#this AI generated image doesn’t even look like them and it’s such a shame

[aslanvlad]

my heart will never recover from them losing each other 🫠

[solarpunkpresentspodcast]

How Do We Power Down?

ICYMI, here’s a post I put up on our Patreon back in March that, in anticipation of Season 5 (which we’re now partway into), considers the environmental problems posed by the use of cryptocurrencies and generative AI and the general problem of how do we power down our societies a bit without being overrun by societies that opt not to power down?

Christina here... I don’t know if any of you caught it, but Elizabeth Kolbert, who specializes in writing about climate change and our efforts (or lack thereof) to stop driving it, recently had another interesting article in the New Yorker. This article explored, to quote the title, the “obscene energy demands of AI,” or more specifically, of AI, like ChatGPT and Midjourney, that processes astronomical amounts of information every time it is used.

To take a moment to be totally self–centered about this, how interesting—and how timely! Ariel and I just discussed solarpunk’s use of and attitude toward AI, especially the image generating kind, when we recorded THE FIRST EPISODE OF SEASON 5—WOOT!—which you’ll have early access to toward the end of this month. But, for all that we found to consider about it, we didn’t touch on the enormous electricity consumption associated with AI image generation. Which now puts me, personally, far more solidly in the this is a bad idea camp, even if people are using AI to put POC into amazing imaginings of a super future. But Elizabeth Kolbert’s article—which you should definitely read!—gives me this chance to broach the subject, even if it is a few weeks before Season 5 begins, and explore it briefly further.

To give you a brief sneak peak: in our Season 5 opener, Ariel and I talk about solarpunk’s relationship with tech. Because solarpunk is both highly tech–centric and highly tech–skeptical, which is kind of a cool combination. Solarpunks are always asking should we or shouldn’t we use that tech and wouldn’t the world be a better place if we weren’t all always asking that question! Meawhile, the should we or shouldn’t we of AI and cryptocurrencies are already points of, if not contention, then at least deep disagreement between solarpunks. Again, I’m pretty much in the NOPE camp, all the more so now after reading Elizabeth Kolbert’s article.

As Elizabeth Kolbert explains, along with cryptocurrencies, AI like ChatGPT and Midjourney are shocking electricity hogs and... which I hadn’t previously realized... prolific producers of e–waste (because there are so many servers involved and they need to be replaced as they age). As she points out in the article, a single Bitcoin transaction produces the equivalent amount of e–waste as an iPhone. If that’s the case, there’s no way that all but a tiny fraction of the world can switch over to using digital currencies. Even worse, if that’s the case, shame on people making their fortunes buying and selling them. The world just doesn’t have the resources to sustain that! Not without environmental and ecological devastation and a heavy price in human lives and well being. But I think the most important thing Elizabeth Kolbert points out in her article stands already in the subheader: “How can the world reach net zero if it keeps inventing new ways to consume energy?”

One of the interesting things that certain historians (and the evolutionary biologist Geerat Vermeij, of whom I am a big fan) have pointed out is that there is a directionality to history. If you over look the bumps and wiggles and occasional serious crashes, over time, populations that use lower amounts of energy per capita per year have given way to (or been crushed by) populations that use higher amounts of energy per capita per year. You can see this in the general takeover of Earth’s ecosystems by human beings and you can see this over the course of human history. Our trajectory has taken us from manpower only, to using animals and burning wood to get work done, to moving on to fossil fuels, solar, wind, and nuclear energy and hydropower to increase our productivity and our ability to move ourselves and our stuff around. For centuries already, no other animal on Earth has had as much power per capital at its disposal as we do. Meanwhile, the countries with the highest per capita uses of energy have come to rule the world politically, economically, and even to some extent culturally.

If you looks at the shifts from using our own hands to get work done (back until the Neolithic sometime), to using wind and animals to get work done (like milling grains and ploughing) to burning wood and then later coal to run steam engines and the on to burning fossil fuels in internal combustion engines, it’s easy to see that each one has been a big step up in our per capita energy use. It’s also easy to see that we have not yet reached the ceiling! Throughout our fossil fuel phase; even as we improved our machinery and made it more energy efficient, this never resulted in a drop in per capita power expenditure. Instead, we used the increased efficiency to get more power out of our machines, making them bigger, faster, stronger, more complex, and less expensive, and therefore more widely available to more people. All of which led to massive increases in per capita energy use. We have always been as powerful as we can literally afford to be rather than using increases in energy efficiency to lower our per capita use of energy.

Even now, as our vehicles and toys and tools have become more energy efficient, we’ve responded by buying more of them and doing more things with them. At this point, who doesn’t have a computer or a laptop, plus maybe a tablet, and definitely also a smartphone. Who doesn’t upload photos and documents to “the cloud” of distant servers that guzzle up enormous amounts of energy? Who doesn’t do Google searches at the drop of a hat instead of hauling themselves to the book or library that would also hold the answer? We take advantage of all of these possibilities because they are there (and in part because we don’t want to be left out or left behind). But, most importantly, we use all of the extra energy it takes to fuel these things because we can afford to pay for it. ChatGPT and image generators like Midjourney guzzle increasingly incredible bundles of electricity, but, still, chatting with ChatGPT or getting it to write an essay for you is a hell of a lot easier on the personal budget than reading by candlelight was 200 years ago... even though it consumes orders of magnitude more energy.

The problem with all of this inventing of new ways of consuming power is, of course, the climate is in crisis thanks to our continuing pumping of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere in large part via our production and consumption of energy. For our own good and that of the rest of Earth’s surface biosphere, we ought to have hit net zero greenhouse gas emissions yesterday, or better yet ten years ago already. Instead, the goal keeps receding into the distance, even as we develop our capability to generate electricity via renewable, low–carbon means, because our per capita energy use just goes up and up and up. That’s where this idea that shifting toward a lower per capita power consumption is, on some level, inherently impossible rears its very ugly head. Shifting to a lower energy use is against the way systems naturally evolve and totally counter to the way human beings inherently operate (which is to say, we tend to do what’s possible—and push that envelope—rather than doing what’s wise). Another great obstacle to lowering our per capita energy use per year is that the society that powers itself down a bit puts itself at the mercy of the societies that keep striving for more power per capita. At some point, they’ll have the machinery, weaponry, wealth, and resources to wipe the powered down societies off the map. So why would you open yourself and your fellow citizens to that sort of existential risk?

Our failure to power down our societies is not inevitable, of course. We are animals capable of reason. Dilemmas like these are why we have governments, negotiations, diplomats, international law, and treaties. But treaties only work until someone decides to break them—case in point, Ukraine giving up its nuclear weapons in 1994 for promisesnot to be invaded by Russia, the US, or the UK.

This means right now, humanity is in terrible situation with difficult options. We need to power down our lives because the way we live and the way we consume things, including power, is unsustainable. It would take three Earths and all that and we really need to stop emitting greenhouse gases to the atmosphere NOW. We’re already in pretty serious hot water on the climate change front. But to do so is counter to our tendency to innovate and adopt new technologies and to do absolutely the most we can afford to do (and buy absolutely the most we can afford to buy). Meanwhile, powering down would very possibly leave us at the mercy of societies that chose not to go that route.

Who is trying to steer us through this mess toward a better rather than worse out come? Honestly, where is the global leadership on this front? Nowhere in sight. Because no politician in the world is going to suggest that we need to become less powerful. And no country in the world is going to rein in AI and cryptocurrencies, not unless all the others and all the big businesses and all the tech companies agree to these things. I hate to say it, it’s really, really hard to see that happening. There’s simply too much power and money to be made.

If there is a role for solarpunk here, it is in imagining pathways out of this mess. How could we come to power down the world a bit and begin living actually sustainably? Because right now really, all this talk about sustainable technology is just a silly, soothing bit of mumbo jumbo. Not when, at the same time, cryptocurrency and AI use is going through the roof.

Get on it, solarpunks! We need visions, and even, simply, to get the word out that this is a serious problem.

[lgwebspacethemedfmp]

AI Familiars

One of the first things that I wanted to do in terms of actually making the project besides getting a rough outline of the story was to design the drone like bodies for the AI familiars (or at least the good one) to possess so that it can follow the party and help them. I decided to create several designs and then put them of a google form to send to a group of people (my target audience) to vote and nitpick about what they liked and what they didn’t.

For the first batch of designs, I took inspiration from bees, Ghosts from Destiny, Servitors from Destiny and B-12 from Stray. I started with circular designs, but I never strayed from that later on. The spherical shape is more friendly than if a triangle or square were used. This would be an issue in terms of a variety of designs, however the people giving feedback did mention to keep the ball-like robots so they stayed. 

While designing the drones, I kept in mind that they were supposed to be helpful, and thus functional. I tried to keep any additions to the designs functional and have labelled them as such, however some things have been added purely for aesthetic purposes. Something that I wanted to keep consistent was to have the designs be perceived as cute, with at least a small bit of their personality being apparent from their design alone, even if the only bit of personality that comes through is ‘silly little guy’.

1.

2.

3.

The results of the first set of designs are shown above. I included the option to pick more than one design in order to discard the least liked one. It goes to show that these kinds of things are helpful, because I didn’t realise that the third design had angry eyebrows, as i had intended for them to be antennas. The most liked attributes were the screen face and the antennas, so they were carried forward into future designs. I was quite fond of the third design, so it was a shame for them to be dropped so quickly, but later designs do include grappling hook arms inspired by the discarded design, so part of it still lives on. I liked the idea of a magnetic sphere continuously picking up small metal pieces that get stuck to the drone or form features, but evidently it wasn’t popular.

4.

5.

6.

Design 4 was a combination of the most liked attributes of the previously well liked designs, while 5 and 6 were new designs. Design 5 was inspired more heavily by the Ghosts from Destiny, however it doesn’t have as much functionality as the rest of the designs. Furthermore, aesthetically it wasn’t the best, and it shows. I wasn’t fond of it’s design, it was more so to throw out the idea however it was pushed aside rather quickly. I do feel bad for the eliminated designs, likely because they have faces. The 6th design was made with the idea of what if they travelled on the ground rather than floating, however besides that they were looking quite plain. A top hat and bow-tie are a default addition when struggling to figure out what to add, and turns out it was a good choice. The feedback-givers liked the fancy little sphere.

7.

8.

9.

For the 7th design, I took the suggestion of adding a monocle, however apparently it only went down well with some. Either way I go with that design (monocle or not) someone will be unhappy with it, so either I discard it, try to find a work-around, or only appease one person. The 8th design was inspired by an AI generated image using Playground AI. The original image had a shark-fin looking thing on top of it’s head that was slightly askew and t-rex style arms, but I momentarily discarded them in favour of exploring other options. The final design was leaning more into the space theme, and despite being more simple than the other designs, I quite liked it, however like some others before it, it didn’t get very far. 

Because someone added a billion suggestions and technically didn’t specify that they should be on different designs, I decided to put them all on one design to be petty and also out of genuine curiousity. The results were interesting. We were expecting an abomination but instead (after taking away the t-rex arms, they soon learned why I took them away to begin with) it wound up being surprisingly adorable. This design is far sillier than any that came before it, and from the little bits of lore that were created on a whim, wouldn’t be as helpful as originally intended. Unlike most of the other designs, it cannot fly, however it can fall with style. The shark fins became numerous spikes because one didn’t look like enough, and it has been mentioned that it looks like a punk robot. It has been decided that this design has constant rock music playing somewhere nearby it. Another thing that was abruptly decided about this design was that it had a tendency to slowly roll off of ledges, and had to be constantly picked up or carried. As much as I didn’t want to like this design, it has quite quickly become my favourite despite how inconvenient it is. It can, however, be used as a weapon if thrown.

I decided to stop creating new designs for now and pull two of the best (number 10 is questionable as being one of the best, but it is a favourite of mine and someone else) and put them against each other, leaving the options for the people providing feedback to bring back previous designs or features. 

[jbbarnesnnoble]

Chaser - Downdraft (Part One)

Chapter Title: Downdraft

Series Summary: Storm chasing is your passion. You decided in high school to study atmospheric science and spend your life studying storms. An accident leads you to the Avengers compound. A mother hen Tony Stark, a confused and concerned supersoldier, and some meddling friends, life is taking a new and unexpected turn.

Part Summary: You and your team head out to track a storm, putting you on a collision course with danger. 

Features: Storms and storm chasing, incorrect science

Pairing: Eventual Bucky Barnes/Reader

Notes:  In this part, we’re introduced to reader and her ragtag team of storm chasers. We also see a bit more of her relationship with Tony. We haven’t met Bucky yet. 

Word Count: 1866

Log #15042018

Location: Lynchburg, Virginia 

Downdraft (n.) - “a column of cool air that sinks toward the ground. It is most often accompanied by rain.” 

The air was heavy with the promise of a storm. You knew the conditions were perfect for tornado formation. Usually you didn’t venture too far to the east in the midst of tornado season but you’d been tracking the storm system and knew the potential for fireworks was there.

For as long as you could remember, you were obsessed with the weather. Your mother would recall how you could tell it was going to storm without ever looking at a radar map when you were a child. You almost wondered if you had some kind of mutation. It was an ability that persisted into adulthood. Your mother’s favorite story to tell was about how you begged her to go home one day when the weather was clear and rain wasn’t in the forecast. Three hours later a storm rolled in that knocked out power for most of the town and brought down some of the bigger trees. 

“What’s the game plan, Twister?” Sheridan asked you. Casey Sheridan was one of your partners in the field. The man was a trained first responder, volunteering back home with the local EMS. You had a small team assembled, all with the goal of studying storm systems to advance the science communities understanding of them.

“Thanks to our generous benefactor, we don’t have to pull a Jo Thornton and get right up with the tornado. The AI system will control the flight of the probes into the tornado and give us perhaps the most comprehensive data to date. The more storms we do this with, the more complete the data set becomes. Even if the probes become damaged entirely, the data will hopefully transmit. They have a home base they’ll return to and enough energy for a three day trip. Thanks to Stark we have them,” you explained. 

“I hate that we work for a billionaire,” Deacon grumbled. No one was fully sure of what Deacon’s real name was. You knew it because you hired him. He adopted his nickname from Fallout 4 and stuck with it.

“We don’t work for him Deacon. We’re an independent group of scientists with funding from Stark Industries…there’s a difference,” you argued. He raised an eyebrow in your direction.

