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 316 News – Super Money Printing Bros

September 4, 2020
Tagged as: 13.7, 19:17, 20, 30%, 360, 3D land, 7:17 pm, action, action adventure, Activision, agent, aimbot, Alan, alex winter, algorithm, Alien, all stars, alphabet, app store, Apple, Arcade, arkham, arma 2, Art, Artificial Intelligence, autonauts, battle royale, battlegrounds, bill and ted, blackmilk, brainiac, brawler, Call Of Duty, captain boomerang, cheat, China, colonize, colours, combat, come together, contact tracing, content bundles, court, crash bandicoot, crusader kings 3, cryptic studios, de blob 2, deadshot, Destiny 2, effie, epic, Epic Games, export, exposure notification, face the music, Facebook, fee, fight, First Person, for you, forced, forcefields, forsaken, Fortnite, Free Games, FTL, Gamepass, games with gold, gddr6x, goofball, Government, hack, Harley Quinn, home, Home Tour, impulsion, into the breach, iOS, ipad, iPhone, island, Isometric, John Wick, joint ops, Josh, keanu reeves, keys, kill the justice league, king shark, lady astronaut of mars, Lawsuit, Logan, lootboxes, magic, Mario Kart, mary robinette kowal, mech, mech city brawl, metropolis, Microsoft, mis-advertising, MMO, mod, modules, mp46, multicultural, Multiplayer, music, navy, neverwinter, nintendo, nintendo switch online, nvidia, Online, open-world, oracle, outcast, overreach, Override, people, physics, platform, playerunknown, Playstation, preston, ps+, PS4, PUBG, pubg mobile, puma, pumped bmx pro, puzzle, random, Ratchet and Clank, Reality, Red Dead Redemption, relentless moon, resident evil 7, retcon, Rocket League, rocksteady, RPG, RTX, sale, seal, second contact, shadowkeep, ships, Shooter, softbank, Sony, Space, speed, star trek online, stealth update, sticks, stones, story, street fighter v, stunt, Suicide Squad, Super Mario, Super Mario 3D All Stars, Super Mario Bros 35, Super Mario Galaxy, tears, tech company, the calculating stars, the division, the fated sky, The Gathering, the matrix, third person, tiktok, tiny troopers, tom clancy, tournament, trick, Turn Based, twin stick, Twitch, united states, universe, Unreal Engine, Update, us, voltron, wallhack, walmart, warzone, wayback machine, Xbox Live, xbox live gold, Xbox One

Free Games

Xbox One
- Override: Mech City Brawl
  - 2018
  - Gigantic robot mech brawler with single player and Voltron-style 2-4 player co-op, where every mech has special moves and skills, and you can fight in arenas around the world
- Tom Clancy’s The Division
  - 2016
  - Online-only action RPG / third person shooter where you play a special agent tasked with helping rebuild Manhattan and combat criminal activity after a viral outbreak. It has a combination of shared and instanced areas that have co-op and pvp multiplayer, in addition to missions and a story that you can run on your own
- de Blob 2
  - 2014
  - Platform puzzle game originally for the Xbox 360 that has you jumping around, mixing colours and bringing life to the cityscape. There’s also a basic two-player mode similar to Super Mario Galaxy
- Gamepass
  - We don’t normally mention new games on Gamepass, but this month some new highlights include Resident Evil 7, Crusader Kings 3, and Destiny 2 with the Shadowkeep and Forsaken expansions
  - Unfortunately Red Dead Redemption 2 is leaving on September 7th
PS4
- Street Fighter V
  - 2016
  - Fighting game similar to the other 2D style Street Fighter titles, it initially released without a story mode and only had a basic roster meant for tournament style gameplay until updates in 2018 and 2020 added in single-player modes and additional fighters
- PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds
  - 2017
  - One of the original battle royale titles, it started life as a mod for ARMA 2 but evolved into a standalone title where you and 99 other players are dropped on to an island with the clothes on your back, and need to gather resources and take down the other players on a shrinking map
Epic Games
- Into the Breach
  - 2018
  - Control powerful mechs from the future to defeat an alien threat. Each attempt to save the world presents a new randomly generated challenge in this isometric turn-based strategy game from the makers of FTL.
Twitch
- Pumped BMX Pro
  - 2019
  - Promoted as a BMX trickathon, it has you mastering 60 different levels and over 200 challenges while pulling off as many stunts as possible
- Effie
  - 2020
  - 3D action adventure game that combines combat, platforming, and puzzles with the exploration of a large, expanded world where you live a unique fantasy adventure in the style of Crash Bandicoot or Ratchet and Clank
- Impulsion
  - 2018
  - First person platformer designed to play with your nerves and reflexes, that has you making your way through 25 levels by manipulating physics and shooting forcefields to speed up or slow down
- Outcast – Second Contact
  - 2017 remake of the 1999 adventure game of the year and cult classic, Outcast
  - Third or first person open world shooter where you play an ex Navy SEAL stranded on an alien world trying to get home
- Tiny Troopers: Joint Ops
  - 2014
  - Arcade-style twin stick shooter that has your tiny troopers battling evil adversaries from around the world with a multitude of weapons and specialties
- Autonauts
  - 2019
    - Travel the universe and colonize uninhabited planets, starting with sticks and stones and going all the way up to art, space travel, and intergalactic export

