’m trying to swipe the game close there’s a good change it will accidentally play a random card while I try
    • Also, it might work a bit better on an iPad but on my phone the text is pretty dang small. The resolution and controls seem pretty much unchanged from when I played it on PC, which is unfortunate because it’s a lot of fun
    • It initially launched at a full 5* rating, but while it’s maintained the top spot in card games on the app store it’s already slipped down to a 3.8 because of these issues

 

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PS2J 297 News – Soylent Strikes Back

Free Games

  • Epic

    • Just Cause 4

      • 2018
      • Third-person action-adventure sandbox that throws you into the world with a wingsuit, grappling hook, hot air balloons, rocket boosters, and all kinds of weaponry, then asks you to liberate the land from its oppressive government

    • Wheels of Aurelia

      • 2016
      • A visual novel / adventure game that takes you on a road trip through the gritty western coast of Italy during the 1970’s. Playing as Lella, a bold, spunky woman, experience the sights and sounds of a tumultuous time in Italy’s history while uncovering events from Lella’s past through branching dialogue and multiple endings.

  • PS4 (without Plus!) until May 5th as part of Sony’s Play At Home initiative

    • Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection

      • 2015
      • Free for PSPlus members in January, remastered port of the first three Uncharted games from the PS3 era: Drake’s Fortune, Among Thieves, and Drake’s Deception
      • Uncharted is known for its Tomb Raider style third-person action adventure gameplay including shooting, combat, and puzzle solving

    • German and Chinese gamers will get Knack 2 instead of Uncharted

      • 2017
      • Action platforming game that has you punching, kicking, and changing size to fight enemies, solve puzzles, and find upgrades. It also has local drop-in-drop-out multiplayer co-op

    • Journey

      • 2015
      • A lovely indie adventure game that originally hit the PS3 in 2012, you control a robed figure in a vast desert, travelling toward a mountain in the distance. Along the way you may encounter another player and assist each other for a while, but there’s no chat or communication other than a musical chime you use to activate strange pieces of cloth and affect the world. You don’t even see each other’s names until after the credits

Thanks to an indirect data breach, there are over 500K Zoom accounts being sold on the dark web and in hacker forums

  • Cybersecurity firm Cyble was able to purchase 530K zoom credentials for about 1/5 of a cent each this month, verifying the legitimacy of the leak
  • With the credentials, hackers can access your account information like your name, email address, password, personal meeting URL, and your account’s HostKey
  • The twist here is that Zoom didn’t actually have a data breach themselves- I said ‘indirect’ because from the sounds of it these login details were the results of “credential stuffing attacks”, where hackers attempt to log in to a service using accounts previously leaked
    • That means that if you’ve re-used a password that has been compromised, especially if you’re using the same email address, there’s a good chance that you may be affected.

Apple and Google announced a joint effort this week that will see them using Bluetooth to help reduce the spread of COVID-19 around the world

  • Starting in May, both Apple and Google will release functionality that will let Android and iOS devices help track potential exposure using apps from public health authorities (like the Canadian government COVID-19 app)
  • Then in the coming months they’ll work to enable broader Bluetooth-based tracing built directly into their platforms, allowing interaction with a wider variety of apps and government health authorities
    • The initial idea for this piece is that everyone who opts in will get a random, rotating identifier that changes every 15 minutes
      • The list of identifiers you’ve been in contact with doesn’t leave your phone unless you explicitly share it
    • This ID will get transmitted to other nearby devices via Bluetooth automatically
    • The idea is that, locally on your device, you can see a 14 day window of whether your phone has been near the device of someone self-identifying that they’ve tested positive for COVID-19
      • The trick here being that users testing positive aren’t identified to Apple, Google, or other users. It’s all anonymized.
  • Of course, this is going to need some major security, as privacy and consent are going to be very important to this kind of endeavour
    • Having both Apple and Google working on it will be good, as they can keep each other in check (thought I feel like Apple will have to be the main privacy watchdog here)
  • The tool isn’t meant to track locations, but rather personal contact, so it’s not as bad as it could be. But it’s going to have to be locked down airtight or a lot of information could potentially be reverse-engineered from this

Telus’s Babylon Health app is being promoted in Alberta via a deal with Premier Kenney and could be dangerous to women’s health

  • The Babylon app is meant to allow people to check symptoms and contact doctors remotely through text or video chats, which you’d think was a great idea in the current situation
  • It’s even currently covered by BC’s provincial health care, and Alberta’s premier Jason Kenny and our minister of health Tyler Shandro made a deal with Telus to distribute it in Alberta
  • Unfortunately they didn’t consult a single doctor before-hand to verify the app’s effectiveness
  • Doctors have found that the built in symptom checker is deeply flawed- with the exact same symptoms and history (60 years old, 20/day smoker, sudden chest pain and nausea), a male is diagnosed with a heart attack and told to visit emergency services, but a woman is told it’s a panic attack and that some symptoms may need to be checked out by a GP within 6 hours
  • This is another great example of not only health care’s gender-bias, which is appalling, but also our government’s messed up priorities
  • The president of the Alberta Medical Association has gone on record saying that the way the app and its physicians are put together, the fact that they don’t actually have access to your medical records, and how they don’t coordinate your care at all beyond faxing your family doctor if you specifically request it, leads to fragmented and potentially dangerous medical care
  • At this point we have our government effectively advertising a handicapped, pseudo-privatized health care
    • But then again, we also live in the province that spent between $14-20K buying Facebook ads to promote Kenney donating PPE and ventilators to BC, Ontario, and Quebec

Apple announced their new iPhone SE this week, and though the name hasn’t changed everything else has

  • The new device is using the iPhone 8 body and comes in three colours- white, black, and Product(Red) that has proceeds going toward COVID-19 aid instead of HIV/AIDS this time around
  • Specs-wise it has a 4.7” LCD display, the same processor as the flagship iPhone 11, TouchID 2 and Haptic Touch, the same camera as the XR and XS, and dual/eSIM support
    • So with this device replacing the iPhone 8, 3D Touch is officially dead and Haptic Touch (aka press and hold) unfortunately is the victor
  • That means you’ll see some fantastic performance for years to come as long as you don’t mind not having FaceID and using a slightly more basic screen
  • All that starts at $399 USD ($599 CAD) for the 64GB, up to $549 USD ($809 CAD) for the 256GB version

Final Fantasy VII Remake mini-review

  • Really good, a ton of fun for fans of both the old and new styles of Final Fantasy game
  • I really like the world they’ve built out of the first chunk of the original, and I’m looking forward to more

Soylent is back baby!

  • Soylent.ca is where to get it

  • Not following our Soylent coverage and you’re confused why we’re ecxited
  • Here is their copy
    • Soylent is a complete meal — affordable, sustainable, and satisfying.
    • We engineer our ever-evolving products to deliver convenient nutrition when you need it.
    • If you’ve ever missed a meal, eaten something regrettable in the throes of hangry, or had no time to eat, Soylent is for you.
    • In a world with a rapidly growing population, and rapidly diminishing resources, we all need access to nutrition that is cost-effective and easy to consume. We’re pro-GMO, pro-sustainability, and ready to change how the world thinks about food.

  • What can we buy in Canada right now?

