#i know a ps4 would be relatively cheap at this point and still be great

[goldensunset]

now that my sisters are hooked on playstation gaming bc they got to try it for a bit i’m like guuuuys if we all pool our money we could invest in a ps5 together… (they want to play the fanciest most realistic games from this decade and i want to play a clunky series that’s older than me)

[tumbling-odyssey]

Games I played in 2020

Just felt like getting my thoughts out on all the games I played this year. I’ve been wanting to do something like this for years but I always let it pass me by. Well not this year! Fuck you laziness! 

I played the first half in 2019 but finished it in 2020 so I guess I'll count it. DQ11 was my intro to Dragon Quest and what a good starting point. I'm not exaggerating when I say this is one of the best traditional JRPGs on the market. Characters, story, combat, it all clicks in just the right way to make a flawless game... until the end credits roll that is. 

I have no idea what happened with the post game but by god does it dive off a cliff. It undermines everything you worked to do in the main plot. The characters act brain dead and it shamelessly reuses events from the main game. Please pick up and play DQ11 but for the love of god just stop when the credits roll.

Doom is a game I knew I'd like. The heavy metal ascetic and soundtrack were right up my alley, but I just never found the time. With Eternal on the way though and having found it on the cheap at a pawn shop I figured there was no time like the present. Needless to say but I was right. I loved everything about this game. The thrill of combat, the screech of the guitars, and the silent take no shit attitude of Doomguy. Make no mistake though, I SUCK at this game. I played on easy but still got my ass handed to me on the regular. But I don't care, I was having way to much fun.

I flipped my shit when this game got leaked at the tail end of 2019. Zero 3 is my all time favourite game. To celebrate this getting announced I went and 100% Zero 3 as I hadn't done it on my current cart, and Zero 3 was still the first thing I played when I got this collection! I love that game to death and I’m glad to have it on modern consoles again. As I was under a bit of time crunch with other games releasing soon I only played 2 other games in the collection Zero 4 and ZX Advent. Until the DS collection those and 3 were the only Zero/ZX games I had so I have a lot of nostalgia for them. 

Zero 4 hold ups better then I remember. Not as good as 3 but a damn solid game with tweaks I honestly wish hit the series before its end. I remember having issues with the stage design and ya it’s not perfect, but it’s far from as bad as I thought. For ZXA this was the first time I beat the game on normal difficulty. For some reason the ZX games have always given me more trouble than the Zero games, so finally beating one on normal was very exciting. Maybe I can now finally go and beat ZX for the first time...

The Mystery Dungeon series rising from the depth to punch all those unexpecting in the face was a very welcome surprise. I had a lot of hype going into this one as I have very fond memories of my time with Red Rescue Team and even more with Explorers of Darkness. And the game lived up to it! The remastered music is great and crazy nostalgic, the 3D models are well used and don't feel as stiff as they do in the core series, and the QOL changes are near perfect... So why did I drop this game like a rock once I finished the main quest? 

Anyone familiar with Mystery Dungeon will know that the post game is the real meat of it. The story is short and all the really cool shit comes in after it's done. But I just couldn't bring myself to put more time in after I finished said story mode. I'm definitely chocking that up to me just not being in the mood then an issue with the game. Here's hoping we get an Explorers DX sometime soon. That will fucking hook me for all it's got.

Second verse same as the first. I loved this game and sucked at it horribly. Out of all the games I've played this year Doom Eternal is the one I want to go back to the most. I was not the hugest fan of some of the changes made and retained a stance that I liked 2016 better. First person platforming has never been a fun experience in my opinion and Eternal did little to change that. And I know this a lukewarm take at best but fuck Marauders!. They are so unfun to fight and ruin the pace. The Marauder in the last mook wave took me so long I was worried I wouldn’t be able to finish the game. But the more I've seen of Eternal after my playthrough makes me think I was being far to harsh. I haven't played the DLC yet either. Mostly cuss I haven't heard great things about it. Gonna wait for the rest of it to come out to see if it's worth getting. Might just replay to whole game at that point to see if it clicks with me better.

This was my second favourite game of the year, and was going to take the top slot until a certain other game came out. Addressing the elephant in room right away, I hated the ending. But I was expecting something like that, I think we all were. I won't let the ending ruin the rest of the game though. Not gonna let 1 segment colour everything that came before it. We have to see how the later parts play out to truly see if this ending was trash or not anyway. 

It took Square over a decade but they finally got an action RPG battle system that works and feels good to play. This may be my favourite battle system in an RPG period honestly. All four characters are a blast and it only gets better the more time you spend with it. Figuring out the nuances of each character’s skills and how to combine them not only with the skills of the others but how to enhance them with the right Materia set. This makes fights thrilling and satisfying when you finally best whatever was giving you trouble. Tis was the best way to bring 7′s mechanics into the modern landscape while also fixing the BIGGEST issue the OG had. The fact every character feels the same aside from Limit Breaks. 

All this on top of graphics that just look fucking stunning, a few glitched out doors aside. Fuck I still feel blown away looking at the characters models (mostly Tifa) and see how god damn pretty everyone is. Also Tifa’s Chinese dress is gift from the Gods and I still haven’t picked my jaw up from the floor after I first saw it.

In my circle of the internet there was a lot of hype for this game. So much so that I ended up buying it to see what all the hubbub was about. I had never played a Streets of Rage game before and my only experience with beat'em ups was playing a LOT of Scott Pilgrim and last year's River City Girls. Turns out Streets of Rage plays quite a bit different and it kicked my ass! So sadly I had to switch to easy to make it through but I still had a fun time with it. 

I started playing mostly as Blaze but once Adam hit the scene oooooh fucking boy. I didn’t play anyone else. There's a deceptive amount of content in this game. You can unlock almost every character from the previous games and all of them rocking their original sprites and moves. If I had more of a connection with this series I'm sure I would have gone nuts on unlocking everything. I stopped after my one playthrough and I was happy with that. Always glad to support a long overdue franchise revival.

To properly talk about P5R I think I need to air a lot of my feelings on the original game and the importance it has to me. You see, prior to 2017 I barely played games, only sticking to specific franchises. AKA Pokemon and Mega Man/Mega Man like games. Until 2016 though I still bought a lot of games. Eating up Steam sales and deals I found at pawn shops. This lead to a Steam library and shelf filled with games I've never touched outside of maybe an hour or 2. So in 2016 when I took interest in the newly released Kirby Planet Robobot I made a deal with myself. I could get the game but I HAD to beat it.  And I did just that, gaining not just a new fav Kirby game but a new rule for game purchases. If I knew I wouldn't beat a game I was not aloud to buy it. Now what does ANY of this have to do with P5 you may ask? Well... almost everything.

 I was immediately interested in P5 when it hit the west in 2017. I loved the 20 or so hours I but into P3 years ago and really liked the P4 anime I had watched around the same time. So of course with all the hype around it I wanted to dive into the series full force with P5. But I knew myself. Putting over 100 hours into a game was beyond me and I had a weird relationship with home console games as I was predominately a handheld gamer. Add in the fact I didn't even have a PS4 and I was convinced P5 would be something I always wanted to play, but never would. So when I went to the mall with a few friends and they showed me that P5 had a PS3 version, I had a dilemma on my hands. I knew I wanted to play it and I now had a way to do so. But doing that would require me to change 2 HUGE hang ups I had with games. Would I being willing to waste 60 bucks with so much working against me? Apparently I was. I immediately started going to town on this game. Making sure I spent no less then 2 hours a day playing NO MATTER WHAT. Which may not seem like a lot but it was to me... at the time.. I also had just moved to my current house, so coming home from my still relatively new job and going straight into P5 was the first real routine I formed during this heavily transitional part of my life. 

I of course ended up loving P5 and put 200 hours into it. As such my outlook on gaming was forever changed. Console games were no longer out of reach and I knew I could handle playing monster length game. I started playing way more games then I ever did before and trying out generas I never thought I would play. P5 is the main reason for this and why I'm able to make a post like this. To actually touch on Royal though? It's unarguably the better version of the game and Atlus learned all the right lessons from P4G. The new characters are great and the added section at the end is possibly the best shit Atlus has ever written. I only wish Yoshizawa joined the party sooner so I could play as her more. 

The release of this really came out of nowhere huh? Wayforward announced it was being made mid way through 2019, then there was its weird half release on the Apple store... and then suddenly it was out! Very little fanfare for this one. Is that indicative of the games quality? Luckily no. Seven Sirens is a solid addition to the series and follows up Half Genies Hero nicely. The game goes back to Shantae's Metroidvania roots and makes a TON of improvements. 

Transformations are now instant instead of having to dance for them (don't worry dancing is still in the game) making the game feel more like Pirates Curse in its fast flow. They also added the Monster Cards which take heavy inspiration from Aria of Sorrow's Soul system. A feature I'm happy to see in any Metroidvania since Aria is one of my all time favourite games. Sadly though the game does not take the best advantage of these improvements. 

Over all the game feels kinda empty. The dungeons aren't super exciting to explore nor are they challenging in any way. And the plot is very repetitive, with each dungeon repeating the same beats. Really this game feels more like set up for a better game down the line. The mechanics are all here and Wayforward has a solid art style with the sprites from Half Genie Hero. Hopefully they capitalizes on this for Shantae 6 and we get the best game in the series.

While it may not have been the most thrilling game, Seven Sirens really put me into a Shantae mood. So much so that I went back to play the 2 games in the series I had never touched. This being the first game and Risky's Revenge. Shantae 1 really is a hidden gem in my opinion. Don't get me wrong, it's the definition of jank, but there's a lot of heart to this game. The sprites are great, the soundtrack is good, and the characters are funny... but it's still on the OG Gameboy and that's a massive hindrance for any game. I'm hard pressed to recommend this with how poorly its aged but I think it's better then it looks. 

Risky's Revenge on the other hand was a game that shocked me by how little it had to offer. I know this game went through a hellish development and what we got was far from what Wayforward planned to make, but it's hard to imagine a world where this was the technical BEST Shantae game. It's not a bad game by any stretch... just a boring one.