Updates

Apple has officially terminated Epic Games’ account on its App Store, a move that won’t affect Unreal Engine but it does mean that users can no longer download Fortnite or other Epic titles for their iDevices
- Anyone that’s already downloaded the app can still play, but can no longer make ingame purchases
- This comes down as, despite the court’s recommendation that Epic comply with App Store guidelines while the case moves forward, they’ve instead repeatedly submitted Fortnite updates with the direct payment option in question intact
While Epic continues to cry foul to its users about updates now being blocked, Apple has been promoting another big battle royale title PUBG Mobile for iOS users, which is great timing as the game is also free this month on PS+
It seems like Facebook is trying to get their foot in the door when it comes to the Epic vs Apple payment fees conversation
- Facebook has a new feature that lets users buy tickets for online events. Unfortunately since online events count as digital content, they’re subject to the standard 30% fee
- Facebook tried to include wording on these purchases to say “Apple takes 30% of this purchase”, but according to Apple that’s irrelevant information and they blocked the update that would have added that wording
  - It probably falls under the usual terms and conditions that prevent developers from talking about other payment options from within iOS apps
- Google devices were reportedly supposed to get a message saying “Facebook doesn’t take a fee from this purchase”, which makes the warning on iPhones seem really targeted, but that message doesn’t show up on the Android version either
- Between showing the planned screens then publicizing the difference, it seems like Facebook is playing the same blame game as Epic in trying to get attention by breaking the rules and crying foul when they’re enforced

Cryptic Studios is under fire this week for “mis-advertising” content packs for Star Trek Online, something that Reddit users are saying is a common trend for the publisher

Apparently on multiple occasions they’ve announced content bundles that include ships, modules, and keys for lootchests, but then when the actual pack is released people purchase it to find things like the keys completely missing
The worst part of that is all of the blogs and advertising material have been stealth-updated to remove any mention of the missing rewards, leaving only services like the Internet Wayback Machine with proof of the change
- Once they were called out loudly enough they honoured the missing content for people that had purchased prior to the revision, but anyone working off of old information is left out in the cold
According to some users, they’ve historically done the very same thing in free to play titles like Neverwinter, and each time they just apologized and moved on
This is apparently the same studio working on the Magic: The Gathering MMO slated for a 2021 release, but with this kind of track record it’s hard not to be worried

The US government is getting even more involved with the forced sale of TikTok, now forcing some companies to back down in their offers

