PS2J 337 News – Before Dark Souls

March 5, 2021
Tagged as: 120fps, 2k, 4K, 60fps, action, adaptive triggers, Adventure, airplane, Alan, Amazon, anthem, app store, Apple, apple card, apple music, appleid, avalanche, avro lancaster, bad press, balance, bbs, BioWare, blasphemous, bomber crew, bomberman, boomerang fu, brazil amazon, breakout, bullet hell, bye forever, Castlevania, co-op, combat, Comedy, communist, couch, counterstrike, crash, credit card, cvstodia, damnation, deluze, Destiny, Diddy Kong Racing, diesel punk, DLC, dogfight, Dragon Age, dualsense, dustin curtis, ea games, eco-terrorist, Epic Games, ex, facebook marketplace, farpoint, fast laughs, faster, Final Fantasy, final fantasy vii, final fantasy vii remake, First Person, forgot, frames per second, Free Games, From Software, from the aches, haptic feedback, hollow knight, illegal, indigenous, intergrade, Japan, jedi fallen order, Josh, jupiter, Justice League, katana, lifestream, llamanati, lock, m1, Macbook, MacOS, mail, mailtrackerblocker, maquette, marketing, mech, medieval, mercenary, metal slug, metal slug 3, metroidvania, Microsoft, mind control delete, mini review, miscommunication, mistake, narrative, national forest, Netflix, nightmare, One, Online, outstanding, party, photo mode, physics, play at home, Playstation, plugin, pop-up, prime, PS4, ps5, PSVR, puzzle, racing, rainforest, ratchet & clank, Real Time Strategy, red dragon, remnant, reserve, resolution, roguelike-lite-ish, RPG, RTS, s, scroll, sekiro, series, service game, shadows die twice, shinobi, shinra, shmup, shoot ’em up, Shooter, sidescrolling, simulation, sine mora, single-player, skill, skydrift, snyder cut, Sony, Souls, souls-like, soulsborne, Space, strategy, SUPERHOT, superliminal, support, tactical, tengami, third person, tiktok, top-down, tracker, tracking, trade-in, twin stick, Twitch, vanity fair, vicious attack llama apocalypse, VR, warface, wargame, wolf, world war ii, would you like to know more, X, XBox, yuffie

Free Games

Twitch
- Blasphemous
  - 2019
  - A dark medieval Souls-like Metroidvania, Hollow Knight by way of Castlevania, that has you exploring the nightmare world of Cvstodia to break out of eternal damnation
- Bomber Crew Deluxe
  - 2017
  - Strategic simulation game that has you picking the right crew to keep your Avro Lancaster bomber in tip top shape and complete your World War II era missions
- Sine Mora EX
  - 2012
  - 2.5D bullet hell shoot ’em up in a diesel punk inspired world, now with improved visuals and new game modes
- Tengami
  - 2015
  - Adventure puzzle game that takes place in ancient Japan, with an artstyle similar to traditional Japanese painting with a 3D pop-up book look
- SkyDrift
  - 2011
  - Airplane combat racing game similar to the flight mode on Diddy Kong Racing with the addition of dogfights, where you get speed boosts for acrobatic maneuvers or for taking down opponents
- Boomerang Fu
  - 2020
  - Billed as a frantic physics party game, you play as different foods trying to chop eachother up with boomerangs from a top-down Bomberman-style view in a variety of crazy levels
Xbox
- Warface: Breakout
  - 2020
  - Tactical online first person objective shooter along the same lines as Counterstrike, launched as a spin-off from the popular free-to-play Warface
- Vicious Attack Llama Apocalypse
  - 2018
  - Tagline: “The world’s best mass llama-slaughter roguelike-lite-ish couch co-op top-down twin-stick shooter.”
  - You remotely pilot an endless supply of mechs from your ocean carrier offshore of the apocalypse, fighting through the llama hordes to take down The Llamanati
- Metal Slug 3
  - 2000
  - Run and gun sidescrolling shooter that added more weapons and vehicles to the Metal Slug series, as well as introducing branching paths
Playstation
- Final Fantasy VII Remake
  - 2020
  - Action RPG remake of the 1997 Final Fantasy VII, where you play as a mercenary who joins an eco-terrorist group trying to stop the Shinra corporation from using the planet’s essence as a power source
  - This is just the first part of a planned series, where they’ve taken the original game and reworked so much that each part is a full length title on its own
  - One thing to note is that people who get the game for free aren’t eligible for the free PS5 upgrade that we’ll be talking about a little later
- 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
- Maquette
  - 2021
  - A first-person recursive puzzle game that takes you into a world where every building, plant, and object are simultaneously tiny and staggeringly huge. It plays a lot like Superliminal but with less challenge, more to serve a narrative experience
- Farpoint
  - 2017
  - VR space adventure set on a hostile alien planet, where you’ve crash-landed after being sent to pick up scientists studying an anomaly near Jupiter
- And don’t forget to grab Ratchet & Clank, free this month for everyone from the Play At Home program
Epic Games
- Wargame: Red Dragon
  - 2014
  - Real-time strategy game that has you engage in a large-scale conflict between Western forces and the Communist bloc

Apple had to deal with some undeserved bad press this week as a story broke accusing them of locking a user’s AppleID due to missed Apple Card payments

In the original story you may have heard, Dustin Curtis started losing access to different areas of his AppleID, first the App Store, then Apple Music, and progressively more and more services, after purchasing a new Mac through the trade-in program and forgetting to send in his old one in exchange. This caused an additional charge to his Apple Card
- Apparently Apple did send a reminder, but when he replied saying he’d never received the trade-in kit he did not get a response
- Then through some detective work and miscommunications he determined that, because his bank account number had changed, the extra charge couldn’t be covered by his normal automatic payments leading to his account being locked
- If this was actually the case it would be a pretty big story, with Apple holding your digital life hostage after one missed credit card payment and treating their charges differently from others on their credit card
The actual story is less sinister, but still one to be aware of
- Apple released a statement first clarifying that the Apple Card and AppleID systems aren’t linked in that way- if you miss payments your AppleID will not be disabled
- What actually happened was, because the trade-in process was left unresolved after the time period expired (around 14 days), and they had provided an instant credit on his purchase for the trade-in, they attempted to charge his account for the balance. Because the bank account number had changed this charge failed and his account was left in bad standing
  - This would have happened with any credit card used, not just Apple’s
- So it’s much more straightforward- if your Apple account is left in bad standing with a balance owing, Apple starts disabling paid services until you cover the charge. Similar to any other bill payment. They don’t block your iCloud though, so messaging and whatnot will still work
In the end the original story has a couple of holes
- Banks generally don’t just change your account number without telling you
- If you do a trade-in, how do you forget you still have the old computer

There’s a fancy new version of Final Fantasy VII Remake coming to the PS5, with bonus DLC featuring Yuffie

June 10th will see a free PS5 upgrade for everyone who paid for the remake, titled Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade, though for some reason anyone getting the game for free from PS+ this month will be stuck with the PS4 version instead
- It’s still playable on the PS5 through backwards compatibility, but you won’t see the improved visuals or extra DLC content
- The new features include a graphics mode with 4k resolutions, a performance mode running 60fps, a customizable photo mode (because that’s becoming standard nowadays), faster load times, and extra features using the adaptive triggers and haptic feedback of the Dualsense controller

This Week In Gaming History

February 27 – 2002 – Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure – GameBoy Advance

Crash Bandicoot makes his first appearance on the Game Boy Advance, in this, his 5th adventure against arch nemesis, Dr. Neo Cortex.
- This time Cortex has shrunk the world down to a tiny size and it is up to Crash to explore the 20 levels full of dangerous creatures and terrain to collect crystals that will (hopefully) change the world back to its normal size.
Crash explores 4 worlds, each with 5 levels.
- Levels range from side-scrolling action to underwater swimming and 3D chase sequences (similar to those in the original Playstation series) designed using the GBA’s unique FX features to create a 3D illusion.
- You will also play flying shoot ’em up levels, a boss levels at the end of each world, and the usual extra bonus levels and secret items.