“Potay-to, Potah-to, Twister. Stark pays our bills, and I for one say, eat the rich,” Deacon replied. You shook your head at him. 

“Well when you’re done plotting how you’re going to overthrow the bourgeoisie, I need you to finish a last check on the probes, Deacon. You know. Your job,” you said. You saw him roll his eyes and laughed to yourself. 

You had two modes of transport. The van followed the pickup truck. The probes would be launched from your truck closer to the tornado. All you had to do was press a button on a remote you had in the cab of the truck. It was the first time the probes were going to be used. Up until then, your research had depending on distance analysis and observing the damage after a storm.

“National Weather Service just issued a tornado warning. It’s go time. Radar indicated rotation about two miles south,” Cody said. She was your eyes and ears on almost everything. She and Casey worked together tracking the radar and any warnings. Your main job was ensuring your team stayed safe and analyzing the data that came in. 

You had a degree in meteorological and atmospheric sciences. It was your passion. You had graduated from Cornell and had your master’s, with a dream of getting your PhD eventually. Your encounter with Tony Stark had changed your life for the better. 

Anxiety was setting in as you and your team headed south toward Lynchburg. You had a good idea of where the tornado would touch down based on the radar imaging. Cody and Casey remained in the van with Deacon driving. You were on your own in the pickup. You always worried going into a storm. About your safety. About the safety of your team. It was only natural.

“FRIDAY what’s the radar looking like?” you asked the AI as you drove. Tony had outfitted your truck with access to FRIDAY. You argued at first but she was helpful in a pinch. He had done a lot to add protection to your truck and the van. You knew he worried about you, which still shocked you. 

“There is rotation approximately a half mile south,” she said. You nodded to yourself, and opened up the comms, another gift from Tony.

“We’re about a half mile out. There’s definite upward motion on that cloud up ahead. Pull off to the left coming up. We don’t want to get too close to this thing,” you said.

“Rain. We need to be ready to move. If this thing is rain wrapped,” Cody said her voice trailing off. 

“Looks like we’ve got touch down. I’m deploying the probes. FRIDAY’s sensors will guide them toward the tornado,” you said as you pressed the button. You watched as the probes flew off toward the storm, praying they worked. When confirmation came from the team you had silent moment of celebration.

“Twist, I think we gotta go, this thing is going to come up toward us and we don’t want to get caught out,” Casey said.

“Copy, Sheridan. Let’s continue moving to the south. We can avoid running into it and still gather images. Keep your eyes up Deacon, you never know when something will pop up,” you said. 

You drove forward, keeping an eye on the storm as you tracked it’s path, doing your best to judge what a safe distance was. You didn’t expect the debris that knocked into the truck that made you swerve off the road and flip. 

——————————————————————————————————–

Tony was pacing around the lab. Bruce was doing his best to reassure Tony. Most of the team had never met you, but Bruce had. Your innate curiosity always managed to turn things around and diffuse the tension when Bruce and Tony would argue.

“We have a problem,” FRIDAY said, breaking the tense silence.

“What’s going on?” Tony asked, trying not to sound panic.

“Sensors in her truck indicate that there was an impact and the truck has flipped on its side,” FRIDAY said.

“Is she alert?” Tony asked.

“In and out, sir. I will patch you in to their comms,” the AI said. Tony knew as soon as he was patched in.

“Status report,” Tony said.

“Christ Stark a little warning,” Sheridan snapped.

“Noted. Now, status report,” Tony said.

“A piece of debris hit the pick up. We were about one hundred feet back. She went careening off the side of the road and the truck flipped. EMS ETA is about ten minutes. She’s been in and out of consciousness but there doesn’t seem to be major external injury,” Cody replied. 

It didn’t take Tony long to get to Virginia, not with a quinjet. He was grateful to have Helen Cho on his payroll now, because as soon as you were stable, you were going to the compound, no arguments. There were few people Tony cared about on a deeper level. You were one of them. 

“Kid’s in surgery, but the doctors think she’ll be fine,” Tony said. He called Pepper as soon as he had news.

“She won’t be happy about being dragged to the compound,” Pepper pointed out.

“Tough. She needs to recover, not be out on the next chase. Her team agrees. They’re all going on vacation to be with their families, no argument. She needs to rest. And we both know she won’t do that if she’s not at the compound,” Tony said.

“You’re on your own then. Because we both know she’s not going to like it,” Pepper said. Tony sighed. 

“She’ll be on board when I give her free reign of the lab,” Tony said.

After talking to Pepper it was a waiting game.Tony had to pull serious strings to be able to see you. Your family was hours away and they weren’t going to come. He knew that. If you were awake, you’d know that. It had been that way for a long time. Another reason Tony worried about you, why he looked out for you. 

“Hey kiddo,” he said once you were awake. 

“Tony?” you asked, your voice raspy. 

“Yeah. You had a bit of an accident,” he said. He watched your expression change as the memory of what happened came back. You groaned. He wasn’t sure if it was in pain or annoyance.

“How’s the truck?” you asked. He snorted. 

“I’m having it brought back up to New York. Too much Stark Tech in that thing to let it go to a salvage yard,” he said.

“So it’s totaled?” you asked.

“Afraid so, kiddo. Gert is no more,” he said. You had named the truck, something that amused Tony to no end. 

“And the others?” you asked.

“They’re fine. A little shaken, but fine.  The van’s coming back up to the compound too while you recover. Your team is taking time off too. Visiting their families,” he said. You looked at him. He knew an argument was brewing. It was prime time for tornado season. You didn’t want to miss it.

“Tony,”  you started to say. He shook his head.

“Kid, you broke your leg. You’re down for the season. You need to rest and recover,” he said.

“But you have that cradle thing,” you argued.

“That we only use for life threatening injuries or if we desperately need someone back in the field. There’s no shame in letting things heal the old fashioned way,” he said. 

“I need to be back out there,” you argued.

“No. You need to rest. Your team needs time to rest. They thought you were a goner, kid. You’re lucky it seems to only be a minor concussion and a broken leg,” Tony retorted. A nurse soon came in, ending the standoff between the two of you. It wasn’t long before you were being brought up to the roof, where a quinjet was, and loaded in to be brought to the compound. Tony hadn’t come alone.

“Romanoff, meet Jo Thornton. I think you two will be spending a lot of time together,” Tony said. You glared at him.

“That’s not my name,” you snapped before offering your real name up. Tony had a habit of calling you by the name of the main character from Twister. You preferred the nickname Twister or Twist, if for no other reason than it being the nickname of a character from Rocket Power.

“Well, you know what they say Dorothy. There’s no place like home,” Natasha said as the aircraft began making its descent. Tony had opted to pilot it, leaving you to get acquainted with Natasha. You had a feeling she was one of the people Tony was going to rope into looking after you. 

You allowed yourself to relax and drift off into a light sleep, dreaming of your next chase and the thrill that came with it. 

[fuse2dx]

June '20

Trials of Mana

Maybe not the highest profile remake Square-Enix have put out in recent memory, but one that was pretty exciting for me. I played a fan translation of the Super Famicom original some 20 years ago, so while it's not particularly fresh in my head, there's just enough there to enjoy some infrequent little pangs of nostalgia. The move to 3D has made for some welcome changes to to combat - jumping adds a vertical element to combat that wasn't present before, and enemy specials being clearly telegraphed and avoidable puts a little more control in your hands. There's still a good amount of 16 bit jank though - combo timing feels unreliable, the camera's often a pain, there's plenty of questionable hit detection, and you definitely wouldn't want to leave your fate solely in the hands of your party's AI. Willing to put most of this aside, what actually mattered more to me was that it still had the kind of playful, breezy nature, it looks and plays nicely, and that it progresses at a nice clip. Party selection will change the way you fight moment-to-moment, but only provides minor and very brief deviance from the main storyline, most of which is the kind of schlocky cartoon villainy that will have you looking for a skip button before it would illicit any kind of emotional response. But you know what? Overall, I still enjoyed it a lot.

So while it may not be revolutionising the action RPG, what it does show is that Square-Enix is capable of acknowledging their history of previously untranslated works, and that they also now have a pretty good template for getting a B-tier remake of such titles out in a reasonable timeframe. Where do I send my wish list in to, team?

Sayonara Wild Hearts

As a one-liner found on the back of the box, 'A pop album video game' is about as on-the-nose as it gets. The old "it's not for everyone" adage is definitely applicable, and its defiance of traditional video game metrics is not in any way subtle. How sophisticated is the gameplay? Not particularly. How long is it? Not very. But how does it make you feel? Now you're talking. It presents a simple but deeply relatable story of a broken heart, and leads from there with a catchy tune into a fast and colourful onslaught of new ideas, perspectives, and concepts. That is to say: it has the potential to make you feel all kinds of things. 

One especially celebratory note was how well the game is structured to fit into the album structure it boasts about. Stages flow quickly into one another, and while shorter, more compounding numbers are often about introducing new ideas and themes, moving on to the next is a few simple button presses and a brief, well-hidden loading window away. Inevitably there are more standout stages, those that feel like the hit singles; the longer, verse-chorus-verse type joints that grant the space for more fleshed out visual story telling, and that smartly synchronise their percussive hits, soaring vocals and the like to appropriate beats of play. A lot of the gameplay can easily (and cynically) be reduced to "it's an endless runner", but to liken this to a cheap re-skin of a confirmed hit-maker is to wilfully dismiss so much of what it does better and so much beside. You can play it on damn near everything, and for the time it takes, it's well worth doing. 

Twinkle Star Sprites

I've meant to play this countless times before. I've almost certainly passed it by while strolling through arcades, the Saturn version has never been hoovered up into my collection, and the PS2 collection this particular version belongs to - ADK Damashii - is no longer a cheap addition to anyone's library. The digital version of it for PS4 however was however recently on sale at a point that saw me receive change from a fiver. David Dickinson would be proud.

Having now credit-fed my way through the game's brief arcade mode, there's no doubt in my mind that the nuance of its systems are going to be glossed over in this rather ham-fisted appraisal. At least at face value, there's plenty of character and charm to appreciate in its colourful and cutesy style. As a two-player, vertically split-screen title, its a pretty clean break from a lot of a shooter's typical characteristics - rather than 6(ish) stages of hell, its a series of one on one battles - and all the better suited to 2 players for it. As enemy waves come at you, taking them out in chains can generate attacks to the other player; however if these attacks are too small then it's entirely possible they'll be killed off again, and an even bigger attack will come straight back at you. Think of a bit like competitive Tetris, but with shooting rather than puzzling. It's a neat and curious little game, that's likely best experienced properly, with a friend on the other side of the sofa to hurl abuse at. 

Blasphemous

Let's get the lazy-but-effective description out of the way: it's a 2D MetroidVania Souls-like. You've got "that" type of map, definitely-not-bonfires and definitely-not-Estus Flasks. You are encouraged to return to your body upon death, the combat system is very reliant on parries and dodge-rolls, and there's even a dedicated "lore" button to use on every item you pick up. 

While this likely sounds dismissive, it's more about addressing the elephant in the room. To give some context, these are both types of games that I love, and the end product here has done a pretty good job of bringing them together. The exploration is pleasantly open - gatekeeping is typically done less by specific items and abilities, and more by just which areas you're brave enough to poke your head into. It's a little bit of a shame that most of the new abilities have to be switched out for others rather than adding to a core arsenal of moves, but at the same time its base setup gives you plenty of ways to deal with any number of combat scenarios. This is of course best demonstrated by the boss encounters, which are wonderful affairs - big, gruesome, thoughtful variations on approaches to combat, which drop in at a nice pace to keep you from ever getting too cocky. The theming in general is wonderful, and the name is certainly appropriate - there's a lot of deep catholic inspiration in its gorgeous backdrops and environments, but then layered on top are some chilling elements of religious iconography, along with a cast of disturbing devotees and martyrs to sufficiently unsettle you. It's arguably a small intersection of the gaming population that it'll appeal to, but if you're in there, it's a real treat.

Death Come True

The first thing you see upon starting is the game's central character breaking right through the fourth wall to tell you directly not to stream the game or to share anything that might spoil the story. The first rule of Death Come True, and so on. I consider myself fairly well versed in such etiquette, so to then have the screenshot function entirely disabled for the whole game felt a little like being given a slap on the wrists for a crime I had no intention of committing. I don't envy the team trying to market it, that's for sure. 

The reasoning behind this is clear at least - it's a game that is in total service of its plot. Consider a mash-up of a 'Choose your own adventure' book and a series of full-motion videos, and you're mostly there. Unless you were to walk away from the controller or perhaps fall asleep, there seems very little chance that your play time will deviate from the 3 hour estimate - which will certainly put some people off, but is understandable given the production values, and personally, quite welcome in the first place. In terms of replay value, there are branching paths that a single route will obviously skip: as an example of this, in looking up a screenshot to use in lieu of taking my own, I found a promotional image of the central cast, only to not recognise one of them at all. One thing that such a short run-time does ensure though, is that minute-for-minute, there's plenty of action; without wanting to speak about the story itself (rather than in fear of reprise for doing so, I might add), it kicks off with plenty of intrigue, shortly thereafter switching to full-on action, and then strikes a pretty fine balancing act between the two for its run time. It doesn't get quite as deep or as complex as I would've hoped given the team's pedigree, but I do like it, and think it'd actually be a pretty fun title to play with folks who normally don't concern themselves with games. By the same token, it's probably not for the 'hardcore' types looking for something to string out over dozens of hours. 

Persona 5: Dancing in Starlight 

After the generous main course that was Persona 5 Royal, I figured that I'd follow up with dessert. I did however wait until a weekend where I knew my girlfriend would be away, so as not to trigger any unpleasant flashbacks to looped battle themes, and the chirpy, indecipherable voices of Japanese schoolkids that made it so painful to endure as a non-gaming cohabitant.  

Immediately, it's clear that very little has changed since Persona 4's take on the rhythm action genre. The core game, while still functional and fairly enjoyable, hasn't changed a lick. Perhaps the most notable improvement to the package as a whole is in scaling back on a dedicated story mode, and instead just having a series of uninspired but far less time-consuming set of social link scenes that pad things out. The biggest flaw is repeated wholesale though, in that trying to stretch out noteworthy tracks from a single game's playlist into a dedicated music game leads to repetition - and there is a much less prolific gathering of artists involved in remixes this time. I'd be willing to wager that it's a very similar story once again with Persona 3: Dancing in Moonlight, but I'm not about to ruin a perfectly good dinner to start with the sweet just to find out, if you'll excuse a second outing of the metaphor. Still, again compare these to Theatrhythm though - where Square-Enix plundered the Final Fantasy series in its entirety, along with spin-offs and other standalone titles to put together a library of music worthy for the one single game. Cobble the tunes from Personas 3-5 together into one game, and you're still coming up very short by comparison.