Apparently Walmart was set to make an offer to be the majority owner, teamed with with Alphabet and Softbank to invest in minority stakes, but the United States government apparently said they wanted a tech company to buy it instead
- Why they get a say is beyond me, but I guess they could move forward with the ban anyway if people don’t listen?
From the sounds of it Walmart is interested in getting into TikTok’s e-commerce and payments business, so since they were blocked they instead are teaming up as a minority shareholder with Microsoft taking the lead
- Alphabet couldn’t take the lead of Walmart’s original plans because of a potential antitrust investigation due to its ownership of YouTube
It looks like now the two options for TikTok are Microsoft/Walmart or Oracle, but though a deal was set to be made already China has now made a change to its export controls list to cover TikTok’s recommendation algorithm, which means that thanks to TikTok’s “For You” page the Chinese government will now get a say in whether the sale goes through

Apple’s release the new iOS 13.7, and once you’ve got that installed you’ll be able to easily see if your area supports COVID-19 exposure notifications

The update has new options under Settings > Exposure Notifications (just below Emergency SOS), which include showing you if your area has an official contact tracing app and, if not, gives you a switch to be alerted once one is available
Just a reminder that these apps are secure, battery-friendly, and become a lot more effective in keeping people safe if everyone’s using them

Mario 35th Anniversary Direct

Game and Watch: Super Mario Bros.

A throwback to the old Game and Watch handhelds that Nintendo used to make
- This version has a bright colour screen
- You can play the entirety of Super Mario Bros
- There are also mini games that put Mario in the place of Mr. Game And Watch
- The clock function is very animated, more than just a static clock to watch
- Limited Production, Available November 13th

Super Mario World + Bowser’s Fury

Super Mario 3D World and all the fun and frustration it included is coming to Switch
As well as new content titled Bowser’s Fury
- Only shown in a brief teaser with a dark giant spiky cat bell powerup, on a rainy beach in a storm with purple lightning
Slated to release February 12th, 2021

Super Mario Bros. 35

In the vein of Tetris 99, this is Super Mario Battle Royal!
- Exclusive and free for Switch Online Members
You play original Super Mario Bros in the center of the screen
- In the UI around you, are 34 other people, racing to play Mario Bros faster than you
To attack other players, you defeat enemies as normal, and it sends them off to another player’s queue
- In your queue, you see that as you progress in the level, desaturated enemies are waiting to spawn in your path
- Everyone is racing against the clock, which you get more time by defeating enemies
- And like Tetris 99, you can target opponents by Lowest time, Most Coins, people attacking you and random
- And it seems like coins, not sure if they are acquired the same as in game, or some sort of bonus
  - And it appears you can buy a power-up for 20 of these coins.
Available October 1st
- Will be playable until March 31st, 2021

Mario Kart Live: Home Tour

OMG Mario Kart in real life!
This is an augmented reality game
- You purchase a Mario Kart RC Kart
  - Mario and Luigi seem available first
  - Looks like a traditional Kart, but if it had a large scoop for the engine, behind the racer, that has a camera
- These karts must come with a kit to make 4 arches
  - You start by driving your kart through the arches, painting the track behind you
  - When you connect to the track, it paints the width of the arches to make a race track
The commercial shows 2 kids playing on the same track
- On the Switch, an augmented reality race shows other digital characters racing with the 2 RC karts
October 16th, 2020

Nintendo Rewards for limited pins!

Everyone with a My Nintendo Account can complete Super Mario related missions
You may recieve cool rewards
- Including a Pin set of 10 Mario’s from games ranging from 1985 to 2020
- Will release in 2 waves, US and Canada Only
- September 3rd to March 31st 2021

Mario Kart Tour Event!

Special appearances of Mario and Donkey Kong Junior from the original Super Mario Kart for SNES
- September 8th, 2020, 11PM PST

Limited merchandise

Historical Super Mario items and special 35th Anniversary items
- Only at the Nintendo New York store
- And store.nintendo.com
- Starting in October

Mario Maker 2 Course

A special 35th Anniversary Ninji’s Speed Run course
- November 2020

Super Smash Bros Online Tournament

Limited to Super Mario franchise characters
- Stages and Items
Later this year

Splatoon Splat Fest

Which Power-up would you prefer?
- Super Size from a Mushroom
- Invincibility from a Super Star
- A My Nintendo reward item of a Mushroom and Super Star that got inked
  - To release closer to the SplatFest
  - Physical SplatFest shirts available online, now
January 2021

Animal Crossing

Super Mario themed furniture
- March 2021

And Licensed Super Mario products!

