Community Chronicle: 22/12/13

I believe that popular modern parlance would have me proclaim that there are just three more ‘sleeps’ until Christmas Day, which I’m sure has a fair few people looking forward to exchanging presents and spending time with family. If you’ve got young kids though, they’re probably far too excited for their own good, as you spin the wonderous web of myths for them!

With the end of the year practically upon us, this is going to be the last edition of the Chronicle of the year. There’s bound to be plenty of games finished and trophies unlocked over the next few days, but we’ll mop up any new achievements in the new year.

The year’s news cycle is winding down, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t time for one last scandal. Penny Arcade announced that future PAX game shows would have designated Roll For Diversity safe zones for minority groups. Peter, not mincing his words too much, takes them to task, and it was interesting to see the comments and opinions on either side of the argument.

Our own Jim says, “True, there are ‘diverse’ social groups out there, but their integration should be organic, not rammed down everyone’s throats.”

The counterpoint is that many people have misinterpreted what Penny Arcade are suggesting and what they’re going to do. Person678 weighed in, broadly on that side of the argument.

Though I do feel that the way the leaked info reads suggests that it’s more intended to be an area specializing in booths relating to LGBTQ and so on, which isn’t in and of itself a bad idea, the second page does make it come across as a bit like it will be labelled  ‘ATTENTION. YOU ARE ENTERING A DIVERSITY ZONE!’.

The way it describes the enforcers make it sound like it will be a desk of some sort where you can report any harassment or abuse by people anywhere in the con. Sounds fine to me, though still comes across as a bit patronizing, like these people have to be catered to like children. Enforcers shouldn’t need training to be decent human beings.

There was much less controversy elsewhere, not that Kaspersky didn’t try to create some , latching on to the new console releases to try and do a little scare mongering. 34,000 hacking attempts per day, yes, but not aimed at consoles, as Tuffcub pointed out.

Spence1115 revealed his own shocking revelation, stating that, “Just minutes after I ate some cheesecake, an island in the south Indian ocean was stuck by a massive earthquake. That’s only a mildly more tedious link…”

No more cheesecake for you, Spence!

Finally, Disney announced a new Star Wars game, this time taking the space-based dogfighting, depicted so often in the films, and bringing it to the Free To Play model of gaming.

Eldur very succenctly covers all of the bases:

If this is anything like either the original X-Wing / Tie Fighter flight sims or Factor 5′s amazing Rogue Squadron games, then I’m sold.

The whole FTP thing is worrying though, as it is almost invariably mishandled and leads either to ‘pay-to-win’ gameplay or ridiculous price gouging.

Actually, that’s interesting. Have any TSAers had a FTP experience that is at fulfilling as an average boxed game? Please exclude mobile apps as I think that’s a different kettle of fish.

Robothamster simply replied, “War Thunder.”

We’ll start off this week’s achievements with Youles, as McProley, Lyts1985 and I teamed up to helped him get his platinum. He’d done most of the hard work, and we just beat the Call of Duty: Ghosts Extermination mode alongside him, so he could get a few more of the trophies to unlock on his way to the platinum.

Chalk that one up as a fastest time, while you’re at it, and you can do the same for Freezebug, who has absolutely hammered his way through Gran Turismo 6 to earn the platinum in record time. Admittedly, the trophy list is nowhere near as challenging as GT5, but that still took dedication!

A inferior race took a break from managing trophy tables to take his first platinum of the new generation, with Need for Speed: Rivals the target in his sights. Zander14rfc also went for his first PS4 platinum trophy, with Resogun the delightfully cubist game that he won, while elsewhere, element666 finished The Walking Dead on PS Vita, for that fairly straightforward platinum to unlock.

TSBonyman finished a play through of Trine 2 on PS4, which I hear is an absolutely gorgeous game – I hope he didn’t cheat his way through in co-op, like I did. However, Killzone: Shadow Fall has had less joy on that front, as many people give up at various points and struggle difficulty spikes. Hornet1990 managed to make his way through and deemed it to be merely an OK shoorter.

Back on the PS3, Germanos nabbed the platinum for Okami HD, while Blast71 has now racked up a whopping 100 hours in Skyrim, which is a feat in and of itself. Vallon rounds things up for this week, as he has played through and completed Super Mario 3D World, stating that it’s a game which he cannot praise enough.

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.

If people want to keep sending photos in, I’ll be happy to post them, but gaming places is no longer a regular feature. If you fancy it, just use the submission form below, get in touch with me on Twitter at @teflon, or just send me an email out of the blue to [email protected].