    • Soylent Drinks
      • A ready-to-drink meal offering 400 kcal, 28 vitamins and minerals, and 20g of plant-based protein.
      • Ordering is at a case at a time
        • 12 Bottles a case
        • One time purchase at $4.75 a bottle
          • $57 a case
        • Subscription rate is $4.28 a bottle
          • $51.30
          • Frequency at 15, 30, 45 and 60 days
      • Original
        • The flavor that started it all
        • Light, sweet, and velvety smooth
      • Chocolate
        • Rich, chocolatey flavor with real cacao powder.
      • Cafe Mocha
        • The chocolatey, robust coffee drink of your dreams.
        • Same ready-to-drink meal with an added caffeine boost to start your day.
        • When I had the drink back when it was called Coffiest, it tasted like black coffee in Soylent, which was good in my opinion
    • Soylent Powder
      • 450 grams in a bag
      • 20g of protein and 28 vitamins and minerals per serving.
        • Recommended serving is 60 grams of powder
        • And each case has 35 meals worth of pwder
        • One time purchase at $2.51 per meal
          • $88 an order
        • Subscription at $2.09 a meal
          • $73.04 per order
          • Frequency at 15, 30, 45 and 60 days
        • Original
          • The complete-meal powder that started it all.
          • A light, sweet taste.
          • Mix Original into your favorite smoothie to create your own flavor profile or enjoy it on its own for a velvety-smooth meal.
        • Chocolate
          • Ideal for smoothies
    • Accessories
      • First subscription gives you a pitcher and scoop
        • Which I no longer have
      • And there is a Soylent branded blender bottle
        • Our 20oz Soylent Blender Bottles are perfect for all your meal replacement powder needs.
        • Shake up 200 kcal or 400 kcal servings on the go, wherever you go.
        • For a limited time only, Soylent Blender Bottles ship with a 200 kcal scoop — perfect for easy measuring.
        • $11

 

  • Now this looks like a lot
    • I am very grateful they put a foot back into Canada
    • However, we are missing some products that are available to the United States
      • Soylent Drinks
        • Vanilla
          • Classic vanilla flavor with a sweet, subtle taste and no added caffeine
        • Strawberry
          • Our sweet strawberry flavor with a fruity finish.
        • Mint Chocolate
          • Minty chocolate deliciousness. Twist the cap and dive into our brand new flavor.
        • Brand New Soylent STACKED
          • Soylent Stacked is the first of its kind. This 11 oz complete energy drink is packed with 15g of plant protein and 36 essential nutrients, plus nootropics which improve focus, increases mental output, and gives you the nutrients your body needs.
        • And a variety pack to get 4 of each Cacao, Strawberry and Vanilla
      • Soylent Eats
        • These are little snack bars
          • 100 calorie mini meal serves up 5g of plant protein, 36 essential nutrients and probiotics.
        • They come in boxes of 30 squares
          • Chocolate Brownie
          • Salted Caramel
          • Citrus Berry
          • Variety Pack
          • And a sampler pack of 9 bars

Tidbits

  • Apple’s introduced a Mac Pro Wheels kit for everyone that bought a Mac Pro and were disappointed when it didn’t roll around wildly with no way to lock it down
    • The kit goes for $700 USD, compared to the $300 static feet option, leading many to wonder- why are my computer’s wheels more expensive than my car’s tires?
  • With physical distancing expected to be in effect for the foreseeable future, Polygon’s gathered a bunch of really sweet stories from people going on blind island dates
    • Animal Crossing has apparently become the latest great Tinder first date destination
  • Nintendo’s latest Switch system update has brought a bunch of quality-of-life improvements this week
    • Changes include the ability to transfer games and DLC from the system’s memory to and from an SD card (though you still can’t move save data over), and the option to remap controller buttons at a global level (a big win for accessibility)
  • Nevada Gaming Control has approved gambling on three eSports events, so with physical sports being cancelled you can now bet on the 2020 League of Legends European Championship, the North American League of Legends Championship Series, and the Overwatch League
  • The official Star Wars website has announced that Episode I: Racer will be released on the Switch and PS4 on May 12th

 

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PS2J 276 News – Scammed Scammers

Free games

  • Epic Games

    • Observer

      • 2017
      • First-person psychological horror game following a detective that can hack people’s minds as a form of interrogation

    • Alan Wake’s American Nightmare

      • 2012
      • A follow-up / spinoff from the original Alan Wake game, it’s third person psychological action thriller framed in Twilight Zone-esque storytelling that has you attempting to chase down the “herald of darkness”, Mr Scratch

Another credit card hack was in the news today, affecting more than 26 million cards, but with a bit of a twist

  • This time the hack was against an online bazaar selling already stolen data, passing the data on to banks and financial institutions so they can invalidate and replace the cards
  • Based on numbers gathered by security companies and law enforcement, this could be as much as a third of the black market supply of stolen cards, and according to the associated price list represent about $414M in lost sales for the hacked market

In an attempt to please everyone, Blizzard has softened their punishment of the pro Hearthstone player Blitzchung that voiced support for Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests while also doubling down on how they think it was inappropriate

  • Following the backlash we reported on last week they’ve announced that they’ll reinstate his winnings and lessen his ban by six months, but they still want to show there are consequences for “disrupting or derailing the broadcast”
    • Apparently they’re doing all this under a rule saying that players shouldn’t do things that “offend a portion or group of the public, or otherwise damage Blizzard’s image”
  • Apparently Blizzard also posted on social media, in Chinese only, that it would “resolutely safeguard China’s national dignity”, and their official statement in China had them expressing their “intense, righteous indignation and condemnation” of the incident, which isn’t a great look for them
  • And, of course, all these announcements were made late on a Friday which is usually seen as an attempt to minimize visibility and miss the news cycle as much as possible
    • That hasn’t stopped many from amping up their boycott of Blizzard products, and with Overwatch now hitting the Switch as well as their annual convention Blizzcon coming first thing next month the timing is right to send them a message
    • They were even supposed to host an event at the Nintendo store in New York this week, with some of the voice actors showing up for a meet and greet to promote the release, but according to the store’s Twitter account Blizzard cancelled it two days prior

US presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren is capitalizing on Facebook’s new ad policies we talked about in ep 274, and I kind of love it

  • In case you missed it, Facebook recently removed the requirement that ads on their platform not present false or misleading info. Now ads are only pulled if proven false by a third party fact checker, but politicians are immune to even that piece due to the belief that any statement from a political figure is important to the public interest
    • This is similar justification to why Twitter says they haven’t banned Trump from their site for repeatedly breaking multiple rules, though it got flimsy when they started using him in their ads
  • So Warren has released Facebook ads saying that Zuckerberg and Facebook has endorsed Trump. If you read past the first two lines it quickly acknowledges that isn’t true, but goes on to call Facebook out for giving people like Trump free reign to lie on the platform while raking in the cash
  • Unfortunately at this point Facebook is so entrenched, and so many people use it for their primary interactions online, that allowing people to publish lies and falsehoods like that does real damage to everyone. For someone so concerned about fake news, Trump sure has brought out the worst of it

Apple’s released yet more updates this week, now for both iOS and macOS

  • iOS 13.1.3 fixes some important things like an issue that could stop your phone from ringing when called. You know, that minor thing that no one really uses phones for anyway
    • It also fixes some issues with daylight savings time and the Health app, restoring from iCloud backups, Apple Watch connections, and Game Centre performance
  • The macOS Catalina updates are even more important, though mainly for people that haven’t installed it yet
    • They’ve fixed issues for Macs with low disk space, an issue that prevented users from accepting iCloud terms and conditions, and another problem that stopped setup from completing at all in some cases