Puma Sneakers
- September 4th
BlackMilk Clothing
- October 5th
Mario Monopoly and Jenga
- Now
Mario Doll
- Now
Lego
- Lego Mario course
- Lego NES with Retro TV

Super Mario All Stars

Coming to the Super NES collection on Switch
- Updated to fit Widescreen tvs!

Super Mario 3D All Stars

Super Mario 64, Sunshine and Galaxy in one game
- Also has a music player, like Smash Ultimate
Limited physical release
- September 18th

This Day in Gaming History

August 29 – 2013 – Game Dev Tycoon – Windows

”Game Dev Tycoon” is a business simulator game where you control a game company.
- The game starts in the garage as many single video games developer did in the 80s.
- As you release successful games, more genres, employees and options are unlocked.
- As time progresses consoles and home computers are unlocked, but often using silly fictional names like PlaySystem and grPhone.
- The game is inspired by Game Dev Story in both name and gameplay.
This is a game I really enjoy and like to go back to from time to time
- Some of the achievements are for naming your Studio or Games based on real companies or releases.
- And some powerful characters you can hire are references to big game developers

August 30 – 2002 – Go! Go! Beckham! Adventure On Soccer Island – Game Boy Advance – United Kingdom Only

It’s football with a unique twist.
- David Beckham is called on to save Soccer Island from the evil Mister Woe, who has taken over the island by turning all of the animals into monsters.
- Not only that, he’s stealing all of the important items for himself.
Using David Beckham’s football skills, you must guide your hero through each level, kicking enemies and doors down with your football to the end of each level.
- Knock down the locks during the game to unlock the exit door and kick your ball through to complete it.
- Boss characters then require special attacks with your football to defeat them.

August 31 – 1997 – Final Fantasy 7 – Playstation

The seventh installment of the Final Fantasy series takes place in a post-modern, steampunk, sci-fi world where high technology reigns and where robots and bio-engineered mutants co-exist with humans and dragons.
To my surprise, the site I source for a lot of these games, Moby Games, had Final Fantasy 7’s North American release as the only game for August 31st, 1997

September 1 – 1984 – Klondike Solitare – DOS

A mouse-only game for DOS, Klondike Solitaire is a simulation of its namesake.
- Using the mouse to click cards, you move cards of alternate suits onto each other in an effort to move them off the tableau.
- Cheating is technically allowed, but doing so will get you “yelled at” by the program.
Felt this would be appropriate, as basically anyone to be stuck on a computer without an internet connection, has played solitaire
- And this may the first Klondike Solitare

September 2 – 2014 – The Sims 4 – Origin Windows

The Sims 4 is the fourth main game in the real-time life simulation / management series. Just like the previous games one or more custom characters are created through Create-a-Sim to live in a house designed by the player.
- As their lives unfold based on the environment, relationships and specific traits, the player gets to manage the life, needs to organize activities, attend to needs, and react to moods, with non-linear gameplay and no direct control.
I’ve been way into it again, as I bought Get Famous on a sale, before the latest expansion Eco Lifestyle came out.
- I reviewed that I really like the social media, and fame meter. As well as the Acting career
- And Eco Lifestyle added Ladders, as well as ways to produce your own water and power.
  - Which you can sell back to the grid for a profit.
If the fanily found it interesting, I was considering making Alan and I, and doing a Twitch stream.

September 3 – 1998 – Hong Pong – DOS

Hong Pong is a Pong variant set in five different war zones (including one hidden) and with tanks instead of paddles.
- Played with two tanks, one on each side of the screen, players need to prevent a spinning nuke from touching their side of the screen, while shooting missiles at the opponent or forcing the nuke to hit his side.
- In the middle of the screen different kinds of vehicles pass and these hurt the player when touched. It is also possible to activate a shield to block the incoming missiles, but while it is up firing is disabled.

