Free Games
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Twitch
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Swimsanity – Couch Party Edition
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2020
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Multiplayer 2D underwater shoot-em-up with co-op and versus game modes, and both online and local play. It’s like Gradius in the ocean with your friends
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Optica
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2018
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Puzzle game of logic and illusion with a basic geometric design, that has you putting your spatial thinking to the test with everything from curious shapes to optical illusions
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Epic Games
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The Fall
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2014
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Action-adventure side-scrolling platform game where you play Arid, an artificial intelligence installed in an advanced combat space suit, as you explore a decaying industrial facility in search of medical attention for the suit’s injured pilot
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Sony Play at Home 2021
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Free for everyone who owns a PS4 or PS5, not just PS+ subscribers
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March 25
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ABZU
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2016
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From the art director of Journey and Flower, ABZÛ is a wordless underwater adventure that evokes the dream of diving, taking you on a journey through the ruins of an ancient civilization.
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Enter the Gungeon
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2016
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Roguelike bullet hell with procedurally generated levels, following four adventurers with different special abilities as they descend into the Gungeon to find a gun to kill their past
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Rez Infinite
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2016
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An expanded release of the musical rail shooter originally released on the Dreamcast and PS2, it has you following a hacker’s journey into a malfunctioning AI system in a way that tries to create a sense of synesthesia
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Subnautica
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2018
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Open world survival action-adventure game that drops you on an alien planet covered with water where you have to build, survive, and uncover the secrets buried under the waves
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The Witness
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2016
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First person puzzle exploration game, a la Myst, developed by the creator of Braid
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PSVR
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Astro Bot Rescue Mission
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2018
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Third person platformer with a ton of charm that has you exploring 5 different worlds to rescue your lost crew
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Moss
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2018
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Adventure game that feels like a mix between Redwall and The Legend of Zelda, that transports you to a fantasy land to help a young mouse named Quill defeat a fire-breathing snake and save her uncle
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Thumper
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2016
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Rhythm game that has you guiding a beetle-like creature along a set of rails and through different obstacles, all to trippy visuals and the beat of pounding techno
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Paper Beast
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2020
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First person adventure game where you explore a large ecosystem made up of various digital life forms originating from lost internet code
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April 19
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Horizon Zero Dawn Complete Edition
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2017
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Open world action RPG that follows Aloy, a young hunter in a world overrun by machines, who sets out with her bow and spear to uncover her past
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The Complete Edition comes with the full game, the Frozen Wilds expansion, a digital art book, a PS4 dynamic theme, and bonus weapons, outfits, and resources
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A state-backed group in China wants to get around App Tracking Transparency and track app users with a controversial new “China Advertising ID”, or CAID
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There’s currently a feature on iPhones that’s a little sneaky where developers can store text information in your keychain and access it across any of your devices
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The really sneaky piece that’s just ripe for abuse comes in where these objects are not only accessible from any of the developer’s apps (not just the one that stored it), but they’re also not cleaned up when you delete an app
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So for example if you installed Instagram and deleted it, then installed Facebook, Facebook would be able to identify that you’re the same person
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And the worst part about this is it applies to things like advertising or authentication code, so if you have an app that uses Google for ads or Facebook for logins then it can read and write that same information shared by all apps by those specific developers
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Well in response to Apple giving users control over who can track them by official means, it sounds like Chinese companies may be working with the China Advertising Association to use this information to build a database of users for tracking purposes
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ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, released an 11-page guide to app developers that was obtained by the Financial Times, suggesting that advertisers “can use the CAID as a substitute if the user’s IDFA is unavailable”
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Apple has denied that they would be granting any exceptions to the new tracking rules, saying that apps found to disregard a user’s choice would be rejected, and one person familiar with the situation said that Apple would be able to detect which apps use the CAID and potentially block them.