February 28 – 1997 – Turok: Dinosaur Hunter – Nintendo 64

The Earth is separated by an invisible barrier from the Lost Land, a realm in which time has no meaning, and which is inhabited by ferocious dinosaurs and aliens.
- For many generations, the mantle of Turok has been bestowed upon those who saw the protection of the barrier as their sacred duty.
- But an evil lord named Campaigner is seeking for an artifact that is capable of destroying the barrier, striving to dominate the entire universe.
- This artifact, known as the Chronoscepter, was broken into pieces which were then hidden away.
- Tal’Set, a Native American and the last Turok, must find the scattered pieces of the Chronoscepter, and stop the Campaigner from obtaining them.
Turok: Dinosaur Hunter is a first-person shooter with platforming and light puzzle-solving elements.
- Much of the game is set in outdoor environments, and requires the player to explore them by finding various paths, jumping, swimming, and climbing.
- The game’s most notable enemies are dinosaurs of various sizes, though the levels also include human and demonic enemies, as well as wildlife.
- The player gradually gains access to thirteen weapons (plus the Chronoscepter, assembling which is the game’s main objective); these include a knife, a bow, as well as high-tech firearms such as a rocket launcher and an atomic fusion cannon.
A first for the N64!
- Was the first 1st-person shooter on the console.
- It was also the first third-party release for the Nintendo 64.
German Censorship
- The German version of the game was censored.
- All human opponents were replaced by robots – some of them were exclusively modeled for this release, others were just taken from the last level of the game and used throughout all the other levels as well.
Japanese Title
- The Japanese title translates to Space-time Soldier Turok in English.
Memory Card Goof
- In the United Kingdom, Turok: Dinosaur Hunter was the first N64 game released there to require an expansion memory-card in order to save your in-game progress.
- The only problem was, Nintendo had not yet made their official memory-cards available for retail sale in the UK.
- Scrambling to meet market immediate market demand, third-party accessory manufacturers were able to swoop in and fill the gap.
- A notable misstep by Nintendo which could have tanked the release of Turok for the UK.

March 1 – 2001 – Looney Tunes: Sheep Raider – PlayStation, Windows

Sheep Raider is a 3D puzzle game, with gameplay mimicking the wacky contraptions and situations from the original cartoons.
- Players need to catapult themselves across a canyon, camouflage themselves as a bush to sneak past Ralph, lure sheep with sheep perfume etc.
The player takes on the role as starving Ralph Wolf and must help him steal one sheep from Sam Sheep Dog and get it to a certain goal location.
- With a wide arsenal of Acme gadgets at his disposal, Ralph is sure to concoct the perfect plan for keeping his stomach filled, or not!
- The game takes place across 15 various stages as well as 2 hidden stages, each with their own requirements and challenges, so the longevity of the game is notable.
The puzzles consist of finding items and using them at certain location or on certain characters.
- Items include lettuce to lure sheep and mines which can be defused.
- There also are mailboxes with which the player can order a wide arsenal of helpful Acme gadgets.
- Directly after ordering the product is air shipped instantaneously, with a crate falling from the sky.
- Gadgets include a rocket, dynamite, elastic band, a fan, a metal detector and many more.
- Some gadgets are level specific, like for example a time travel gadget with which Ralph can traveling back and forth in time to manipulate placement of rocks and trees.
There are checkpoints throughout each of the levels, although there are no visual clues as to where they are.
- For example, if the player reaches a certain area carrying the sheep and then falls off a cliff, the player plus sheep will be respawned near that area.
- Each level also has a punch clocks, usually in a hidden area, they acts just as an extra collectible.

March 2 – 2004 – Ninja Gaiden – Xbox

When the Vigoor Empire attacks Ryu Hayabusa’s village and steals the Dark Dragon Blade, the ninja vows to seek revenge with his Dragon Sword.
- Gifted with an impressive sets of moves, combining both melee and projectile weapons, you will need to defeat hordes of ninjas and monsters.
- During your journey, you acquire new moves and abilities such as the Art of the Inferno (fire), Ice Storm and Inazuma (thunder-like).
- Other moves include running over water, wall-based combos and ultimate techniques.
- You have to search or shop for special items, armlets, weapons and scrolls that enhance your abilities.
This fast-paced game is known for its hard difficulty (true to the series) and smart enemy AI that hardly relies on patterns.
- The Live! features allow for participating in the Master Ninja Tournament, a nationwide competition with prizes.

March 3 – 2017 -The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – Nintendo Switch, Wii U

Ad Blurb:
- Step into a world of adventure
- Forget everything you know about The Legend of Zelda games.
  - Step into a world of discovery, exploration, and adventure in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, a boundary-breaking new game in the acclaimed series.
  - Travel across vast fields, through forests, and to mountain peaks as you discover what has become of the kingdom of Hyrule In this stunning Open-Air Adventure.
  - Now on Nintendo Switch, your journey is freer and more open than ever.
  - Take your system anywhere, and adventure as Link any way you like.
- Features:
  - Explore the wilds of Hyrule any way you like—anytime, anywhere!
    - Climb up towers and mountain peaks in search of new destinations, then set your own path to get there and plunge into the wilderness.
    - Along the way, you’ll battle towering enemies, hunt wild beasts and gather ingredients for the food and elixirs you’ll make to sustain you on your journey.
    - With Nintendo Switch, you can literally take your journey anywhere.
  - More than 100 Shrines of Trials to discover and explore
    - Shrines dot the landscape, waiting to be discovered in any order you want.
    - Search for them in various ways, and solve a variety of puzzles inside.
    - The tasks you must perform in each Shrine varies, and you’ll never expect the challenges you’ll face until you enter.
    - Some will involve realistic physics, and some will require you to harness the power of nature, including electricity, wind, fire, and more.
    - Work your way through the traps and devices inside, utilizing your runes and think outside the box to earn special items and other rewards that will help you on your adventure.
  - Be prepared and properly equipped
    - With an entire world waiting to be explored, you’ll need a variety of outfits and gear to reach every corner.
    - You may need to bundle up with warmer clothes or change into something better suited to the desert heat.
    - Some clothing even has special effects that, for example, can make you faster or stealthier.
  - Battling enemies requires strategy
    - The world is inhabited with enemies of all shapes and sizes.
    - Each one has its own attack method and weaponry, so you must think quickly and develop the right strategies to defeat them.
  - amiibo compatibility
    - The Wolf Link amiibo from Twilight Princess HD, the Zelda 30th Anniversary series amiibo, and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild series amiibo are all compatible with this game.
    - Tap the Wolf Link amiibo (sold separately) to make Wolf Link appear in the game.
    - Wolf Link will attack enemies on his own and help you find items you’re searching for.
    - Tap a Zelda 30th Anniversary series amiibo to receive helpful in-game items or even a treasure chest!
Tribute to Iwata
- The game pays tribute to late Nintendo president Satoru Iwata through the character Botrick, who bears a striking resemblance to Iwata. Botrick tells Link about the Satori Mountain, with “Satori” being derived from Iwata’s first name Satoru. At top of the mountain is a mystical horse called the Lord of the Mountain, whose Hyrule Compendium entry reads:
- “This noble creature watches over all animals that make their homes in the forest. Legends say this holy creature is a reincarnation of a sage that died on the land it now protects. It has an acute awareness of its surroundings, so it seldom appears before people. It’s also known by its other name, Satori.”