September 4 – 1998 – Dune 2000 – Windows

Dune 2000 is a remake of the classic Dune II: The Building of a Dynasty, updated for Windows.
- In this real-time strategy game, you can play one of the three houses: the noble Atreides, the insidious Ordos, or the evil Harkonnen.
- Each has different sets of units and tactics while maintaining an overall balance.
- The Atreides have air superiority and rely on their honor and alliance with planet natives, the Fremen.
- The Ordos rely on guerrilla tactics and superior technology, as well as mercenaries.
- The Harkonnen just go brutal, with no care for lives of their own troops or destruction, as long as they are victorious.
This game made me fall in love with the Dune franchise
- If you are interested in playing it again, I recommend OpenRA
- OpenRA is a project that recreates and modernizes the classic Command & Conquer real time strategy games.
- Relive the original Command and Conquer, C&C: Red Alert, and Dune 2000
- https://www.openra.net

Tidbits

Shout out to Bullfrog, thanks for saying you’ll give us a shot after our ad on Remember the Game.
- We really like Adams podcast, and we are blown away by his glowing review of us!
- Thanks to all our fanily, and welcome to anyone joining us from Remember the Game!

Good news for Rocket League players, once the game hits their free to play launch (we covered all the details in episode 310) you’ll no longer need PS+ or Nintendo Switch Online to play multiplayer
- Unfortunately it looks like Xbox Live Gold is still needed if you want to play on Xbox One
If you’re about to buy a new graphics card you’ll want to press pause until you check out nVidia’s new RTX 30 series
- The new hardware includes all sorts of fanciness like a brand new faster kind of memory (GDDR6X), low latency and high framerates even at 4k and 8k resolutions, and all kinds of ray-tracing beauty
- According to the specs released so far, even the entry level model 3070 beats the two year old 2080ti at less than half its current price
Rocksteady’s upcoming Suicide Squad game, subtitled Kill The Justice League, looks like it could be pretty good
- Featuring Harley Quinn, Deadshot, Captain Boomerang, and King Shark in a Metropolis being menaced by Brainiac and a presumably mind-controlled Justice League, set in the Arkham game universe
Call of Duty Warzone players will be happy to hear that Activision is suing one of the top websites where players can purchase cheats and hacks for the game, like aimbots and wallhacks (xray vision)
- The lawsuit has forced the site in question to remove all Call of Duty content, leaving people that have previously paid for the cheats with nothing to show for it
  - Some are hoping for refunds, but the fact that people actively cheating at games are now out actual money is kind of delicious

Mini-reviews

The Relentless Moon by Mary Robinette Kowal
- Perspective change threw me at first, but I was glad I recently re-read the other books because this takes place at the same time as The Fated Sky
- Another great addition to the Lady Astronaut of Mars series, and as well written as it was well studied
Bill and Ted Face the Music
- It felt like a lot of what we need right now in the world- a story about people coming together and celebrating eachother, with great acting from a lot of fantastic people, and a subtle reminder about how multicultural music has always been with so many roots in black culture, along with an ending that had me in tears
- After serious movies from The Matrix to John Wick, it’s always good to see what a goofball Keanu Reeves can be

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Thank you Zane, a powerful man and a super hero dad. He’s one of the best #BeLikeZane

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PS2J 283 News – Professionalism 2020