[scratchface]

DSS prompt: lick

( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) Excellent idea.

Consider this also for all the requests for a Valentine’s Day ficlet! 

Warnings: Uhh, virus-induced “drunken” silliness. The Hanoi crew having zero morals. Firewall Dragon.

The first and last attack crushes him into dirt at the bottom of a neat little crater. Another Firewall-OTK combo. A FTK, at that. He hadn’t even stood as much of a chance as he usually did. What the hell.

“I really thought that it would work.” He can hear Vyra whining from somewhere to his left, still collapsed in her own respective crater. Faust, the first to go down, has limped his way over and is helping her crawl out of it.

Moving sounds like a pain in the ass, so Ryoken just figures he’ll stay here at the bottom of his hole for the rest of his miserable life. Or until he can put Firewall Dragon on the ban list.

So much for his generals’ grand master plan to finally defeat Playmaker. The “status ailment” program Vyra created and hid in Ryoken’s protection software, without even asking him, had activated right in time, but the “reason hindering” effects had…not been quite what any of them expected.

Apparently, for Playmaker, dueling under the influence isn’t even a handicap. Because of course not.

Someone stumbled over to the edge of his crater. Probably Spectre. “Leave me here to die.” Ryoken groans.

That same someone stumbles over the edge and slides down, only to bodily throw themselves over him. Grunting at the impact of their weight, Ryoken finds his mouth full of blond and red hair.

Playmaker. Great.

“Get off.” He snaps, but Playmaker just starts patting his arms and chest clumsily. Gloved hands rub over his shoulders and a nose buries itself into the nook of his throat.

Trying to bat away the fingers that are making their way south, Ryoken studiously ignores the legs tangling with his own. Playmaker only clings tighter as Ryoken forces himself into a sitting position, eagerly hooking an arm around his neck and nuzzling at his temple.

“Found you.” Playmaker’s usually firm voice is slurred, but no less confident. “I found you.” Drawing the words out, Playmaker pecks a fierce kiss on his exposed cheek.

“You did.” Ryoken replies with all the patience he can muster. “Now, off.”

But because the universe hates him, as if getting trashed by Firewall wasn’t humiliating enough, turns out Playmaker is a handsy drunk.

“Man, what did you guys do to him?” The Ignis complains, still stuck safely to Playmaker’s wrist and therefore his wandering hands. Ryoken refuses to acknowledge it. It wasn’t even his idea. He wanted to face Playmaker at his best, no matter what.

Not that the virus had done much to hamper that, actually.

A hot puff of breath is his only warning before teeth graze over the shell of his ear. Despite himself, he shivers at the bolt of heat Playmaker’s mouth sends through him. Bad thoughts, bad thoughts. No matter how well he played, Playmaker is still completely and utterly impaired right now.

Knowing that doesn’t stop the lips lathering his bare nape with attention, nor the hands that grope at his chest through his jacket.

His own traitorous arm has crept around Playmaker’s waist. To steady him, obviously, because despite his enthusiasm Playmaker’s still teetering off balance in his lap.

Undeterred, Playmaker changes marks from his throat to his lips. Which are sadly undefended: a complete miscalculation in designing this avatar on his part. Too disappointed to feel anything but exasperated and a little fond, Ryoken blocks him with a finger over his adventurous lips.

For a moment, he thinks Playmaker will get the message and stop there.

And then Playmaker licks his fingers.

Playmaker. Top ranking duelist Playmaker. Dignified, stoic Playmaker. With Ryoken’s fingers in his mouth.

Feeling something short-circuit in his brain, Ryoken prays for his ancestors to give him strength. And patience.

“Alright, time for you to log out.” He stays the words as sternly as he can, but pulling his hand away takes all the self-discipline he can muster. Spectre is peeking over the crater’s rim now and very unsubtly snickering at them.

“But I won.” Playmaker is not pouting at him, nor is Playmaker speaking in such a sulky voice. Nope. Not happening. Ryoken will purge all record of these events in existence.

“You sure did.” And how, at that.

Finally relinquishing his groping, Playmaker frowns at him. “I want a prize. You said you’d get Ai if you won. What do I get?”

Ryoken should absolutely not ask. He should log out. But his mouth is already moving. “What do you want?”

The answer is immediate. “You.”

Spectre makes a very inappropriate hand gesture, the others gathered behind him with amused expressions.

Ryoken has to end this before it gets anymore embarrassing. “You’re basically drunk right now, Playmaker.”

“Be my Valentine.” Gloved fingers seize him by his jacket, forcing him to look into steely green eyes. 

Playmaker really is drunk. “It’s not Valentine’s Day.” February had already passed them by. Ryoken spent that particular day of designated commercially-sponsored PDA hiding from his feelings. Taking one of Playmaker’s wrists in hand, he drags it around his shoulders and heaves them both back onto their feet. Playmaker refuses to carry his own weight and instead leans against him, still trying to catch his gaze as Ryoken starts dragging them out.

“I bought chocolate for you.” The words make him pause, but only for a moment. Truthfully, it’s not a surprise. Except Playmaker keeps talking. “Every year.” Ryoken’s heart skips a beat, even as his throat seems to close up. Every year? Since all the way back then? “I couldn’t afford anything good at first. Just candy bars.” The image of a traumatized little orphan scraping together spare change to buy shitty candy for a scumbag like him is just too cruel. “I wanted to give them to you. But I couldn’t find you.” Ryoken’s the worst. The absolute worst. He’s not even sure why his brain is so certain that that is his fault and is pumping him full of guilt, but it sure is. He’s being guilt-tripped, and he can’t even be mad about it. Playmaker is too earnest—too blunt, really—a person to be telling him anything but the truth. “Now I found you. And I won. So you have to be my Valentine.”

Ryoken grasps for the least painful part of that garbled confession to latch on to. “I don’t think that’s quite how it works.”

At the top of his crater of shame, the others gather around and continue to stare. Ryoken turns his eyes on the real cause of this headache, the Ignis. “Log him out.”

The AI doesn’t have a mouth, but Ryoken can still tell it’s laughing at him. But the world decides to give him a break and Playmaker vanishes from his grip in a flurry of data.

His subordinates shift on their feet awkwardly. “What do we do now?”

Not all the Aspirin in the world could make the conversation he needs to have with them about all this bearable. And they all got their asses handed to them already. He finds the energy to shrug. “You guys take the rest of the day off.”

Unabashed, all four of them look at him curiously. They don’t even need to ask, he can tell they want to know what Ryoken will be doing in the meantime.

“I have ten years of White Day gifts to catch up on.”

[tisfan]

One Hand Washes the Other

Title of Piece: One Hand Washes the Other Also on A03 Square filled: A4 - WTF Warning: unrepentant fluff, weird coping mechanisms, first date Pairing: Tony Stark/Bucky Barnes Summary: Bucky doesn’t always eat with the team. It takes Tony a while to figure out why. Created for @tonystarkbingo

Barnes didn’t always join the team for dinner. Tony didn’t always notice when he wasn’t there. At first, it was because maybe Tony was there; they weren’t exactly on friendly terms. But as time went on, and Tony was a rational, reasonable person, the enmity faded. Grew into something like grudging respect, and then grudging admiration. And then, because it was Tony, it might have turned into something like a reluctant crush.

Tony didn’t like to admit that he liked someone; it hadn’t usually worked out well for him. Case in point: Pepper Potts was back on the West Coast again, and sometimes missing her was like an extra hole in his chest, and he was beginning to believe that his emotional make-up was something very swiss-cheese in composition, and he didn’t need any more random aches and pains, thank you very much.

So, Tony tried not to notice when Barnes wasn’t around.

It’s not like Tony showed up to every single one of them, either.

To keep people from fighting about food, team dinners were two different protocols; ordering takeout was on a semi-random, preference oriented schedule. Which was to say, everyone entered in their personal favorites and Friday would select what people were getting for dinner. Which meant pizza was regular, as well as Chinese take away. Burgers.

The other protocol was the cooking roster, because some of the team liked to cook, and others on the team liked to sit down to a home cooked meal. Bruce, for instance, made the words best baby back ribs and absolutely would not tell anyone his secret, even swearing the AIs to secrecy and Friday diligently kept her word (traitor) and refused to allow Tony to access the kitchen camera. Not that Tony could cook, most of the time, but it was the principle of the thing.

But eventually, Tony noticed a pattern, because it was Tony.

The first night they’d done cheeseburgers, Barnes had eaten his portion with a knife and fork. Okay, weird, but a lot of Europeans did that, too, and Barnes had spent a lot of time in Europe. Tony, who drank a lot of his meals (sometimes they were smoothies and sometimes they were booze, and who asked you anyway?) didn’t comment, but Clint did.

And Barnes stopped showing up on burger nights.

He’d never showed up for pizza.

Barnes showed up for chicken one night, but he’d backed up and left in somewhat of a hurry when he saw the containers and realized it was fried chicken, not baked. Clint had waved a drumstick at him, trying to tempt him, but Barnes didn’t even look back.

Tony couldn’t help but notice a pattern after a while.

Barnes never showed up -- or left quickly if he did show up -- when the meal was something eaten by hand. Spaghetti nights, he was as deft with a fork and spoon to twirl pasta against as anyone. He ate epic amounts of steak and potatoes. Raw oysters disappeared like crazy, and sushi was a big hit, but peel-and-eat shrimp or crab legs were right out.

The guy wouldn’t eat popcorn on movie nights, either.

Well, Tony knew all about weird hangups that manifested in odd behavior, and he wasn’t going to call the guy out. Maybe it was some sort of shame-thing about the metal arm, even tho Shuri’s design was top notch, really quite elegant. Or something weird about the way it clicked when he moved it, but… well, it wasn’t Tony’s business, was it?

It wasn’t until one particularly bad bout of engineering fuge where Tony hadn’t slept in days, but had to stagger out of the workshop because he was out of coffee downstairs, and staring at the fabricator wasn’t going to make it run any faster that he actually saw Barnes.

Alone.

[more below the cut]

Sitting in front of the television, watching some late night, black and white, movie marathon and eating out of a bowl.

At first, Tony thought he had some of the left-over noodles -- there were always Chinese noodles of some sort or other in the fridge -- because the bowl was small, he was holding it under his chin, and he was wielding a pair of chopsticks with his left hand. The ridiculous mock up lightsaber kind that Tony had bought from Think Geek, because it was cool, and also because he was a little jealous that he hadn’t thought of it first.

Barnes didn’t take his eyes off the television, dipped the chopsticks into his bowl, and something crunched.

Not like a bamboo shoot, or a water chestnut, either, but…

“Are you eating Cheetos with chopsticks?” Tony couldn’t help but burst out. “Barnes, what the fuck?”

Barnes scrambled to put the bowl down; the chopsticks disappeared like a magician’s trick. “What? I was jus’ watching a movie, can’t always sleep--”

“No, no, that’s fine,” Tony said, waving that away. He knew quite a lot about not being able to sleep. “Can I just ask why?”

“Why what? Why can’t I sleep?” Barnes’s wide-eyed innocent look was both very good and damned endearing, but he wasn’t fooling Tony.

“Why do you eat like that, it’s so--”

“Weird. Creepy. Fucked up. I know.” Barnes heaved a sigh and by the time he was done, he looked somehow smaller and more fragile than Tony had ever seen him. This man, the one in front of him, blushing uncomfortably and fidgeting, that was a man that Tony could call Bucky. Not the cold-blooded killer, or the reluctant Avenger. He rubbed thoughtfully at the palm of his metal hand with the thumb from his right.

“Hey, I don’t let people hand me shit,” Tony said. “I am the last person to give you grief about weird coping mechanisms, I’m just wondering why.”

“Did you know that your computer keyboard has twenty thousand times more germs than a toilet seat?”

That seemed like a non-sequitur if Tony ever head one. Also, pointless. Supersoldiers didn’t get sick.

“There might be a reason I use hard light and projected imagery instead of something as quaint as a mouse and keyboard system,” Tony said. Also, projected imagery was a lot cooler than a clunky board.

Barnes spread his metal fingers to their max extension, all the little plates opening up to allow for the movement. Gold and black, it was gorgeous, and Tony wanted to touch it, poke at it, because, well, he generally had a boner for engineering, even if it wasn’t his own.

“Dust gets caught up in here,” Barnes said. “An’ other stuff.”

Blood, Tony read between the lines.

“There’s no cleaning features? That just seems like a failure in--”

“It was a little easier with th’ old one because there wasn’t a lot on th’ way of actual sensitivity. Used to brush it out with compressed air, but that shit is cold, and this hand can detect temperature extremes,” Barnes shuddered. “There’s coating on the circuits, that makes it waterproof, so like, I c’n wash my hands and stuff. But it’s disturbin’ as hell to wash my hands and see… grease an’ crumbs drippin’ out. Put m’ hand in th’ sewer a few weeks back, durin’ that fight with th’ Wrecking Crew. Took me almost forty minutes t’ wash all the muck an’ grime and other people’s shit out of it.”

“Well, that’s a disturbing image, yes, I can imagine,” Tony said.

“I jus’... don’t like to touch my food with it. And I’m left-handed, so eatin’ right handed is awkward.”

“So, you don’t eat things that you can’t use utensils for,” Tony said.

Barnes’ chopsticks appeared again and he hefted a cheeto and crunched it. “Saw this on one of them videos on YouTube, some girl showin’ how to eat without messing up your makeup, or getting chip dust all over your fingers.”

“Sounds like a good plan,” Tony said, and his mind was already whirring, because that’s what his brain did. Problems existed in order to be solved. Bucky’s chopsticks would work well for small things; chips and french fries and popcorn, but what about pizza? Cheeseburgers?

For that matter, what about raw sewage? No one should have to put up with that inside their bodies, even if Barnes couldn’t get sick, hadn’t he already gotten the short end of the stick with the unwilling body modifications?

“It works, at least,” Barnes said. He crunched another cheeto with pleasure.