A major flaw in Samsung’s Galaxy S10 and Note10 has been discovered that means pretty much any fingerprint can unlock it with the help of a cheap screen protector

  • The phone’s inscreen fingerprint sensor uses ultrasound to detect your fingerprint ridges, making each fingerprint unique
  • Unfortunately some screen protectors (namely every single one that wasn’t developed specially for these devices with specific adhesives or cutouts) don’t play nice with that technology since they may leave a tiny air gap that interferes with scanning, meaning that no matter who puts their finger on the sensor it lets them in
    • To be clear, this isn’t about you teaching it your fingerprint while the protector is on and then it opens for anyone. A Galaxy S10 that is fingerprint locked properly can be unlocked by anyone if they have a $3 piece of plastic to put on the screen
      • So it looks like if there isn’t a clear reading it just unlocks anyway, which is probably the opposite that you want to happen
  • Samsung says they’re aware of the malfunctioning fingerprint recognition and will soon issue a software patch, though I’m not sure what the patch will do. Maybe disable the sensor when a screen protector is applied? Either way, it looks like another case of Samsung releasing tech before its time

Overwatch Halloween

Junkestein’s Revenge is back!

And a new addition to this year is weekly unlocks.
You earn rewards by winning games in Quick Play, Competitive Play, or Arcade.

This week, Oct 15th to 21st, which you may have missed a bit, but can still catch up, is all Junkrat.

  • 3 Wins is an Inferno Junkrat Player Icon
  • 6 Wins is an Inferno Junkrat Spray
  • and 9 gets you the Inferno Junkrat skin!

Week 2, Oct 22nd to 28th is Baptiste.

  • 3 Wins is an Vampire Baptiste Player Icon
  • 6 Wins is an Vampire Baptiste Spray
  • and 9 gets you the Vampire Baptiste skin!

Week 3, Oct 29nd to Nov 4th is Sombra.

  • 3 Wins is an Demon Hunter Sombra Player Icon
  • 6 Wins is an Demon Hunter Sombra Spray
  • and 9 gets you the Demon Hunter Sombra skin!
    • Which is nice, since it was a reward for buying a BlizzCon ticket last year.

And we have some awesome skins this year.

And this is the list of them from good skin, to best, in my opinion.

  • Inferno Junkrat (Epic)
    • He looks like he has magma inside him. Cool idea, but you cannot hide at all in game
  • Gorgon Lucio (Epic)
    • Green armour with black necrotic skin, glowing green eyes and Snakes for dreads.
  • Vampire Baptiste (Epic)
    • Mostly a recolour. He has a Blade-esque haircut, with glowing trim
  • Will-O’-Wisp Tracer (Legendary)
    • Pumpkin with teeth with an open maw and eerie teal glow. I like her striped pants and excess of leg belts.
  • Scorpion Widowmaker (Legendary)
    • She has a ninja like mask, and armour is segmented and coloured like a desert scorpion.
    • Also, her venom Mines have a scorpion tail
  • Warlock Ashe (Legendary)
    • She had bad ass horns, and her outfit is styled in the same aesthetic as Witch Mercy
    • Bob is a stone Golem, with glowing under-detail
  • Pharaoh Anna (Legendary)
    • She is a mummy with ancient egyptian armour and cloth wrappings
    • Her coat has a glowing green interior and on the outside some hieroglyphs
  • Demon Orisa (Legendary)
    • I am a fan of skulls, and she has a really agressive skull head with two sets of horns
    • Her armour is bone, with raw muscle connecting and as the under detail
    • Her chest is an exposed rib-cage with a flame inside it
    • She has 4 goat legs with the shaggy goat pelt
    • And the center of the energy core on her weapon is a living goat eye

Overwatch on the Switch- if you’ve been looking at buying it, think again

  • Not only are there massive performance issues, with many instances of character models not loading in for unreasonable amounts of time and just being denoted by glowing balls of light and being stuck at 30FPS (half the frame rate of all the other platforms), but they decided to pull one of the dumbest moves a game release can- the physical box you buy in stores doesn’t have a cartridge in it. Just a download code.

Overwatch is too much to Switch

  • Core teamwork component is tough to come by
  • The Switch has trouble with its wireless connection
    • Except for the few with the LAN adapter in Docked mode
  • Accuracy is lacking
    • JoyCon drift is a rampant issue
    • As well as a 30 frames per second, reports are there is input lag
  • The lower quality graphics makes the TV experience fuzzy
    • Handheld looks good though
  • Also bad timing to be released!
    • For political climate
    • and 3 Years after the hype

Tidbits

  • The Last of Us Part II now has a release date, and is officially coming February 21st
  • Ready for a nostalgia-blast? The Internet Archive has been updated with more than 2500 DOS games featuring classics like The Secret of Monkey Island and The Incredible Machine 2
  • Fallout 76 is due to become a more true-to-form Fallout title in early 2020, with the introduction of the Wastelanders free update
    • The update will bring proper NPCs and dialogue trees into the game, rather than the current mix of audio tapes and linear conversations with robots
    • They’re also bringing private servers and some changes to the Atomic Shop to balance out the pay-to-win strategy that’s currently in place
  • Google’s announced the latest generation of their Pixel Buds wireless headphones, and it looks like they’ve learned a lot of good lessons from Apple’s AirPods
    • The battery life is about the same, and they have a similar charging case (though I kind of like its design more than Apple’s), but they sit tightly in your ear like most earbuds nowadays (though they have a vent on the bottom to let in external noise)
    • They’ve also got voice-activated Google Assistant integration and some fanciness called “adaptive sound”, which apparently adjusts the volume of what you’re playing depending on surrounding noise
    • I really like what I’ve seen of them, and hopefully the next-gen AirPods keep up

Alan recommends Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency on Netflix

  • Inspired by the books by Douglas Adams, the series does a great job of building a world from how the books felt rather than being locked in to what they did
  • Interconnectedness of all things
  • Cancelled after two seasons
  • It’s odd and ambitious, but carried forward with some great acting and fun, absurdist plot

 

Literally Misleading

Last Week:

Game – Sadistic architect values efficiency over safety. (PolyBridge)

This Week:

Movie – Artist tries his best against the wishes of his grandfather and clingy aunts

 

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

A huge thanks to Dalton, for supporting 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!
We are a proud member of the Alberta Podcast Network powered by ATB
And talk to us in the comments!
Twitter and Instagram @ps2jshow
A Facebook Page exists as well.

PS2J 274 News – Bean

Free games

  • Twitch

    • Serial Cleaner

      • 2017
      • A Hotline Miami style top-down stealth game that has you sneaking through crimescenes to clean and hide the evidence before the authorities can put your bosses away for good

    • Deadlight: Director’s Cut

      • 2016 rerelease of the 2012 title
      • Sidescrolling cinematic platforming survival horror game that has you attempting to traverse a zombie-infested Seattle to rejoin your family

    • Stranger Things 3: The Game

      • 2019
      • A 16-bit beat ’em up based on the third season of Stranger Things with local co-op

    • The Walking Dead: Michonne

      • 2016
      • A spin-off Telltale Games title that explores what Michonne was up to during a temporary departure from the main group

    • Adam Wolfe

      • 2016
      • Acting as Adam Wolfe, an investigator of the paranormal, you will discover a hidden world under the modern San Francisco. In this city, ghosts, artifacts, secret orders and curses are just some of the things that Adam will come across working on his most important case.