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Unfortunately if this takes off it could be Apple vs the Chinese government, and if the majority of apps in China start using the CAID it could lead to some serious repercussions
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Yang Congan, the chief executive of a Beijing-based data privacy company, suggested that CAID had been designed to get around Apple’s rules because it might not “uniquely” identify users, but that’s sophistry at best and an outright lie at worst
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I think the best way forward to be to rethink how exactly apps from the same developer can access data on your account, and give users more control over that piece as well. The feature may have been designed with the intention of streamlining the user experience and letting developers recover sessions or logins, but using it to smuggle data across apps should be a clear violation of developer agreements
Sony’s unveiled the planned controller for their next generation of PSVR, and it looks pretty slick
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The controller looks like an evolution of the latest Oculus Touch, but they’ve put the tracking ring a little further back around your hand and wrist
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It looks like it’ll be pretty well balanced, though after having third-party knuckle grips for my Oculus I can definitely see wanting them here, too
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They’ll also have adaptive triggers on both sides, haptic feedback, finger detection, and analog sticks on both controllers
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With modern VR those analog sticks wouldn’t be worth mentioning, but coming from the previous PSVR they’re a big improvement
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This Week In Gaming History
March 13 – 2012 – Yakuza: Dead Souls – PlayStation 3 (United States)
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The district of Kamurocho has survived gang violence, terrorist bombings, and open mafia war, but the latest threat may be the one that finally destroys the district for good: a zombie apocalypse.
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As the city burns four men search for answers: Shun Akiyama, the enigmatic moneylender from Yakuza 4; Goro Majima, Leader of the Tojo clan’s Majima family; Ryuji Gouda, exiled former-chairman of the Omi Alliance and antagonist of Yakuza 2; and the Dragon of Dojima, Kazuma Kiryu.
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Yakuza: Dead Souls is the sequel to Yakuza 4, taking place one year afterwards but with a decidedly more fantastic premise.
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The game also has a radically new combat engine, as the living dead can easily shrug off kicks and punches.
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Each character can equip up to four weapons at a time, from pistols with unlimited ammunition to wide-spread shotguns, powerful anti-armor rifles, and incendiary grenades.
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While inside the quarantined areas of Kamurocho the player can be swarmed by zombies at any time, with more than twenty attacking at once.
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In addition to zombies they will also face mutants, such as the quick and agile Monkeyboy or the zombie-summoning Cry Baby, who are stronger and will require different tactics.
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Even more dangerous Prototypes will appear as bosses during the storyline.
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Like previous Yakuza games sidestories are often available between story missions.
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The quarantine has disrupted many people’s lives, and they need help getting back into the infected areas to save someone or finish some business.
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A new feature to Dead Souls are Perfect Partners, as some of these people in need will permanently join the protagonists, entering the quarantine when called and leveling up and gaining new abilities alongside them.
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Most of the minigames of previous Yakuza games, such as dining, hostess bars, batting cages, crane machines, and more are all present.
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The coliseum does not return, but in its place is the Subterreania, a randomly generated dungeon filled with enemies that rewards the player the deeper they go.
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March 14 – 1986 – Night Fire – DOS
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As artillery games are wont to do, Night Fire sticks each player into the stuffy interior of a tank, placed somewhere on a randomly generated terrain, and pits the participants (2 to 8 of them) against one another in a merry free-for-all of ballistic abandon.
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The objective? stay alive, and prevent your opponents from doing the same by feeding them carefully-measured portions of flaming death.
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Each player in turn can either move or shoot – moving is useful for improving tactical positions (and avoiding an untimely demise when enemy shells start getting too close).
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For shooting, the barrel angle and shell velocity can be modified as needed.
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Presiding over the battle is the full moon, which provides more than ambiance: it helpfully displays on its disc two gauges, indicating air friction and the wind’s speed and direction, which also have to be taken into account.
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Josh played this, if not a very faithful recreation of it.
March 15 – 1997 – Snowboard Kids – Nintendo 64 (North America)
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A racing game where you control one of five cutesy snowboarders competing against each other.
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Being a snowboarding game, each track is a downhill slalom with a ski lift at the bottom which takes you back to the start for however many laps a track has.
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The tracks are varied, the first few taking place on snowy mountainsides, while the latter taking you to wackier locales such as grassy countryside, a desert and a theme park.
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The money collected on the course or won at the end of the race can be spent to buy better boards, which differ in stats, or to collect items/weapons while racing.
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There are also stunts that can be performed while racing which earn money as well, and certain parts of each course encourage the player to do so.