Tony got a second bowl out of the cabinet, and snagged a pair of chopsticks. “Mind if I have some?”

“You pay for the groceries,” Barnes pointed out, but he poured out a serving of cheetos for Tony.

“Thanks.”

“What’s this?”

“Add-on,” Tony said, handing over the little disk. “It’s a-- well, consider it a deflector dish. I didn’t get a test audience on the branding, but since it’s only for people with high tech prosthetics, I don’t expect they’ll care what it’s called. Here, it goes on the back of the hand, here--” Tony picked up Barnes’ metal hand without really thinking about it, and the man froze. Tony was standing much closer than he usually did, and when Barnes glanced up at him, they were practically close enough to kiss.

“Right? Then what?” Barnes asked, not pulling back, and his blue eyes went deep and liquid.

“Well, I was studying the princess’s specs, and your arm still has an unreasonable amount of circuit heat, thus the plate mechanism, in addition to flexibility and strength, provides the cooling. So, we can’t quite do without it, yet, but she and I are doing a little collaboration, maybe make Steve Austin Mark III a little less clunky…” Tony said. “But for now… here, come here, and put your hand in this.”

There were not words for the look Barnes gave him, as Tony led him over to a bucket of slime.

“Go on, test it out.”

“I’m gonna make you clean all this shit out,” Barnes threatened.

Tony gave him a smile. “Deal. Put your hand in there, Buckybear.”

Barnes grumbled, but pushed his fingertips into the slime, which hastily shifted and pushed away.

“What th’ fuck?” Barnes -- no, Bucky’s -- eyes lit up, and the smile on his face was beyond joy. Wonder, amazement.

“It’s not very strong, but it extends about an eighth of a millimeter past the plates. Consider it a sort of electrostatic… skin. Works just like our skin,” Tony said. “Keeps all the dirt out, and…”

Bucky swirled his fingers in the slime. “I… can feel that. I can feel it. Not just pressure, not… I can feel that, Tony.”

“Yep, sunshine, that was the plan,” Tony said. He nodded to a cloth on the side of the bucket. “You’ll still have to wash it off, but--”

Bucky wiped his hand free, and then, before Tony was quite aware of what Bucky planned, those metal fingers were stroking down the side of Tony’s skin.

He told himself the tingles that it raised was nothing more than an effect of the electrostatic shield. He was lying, because he’d already tested it, several times, and he knew that there was no way any normal human would detect anything different about Bucky’s arm. That it would just feel like metal, smooth and supple.

“Tony, I can…” Bucky’s eyes filled and a tear spilled down one cheek.

“Yeah.”

“Why?” Bucky pulled his fingers back, rubbed them against his shirt, then held them out again, marveling. “Why-- thank you, but why?”

“Well, mostly, because out of all of us, you deserve to be able to eat a cheeseburger in peace.”

“Thank you,” Bucky said again, and he cupped the side of Tony’s face, as if still enchanted by the way Tony’s cheek felt under his palm.

“You’re welcome,” Tony said.

“Uh, can… will you join me, for a cheeseburger?” Bucky asked. And Tony might not have thought anything of it, except at the very end of the word, Bucky winked.

“Are… you asking me on a date?”

“If I said yes, will you say yes?”

“It’s a date, then,” Tony said.

[cescalr]

In Another Universe - ‘Shot 3 Preview

Cafes, Coffees, and Contract Killing. The Usual Sunday, Y'know.

Summary:

What it says on the tin. Desmond Miles works for an organisation that uses Coffee shops as a front. He's been trained to do so since he was little - put a bit of poison in a drink here, get someone's number there and then murder them in their sleep. There's a blond guy that frequents the Starbuck's down the street that seems like he might be useful - if, of course, the other organisation (which, coincidentally, runs a chain of coffee shops; what is with secret organisations that kill people and caffeinated beverages and little cakes?) doesn't get him first.

(He's cute, too, but that's only a bonus. Really, Desmond insists, it both has nothing to do with anything and hardly even registers on his radar.)

(Lucy - a girl who works at the Starbucks and one he can't quite tell if works for them or for /Them/ - calls his bluff. But then, what does she know?)

(Too much.)

Notes:

The assassins are a smaller coffee shop/cafe chain, and the Templars are Starbucks. Obviously.

(lol.)

Desmond spends most of his ays standing behind a counter, memorising faces and orders and checking people for small crosses, hoping that he's not mistaking simple Christians (or goths, or other people who wear them ironically, or people who believe in vampires... or literally anyone, because it's not just Christians that wear crosses) for Them.

If he figures out a person really is one of Them, well, then his real job kicks in.

Desmond smiles at a girl - cropped brown hair with a blonde streak, grey eyes that might be flecked with blue if he squinted slightly (but he won't, because that's not generally very attractive), a nice jawline and high cheekbones - and thinks, what a shame.

A pretty face like that shouldn't be wasted on a Templar.

(On someone within the organisation that killed his mother.)

Desmond introduces himself to the girl, who blushes faintly and smiles, easy, flirts right back. It's almost too easy - but then, she could always not be a Templar.

That wouldn't explain why she glows red when he focuses, though. Maybe she's just a run of the mill serial killer. Maybe she has a personal grudge because there's a lot of time he doesn't remember from that short stint 'on the run'.

You can't run from them. You most certainly can't run from Them. So Desmond came back because at least here, there's no chance They'll try to kill him on his home turf. They're the only ones stupid enough to shop at their enemies store, after all.

Either way, she's red in his vision. So either she's one of Them, or she needs to die anyway. Hell, she could be a rapist, he hadn't thought of that - and if that's the case, then she'd definitely need to go.

"So, Hanna," He says, "What brings you here today?" after their little bit of small talk - she's from out of town, like most of the Templars. Supposedly, Hanna's here to visit family - she's got a temporary job at the Starbucks, and that's all the confirmation he needs, really. You don't get a job if you're only visiting for a couple days.

(To clarify; another assassin would need more. He doesn't even need this much, really - the red of his second sight is more convincing to the higher-ups than even the best of investigation. But Desmond needs more confirmation than that, for peace of mind.)

She smiles again, practically throws her dimples at him, and leans forward. Her top has a low neckline - because of course - and Desmond lets his eyes stray. Her smile shrinks, more of a smirk, and the dimples are gone. Hanna says something entirely unimportant because now he knows she'll accept him writing his number - the one he uses for this sort of job, for the phone they keep elsewhere in case of tracking - and he nods, and she smiles, leans back. Desmond gets Hanna her drink personally, then writes her name on the cup - underneath, he scrawls his number, fast but careful, and then hands it over.

She smiles to him behind her cup, then nods and sashays out of the store. Rebecca, who's manning the register, snorts.

Rebecca's their cashier. Unofficially, because the organisation can't afford to be official, she's their technician and backup support on missions and... the other thing. She also does a lot of inventing in their spare time, alongside Layla Hassan, who, coincidentally, invented the other thing.

(Layla's a turncoat from the Templars. It's always nice when that happens, given how... uncertain a specific blonde woman's loyalties are.)

The Other Thing, the thing that Layla invented, is what Desmond spends a lot of his time using when he's not working or - well. Working.

(Fortunately for them, even though she invented it for the Templars, back when she'd been wholly agreeing with them - and mostly unaware of their true nature - she hadn't been quite as good as she is now. Meaning, their Thing is better than Their Thing.)

"Templars," Desmond agrees.

"Always swayed by your charms," Rebecca laughs slightly.

"I suppose my face helps," He grins a little, eyes wandering around the crowd. They're not as big a chain as Starbucks, but they're getting there. About ninety-percent the size of Costa, now.

(Of course, Starbucks is way, way bigger than it lets on, given the whole Templar nature of it all.)

"And there he goes..." Rebecca says, conspiratorily, as she follows someone with her eyes that's walking down the street outside.

Blonde. Blue eyes, Desmond thinks, from what he can see. Desmond hasn't found out the guy's name yet, given he seems addicted to the shit they sell at Starbucks and hasn't looked twice at this place since the day he showed up in town.

As they've dubbed him, the 'definitely-not-a-templar Starbucks Blonde Guy', is walking down the street towards his usual haunt.  

(They had to add 'guy' to the moniker because they've already got one of those in female form. That's always been the issue with Lucy, as far as Desmond knows. He hadn't met her before he left, and she'd been planted before he got back. Desmond talks to her now, obviously - 'old friends', or so the cover says. He has to visit her at work occasionally, to prove that, and it's a little dangerous, but he doesn't mind it, because - despite the wariness - he does genuinely enjoy her company.)

(... there might be other motives, too. Motives that might also be blonde haired, motives that might have blue eyes.)

"And there he goes," Desmond echoes. Rebecca glances at him, but Desmond waits until Blonde Guy has moved out of his line of sight before he looks to her.

"Y'know, I'm glad you came back when you did," Rebecca says. "We'd have killed the idiot otherwise."

"Hey now," Desmond says. "Liking terrible coffee does not an idiot make."

Rebecca rolls her eyes. "Just tasteless, then." She replies.

"For all we know, he could hate it, and they really have put addictive shit in their flavoured water." Desmond points out. "True," Rebecca sighs. "If only I could get a sample..."

"I'm not buying that shit," Desmond says. "Get Lucy to do it."

"She refuses." Rebecca looks vaguely annoyed, vaguely worried. That's kind of her whole thing, regarding Lucy.

"Of course she does," Desmond says. "'I can't tell you everything. It would blow my cover. I can't get a coffee or two for friends. It'd blow my cover.'" He half-quotes, half-mimics.

"Yep." Rebecca sighs. "And if she can't figure out a good cover for getting her poor uni roommate some caffeine, what can she do?"

The mood sobers. They care for Lucy - of course, they do. She's one of theirs. She's also a close friend. That's what matters more; that's what makes this worse. Desmond's just glad he didn't know her Before. Rebecca sometimes crashes at his or Shawn's or Layla's because of it, and the tiredness on her face when she does suggests a recent argument. One she never wins, of course. And one that always hurts.

Another customer comes up to the counter. Desmond plasters a smile on his face, tilts his head and focuses. Bright blue - friend. Desmond nods to him, holds out his hand, and the other shakes it, nods back. Assassin, Desmond knows. He pockets the note as he asks for the man's order, treating him like an old family friend, as they're instructed to whenever someone from another branch shows up.

The man looks to be a few years his senior, and he speaks with a Russian accent. Definitely not a local branch, then, but Desmond can't remember if they still have one in Russia. The Templars have a pretty strict hold, there.

Regardless - it'd be rude to ask.

The man leaves with his straight black Americano and ginger biscuits, and then Desmond taps Rebecca on the shoulder three times before moving away, into the back. Two people appear after Rebecca types something into her register - Shawn's visiting (he usually stays at the uni campus, working in the library and keeping Templar hands off the valuable and dangerous materials kept there under various forms of physical and computerised security) so he takes over Rebecca at the till, and Emily - a non-assassin that works here because they need that diversity, in case the Templars get suspicious - takes over Desmond's place at the counter.

Rebecca follows him into the back, and then they look at the note.

Clay Kaczmarek might be useful. Son of Harold Kaczmarek, descendant of a few different assassins. Now that's definitely useful - the descendent thing.

The picture attached makes things complicated, though. Blonde. Blue-eyed; younger, but still, the spitting image of Not-A-Templar-Starbucks-Addicted-Blonde-Guy.

Rebecca shares a sigh with him, adds her own quiet "crap" to the mix.

Yep. That about sums it up. Still - at least Desmond now knows why the guy glows gold in his other sight.

[fnlrndcllctv]

REVIEW: Final Fight Revenge (1999)

Capcom’s gaming output in the late 80’s and early 90’s was something of a revelation, even before the fighting game juggernaut that was Street Fighter II came around.

Their beat ‘em ups were particularly entertaining, with games such as Captain Commando, Knights Of The Round, Armored Warriors and Warriors Of Fate all offering up slices of “decimate opponents to progress through a stage” action from all sorts of different story perspectives.

Perhaps the most famous, and most important, example of Capcom’s brawler games was 1989’s Final Fight. The story of Cody and Guy battling through gangs of thugs to rescue the mayor of Metro City’s daughter from an evil crimelord was the perfect setting for the genre, and is still woven into the same in-game universe as the Street Fighter franchise to this day!

So, after almost a decade of sequels and spinoffs, it came time for Capcom to release an actual one on one fighting game based on the Final Fight series, and with a wealth of fighters and gameplay mechanics to lift from, fans were excited to get their hands on this.

Was it any good?

Gameplay

Fans of the original Final Fight games (and beat ‘em ups in general) will notice one of the game’s main features during a fight straight away. During a matchup, players are able to pick up and use weapons that are scattered around the stage.

It’s a fun idea, and elements of this can still be found when using specific Final Fight characters in modern Street Fighter games (Cody in particular!), and being able to knock weapons out of a foe’s hands is a blessing. Unfortunately, the weapons here don’t actually do enough damage to justify the risk when trying to pick them up.

This does feel more satisfying during the final boss fight though, as players can knock limbs off the opponent and use them as weapons.

Players each have a super gauge that, once full, allows them to perform special attacks on an opponent. These are one of the most interesting aspects of the game, as they feel more akin to something from something like Pocket Fighter than your traditional Street Fighter game, as they’re all highly tongue in cheek and cartoonish. For example, Rolento summons a helicopter to launch a deadly assault, Edi E jumps into a miniature cop car and Poison attacks opponents with sultry photographs of herself. They’re pretty entertaining for the most part, when the game actually allows you to land a hit, that is.

The controls adhere to using six buttons (2 punches, 2 kicks, dodge and taunt), but are marred by how clunky the movement is for each character. There’s also an issue with the gravity in this game, as it feels like jumping on the moon, which really ruins the pacing of a fight.

Even on the easiest setting, the AI of the computer controlled fighters will also almost certainly block most of your attacks, forcing you to grind through each match by getting time outs or chipping away at their damage bit by bit. It’s frustrating, and really drags the game down further.

Story

Final Fight Revenge’s plot acts as a pseudo-sequel to the first game, where some riots that have broken out in Metro City and Jessica Haggar, the mayor’s daughter, has gone missing amidst them.

Not only this, but a number of original members of the Mad Gear gang are getting back together to cause trouble for Guy, Cody and Haggar.

Although Jessica's whereabouts are never resolved in any of the characters' endings, the game’s developers have said that she was rescued by Mike, she broke up with Cody and left Metro City to study in Europe.