For the record my ranking of the games goes Pirates Curse>Half Genie Hero>Seven Sirens>Original>Risky’s Revenge

Sword and Shield are mediocre games at best. I know, real steaming hot take there. I managed to make my Sword playthrough a lot more fun by not spoiling myself on the new Pokemon designs for the first time since Gen 3. Either way, I enjoyed myself enough that I didn't mind playing more of it with these DLC campaigns. Plus I love the idea of Game Freak switching over to this method as apposed to making a third version, so I wanted to support it. 

Klara is a fucking top tier Poke Girl both in design and personality and is probably the highlight of Isle of Armour. GF actually went out of their way to give her multiple expressions to sell her toxic bitch personality and I love every minute of it. She sadly drifts into the background for the second half of the DLC’s story which hurts an already rough section even more. Not more then having to grind Kubfuu all the way to fucking level 70 though! That put a serious hamper on my motivation to finish the story but I pushed through anyway. Having to solo the tower with Kubfuu was at least a fun challenge though, as was the final fight with Mustard. Fuck the Diglett hunt though. Ain’t no one got time for that.

Crown Tundra may be my fav of the 2 though even if there isn't a character as good as Klara in it. The hunt for the legendaries was just pure adventure and I had a fucking blast doing it. The joy I felt when I figured out Registeel’s puzzle put a smile on my face unlike any Pokemon game since I was a kid. The whole Regi stuff was honestly a nice Nostalgia trip to my times with Emerald. The story around Calyrex was enjoyable, even if I still hate its design. Not revealing the horses before release was a good call to as it gave an honest surprise. Having to chase down the Galar forme Birds in the overworld is a great way to evolve the roaming legendaries idea and I hope GF sticks to this. Plus the Galar forme birds are some of the best legendary designs since Gen 5 and I love Chocodos way to fucking much. 

Here we are folks, my GotY. I love Panzer Paladin so fucking much. A combination of mechanics from Mega Man, Castlevania, and Blaster Master? Sign me the fuck up! This game is tailored made for me and I knew I had to play it once it started making the rounds on social media. I'll admit though, I was a bit worried when the the first full trailer dropped and showed the weapon mechanics. Breakable weapons that you have to sacrifice for checkpoints and power ups? I'm not sure about that.... Luckily I was being a complete moron and those mechanics are near perfect. 

I love the set up of each boss being a mythological creature from different cultures. They didn’t just pull the easy ones either. A lot of these things I learned of for the first time here. I love how Grit controls. Using the upward stab as a double jump and being able to pogo off enemies Shovel Knight style just felt great and satisfying. Flame was limited but it made her sections feel tense. She does more damage then you think she could at first glance. Also the only way to heal Grit being to use pods that only Flame could access was a cool idea. 

I am begging you Tribute Games, you have to make more Panzer Paladin games. Slap some new upgrades on Grit and expand what Flame can do and you have an even better sequel  on your hands. Also maybe not have so many 'gotcha' moments with enemy placement. That's really my only complaint about the game. Great music, great sprites, giant robots, unique premise, and a reference to Canadian legends. The ultimate self indulgent game for me.

It felt super out of left field for Curse of the Moon to be getting a sequel. The games fucking amazing but it was really just a tie in for the main Bloodstained product. Not something I expect to get a continuation. Either way I was pumped. If this was even half as good as the original then I was in for a great time. Which held true... cuss this legitimately is only half as good as Curse of the Moon. I still like the game, quite a lot actually. I mean how could I not with a fucking Corgi piloting a Death Train Mech. 

Something was just missing here that never made this click like the first game. Maybe it was the stage design, maybe the bosses, maybe the fact that it's a bit to long. I'm not sure. All I know is I couldn't bring myself to play all the modes like I did in the original. . Stopping part way in to the one where you can get the first games characters. I want to go back some day... I just don’t know when someday is.

This was an announcement I never saw coming. A Gundam Verses game coming to the west? That hasn't happened in the entire time I've been a Gundam fan. I had played a bit of Full Boost on my old roommates PS3 thanks to him having a Japanese account and I played Force on the Vita a few years ago. But to have the latest version fully translated with open servers? Holy hell that's a dream come true. 

Having the open betas every weekend leading up to launch was some much needed fun during this shit hole year. I had a lot of fun just fucking around with different suits and seeing what I could do with 'em. Absolutely trashing two Bael players as the Kapool is a memory I'll keep with me for a long time. Fucking danced on their graves. This gave me some new appreciation for suits like the Baund Doc and Hambrabi, the later becoming a lowkey fav as it was my main.

I've fallen off with the game in the last few months but I definitely want to go back. I hope to start learning the game and take parts in tourneys when cons aren’t death sentences anymore.

It felt like everything in my life was SCREAMING at me to start the Yakuza series. From 2 of my friends playing 0 recently, a youtuber I following live tweeting as he played through the WHOLE series back-to-back, and Yakuza 2 having a run at AGDQ 2020. Plus the constant pleas to play this series you get from following Little Kuriboh on Twitter. I finally broke and picked up 0 in the middle of August. Boooooooooy howdy did I not know what I was getting in to. And no I don't mean the content. I knew Yakuza was a series of wildly conflicting tones between the main story and side quests. What I mean is the length. I legit thought this was gonna be a 20-30 hour game. When i reached hour 30 of my playthrough and realized I wasn't even close to a conclusion, I think I knew I had bitten off more then I was planning. That misstep aside I ended up loving this game and want to play the rest of the series.... I just need to rest up first before I dive into Kiwami 1.

 Let's actually talk about the game for a moment here. Kiryu and Majima quickly clicked as likeable characters to me and I cared about their stories. Combat is fun and the multiple styles are all great.... though both the default styles take a while to get there. The mad rush I felt at the end was fantastic and the last bosses are a joy to fight. Only real complaint is the pacing of the side stories. I loved being able to just stumble into various different events while on route to the next plot objective. But this became less common as the game went on and side stories started getting more tucked away. Also hot take here, the host club mingame is more tedious then fun and I like Kiryu’s business stuff as I could do that in the background. I’m excited to dive into Kiwami and probably Kiwami 2 this year... Though I’m not sure when just yet.

Just gonna say it flat out, I think this is better the the 2018 game. The smaller scale helps in this style of game and Miles just naturally has a better move set then Peter. I'm not sure if they actually tightened up the combat system or if they just threw less bullshit enemies at you but fighting feels so much better in this one. Traversal is better too,  simply because they changed the button for tricks. In the original you have to hold down 2 face buttons to enter trick mode??? In hindsight that was such a bad call. 

Having both the heal and venom powers run off the same meter was a good idea. Making the choice between keeping yourself alive guaranteed or potentially ending a fight quicker/disposing of a problem enemy is super fun. The player having to make small choices like this during combat is what helps it not be brainless. I love all the different venom skills you get. While they all achieve the same thing in stunning opponents, how you achieve that goal is up to you. Do you want to just slug the bastard, throw 'em up in the air, tackle the shit out of them? The choice is yours. 

Only real big complaint is certain upgrades being NG+ locked. I know you want to encourage replays, but this is a shitty way to do it I feel. Also can we retire Rhino for the next game. Man has had 2 shitty boss fights now and I need a break. Between this and Spider-Verse, I'm honestly starting to like Miles as Spider-Man more then Peter.

I got this game more on a whim then anything. I was definitely interested when it was first announced for the west. Vanillaware's beautiful art style in a story about giant robots beating the shit out of Kaijus? Sign me the fuck uuuuuu-oh wait it's an RTS? I had never played an RTS's before, mainly due to the sheer concept stressing me out. So I let it fall to the wayside. The game started coming up again though towards the end of the year with GotY on everyone's minds.  This revived my interest, especially as what I HAD planned to be playing around that time was... well. Cyberpunk. Don't think I need to say much more. Also I had worried for nothing as the Real Time Strategy was not that Real Time. 

This game really lays on the analysis paralysis once you're out of the tutorial. Do you want to fight, do you want to do story, who's story do you want to do, what branch should you follow, how much should you play with this one character? It's very overwhelming at first. I decided to not go ham on just one character and swap around all the time. The twists in this game are equal parts exciting and infuriating. Learning something new always came with the caveat of more questions, or something you knew 'for sure' being disproven. Like when I learned 1 characters was actually 4 separate ones! Anyone that's played knows exactly what I'm talking about. 

Natsuno ended up being my fav and not just because of.... obvious reasons. BJ was cute if unfortunately named and her relationship with Mirua was my favourite in the game. Not that there was much competition except for maybe Ogata and Tomi. I ended up really liking the combat but I can see why RTS fans say it's the weakest part. It's far from complex and I had a winning strat by the third or so real fight. Aka spam turrets and have the Gen 1′s gank all the bosses.

One quick thing I want to share was how I beat the boss at the end of Area 2. The one where Inaba is singing. I had Hijiyama use the limit break skill to bum rush the boss right off the hop. I took out half its health in one hit but Hijiyama’s Sentinel was on death’s door. Only thing that saved him was sending in Amaguchi to blow up a bunch of missiles. Hijiyama took it out on his next attack but lost his Sentinel at the same time. It was a real clutch victory and crazy fucking anime. 

The best way to really describe Carrion is that it's a fantastic proof of concept. Can you make a game where you play as The Thing? Why yes, yes you can. Carrion just needed a bit more tweaking to really bring this concept home and be the A+ game I know it can be. As it is now the game is a bit empty. The level design is super samey and the lack of a map is fucking brutal at points. I know it would make no sense for a blob monster to have a map but somethings you just have to gameify for convenience. The level design must have done something right as even though I was completely lost I still moved from area to area properly. Hell by the time I actually looked up a map I had 1 more item to get and I learned I was one door away from beating the game. 