  • Epic Games

    • Minit

      • 2018
      • Minit is an adventure played sixty seconds at a time. Journey outside the comfort of your home to help unusual folk, uncover countless secrets, and overcome dangerous foes, all in hopes of lifting a rather unfortunate curse that ends each day after just one minute.

The saga of iOS 13 continues, and it’s a messy one

  • Just to get it out of the way, if you’re already on iOS 13 then you’ve got nothing to lose at this point- the fixes will help. If you’re still on 12, then I’d hold off if I were you
  • Apple has already released iOS 13.1.2 this week, following last week’s 13.1 and 13.1.1 and the week before’s initial iOS 13 release
  • Apple’s really sat themselves on the bleeding edge with these updates, and it has me concerned about their software for the future- we’ve gone from the days when I wanted to run the latest betas to today when I regret installing the new OS even some time after it’s come out
    • The new features are neat, sure, but when your patch notes include things like “Fixes an issue where Camera may not work” or “Addresses an issue where Bluetooth may disconnect on certain vehicles”, fairly core functions, I start wondering why these weren’t caught during the beta.
  • We’re four releases in to iOS 13 there are even still issues with syncing in the Notes and Reminders apps that may or may not be related to app upgrades requiring the new macOS (Catalina) that isn’t even out yet
    • The new versions of these apps that came with iOS 13 last month aren’t compatible with earlier versions of iOS or macOS, so if you’re running a mixed environment you’re probably noticing inconsistent/missing/lost data
  • I mean, kudos to Apple for fixing things as quickly as they can, but we’re at the point where iOS 13 should have just been delayed a month and maybe just come out with Catalina in the first place

The Samsung Galaxy Fold is here, and it’s… pretty much what we expected

  • $2000 gets you an interesting concept device with some limited usefulness
  • The device comes with a whole sheaf of paperwork on how to use and care for it without breaking it
    • Basically they warn to use a light touch, avoid water and dust, avoid excessive pressure, and keep it away from things that are sensitive to magnets
  • All in all it’s big, heavy, and has a non-standard screen size regardless of how you use it. It’s kinda novel but doesn’t seem worth it when a screen replacement, on their warranty program, costs $150
    • TechCrunch has already broken theirs accidentally by pressing on the display to close it

Speaking of dual screens, Microsoft has some interesting new hardware coming down the pipe

  • First up are their new Surface Neo and Duo- book-style folding devices with two screens (instead of the Fold’s single folding screen)
    • The Neo is tablet sized, runs Windows 10X (a custom version of Windows 10 made for dual displays), and has an optional bluetooth keyboard that magnets on
    • The Duo is their phone version that runs a heavily-skinned version of Android, so who knows when updates will come
    • Both of these are expected late 2020 though, so we haven’t even seen prototypes yet
  • Other than that they’ve overhauled their Surface lineup to compete more with the iPad Pro, and later this year their Airpods competitor the Surface Earbuds will launch
    • The big selling feature of these is the large round art-deco touchpad attached to your ears, which is definitely a style choice and totally doesn’t look like a couple of Apple Watch chargers stuck to the sides of your head

On the topic of Airpods, it looks like the next model has leaked via icons found in the upcoming iOS 13.2 beta

  • We don’t have much detail yet, but they seem to be more focused on noise-isolation and adjusting the classic earpod/airpod fit, which has a lot of people whose ears weren’t compatible taking note

A security researcher has released a full bootrom exploit for all iPhones from the 4S to the X, along with several iPad models and a few generations of the iPod Touch

  • This will pave the way for a permanent, un-patchable jailbreak for all the devices involved- the bootrom is read-only, so Apple can’t fix it with an update
  • On the plus side, this can only be exploited by physically connecting to your device while in recovery mode, so general users should be safe while people that want their jailbreak tweaks can jump through the needed hoops to get that set up

Minecraft Updates!

Character Creator is coming to all Bedrock platforms.

  • Xbox One
  • Windows 10
  • Nintendo Switch
  • iOS
  • Android
And there is a free cape right now called the founders cape. Looks like pumpkin, or like orange flame, with a creeper face on it.

Nether is Getting Biomes!

With descriptions from the Minecraft blog!
Despite the dangers of these new Nether biomes, we do want this update to make the Nether more accessible (albeit still a dangerous place to live!). You’ll be able to build a base there, respawn there, and even find food!
  • Soulsand Valley
    • What could be more welcoming than a new biome full of blue fog and blue flames (courtesy of the new blue fire block!), and ominous gigantic fossils everywhere? Don’t answer that, just get hyped for this barren wasteland that can’t wait for you to risk a visit…
  • Netherwart Forest Red
    • A dense forest, with swirling particles and dense atmosphere, deliberately designed by our meanest level designers to make you get lost. Mwahahaha!
  • Netherwart Forest Blue
    • Well, less another biome, more a variation on Netherwart Forest Red (oh great – I only just managed to escape from that) but with its own unique atmosphere, and its own unique blocks! For example, watch your step for that twisty new Nether Fungi covering the ground…

New Nether Mobs!

  • Piglin Beast
    • What’s a new biome without a new mob to cause chaos within it? Meet the Piglin Beast, the tusked little terror that’s Minecraft’s newest hostile mob! It can be bred as a source of food in the Nether (and let’s face it, you’re not exactly spoilt for choice when it comes to lunch options in the Nether, are you?).
  • Piglins
    • Speaking of names, we’ve renamed the Zombie Pigmen to Zombified Piglins, and we’re introducing a new hostile mob to Minecraft… the Piglins! Piglins live in the Nether, and are hostile to you and most other mobs. You’ll also find small fortifications they’ve built in the Nether, called bastions.
    • Just like the person writing this post, Piglins are constantly on the hunt for gold, which is something you can use to your advantage. Wear gold armour and the Piglins will ignore you… unless you start rifling through their chests. Then prepare for a Piglin battle! Want to be more of a Piglin pacifist? It’ll be possible to trade with Piglins, but don’t expect the same experience as trading with villagers. This will be known as bartering and it’ll be far less friendly!

New Block!

  • TARGET BLOCK
    • Not completely related to the theme of the new update, but a brand new block designed for redstone enthusiasts! Shoot the block with an arrow, and it’ll emit a redstone signal. The closer your arrow to the bullseye on the Target Block, the stronger the emitted signal. We can’t wait to see what redstone contraptions you make with this one!

Tidbits

  • The future is here, and after last year’s Fortnite crossplay beta Sony has officially opened up cross-platform play for all developers
    • Now we just need proper cross-platform cloud saves and we’ll really be cooking with gas
  • Spotify is finally getting Siri integration, if their beta app is any indication
    • There’s no timeframe for release, but considering this was one of the tentpoles of their anticompetitive complaint against Apple earlier this year it’s a little amusing to see them figuring it out themselves
  • Facebook is cementing just what an evil company they are even more this week, by removing their rules against running ads with false and misleading content to allow Trump to lie in campaign ads
    • They now only prohibit claims debunked by third-party fact checkers, but political figures are apparently exempt from even that narrow restriction

Alan recommends OrangeTheory Fitness

Literally Misleading

Last week:
Movie – A man led astray by his employer takes out his frustration on his family. (Christmas Vacation)
This week:
Movie – A typical cowboy saves the princess tale.

 

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

A huge thanks to Zane, for supporting us and Podzilla.

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!
Twitter and Instagram @ps2jshow
A Facebook Page exists as well.