Fighting game storylines aren’t generally regarded as the best in the wider scope of video games, but this one feels like it was cobbled together at the last minute. The lack of any closure for the main story (along with the fact that the only way to know what the true ending was is to lookup an interview with the devs) when you finish a run in arcade mode makes it feel not only unfinished, but also completely unsatisfying.

Roster

Final Fight Revenge’s roster is made up of almost everyone from the first Final Fight game;

Cody

Damn D

Sodom

Hugo Andore

Mike Haggar

Rolento

El Gado

Edi E

Poison

Guy

What’s noticeable here is that the game completely ignores any of the characters that were introduced in Final Fight 2 and Final Fight 3, even as unlockable characters.

With that being said, being able to play as the entire cast of fighters from the first game (minus Abigail and Belger, of course) isn’t “bad” as such, it just feels really weak when you compare it to other the other 3D Capcom games of the era (especially the Street Fighter EX games).

Graphics

The graphics in Final Fight Revenge are possibly the biggest drawback of the whole experience.

I respect that the game was going for a more cartoonish look in places, especially during some of the characters’ special attacks, but as the fighters only have a few more polygons than the original Virtua Fighter (a title that was released more than 6 years prior to this one!), the whole thing just looks incredibly dated.

For a fighting game that was released by a major company in the months leading up to the millennium, there is truly no excuse for it to look this horrible.

Stages

The game includes a variety of different stages to fight in, each lifted from several areas in the first Final Fight game, including alleyways, marketplaces, public parks, junkyards, wastelands and more.

While there’s nothing particularly spectacular about any of these stages, they’re mostly better than the graphics of the fighters that occupy them during a match.

It’s a nice look at Metro City, if not a bit of a lifeless one.

Replayability

Besides the standard arcade and versus modes, there really isn’t much else that would warrant a player ever returning to the game once they’ve finished a playthrough.

The character endings are a single image each with some basic text, then we’re “treated” to the zombified final boss, Belger, dancing along to the music as the credits roll.

And yes, he does the Thriller dance, because of course he does.

With the rich amount of Final Fight lore from the decade that preceded it, along with the cast of characters that could have been in the game, the severe lack of content here further pushes just how much of a wasted opportunity Final Fight Revenge really is.

Final thoughts & overall score

Final Fight Revenge is an incredibly disappointing experience. Considering the sheer amount of 3D fighting games that preceded it, it’s utterly baffling to try and figure out why a game released in 1999 looks worse than games from more than half a decade before it.

While it’s definitely hard to recommend this to even the most die-hard of Final Fight fans (or fighting game fans, for that matter), it is saved by the skin of its teeth by the fact that the game doesn’t take itself too seriously and by including a number of interesting special moves.

As a concept, a fighting game based on the Final Fight franchise has so much potential, so it’s a shame to see it squandered with such a sub-par execution.

Do you agree with our review of Final Fight Revenge?

Let us know in the comments section below!

[gingermcl]

Identifying and dealing with Energy Vampires

Recently I had an experience where an energy vampire tried to siphon my energy. I figured it out and set some intentions.... then a week this person did an entire 180 and was all of the sudden against me. Reporting she didn’t say things that I have in writing plain as day. I picked up the attachment when I did a reading for her. I told her she only had to pay me $20 and she sent me 50 which was really weird. Especially since this person often talks about how she needs more money. It occurred to me that she sent more money to strengthen etheric attachments.

I no longer believe in coincidence. Let’s talk about some signs of an energy vampire.

What is an energy vampire?

Energy vampires are people who drain your emotional or physical energy. (Energy vampires love empaths.) Energy vampires can intentionally harvest energy or they may be doing it unintentionally and completely unaware of it.

Vampires feed on one’s willingness to listen and care for them, leaving you exhausted and overwhelmed. With an energy vampire it can be hard to get a word in in a conversation. I find vampires are the people I end up frequently interrupting. They can be narcissistic - all about themselves and poor listeners.

Anyone can be an energy vampire. They can be anywhere, at any time, and from all walks of life. Learning how to identify and respond to vampiric behavior can help you preserve your energy and protect yourself from a great deal of emotional and physical distress.

Physical energy vampires will often be an empty vessel. An empty vessel is one that doesn’t have the heart centered/creator spark consciousness, instead these individuals seemingly operate on some kind of AI hive mind. Energy vampires can be souled individuals too. If a vampire is a soiled person he usually has a lot of negative etheric attachments. In this case it isn’t the individual doing the energy harvesting; it’s actually the attachments on him/her harvesting the energy.

Energy vampires are unable to move through life without taking energy from others. They may have a physical, emotional, or mental dysfunction(s) that is(are)draining them. Many times the energy feeding is not intentional nor is it a conscious decision to take another’s energy.

An energetic part of a vampire attaches to you and sets up the negative energy attachment/energy drain. The vampire can be anyone – friend, your children, employee, family members, a chance, one time encounter, or a group meeting. Energetic attachments can attach to an individual at any time and at any place; which is why we must be aware that attachments happen, what symptoms to look for, and learn a process to get rid them.

An individual can also be bothered by unseen energies, vampiric, or parasitic negative energy attachments. These energies set up energy siphoning through childhood or adult traumas - physical, sexual, and emotional, through addictions, injuries, extreme fear, and even ecstatic bliss filled events. A good example that would be a group meditation. In a group meditation people open themselves up. Someone else in the room may be full of energetic attachments that can jump from body to body. A high vibrational individual can pick up nasty attachments in a group meditation. When should meditate alone or only with individuals that he trusts. Attachments can also arise from unspoken and spoken agreements in the physical and nonphysical realms, in other lifetimes, this incarnation, and through joint permission with other people.

If there is a way to suck the life out of you, an energy vampire will figure it out. Tracking your mood, who you’re hanging out with, and negative interactions on your life can be a good way to discover energy vampires.

These vampires are opportunists and will attach energy siphons to an existing harvest another human is doing. There are entities like discarnate spirits who are confused and not intentionally taking your energy. They are simply looking for a safe place to rest and nest. All energy vampires may not have a negative intention. Regardless of intention a vampire will drain you and should be dealt with.

I have dealt with several energy vampires in my life. I have begun to notice repeating characteristics. I looked up signs of an energy vampire before doing this video and was able to find all of the symptoms I had listed on someone’s list. I did see other symptoms listed but didn’t include those. I only like to give advice on things that I have personally experienced or at minimum deeply resonate with.

Signs of an energy vampire

They act like the hero

Energy vampires place their problems on other people. Energy vampires are the first person to place blame on another person and refuse to take accountability for his or her mistakes. They take no responsibility for their contributions to their difficulties.

They need emotional support to boost their self-esteem. This actually stems from the fact that most energy vampires have a very negative self image and low self-esteem.

Cannot admit wrongdoing

Energy vampires are often charismatic. They may seemingly easily get out of trouble because of this charm or gift of persuasion. They’re crafty and will pin problems and blame on someone else in virtually every situation. They will not accept responsibility for their role in any disagreement or conflict. The other person involved with the vampire is the one left bearing the guilt and blame for any incident with the vampire.

Energy vampires may promote a dogmatic or rigid belief based program. They may be involved in groups that worship a deity, god, celebrity, or other physical or nonphysical being(s.) Regardless of whom or what one worships; the act of worship is seeking validation outside of himself; when the truth is genuine wisdom comes from within. Participants in such programs gives his or her energy to these idols/beings. This energy is being intentionally directed elsewhere and who knows for what purpose.

It’s perfectly normal and fine to respect someone and follow ones work. Worship borders obsession. There is a clear difference between general respect or even admiration and worship.

Try to turn elements of your character against you; or describing your character as their own while projecting their own unpleasant characteristics on you - in other words a character switch

Empathetic, sensitive, and compassionate people are prime targets for energy vampires. They offer a listening ear, a kind heart, and endless energy. Energy vampires use a persons very caring nature against him; draining him of his vitality, strength - physical and/or emotional, and motivation.

Energetic vampires may monopolize your time so they can get as much of your energy as they can. They may involve you in dramatic situations in their life that you really have no place being involved in. I am reminded of a woman who was allegedly afraid she was going to be killed in an accident; she decided to text me to tell me she was safe. I didn’t live near her and don’t know what kind of help I could have provided. I don’t even know what city she lives in. Why choose me to tell that she had left and gotten places safely??!? She must have been harvesting my energy. This is the same woman that I did a reading for and got the attachment through her overpayment. If a vampire thinks you feel guilty turning them down, they’ll continuously ask for favors.

Very competitive with everyone, cannot be someone’s partner. Must attempt to do better than you.

Energy vampires don’t like to be outdone and they aren’t keen on sharing the spotlight. This is simply another one of their many narcissistic tendencies. Vampires struggle to feel genuine happiness for another person. Most likely they don’t feel genuine happiness for themselves either. If energy vampires feel happiness they still don’t generate enough positive energy to meet their emotional demands. Hence why an vampire must harvest emotional energy from others. For some reason the vampire doesn’t create enough energy on his or her own.

Hypercritical

Intimidation is a tool some energy vampires turn to when they need to stir up some emotions. Energy vampires are usually insecure. They may use dehumanizing tactics and criticism as an attempt to make/keep their “prey” insecure too. When in an insecure state victims feel like they owe the vampire attention and should working with the vampire to stop his unwarranted attacks.

More energy can be harvested from negative emotions so keeping a victim in a negative state of thinking/emotion is very important for the energy vampire. Fear is also a very strong emotional reaction. If an energy vampire can upset you, they can boost their ego. Energy vampires also love to get their victims living in a state of fear. That is what is going on in the world wide scale with this coronavirus nonsense. The luciferian elites are harvesting a ton of energy from the current state of fear of the people.

Energy vampires often use guilt trips to get what they want. They know shame is a great weapon against people who are compassionate and caring. Shame was the tactic my most recent vampire used too.

Ultimatums are another effective way to capture a person’s attention and coerce them into doing something they otherwise may not want to do. Things like “I don’t know how you expect me to make it without you. I’ll die.” or “If you really love me, you’ll do this for me.” would be considered ultimatums.

Very dramatic; need to keep the drama going for energy

Energy vampires always find themselves in the middle of a catastrophe, flailing from target to target with their emotional and dramatic behavior. When they’ve landed on you, they fling this drama onto you in hopes you’ll absorb it, fix it, and right their wrongs. It is important not to discuss the energy vampire forward focus goes energy flows. Focusing on the energy vampires problems gives the energy. Stick to shallow and non-emotional topics of conversation and keep your interactions as short as possible when dealing with an energy vampire.

No empathy, compassion, very little emotion

Energy vampires feed off your emotional energy. If you’re sad or upset, your energy supplies may be dwindling. The energy vampire will shift the attention of the discussion to themselves in order to drain maximum energy.

Abnormally codependent

Codependency is a type of relationship where one partners actions are designed to generate a certain reaction from the other partner. This a vicious, negative cycle of behavior and many people fail to recognize that they’re in a codependent relationship. Especially energy vampires. Vampires use codependency to continue create and maintain a cycle of drama. Energy vampires are more likely to be involved in an abusive situation. I’m uncertain if these means as the abuser, the abused, or both. I sense both.

Narcissistic personalities are famous for energy siphoning. They will intimidate, physically, emotionally, or even sexually abuse, degrade, confuse, and generally create chaos within their environment. Energy entanglements with a narcissist take help, time, and a considerable amount of self-strength, self love, and self care to get away and recover from.

Why we need to deal with the energy vampires in our lives.

Energy vampires demand a lot from their targets. The continuous drain on your resources an energy vampire causes will eventually have an effect on your well-being. Sometimes quite a noticeable effect. Over time, excess stress can lead to anxiety, depression, heart disease, other illnesses, and more. This is why it’s important to recognize the energy vampire and work to remove them or at least minimize interactions with them.

An individual’s process for dealing with energetic attachments may involve putting up protections, energy and aura cleansing, mantras, and visualizations as methods of thwarting the energy vampire’s efforts. There is no set right or wrong way to develop your process. Do what feels right.

It is best to remove the energy vampire from your life entirely. Sometimes this isn’t possible and in those times minimizing time spent with the vampire plus controlling the topic of conversation is extremely important. Stick with shallow topics of conversation that should not incite an emotional reaction in anyone.

Let’s also discuss a few steps one can take against the energy vampire.

Set boundaries

Creating and maintaining boundaries can be easier said than done at times, but it has proven to be an invaluable tool in my personal experience. Everyone should develop boundaries where one decides how he will and won’t allow an energy vampire (or any energy that is not for his highest and best purpose) to participate in his life.

Don’t agree to go to social events with a suspected vampire. Avoid weekend trips or any extended outing with a known vampire. At work you can limit interaction; don’t agree to any outside of work activity like happy hour or lunch dates, and don’t stop to chit chat with them. If they manage to interact with you, cut off the interaction as fast as possible and keep topics of conversation shallow or on non-emotional subjects. The energy vampire is likely attempting to get an emotional response from you in each interaction. We must learn not to engage this desire.

When making life changes start with one or two small changes, master those, then make additional changes. Trying to change everything at once will cause overwhelm and discouragement.

Adjust your expectations

You can’t fix an energy vampire. What you can do is redo your expectations of them and reevaluate your personal views of them. This may involve actively setting the intention of detaching from this situation emotionally. When a vampire attempts to vent his problems to you or asks for advice don’t give it. If an energy vampire asked you for advice you can say something along the lines of “I’m sorry I don’t know anything about that topic” or “I’ve never heard of that before.” You shouldn’t be rude to the energy vampire for this will give them energy. You want to try to remain neutral when interacting with the energy vampire.

You cannot use an energy vampire for any form of emotional release. You should never vent to a vampire. If you do you will likely notice that you cannot finish your entire story before the conversation gets turned around to them and their needs.

If the energy vampire calls, texts, or drops in unannounced don’t give in. Make up an excuse. You can say that you’ve got plans, are too tired, or don’t feel well. When a vampire is repeatedly given excuses and not getting the emotional energy they desire from you, they tend to look elsewhere. Stand your ground and keep the boundaries you’ve set for yourself. Even the most persistent energy vampire will eventually get the hint.