March 4 – 2014 – South Park: The Stick of Truth – PS3, Windows, Xbox 360

South Park: The Stick of Truth is an RPG based off the South Park franchise.
- You play as a new kid (Douchebag as known to by Cartman) who just arrived in the town of South Park, Colorado.
- You immediately become thrust into a battle of epic proportions as you join together with many characters such as Kenny and Butters in order to procure the magical Stick of Truth from the evil Elves.
Starting off the adventure you get to choose between four different classes: Warrior, Mage, Thief, and Jew.
- Your appearance is completely customizable at all times with new outfits and accessories able to be found around the town.
- Social networking is an important feature in the game.
- When you meet new characters they become friends with you on the Facebook social network.
- Things like quests, your inventory, the town map, and more are also all displayed on your profile page.
- Your friends will post messages from time to time on your wall and give tips on how to beat quests and on where to find certain characters.
The game is visually made to look just like an episode from the television show.
- Written by South Park writers Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the story takes place after the season 17 Black Friday episode trilogy. Combat is turn-based and relies on the HP/PP system found in many other games.
- Taking damage reduces your HP and using your abilities/magic to dish out damage consumes your PP.
- HP/PP is completely restores after every battle.
- The character is able to become stronger by changing their equipment and gaining experience in battle.
- After obtaining a certain amount of XP the character levels up and is given upgrade points.
- These points are then used to strengthen your abilities.
- Meeting set amount of characters unlocks different perks to help in battle.

March 5 – 2020 – Walking Simulator – Windows

The year is 2020, world war III and the coronavirus destroyed the civilized world.
- You are the last post carrier, tasked to get parcels from point A to B in the most barren and desolate places on earth.
- Get ready to combat the weather, terrain and gravity itself.
- Can you help humanity rebuild or will this task be too much.
Beta of ACT 1 – Antarctica is now available

Tidbits

Following the success of Jedi Fallen Order and the abject failure of Anthem, EA has allowed BioWare to make the next Dragon Age a single-player RPG
- Knowing the history of the franchise it was a bit of a shock to hear that it had previously been planned as an online multiplayer service game, a la Destiny
SUPERHOT: MIND CONTROL DELETE has been updated on Xbox to support 4k at 120fps on the Series X, and 2k/120fps on the S
- If you haven’t played it already, it’s absolutely worth your time and I’m envious of all those extra frames you’ll see
According to the BBC, parts of Brazil’s Amazon rainforest are being illegally sold through Facebook’s classified ads service, with some plots as large as 1,000 soccer fields and located in national forests and indigenous peoples reserves
- Facebook said it was ready to work with local authorities, but would not take any action on its own
Netflix has launched a new Fast Laughs feature on their app, showcasing scrollable little clips from different shows and comedy specials all formatted vertically to remind you what they have to offer in the age of TikTok
Anyone using the Mail app on macOS should check out MailTrackerBlocker, a plugin that strips out a good majority of spy pixels in marketing emails that feed information about your email interaction back to marketers like if/when you open an email, as well as your location and what device you’re using
- https://apparition47.github.io/MailTrackerBlocker/

Mini Review- Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

Just getting in to it and it’s fantastic
Feels very challenging, but once the combat starts to click it’s so satisfying
Feels much more directly skill-based than other Souls games where you might just come back later with better equipment
Had a moment where I was stalking the rooftops jumpkilling people when someone actually noticed my shadow and alerted everyone

Would you like to know more?

The full story behind the Justice League Snyder Cut, warts and all
- https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/2021/02/the-true-story-of-justice-league-snyder-cut

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PS2J Show

PS2J 328 News – Year in Review

December 4, 2020
Tagged as: 19, 2020, 2d, 4g, 5g, a short hike, action, ad, Adventure, advertising, agency, Alan, all access, allthestreams.fm, amnesia, Animal Crossing, anthem, app store, Apple, april, Arcade, Art, auction, august, backdoor, battery, battlefield 3, Bethesda, BioWare, Bitcoin, Black Lives Matter, box office, Breath of the Wild, bullet hell, Cat, cave story+, cd, CD Projekt Red, cellular, ces, children, China, Chromecast, class-action, Clone High, close to the sun, Cloud, Comic-Con, conspiracy, contact tracing, control, controls, covid, Cyberpunk 2077, delay, derek chauvin, desolate, Detective Pikachu, DICE, digital edition, Disney, distrated driving, diversity, dodge, Doom 64, doom eternal, drift, DS, dualsense, dumpster fire, dungeon, EA, edison, email, Encryption, enhanced, epic, Epic Games, Epic Mickey, expensive, exploration, exposure notification, Facebook, farmville, fast, FBI, february, First Person, Fortnite, Free Games, futuristic, game, gaming, gato roboto, george floyd, giant, global cold war, Google, Government, greykey, hey.com, highlight, historical, hitman 3, hollow knight, Horror, hyperdot, id, Indie, intelligence, Internet Archive, interrogation, iOS, iran, iraq, january, Josh, journalist, joy-con, july, june, juneteenth, juul, keylogging, la, Las Vegas, Law, Law Enforcement, Lawsuit, lost horizon, Luigi, m1, Macbook, magic, Mainframe, Malware, management, march, Mario, May, mech, melee, Metal Gear Solid, metroidvania, MGS, Microsoft, military, minimalist, misleading, Mobile, monolithic, Moon, mountain, murder, Mushroom Men, narrative, narrator, NASA, nintendo, No Mans Sky, north america, october, Oculus, office, oil rush, open library, opressive, Origin, pay, PC, peer-to-peer, performance, performance standards, Personal, phishing, Playstation, point and click, Portable Ops, Privacy, ps5, pull the pin, puzzle, quest 2, quibi, relic, rescue, respect, reuters, rip & tear, robot, roguelike, samsung galaxy note, scam, security, september, series x, Shadow of the Colossus, Shadows of the Empire, Shooter, sigma theory, silicon, sim, simon weckert, simulation, singularity, Smash Bros, Sonic the Hedgehog, Sony, soulsborne, Spam, spectrum retreat, square, stadia, stanley parable, Star Citizen, Star Wars, strategy, Streaming<, subscription, Super, surreal, Switch, Tesla, third reich, tiktok, top-down, traffic jam, Trump, truth, turmoil, Turn Based, Twitch, Twitter, UK, united states, unsettling, ups, vhs, Virtual Boy, war of 2014, Wario Land, Wii, wink, wizard, wizard of legend, XBox, year in review, zenimax media, zoom

This is our last episode of the year before we take our traditional December vacation, but we’ll be running feed drops through to the end of the year of some other great episodes from the Alberta Podcast Network. Hope you enjoy them, have a fantastic holiday season, and we’ll see you in January!

Free Games

Twitch
- Battlefield 3 (on Origin)
  - 2011
  - First person military shooter set during the fictional War of 2014, taking place in the Iran-Iraq region, with missions framed as flashbacks during your interrogation
- HyperDot
  - 2020
  - Minimalist action arcade bullet hell with one rule- dodge everything
- The Spectrum Retreat
  - 2018
  - First person narrative driven puzzle game set in the near future that has you exploring the peaceful yet unsettling Penrose Hotel, trying to unearth the truth
- Wizard of Legend
  - 2018
  - Indie top down 2D roguelike where players take control of a wizard travelling a procedurally generated dungeon, killing monsters and collecting spells to become the Wizard of Legend
- Lost Horizon
  - 2010
  - Historical point and click adventure game in 1936 where you have to travel the world protecting powerful relics while staying one step ahead of the Third Reich
- Sigma Theory: Global Cold War
  - 2019
  - Turn-based strategy game in a futuristic cold war where you have to run an intelligence agency to secure control of the singularity
- Turmoil
  - 2016
  - Indie strategy and management sim inspired by the 19th century oil rush, that has you drilling for oil to become North America’s next big entrepreneur
- Close to the Sun
  - 2019
  - First person horror adventure game set in an alternate 1897 that has the journalist Rose Archer setting out to save her sister
Epic Games
- Cave Story+
  - The enhanced 2011 release of the 2004 title
  - Metroidvania style game that has you playing Quote, a robot who has suffered amnesia and must blast his way through cavernous areas to find his backstory. Often considered the quintessential indie game because of its one-man dev team and influence on gaming

