From a Welsh perspective, yesterday’s loss in the Six Nations was pretty gutting. To be fair, England were the better team, but Wales could and should have been able to match them on the pitch. Then there was this little spark in the last ten minutes as a seemingly miraculous comeback gathered momentum. Again.
In the end it wasn’t to be, and England are the Six Nations champions with just France in the way of a Grand Slam. If only Wales had shown up and played to their best during the first 70 minutes of the match, it could have been a completely different story.
Another gutting moment came for the games industry this week, as Microsoft decided that Fable Legends needed to be cancelled and that developer Lionhead Studios would close as a consequence. From a business perspective, shutting an old and costly game studio which would be a major drain on their books makes sense, but it’s sad to see such a longstanding pillar of the games industry closing.
TheShepanator said, “Sad to see Lionhead close, though I must say: Fable Legends must have been in some state if even Microsoft weren’t prepared to rush it to release, wasn’t it supposed to be released 1st or 2nd quarter this year after its delay?”
MrYd voiced some of the concerns that many Xbox One fans and owners will be having right now. He said, “They’re closing studios, releasing all the Xbox One exclusives on PC now, and making comments about upgradeable hardware for the Xbox. Sounds like they’re running away from the Xbox business in a big way and the next “Xbox” will just be a list of minimum specs and let everyone else do the hardware and software.”
Things are a still long way from MrYd’s vision of the future, but all that we can really do now is echo Avenger’s thoughts. “I hope they all find a new job as soon as,” he said. “Sad news when this type of thing happens.”
Want to play with the PlayStation VR when it comes out? Well there’s good news for the price conscious, as Sony have said that they’re aiming for the mass market. On the other hand, there’s bad news for those yet to reach their teenage years, with Sony stating that it should not be used by those under the age of 12.
Bunimomike said, “Makes sense. The Interpupillary distance (IPD) is so very different in children. Also, there’s enough warnings even for adults to pay attention to this.”
Ron_mcphatty added, “Yep, you can help or hinder the development of kids eyes with exercises involving bright lights and dark spots at certain positions. Probably best to keep these sorts of things off your face until you’re at least 25 really, otherwise it’ll be masturbation and Minecraft that make you go blind!”
Severn2j correctly remembered that “similar warnings were given when 3DS and all the 3D glasses tech came out as well…”
Of course, when parents will happily buy their pre-teens games like Call of Duty, which are clearly marked with 18+ age ratings… you have to wonder just how effectively Sony will manage to get this more serious developmental warning out to people.
Finally, with The Division – or “The Divvy” as I like to call it – out this week, a few little quirks to the game’s design have seen people queueing up to use an in-game laptop…
JR. said, “That’s hilarious. Imagining people queuing up at midnight to buy the game and then having to queue up to play it. Taking realism in games too far…”
“That’s one way to extend the campaign.” Starman remarked. “Some decisions in games lately have made it seem like the developers learn nothing from past games. Capcom with their ‘Oh, people rage quit on fighting games?’ and now this.”
Matthangzhou simply said, “So British. Love it.”
Crazy_Del has recovered from a nasty sounding virus to dive into Unharted 3’s Remaster on PS4 and has just recently grabbed the platinum trophy.
Starman is one of the many people to have picked up The Division, grabbing the limited edition after finishing Life Is Strange this week. Sadly Life Is Strange didn’t live up to the hype for him. Tactical20 has also been playing a graphic adventure, with the second chapter of Tales from the Borderlands completed because he couldn’t get a definitive answer on if you can play The Divvy without PS+.
Pixel_nme nabbed the platinum for Far Cry Primal, while DividSmythe has grabbed two in the space of a week, for Game of tThrones and Lego Jurassic World.
And lastly, BadBoyBoogie has rocked up once again with a bunch of platinum trophy records in tow. He’s just claimed Assassin’s Creed Liberation HD, Far Cry Primal, Grim Fandango Remastered (PS3/Vita), Nubla, Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell (PS3), Singstar and WRC 4 (Vita).
He has been a busy bee!
We’re nearly done, but you can head over to page two for the return of the Fastest Platinum boards. To finish off this page, we have the usual submission form for photos and accomplishments.
slowman6
I agree with Starman, Life is strange really didnt live up to my expectations. It just seems so tacky and cheesy. I thought it was going to be clever and have some kind of decent story but it’s just loads of American teens trying to be deep while they talk about selfies and bad philosphy/science. All the references in it seem really contrived too. I dunno, I’m at the end of the third episode and not sure I can take anymore bad acting either. Shame…
Starman
I’d have liked the story to explore why she had the time power, without that it just got boring. Only the Kate scene felt like my decisions had a big affect on the story. The last few cutscenes I browsed twitter on my phone as I’d totally lost interest in the story.
On the plus side it only cost me £8 and was an easy 1000G.
DividSmythe
Not trying to sound tacky American teenage angst but if you’ve had enough at episode 3, episode 4 is atrocious. All other episodes are are an hour and half to 2 hours but that took me about 4 hours.
Amended before posted:
Unless your a platinum trophy lover like me I couldn’t recommend carrying on. I will not do second rinse even if Ps3 version comes free on Ps+.
I did also want to see the outcome of the story but it’s far from the best in my practically bind eyes.
Although each to their own…
DividSmythe
That was meant as reply to slowman6.
JR.
I went into Life Is Strange knowing absolutely nothing about it. I thought it was Juno: The Walking Dead style, which put me off the game until a few months ago when I decided to rent it on a whim. I thought it was brilliant from start to finish – except maybe for the God of War 3 style final montage in the last chapter (hate when games do this). But overall I thought it was a fantastic game. Maybe knowing nothing about it going in is key to enjoying it fully?
Its not something Id play again in a hurry but that first playthrough was intense/shocking/heartfelt/exciting/mysterious/terrifying. I couldnt remember the last time I felt so many emotions whilst playing a game but Life Is Strange had them all.