I love the idea of losing mass as you take damage and gaining more by eating people, but having abilities tied to size was a terrible idea. It just leads to tedium as I have to go and shed myself to the right size, do the puzzle, then of course I'm going to go back and rebuild myself to see if I can do the next segment at full power. Just make it so you can swap between abilities using the d-pad or something. I hope this game gets a sequel just so this sick ass concept can be fully realized.

[fantasyresident]

There’s Something I Have To Address

Just like when the Dexit controversy was stirring, there is now a “new” controversy (if you want to call it new) that is causing unhinged fans to go after Masuda. Only this time, they decide to do it in response to people wishing him well for his BIRTHDAY. Last time it was a wedding, this time it’s his fu**ing BIRTHDAY. I missed this insane ordeal, which happened on January 12th (5 days ago from now) but I thought it was important to respond because I always consider harassment wrong, especially against people who work hard at what they do. 

Apparently people are automatically assuming Pokemon were cut in the first place to be added later for money, even though they took the time to make a free update that allows you to get them through trade. Now it is true there is still a little bit of a “paywall” for them since Pokemon Home is a paid service, but if you’re operating a service like that, shouldn’t you be allowed to charge for it? And if it’s a low price like Pokemon Bank, that’s an extremely small paywall especially compared to what other games expect you to pay for various things. The other cost is the Nintendo Online subscription, which again is a service that has to be constantly run, which I and anyone else who believes in paying for hard work would think, SHOULD be paid for. Not to mention, the Online Membership has different payment packages you can choose from. The single member plan is quite cheap (compare it to the terrible price of Play Station Plus). Many PS4 games lock online content behind that $60 PS+ paywall and nobody complains about it. Yet Pokemon expects you to pay for the same thing only for far less and suddenly it’s a “problem”.

This isn’t to say that everything is perfect with the Pokemon Company. In fact, I do believe there is some level of corruption going on somewhere within the company. (Most likely the marketing department) But then again, you look at any company these days and you find the same exact issues all over the place. However, since Pokemon is a huge brand and people have seriously extreme attachments to the franchise, people complain more about Pokemon than other franchises that pull the same (and even far worse) tricks. Do I believe Masuda or Ohmori are behind any of this. NO. Masuda and Ohmori seem very passionate about their work in the Pokemon franchise and I don’t believe they called all of these shots. There’s more to a company than just a couple people making decisions. Many people make decisions in a company and normally most of the decision-making process is made privately, so we Pokemon fans don’t even know the full picture of what’s going on behind the scenes, yet many people are harshly judging others. Masuda did give reasoning for dex cuts previously, referring to things like game balancing, better animations, etc. For one, they most likely did try out game balancing, but realized when everyone was using the same broken Pokemon that their plans for that were done for.As for the animations, many did improve or were worked over entirely, even if a handful remained the same. (New animations wasn’t a total lie like everyone’s making it out to be.) Referring back to the gameplay balancing, the timing makes sense, considering not long after the first tournament they decide to reveal the DLC expansion pass for more Pokemon. (They probably used the results of the tournament as a way of judging how well the game was balanced.) There’s literally a million things that could have happened behind the scenes to change their minds, yet people interestingly enough automatically glue their minds to the word “corruption” and “greed”. Negativity spreads like wildfire and not everyone wants to deal with that shit. I’m very skeptical of big-shot gaming companies, but do I automatically assume the worst every time Game Freak does literally anything that people doesn’t fully understand? Of course not. If you’re going to attack Masuda for making very good DLC for $30, then attack the creator of Call of Duty for the COD Black Ops 2 season pass that costs $50. Or you can criticize all of the other games that have season passes that cost just as much or more than Pokemon SwSh’s very expansive passes. 

I realize that some of you critics will refer to how supposedly “empty” the base game of Sword and Shield was and then rant about how games that are complete from the start deserve to have highly priced DLC, but let me address that point. It may be “incomplete” in your opinion, but it’s not in others’. For me, the game felt fulfilling and I especially loved the new gen of Pokemon creatures. The only thing that felt a bit bare was lore, and SwSh aren’t the only games to lack that, so it’s not that shocking to me. They’re still great games. If you’re going to call SwSh’s expansion passes expensive, then be fair and consider all other expansion passes/season passes. Not only that, but DLC as well. Consider the often absurd cost of skins that are marketed in many games like Final Fantasy Dissidia NT. Just because the Pokemon Company decided to do DLC, that doesn’t mean they’re planning to make us pay heavily for pre-existing Pokemon. Again, there are small pay hurdles, but considering I only have a small amount to spend per month and I can even afford to pay what the Pokemon Company is asking, that really speaks volumes for how relatively cheap the content is. You also have to consider how companies need methods for earning revenue in the long term, something inbetween releases of major titles, and a service like Home will not only benefit the Pokemon players, but it will also benefit the people putting their time and effort into making the service a success. A win/win for everyone.

What I’ll say is, leave other people the f*ck alone, this includes Masuda. Whether if your biased mind wants to admit it or not, game developers DO work hard and they don’t deserve to be attacked on their birthday of all times. Nobody does. When you act, put yourself in someone else’s shoes first. Would you want to spend such a long time on a game that you felt passionate about only to be put down by a bunch of people on your own birthday? This really just shows how fans don’t even think of game developers as people, they just think of them as factories for making games. Whether if you liked Sword and Shield or not, that doesn’t matter. Stop attacking Masuda and bombarding him with paparazzi-style questions that imply he’s cheating fans their money.  

[everygame]

The Last of Us Remastered (PS4)

Developed/Published by: Naughty Dog / Sony Computer Entertainment Released: 29/07/2014 Completed: 22/10/2019 Completion: Beat it on Normal, beat Left Behind on Hard, beat New Game+ on Hard. Trophies / Achievements: 45%

Classic, I bought this when it was cheap because it never came to PlayStation Plus and then of course finally it does, so I was like “guess I should finally play this thing that technically I have paid for twice.”

I’m not really sure why I put it off for so long, other than that I’ve had such sporadic access to a PS4 over the last few years that honestly I’d forgotten I had it or that it existed. Which is weird because Uncharted 4 was so unbelievably good that I went from “Naughty Dog are a AAA game developer” being my whole opinion of the company to “I would die for Naughty Dog” and let me say: The Last of Us does, by this point, feel like a bit of a parody of serious content (sad-dad in a post apocalypse where morals are relative) but… man. I loved it.

Let’s start with the problems. First up, if you don’t like triple A-style stealth games and/or cover shooters, you’re not going to like this (if you do: the controls are superb. Like… how did they get it all so right superb.) Then you have to grapple with the fact that the level design is more about making places feel a bit real at the expense of always having a clear through-line (there are so many dead ends that don’t offer collectibles or anything, and I did find this rather tedious and I didn’t feel like it made the areas feel more realistic, considering it does the “pile of rubbish blocking your way” thing all the time.) And *then* you have to accept that even if they’re at the top of their game, the “scarcity” problem is one that Naughty Dog cannot solve: “how can we make people feel they’re on the edge of running out of stuff they need to survive without making them just hoard what they have, not using it and struggling as a result?”

(I thought about this a lot during my playthroughs, and I’m still not sure I have a solution. The move of trapping players/putting them up against enemies that they will fail unless they accept they just have to use stuff is frustrating, and if you do something else like “if they use their stuff, give them a little more” it needs to be communicated without making the player feel like there is no scarcity at all. Either way I finished this game with as much ammo as was humanly possible, pointlessly, twice, rather than have fun using it in battles.)

Oh and one other quibble: you can’t skip most of the cut-scenes. Only if they’re a movie, and that’s real annoying!

Ok, wait, what did I like about it. I mean, as I mentioned: it feels fantastic to play. The encounters are intelligently designed and they are incredibly well paced. There were points where I was like “alright, I’m tired of human enemies” and quickly it’d be mixed up. Even if… and man, I keep mentioning things I *didn’t* like, they cheat more than once to make stealth not possible (especially annoying in the sections where you’ll stealth until a point and trip a mark that just makes zombies run out no matter what. BOO!)

But yeah, it feels great and I’m going to let it away with the sad-dad, because it came out in 2014 originally and the story does not go in the direction I rather cynically assumed it would, instead going somewhere much more nuanced and interestingly morally grey, which I loved (there’s a moment where a character doublecrosses our characters, and I said this out loud and felt it with all my bones.) It’s possibly all a bit grimdark because I just kept thinking “well, I wouldn’t be quite this annoyed if everyone in the apocalypse wasn’t just a psycho but a dick about it” and that feels like that’s going to get quite ridiculous in the sequel to be honest, but I’m hopeful.

Will I ever play it again? So the most important thing you have to know about this is that after I finished it I played through it again on hard in new game+ and still enjoyed it. You can ask though: “wait, would you have played it again on hard if the game wasn’t stupidly stingy with trophies?” and the answer would probably be “yeah, probably not” but I did still enjoy it a lot so!

Final Thought: I also played through the DLC, Left Behind, and I was interested in how weak it was for similar reasons to above, which is everyone in the apocalypse is a dick. Here, it tries to get you to empathise with a children’s love story and frankly, I just found the “goodbye trip” contrived and the love interest an arsehole. Would have been interesting to have it actually slotted into the main narrative instead of playing it after because I wonder how that would affect the pacing, but then I guess it spoils one of the twists (that I didn’t see coming because of cynicism, which I appreciated.)

[britesparc]

Weekend Top Ten #444

Top Ten PlayStation Games I Hope Get PC Releases

And once again I turn my steely eye to the world of gaming. This time though I’m pulling on my blue jumper and talking about PlayStation (because I guess Xbox would have a green one and Nintendo’s would be red? I dunno, I’m making this up as I go). I’ve said in the past that as much as I like Sony and would love a PlayStation, I’ve never actually owned one myself because I always tend to buy an Xbox first. As much as I love the gaming industry, gaming as a past-time, and games themselves as an art-form, I have a rapidly dwindling supply of free time and unfortunately once I factor in trying to see enough films to maintain polite conversation and staring at my phone for hours on end in order to maximise my ennui, I don’t have an awful lot of minutes left in the day to dive into a wide variety of triple-A titles. As such, because I’m used to the Xbox’s way of working, because I tend to prefer its controllers and its whole ecosystem, and because I love several of their franchises (Halo and Fable especially), it’s always Xbox I gravitate towards, and then I just don’t have enough gaming time left over to justify the expense of a second huge console. And let’s get it out of the way – the PlayStation 5 is huge.

