I've been a gamer since a young age, my first experiences were with my old Atari 2600. Nowadays I'm mostly a PC guy but I also play board games when I have the group for it. And I love wrenching on cars besides.
Right now on the ol' Steam you can pick up the starter edition of Ubisoft's For Honor, 100% free. Best thing about this is that you're actually getting a product for free. This isn't going to suddenly make you pay for a full version down the line. You don't even have to install it if you don't want to. Just click the "install" button and Steam will register For Honor to your account so you can enjoy it whenever you like. Read more
Did you miss us? Well, who could blame you? Read more
Fatshark has released a quick thirty second teaser trailer for the first DLC to come to the Grimdark Fanatsy world of Vermintide 2. Not much is shown but if I had to speculate I would say that what we'll see is up to three maps, one of which will contain a new boss. Read more
I've been so excited for Monster Hunter World to come out on PC and now that it's here I'm finding that I probably should have just picked it up for my PS4. Not that I'm not having a good time with it mind you, I just feel that this isn't a great PC port. Read more
Big stompy robots aren't anything new. BattleTech has been around for a long time containing a huge library of the the titanic war machines and thousands of pages of lore to go along with them. Things started back in 1984 when a studio called FASA launched a table top miniatures war game called BattleDroids. According to the WIki, Lucasfilm took ownership of the word "Droid" and the game was renamed BattleTech. The board game took up loads of space and a lot of time to play; days sometimes. Read more
Fatshark has done it again. So well in fact that within the first two weeks of release, Vermintide 2 sold more than 500,000 copies and has brought in more revenue for the company than the first title did --ever! Stay with me and I'll tell you what I think so far. Read more
[Update 3-21]
I've been seeing a lot Net Neutrality articles lately and a lot of them concern FCC chairman, Ajit Pai himself. From news that the NRA has given him an award for, "Protecting free speech" and "saving the internet". To the possibility of Pai being sued for using "The Harlem Shake" in one of his propaganda videos without permission. And the much more positive news of several US states filing their own bills in order to impose Net Neutrality rules on ISP's regardless of what the repeal says.
I just read a piece from ArsTechnica that made me come here for another update because I feel it's worth sharing with you all. The article calls Pai out, a few times in fact, for just outright lying and presenting old information as new and factual all thanks to the new rules -Which, by the way, haven't been imposed yet. I don't know this guy keeps getting away with spewing sewage in the street and calling it gold.
Here's a link to the article from ArsTechnica I highly suggest reading it and it's comments.
[Update 2-26]
Today is the 26th of February and tomorrow the 27th the last major stand against the repeal of Net Neutrality will take place. Fight for the Future is an advocacy group that has put together a hashtag #OneMoreVote in a last ditch effort to bring people together in order to appeal the death of Net Neutrality. In a quote taken from Polygon- "Only one more vote in the Senate is needed to take the case to the House of Representatives, where cosponsors can vote to block the repeal of net neutrality. If unsuccessful, net neutrality will be repealed in April."
This is it folks. Our 60 day grace period since the official FCC vote to repeal is up. Telecomms are already changing policies and if something isn't done, we're just a few days from the new rules taking effect. Check out the links above and get the info you need to get into the fight if you haven't done so already.
Weirdly, Burger King has jumped on board the no repeal train with a really good neutrality analogue. Anyone who still may not understand exactly what's going to happen to the internet should watch the video below. In said video you'll see B.K. playing the role of a telecom who is imposing the new Whopper Neutrality rules upon its customers and it's a pretty entertaining and insightful spot.
[Update 12-15]
As you likely know by now the FCC has voted in a three to two vote to end Net Neutrality. This in itself is a nightmare. But thankfully for those of us who want to keep Net Neutrality alive and kicking we still have a glimmer of hope in this sea of darkness. Read more
Well yeah technically that's true. The PlayStation 4 itself can play any title from any region. But good luck if you change regions and make a new account, or in my case, buy DLC in your current region for a physical copy of a title that happens to be from another. You're rolling the dice.