2020 year in review

290 free games across PC, Xbox, and Playstation platforms
- Some highlights I’ve personally enjoyed are:
  - Gato Roboto (Xbox) – Streamlined Metroid-style game where you play a cat in an armoured mech trying to save your stranded captain and his crashed ship
  - Shadow of the Colossus (PlayStation) – Gorgeous remake of the action adventure game that has you taking down a series of monolithic enemies
  - A Short Hike (PC) – One part Animal Crossing and one part Breath of the Wild, it’s a small exploration game that has you exploring an island and (eventually) climbing a mountain
  - The Stanley Parable (PC) – An exploration game with many endings, that starts with you exploring an office building and going along with the narrator, then can get pretty surreal
  - Hollow Knight (PlayStation) – Metroidvania by way of Soulsborne, with tight controls and a nice art style
January
- Quibi was introduced at CES 2020 in Las Vegas, but unfortunately its dynamic portrait/landscape video player couldn’t keep it afloat among so many other streaming services and it was shut down in October
- The Xbox Series X was unveiled, the PS5’s logo was shown off, and the FBI kept trying to convince the world that encryption is bad because the only way to stop a bad guy with a lock is a (hopefully) good guy with omniscient, unblinking access to everyone’s data
- CD Projekt Red pushed back Cyberpunk 2077 for the first time, saying it’s done but just needs more polish
  - Despite that and even though they went ahead with crunch time development, it was delayed two more times but should hopefully be here in another week
Feburary
- Simon Weckert managed to simulate a traffic jam in Google Maps by carting a wagon with 99 smartphones around, causing vehicles using the service to avoid his route
- E-cigarette maker Juul was sued for predatory advertising, including ads on sites like Cartoon Network and Nick Jr
- Bioware announced that they would halt Anthem’s seasonal updates in favour of an overhaul, and if they pull it off we could see another No Man’s Sky style rebirth
- Sonic the Hedgehog achieved the biggest opening weekend of any video game movie at $57M in the US, dethroning Detective Pikachu’s $54M
March
- Apple settled with the US class action lawsuit regarding performance throttling on devices with older batteries
- A Nintendo PlayStation prototype, the planned CD system for the Super Nintendo, sold at auction for $380,000
- allthestreams.fm launched in a weird experiment, playing content from the six major streaming services but not letting you choose what each of them played
  - The site is still up, but all the streams have been replaced with the old VHS FBI warning
April
- Zoom’s video conferencing app had a lot of shady practices come to light, including Facebook data harvesting, bypassing normal installation procedures on Mac, not properly encrypting chats, and exposing thousands of videos online thanks to easily-predicted file names
- The Internet Archive shifted its online Open Library to allow two-week book checkouts of any ebooks, regardless of how many copies were purchased by the library or how many are checked out
- Sony’s DualSense controllers were first unveiled, and it turns out the haptics and triggers are even nicer to use than we were expecting
- Apple and Google first announced their joint exposure notification effort to make reliable, meaningful contact tracing easier for the COVID-19 pandemic. This has seen decent adoption, but some jurisdictions are still adamant on using their own home-rolled solutions regardless of efficacy or efficiency
May
- We started to see spam and phishing attacks related to fake COVID exposure notifications, cementing why it’s important to have this kind of thing standardized
- Wink, a smart home hub manufacturer went from a buy-once system to a subscription model requiring $5/month or your smart home would no longer work with less than a month’s notice
  - Based on the winkhub subreddit, this marked the beginning of the end and had many users migrate to alternatives that don’t rely on the cloud
- Reports found a new piece of keylogging malware used by law enforcement to trick people into revealing their phone passcode, hidden behind nondisclosure agreements and protective orders
- Conspiracy theorists began attacking 5G cell phone towers under the impression that the new frequency was somehow causing the coronavirus outbreak
June
- George Floyd was murdered by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who spent almost nine minutes kneeling on Floyd’s neck asphyxiating him while Floyd did not resist, sparking protests and reigniting the Black Lives Matter movement
  - We can’t forget how law enforcement evolved from oppressive practices in white societies, be it union busting, slave catching, or the relocation and elimination of indigenous people, and we need to do better
  - The tech world tried to show respect by delaying events, posting supportive messages, making donations, and even shutting down online services during the memorial
  - There has also been a push to include underrepresented and marginalized people in corporate leadership, with the SEC considering regulations forcing diversity
  - And Juneteenth has become a more widely recognized holiday milestone in the US, celebrating the federal order declaring that all slaves were to be set free and marking a true independence day for the country
- Star Citizen became the most expensive game in history, reaching $350M invested and still no release date in sight
- And we got our first taste of Apple’s new processors, which have since proven to be a radical jump in computing
July
- A reboot of the cult classic series Clone High was announced, but we still have yet to hear many details about what it will look like
- Nintendo’s president officially apologized for the Nintendo Switch Joy-Con drift issues
- Apple’s iOS 14 beta began highlighting just how common it was for apps to access your phone’s copy/pasted data without permission, or even use your camera and microphone when you’re not expecting it, leading to many updates and “fixes”
- High profile Twitter accounts were hacked as part of a bitcoin scam, including Barack Obama, Elon Musk, and Apple
August
- Trump first announced his planned TikTok ban / forced sale, citing security concerns, which has been pretty messy with the US and Chinese governments trying to affect who it’s sold to and if the sale will even go through
  - The original deadline was September 15th, but there’s still no end in sight
- Epic threw down the gauntlet, violating Apple’s App Store guidelines with the iOS version of Fortnite in a seemingly calculated move to look like the little guys getting smacked down but really it looks like they just got greedy and wanted to stop paying the industry-standard 30% on in-app purchases
  - Their lawsuit against Apple for removing the game from the App Store is slated to move forward in the Spring, but with Apple recently announcing that developers making <$1M a year only need to pay 15% their case doesn’t look good
- Republicans in the US tried yet again to pass laws against proper digital encryption, trying to make the case for adding backdoors that magically only good guys can use
September
- Microsoft and Sony released all the details on their new consoles, with Xbox All Access looking like a solid choice for a good console with no money down, and the PS5 Digital Edition competing with the Series S on Price but the Series X on performance
- Apple announced that they were delaying the cross app tracking prevention features originally slated to be part of iOS 14, much to the relief of advertising companies like Facebook and Google, but we should be seeing them early next year
- Facebook announced the Oculus Quest 2, a very, very shiny piece of hardware luring many into the clutches of the social network
  - There’s a reason it’s the cheapest VR out there
- Microsoft purchased ZeniMax Media for $7.5B, one of the largest purchases in gaming history, and brought a whole slew of IP under their control, including everything from id and Bethesda
October
- Google announced a new standalone ChromeCast model that doesn’t need your phone to control it, but were suspiciously silent about Stadia support
- The quintessential Facebook game, FarmVille, announced that they would be shutting down at the end of 2020
- LA Comic Con announced that they would be hosting their full in-person event in December, but then two weeks later completely cancelled any events for 2020
- The UK started closing the loophole in their distracted driving laws that allowed people to play mobile games or record video while driving
- NASA announced plans to install a 4G cellular network on the Moon
November
- Cloud gaming on the Switch came to North America, with triple-A titles Control and Hitman 3 announced for the console through a <100MB download
- Google revamped their Google Pay app, highlighting peer-to-peer payments, and including a bunch of data-scraping features if you want it to show nearby deals and discounts
- The UK set up a ban on misleading mobile game ads, like those pull-the-pin ones that don’t actually show the real gameplay of the app