Guard your emotions and your emotional energy

Energy vampires often notice and interpret nonverbal cues as a way of reading the emotions of their victims. One’s facial expression, how you hold or move your hands, and hundreds of other cues can help an energy vampire keep his investment in your energy strong. This is where learning to detach is beneficial. I will do a separate article on detaching in the future.

If you offer colder (and therefore less readable) response plus answer their questions with the shortest answer possible; you won’t open yourself up to as many of their energetic demands and will keep your energy for yourself.

Cut them out entirely

In many cases, we have the freedom to completely rid our lives of the energy vampire. This may sound dramatic, but some situations require more drastic measures. You must remember you’re protecting yourself in the end.

By recognizing such behaviors and trying to a stop to them, you’re protecting yourself, your health, and your overall well-being. No one deserves to be mistreated or used in a malicious way. It’s not your fault if you’ve been the victim of an energy vampire. We all have been or will be at some point in our lives. There are far too many negative attachments in this realm for an individual to avoid them entirely.

Some people refuse to accept responsibility for their own emotional maturity — and that isn’t your burden to bear. You only have to be responsible to and for yourself. Protection from energy harvesting is a good skill to have in your mental tool box.

[sweatygardencollectorblr]

Damien McFerran 23/01/2019 - 9:47am

Amazing specs for half the price of an iPhone

£499.00

While the battle began to banish bezels and create the ultimate big-screen smartphone has been rolling on for what seems like forever, we've yet to see a clear winner; sure, Apple's notch would appear to have emerged triumphant in the early rounds – based on the sheer volume of copycat devices that have launched since iPhone X arrived in 2017 – but the past 12 months has seen an impressive array of different solutions to this problem; we've had sliding camera modules, tiny top-and-bottom bezels and – more recently – 'hole punch' screens. The latter design has been hyped by more than one company, but it is Honor (also known as Huawei's budget brand) which has made it to western stores first.

Boasting Huawei's powerful new Kirin 980 processor and a staggering 48-megapixel Sony-made rear camera, the View 20 means business – but it's that eye-catching display which will arguably sell the phone. But does this breakthrough warrant a second glance, or is it just another screen gimmick, like the notch before it? Let's find out.

Honor View 20 Review; Design & Display

When it's switched off, the Honor View 20 looks like pretty much any other smartphone you could think of. It's got rounded, pebble-like edges, it has two cameras on the rear (along with a fingerprint scanner) and features metal and glossy, smudge-prone glass in its construction. Outside of the rather cool laser-etched 'V' pattern (Honor calls it 'Aurora Nanotexture') which is somehow baked into the glass back panel, there's nothing especially noteworthy about how the Honor View 20 looks. That's not to say it's unattractive – it's actually a very smart looking device – but at face value, you'd be pushed to tell it apart from the legions of other smartphones doing the rounds right now. That is, until you power up the screen.

The View 20 really does look stunning from the front. That 6.4-inch screen is remarkable; even when you take into account the potentially divisive hole punch and the tiny chin at the bottom, it's amazing to look at a display which appears to totally fill the phone's face. Over time, you quickly learn to mentally remove the hole punch, and it's striking how little impact it actually has over the UI experience; put it this way, if you lived with the notch then you're going to have zero issues here. It's definitely an improvement.

It's a shame that Honor couldn't have used an OLED screen, though – despite the general quality of the 1080 x 2310 pixel IPS LCD panel, there were times when we longed for the deep blacks, impressive viewing angles and punchy colours of an OLED display. Having said that, the View 20's screen is nonetheless impressive, and when placed alongside the iPhone XR's Liquid Retina LCD screen, it looked utterly fantastic in comparison. On the downside, our pre-production review unit had a small cluster of stuck pixels which were only noticeable when the screen was black. We've been assured by Honor that this is a problem that won't be present on the final production model.

Elsewhere, there's a USB-C port on the bottom, along with a powerful speaker. The View 20 lacks stereo sound which is a shame, but you're unlikely to miss a call or notification when the volume is set to maximum – this phone is seriously loud. The power and volume buttons are found on the right-hand edge of the phone, while the 3.5mm headphone jack is located on the top edge, accompanied by an IR blaster so you can use your View 20 as a remote control for other devices.

Another cool feature is the placement of the notification LED, which is found inside the tiny earpiece at the very top of the screen. It gently pulsates when you have an unread message, but is totally invisible when inactive.

It's worth noting that the View 20 carries no water or dust resistance rating, which may or may not be a big deal, depending on how often you accidentally drop your phone into bodies of water. Still, given that many other phones boast such ratings, it's worth mentioning. Honor includes a rather fetching silicone case in the box which fits snugly and – were it any other handset maker – would no doubt cost £30 separately. It covers up that lovely 'V' design on the back, but it provides a decent degree of protection.

Honor View 20 Review: Software

The View 20 is running Android 9 right out of the box, which is good news if you're sick of flagship phones rocking older variants of Google's OS. It sits beneath the Magic 2.0 UI skin, which looks and feels a lot like Huawei's EMUI – it even references Huawei in some of the app logos and legal messages which pop up the first time you open certain exclusive apps. This isn't an issue as such because EMUI is a fine Android skin, but it does make you wonder why Honor had to create a totally different name for it.

As well as featuring the usual suite of essential Google apps – like YouTube, Gmail, Drive, Google Photos and Google Maps – the View 20 also ships with several bespoke applications, such as its own music, video and app store. As ever, these apps needlessly duplicate functionality and are, by and large, a complete waste of time. Not only do you have to log into Huawei's own user account service to use many of them, some pre-installed apps cannot be disabled or uninstalled. While we understand that handset makers want to push you towards their own app stores in order to generate revenue, you almost always get a second-rate experience when compared to Google's own built-in Android services. Unless you're a seasoned Honor or Huawei fan, you're unlikely to bother.

That said, there are some nice touches on offer here. App Twin – the ability to have two different instances of the same application on the same device – isn't new, but it's handy if you need to keep different social media accounts separate. HiTouch is also quite cool – you hold down two fingers on an image and it will tell you where you can buy that item online – and Digital Balance is basically the View 20's version of Apple's screen time reports, so you can manage how much time you spend gawping at your phone's display. Oh, and Party Mode – which is also available on other Huawei devices – is present and correct, so if you want to hold an impromptu shindig by simultaneously sharing the same song with other people via their handsets, you can (although we're still not entirely sure why you'd want to).

Honor View 20 Review: Performance

Despite being a mid-range phone, the View 20 has the same Kirin 980 processor seen in Huawei's Mate 20 Pro, a phone which costs considerably more. Given that Huawei is keen to stress the 980's power when compared to Qualcomm's Snapdragon 845, it's obvious that we're dealing with cutting-edge silicon here; the first Kirin chipset to be manufactured using the 7nm process, the 980 is one of the most powerful chips on the market, and benchmarks prove that.

In Antutu Benchmark, the View 20 scores 277,827, which just beats the likes of the Google Pixel 3 (269,901) and Samsung Galaxy S9+ (266,871) but is behind the likes of the OnePlus 6T (295,942) and Xiaomi Mi 8 (291,329). In Geekbench 4, it ranks 3312 in the single-core test and 9745 in the multi-core test. Those ratings compare very favourably with many Android rivals which cost the same or more, which proves that the 980's power – although it goes without saying that the Snapdragon 855, due this year, will most likely smoke the competition.

Still, the 980 is inside the View 20, a phone which costs £500, and it delivers incredible performance when you consider it costs half the price of an iPhone XS. Navigating the UI is silky-smooth, and there's little in the way of delay when you move between open applications. 3D games – always a solid test of a phone's internals – run without issue; even intensive titles like Mortal Kombat X gave no cause for concern. However, the weaker GPU does mean that there's a slight performance drop when compared to the Snapdragon 845, although Huawei's GPU Turbo system – which enhances things but has to be patched into games by the developer – resolves this to a degree.

While in-screen fingerprint scanners are likely to be one of 2019's most talked-about features, the View 20 doesn't have one – which shouldn't be too surprising, given that it's a mid-range device. The rear-mounted scanner is fast and accurate though, even if it feels a little high and hard to reach at times. The View 20 also supports face unlock, although as far as we could tell, it's just using a 2D image of your face rather than a 3D map, like the iPhone X, XS and XR. That means it could potentially be fooled by a photo of your face so it's not as secure, but on the plus side, the phone was quick to recognise and unlock using this system – quicker than the iPhone XR, in fact. However, in low light situations it struggles and we had to rely on the fingerprint scanner instead.

Honor View 20 Review: Camera

The headline news with the View 20's camera is that it's brand-new Sony IMX586, which has a 48-megapixel sensor and an f1.8 aperture. There's a second sensor on the back, but it's not used for x2 optical zoom – instead, it's a 3D 'Time of Flight' sensor which, in theory, should allow for some seriously impressive photo effects, including good AR functions, such as making a 3D model of an object you've snapped. The trouble is, at the moment these features aren't good-to-go as the View 20 is not officially supported by Google's all-important ARCore app and the ToF lens is pretty much redundant – but it's there, and when Honor does eventually turn it on, it could provide something pretty special to the mix.

Back to the main Sony-made camera, then. With all those lovely pixels to make use of, detail is pretty striking and Honor's advanced 'AI Vision' software does a good job of making even the most casual of snaps seem like a masterpiece. There are some pretty deep 'pro' settings as well, which is good news for photography nerds. The f1.8 aperture is good enough for low-light shooting, but Honor also puts the 48-megapixel sensor to good use by employing a technique known as 'pixel-binning', where multiple pixels are combined to allow more light into the sensor. The View 20's night mode shows this off to good effect, capturing decent shots that require you to hold the camera steady during the snap. They're not in the same league as the low-light snaps seen on Google's Pixel 3, but they're still impressive.

What's rather less impressive is the way the phone's portrait mode works; it often blurs out the wrong part of the image, but this is something that – theoretically, at least – should improve once the power of that 3D ToF camera is fully harnessed. Honor's clumsy attempt at Animoji effects is also forgettable; the 3D faces lack the charm of those seen on Apple's phones, and because that 25-megapixel front-facing camera doesn't have 3D-mapping capabilities, animations look jerky and imprecise. The final disappointment is that the phone's cameras lack optical image stabilisation – something we'd expect to see on a flagship handset, but perhaps not one that costs £500.

For video, the View 20 can shoot 1080p at 60fps, or 4K video at 30fps. It also has slow-motion effects which are backed up by intelligent software which automatically decides when to shoot in slow-mo.

Honor View 20 Review: Battery Life & Storage

With a roomy 4000mAh battery, the View 20 has plenty of stamina. Even when we were putting it through its paces with web surfing, game playing and video recording, it always made it to the end of the day with plenty of juice left in the tank. Huawei’s SuperCharge Fast-charging system helps top the battery up swiftly, but there's sadly no wireless charging, despite that eye-catching glass back.

While the phone has space for two Nano SIM cards, there's sadly no room for a MicroSD card, so you'll need to choose wisely when it comes to picking your on-board storage. The base model has 128GB, but a 256GB version is also on offer.

Honor View 20 Review: Verdict

The View 20 doesn't get everything right – there's no wireless charging or water resistance, and the absence of an OLED panel might annoy some mobile purists – but for £500, it's something of a marvel. The hole-punch screen design might seem like a gimmick but once we grew accustomed to it, we had trouble going back to a device with a notch or pronounced bezels. The screen is something of a show-stopper then, but the camera setup is almost as impressive, and if Honor can do some meaningful stuff with that 3D ToF camera, then this could shape up to be pretty special as far as image capture is concerned. Add in a powerful chipset and likeable software, and you've got an early contender for 2019's best mid-price handset. We're sure that the View 20 will have plenty of competition over the next 12 months, but for now, this is arguably the best way to spend £500 in the Android sector – yes, even better than the OnePlus 6T.