January 10, 2020
Tagged as: a normal lost phone, adorable, afro-brazilian, AI, Alan, among thieves, anarcute, ancient powers, Anime, ape out, Apple, automatic adjustment, Batman, Bethesda, bluetooth, boardgame, bullethell, canadian podcast awards, Cat, ces, chaos, chapters, choice, climb, clone, competition, computer, concept, consumer electronics show, consumer technology association, court order, crash, credentials, cta, damage, dandara, daring fireball, destruction, display, drake’s deception, drake’s fortune, dynamic, e-ink, eldritch edition, electric, electric car, Encryption, engineering, engineers, enter the gungeon, Epic Games, escape, exit, experimentation, exploration, FaceID, fallout 76, FBI, female, folding, found, Free Games, Galaxy, gatebox, gato roboto, goat, goat simulator, Google Home, gorilla, grapple, greywater, gun, hack, hand drawn, hearing aid, heave ho, holiday, hydraloop, iCloud, identity management, image, immoral. obscene, indecent, inventory, invisible, iPhone, ivanka trump, jailbreak, Jazz, jet set radio, Josh, katamari damacy, keynote, Kingdom, knight, landscape, laptop, Lego, lenovo, lgbt, logo, lounge chair, manufacturing, master of shadows, mech, Metroid, metroidvania, microphone, Microsoft, monarch, monsters, Multiplayer, new lands, nonpotable, notifications, open-world, original trilogy, owner, pass, pensacola, phonak, Phone, Pixel, plagiarism, platformer, Playstation 4, polish, politcal, porn naughty america, portal 2, portrait, profane, prototype, PS4, ps5, quibi, rage, real doll, recycling, retailers, riot, roger, roguelike, Russia, russian apps, s-pod, Samsung, security, segway, sexist, shard of darkness, simulator, Sony, sovereign internet law, spaceship, splasher, Splatoon, spy, Star Wars, stealth, story, stylized, styx, sundered, Sunken treasure, super meat boy, survival, swing, tekken 6, telltale, the nathan drake collection, thinkpad, Tomb Raider, top-down, touchid, trap, treatment, turnstyle, Twitch, Uncharted, universe, vengance, video, virto black, vladimir putin, voyeur, VR, watch, water, web content, witcheye, wizard, women, Xbox One, xbox series x

Free Games

Twitch
- Dandara
  - 2018
  - 2D platformer and Metroidvania based on the Afro-Brazilian warrior of the same name that has you traversing the world by warping between white surfaces
- Anarcute
  - 2016
  - In a kind of Katamari Damacy/Jet Set Radio mix, it’s a riot simulator combining adorable aesthetics with large-scale chaos and colourful destruction
- Kingdom: New Lands
  - 2016
  - 2D pixel survival game that has you playing as a shipwrecked monarch trying to establish a long-lasting kingdom while being attacked by otherworldly monsters
- A Normal Lost Phone
  - 2017
  - Puzzle game that has you voyeuristically searching through a found phone and discovering bits and pieces of the owner’s life
- Splasher
  - 2017
  - Challenging 2D twitch platformer that looks like Super Meat Boy meets Splatoon by way of Portal 2’s gel mechanics
- Enter the Gungeon
  - 2016
  - Roguelike bullet hell that follows four adventurers as they descend into the Gungeon to find a gun to kill their past
- Ape Out
  - 2019
  - Top-down stylized beat-’em-up with a dynamic jazz soundtrack where you control a gorilla running through a maze while evading or attacking the gun-wielding human guards
- Witcheye
  - 2019
  - Colourful old-school pixel platformer where you transform into a flying eyeball of vengeance to recover your spell ingredients that were stolen by a smarmy knight and his wizard friend
- Gato Roboto
  - 2019
  - A streamlined Metroid style game that has you playing a cat in an armoured mech in an effort to save your stranded captain and his crashed ship
- Heave Ho
  - 2019
  - 1-4 player shared screen game that shines when playing multiplayer where you need to grab, swing, and grapple your way to the finish
Epic
- Sundered: Eldritch Edition
  - 2017
  - Hand-drawn Metroidvania where you either resist or embrace ancient eldritch powers at the cost of your humanity, now with local co-op
Sony
- Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection
  - 2015
  - Remastered port of the first three Uncharted games from the PS3 era: Drake’s Fortune, Among Thieves, and Drake’s Deception
  - Uncharted is known for its Tomb Raider style third-person action adventure gameplay including shooting, combat, and puzzle solving
- Goat Simulator
  - 2015
  - Open-ended third-person exploration and experimentation game, where you play a goat aimed at doing as much damage as possible around an open world map
Microsoft
- Styx: Shards of Darkness
  - 2017
  - Sequel to the 2014 Styx: Master of Shadows, it’s a stealth game that lets you use powers like cloning and invisibility to trap your enemies and either engage or avoid them
- Batman: The Telltale Series
  - 2016
  - Episodic point-and-click graphic adventure game published by Telltale before the studio’s downfall and resurrection, featuring a new Batman story with the usual Telltale Games mechanics of choice-driven branching stories
- Tekken 6
  - 2009
  - The first main-series Tekken game produced for a non-Sony console, it’s a classic fighting game that introduced a new Rage system that increases a character’s strength as their health gets low
- Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy
  - 2006
  - Classic family-friendly LEGO video game gameplay that has you exploring, building, and collecting LEGO studs in the Star Wars universe from episodes 4-6