And hey.com gave us all the ability to email a literal dumpster fire

A comment on YouTube summed up what happened since Cyberpunks announcement

https://www.reddit.com/r/cyberpunkgame/comments/k0qloh/lol

Cyberpunk 2077 – Teaser Trailer
- 10 Jan 2013
Fiii Rahman 3 weeks ago (edited)
Things that have happened since Cyberpunk was announced:
- 2 Resident Evil Remakes
- 2 The Last of Us
- 2 Rockstar open world games
- 2 Dark Souls
- 3 Gears of War
- 11 Call of Duty’s
- 9 Assassins Creeds
- 2 God of wars
- 3 Miyazaki games
- 2 Uncharteds
- 2 Devil May Crys
- 3 Watch Dogs
- 2 games and 1 Kojima demo
- 2 Nomura games
- 1 The Last Guardian
- Announcement that Final Fantasy Versus 13 became FFXV and launch
- Baldurs Gate 3 launched
- Diablo 4 has been announced
- Kingdoms hearts and a prologue
- Announcement and launch of Shenmue 3
- Announcement and launch of FF VII Remake
- 2 Fallouts
- 4 Battlefields
- Ouya was born and died
- 2 World Cups
- 1 entire Star Wars trilogy
- Crash came back with a remastered trilogy, won a racing spin off and a mainline sequel.
- 6 Yakuzas
- 5 JOJO animations
- 2 Popes
- 2 Spider-man reboots in theaters
- 3 Avengers movies
- Death of the Wii U and birth of the Switch
- Launch of PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5
- Xbox One and Xbox Series launch
- Stadia’s birth and his future death
- Shingeki no Kyojin was in its first season and now Cyberpunk will launch 3 days after its last season
- Skyrim in the Fridge

This Week in Gaming History

November 28 – 2005 – Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time – Nintendo DS

The famous Mario Brothers return in this sequel to the humorous Superstar Saga. In this adventure, Princess Peach takes a trip in a time machine, but when it returns, there’s only a monster inside!
- The heroic brothers travel back in time only to discover that evil alien life forms known as the Shroobs have taken over the Mushroom Kingdom, and no-one is safe!
- They soon meet up with their younger selves, and set out to stop the alien menace, not to mention rescue the Princess!
Although the game has turn-based battles, it follows the tradition of the previous Mario RPG games, in that button commands can be pressed during battle to increase your attack, defend, and counterattack, to give the impression of a more interactive battle.
Battling can also become quite hectic, as players now have to control the each of the four brothers with the four different face buttons.
- This can make for some very tricky situations when using special power-ups that randomize the brothers’ turns.

November 29 – 1975 – Square – Mainframe

Square is a game for two players. Players take turns claiming free points in a grid.
The first player to have four points that together make a square wins the game.
The game allows for multiple grid sizes and an expert mode where the centre position is unavailable to both players.

November 30 – 2010 – Disney Epic Mickey – Wii

Disney Epic Mickey is an action-adventure platforming game for the Wii console that sends Mickey Mouse on an epic journey of creativity and discovery.
- As Mickey, the player is propelled into Wasteland, an alternate world made up of Disney’s long forgotten characters and attractions, and is given the power to wield paint and paint thinner to dynamically change the world while determining Mickey’s path to becoming an epic hero.
Features:
- Use paint and paint thinner to change the world, interact with friends and enemies and solve challenges
- Choose the best path to become an epic hero because “Playstyle Matters” and choices will change the outcome of the game
- Explore and solve challenges in an alternate Disney world ruled by Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Walt Disney’s first cartoon star
- Travel between lands in Wasteland through classic platforming levels inspired by animated films and shorts
- Experience an innovative mix of platforming, action-adventure and light role playing game elements
- Collect over 75 virtual Disney pins in the game by completing specific challenges, quests and discovering hidden collectibles
Josh says:
- “This game was released right when the rights to a bunch of Disney properties were about to enter public domain. And the new original use of these characters put a reset on everything going free. Disney may have the lawyers to keep him theirs though”

December 1 – 1995 – Virtual Boy Wario Land – Virtual Boy

On a vacation in the Awazon river, Wario stumbles across a hidden cave filled with treasure.
- Of course, being Wario, he wants it all to himself.
- But the treasure is guarded and soon he finds himself deep within the Earth as the floor crumbles underneath his feet.
- Now Wario must find his way back to the surface, all the while collecting the treasure he believes rightly belongs to him.
This 3D style platform game, following the tradition of the Mario and Wario platform games of the Game Boy, will have you using Wario’s unique abilities (butt stomping for one) to crash his way through the earth to the surface.
- His other abilities depend upon the hard hat he wears, and different ones are available that can come as an advantage.

December 2 – 2001 – Super Smash Bros.: Melee – GameCube

The hit sequel to the N64 smash hit party fighting game.
- Made such an impact, people still play it as their preferred Smash Bros.
The game is a Nintendo fighting game with different rules to it. Instead of knocking your opponent’s health down, you knock him or her out of the battle field.
- You choose from the wealth of Nintendo characters like Mario, Bowser, Yoshi, different Pokémon, and even Link and then either fight through the single-player portion, featuring modes like Classic, Adventure, and Event Mode or battle it out with your friends in a four-player frenzy.
- More characters and stages are unlocked as hidden objectives are met, and coins rewarded for playing in all modes can be spent on a capsule toy machine.
- The toys in the machine represent games from Nintendo’s entire video game history, and each can be viewed in 3D with a brief description.
- Also, with the simplified fighting controls, it’s pretty easy for even your non-gaming friends to just pick-up and play.
Default characters
- Mario
- Donkey Kong
- Link
- Samus Aran
- Yoshi
- Kirby
- Fox McCloud
- Pikachu
- Ness
- Captain Falcon
- Bowser
- Princess Peach
- Ice Climbers
- Princess Zelda
- Sheik
Unlockable characters
- Luigi
- Jigglypuff
- Mewtwo
- Marth
- Mr. Game & Watch
- Dr. Mario
- Ganondorf
- Falco Lombardi
- Young Link
- Pichu
- Roy

December 3 – 1996 – Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire – N64, Windows

Set between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire tells the story of Prince Xizor’s quest to replace Darth Vader as the leader of the Sith, and wipe out the Rebels’ chances of victory.
- The only man that can stop him is the interstellar bounty hunter Dash Rendar.
- The game is based on the novel of the same name, with locations including ice planet Hoth, Mos Eisley and the sewers of Imperial City, all in full 3D.
Levels each have very different objectives, ranging from piloting snowspeeders on Hoth and racing speeder bikes on Tatooine to shooting stormtroopers and droids on foot throughout the galaxy.
- Dash primarily uses a blaster with unlimited ammo, but can also find more powerful weapons with limited ammunition.
- Each level has optional “challenge points” that are hidden throughout the level, and finding all of them will unlock a cheat dependent on which difficulty setting the save file is on.

December 4 – 2008 – Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars – Wii

In Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars is a 3D platform game.
- After a comet passes Earth, narrowly missing it, but leaving a trail of green dust that enters earth’s atmosphere.
- The dust causes plants and fungi to become sentient and forming tribes in order to survive the harsh human world.
After a period of peace however, a war begins between four mushrooms tribes, the Boletes, Amanitas, Leopiota and the Morels.
- The player takes control of a Bolete Mushroom named Pax who travels out into the giant human world in order to find a new meteorite for a mushroom village who’s meteorite he absorbed, but soon realizes there is more at stake.
The gameplay includes a platforming, exploring levels, defeating enemies, complete certain objectives and collect normal household items.
- Some of these Items can be fashioned into weapons, while others like the green meteorite chunks make the player stronger.
- Along the way Players must also avoid obstacles and defeat smaller and boss enemies such as insects, animals and other mushrooms that can easily crush and kill the character.
- A telekinetic ability can be used to pick up items and throw them at enemies or to activate switches.
- The game can also be played in co-op mode and a number of mini games is included under options.
Josh says:
- “I remember this game getting advertised really hard, like it was the next big franchise.”