PS2J 269 News – nice

Free games

  • Microsoft

    • Hitman: The Complete First Season

      • 2016
      • Third person stealth assassination game in episodic form, taking Agent 47 all around the world to prove he is the ultimate silent assassin

    • We Were Here

      • 2017
      • Co-op puzzle game where you team up with a friend or stranger online to escape an abandoned castle, but the twist is you’re split up only able to communicate with and help eachother via walkie talkie

    • Earth Defense Force 2025

      • 2013
      • Arcade-style third person shooter that has you taking on gigantic alien insects with infinite ammo and often-ridiculous weaponry
      • More details in PS2J 238, the history of Earth Defence Force

    • Tekken Tag Tournament 2

      • 2011
      • Tournament fighting game with solid gameplay and a massive cast

  • Sony

    • Batman: Arkham Knight

      • 2015
      • Solid third-person stealth action game in the Batman universe with great combat, fun stealth takedowns, and the addition of a drivable Batmobile, all brought together by Kevin Conroy’s iconic voice
    • Darksiders 3
      • 2018
      • Action-adventure Metroidvania style game that will be familiar to fans of the first two, Darksiders 3 has you taking control of Fury, the sister to War and Death and another of the four horsemen of the apocalypse
  • Epic
    • Celeste
      • 2018
      • Platform adventure game where you have to jump, climb, and dash through each area to climb a mountain and collect strawberries
    • Inside
      • 2016
      • The spiritual successor to Limbo, Inside is another deceptively simple platformer where you control a small boy in a big, very dangerous world
 

Security warning- it’s time to delete the CamScanner app immediately

  • Security researchers at Kaspersky discovered malware in various versions of the Android app, and the iOS app has a history of not being much better despite the protections Apple has built in to their App Store process
    • The malware is set up to extract and run another piece of software that downloads more malware for whatever its creators are up to at the moment, like showing intrusive ads or signing users up for paid subscriptions
  • Lifehacker is recommending Android users switch to a better, more secure app like Adobe Scan or Microsoft Office Lens, or use the built-in scanner in the Google Drive app
    • iOS users can also use the document scanning function built in to the Notes app
 

Speaking of security, after the Siri privacy concerns we reported on back in episode 265, Apple has officially apologized and put a halt to the Siri grading program pending some serious changes

  • It looks like concerns were more founded than I thought, with Apple laying off the contractors they’d hired to review selected Siri conversations to improve the service and completely revamping the whole program later this fall
  • The changes include defaulting everyone to opt out of the recordings, allowing an optional opt-in with the ability to turn it back off at any time, and only allowing Apple employees access to the audio samples instead of using contractors
  • They’ve also released a new Siri Privacy and Grading FAQ that you can check out for more details on the upcoming program: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210558
 

The Apex Legends subreddit became an interesting place this month, with developers logging on to insult players reacting to microtransactions

  • About two weeks ago Respawn posted an apology regarding the Iron Crown event and how they locked some of their cooler skins and items behind paid lootboxes
    • For context, one event item called the Heirloom Axe costs over $200 CAD to get
    • In the future they say they’ll provide more ways to obtain items, and in the meantime they’ve made some tweaks to how the event items are being distributed
  • The comments thread then got pretty heated, as a Respawn employee started engaging with people pretty angry about the situation calling them dicks, ass-hats, and freeloaders
    • The downvotes are currently sitting at -5300, -3500, and -1000 respectively, so they’re going to have to try a lot harder to beat the Battlefront 2 “sense of pride and accomplishment” microtransaction comment with a whopping -670000
    • I’m not sure what’s going on over at EA, but it really seems like they should tone it down with both the lootboxes and the social media responses
  • This time it was handled with a lot more class though- instead of EA’s strategy of “ignore the masses”, Respawn CEO Vince Zampella publicly apologized for the discussion, saying
    • “Some of our folks crossed a line with their comments, and that’s not how we want Respawn to be represented. I apologize to any of our fans that were offended.”
    • “I will always stand behind the team here at Respawn and support them on speaking out against some of the toxic and nasty comments aimed at their families and loved ones,” he continued. “But we shouldn’t contribute to it when we do comment, and add to the very thing we want to prevent. Last week we didn’t do that, going forward we will be better. Having an open, healthy relationship with our community is incredibly important to all of us at Respawn.”
  • All in all it’s a pretty classy response to a bad situation, taking responsibility without throwing anyone under the bus
 

An attempt is being made to bring Telltale Games back from the dead, though with very few of its original parts

  • All the assets were purchased by LCG Entertainment, and the new Telltale will sell some of the back catalog as well as work on new games based on some old associated properties as well as new licenses
  • Apparently some workers from Telltale Classic will be offered freelance roles with a possibility for full-time in the future, but it looks like LCG wants to make a fairly clear distinction between that company and New Telltale
  • It’s been confirmed that New Telltale has the rights to continue The Wolf Among Us and Batman, as well as some original properties, and there are some expired licenses that they’re currently reviewing
    • Unfortunately the rights to release a game based on Stranger Things have already reverted back to Netflix, but there’s still a lot there to work with
  • Fingers crossed they can recapture the magic of early Telltale, before they overreached and started pumping out poorly managed games in a dated, hard to work with engine
 
Good news everyone, the final additions to Shovel Knight, King of Cards and a multiplayer fighting mode called Showdown, are officially coming in December
  • The game is also getting features like new body types, a they/them pronoun option, accessibility features, co-op feats, new language support, and additional cheats that apparently add whole new ways to play
    • It’s been so long since the main campaign released I’ll have to dust off my Vita and check it out this Christmas
  • There’s also a new spinoff coming called Shovel Knight Dig, following Shovel Knight in a Spelunky-type adventure through semi-randomized levels as you pursue Drill Knight and his dastardly crew to the centre of the earth
    • It’s being developed in collaboration with Nitrome, makers of games like Redungeon and Rust Bucket
    • There’s no word on a release date for Dig quite yet
 

More than a year after Zuckerberg promised a Clear History tool for Facebook it’s finally here, and it kind of works?

  • Rather than the previous claims of it deleting tracking information from your account, it just slightly limits data that is collected about you when you’re not on Facebook
    • For instance, how Facebook would present ads based on things you shopped for online
  • It doesn’t even stop the tracking, but rather disconnects it from a specific user- everything is still gathered to build a profile, it just may not be used on you in particular
    • And keep in mind, this only applies to behind-the-scenes tracking- they can still identify you if they have your email or phone number
  • And it only limits data gathering one way, from third parties into Facebook. Nothing stops Facebook from reporting back to advertisers when users purchase a product after seeing a targeted ad
  • All in all it’s kind of a garbage attempt, especially when it was first touted as working the same as as your browser’s Clear History feature- flushing the data entirely
 

In response to WebKit’s announcement that tracking cookies will be treated as a security risk, Google’s now trying to make the argument that blocking them is actually bad for privacy…?

