by Bret

Our Daily Beard – 21/02/13

Well, well, the PS4.

The fact that I’ve left it until this time of night displays my lack of enthusiasm!

So, what will it do? SUMMARIS’D!

 

• Single APU chip with an ‘enhanced PC GPU’ and 8-core(mmm) CPU, 32 bit for some reason. As usual it’s vague info for a console but it’s certainly in the next-gen range.
• 8GB of GDDR5 RAM, which sounds low- it’s unclear if that’s just the video card, or for everything. Mind you, consoles don’t have to multitask much so the speed factor (GDDR5) is the main boon. Local hard drive size is unknown as yet.
• Blu-ray obviously and USB 3.0 (2.0 would just be too embarrassing in 2013).
• Funky Dual Shock 4 control pad still very much in their established style. The addition of a touchpad could be very handy especially for menu navigation.
• 3D Stereo Camera That Isn’t A Kinect At All Honest. Actually, this will be able to track the controller by a ‘light bar’ on the pad. That sounds great, so (pending a future update about what new things they plan to do with them) you can hopefully chuck away your weird Playstation Move dick-wands.
• Fancy social interface with clip recording and live game feed sharing– because these days gamers have friends. I don’t approve.
• An interesting cloud gaming reinforcement to the Network, with demo games and so on.
• Suspend and resume power buttons for when you’re miles away from a save point but have to go to work or go to bed or mop up your urine. Background downloading is part of this- yay, instant ways to spend, spend, spend!
• The PS4 will learn your likes and dislikes and pre-download things it thinks you’ll like. Yay, a ‘service’ (that isn’t big brother market research at all), that makes it so much easier to spend, spend, spend!
• More interestingly, potential for shared functionality between the PS4, tablets, phones and the Vita. Who needs the Wii U?
• Oh yeah, no backwards compatibility. Fail. Maybe there will be some ports to the Network, if you fancy buying your games again.

 

So far, only a few games have been revealed. The flagship must be Killzone, of course. In further summary:

It’s a snazzy looking console (figuratively, no shots yet!). However, there is a very thin line between finding innovative ways to play (camera tracking a-la Kinect, handheld/console hybrid games) and gimmicks that clutter your life with shiny black toys.

 

Not-A-Surprise-At-All-Verdict: Wait and see.

 
[sociable]

The Saga of Sweetangel – Part 6

Hey Ya!

More of the same!

Excuse me- enjoying my day off 🙂

 

She aimed the gun at Poulter’s chest,

“Now I gone and said something I shouldn’t,”

“How much coin to make you go away?”

“We’ve been hired to find the lost girl,”

“And cannot end our contract,” said Poulter,

“Not until you confess your foul play.”

 

Mrs Pearl made no more protest,

Instead she fired her pistol at Poulter,

With a bright blue spark from the lodeshell.

The round bullet flew straight and true,

Hitting the detective square in the heart,

And so that was how old Poulter fell.

 

Longthorn was made for such moments,

Without hesitation he charged at her,

Even as she swapped pistol for blade.

He launched a fist at her fair face,

Too fast for her to stop him with her knife,

And she knew that she aught be afraid.

 

He hit her once and then once more,

He twisted the knife from her grip with ease,

Then Longthorn threw the proud woman down.

But she had one more gun hidden,

A lady’s blunderkiss in her apron,

Which she drew with a snarl and a frown.

 
[sociable]

Our Daily Beard – 19/02/13

Salebriations mortals!

Well, what happened today?

My inbox tells me that some kind of game called ‘Halo 4’ has been updated with new content.

In my day, the only halos we had were behind the heads of religious luminaries, and they certainly didn’t have four of them, no sir!

Oh, that’s torn it. I’m going to have to ‘do’ this post as a crazy old timer.

 

The Halo 4 Majestic Map Pack (majestic? Ha! Only HRH is majestic in my book) is due on the 25^th Feb.

It contains some things:

Three new battlegrounds for tight close quarter combat! (Reminds me of my all-boys school).

Two new playlists (I do love a good list).

A new free-for-all game type, “Infinity Rumble” (Numbers didn’t go up to infinity in my day!)

 

Right, these map things.

First one is called ‘Landfall’. I think that’s similar to landfill. This map will be about infantry battles, ‘admist’ a glittering ocean and a city under siege. Where exactly? On a distant world, apparently. That’s okay then. It says ‘The world of Tribute is now a graveyard, but its capital was once a bright beacon of commerce among the inner colonies.’ Well, colonies, now you’re talking. The empire was great once! God Save the Queen! They don’t like it up them.

 

The next is called Monolith. It features an open battlefield and a ‘Forerunner’ monument that exposes you to the vacuum of space. Well, someone has to do the housework, even in space. It says ‘This small map has central man-cannons, short corridors, almost no cover, and open sightlines which make the location great for a mixture of close and mid-range battle’. Well, I don’t know what a man-cannon is, but I don’t approve. You’ll go blind you know!

 

Then there’s ‘Skyline’ which is in the air on a construction site. I don’t know about that, doesn’t sound very safe. Wear a hard hat, chaps. Hang on, this says… ‘This map, perched high above the sights of reconstruction in Cascade’s capital city, is small and symmetrical, perfect for Regicide with a mixture of high and low spaces and plenty of cover.’ Well hold on a minute! Regicide?! I won’t stand for it! The dastards are after Her Majesty! Hold on, Lizzie, I’m coming!

 

Ahem, yes, false alarm, sorry chaps. You can have a sneak preview on Halo Waypoint, but honestly, why don’t you kids have any patience these days?

This map pack costs 800 Microsoft Points. I think that means you have to get it online. I don’t trust computers. What’s wrong with using the post office?

 
[sociable]