December 5 – 2006 – Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops – PSP

The two previous Metal Gear Solid games for PSP, were not the MGS experience people expected like in this game.
- Portable Ops was the tactical espionage action, people wanted
- While Ac!d was a turnbased card strategy game
It’s been six years since the events in Snake Eater.
- Snake has been captured and imprisoned in an abandoned missile silo in Colombia, and with no support this time. At least, not at first.
- With the help of a fellow prisoner, Snake escapes and the game truly begins.
Portable Ops is a classic Metal Gear game in almost every sense.
- The controls will be familiar to anyone who has played previous console entries in the series.
- Snake can peek around corners, sneak up behind guards… they even carried over CQC (Close Quarters Combat) from Snake Eater.
Gathering supplies is also essential due to the main new mechanic found in Portable Ops: recruiting.
- While Snake starts out on his own, he can enlist disgruntled guards, frustrated technicians, stubborn doctors and more.
- These soldiers can be used in your “Sneaking Unit” (the team you take into battle for each mission), or in one of the many support units, with certain soldiers having a more natural talent for certain areas.
- If you put someone who has medical bonuses in your Medical unit, they can produce rations, help your troops recover faster between missions and more.
- Technicians can create new items for your team, and Spies can steal ammo and give you intel on specific maps, which can open up new side missions or allow you to grab some heavy weaponry.
Missions themselves range from recon to rescue to demolitions and beyond.
- You can only take four troops into a mission, and usually one of them has to be Snake.
- However, you don’t have to always use Snake during the mission, he just has to be present.
- You can only control one character at a time, while the rest of the team hides safely inside boxes (usually right by the entry point).
- On the field, the soldier you use can make a big difference.
- Many times you can totally bypass a building’s defenses just by playing as a guard.
- If you do not do anything to draw attention to yourself, you can oftentimes walk right past the enemy, plant some TNT, and walk away.
The game supports multiplayer for up to six player simultaneously, over WiFi Ad Hoc and Infrastructure, with game modes such as Team Death Match, Death Match and Capture Mission.

Tidbits

With so many shopping online this year, apparently it’s reached the point where UPS told its drivers to stop picking up packages at some major retailers including Nike and the Gap to maintain performance standards
- Amazon is even offering small rebates on some products if you select a “No-Rush Shipping” option, to reduce strain
Reuters is reporting that the Samsung Galaxy Note series may be discontinued as early as next year, with styluses coming to the S21 and next foldable phone instead
More than 8.5 months later, Doom Eternal is finally launching on the Switch next week
- It will be a 19GB digital-only release, and if you get it before December 23rd it includes the early purchase bonus Rip & Tear Pack, as well as a playable copy of Doom 64

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PS2J 327 News – RemindMe! 2191 Days

November 27, 2020
Tagged as: action, Adventure, Alan, Amazing Frog, android, Ape Escape, Apple, Arcade, battle royale, Bayonetta, Bizarre, bleed 2, bugsnax, bullet hell, bumbling, chome, click, Command and Conquer, compass, dance, dark cloud, detective, DOS, double fine, Dreamcast. Sonic, Driving, dumpster fire, email, Epic Games, epilogue, episodic, eshop, expansion, Extreme, file, Free Games, gat out of hell, Genesis, go sms pro, Google, grappling hook, hey.comdesert bus, hey.science, Indie, intel, jewel, JoJo, Josh, Just Cause 4, Link, m1, Mac, map, matryoshka, Micheal Jackson, Microsoft, miles morales, MJ, mud, mudrunner, mystery, N64, nintendo, noir, Ocarina of Time, off-road, One, online rocket, open-world, photo, platformer, Playstation, point, pokemon snap, Police, Privacy, ps plus collection, PS4, ps5, puzzle, quake, Red Alert, Reddit, remastered, Rico, rocket arena, rocket booster, russian, saints row, save, security, sequential, series, server, siberia, side scrolling, sim, Smash Bros, Sony, Spider-Man, stacking, stealth, super mario maker, superhuman, swiss, tails, techcrunch, the black hand, the raven, thief, twist, ultimate, universal, upload, url, viva pinata, VR, Wii, Windows, wingsuit, worms, worms rumble, XBox, Zelda

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

Free Games

Xbox
- The Raven Remastered
  - 2018 remaster from 2014
  - Episodic point and click adventure game incorporating elements of stealth and detective work, it’s a noir mystery story that has you playing a bumbling Swiss police constable on the hunt of a notorious jewel thief
- Bleed 2
  - 2017
  - Side-scrolling arcade action platformer featuring air-dodging, bullet-reflecting, and tons of bosses, like a 2D Bayonetta bullet-hell
- Saints Row: Gat out of Hell
  - 2015
  - Action-adventure open world game that serves as an epilogue to Saints Row IV and is a standalone expansion, featuring the same kind of over-the-top third-person shooter action and superhuman abilities that Saints Row became known for in later entries
- Stacking
  - 2011
  - Adventure puzzle game developed by Double Fine Productions, created during the development period of Brütal Legend, and based on the Russian stacking matryoshka dolls where you can stack and unstack into other characters to use their abilities and solve puzzles
PlayStation
- Worms Rumble
  - 2020
  - A twist on the classic Worms blueprint, where instead of turn-by-turn strategic combat it’s real-time with up to 32 players in battle royale or deathmatch modes
  - Launching simultaneously on the PS4, PS5, and Steam with full crossplay and planned ongoing content updates including arenas, customizations, game modes, and more
- Just Cause 4
  - 2018
  - Open world action adventure game where you work to take down The Black Hand, the world’s biggest private military, with your wingsuit, grappling hook, rocket boosters, and a variety of weaponry. The game uses a new version of the game engine of Just Cause 3, featuring diverse and extreme weather including blizzards, sandstorms, tornadoes, and more
- Rocket Arena
  - 2020
  - Online third-person 3v3 shooter where each character has unique abilities and signature rockets, and when you get blasted out of the arena you fly your rocket right back in to the action. Polygon called it a blend of Quake-style combat with Smash Bros violence
- Bugsnax (still free this month, too)
  - 2020
  - An indie adventure game where you explore a mysterious island and attempt to find and capture the titular half-bug-half-snack creatures, taking inspiration from Pokémon Snap, Ape Escape, Dark Cloud, and Viva Piñata
- And if you’re lucky enough to get a PS5, you’ll get access to the PS Plus Collection
  - 20 great games from the PS4 era that can help you catch up if you missed out
Epic Games
- MudRunner
  - 2017
  - Off-road driving sim that advertises itself as the ultimate off-road experience, putting players in the driver seat across extreme Siberian landscapes with only a map and compass as guides

Security alert: Go SMS Pro, a popular Android messaging app, exposed millions of users’ private photos and files

Security researchers found a flaw in the app back in August and contacted the developer with a 90-day deadline for a fix before they disclosed the issue, but after no communication back at all for the three month period they went public
Apparently when Go SMS Pro sends a photo, video, or other file to someone without the app, it gets uploaded to the app’s servers and lets the user share a web address, so that the recipient can see the file
Unfortunately the web addresses are sequential- any time a file is shared, a web address is generated that lets people browse through all the different files uploaded by other users
- Once you know the predictable web address, you can just edit the number and view anyone else’s files
And this problem is pretty widespread- Go SMS Pro has more than 100M installs, according to the Google Play Store
TechCrunch even verified the findings, viewing a person’s phone number, a bank transfer, an order confirmation, an arrest record, and many explicit photos
While it’s not possible to target a specific user, an attacker could create scripts to just grab anything and everything to filter through at a later date
In investigating the story TechCrunch emailed two different addresses associated with the app- one bounced back due to a full inbox, and the other opened the email but did not reply
This definitely isn’t what you want in a messaging app, so if you’re using Go SMS Pro you might want to consider an alternative

Updates have officially been released for Spider-Man on the PS4 and PS5 to allow game-saves to be brought in to the next-gen remaster

You’ll need to load up your PS4 copy first and upload your save from the main menu before you can import it on the PS5, so if you don’t have access to your old copy you might need to recruit a friend to help out
Luckily even though I already gave away my PS4 I could still boot up my old digital copy of Spider-Man to upload my save, ahead of buying Miles Morales