I'm a PC guy, have been since the 90's. Sure I owned a PS2 and when it died I bought a slim one in like 2005 I think it was, in order to replace it. Aside from that though I haven't owned or really even wanted to own a current gen console. I have nothing against them mind you, they're more affordable and generally stable while having a large library of games and apps to use nowadays. Except for shooters. Ugh, controller shooting vs. mouse and keyboard... there's just no contest.
Anyway, for Christmas I was gifted a PS4 slim with a few games that have interested me but I couldn't play since they aren't on PC. One of those is the super impressive Horizon Zero Dawn. I'm way into this game: Beautiful world, good writing and a pretty decent story. This new PS4 impresses me actually. Boot times are fairly quick and it's pretty easy to use even for a PC guy like myself who is unfamiliar with the OS layout.
So a few days back I received a ten dollar gift credit from PlayStation to use by the end of this month. "Cool", I thought. "I should buy the Frozen Wilds DLC for Horizon". And I did. The download happened over night and the next day I went for the install. I was all excited about making my first purchase on the PlayStation Store and seeing how it all works for what really was the first time. But instead of installing I get a message: (paraphrasing) "Game content not found. Would you like to open the PlayStation store?"
Now I'm confused. Why wouldn't this work? The purchase was confirmed and the download was successful. So I cancelled the install and started the download again thinking that maybe something just didn't gel. Four hours later I tried the install again and got the same message. Now by this time I'm 35 plus hours into Horizon so I know and PlayStation knows full well that I have the game content installed on the machine. So I boot the ol' PC and hit the interwebs for information.
As it turns out my copy of Horizon Zero Dawn has a European region code. Here's how that works: A code beginning with CUSA followed by five digits, is a Canada USA - North American region code. If that same CUSA code is followed by a second line of seven more digits, making twelve in total, then that code is European. Meaning of course that your copy is an EU version even though it says CUSA on the case.
Now, the PS4 itself is not region locked. If I moved to another country I would be able to bring my PS4 and buy games from that country and play them on my account. The problem is that games and DLC follow a country code. Meaning my USA region games will never, ever be compatible with another country's region DLC. Such is the case for me. No matter what I do I can never use the DLC I bought for the game I own without it costing me more money and needing to start the game over from scratch because of course save games are also not compatible cross region.
Of course I decided that I didn't want to just eat the money I spent on a product that I couldn't use so I began trying to contact PlayStation Support in order to straighten this out. First let me say that if you've never had to do this before it's a giant pain the ass to get ahold of them. You'll have to navigate a few screens before you'll be able to contact anyone regarding any issue. Most of what you'll see are Twitter FAQs and search bars but if you dig a little you'll see a topics button that can be expanded thus bringing up an option of refunds that again will have to be expanded opening a screen with yet another link about how to get a refund that will show a couple of options. There is no "contact us" link, no way to email customer support to open a ticket, and only with some scrolling will you find an 800 number to call, (1-800-345-7669) by the way. But I chose to try the live chat with customer support.
I had to provide the proper information including my linked email and account ID etc. Understandable as they need to verify who I am and whatnot. Once I got that done I was placed in line in order to talk to someone and to their credit it only took a few minutes. I was placed in a chat room with a friendly agent called Melissa who promptly refunded my purchase and answered a few questions for me. Below is the transcript of my chat.
So I did get a quick refund from a perfectly pleasant agent but again, there's no option for me aside from buying a new, US version of the game in order to play the Frozen Wilds DLC. An exchange, as was suggested, is basically out the question as the closest brick and mortar store is about 75 miles from my house and this was a gift anyway so the reciepts are long gone. Not to mention Sony doesn't offer a change of region as a service at all so that's never happening.
I also found out that most games don't ever have this issue. It's usually the game developer and publisher who decide if title should have a region lock. So it's even more strange to me that this game, Horizon Zero Dawn, a PlayStation exclusive title that happens to be published by Sony, would have this problem. I'll say with certainty that from now on any new games I buy will be through the PlayStation store in order to make 100% sure that I'm getting content I can fully use.
Geez you guys, Dr. S. is gone again it seems. It's like he got his PhD in 'Not Wrupping' amirite.... I'm real funny. And handsome.