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Vivo X21 review: Fast and fun, but not without compromises You’re reading a Vivo X21 review, so you’ve hopefully heard of the Chinese brand before. But mention Vivo to a random person on the street, and you’ll probably only get a blank stare. That’s a shame, because the X21 proved to me that Vivo can some make pretty solid devices. The Vivo X21 is not just a good phone, it’s innovative, thanks to its under-glass fingerprint sensor. The Snapdragon 660 processor technically makes it a mid-ranger, but don’t let that fool you. This phone feels like a flagship in many ways. Read: Vivo V9 review: An iPhone X clone with AI selfies Sure, there are compromises. You don’t have to be a stock Android purist to dislike Funtouch OS’ shameless copying of iOS. The use of a microUSB port feels old school, and not in a good way. There’s also a notch. The X21 is not exactly cheap, either. Is the X21 worth your money? Find out in our Vivo X21 review. About this Vivo X21 review I spent about ten days with a Vivo X21 UD review unit (model number “vivo 1725”) for this review. The phone runs the latest publicly available version of Funtouch OS 4, build PD1728F_EX_A_1.6.18, based on Android 8.1, running the March security patches. I used the phone mostly over my home office Wi-Fi, but also on Orange Romania’s 4G network. The Vivo X21 UD is the top of the line variant, featuring an under-display fingerprint sensor and 128GB of storage. Vivo also sells cheaper Vivo X21 variants with rear-mounted scanners and either 64GB or 128GB of storage space. For simplicity, throughout this review we’ll refer to the phone as Vivo X21. What’s in the box Before we begin our Vivo X21 review, let’s take a look at the contents of the retail box. The Vivo X21 comes in a simple blue box featuring the FIFA World Cup logo, of which Vivo is the official smartphone provider. (Don’t confuse the regular Vivo X21 UD with the special World Cup Edition, which comes in blue or red and features a snazzy soccer-inspired pattern on the back.) In the box, you’ll get a basic clear Vivo X21 case, a 2A charger and USB cable, and a pair of earbuds. The earbuds are tiny and very light, but they actually sound decent. Vivo X21 build and design The Vivo X21 doesn’t look particularly striking, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Not everyone wants a flashy color-shifting phone. If you don’t like to stand out or you don’t care about design that much, the understated Vivo X21 will be perfect for you. Don’t get me wrong, the black X21 review unit I tested is quite sleek. It features an all-black aluminum frame and a glass back with tapered edges, which make it very comfortable to hold. It’s about 7.5 millimeters at its thickest point, but it’s surprisingly easy to handle, especially considering the 6.28-inch screen. The tall 19:9 aspect ratio helps a lot, and it also gives the front of the phone that modern bezel-less look everyone craves these days. The Vivo X21 doesn’t feel as premium as the Galaxy S9 or the Huawei P20 Pro. It doesn’t have the same solidity and the glass back feels a bit cheaper and more like plastic. On the flip side, it’s also less slippery and less fingerprint-prone. I could almost see myself using it without a case. Almost. With the fingerprint sensor hidden under the screen, the back of the X21 looks very clean. Fans of minimalism will enjoy the Vivo X21. With the fingerprint sensor hidden under the screen, the back of the phone is very clean. Even the dual cameras are discreet, though Vivo couldn’t resist adding a superfluous “Designed by Vivo” inscription at the bottom. The display The Vivo X21’s display is beautiful. It’s only Full HD (Plus, to be pedantic), but I wasn’t bothered by the lower pixel density at all. Only when placed side by side with the Galaxy S9 could I see a difference in image quality, especially around text elements. Maybe someone with better eyesight will disagree, but Full HD is good enough for me. The screen is an OLED panel with the characteristic vibrant color palette and inky blacks. The icons just pop, especially when you use a nice dark background. The Vivo X21 gets very bright. My regular phone is a Google Pixel 2, which really struggles in broad daylight, especially when displaying darker images or UIs. In contrast (pun intended), I could use Reddit Sync’s or Twitter’s dark UIs without straining my eyes on the X21. I don’t have data to back it up, but the Vivo X21 looks even brighter than the Galaxy S9 Plus. The notch breaks the all-screen illusion, though at least it’s fairly small. Too many pixels have been wasted debating the notch, so I won’t add much other than to say that it was not the eyesore I expected. It often disappeared into the black border around it. But even when it didn’t, I hardly noticed it. The notch was not the eyesore I expected. The only issue is that it steals real estate from the status bar, which makes it much less useful (More on that in a bit). Unfortunately for all of you notch-haters out there, the X21 lacks the option to hide the notch by forcing a black status bar, like the Huawei P20 or OnePlus 6. The Vivo X21 features an always-on display that looks pretty similar to Samsung’s implementation. It even offers a Side Clock version, though the X21 doesn’t have the curved edges of Samsung’s flagships. You can customize the color and background of the always-on clock, but you can only opt to see notifications for missed calls and messages, not emails, or other types of notifications, which is a shame. Whether you enable the always-on display or not, the Vivo X21 always shows a fingerprint icon when the screen is turned off. This is so you know where the embedded sensor is. The icon also pops up when you need to authenticate in LastPass or other apps that use the fingerprint scanner. LastPass vs 1Password vs Enpass: Which of these password managers is the best? I am curious to see how the Vivo X21 fares after a while, because that always-on fingerprint icon could cause burn-in. I haven’t noticed any issues so far, but it’s something to keep an eye on. The fingerprint scanner The Vivo X21 is the first commercial smartphone with a fingerprint sensor underneath the screen. It doesn’t sound like a big deal — none of my non-techie friends seemed impressed with it — but it is. Phone makers and component suppliers have been working on the technology for years. Now Vivo and Synaptics have finally cracked the problem. Even better, Vivo beat the big boys to the punch. Samsung and Apple have yet to release phones with under-display fingerprint scanners, and Huawei only did it on the prohibitively expensive Mate RS, announced shortly after the Vivo X21. Put simply, Vivo glued a thumbnail-sized sensor on the back of the X21’s OLED display. The light from the OLED display reflects on the minute ridges and valleys of your fingerprint and reaches the sensor through the tiny gaps between the display’s pixels. The Vivo X21’s under-display fingerprint sensor works great — most of the time. Just touch it like a regular fingerprint sensor and the phone unlocks itself in a split second. It’s only marginally slower than a conventional scanner. You don’t even need to press harder than usual, though it helps if you place your whole finger print on the screen, not just the tip. The Vivo X21’s under-display fingerprint sensor works great — most of the time. That said, this is clearly first-gen technology. It doesn’t always work the first try and occasionally it requires multiple presses to register and unlock. A couple of times, the phone even asked me to enter my PIN, after multiple failed attempts to use the registered fingerprint. It’s also inconsistent. Sometimes the X21 unlocks super fast. Other times you need to press and hold for more than a second. Vivo will no doubt solve these teething pains within a couple of years. But right now, embedded fingerprint technology is not as reliable as conventional sensors. If you buy the Vivo X21, have a little patience. You can also sidestep the issues by enabling the infrared-based facial recognition, which is fast and accurate. Bonus fact: In direct sunlight, you can actually see the fingerprint sensor beneath the screen. It’s not distracting, but it’s there and it looks a bit like light-bleed. This only happens in very bright conditions, as I never noticed it indoors. Vivo X21 hardware and performance The Vivo X21 is powered by the Snapdragon 660, Qualcomm’s 2017 chip for upper mid-range phones. Despite the mid-range chip, I didn’t notice any performance issues on the X21. The phone felt just as fast as my daily driver, the Pixel 2, which is powered by the Snapdragon 835. One possible explanation for this smooth performance is the Vivo X21’s 6GB of RAM. That’s 2GB more than the Pixel 2, Galaxy S9, and other recent flagships. Thanks to the generous RAM, I was able to multi-task between a couple of games, Slack, Google Chrome, and the camera app without a snag. Despite the mid-range chip, I didn’t notice any performance issues on the X21. It felt just as fast as my daily driver, the Pixel 2. Another pleasant surprise was the 128GB of storage space (expandable). Leaving well over 100GB free for user media, it’s another area where the nominally mid-range Vivo X21 trumps many flagships out there. The 3,200mAh battery on the Vivo X21 easily lasted me more than a day with my regular medium-to-light usage. I can’t give you screen-on time stats, because Vivo doesn’t provide them in the settings. Judging from the battery capacity and my experience with phones with larger batteries like Huawei’s Mate series, the Vivo X21 won’t get you through two days of medium usage. If you’re happy to charge your phone every night, the X21 will do just fine. Read: Here are the handsets with the best smartphone speakers Vivo’s tagline is “Camera & Music,” so audio should be a big deal on the X21. There’s a “Hi-Fi” DAC on board. To my non-audiophile ears, headphone sound quality was just about the same as the Pixel 2. The single bottom-firing speaker gets pretty loud, but it’s not as clear and detailed as on other phones. Plus, it’s pretty easy to muffle it with the palm of your hand. You get an audio jack, up top. Vivo would have been crazy not to include one, as the X21 features a microUSB port, instead of USB Type-C. There’s nothing inherently wrong with microUSB, but it feels out of place on a 2018 high-end-ish phone. The infrared facial recognition function was a pleasant surprise. I was expecting a laggy camera-based Face ID knockoff, but it’s actually very fast and seamless – just wake up the phone and it unlocks. It’s usually faster than using the fingerprint sensor and it works in various lighting conditions, from broad daylight to a dark cinema. It’s not completely reliable though: sometimes you need to move the phone around to get it to unlock, and sunglasses tend to throw it off. Vivo X21 review – Full specs Vivo X21 UD Display 6-28-inch AMOLED 1080 x 2280, 402 ppi, 19:9 SoC Qualcomm Snapdragon 660, octa-core GPU Adreno 512 RAM 6GB Storage 128GB 64/128GB for non-UD version expandable via microSD Cameras Rear: 12 MP f/1.8, 1.4µm, Phase Detection Autofocus + 5 MP f/2.4 Front: 12MP, f/2.0 Audio 32-bit/192kHz audio, 3.5mm audio jack Battery 3,200 mAh, fast charging IP rating None Sensors Fingerprint (under display), accelerometer, proximity, compass Network GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 CDMA 800 & TD-SCDMA HSDPA 850 / 900 / 1900 / 2100 LTE band 1(2100), 2(1900), 3(1800), 5(850), 8(900), 34(2000), 38(2600), 39(1900), 40(2300), 41(2500) Connectivity Wi-Fi 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac, dual-band, WiFi Direct, hotspot Bluetooth 5.0 A-GPS FM radio microUSB 2.0 SIM Dual SIM/hybrid slot Software Android 8.1 Funtouch OS 4 Dimensions and weight 154.5 x 74.8 x 7.4 mm 156.2 g Colors Black, Ruby Red Aurora White (non UD model only) The camera The Vivo X21 comes with a 12MP f/1.8 main camera with phase detection autofocus, assisted by a 5MP f/2.4 secondary camera. The front camera is also 12MP, but with an f/2.0 lens. If you’ve played with a recent iPhone (or an Android-powered clone), the camera app on the Vivo X21 will look very familiar. The general interface is the same and the iPhone inspiration is visible throughout. However, Vivo’s camera app isn’t as polished as it could be. For example, the AR stickers are displayed around the shutter button, which makes it hard to tell what’s going on. The obligatory beauty mode is present and accounted for. Take a selfie or a portrait and you can pick from six degrees of skin-smoothing and wrinkle-removing. Other noteworthy features are the Live Photos (with sound) and the AR stickers. Because who doesn’t like virtual bunny ears? The Vivo X21’s dual camera setup can take some decent portrait shots. The bokeh effect isn’t very realistic, but it’s pleasant enough, and separation between the subject and the background is usually on point. Portrait mode is made for…portraits, but I was able get some nice shots of other things as well. It’s nice you can select the amount of bokeh you want to add to your pics, though I found the swipe-based interface hard to use. General image quality is solid in good lighting, though pictures taken with the Vivo X21 are rarely great. (I may be spoiled by the excellent camera of the Pixel 2.) When lighting diminishes, pictures become too dark and grainy for my taste. Despite the phase detection autofocus, a moving subject (or slight camera shakes) often resulted in unusable shots. Even outside, many shots turned out worse than I had anticipated. Vivo X21 review – samples gallery I don’t take a lot of selfies, but the 12MP front camera got the job done most of the times. It also supports portrait mode, though it’s entirely software-based. That means you can’t select the bokeh level like you can on the rear cameras and the bokeh effect is less impressive. A couple of times, the camera turned out weirdly over-sharpened selfies. General image quality is solid in good lighting, though pictures taken with the Vivo X21 are rarely great. To wrap up, the Vivo X21’s cameras will give you all the basics and a couple of fun extras, but you shouldn’t expect anything spectacular. The software I really like the Vivo X21’s hardware. But the software is a bit of a letdown. Vivo copied tons of details from iOS, from the general appearance of the icons, to the way the launcher lacks an app drawer, and the quick settings menu at the bottom of the screen. I don’t care much that Vivo copied Apple. It doesn’t matter who came up with an idea or design, as long as it works well. But here’s the thing – some of the iOS-inspired features in Funtouch OS are objectively worse than what you get in stock Android, Samsung TouchWiz, or HTC Sense. My biggest gripe with Funtouch OS on the Vivo X21 is the quick settings interface. On every Android phone I’ve ever used, the quick settings were part of the notification drawer, accessible with a swipe from the top. On the X21, you need to swipe up from the bottom of the screen to get to the quick settings. If you’re coming from an iPhone, it might make sense. I struggled to get used to it. The swipe-up gesture didn’t work very consistently either — I often had to swipe up twice or more to open the settings. And I doubt I was swiping it wrong! I really like the Vivo X21’s hardware. Sadly, the software is a bit of a letdown. The X21 gives you the option to switch to an all-gestures interface, instead of the familiar Android navigation buttons. In this gesture mode, the bottom of the screen is divided into three areas: swipe up on the right side to open the control center; swipe up on the center to go back to the home screen; swipe up on the left side to go back one screen. Side swiping the central area of the screen lets you scroll through the active apps. While I could probably get used to this feature, the classic buttons just work better. The status bar is a bit of a mess — the notch takes up a lot of it, and the remaining space is not used very well. On the left, the clock and the network signal indicator take up most of the real estate, meaning you usually only see one notification icon. Inexplicably, Vivo replaced the default icons with its own, though it’s possible to revert to the normal ones if you dig deep into the settings. The notification drawer feels half-baked as well. The UI is overly simplistic, some elements are misaligned, and the functionality is a little inconsistent. Some ongoing notifications — like the weather notification from the Google app — are not expanded by default, requiring you to tap on them to see them. Other notifications do nothing, they just take up space without offering any information. It’s not a good experience. The launcher is rather basic, and it lacks an app drawer, which forces you to use folders if you want to keep your stuff in order. There are no app shortcuts or many other creature comforts. At least you can install Nova to fix it if you don’t like it. I did enjoy the ability to search on device and on the web with a quick swipe down on the screen — it was fast and convenient. Besides the major stuff I mentioned, I spotted other small usability issues on my Vivo X21 review unit. You can’t change screen brightness by tapping on the scroll bar, like you can on most other phones; instead, you need to tap and drag the knob. The styling of section names makes some settings menus confusing. Even if you set another keyboard as default, the phone sometimes switches to the pre-loaded one, usually when you type in passwords. These are all minor issues, but they add up. I will give credit to Vivo for packing Funtouch with features and customization options, but it still needs a lot of refining. The devil is always in the details, and that’s where Funtouch falls short. On the bright side, the Vivo X21 is part of a select group of devices that have access to the recently launched Android P beta. Vivo isn’t known for its updates focus, so it was definitely a surprise to see the X21 on the list. Let’s hope the closer collaboration with Google will result in a stronger focus on software in the future. We will update this Vivo X21 review once we take Android P for a spin in the coming days. The devil is always in the details, and that’s where Funtouch falls short. The competition The Vivo X21 is a solid device with great hardware and a few cool tricks up its sleeve. But the smartphone market is jam-packed, so what are some Vivo X21 alternatives you should know about? We don’t know the international price of the Vivo X21 yet, but in China, the 64GB of storage of the phone costs 2,898 yuan (~ $455), the 128GB version costs 3,198 yuan (~ $500), and the Vivo X21 UD version with 128GB of storage and an under-display fingerprint reader costs 3,598 yuan (~$565). International prices of the Vivo X21 will probably be higher than in China, so here are a few other devices you could check out: OnePlus 6 (8GB RAM and 128GB storage) for $580. The OnePlus 6 offers more RAM and a stronger, more future-proof processor. The software is more refined and you get fast and frequent updates. Honor 10 (6GB RAM and 128GB storage) for $470. Similar memory and storage, but the processor is stronger. The Honor 10 features more powerful cameras, front and back. On the downside, the display is smaller and just an LCD. Nokia 7 Plus (4GB RAM and 64GB storage) for $470. Similar processor, but less memory and an LCD screen. Fast updates and a clean UI go a long way. Vivo V9 (4GB RAM/64GB storage) for $350. Vivo’s own V9 looks almost identical to the Vivo X21, but comes with generally lower specs and an LCD screen. No snazzy fingerprint scanner either, but much cheaper. We’ll update our Vivo X21 review once the phone’s price is announced in more markets. Final thoughts The Vivo X21 is a fun device that gets a lot of things right. The display is a joy to look at, performance is solid, and the fingerprint sensor and facial recognition work well. It looks great, and most of the times it works just as well. It’s let down by the software, which lacks polish and attention to detail, and comes with several UI elements that just don’t make sense. The Vivo X21 is a fun device that gets a lot of things right. We don’t know yet the international prices of the Vivo X21, but the phone is likely to be on the expensive side. If that’s the case, “fun” might not be enough to justify paying $100 or even $200 more compared to some of the phones we mentioned above. And cool as it may be, the under-glass fingerprint sensor isn’t worth paying a big premium for. Further reading Done with our Vivo X21 review? Here are some of our other great content you should check out: Check out our pics for best affordable Android phones and best high-end Android phones OnePlus 6 vs Honor 10 vs competition Flagship? Mid-range? Budget? Find the best phone for you Vivo APEX hands-on: The next step in the evolution of fingerprint sensors There you have it for our Vivo X21 review. Let us know your thoughts in the comments! , via Android Authority http://bit.ly/2Jb6Y3P

[bananadata]

Top data links this week: GDPR party, airbnb image recognition and royal wedding AI

In case you hadn't noticed, the GDPR is upon us. Emailers and data processors everywhere are freaking out. Companies like Touch, or Dataiku for that matter, have been prepping for this for months to ensure they don't make it to the GDPR Half of Shame. And most of them are not ready. But the question remains, why is everyone going insane and sending out shovels of privacy policy emails, or even resubscribe emails? Especially since according to experts, most of these emails are actually unnecessary, and some even illegal. Of course, that doesn't mean you shouldn't read them though and take this opportunity to clean up your inbox! Our biggest concern of course: what impact will GDPR (and the so-called right to an explanation) have on machine learning?

