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

Free Games

• Xbox

  • The Raven Remastered

    • 2018 remaster from 2014
    • Episodic point and click adventure game incorporating elements of stealth and detective work, it’s a noir mystery story that has you playing a bumbling Swiss police constable on the hunt of a notorious jewel thief

  • Bleed 2

    • 2017
    • Side-scrolling arcade action platformer featuring air-dodging, bullet-reflecting, and tons of bosses, like a 2D Bayonetta bullet-hell

  • Saints Row: Gat out of Hell

    • 2015
    • Action-adventure open world game that serves as an epilogue to Saints Row IV and is a standalone expansion, featuring the same kind of over-the-top third-person shooter action and superhuman abilities that Saints Row became known for in later entries

  • Stacking

    • 2011
    • Adventure puzzle game developed by Double Fine Productions, created during the development period of Brütal Legend, and based on the Russian stacking matryoshka dolls where you can stack and unstack into other characters to use their abilities and solve puzzles

• PlayStation

  • Worms Rumble

    • 2020
    • A twist on the classic Worms blueprint, where instead of turn-by-turn strategic combat it’s real-time with up to 32 players in battle royale or deathmatch modes
    • Launching simultaneously on the PS4, PS5, and Steam with full crossplay and planned ongoing content updates including arenas, customizations, game modes, and more

  • Just Cause 4

    • 2018
    • Open world action adventure game where you work to take down The Black Hand, the world’s biggest private military, with your wingsuit, grappling hook, rocket boosters, and a variety of weaponry. The game uses a new version of the game engine of Just Cause 3, featuring diverse and extreme weather including blizzards, sandstorms, tornadoes, and more

  • Rocket Arena

    • 2020
    • Online third-person 3v3 shooter where each character has unique abilities and signature rockets, and when you get blasted out of the arena you fly your rocket right back in to the action. Polygon called it a blend of Quake-style combat with Smash Bros violence

  • Bugsnax (still free this month, too)

    • 2020
    • An indie adventure game where you explore a mysterious island and attempt to find and capture the titular half-bug-half-snack creatures, taking inspiration from Pokémon Snap, Ape Escape, Dark Cloud, and Viva Piñata

  • And if you’re lucky enough to get a PS5, you’ll get access to the PS Plus Collection

    • 20 great games from the PS4 era that can help you catch up if you missed out

• Epic Games

  • MudRunner

    • 2017
    • Off-road driving sim that advertises itself as the ultimate off-road experience, putting players in the driver seat across extreme Siberian landscapes with only a map and compass as guides

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

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

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

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

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

• We browsed the comments for highlights live on the show

This Day In Gaming History

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

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

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

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

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

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

November 24 – 1992 – Sonic The Hedgehog 2 – Genesis

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

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

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

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

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

November 27 – 2017 – Desert Bus VR – Windows

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

Tidbits

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