6 Years ago, the Apple subreddit thought of what a Phone in 2020 would be like

https://www.reddit.com/r/apple/comments/2n9o7c/predict_the_iphone_in_2020

We browsed the comments for highlights live on the show

This Day In Gaming History

November 21 – 2014 – The Amazing Frog? – Linux, Mac, Ouya

Amazing Frog? is a Hardcore Parkour openworld buffet of bonkers physics sandbox gameplay.
- Welcome to the town of Swindon, UK. Home to flatulant super hero, Amazing Frog?
Enter Swindon where you can drive cars, buses and mobility scooters, jump on trampolines, fire yourself out of cannons, into explosions, search for trophies and Tvs and reach the heights and a whole lot more.
- Its your Swindon do as you please.
Take a quiet trip to the Swindon fArt Gallery if it pleases you….
- Feeling aggressive ? find a crossbow, machine gun or laser and shoot the hell out of each other.
- Visit the Fart Gyms for a workout or discover the Zombie filled underground Sewers.
Key Features:
- a 20Km Landscape
- A whole bunch of vehicles
- 4 player split screen
- Oculus VR support.
- Pigging backs… and pigs
- ridiculous ragdolls, trampolines, cannons and explosions
- Weapons like crossbows lasers and machine-guns
- Vicious Sharks
- Swimmming ish and Boats in the ocean
- Fully fitted Fart Gym
- Underground Zombie Frogs in the Sewers
- A Giant chessboard
- A bunch of test rooms
- and a whole lot of mystery…

November 22 – 1996 – Command & Conquer: Red Alert – Windows, DOS

What if Hitler never existed?
- Einstein pondered the question and created a time-machine to eliminate Hitler as a young man, thus preventing World War II as history remembers it. However, Einstein stopped one evil only to create another – because Stalin’s Soviet Union is now poised to conquer Europe… and Allies must stop them!
Josh says
- “This was one game I played a hell of a lot of, I remember making custom maps for my Dad to try out in the skirmish mode.”
The German version removes Hitler from the intro and replaces all the soldiers with cyborgs.
Command & Conquer: Red Alert appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

November 23 – 1998 – The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time – N64

A game that needs no introduction, I have some trivia to talk about
- Ocarina of Time started life in development for Nintendo’s 64DD add-on for the Nintendo 64 (which was a disk drive that was only released in Japan with little fanfare).
  - The 64DD flopped in Japan and it wasn’t even released in the USA.
  - As a result, instead of being released in disks, the game was crammed into a cartridge (which was the biggest N64 pre-Expansion Pak cartridge released, in terms of space).
  - Even though it was originally developed and planned for the 64DD, it was announced to much surprise that Zelda would release in cartridge form for the N64 first; further indicating that the disk drive platform was not gaining the traction Nintendo had hoped for.
- Due to overwhelming fan requests, Nintendo decided to release the original production releases of the game as a gold-colored cartridge, restoring the ‘golden cartridge’ lineage that had previously been broken by the SNES version of The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, and The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening for Game Boy.
- There are at least three different versions of the game: 1.0, 1.1 and 1.2. The golden (limited edition) carts, as well as some gray carts, are all 1.0.
  - The majority of the ordinary gray carts are 1.1, and many of the later produced ones are 1.2.
  - The only notable change between 1.0 and 1.1 is that the Fire Temple music was changed a little bit.
    - It had a chant from an Islamic prayer looped in the background which offended some members of the Islamic community.
  - 1.1 also fixed some bugs, the most famous of them being the sword-losing bug.
    - In 1.0, if the player saves the game in the end battle after losing the Master Sword, and restart the game, they don’t have the sword anymore, but they can use all items while riding Epona.
    - Also the final boss originally had red blood which was changed to green in a later version.
- Link has always been left-handed, but it is particularly noticeable starting with this game. In the original title, this wasn’t always noticeable due to sprite-flipping techniques.
  - The reason for Link’s left-handedness is that his creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, is also left-handed.
The N64 version of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

November 24 – 1992 – Sonic The Hedgehog 2 – Genesis

Widely regarded as the best classic Sonic games
- 10 Zones, most with 2 acts, you can play alone or with a friend
- Tail was introduced and made playable, the player can also select what combination of Sonic and Tails to play.
  - Unfortunately, I though it would be cute to have a big brother mode where the player is Tails being followed by Sonic.
When Sonic collects all seven Chaos Emeralds and transforms from a blue rodent into a fiery yellow powerhouse with insane speed.
- It may be a parody of Dragon Ball, the insanely popular flagship work of manga artist Akira Toriyama.
- The hero Goku is able to eventually transform into a “Super Saiyan”, a form in which he gains immense power along with spiky golden hair.
- The first Super Sayin appearance was in Dragon Ball 318, Also known as DBZ 124, which was released in Shonen Jump, March 26, 1991.
The Mega Drive version of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

November 25 – 2000 – JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure – Dreamcast

This is a compilation of the arcade titles: JoJo’s Venture and JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure
- This game adapts Part 4 of the series, Stardust Crusaders.
- The game is a one-on-one fighter, similar in gameplay to most of Capcom’s other fighting games.
- In this game, however, you can call upon your Stand to access an entirely different set of normal attacks and gain additional defense and offensive bonuses.
- Your Stand’s power is not infinite, however – if you take enough damage, it’ll break, leaving you open to a devastating counter attack.
- Every character’s Stand has their own special powers which can be used to your advantage.
- Jojo’s Venture has less characters than Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, and Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure has a special Challenge mode that lets you unlock playable characters when you complete it with certain characters.

November 26 – 2010 – Michael Jackson: The Experience – Wii

Michael Jackson: The Experience for the Wii is rhythm and dance game based on concepts previously introduced in Ubisoft’s Just Dance series.
- Unlike most dance games, Michael Jackson: The Experience does not require the Wii Balance Board or other peripherals.
- The game is played with a single Wii Remote which tracks the player as they try and perform the onscreen dance moves in-sync with the game.
- The Wii version features a training mode with video guides, four player multiplayer, and a Career mode that spans Jackson’s career from the 80’s onward.
- Each stage is inspired by the song’s music video and are created in 3D with live action dancers inserted.
This game released 17 months after the passing of Micheal Jackson

November 27 – 2017 – Desert Bus VR – Windows

Desert Bus is back and better than ever!
- The 1998 Penn and Teller cult hit mini-game is coming to virtual reality, so you can fully immerse yourself in the thrilling eight-hour trip from Arizona to Nevada.
- It’s almost like you’re driving the “wheel” thing!
- Desert Bus VR can also be played in standard digital reality if you don’t own a VR headset.
Features
- Put the Pedal to the Metal
  - Show everyone who rules the road as you take the wheel of a commercial passenger bus. With blistering speeds of up to 45mph and a prominent passenger side misalignment, only the hardest drivers can make it to Nevada and back!
- Getting Towed Has Never Been More Fun
  - Experience the realistic consequences of driving off the road with a tow service that takes you back to the start in real time!
- Play Non-Stop for Hours of Amusement
  - Enjoy the action-packed eight-hour road trip from Tuscon to Las Vegas. When you make it to Nevada, turn around and do it all again!
- Fill the Crushing, Oppressive Silence
  - Tune in to a variety of engaging radio programs, including one featuring the dulcet tones of Penn Jillette himself. You can even turn the radio on and off!
- Get the Authentic Bus Driving Experience
  - Learn what it’s like to be a REAL bus driver with exciting gameplay that allows you to honk the horn and open the bus door! Tap the fully-interactive air freshener for some hardcore, pine-scented* action!
  - *Purchase of air freshener required for full effect.
- Join Your Friends on This Road Trip
  - Play with up to four friends in Desert Bus VR’s groundbreaking new multiplayer mode. Passengers can sit, wave, and even throw wads of paper at the driver!
Desert Bus VR was made in-part to support Desert Bus for Hope, a volunteer organization that holds the eponymous annual event to raise money for game industry charity Child’s Play.
- Participants play Desert Bus in a telethon-style stream, with others pledging donations in exchange for incentives that can include everything from prizes to increasing the length of the Desert Bus play time.
Desert Bus VR does not appear in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die

Tidbits

If you’re a Chrome user moving to one of Apple’s new M1 Macs, you’ll want to get rid of your old copy and manually download the right version
- In a weird move they’re offering two different downloads- one that just works on Intel Macs, and another that works on both Intel and Apple processors
- The universal installer is a larger download, but with it running much faster on the M1 chip you’ll want to make sure you grab the correct one
Super Mario Maker 1 will officially be removed from the Nintendo eShop on January 12, 2021, and course uploads will be disabled as of March 31st
- Owners will be able to re-download the title after removal, and previously uploaded courses can still be played
If you need a little bit of email catharsis, check out hey.science/dumpster-fire where you can send an email to a literal physical dumpster fire
- Emails to dumpsterfire@hey.com will be printed off and carried into the flames via conveyor belt on a Twitch stream running 9am to 8pm Central

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Thank you for your continued support Karen, we may not be podcasting today without your drive to make a podcasting community in Alberta. Listen to her and her daughter on Thats A Thing?!