  • For anyone not aware, a cookie is a little piece of info that websites can read and write in your web browser, to do things like keep you logged in when you leave a website, that can also be used like breadcrumbs to see what websites you visit
  • Their first point seems to be that if you block cookies then developers will find other, more secret ways to track users, like building a fingerprint based on things like what device they’re using or what fonts they have installed. Since users can’t manually clear that, it’s apparently worse
    • freedom-to-tinker.comsaid it well: “We see that our town has a pickpocketing problem. But if we crack down on pickpocketing, the pickpocketers will just switch to muggings. That would be even worse. Surely you don’t want that, do you?”
  • And their second point is that blocking cookies that target ads causes content publishers to lose ad revenue because the ads become less relevant. This was, of course, backed up by a study (read, single paragraph in a blog post) run by Google. Who I’m sure is a completely third party wait it’s the same company
    • As long as we’re comparing anecdotes, the international edition of the New York Times recently switched from tracking-based ads to contextual and geographic ads—and it didn’t experience any decrease in advertising revenue.
  • So their strategy is to block fingerprinting (which is good) and improve the classification of cookies to be more transparent about what’s being used to track you (which is kind of neutral? Because in theory any cookie could be used to track you)
 

Creature in the Well

  • A top down dungeon crawler
    • With elements of pinball
  • You play as Bot-C
    • The last of engineer of a robot collective
    • You have to save the town of Mirage from a huge sandstorm by repairing an ancient weather machine
    • But there is a strange creature that is watching you from the shadows
  • The gameplay is hack and slash
    • With puzzles influenced by pinball, breakout and other ball based games
    • You explore rooms rooms to gather energy, which you spend to open doors and upgrade your character
    • Lots of secrets, with different weapons and cosmetic items
    • The town also has citizens that can help you
    • And they coined the phrase Pin-Brawler
  • September 6 for Switch, Xbox One and Steam.
 

Indies for Switch that Josh has

  • Enter the Gungeon
  • Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove
  • Stardew Valley
  • The Messenger
 

Josh is interested In getting

  • Cuphead
    • StudioMDHR’s astonishing Cuphead has made the jump from Xbox One/PC to Switch. The port runs wonderfully both in console and handheld mode, retaining all the glory of the 1930s cartoon art style and animations.
    • Cuphead is a challenging game, but it never comes across as unfair. Minimalistic mechanics let you focus on the task at hand — the multi-phase bosses — while enjoying all of the excellent animations and sounds.
    • Cuphead is worth playing for the art style alone, which is as impressive now as it was upon its original launch in 2017. The engaging boss fights and crisp mechanics make it a pleasure to work through, even when the going gets exceedingly tough.
  • Hyper Light Drifter
    • Hyper Light Drifter is an ode to 8-bit and 16-bit adventure games, set in a distinct world reduced to shambles. This top-down adventure features extremely challenging gameplay with a neat gimmick.
    • Your main weapon, an energy sword, has to strike enemies in order to charge your supplementary, ranged weapons. This means you have to master melee combat to have a chance against the onslaught of enemies.
    • Rounded out by a beautiful soundtrack and fantastic animations, Hyper Light Drifter is a moving experience with an understated, but powerful story.
  • Down Well
    • Downwell, a game about a man falling down a well in a park, has been available since 2015 on mobile devices. Rendered in black and white, the premise is simple: Make it to the bottom. Since you’re falling at a rapid pace, you would think you’re already ahead of the game, right? Not so fast. Avoiding obstacles, enemies, and projectiles is an arduous endeavor that forces you to think and move on the fly.
    • As a rogue-like, each time you make your descent, the layout of the well changes. With guns attached to your boots that only recharge when you touch the ground safely, it’s a constant battle between the offensive and defensive. Power-ups are rewarded at the bottom of each stage, but each level ups the challenge. Basically, no matter what you have in your arsenal, you’re always facing an uphill battle (ironic, huh?).
    • A round of Downwell can last anywhere from seconds to a handful of minutes, depending on your skill level. On Switch, it’s a perfect game for quick bursts in handheld mode. The $3 price makes Downwell a steal, but you should splurge for the Flip Grip to play Downwell comfortably with a vertical orientation.
  • Into The Breach
    • From the makers of the excellent FTL: Faster Than Light, Into the Breachsomehow manages to be Subset Games’ best outing. A turn-based tactics game, Into the Breach takes place on small grids filled with only a few units. The name of the game is survival, as losing all your units restarts the game.
    • It’s an interesting approach to the relatively well-trodden grid-based tactics genre. You can, if you choose, take out enemy units, but you must focus on protecting your power grids. Since you only have a limited number of turns, choosing where to place your units at the start of each round is key.
    • Into the Breach has so many surprising layers to it that you’ll learn new strategies even after you’ve cleared the game multiple times. It’s a near perfect turn-based strategy game that should not be missed by any fans of the genre.
 
 

Tidbits

  • A new trailer for The Mandalorian dropped this week, and it looks just fantastic
    • Strikes me as Firefly but Star Wars, and has the titular Mandalorian teaming up with IG-11 in a lot of very cool settings and situations
  • The 2015 MacBook Pro battery trouble is now having some negative effects on travellers, with many airlines banning all 15″ MacBook Pros from checked luggage regardless of the year and warning they must stay off for the duration of the flight
  • Dutch brand ZENS unveiled a wireless charging mat that can charge two devices at a time anywhere on the mat, bringing us one step closer to the cancelled Apple AirPower
    • The mat uses 16 overlapping coils to deliver the power, compared to Apple’s planned 32 coils to charge three devices, and doesn’t have the same kind of software integration, but if it sounds like something you want I hope you have $140 USD to burn. $180 USD gets you a glass version so you can see the coils and circuitry
  • A short-lived Amazon listing for an Overwatch-themed Nintendo Switch case, marked as “officially licensed by Nintendo and Blizzard Entertainment”, is fuelling speculation that the team shooter is coming to the Switch sometime soon
    • Between an upcoming Nintendo Direct and Blizzcon this November, the time is definitely ripe
 

Alan recommends Archero

  • You play the Lone Archer in this roguelike dungeon crawl, choosing from randomly assorted skills each time you level up to take on bigger and more daunting challenges
  • It got some interesting gameplay, where each room has a variety of enemies either shooting or charging at you, and you have to take them down while keeping your health bar up
    • The interesting part comes in with your attack- it automatically aims and shoots but only while you aren’t moving, so you have to choose between attack and dodging at any given moment
    • And it has my favourite roguelike mechanic, where there are permanent upgrades you can unlock and level up between sessions, so that even if you’re having trouble at the moment you’re still making progress
  • It’s got some annoying F2P bits to it, but it’s been pretty easy to not drop any money on it so far and I’m about halfway through the campaign
    • They also don’t have any mandatory ads, only putting them in when you choose to continue after dying or keep playing when you’re out of energy
  • Over all I’ve been enjoying it, and it looks like there are some cool updates coming in the near future with unlockable heroes and a battlepass feature that increases the rewards you can get
 

Literally Misleading

MOVIE – After being mistaken for terrorists, protecting intellectual property is now the least of the hero’s problems.
 
If you have a Literally Misleading Description, message Josh directly on our Discord, or Twitter @fushigiyami
 

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

A huge thanks to Zane, 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!
 
We are a proud member of the Alberta Podcast Network powered by ATB
 
And talk to us in the comments!
 
 
Twitter and Instagram @ps2jshow
 
A Facebook Page exists as well.