CES- Highlights from the Consumer Electronics Show 2020

The weirdest thing about CES in recent years is how it doesn’t really seem like it’s for consumers at all- it’s full of concept work and ideas that are in no way ready to ship. In many cases the companies behind them have no idea when they might ship in the future
- You see a lot of folding phones, displays, laptops, but they’re all prototypes and in many cases kept entirely out of the hands of the public
- The big problem, as pointed out by The Daring Fireball, is that a lot of these pieces have yet to get past the design phase- engineering and manufacturing still have to weigh in on if the tech is even really possible, never mind if it can be mass produced
  - So you get things like the Galaxy Fold, or the ThinkPad X1 Fold, that get shown off in a look-but-don’t-touch environment and huge planned pricetag, and then we get to wait for the eventual maybe release / maybe fiasco
The Consumer Technology Association, the organization behind CES, also drew fire this year for inviting Ivanka Trump to deliver a keynote address
- Trump’s talk, titled “The Path to the Future of Work” discussed job creation, apprenticeship program, and skills training in the US
- Many felt that it was a political decision though, and ill-suited, as the CTA has routinely rejected proposals from other women for years citing that they didn’t have the credentials or tech-focused topic that their male counterparts brought to the table. How that jives with Ivanka Trump’s credentials and general talk about jobs is anyone’s guess
- The CTA has previously taken heat for seemingly sexist policies by calling a female-focused hands-free orgasm device “immoral, obscene, indecent, profane or not in keeping with CTA’s image.” while at the same time allowing Naughty America to set up a VR porn exhibit in a main hall.
Samsung introduced “Samsung Pass”, billed as “identity management as a service” to enable secure access through biometric authentication
- All that is to say, they’re doing the same thing that Apple already does with Touch ID and Face ID by allowing developers to use those biometric locks to authenticate users instead of using their username and password
- The most egregious part of this is that when they were explaining the tech during their CES keynote they bought up a slide with the Apple FaceID logo alongside other symbols representing the biometrics they use. Not even a ripoff of it, but the actual straight-up logo itself.
Lenovo introduced the ThinkBook Plus, a business laptop with an e-ink display on the back of the lid
- The idea here is apparently that it can show email and calendar notifications from Outlook, and you can use a stylus to take notes on it.
- It seems kind of gimmicky, and in practice I’d worry about it showing information on the closed lid to everyone around you when you aren’t expecting it to
Gatebox is bringing their holographic anime girl AI assistant to North America, now featuring westernized characters like a business-woman or a beefy gym-dude, aimed at doing things like acting as 24/7 concierges on cruise ships or facilitating gym check-ins without staff present
Segway introduced the S-Pod, a futuristic lounge chair that will take you up to 43 miles on a 2 hour charge, topping out at 24mph
- It’s got a ton of polish, with Segway’s experience in single-person transport really showing, but the use cases are a little tricky to see
Hydraloop’s claim to fame is a water recycling system for houses that takes up about as much room as a flat refrigerator and hooks into the existing piping.
- The idea is it takes outgoing waste water and processes is a bunch of different ways, then runs it through a bioreactor and disinfects it with UV light. The resulting water can be used in toilets, washing machines, pools, and even in the garden, saving up to 20,000 gallons of water per year
Phonak’s new Virto Black hearing aids are bridging the gap between accessibility tool and smart wearable with high quality sound and automatic adjustments that adapt to ambient sound in your surroundings, as well as music streaming and call handling
- They also offer a wireless puck loaded up with microphones that you can put anywhere within 30 feet of yourself that will stream audio directly to you
- There’s also an optional dock for charging or connecting the device to other audio sources, so you can pipe your TV directly in for private listening
Quibi’s new Turnstyle technology aims to let users watch videos in either portrait or landscape, dynamically switching while viewing
- Instead of showing black bars the technology relies on creators filming two versions of their content, then both play with a synchronized audio track and only the compatible video is shown
Sony made an electric car, but it just kind of looks like any other fancy electric car out there with assistive sensors for driving and the usual bells and whistles.
Anything from CES catch your eye? Let us know!