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Other modes include stunt mode, shoot mode and speed mode, all focusing on a particular part of the gameplay from the main game, and a multiplayer mode where up to 4 players can race each other.
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There are also unlockables for dedicated players.
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March 16 – 2010 – Metro 2033 – Windows, Xbox 360
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Plot:
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In the year 2013 almost all of humanity was wiped out as a result of a devastating war, and Earth’s surface became a nuclear wasteland.
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The few survivors in Moscow retreated to the city’s subway tunnels.
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But even underground, human society continued to develop in predictable ways.
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Factions were formed, and stations and entire lines were occupied by ideologically opposed groups of people.
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War continued on a much smaller scale, adding to the difficulty of living under nearly impossible conditions, fearing the dark subway tunnels which harbored terrifying creatures.
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Artyom was born a few days before the apocalypse, but raised in the underground.
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Up until now he had never left the relative safety of the Exhibition, the northernmost station in the Moscow metro, where he lived together with his stepfather.
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However, everything changes when a soldier called Hunter arrives at the station, warning its inhabitants about a group of mysterious creatures known as the Dark Ones.
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When Artyom realizes that Hunter will never return from his mission, he decides to travel through the tunnels to the central Polis station and get help there.
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Metro 2033 is a first-person shooter with survival horror elements, based on the Russian book of the same name by Dmitry Glukhovsky.
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Most of the game takes place underground, but several times Artyom will have to venture outside, into the perpetual nuclear winter.
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Game progression is fairly linear, though areas may be explored more thoroughly for items and ammunition.
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Setpieces include a few on-rails sequences, missions that involve defending a location from an onslaught of monsters, and others.
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A few stages can be completed in a stealthy fashion.
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Mutants and hostile humans are the enemies of the game; Artyom can use a variety of weapons to deal with them, including AK-47, sniper rifle, automatic shotgun, and others.
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The player can only carry a sidearm and two primary weapons at the same time.
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Dynamite sticks and knives complete the set.
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All weapons come in different variations with scopes, silencer and other upgrades attached.
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While the upgrades cannot be bought individually, already upgraded weapons can be purchased at shops in the stations in exchange for the old weapon and powerful military-grade ammunition, the only currency in the game.
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If Artyom is hit, he slowly regenerates his health automatically; however, medikits are available to instantly heal him and increase the regeneration rate for a few seconds.
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When traveling on the surface or through poisoned areas, Artyom needs to equip his gas mask in order to survive.
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The filter of the gas mask wears down as it is being used (indicated by Artyom’s special watch and his heavier breathing) and can even be damaged in melee fights, straining the filter even more.
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Other tools available to Artyom are a pair of night vision goggles, a flashlight, a light-meter, a lighter, his journal with a compass, and a charging device.
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The latter is required to manually recharge the flashlight and the night vision goggles once their energy gets low.
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The light-meter, on the other hand, helps Artyom to determine if he is hidden in the shadows, helping him to avoid some dangers.
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Other environmental hazards include seeking anomalies and strange, sometimes deadly visions.
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These visions play a role in the game’s plot, and also serve as moral judgment of Artyom’s behavior, along with his actions during certain situations involving hostile human organizations.
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Depending on these choices, the game will reach one of the two available endings.
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March 17 – 1995 – Descent – DOS
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Plot:
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The Post-Terran Minerals Corporation (PTMC) digs up minerals on all nine planets of the solar system, employing humans and robots to do its job.
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Unfortunately, the mining robots are now being controlled by a hacker, and have taken the human workers hostage.
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The PTMC has tried to get the robots back under their control, but communication with the mining stations has been lost.
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In desperation, the PTMC modifies a Pyro-GX ship for combat and hires a mercenary, codenamed “Material Defender”, to fly it.
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The mission is to destroy the infected mines and rescue human hostages, destroying any hostile robot that gets in the way.
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Descent is a 3D first-person game that puts the player at the controls of the Pyro-GX spaceship.
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Descent is notable in that the player travels through various interior locations (mines) but can do so in 720 degrees of movement.
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The ship however only moves forward and backward in any of the directions it is facing.
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The ship is able to use a variety of weapons scattered as power-ups throughout each level.