As a result, as time has gone on, there is an ever-growing number of PlayStation exclusives that I’ve barely played. In The Olden Days this was less of a problem, as pre-kids (and, heck, pre-everything considering how old the original PlayStation is at this point) I was able to saunter over to a friend’s house and try out games on their console. In this fashion I sampled a good many PS1 and PS2 titles such as Metal Gear Solid, WipeOut, Resident Evil, Time Splitters, Ico, and my absolute favourite, the original PS2 Transformers game. By the time PS3 rolled around this happened more rarely, but I’d argue it was fairly late in the generation when they showed off any games that really interested me (specifically those from Naughty Dog); and with the PS4, I’ve barely played on one at all, more’s the pity. And I really do mean more’s the pity, because this time around there have been loads of games I wanted; they really have had a better generation than Xbox, even if I couldn’t give up my Halo or Gears, to say nothing of the huge collection of backwards compatible games that get played to death by my kids.

That’s why I’m overjoyed that Sony have finally taken a leaf out of Microsoft’s book and are starting to release some of their bigger games on PC. I’ve been largely laptop-only for about a decade now, but it is a very powerful laptop, even if it’s not dedicated gaming hardware, and I’ve been pleasantly surprised how well it manages to run even quite demanding 3D games such as Assassin’s Creed Odyssey or Gears Tactics (I really must try out Flight Simulator sometime soon). The first big Sony exclusives to drop on Steam are Death Stranding (which looks bonkers but not my cup of tea) and the intriguing Horizon: Zero Dawn, which I’d probably really like. But those were never the Sony games that totally floated my boat; no, there are others, and I would absolutely love it if Sony saw fit to unleash them on Steam in the near future. Hey, I’m not picky; you don’t need to day-and-date it. I don’t mind enjoying a “Part I” whilst PS5 gamers are playing the hot new “Part II”. But I increasingly think be-all-and-end-all exclusives are rather old-fashioned, and whilst I get that there should probably be games tied to specific boxes, the services those box-companies provide should be more universal. That’s why I like Microsoft’s Play Anywhere initiative and the mobile game streaming via xCloud. But this is a Sony list, and these are some very, very good Sony games. I assume. By and large, I haven’t played them.

Marvel’s Spider-Man (2018): I love Rocksteady’s Arkham series of Batman games, but I do find them a bit relentlessly dark and miserable with an oh-so-gritty art style. What could be better, then, than a game that seems to play broadly similar but is nice, bright, funny, and sunny? Spider-Man is the perfect hero for that sort of game, and this looks absolutely like everything I’d ever want from a superhero game. I really, really, hope it comes to PC at some point, but I’ll be honest, I doubt it.

The Last of Us (2013): I like a good third-person action-adventure, whether it’s Gears, Tomb Raider, or Jedi: Fallen Order. TLOU looks most up my street, however, for its story, and its seemingly moving depiction of a family unit forming amidst the end of the world. By all accounts it’s a tear-jerker; I’ve tried to steer clear of the plot. Porting it over to PC whilst the well-received sequel is getting an inevitable PS5 upgrade seems like a good idea.

Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection (2015): I’ve very briefly played one of the Uncharteds, but not really; I hear they’re like the Tomb Raider reboot, but better, which seems nice. A rollicking third-person action-adventure with an Indiana Jones spirit? Count me in. With the long-mooted film adaptation finally underway, COVID notwithstanding, it seems like a good time to let PC gamers have a go at the classic saga. I’d add part 4 to the existing trilogy collection before shunting it to Steam.

Shadow of the Colossus (2018): I’ve played Ico a bit so I’m broadly familiar with the tone of these games, but Colossus seems like an even cooler idea. Scaling moving monsters, killing them but feeling guilty, sounds like both a great gameplay mechanic and a moving and evocative theme for a game. Port the recent remake to PC please, Mr. Sony.

Ratchet and Clank (2016): full disclosure: the new PS5 Ratchet game is the only title I’ve seen demoed that really looks next-gen, with its fancy ray-tracing, excessive particle effects, and funky portal-based gameplay. How’s about, then, giving PC gamers a chance to enjoy the relatively-recent remake of the very first game? A bit of cross-promotion works wonders, Sony.

God of War (2018): the old PS3-era God of War games never really appealed, I guess because I’m not always a huge fan of hack-and-slash and they gave off a kind of crazy excessive, almost laddish vibe that I found off-putting (having not played them, I may be being incredibly unfair). The new one, though, sounds like it’s all about being a dad and being sad and remorseful, so count me in.

Wipeout Omega Collection (2017): I’ve always enjoyed arcade racers, but one sub-genre that I don’t think gets enough love is a futuristic racer, especially where you’ve got hover cars (they seemed to be quite popular twenty-odd years ago). I played the original Wipeout on my mate’s OG PlayStation, but I’d love it if us PC gamers could play the whole series. Could it possibly be even better than Star Wars Episode I Racer?

LittleBigPlanet 3 (2014): chances are, if I’d done this list back around the time the first two LittleBigPlanet games were released, they’d have topped the chart. They looked like cool, fun platform games, with a fantastic creative aspect; I bet my kids would love them. With that in mind, I’d be over the moon to see Sackboy take a bow on Steam. I’d have put Dreams on this list, incidentally, except I can’t see myself getting a VR set anytime soon.

The Last Guardian (2016): feels a bit of a cheat having both this and Colossus on the list, but I do want to see what the fuss is about. One of those games infamous for its time in development, it seems to be a love-it-or-hate-it affair, and I am intrigued. Plus I want to know who dies at the end, the boy or the monster.

Killzone Shadow Fall (2013): gaming cliché has it that Nintendo does cutesy platformers, Microsoft does shooters, and Sony does third-person action-adventures; so whilst I’m well-versed in Halo and Gears, I’ve never sampled PlayStation’s key FPS franchise. Famous for its genuinely wowing showcase when the PS4 was announced, I’m not sure how good Shadow Fall actually is (or any of its predecessors for that matter) but I’d be very interested in finding out. Alternatively, give us one of the Resistance games and let me tear around an alternative Manchester or something.

So, there we are; ten games that I think are probably quite good – or even, y’know, masterpieces – but I’ve not had the chance to really sample them yet. And short of me picking up a PlayStation on the cheap, I don’t know when I really can. I mean, I told myself I’d buy a second-hand PS3 and a copy of TLOU once this current generation was in full swing, but that never happened. So throw me a bone, Sony! I still want to buy your stuff! Just sell it somewhere else! Somewhere I already am! Like Steam! Please?!

[max177blog-blog]

Little Known Respect to help VBUCKS

Xbox Live Gold 3 Months 1000 Fortnite V

Now for some latest exciting news: New leaks have risen online that point to snow coming to the road of Fortnite Battle Royale for the winter season. Getting a Fortnite account grants benefits, such as advanced hero classes, reliable sticks, along with a ready-made fort. As the heroes get stronger, the capabilities are increase with passive quality, and sure combinations these skills traits, which specialize the type to certain playstyles. To help reduce wasting money on an account with a character that isn't a good fit it's wise to make a little research by getting.

There are lots of free v bucks generator tools off here except they always require you to utter a questionnaire or to perform some strange device that will generally never labor with one does not understand what you reached for. This is a v bucks generator, no man verification needed. Just stuff in the system under and newspapers submit. The v bucks will be added right in to the Fortnite account.

Fortnite Battle Royale has been the biggest video game sensation in the last year. It is a event on multiple platforms that move up the combat royale genre to a new level compared to other sports associated with such value. The millions who enjoyed those games quickly jumped on board to Fornite because it was quickly similar to the movie Battle Royale of a class people sent to an area to wrestle till the last one is still alive. Like fresh games, there are cheat programming and cool style to help chop within, such as collecting V-bucks, or electronic go against, the online currency to travel and accept special weapons to raise the game level.

How to get free V-Bucks in Fortnite? Pleasing to Released the V-Bucks, all-in-one guide on all the ways of earning V-Bucks in Fortnite. Unfortunately, there is now extremely edge track to help generate V-Bucks for free by playing the Clash Royale. Playing But the World awards a lot of V-Bucks which you could use in either game mode. However, there is no need to wait for long since But the planet will be for open in 2019. So bookmark the website! Every only way to make free V-Bucks is listed on this website.

10 Problems On VBUCKS

While both atmosphere in Fortnite can make, investigate, and remain the worked for the combat zone, each group is matched with a specific style of play out of an group of abilities and bonuses unlocked through the expertise tree. Fortnite esp works sound too. There's at here just some fundamental playable classes, but as the amusement creates through Alpha, Beta, early get to, with prior, there's prepared to be many special classes. Every principle group includes several Sub Schools on the two sexual orientations.

Fortnite is a hit PS4, Xbox One, LAPTOP and Mac online competition in which occurs streaming in popularity. Fortnite's But The planet mode will become free to play later this year, while Battle Royale is free right now. Battle Royale is a vast rival to another hit online game - PUBG, also called Battlegrounds. Developers Epic Games have also recently added Fortnite Cell toward it is offering, that is for iOS and Machine devices. You may get Fortnite news, updates, server status latest, downtime alerts, weekly challenge guides, map latest, Fortnite Mobile information, tips and strategy and more below.

You can play the game in PC, PS4, and Xbox. Player development can be cut among linked accounts (at least for NOTEBOOK and PS4), and you don't have to get another content on the sport. Even getting the standard release is good since this promising to enhance to check model by giving the differentiation of the two. However, when you move a reproduction as a present, but lack time to play, consider acquire a Fortnite account.