PS2J 262 News – Minty Fresh

Free games

  • Epic

    • Limbo

      • 2010
      • Black and white stylized puzzle platformer with a wonderful dark, eerie atmosphere, praised as an excellent example of video games as an art form
 

Update to last week’s story about the Zoom video conferencing vulnerability

  • It looks like many of Zoom’s partner apps, like RingCentral and Zhumu, have similar problems that allow attackers easy access to laptop cameras and microphones, so this week Apple released another silent security patch to block the vulnerability
  • Also, I’ve done a bit of research and if you’re concerned about Apple’s ability to run these kind of security updates you can block them in System Preferences > Software Update > Advanced by unchecking “Install system data files and security updates”
  • Right now I’m happy that Apple notifies the press when they release these patches, but in a perfect world they’d be visibly included in your updates list
 

Lifehacker is urging users to update their Logitech wireless dongles immediately

  • A few years ago, hackers discovered they could take control of computers by exploiting a vulnerability in Logitech wireless dongles- the piece you plug in to your computer to connect to wireless mice and keyboards
  • Patches were released to fix this all the way back in 2016, but there was no recall and even new devices rolling out of the factory today may be at risk
  • If you use any wireless Logitech devices, make sure you visit the Logitech support website and download/run the latest firmware update files as soon as possible to fix the loopholes
    • You’ll need to re-sync your devices to the dongle afterward, but the added (or, you know, extant) security is well worth the time
 

Facebook is apparently being fined $5B by the FTC for their role in the Cambridge Analytica privacy scandal

  • The original scandal is related to the 2016 US election, where Cambridge Analytica collected info on tens of millions of Facebook users without consent to create targeted political ads
  • The data collection came from an app that claimed to be a survey for academic use, but in reality it gathered information on not just the people taking the survey but also their friends
  • The problem here is that the fine is laughable when it comes to Facebook’s revenue
    • It’s the largest fine in FTC history, but they had $15B in revenue in the last 3 months, and $22B in profit last year
    • Facebook’s stock price actually went up after this fine was announced
  • End of the day it’s a start, but slap a zero on the end of it and then we’ll talk
 

In somewhat related news, Facebook is vigorously over-defending itself against a lawsuit brought by the attorney general of the District of Colombia

  • The lawsuit is related to the same Cambridge Analytica scandal and says that is was a violation of DC consumer protection law
  • Facebook’s response to it denies “each and every allegation” in the lawsuit, including pieces that aren’t so much allegations as they are just basic statements of fact.
  • For example, paragraph 11 says “To begin using the Facebook website, a consumer first creates a Facebook account. The consumer can then add other Facebook consumers as “friends” and by accumulating Facebook friends, the consumer builds a social network on the Facebook website.”
    • Facebook’s response was that they deny the allegations in paragraph 11
  • They’ve also denied pieces that they’ve publicly admitted to in the past, leaving many people wondering just what’s going on with this defense strategy
 

Police are warning the public about a new scam targeting iPhone users

  • Scammers are using social media to recruit victims by promising payments in exchange for becoming a game tester
  • Users are asked to log in to a particular Apple ID on their iPhone, then the scammers will activate Lost Mode on the device, locking the victim’s phone and extorting payments before promising to unlock it afterward
  • The worst part is that you need the Apple ID’s password to remove it from your device, so if they changed it after locking your phone then you remain at their mercy
  • Anyone that’s been hit by this scam should get help from Apple at getsupport.apple.com
 

Space fact of the day, featuring the male ego, bought to you by Mary Robinette Kowal

  • Author of the Lady Astronaut books Alan, recommended back in 242
  • To facilitate going to the bathroom, NASA developed a sheath kind of like a condom that came in small, medium, and large.
  • Every man said they needed a large, even when they didn’t which led to some messy situations
  • So they re-branded the sheaths to Extra-large, Immense, and Unbelievable
 

Tidbits

  • A US law firm is looking at opening a class action lawsuit regarding the Nintendo Switch and Joy-Con controller drift
  • Marvel’s Spider-Man is officially now the best-selling superhero video game of all time, beating both Arkham Knight and Arkham City
    • It’s doubly impressive considering the Batman games were on multiple platforms, whereas Spider-Man was a PS4 exclusive
  • Nintendo’s announced an invisible upgrade to the Switch coming this August, offering up to 2.5 hours longer battery life
    • The gains are likely achieved using a similar processing upgrade that is included in the Switch Lite
  • There was a cool announcement made at the Comic-Con 20th anniversary Batman Beyond panel
    • They’re releasing a blu ray HD remaster of the full series, including the Return of the Joker movie, coming this October
  • Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi has officially been signed for a fourth Thor movie
    • No details yet, but I’m excited
 

Alan recommends Spinderella

  • A solid board game for ages 6+ that I’ve only ever played with a group of 20 or 30-somethings
  • You try to get your three ants to the end of the board, but depending on dice rolls other players can move the hanging spiders around to try and grab your pieces and send them back to the start

 

Literally Misleading

Game – Small business owner deals with the sins of his father while his life is becoming a living hell!
 
If you have a Literally Misleading Description, message Josh directly on our Discord, or Twitter @fushigiyami

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

A huge thanks to Zane, 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!
 
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A Facebook Page exists as well.

PS2J 249 News – Advertisers Know You Best

The Federal privacy commissioner of Canada has plans to take Facebook to court

  • Their investigations have apparently found that the website broke a number of privacy laws and failed to take responsibility for protecting Canadians’ personal info
  • Reports estimate that the Cambridge Analytica scandal from back in 2016 resulted in 87M users worldwide having their information disclosed, including more than 600,000 Canadians
  • They’re accusing Facebook of breaking a number of laws by
    • Failing to obtain valid and meaningful consent of installing users.
    • Failing to obtain meaningful consent from friends of installing users.
    • Having inadequate safeguards to protect user information.
    • Failing to be accountable for the user information under its control.
  • Facebook has publicly acknowledged a “major breach of trust” but disputes the report, saying that there’s no evidence that Canadians’ data was shared with Cambridge Analytica and that they’ve improved their platform to protect people’s personal info
  • Fact is though, at the end of the day, Facebook has a pattern of stealing data, minimizing the impact when reporting, and then slowly “discovering” that everything’s actually worse than they thought

Sony’s releasing a documentary on the creation of the new God of War called Raising Kratos

  • Three years in the making, the film will be released on YouTube and cover the years of work on the 2018 rebirth into Norse mythology
  • It’ll cover not only the development, but a lot of the decision making that went in to Kratos’ new direction
  • Also, as part of God of War’s anniversary, Sony’s offering a free dynamic theme and avatar pack
    • The theme has Kratos and Atreus sitting in their canoe, and the avatar set shows a bunch of different characters in a runic-inspired linear design

Overwatch is introducing a new Workshop mode soon, which will apparently allow players to make custom game modes and heroes

  • Described as a power user mode, the new tools will be a much more robust set than those currently allowed in custom game types now, paralleling some of the tools the developers and programmers currently use
    • It will also include some debugging features, and they’ll be creating a support forum to connect with the developers
  • Some of the examples given were a Molten Floor mode where the ground deals damage, enhancements to the existing fan-made Hide and Seek mode, and Mirror Deathmatch, which swaps the entire pool of players to the same character on a one-minute rotation

Tidbits

  • It turns out the Alexa monitoring that Amazon is doing is even worse than we first thought in episode 246
    • Apparently employees have access to not just your name, account number, and device serial, but also your full GPS coordinates via location data
  • Samsung is officially delaying the release of the Galaxy Fold after review units hit a whole batch of issues related to the display and hinge that we talked about in the last episode
    • iFixit, in their teardown of the device, noted that there are sizable gaps in the device’s bezel where the two halve meet that could easily allow debris inside behind the flexible screen
    • You have to wonder how many people internally knew about these issues but were silenced by the marketing teams, which is doubly damning after the Note 7 battery fire fiasco
  • Sprint’s lawsuit against AT&T for the misleading “5GE” branding on 4G networks has apparently been “amicably settled”, which I’m guessing means Sprint got a payoff and they don’t actually care of accuracy of what their customers think. They got the PR boost for trying, cash in hand for backing off, and are calling it a day
  • Smash Ultimate’s new Stage Builder mode includes portals, allowing characters to blip between areas on the map, and people have made some crazy DBZ-style fight videos by having everything arranged to facilitate some ridiculous combos