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They include: standard lasers, the Vulcan Cannon (a chaingun-like weapon), the Spreadfire Cannon (a rapidly firing, shotgun-like energy weapon), the Plasma Cannon (a rapidly firing energy weapon more suited for medium-range combat), and the Fusion Cannon (fires a ball of energy that’s more powerful the longer it is charged it up, but could destroy the ship).
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All of these weapons, except for the Vulcan Cannon, use the ship’s energy supply.
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The Pyro-PX is also capable of firing regular concussion missiles, homing missiles, proximity bombs (sits in the sky, then explodes when something gets close to it), smart missiles (more powerful homing missiles that fire out homing energy balls upon impact with their target), and Mega Missiles (the ultimate weapons of mass destruction).
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The goal of each level is to locate and destroy the mine’s reactor.
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Once completed, there are only 45 seconds to find the escape hatch to get out of the mine before it explodes.
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As progress is made through the game, the AI will adapt to player’s strategies and attempt to prevent the player from reaching the goals.
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This was the first 3D game Josh can remember playing.
March 18 – 1992 – Minesweeper – Windows 3.x
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Minesweeper is a puzzle game in which the player is presented with a board filled with mines, without knowing what fields they occupy.
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When the player clicks on a field a number appears on it, indicating how many mines are located in the fields nearest to it.
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The player then clicks on other fields, trying to avoid mines.
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If the player makes a mistake, the mine will explode and the game is over.
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The game features three difficulty levels, distinguished by the size of the board – the bigger the board, the higher the difficulty level.
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March 19 – 2007 – Tetris Evolution – Xbox 360
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Tetris Evolution is one of the many officially-licensed Tetris games. The game features seven game modes, several of which return from Tetris Worlds.
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Marathon – Standard, timeless Tetris, where the goal is to clear as many lines as possible.
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Ultra – Try to earn as many points as possible in a timed game.
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Cascade – Clearing lines can cause placed pieces to fall, potentially clearing more lines for big points.
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Race – Clear a set number of lines as quickly as possible.
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Score – Reach a designated score as quickly as possible.
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Hotline – Clearing specific highlighted lines will earn bonus points.
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Go Low – The lower the stack is, the more points are gained from clearing a line.
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Also included are both local multiplayer and online play over Xbox Live for up to four players.
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There are also a variety backgrounds and BGM to choose from.
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Tidbits
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Fallout 76 role-playing group The New Responders is making an in-game procedural drama, bringing in other members of the community to join the story and solve the mystery
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Episodes are broadcast weekly live on Twitch and then archived afterwards on YouTube
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Genndy Tartakovsky’s Clone Wars cartoon is finally coming to Disney Plus on April 2nd, along with other Star Wars side-projects like Caravan of Courage and The Story of the Faithful Wookie
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Though it’s no longer canon to the Star Wars universe, the series of shorts from the mind that brought us Dexter’s Lab and Samurai Jack is just fantastic and very much worth watching
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The Snyder Cut of the Justice League movie is out today on HBO Max, so we’ll have to see if doubling the length of movie can make it into a better one
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Don’t adjust your TV when you’re watching though- the whole film is shown in a 4:3 display ratio, because Snyder wanted it fully IMAX-ready
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Part of the ongoing GameStop stock saga has seen the leak of new GameStop Social spaces, including mini LAN centres and tables for card and board games (presumably once it’s safe to do so)
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If these kinds of things come to EB Games north of the border as well, along with the new push to digital and same-day delivery, this could be a renaissance for the video game retailer
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Photo backup service and self-professed online privacy experts pCloud have apparently run an analysis of Apple’s app privacy labels and determined that Instagram and Facebook are “the most invasive apps” when it comes to third party data
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Surprising no-one
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Rogers Communications is apparently looking to buy out Shaw, becoming Canada’s second-largest cellular and cable provider
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Canada already has some of the world’s highest costs for cell phone and internet plans, and the $26B plan probably wouldn’t improve the situation
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Netflix is reportedly testing a new feature that will show warnings to anyone allegedly sharing their login with someone outside of their home
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The warning pops up asking you to verify their access through a code texted to their phone, but so far there haven’t been any repercussions to just clicking “Verify later”
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