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V Bucks is the quality in-game currency for Fortnite Battle Royale. If you have played any such activity or next you know the in-game currency could help you get battles, save your own days, be everything simple or difficult depending on how much money you have and your entire gaming experience depends on the relative financial success. Fortnite Battle Royale builders have enabled some provisions for players to make V Bucks with the daily rewards. They can be used in Battle Royale mode. Yet, you cannot possibly earn all the bucks you need. You would need some more bucks than you have with cause about free V Bucks is the best strategy any person could fathom.

Every day, more and more players moved advance about public media to say they'd been hacked, besides. The development exploded earlier this month. There's no hard data about how many, although a jump in sites where Fortnite players congregate suggests the number of alleged fraud issues in the world's most popular sports is great. Hackers I interviewed say that's as security for Epic Games' software is located, with John's words, 'œtop kek.' Epic Games doesn't ask for a lot of verification before players do in-game purchases, which, hackers say, paves a clear start regarding the attacks.

Clicking put in, the website states to be connecting to Epic Activity with Fortnite severs but finally rest for additional verification. To be sure that you are not a bot that important which people fulfill a protection verification,” a pop-up box states. After you achieve the verification it will be credited 7,500 V-Bucks in your account.” Going on on leads to three separate phishing websites.

In Fortnite the income of payment is a digital currency v-Bucks Participants could substitute coins for beauty things with which may vary the character's look otherwise the bats they accept. For the owned system of Fortnite v-Bucks you can also get Battle Passes, allowing us to clear additional obstacles and get other supplies, as well as providing entrance to another deposits of skins. Unfortunately, cosmetics and other attractions suggested in Fortnite are much expensive. The coins of Fortnite v-Bucks aren't cheap, either. Players can generate the currency in a struggle, for example as an award for project within before completing particular missions. Yet these structures aren't quick, and therefore lots of people look for different means to get v-Bucks. One of them is the chance to generate v-Bucks coins in means of the free generator.

The Custom of VBUCKS

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4. Download the Fortnite request and put in this in place. You'll and then be consulted whether you have received a invitation or maybe not. If you picked up the email, try and monitor within and you'll start playing. If you haven't, you won't have access just but. If you like you can keep the app downloaded upon your call, then when you gather the evidence email, the credit will have been given permission to log in and have playing.

Fortnite Battle Royale has what is known as, virtual currency within the game known as V-Bucks. You buy V-Bucks with real world money out of credit cards, PayPal, or gift certificate. V-Bucks are needed to buy virtual goods like Skins” (A fancier avatar) or items which are increasingly part of the taste from the competition. Looking neat and carry out cool with these virtual add-ons is definitely part of Fortnite's appeal.

The single-player or co-operative mode (played with friends) involves fighting off zombie-like women. But Fortnite's most popular method is its standalone free-to-play multiplayer platform, Fortnite Battle Royale, in which up to 100 players put in the on-line game, competing alone or within squads of around some, to be the last player standing in a ever-decreasing battle arena.

But what exactly keeps them returning to Fortnite are weekly updates with new items with limited-time game modes. For case, one update with the game added shopping carts you could drive, giving participants the playoffs first automobiles and allowing people yet another end to spring back into the game. Another update unveiled Playground mode , that permits a squad of friends drop because of the island without the threat from the storm so they can experiment with guns with training building shapes. The larger Season 5 update added new districts to examine and All-Terrain Karts you can get with your whole squad. Good, it made hurt that Fortnite located the stand for coming tie-in events with an Avengers: Infinity War cross-promotion where players were able to seize the Infinity Gauntlet and become Thanos while enjoying the game.

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Fortnite Battle Royale is without a question the biggest activity within the world right now. In this Fortnite V-Bucks guide, we'll be going you in everything there is to know about the micro currency for Fortnite. We'll be detailing whether or not there are ways to get Fortnite V-Bucks for free, as well as how we can watch out for free Fortnite V-Bucks scams.

[techbotic]

Daily News Roundup: The One About Apple Services (and More!)

Kaspars Grinvalds/Shutterstock

The biggest news from the last 24 hours is undoubtedly Apple’s new services, but Sony had a thing or two worth talking about in its first State of Play live stream as well. Oh, and there’s more AirPower stuff. Heh.

Apple News: Services!

Apple announced a lot of new stuff yesterday, but despite that, it was still pretty light on details. Here’s what we know right now.

First up is News+, the company’s buffet-style magazine and newspaper service. It’s actually really cool. And available now! [Engadget]

Then we have Arcade, which is an interesting take on mobile gaming. You pay one (still currently-unknown) fee, and you play all the games on available on the service. I’m curious. [Ars Technica, Gizmodo]

The TV app (not to be confused with Apple TV the product) is getting a makeover to house all of your streaming services in one place. Oh, and it’s coming to smart TVs, Roku devices, and Fire TV. That’s huge. [Apple Insider, 9to5Mac]

Then there’s TV+ (again, not to be confused with TV the app or TV the product), the home of Apple’s new original content. There were a lot of celebrities on tap to announce this one (including Oprah herself), but pricing and availability were nowhere to be found. Cool. [Engadget]

Apple also announced a credit card. It’s made of titanium, baked into Apple Pay at its core, and is focused on privacy. It sounds really cool and equally as over-the-top. I…kind of want one. [The Verge, Gizmodo]

The entire event was about an hour and 50 minutes, but if you want to see the TL;DR version, MacRumors condensed that bad boy down to six action-packed minutes. [MacRumors on YouTube]

In not-announced-yesterday-news, AirPower made another surprise appearance. This time on the AirPods 2 packaging. They’re just taunting us at this point. [9to5Mac]

iOS 12.2, which brings support for News+ (and a bunch of other stuff) started rolling out yesterday. We have the details. [How-To Geek]

Hidden deep in the depths of iOS 12.2, Beats’ AirPods competitor was uncovered. Does this mean Apple is going to compete with itself? [Engadget]

In dramatically different news, Apple confirmed that it will be closing its Frisco and Plano, TX store locations. Weird, man. [9to5Mac]

The past week(ish) has been surprisingly busy for Apple; last week it announced new iPads and iMacs, as well as updated AirPods. This all lead up to yesterday’s event which was focused on the new services that have been cooking for a while now. While some are already available—like News+—others were simply given the basic “later this year” timetable.

For me, the most surprising announcement was the Apple Card. Sure, it’s been making the rounds as a rumor for several weeks now, but to actually see it and get the details is something else altogether. It makes a lot of sense that it’s essentially “made” for Apple Pay—getting more people to use the service is the name of the game, after all. Most of the perks, like two percent cash back on everyday purchases and three percent back on Apple purchases, are pretty standard and nothing to really write home about.

The real appeal of the Apple Card is privacy. For starters, the physical card has no number, no CVV code, and no expiration date. It’s made of titanium and has your name laser-etched into. It’s ultra-clean. Where you use the card, what you buy, and how much you spend won’t be tracked at all—all of the financial aspects of the card are handled on-device.  Goldman Sachs, the partner bank, and MasterCard have both vowed not to sell your data to advertisers, too.

I could honestly go on about this a lot more, but in the interest of brevity, I’ll stop there. This card is fascinating, and I’m sure it will ultimately end up in the hands of many, many Apple users. Good play, Apple.

Google and Android News: Apple Music on Chromebooks?

With such a heavy focus on Apple and its new services, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that most other companies were relatively quiet yesterday—that’s a space you just don’t want to compete in. Still, there have been some interesting Google/Android-related tidbits over the last 24 hours.

The Apple Music Android app was updated with Chromebook support, which is honestly just such a weird update to me. Don’t get me wrong—it’s great!—just not something I figured Apple would ever focus on or care about. [AppleInsider]

Along the same lines, Apple Music has been installed on 40 million Android devices. That’s a lot of devices, especially for an Apple service on Android. [AppleInsider]

Remember the $599 Celeron-powered Pixel Slate? Well, neither does Google. It appears to be dead before it even had a chance to live. [9to5Google]

Samsung announced the Galaxy A70, but it still has an event on April 10th to announce more Galaxy A stuff maybe? Who knows. [Samsung]

If you’ve ever wanted the soothing voice of John Legend on your Google Home, the time is nigh. [9to5Google]

The missing cheap Pixel Slate is such a Google thing to do: announce a product, talk about the product, then never release the product. Maybe the m3 and i5/7 models were flying off the shelves at a rate that made them rethink the base model Slate. Or maybe it was just garbage all along and should’ve never been announced in the first place. The world may never know.

Everything Else: PlayStation News, Super Fast Charging from Xiaomi, and More

Sony had its first State of Play announcement yesterday, where it showed off a surprising number of PlayStation VR games. Turns out PSVR is more popular than I realized. Like, way more.

Sony announced yesterday that it has sold a staggering 4.2 million PSVR units. That’s not shipped to manufacturers, either—we’re talking actual units strapped to people’s faces. Wild. [Gizmodo]

And you know what else? Five Nights at Freddy’s is coming to PSVR. It seriously, legitimately looks pretty terrifying. I’d play it. [MSPowerUser]

In less cool news, Sony is going to stop letting third-party retailers sell PS4 download codes. Weird flex, but okay. [The Verge]

In other Sony (but not PlayStation) news, the company just announced a new action cam with a flippable screen. It’ll set you back $700, though. Ouch. [The Verge]

In much scarier news, there was a vulnerability on ASUS computers that allowed hijackers to essentially take control of update servers and install backdoors on half a million machines. Oof. [Engadget]

The good news is that ASUS has already fixed the issue. [Engadget]

Xiaomi showed off a 100w fast charger that can juice a 4,000 mAh battery in just 17 minutes. And also maybe catch it on fire? [Liliputing]

Huawei announced a pair of new phones this morning: P30 and P30 Pro. They leaked a while back, but now they’re as legit as they come. [XDA Developers]

It also announced a set of wireless headphones that connect and charge through your phone’s UBS-C port. This seems…interesting. [Engadget]

Read the remaining 3 paragraphs

Daily News Roundup: The One About Apple Services (and More!) published first on https://medium.com/@CPUCHamp

[blakcmambaa]

Kaspars Grinvalds/Shutterstock

The biggest news from the last 24 hours is undoubtedly Apple’s new services, but Sony had a thing or two worth talking about in its first State of Play live stream as well. Oh, and there’s more AirPower stuff. Heh.