Well anyway, hopefully everyone had a good holiday. Mine was good too, thanks for asking. I got to see family and friends and eat way too much food and food related products while imbibing fair quantities of beer and wine and oh, I got to play a bunch of games. I'll tell you about that below.
In a matter of hours we can give a one finger salute to the uhh... year... that was 2017 and as with last week we here at the ol' Twinstiq hope you all have a great New Year celebration. Be safe and to quote Rufus from "Bill and Ted's" -Be excellent to each other.
I think I'll probably just be spending mine playing games because I'm not really feeling the crowds this year. So with that in mind, what's everyone playing?
Greywolfe: i'm playing: let's reinstall the computer. [but also children of the zodiarcs, because i'm scratching my ccg itch. it's not /really/ a ccg, but it is kind of fun.]
Andrew: Fast RMX and Mass Effect 2
Yoda: More Elite for me!!
Truelegendkiller: So much. I'm still making my way though The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. God that game is beautiful and amazing. Still playing Mario Odyssey. I picked up Mario Cart 8 Deluxe and Liz and I have been playing that. She also got me Skyrim Special Edition on Xbox so I've been playing that for fun and messing with what little mods they have. Oh and Cuphead... You know, when it doesn't make me wanna throw a controller out a freaking window!
Scroo: Yeah I've also got a lot on my plate. Christmas was a pretty big game influx with the winter sale going on. Of course I'm still loving the slow paced satisfaction of MudRunner but on top of that I've recently installed Shadow of War. I dislike saying it but, it's been very enjoyable. The nemesis system is improved a lot and the game itself is much more challenging than Shadow of Mordor was. I refuse to support the DLC and lootbox nonsense it wants to shove in my face though. Sniper Elite 4 is also quite good, big maps and lots of stealth game play. But again, loads of DLC that I won't be buying. New PC games in my list include: Steep, Superhot, Elite Dangerous and the original Lost Planet. And to add to the pile this new PS4 has Bloodborne, Horizon Zero Dawn and it's own copy of Shadow of War. Horizon has been rather awesome actually. A bit of the best of Skyrim, Tomb Raider and Far Cry in a world nearly as large and potentially deep as The Witcher 3. You'll never convince me that it wouldn't be better on PC though. I'm enjoying a veritable game feast and if New Years turns out to be quiet I'll be happy just having a few beers and playing them all night long. (On a side Note, hopefully all this new game play means we can get some more actual writing done and not just WRUPS again)
Well, the holiday season is in full swing with merriment and families coming close together to celebrate what ever it is they're celebrating together. I've already been spending time with friends around a bonfire during the solstice party drinking beer and glogg until the late evening. -Eating prime rib and turkey and yule cake and cookies. It's been a good time.
Procrastiating when it comes to shopping is something I and many people do, so it was only today that I got the last of my online orders delivered and thankfully everything is as it should be. With everything going so smoothly it's only a short time until we can bid good riddance to 2017 and move on to a new year.
Guys, we hope you all have a good, fun and safe holiday, whatever your celebration. Whether it be religious or family and friend oriented. Or just a quiet weekend with a 'do not disturb' sign on the door knob while you read a good book and play some games. Speaking of which...
What's everyone playing?
Andrew: Steep
Yoda: Still enjoying swapping between being a Mud Runner and a Space Trader. So hopefully more Elite and Mud to keep that train rollin
Greywolfe: rise of the dragon: i'm a little past half way. having the same stupid problem with the same stupid puzzle as last time around [there's a section where you need to wire tap a phone so you can pick up messages. the wire puzzle that you have to solve is very finicky.]
Scrooloose: Well if I have time for gaming this weekend I'll be surprised. But if I do it'll certainly be more MudRunner and Sniper Elite 4. Winter sales are going on and I'm also intrigued by Elite Dangerous for $7.50, so I might just have to snap it up too. Steep is also on sale but I've seen it less expensive than it's listing this time around so I might wait. Otherwise though I'm not seeing anything I can't live without. I'm strongly considering the DLC for The Surge as well. At least it's Christmas time and I have a wishlist...
Dr. S: We don't know. Hopefully he's having a good time though
Truelegendkiller: Don't know about him either. Hopefully enjoying himself.