Russian president Vladimir Putin signed legislation taking effect this July that bans the sale of smartphones, computers, and smart TV’s without Russian apps pre-installed

The law will supposedly help Russian developers to better compete with foreign tech firms, and it’s been pitched as a way to spare unsophisticated users from the need to install apps themselves
Unfortunately tech retailers were never consulted on the new law, and with the list of required apps not even available yet it could force many companies like Apple out of the country
- An Apple source told Kommersant that “A mandate to add third-party applications to Apple’s ecosystem would be equivalent to jailbreaking” and would pose a security threat that the company cannot tolerate
There are also concerns that Russia could use the apps to spy on its citizens, after the “sovereign internet law” was recently passed giving the government power to block access to web content in any situation it sees as an emergency

Tidbits

The next Xbox has been announced, and it’s the Xbox Series X
- They’re creating this generation of consoles as just ‘Xbox”, of which the Series X is one product line
- The device seems to be continuing the evolution of consoles into computers, being basically a gaming PC tower you use with a controller, and one bonus it’s maintaining backward compatibility with all existing Xbox One software and accessories
Sony’s also announced their next console, the PS5, and showed off the shiny new logo which is exactly the same as the old one but with a 5 instead of a 4
The end of 2019 saw a crazy Fallout 76 inventory hack that allowed hackers to use other players as if they were containers, looting everything within with no consequences
- Bethesda patched it after about a week in the wild, but we haven’t seen any reports of items being restored to their rightful owners
The FBI is taking another crack at Apple and their encryption policies related to the shooting at a naval base in Pensacola last year
- Apple has apparently already shared the relevant data they can access in the user’s iCloud storage, complying with the court order obtained by the FBI, but holds steady to the fact that they have no access to what users store on their phones regardless of how often the FBI asks

Exit: The Sunken Treasure

Boardgame overview

The game included:
- Rulebook
- Puzzlebook
  - has the activities and scenery
- a decoder disk, 4 rings to line up.
  - Puzzle ID symbol and 3 sea creature/numbers
- The inside of the game box looked like a ship
- 5 gemstones
- a punch-out sheet for a coin, ship mast and flag
- A sealed pack of cards
  - 1 deck of riddles
  - 1 deck of solutions
    - Some cards are answers, some are almost answers that require another step to complete.
  - And 10 piles of hints, with symbols that correspond to puzzles
    - Contains 3 hints
      - 1st gets you in the right direction
      - 2nd shows you how to see the puzzle components
      - 3rd tells you how the puzzle is solved and the solution
The rules told us how to set up the table
- all the components we do not need yet
- and how to deal with the components as we complete them.

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

And thanks to all our ‘fanily’ that support us.

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We are a proud member of the Alberta Podcast Network powered by ATB

And talk to us in the comments!

Tag: mech

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 One

Override: Mech City Brawl

Tom Clancy’s The Division

de Blob 2

Gamepass

PS4

Street Fighter V

PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds

Epic Games