Apple News: Services!

Apple announced a lot of new stuff yesterday, but despite that, it was still pretty light on details. Here’s what we know right now.

First up is News+, the company’s buffet-style magazine and newspaper service. It’s actually really cool. And available now! [Engadget]

Then we have Arcade, which is an interesting take on mobile gaming. You pay one (still currently-unknown) fee, and you play all the games on available on the service. I’m curious. [Ars Technica, Gizmodo]

The TV app (not to be confused with Apple TV the product) is getting a makeover to house all of your streaming services in one place. Oh, and it’s coming to smart TVs, Roku devices, and Fire TV. That’s huge. [Apple Insider, 9to5Mac]

Then there’s TV+ (again, not to be confused with TV the app or TV the product), the home of Apple’s new original content. There were a lot of celebrities on tap to announce this one (including Oprah herself), but pricing and availability were nowhere to be found. Cool. [Engadget]

Apple also announced a credit card. It’s made of titanium, baked into Apple Pay at its core, and is focused on privacy. It sounds really cool and equally as over-the-top. I…kind of want one. [The Verge, Gizmodo]

The entire event was about an hour and 50 minutes, but if you want to see the TL;DR version, MacRumors condensed that bad boy down to six action-packed minutes. [MacRumors on YouTube]

In not-announced-yesterday-news, AirPower made another surprise appearance. This time on the AirPods 2 packaging. They’re just taunting us at this point. [9to5Mac]

iOS 12.2, which brings support for News+ (and a bunch of other stuff) started rolling out yesterday. We have the details. [How-To Geek]

Hidden deep in the depths of iOS 12.2, Beats’ AirPods competitor was uncovered. Does this mean Apple is going to compete with itself? [Engadget]

In dramatically different news, Apple confirmed that it will be closing its Frisco and Plano, TX store locations. Weird, man. [9to5Mac]

The past week(ish) has been surprisingly busy for Apple; last week it announced new iPads and iMacs, as well as updated AirPods. This all lead up to yesterday’s event which was focused on the new services that have been cooking for a while now. While some are already available—like News+—others were simply given the basic “later this year” timetable.

For me, the most surprising announcement was the Apple Card. Sure, it’s been making the rounds as a rumor for several weeks now, but to actually see it and get the details is something else altogether. It makes a lot of sense that it’s essentially “made” for Apple Pay—getting more people to use the service is the name of the game, after all. Most of the perks, like two percent cash back on everyday purchases and three percent back on Apple purchases, are pretty standard and nothing to really write home about.

The real appeal of the Apple Card is privacy. For starters, the physical card has no number, no CVV code, and no expiration date. It’s made of titanium and has your name laser-etched into. It’s ultra-clean. Where you use the card, what you buy, and how much you spend won’t be tracked at all—all of the financial aspects of the card are handled on-device.  Goldman Sachs, the partner bank, and MasterCard have both vowed not to sell your data to advertisers, too.

I could honestly go on about this a lot more, but in the interest of brevity, I’ll stop there. This card is fascinating, and I’m sure it will ultimately end up in the hands of many, many Apple users. Good play, Apple.

Google and Android News: Apple Music on Chromebooks?

With such a heavy focus on Apple and its new services, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that most other companies were relatively quiet yesterday—that’s a space you just don’t want to compete in. Still, there have been some interesting Google/Android-related tidbits over the last 24 hours.

The Apple Music Android app was updated with Chromebook support, which is honestly just such a weird update to me. Don’t get me wrong—it’s great!—just not something I figured Apple would ever focus on or care about. [AppleInsider]

Along the same lines, Apple Music has been installed on 40 million Android devices. That’s a lot of devices, especially for an Apple service on Android. [AppleInsider]

Remember the $599 Celeron-powered Pixel Slate? Well, neither does Google. It appears to be dead before it even had a chance to live. [9to5Google]

Samsung announced the Galaxy A70, but it still has an event on April 10th to announce more Galaxy A stuff maybe? Who knows. [Samsung]

If you’ve ever wanted the soothing voice of John Legend on your Google Home, the time is nigh. [9to5Google]

The missing cheap Pixel Slate is such a Google thing to do: announce a product, talk about the product, then never release the product. Maybe the m3 and i5/7 models were flying off the shelves at a rate that made them rethink the base model Slate. Or maybe it was just garbage all along and should’ve never been announced in the first place. The world may never know.

Everything Else: PlayStation News, Super Fast Charging from Xiaomi, and More

Sony had its first State of Play announcement yesterday, where it showed off a surprising number of PlayStation VR games. Turns out PSVR is more popular than I realized. Like, way more.

Sony announced yesterday that it has sold a staggering 4.2 million PSVR units. That’s not shipped to manufacturers, either—we’re talking actual units strapped to people’s faces. Wild. [Gizmodo]

And you know what else? Five Nights at Freddy’s is coming to PSVR. It seriously, legitimately looks pretty terrifying. I’d play it. [MSPowerUser]

In less cool news, Sony is going to stop letting third-party retailers sell PS4 download codes. Weird flex, but okay. [The Verge]

In other Sony (but not PlayStation) news, the company just announced a new action cam with a flippable screen. It’ll set you back $700, though. Ouch. [The Verge]

In much scarier news, there was a vulnerability on ASUS computers that allowed hijackers to essentially take control of update servers and install backdoors on half a million machines. Oof. [Engadget]

The good news is that ASUS has already fixed the issue. [Engadget]

Xiaomi showed off a 100w fast charger that can juice a 4,000 mAh battery in just 17 minutes. And also maybe catch it on fire? [Liliputing]

Huawei announced a pair of new phones this morning: P30 and P30 Pro. They leaked a while back, but now they’re as legit as they come. [XDA Developers]

It also announced a set of wireless headphones that connect and charge through your phone’s UBS-C port. This seems…interesting. [Engadget]

Read the remaining 3 paragraphs

via How-To Geek

[toptecharena]

PlayStation Now has come a long way – from rather sketchy beginnings – to become one of the best gaming subscription services out there.

It was back in 2012 that Sony bought the then-barely-known cloud gaming service, GaiKai, to the tune of $380 million (£242 million, AU$518). The decision was met with tepid excitement and heaps of skepticism, most of it understandable.

How could the average user expect a stable, quick connection for an entire gaming session? And how could Sony price it so that both consumers and developers get a fair deal?

In the years since, PlayStation now has grown in quality and range, broadband speeds have risen and risen, and no one is doubting how good an idea PlayStation Now is any more.

PlayStation Now: what is it?

PlayStation Now is a digital game-streaming service from Sony. In simplest terms: you pay Sony some cash and they’ll let you borrow a game for a limited amount of time.

The system currently works in two ways: an a la carte, pay-for-what-you-want model where you pay only for the amount of time you want the game for; and a recurring subscription that’s similar, in some respects, to Netflix.

For a long time, PlayStation Now was exclusive to the PS4, but it’s since been extended to work on Windows PCs as well.

As far as which games you can play, we’d say the selection of games is getting better all the time – PS2 games are now included – but there’s still some room for improvement.

PlayStation Now’s subscription model adds up quick.

Most games are from the PS3 era, but you can find a handful of PlayStation Vita titles there in the mix, as well as PS4 and PS2 games.

Once you pick a game, the service will connect you to a remote server that will host your session. There’s a bit of a wait (while Sony strings it all together) before you’re thrown into the action, but there’s no need to download the game.

Great expectations

There was a time that we hoped, perhaps somewhat naively, that PlayStation Now would be the Netflix of video game streaming. The hope was that we could shell out our cash and access any game on the service forever – so long as we didn’t let our subscription lapse.

PlayStation Now hasn’t quite unfolded that way. That’s not to say that the service is bad, mind you. It’s just… different.

All a streaming video service has to do is push content from a server to your PC. It needs to know when you pause, obviously, but other than a few small commands, the service doesn’t really take any input.

That need to always be listening for commands and interpreting them in real time is what makes a service like PlayStation Now a nightmare to code. For you, this point can mean the difference between lag-free gameplay and an unplayable experience.

Before I get into the performance, one of PlayStation Now’s greatest strengths is that it’s worth focusing on its vision for the future.

The service, in its current state, supports over 500 games with no signs of slowing down in the near future. In fact, it looks like the available library is going to keep growing for the foreseeable future.

The service could carry over from platform to platform, and become a – pardon my language – game-changing feature for the future of Sony game consoles. Of course, we can’t review the future before it happens nor the promises Sony has made so far. Instead, what follows is a review of the service as I see it today.

I’ll start at the beginning: the design and layout of the PlayStation Now app, specifically on PS4.

The interface is incredibly simplistic, maybe overly so. All you’ll see, after you get past the paywall are the games – the titles are separated into categories with featured titles, usually grouped by publisher or genre, at the top.

Scrolling down, you’ll find more discrete categories, like 2D fighting games or JRPGs, for example. There are about a dozen categories to pick from, with some titles appearing in multiple categories.

After you pick a game from the list and play it for the first time, the game will appear on the home screen so that you can easily pick it up again in the future.

Game library

At last count, PlayStation Now has more than 500 games available to stream. They range in value and prestige from some of the must-play games of the last generation, like the standalone DLC for The Last of Us or God of War: Ascension, to small indie darlings to some completely forgettable, bargain bin fodder.

But the decent titles are worth the price of entry. Games like Saints Row 3, Enslaved: Odyssey to the West, Darksiders and Catherine are all up for grabs, while Sony provides a few platform exclusives, like Ico, Shadow of the Colossus and Ratchet and Clank, that are excellent as well.

Sadly, not every game is worthwhile: some of the hundreds of games are clearance pile fodder, and have been for the past few years.