Top 6 data links below 👇

- Image Deep Learning Categorizing Listing Photos at Airbnb

- Crazy ML When algorithms surprise us

- NSFW Sex Toys and Artificial Intelligence — The Past, Present, and the Future

- Dataviz of the week: Average age and tenure of Congress and Senate Members

- Royal Wedding Sky uses machine learning to spot celebrities at the Royal Wedding

- Video of the week: Ramen generated using the same neural network framework that generated new celebrity faces

Here are some non-GDPR related articles for you to read. - Imaginary Soundscape "Take a walk in the soundscapes imagined by AI" - Machine learning is helping computers spot arguments online before they happen by The Verge "The software was preprogrammed to look for certain features that past research has shown correlates with a conversational mood. For example, signs that a discussion will go well include gratitude ("Thanks for your help"), greetings ("How’s your day going?"), hedges ("I think that"), and, of course, the liberal use of the word "please."" - The US military is funding an effort to catch deepfakes and other AI trickery by MIT Tech Review "This summer, under a project funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the world’s leading digital forensics experts will gather for an AI fakery contest." - Why is machine learning 'hard'? by Stanford.edu "What is unique about machine learning is that it is ‘exponentially’ harder to figure out what is wrong when things don’t work as expected." - 3D Face Reconstruction with Position Map Regression Networks by Heartbeat "Position Map Regression Networks (PRN) is a method to jointly regress dense alignment and 3D face shape in an end-to-end manner." - Human in the loop: Machine learning and AI for the people by ZDNet "HITL combines two common ML variants, supervised and unsupervised learning." - [Video] Microsoft demonstrates its own chat bot that can call users.by Tom Warren - [Paper] Self-Attention Generative Adversarial Networks

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Damien McFerran 23/01/2019 - 9:47am

Amazing specs for half the price of an iPhone

£499.00

While the battle began to banish bezels and create the ultimate big-screen smartphone has been rolling on for what seems like forever, we've yet to see a clear winner; sure, Apple's notch would appear to have emerged triumphant in the early rounds – based on the sheer volume of copycat devices that have launched since iPhone X arrived in 2017 – but the past 12 months has seen an impressive array of different solutions to this problem; we've had sliding camera modules, tiny top-and-bottom bezels and – more recently – 'hole punch' screens. The latter design has been hyped by more than one company, but it is Honor (also known as Huawei's budget brand) which has made it to western stores first.

Boasting Huawei's powerful new Kirin 980 processor and a staggering 48-megapixel Sony-made rear camera, the View 20 means business – but it's that eye-catching display which will arguably sell the phone. But does this breakthrough warrant a second glance, or is it just another screen gimmick, like the notch before it? Let's find out.

Honor View 20 Review; Design & Display

When it's switched off, the Honor View 20 looks like pretty much any other smartphone you could think of. It's got rounded, pebble-like edges, it has two cameras on the rear (along with a fingerprint scanner) and features metal and glossy, smudge-prone glass in its construction. Outside of the rather cool laser-etched 'V' pattern (Honor calls it 'Aurora Nanotexture') which is somehow baked into the glass back panel, there's nothing especially noteworthy about how the Honor View 20 looks. That's not to say it's unattractive – it's actually a very smart looking device – but at face value, you'd be pushed to tell it apart from the legions of other smartphones doing the rounds right now. That is, until you power up the screen.

The View 20 really does look stunning from the front. That 6.4-inch screen is remarkable; even when you take into account the potentially divisive hole punch and the tiny chin at the bottom, it's amazing to look at a display which appears to totally fill the phone's face. Over time, you quickly learn to mentally remove the hole punch, and it's striking how little impact it actually has over the UI experience; put it this way, if you lived with the notch then you're going to have zero issues here. It's definitely an improvement.

It's a shame that Honor couldn't have used an OLED screen, though – despite the general quality of the 1080 x 2310 pixel IPS LCD panel, there were times when we longed for the deep blacks, impressive viewing angles and punchy colours of an OLED display. Having said that, the View 20's screen is nonetheless impressive, and when placed alongside the iPhone XR's Liquid Retina LCD screen, it looked utterly fantastic in comparison. On the downside, our pre-production review unit had a small cluster of stuck pixels which were only noticeable when the screen was black. We've been assured by Honor that this is a problem that won't be present on the final production model.

Elsewhere, there's a USB-C port on the bottom, along with a powerful speaker. The View 20 lacks stereo sound which is a shame, but you're unlikely to miss a call or notification when the volume is set to maximum – this phone is seriously loud. The power and volume buttons are found on the right-hand edge of the phone, while the 3.5mm headphone jack is located on the top edge, accompanied by an IR blaster so you can use your View 20 as a remote control for other devices.

Another cool feature is the placement of the notification LED, which is found inside the tiny earpiece at the very top of the screen. It gently pulsates when you have an unread message, but is totally invisible when inactive.

It's worth noting that the View 20 carries no water or dust resistance rating, which may or may not be a big deal, depending on how often you accidentally drop your phone into bodies of water. Still, given that many other phones boast such ratings, it's worth mentioning. Honor includes a rather fetching silicone case in the box which fits snugly and – were it any other handset maker – would no doubt cost £30 separately. It covers up that lovely 'V' design on the back, but it provides a decent degree of protection.

Honor View 20 Review: Software

The View 20 is running Android 9 right out of the box, which is good news if you're sick of flagship phones rocking older variants of Google's OS. It sits beneath the Magic 2.0 UI skin, which looks and feels a lot like Huawei's EMUI – it even references Huawei in some of the app logos and legal messages which pop up the first time you open certain exclusive apps. This isn't an issue as such because EMUI is a fine Android skin, but it does make you wonder why Honor had to create a totally different name for it.

As well as featuring the usual suite of essential Google apps – like YouTube, Gmail, Drive, Google Photos and Google Maps – the View 20 also ships with several bespoke applications, such as its own music, video and app store. As ever, these apps needlessly duplicate functionality and are, by and large, a complete waste of time. Not only do you have to log into Huawei's own user account service to use many of them, some pre-installed apps cannot be disabled or uninstalled. While we understand that handset makers want to push you towards their own app stores in order to generate revenue, you almost always get a second-rate experience when compared to Google's own built-in Android services. Unless you're a seasoned Honor or Huawei fan, you're unlikely to bother.

That said, there are some nice touches on offer here. App Twin – the ability to have two different instances of the same application on the same device – isn't new, but it's handy if you need to keep different social media accounts separate. HiTouch is also quite cool – you hold down two fingers on an image and it will tell you where you can buy that item online – and Digital Balance is basically the View 20's version of Apple's screen time reports, so you can manage how much time you spend gawping at your phone's display. Oh, and Party Mode – which is also available on other Huawei devices – is present and correct, so if you want to hold an impromptu shindig by simultaneously sharing the same song with other people via their handsets, you can (although we're still not entirely sure why you'd want to).

Honor View 20 Review: Performance

Despite being a mid-range phone, the View 20 has the same Kirin 980 processor seen in Huawei's Mate 20 Pro, a phone which costs considerably more. Given that Huawei is keen to stress the 980's power when compared to Qualcomm's Snapdragon 845, it's obvious that we're dealing with cutting-edge silicon here; the first Kirin chipset to be manufactured using the 7nm process, the 980 is one of the most powerful chips on the market, and benchmarks prove that.

In Antutu Benchmark, the View 20 scores 277,827, which just beats the likes of the Google Pixel 3 (269,901) and Samsung Galaxy S9+ (266,871) but is behind the likes of the OnePlus 6T (295,942) and Xiaomi Mi 8 (291,329). In Geekbench 4, it ranks 3312 in the single-core test and 9745 in the multi-core test. Those ratings compare very favourably with many Android rivals which cost the same or more, which proves that the 980's power – although it goes without saying that the Snapdragon 855, due this year, will most likely smoke the competition.

Still, the 980 is inside the View 20, a phone which costs £500, and it delivers incredible performance when you consider it costs half the price of an iPhone XS. Navigating the UI is silky-smooth, and there's little in the way of delay when you move between open applications. 3D games – always a solid test of a phone's internals – run without issue; even intensive titles like Mortal Kombat X gave no cause for concern. However, the weaker GPU does mean that there's a slight performance drop when compared to the Snapdragon 845, although Huawei's GPU Turbo system – which enhances things but has to be patched into games by the developer – resolves this to a degree.

While in-screen fingerprint scanners are likely to be one of 2019's most talked-about features, the View 20 doesn't have one – which shouldn't be too surprising, given that it's a mid-range device. The rear-mounted scanner is fast and accurate though, even if it feels a little high and hard to reach at times. The View 20 also supports face unlock, although as far as we could tell, it's just using a 2D image of your face rather than a 3D map, like the iPhone X, XS and XR. That means it could potentially be fooled by a photo of your face so it's not as secure, but on the plus side, the phone was quick to recognise and unlock using this system – quicker than the iPhone XR, in fact. However, in low light situations it struggles and we had to rely on the fingerprint scanner instead.

Honor View 20 Review: Camera

The headline news with the View 20's camera is that it's brand-new Sony IMX586, which has a 48-megapixel sensor and an f1.8 aperture. There's a second sensor on the back, but it's not used for x2 optical zoom – instead, it's a 3D 'Time of Flight' sensor which, in theory, should allow for some seriously impressive photo effects, including good AR functions, such as making a 3D model of an object you've snapped. The trouble is, at the moment these features aren't good-to-go as the View 20 is not officially supported by Google's all-important ARCore app and the ToF lens is pretty much redundant – but it's there, and when Honor does eventually turn it on, it could provide something pretty special to the mix.

Back to the main Sony-made camera, then. With all those lovely pixels to make use of, detail is pretty striking and Honor's advanced 'AI Vision' software does a good job of making even the most casual of snaps seem like a masterpiece. There are some pretty deep 'pro' settings as well, which is good news for photography nerds. The f1.8 aperture is good enough for low-light shooting, but Honor also puts the 48-megapixel sensor to good use by employing a technique known as 'pixel-binning', where multiple pixels are combined to allow more light into the sensor. The View 20's night mode shows this off to good effect, capturing decent shots that require you to hold the camera steady during the snap. They're not in the same league as the low-light snaps seen on Google's Pixel 3, but they're still impressive.

What's rather less impressive is the way the phone's portrait mode works; it often blurs out the wrong part of the image, but this is something that – theoretically, at least – should improve once the power of that 3D ToF camera is fully harnessed. Honor's clumsy attempt at Animoji effects is also forgettable; the 3D faces lack the charm of those seen on Apple's phones, and because that 25-megapixel front-facing camera doesn't have 3D-mapping capabilities, animations look jerky and imprecise. The final disappointment is that the phone's cameras lack optical image stabilisation – something we'd expect to see on a flagship handset, but perhaps not one that costs £500.

For video, the View 20 can shoot 1080p at 60fps, or 4K video at 30fps. It also has slow-motion effects which are backed up by intelligent software which automatically decides when to shoot in slow-mo.

Honor View 20 Review: Battery Life & Storage

With a roomy 4000mAh battery, the View 20 has plenty of stamina. Even when we were putting it through its paces with web surfing, game playing and video recording, it always made it to the end of the day with plenty of juice left in the tank. Huawei’s SuperCharge Fast-charging system helps top the battery up swiftly, but there's sadly no wireless charging, despite that eye-catching glass back.

While the phone has space for two Nano SIM cards, there's sadly no room for a MicroSD card, so you'll need to choose wisely when it comes to picking your on-board storage. The base model has 128GB, but a 256GB version is also on offer.

Honor View 20 Review: Verdict

The View 20 doesn't get everything right – there's no wireless charging or water resistance, and the absence of an OLED panel might annoy some mobile purists – but for £500, it's something of a marvel. The hole-punch screen design might seem like a gimmick but once we grew accustomed to it, we had trouble going back to a device with a notch or pronounced bezels. The screen is something of a show-stopper then, but the camera setup is almost as impressive, and if Honor can do some meaningful stuff with that 3D ToF camera, then this could shape up to be pretty special as far as image capture is concerned. Add in a powerful chipset and likeable software, and you've got an early contender for 2019's best mid-price handset. We're sure that the View 20 will have plenty of competition over the next 12 months, but for now, this is arguably the best way to spend £500 in the Android sector – yes, even better than the OnePlus 6T.

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