Alan recommends Seven Blades in Black by Sam Sykes

  • Much in the same way his Bring Down Heaven trilogy I recommended last year in episode 218 is a love letter to D&D, this one is for Final Fantasy
  • It’s a fantasy world with a mage-ruled empire vs technologic rebellion, a really interesting system of magic and costs, powerfully written and relatable characters, and also giant birds that people ride instead of horses
  • All that and the cover is gorgeous enough that I bought a physical copy
  • Tons of fun, and came out just this month
 

Literally Misleading

GAME – Animal rights activist takes the fight to the war mongering industrial tycoon.
If you have a Literally Misleading Description, message Josh directly on our Discord, or Twitter @fushigiyami
 

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

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 247 News – TV at Noon

Free Games

  • Epic Games
    • Transistor
      • 2014
      • From the creators of Bastion and Hades, it’s an isometric sci-fi themed action RPG that has you running through a stunning futuristic city wielding an extraordinary weapon of unknown origin
  • Ubisoft
    • In light of the fire at the Notre Dame de Paris, which caused its roof and 300 foot spire to collapse, destroying almost all of one of the oldest surviving timber frames in Paris, Ubisoft is giving away Assassin’s Creed Unity (which heavily features the landmark) on PC this week until April 25th to give more people a chance to experience it and raise awareness
    • They’ve also announced a 500K Euro donation to aid the restoration and reconstruction, and encourage others to contribute if possible
    • Assassin’s Creed Unity
      • 2014
      • Action-adventure game set in Paris during the French Revolution, using the classic third person open world we’ve come to expect but also revamping combat, parkour, and stealth after the previous entry, Black Flag
 

You might recall us talking about Facebook earlier this month, and how to confirm your email they expect you to hand over your email account’s password

  • Turns out, giving access to your personal information to a company in the business of selling your personal information was a bad idea- who knew?
  • According to Business Insider, Facebook harvested 1.5M people’s email contacts list without consent, and “unintentionally uploaded them”
  • A Facebook spokesperson has also confirmed that the harvested contacts were NOT just used to recommend friends, but also “improve ads”
  • This has gotten to the point where the Irish Data Protection Commission is now in contact with Facebook and considering next steps
 

Smash Ultimate v3.0 is here!

  • First up we’re finally seeing Joker from Persona 5 added to the roster as part of Challenger Pack 1, and his playstyle looks pretty interesting
    • He’s got some moves with a knife and gun, and it looks like he has a charge gauge that allows him to summon his Persona, which upgrades his attacks, greatly improves his recovery, and gives him a combination counter and reflect move
    • His final smash is also interesting- it triggers similarly to Marth’s, with a horizontal rush, but a quick press of the thumbstick makes him sweep back in the other direction in case you missed the first time
  • And speaking of Persona, we’re getting a Persona stage called Mementos with 11 different audio tracks that can affect the appearance of the stage and Joker’s victory screen
  • We’re also seeing new paid DLC Mii costumes for Morgana, Yu, Makoto, Teddie, Tails, and Knuckles
  • The stage builder we saw leaked in an ad last week made an official appearance, but if it supports 8 player stages they’re keeping it on the down-low
    • It does have new things like customizable moving or spinning platforms and multiple layers for decorative elements
  • They’re also adding in the ability to edit and share videos, download other players’ Mii setups, and adding Smash World on the Switch Online app for voice chat, browsing videos and custom stages, and managing your spirit teams
 

Disney has revealed some of the details on their upcoming Disney+ service, and it sounds pretty dang decent

  • Disney+ will launch in the US on November 12 for $7/month
  • It’ll include a huge library of old movies and shows, including Marvel, Pixar, and Star Wars titles, along with new content made exclusively for the service
  • There won’t be any ads (which really should be a no-brainer on a paid service) and users can download things to watch offline whenever they want
  • All said and done, this could offer Netflix the kick in the pants we need to stop them from continuing to raise their prices
 

Samsung’s Galaxy Fold is hit reviewers this week, and it’s not looking good

  • Multiple reviewers are having the devices break after just a few days of use
  • The Verge had theirs sprout a random bulge on the display, possibly due to some debris getting into the hinge, but whatever it was pressed into the display hard enough to break it
  • CNBC’s screen started flickering and failing after the first day
  • And Bloomberg’s started showing similar screen issues after two days
  • All told, it’s a rough start for the $2K device. This is really a prototype, but somehow they’re going forward with preorders
 

Labo VR is getting some tough reviews online, citing tiny experiences and terrible screen resolution

  • It also only tracks rotation, not movement, which is pretty standard for a cardboard headset but a tougher proposition in 2019
  • You also have to keep one hand on the headset holding it to your face the entire time, which gets tricky when playing mini games like putting, playing basketball, or throwing a boomerang
  • And it doesn’t help that Nintendo continually breaks immersion with not only how short the playtimes are on their bundled game, but also prompts to take a break every five minutes
  • End of the day, if you already have a switch and you’re curious about VR, then this is maybe a good idea… but it seems like there are also better options available
 
 

Tidbits

  • The first trailer for Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order has hit, and it looks solid!
    • I mean, it’s still coming from EA so be wary, but if they finish it we could finally see a good Star Wars game for the current gen of consoles
    • Releasing on November 15th
  • Speaking of Star Wars and trailers, the new Episode IX trailer looks solid!
    • It’s called The Rise of Skywalker, and the tagline is “This Christmas, the saga comes to an end”
  • The new all-digital edition of the Xbox One S is coming this May, and it’s kind of disappointing
    • It’s basically the existing S with no disc slot, and it’ll sell for about as much as retailers are already selling the S in game bundles (though Microsoft is trying to keep it $50 cheaper than the disc-spinning alternative)
  • In a cool earth-friendly move, Japan is making their medals for the 2020 olympics out of discarded smartphones and laptops
    • The requisite gold, silver, and bronze will be extracted from around 50,000 tons of recovered or donated e-waste and obsolete gadgets
    • For perspective, it takes about 100 fliphones to recover three grams of gold
 

Recommend Buffy the Vampire Slayer

  • I’m very late to the party, but I’m really enjoying it
  • Half delightfully 90’s high school life, half Supernatural-style monster of the week (though, I suppose Supernatural is really Buffy-style monster of the week really)
  • It looks like a series that people had a lot of fun making

 

Literally Misleading

This one is from Fanily member Scott. Check out his twitter @scottybomb and his podcast The Read-Along, its a weekly book club for where you can follow along with Scott and Anita!
 
MOVIE – “A man must join forces with an amnesiac to track down the man who kidnapped his son.”
 
If you have a Literally Misleading Description, message Josh directly on our Discord, or Twitter @fushigiyami

 

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

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…

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PS2J 219 News – Special Save File

We talk briefly of the coolest Overwatch Halloween skin. More news on the Bloomberg blunder. Josh suggests a show on Netflix which may be too much for some viewers. Alan recommends a book that is the sequel to another amazing book.

For more info, Patreon supports get access to our show notes!

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
Twitter and Instagram @ps2jshow
Facebook