I don’t know anyone lining up to play Heavy Fire: Shattered Spear or Jimmie Johnson’s Anything with Wheels, and I’m sure while someone out there really enjoys Wheel of Fortune and Frogger HD, it’s not me.

But the variety offered here should be enough to please a diverse set of tastes.

Pricing

PlayStation Now could offer the biggest and best games from the company’s 20-year foray into game consoles, but if the pricing is wrong, none of it will matter. Knowing full well that prices and dollar signs are what sinks ships, pricing is one area that Sony has given special attention to over the last year of PlayStation Now’s existence.

If you choose the subscription plan, pricing is relatively straightforward. One month of the service will run you $19.99/£12.99, with deals available on longer terms (usually a year) – check the Sony site for the details.

In the beginning, there was the option to rent games as needed from the PlayStation Now store, rather than pay a monthly subscription fee. That option has now been ditched, so it’s the subscription fee or nothing.

In the images below you can see how it used to work. A table of three games: one PS3 game, one PSN game, and one more recent PS4 game that display not only the difference in price over each time period, but the difference between games from different platforms as well.

Where I can see PlayStation Now finding some traction is with gamers supplementing their PS4 experience with rentals – or, crazier, users giving up their physical media collection completely.

This depends largely on how quickly publishers get on board with game-streaming as a way to play. But, in a perfect world in which games launch simultaneously on retail and PS Now, you could be playing the week’s biggest games without leaving your couch for your subscription fee.

There’s a lot of potential here, and obviously some room to improve, but that’s maybe why Sony switched to offer the subscription option exclusively.

Stream quality

Another area that could use some sprucing up is the streaming quality, although it’s slowly improving. Not only do games take 30 to 45 seconds to load up, but any hiccup in the connection completely derails gameplay.

While Sony is only recommending connection speeds of 5Mbps, it’s not until 10 to 15Mbps that you’ll truly reach the promised land of uninterrupted gameplay.

If you leave this review with one piece advice, have it be this: use an Ethernet cable instead of the system’s Wi-Fi. A lost connection to your router will boot you from the game whether you’ve saved 10 seconds ago or 10 minutes ago. I get booted from games multiple times due to a bad connection.

Throughout my tests, I never quite had a perfect connection, despite doing everything in my power to create one. The best I could get was gameplay with infrequent jitters that were fine for platforming games like Braid, but made playing Borderlands tough.

This is an area Sony can improve on in time by optimizing servers and opening more server farms closer to major metropolitan areas. But, until that time, it’s probably best if you take advantage of the seven-day free trial before committing yourself long term to Sony’s new streaming platform.

As it stands, what Sony has created with PlayStation Now is pretty amazing. It’s entered an arena in which so many have failed (remember OnLive?) and has emerged with a viable platform for the future of Sony’s gaming division.

That said, there are still some serious kinks to work out. Unless you’re rocking an pretty fast connection, you’ll always run up against lag, and the pricing remains on the expensive side (though to be fair the streaming quality has improved over time).

Like I said before, if you’re unsure about the service, try out the seven-day free trial to see how you like it. The worst that will happen is one night of aggravatingly slow, jarring gameplay and a few minutes on Sony’s website unsubscribing.

The best case scenario, and the more likely one, is that PlayStation Now will genuinely impress you as a proof of concept and a cheap way to binge-play some older games you might’ve missed on older consoles.

We liked

As promised, Sony delivered a slew of games. Picking which one of the 500-plus games to download first is a difficult decision, and the library continues to grow. But don’t treat this like the end-all, be-all choice – because rentals don’t take up any space on your hard drive and there’s zero download time, you can jump from one game to the next to your heart’s content.

Ideally, that means taking advantage of the reasonably priced subscription program, even if it’s only for the seven-day trial period. It’s not that I’m opposed to shelling out for content a la carte, I’m not, but you need to use caution and good judgement before you rent games that you could’ve bought outright for less.

We disliked

It would’ve been great to escape the slog of buying games and returning them for half their value, but that doesn’t seem possible with PlayStation Now in its current state. Publishers haven’t taken to the idea of putting their latest wares on the service, instead opting to put up classics of varying quality.

The other major problem is that, every once in awhile, streaming can take a huge dip and derail your perfect stream in a first-person shooter or send you careening into a wall in a driving game. Worst of all, if you get booted from your game, you can say goodbye to all the progress you made since your last save.

Final verdict

As a platform, PlayStation Now has vastly improved since launch (there were just 80 games on it in the beginning). The complete switch to a subscription option makes joining an easier decision too.

As PlayStation Now continues to evolve and develop, there’s a lot to be excited about for the future.

Whether you should subscribe to PlayStation Now comes down to two questions: do you mind games that are a few years old and, more importantly, can you put up with small periods of imprecise controls in exchange for a massive, 500-plus game library?

If your answer is no to either of those, then you might want to press pause on your subscription until more third-party game makers get on-board or Sony at least fronts more recent first-party games on the subscription side of the service.

It’s clear that there’s a future in PlayStation Now not just for Sony, but for how we purchase games on the whole. However, as the service stands today, more needs to be done before it can be recommended outright.

Go to Source Author: PlayStation Now PlayStation Now has come a long way – from rather sketchy beginnings – to become one of the best gaming subscription services out there.

[so-minn-blog]

Line Play Gem Hack?

Men's Psychology Articles Line Play Cheats There are many choices out there today in used motorhomes and that can make it hard to know where to start for finding the best recreational vehicle for you and your family. To give you an idea how much faster the Mali-400 is compared to the PowerVR SGX544 when it comes to shader performance, the Arc Mobile Memo which has the MTK6589 and a 960x540 display line play gem hack struggles to keep Real Racing 3's frame rates in the upper 20s on 'medium' settings. I had to put it on 'low' on the Memo just to ensure the FPS stays above 30. Since the frame rate is capped at 50 FPS, running games on low settings if available is a very good idea if you want to save battery while gaming since the GPU doesn't have to work too hard. Despite being a marquee title from Sony's Japan Studio, led by PS4 system architect Cerny no less, Knack is a bland, lifeless 3D platformer - a much prettier, but nowhere near as fun facsimile of classic games like Mario 64 and Crash Bandicoot. Unlike Killzone, Knack can't get by on looks - its plastic characters and charmless story are only acceptable in contrast to the repetitive and frustrating gameplay. A lot of kids are going to get Knack this holiday. That is a tremendous shame. The Conagra plaintiffs contend the 9th Circuit's opinions in their case affirm their methodology for setting classwide damages on behalf of Wesson Oil purchasers in 11 states that allow aggregate consumer claims - exactly, they say, the approach the Supreme Court blessed in Tyson. I know there is a lot of variability in something like battery life, but most of the time those numbers actually come from somewhere. They likely have their own internal test they perform which may or may not actually reflect reality. I'm assuming it was some sort of interdepartmental feud. There were probably different teams of people working on different parts of the design and fixing the problem caused whatever sort of battery performance test they do to come in under the specs that marketing pulled out of their asses. The 48khz trick probably worked because almost nobody has any music at that sample rate and it would likely be a minor part of the test suite or left out all together.

10 Issues Your Rivals Can Teach You About Line Play Review

The problem is, this devotion to patiently explained premises just reinforces the idea that the broadcast networks have, as the Brits would say, got the wrong end of the stick. The broadcast networks appear line play cheats to be convinced that what audiences want are gimmicky concepts, and so they largely fail to populate them with people who are A) Even moderately interesting and B) Behave like actual human beings. Despite it likely not including every memorable game in our idiosyncratic canon, a slew of games packed in a relatively cheap system would still be a great deal - especially if it came with Nintendo's legendary commitment to quality and durability, especially so we wouldn't have to wade through the murky waters of emulator solutions. I'm rolling out this month's entry a bit early, mainly because I'm excited about this camera all over again. Let me preface this month's entry by saying that despite what camera companies tell you, there is no magical camera that does all the work for you, even on auto. If you're in the mood to go further a download of GIMP (it's free) and plenty of practice time is really worth it. Now that the company is willing to almost completely outsource hardware design and production, BlackBerry's soul boils down to two things: software and security. Unless it nails both of those things, then, there's little reason to buy into the company's vision. As far as the former goes, there's no point in hiding it: I dig BlackBerry's take. Things haven't changed dramatically since the Priv's days - the company didn't mess with Android 6.0.1 itself. Most of the same tricks are back and they still focus on getting things done fast. Rocket Piano is compiled into 3 high-quality books lifting your skills from a beginner to a professional. Now it goes a step further. The bottom line is that Rocket Piano is made by professionals, to turn more people into professionals. It has a wealth line play gem hack of great material that will really help you learn how to play the piano. Rocket Piano is a complete piano learning system, and contains everything you need to know to play piano. And it is easy to follow, it is all laid out in a step-by-step method.

[britesparc]

Weekend Top Ten #360

Top Ten Favourite Things About the Xbox 360

Well wouldja lookit that. Three hundred and sixty of these silly top tens (tops ten?). I actually had a whole other list lined up, one that chimed with some relatively-recent news, but I've decided to bump it as I feel the synchronicity of 360 cannot go unnoticed. Sadly because the next two weeks are earmarked for other date-relevant lists, this means my once-contemporary tenner will be old news by the time all of you (both of you) get to read it.

But wait! What is this synchronicity of which I speak, that means “three sixty” must be secured for a specific ten of tops? Could it be erstwhile ITV post production facility, threesixty media, whose services I utilised for a decade whilst at CITV?

No, it’s the Xbox. It even says so at the top of the page.

Yes, the Xbox 360. In many ways probably my favourite console. Sure, it had its faults - I went through three of them due to red-ring meltdowns, and the beast was noisier than a rhino in a blender – but it was gorgeous, and for a little while there totally represented gaming for me.