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PS2J Show

PS2J 326 News – Pulling the Pin on Fake Ads

November 20, 2020
Tagged as: 11, 12, 15gb, 15”, 2021, 30%, 4K, 6k, account, ad, air, Alan, Alberta Podcast Network, Alien, Amazon, among us, android, Andromeda, app, app store, Apple, apple silicon, Assassins Creed, backlight, benchmark, big sur, BioWare, Black, bluepoint games, bonus, bridge, bridge constructor, build, clone, compile, construction, cut, DBZ, deal, december, Demons Souls, discount, DLC, dna, documents, Dreamcast, easy, egg, Elder Scrolls, Encryption, end-to-end, epic, Epic Games, epite dangerous, escape, features, federal trade commission, feed drop, fireqwall, First Person, fishdom, flight, forgot, framerate, free end, Free Games, ftc, Galaxy, Gamecube, gaming, garbage, gardenscapes, genesis alpha one deluxe edition, gmail, Google, gpu, Green, grey, gun, Halo 2, Harmonix, hearing aid, high quality, hipaa, homescapes, hotas, immersion, inactive, Indie, infestation, information, intel, ipad, iPhone, john hodgman, Josh, legendary edition, liar, lifehacker, lock screen, lying, m1, Mac, Macbook, machine learning, MacOS, madrid, maintain, Mass Effect, match-3, medieval, Metal Gear Solid, MGS, Microsoft, milky way, mini, misleading, MMO, mms, Mobile, narrative, national security, navigate, Neopets, neural engine, new ip, nintendo, one more thing, open ended, open-world, oracle, original quality, parallel universe, pay, payment, PC, peer-to-peer, performance, persistent, photos, physics, pin, playrix, Privacy, Pro, Pro Display, PS4, puzzle, Reddit, remaster, revenue, Rock Band, rocket star, roguelike, rosetta 2, rug, rumour, sale, security, shade, Shadow of the Colossus, Shenmue, Shooter, simluation, Skyrim, slapple, smart, soc, software, Sons of Liberty, Sony, soul reaver, Space, space epic, spain, speed, Spotify, spring, stalled, Star Citizen, Star Wars, Steam, sweep, Switch, system on a chip, takeout, the world next door, theft, thunderbolt, tiktok, trilogy, Trump, Twitch, UK, under, united kingdom, universal, universal apps, Update, upgrade, usb4, Vacation, valhalla, venmo, Viking, virtual machine, visual, visual novel, VPN, VR, weight, who lies, Xbox One, xcode, xdr, zoom

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

Free games

Twitch
- Bridge Constructor: Medieval
  - 2014
  - Classic physics-based construction puzzle game where you use a variety of materials to span different gaps and carry loads without breaking, but with a medieval twist that has you carrying provisions and trying to dump enemy troops
- Genesis Alpha One Deluxe Edition
  - 2020 bundle of the 2019 title with an art book, soundtrack, and Rocket Star DLC
  - Roguelike first person shooter where you have to build, maintain, and navigate your ship through a galaxy filled with hostile alien and human threats. Clone and splice your crew with alien DNA, fight off infestations, and explore the vastness of space
Epic Games
- Elite Dangerous
  - 2015
  - Space flight simulation game that has you exploring a 1:1 scale open-world representation of the Milky Way galaxy with open-ended gameplay, where everything you do can affect the narrative of the persistent universe
  - It has full VR and flight stick support for added immersion, and has become the definitive MMO space epic
  - And it’s official- this game has now been kickstarted, developed, released, given DLC, and given away free all after Star Citizen was funded but before it was released
- The World Next Door
  - 2019
  - Indie visual novel and match-3 puzzle game where you play a human teenager who was trapped in a parallel universe and much escape before she perishes

Continuing the Epic slApple fight

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

macOS 11 Big Sur is out now

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

One More Thing

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

These Past 2 Weeks In Gaming History

November 7 – 2000 – Shenmue – Dreamcast

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

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

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

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

November 9 – 2004 – Halo 2 – Xbox

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

November 14 – 2000 – Star Wars: Demolition – PlayStation

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

November 15 – 1999 – Neopets – Browser

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

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

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

November 17 – 1998 – Eggs Of Steel – PlayStation

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

November 18 – 2001 – Nintendo GameCube

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

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

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

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

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

Tidbits

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

PS5 mini review

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

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Thank you for your continued support Karen, we may not be podcasting today without your drive to make a podcasting community in Alberta. Listen to her and her daughter on Thats A Thing?!

And thanks to the rest of our ‘fanily’ that support us.

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Tag: m1

Free Games

Twitch

Blasphemous

Bomber Crew Deluxe

Sine Mora EX

Tengami

SkyDrift

Boomerang Fu

Xbox

Warface: Breakout

Vicious Attack Llama Apocalypse

Metal Slug 3

Playstation

Final Fantasy VII Remake

Remnant: From the Ashes

Maquette

Farpoint

Epic Games

Wargame: Red Dragon

Apple had to deal with some undeserved bad press this week as a story broke accusing them of locking a user’s AppleID due to missed Apple Card payments

There’s a fancy new version of Final Fantasy VII Remake coming to the PS5, with bonus DLC featuring Yuffie

This Week In Gaming History

February 27 – 2002 – Crash Bandicoot: The Huge Adventure – GameBoy Advance

February 28 – 1997 – Turok: Dinosaur Hunter – Nintendo 64

March 1 – 2001 – Looney Tunes: Sheep Raider – PlayStation, Windows

March 2 – 2004 – Ninja Gaiden – Xbox

March 3 – 2017 -The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild – Nintendo Switch, Wii U

March 4 – 2014 – South Park: The Stick of Truth – PS3, Windows, Xbox 360

March 5 – 2020 – Walking Simulator – Windows

Tidbits

Mini Review- Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice

Would you like to know more?

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

Free Games

Twitch

Battlefield 3 (on Origin)

HyperDot

The Spectrum Retreat

Wizard of Legend

Lost Horizon

Sigma Theory: Global Cold War

Turmoil

Close to the Sun

Epic Games

Cave Story+

2020 year in review

January

Feburary

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

A comment on YouTube summed up what happened since Cyberpunks announcement

This Week in Gaming History

November 28 – 2005 – Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time – Nintendo DS

November 29 – 1975 – Square – Mainframe

November 30 – 2010 – Disney Epic Mickey – Wii

December 1 – 1995 – Virtual Boy Wario Land – Virtual Boy

December 2 – 2001 – Super Smash Bros.: Melee – GameCube

December 3 – 1996 – Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire – N64, Windows

December 4 – 2008 – Mushroom Men: The Spore Wars – Wii

December 5 – 2006 – Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops – PSP

Tidbits

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

Free Games

Xbox

The Raven Remastered

Bleed 2

Saints Row: Gat out of Hell

Stacking

PlayStation

Worms Rumble

Just Cause 4

Rocket Arena