Yeah, there was lots to love, and the protracted nature of the last console generation meant that it saw a lot of evolution in its lifetime. And, really, gaming in general changed quite a bit in the noughties, and the Xbox 360 was at the forefront of that in a lot of ways. Resurgent indie gaming, online, casual, micropayments, DLC, achievements, annual release schedules for triple-A franchises... the list goes on. Microsoft didn’t lead the way in all of those areas, but for most of the last generation they were light on their feet and quick to exploit shifting trends, and the 360 strongly benefited as a result (also Sony faceplanted pre-launch with the tone and price of the PlayStation 3, which also benefited Xbox hugely; how weird that the tables turned so utterly come the launches of PS4 and Xbox One). It felt like a landmark generation and the 360 was a landmark console and I loved it.

Anyway, here are my favourite things about it. Ten of then, not three hundred and sixty. That’d be daft.

The Look: at a time when the prevailing trend for consoles seemed to be fairly inoffensive black or grey lumps (the delightfully purple GameCube notwithstanding), Xbox 360 bucked the trend with a sleek and sexy white design, complete with subtle curves that echoed throughout the interface, and a natty chrome trim to the disc tray. It was different, it felt new, it felt simultaneously cool and friendly. It was more of a piece with Apple’s then-recent iMac redesign than anything you’d expect from as utilitarian a company as Microsoft. It made the 360 stand out from the crowd, and also helped differentiate it from the huge black number that was (eventually) the PS3.

The Controller: Halo: Combat Evolved was the original Xbox launch game, and it sold a lot of Xboxes. It was really the first game that made first-person shooters really work on console. Part of this was down to the beautifully handled sticks and triggers of the original Xbox pad. The controller was subsequently redesigned and evolved into what became the 360 pad: better trigger placement; shoulder buttons; even nicer sticks; a much-improved d-pad; and the famous Guide button, that with a press brought up a nifty UI overlay that allowed for chatting, achievement checking, and all manner of things, across all games. It was probably the best game controller of all time, and although it’s been refined and, I’d argue, improved by the Xbox One controller, there’s something revolutionary about the 360 design that always makes it feel stand-out.

Achievements: ah, yes. I mentioned them in passing just now, but really, the concept of cross-title points and awards might not necessarily have been Microsoft’s (I’m hazy on the details) but their implementation was a game-changer. Suddenly people were clamouring to find secrets, to beat the top scores, to better themselves in the games, because there was now a tangible reward, an icon, bragging rights associated with it. It fostered competition and – in the best cases – encouraged repeated playthroughs. I know that, for me, I set myself goals in certain games based on the achievements. It’s something to work towards beyond “just” playing the game, and it’s something I still do to this day, even after the lustre of Gamerscore glory has faded somewhat with time.

Gamertags: of course, Achievements would be nothing without your associated Gamertag. Obviously the idea of having a “handle” online was not new, but I know that when I played Quake III Arena or Counter-Strike on PC, I didn’t always keep to the same tag (I usually did, mind, as “britesparc” had been my default online identity for a while). But a persistent username, across all titles, with an associated score, rewards, settings (I’m still baffled as to how and why the Xbox One lost the ability to set a default controller preference for all games across your profile – now I have to invert look on each individual title, and it’s a massive pain!). This would be a strategy eventually adopted across the whole industry, and although I guess it’s fair to say that Steam had already sort-of got there, and even Microsoft themselves (as Gamertags were necessary in the early, OG Xbox-days of Xbox Live), your profile’s implementation on Xbox 360 was a massive step-up.

Xbox Live: what is an Xbox without Xbox Live? Again, it’s something that premiered on the original Xbox (although I never took advantage of it; I don’t think I had a broadband connection back then, to be honest) but it really came to fruition with the 360. A fully-integrated online environment with matchmaking and voice-chat built into the console itself, it offered the best of PC gaming in a convenient form-factor that slid under the telly. I played online much more on my 360 than on the PC, simply because it was a lot easier and more user-friendly. And that’s before we begin to factor in the creative decisions made when you knew your audience was always online: downloading patches, DLC, online-only games, a digital storefront… the fact that you automatically got access to all of that with the free “Silver” subscription was like a gateway drug to the actual “Gold” multiplayer bonus. The decision to charge for multiplayer access, whereas it was free on PS3, was a touch controversial, but the money was funnelled into better, faster matchmaking services, meaning the 360 became the go-to console for online gaming. Eventually Sony, and even Nintendo, followed suit.

Xbox Live Arcade: speaking of downloading… the idea of small, indie downloadable games – games that weren’t the usual full-3D physics-fests filled with explosions coloured lights and deformable terrain – was quietly revolutionary. Sure, the indie movement was already in full swing on PC, but here it was delivered, curated, advertised, cheap to purchase and ready to enjoy in bite-size chunks, on your telly-box. At the time I just wasn’t really aware of the scale of indie, retro, and homebrew gaming efforts, and it totally blew me away. It gave new developers a fantastic opportunity to showcase their wares, and – eventually – it offered a new lease of life to older games. Braid probably remains the big XBLA success story – both critically adored and financially hugely successful – but from ‘Splosion Man to Trials HD to Limbo to Castle Crashers, it was a jumping-off point for a bevvy of new franchises and developers. The fact that Hexic HD came pre-installed was a masterstroke: a brilliant game, of course, but also a terrific proof-of-concept for just what XBLA was.

Keeping it Casual: Microsoft, as usual, had its eye on Sony, and in many ways the 360 stole the PlayStation 2’s crown. What Microsoft didn’t bank on, however, was a resurgent Nintendo, who had one of their biggest successes ever with the Wii. It brought new audiences into the gaming fold (I’m still overjoyed at the memory of how angry my brother got when our dad totally trounced him at Bowling in Wii Sports; “But he doesn’t even like games!”). Microsoft leant into this, and whilst it’s arguable that they went too far and began to take their core audience for granted, they did a great job in making the Xbox 360 family-friendly. From some genuinely very good and user-friendly content settings to the raft of all-ages XBLA titles, right from the start the 360 was a good all-round console for the whole family. Games like Scene It? and Lips attempted to do for Xbox what Buzz! and SingStar did for PlayStation. But it was when they went full-tilt after the Wii market that they scored their biggest success and sowed the seeds for their biggest failure: Kinect. Billed as revolutionary, in truth it was mostly a very fun gimmick that struggled to fit inside mainstream gaming (nowhere near as comprehensively as Nintendo’s motion control did, at least); but all the same it was impressive tech for what it was, and some Kinect games – notably Rare’s Kinect Sports, but also Dance Central and the child-focused Sesame Street TV – did great things with the camera and were fun to play. I’d say that Microsoft’s commitment to casual and family gaming continues, but to be honest I feel like it’s become entrenched industry-wide now, and that remains a very good thing.

The Games: I guess this should be the top reason, shouldn’t it? But all consoles have good games. However, the 360 had some absolute belters. Halo 3 is probably, on balance, the best Halo. Fable II is one of my favourite games of all time. Crackdown is a delightful and wildly original blast. From solid blockbusters like the Gears of War trilogy to delightful curios like Viva Pinata, the depth of the Xbox 360’s library is phenomenal. And that’s before we get to the multi-format games like the Mass Effect trilogy, BioShock, the first two Batman: Arkham games, Red Dead Redemption, and many more… most of which performed better or felt otherwise “definitive” on Microsoft’s machine. The last generation was just incredible in terms of solid-gold masterpieces, and that’s before we mention the exclusives on other platforms (hello, Super Mario Galaxy). Anyway, what I’m trying to say is, there were some great games on the Xbox 360.

The Apps: as the 360 aged, more and more non-game applications became available for it. there were flirtations with things like Twitter, but really it was the media apps – Netflix, Amazon Video, Sky Go – that established the machine as a viable home entertainment hub. During its lifespan, the 360 went from “games machine” to “centre of the living room” as we evolved from consumers of scheduled entertainment to people who could pick and choose their media. As broadband speeds increased (during the time I had a 360 we went from a 1mb connection to 20mb) streaming became commonplace, and I seem to recall that by the time of the Xbox One’s release more people were using the 360 to watch Netflix than to play games. Amazing, really, when you think how noisy the bloody thing was. All the same, the non-game content on the 360 was a harbinger of things to come and a flower in Microsoft’s cap. Too bad that, like with Kinect, they misread the tea leaves and bet the farm on a gesture-controlled multimedia future.

The Evolution: the Xbox 360 in 2005 was markedly different from the Xbox 360 in 2013, when its successor console was released. Not just physically, although two hardware revisions meant it looked very different too; but software-wise, operationally, it was practically a new machine. The beloved “blades” interface – the UI mirroring the curves of the machine – had been replaced by the so-called “New Xbox Experience”, which brought friend management and multimedia apps to the foreground, as well as showcasing the new Xbox Avatars. These Avatars were somewhat controversial, but gave the 360 a refreshing and friendly kick up the bum, adding a degree of spice to games where you could now play “as you” (A Kingdom for Keflings, Joyride Turbo, etc), as well as offering new unlockable rewards or purchasable items in the form of Avatar clothes or accessories. The interface would then be further refined one more time before the console’s retirement, but this evolution was representative of Microsoft’s philosophy with Xbox at the time. they entered the generation as an also-ran; the OG Xbox was certainly powerful, and surprised many with the quality of its games, but it was almost a proof-of-concept console. They wanted the 360 to win, and although the broadside of the Wii meant it never managed to be market leader, it still – just about – beat PS3 into second place. They did this by changing with the times, nimbly adapting to an evolving market; offering increased casual focus, new control methods, peripherals, multimedia functionality… Microsoft did a great job of continuing to make the 360 feel relevant, to feel like an essential console, despite the technical superiority of the PS3 or the absolute juggernaut that was the Wii. Again, it’s true that their ability to divine the market abandoned them come the design and release of the Xbox One, but throughout its life the Xbox 360 remained a fantastic, ever-changing yet thoroughly constant console.

So there we go. Ten reasons why, to this day, I adore the Xbox 360. My relationship with console gaming came of age, and really it’s that generation where I moved from being a PC gamer to a console gamer (apart from Civilization, pretty much). So bravo, 360; we may never see your like again.