deanb

https://www.worldpayzinc.com/tech-wealth/ Tech company revenue and profit over time. Lol at Twitter. Not really many huge surprises.

I think the single SOE sub has been in the pipeline for a while, and certainly makes sense. It opens up a bit more fluidity amongst their games and makes a subscription more reasonable in an age where more and more MMOs are F2P.

Yeah some of the recent stuff has started heavily implying a monster versus monster, glad to finally have it confirmed in a trailer. Definitely going to have to see about going to see this. May should be a decent month for films.

Not like some of the most popular game on consoles is COD or anything. Also just checking Steam stats, when you've got DOTA 2 at over half a million players today, then 130K on CSGO (not free) and 63K on DSII and FM 2014 (also not free), it's a bit hard to say it's all on F2P games (of which being terrible is largely subjective, and at this point those games are getting on, TF2 especially, whereas most console games have at most a years shelf life), and games that people aren't playing. Steam alone also has just a smidgen less active users than there are 360s ever sold (of which there's 48 million Live users, Silver and Gold).

As someone who has played both (I own two copies of Demons Souls for a reason I can't remember); the repetitive grind is pretty boring after while (definitely more so the case in Dark Souls). While it may not be a "whole level", it's a decent chunk each death when you have to do it over and over. Which also damages weapons/armour and (potentially) loses any souls accrued. In order to advance end up just kinda grinding (since you only had two of the item recommended to defeat boss with and unlike check pointed games they're gone once used up) to level up and knock out what comes next, which frankly isn't a very challenging method of play. It's the worst part of traditional JRPGs (grinding) without the whole applied tactics part. Also as best I can tell a fair chunk of the story and lore is fanfic/wikis which means there's no hugely compelling story to pull you through either games. Anywho Ethan her'es one of the more frequently referenced gifs for "Dark Souls":

So it's day one of the big "info dump" on Destiny. It's still very much seeming like Borderlands with a generic art job and Halo gunplay. http://www.joystiq.com/2014/04/28/video-preview-destiny-wears-its-halo-with-pride/ http://www.gameinformer.com/games/destiny/b/playstation4/archive/2014/04/28/hands-on-with-the-three-classes.aspx http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/apr/28/destiny-hands-on-bungie-xbox-playstationshared-world-shooter (plenty more out there) And PC currently seems off the table at the moment (despite them doing cross-gen development) http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2014-04-28-bungie-explains-why-theres-still-no-pc-version-of-destiny

Mark of the Ninja. I'm on a roll. I quite liked it, nice blend of puzzle and death. I'd be quite interested in NG+ down the line. My only major qualms is (A) being context sensitive meant some jumps were pretty annoying (especially to the slightly higher ledges), and the way the maps work means I get annoyed at not seeing everything, but that's just the "gotta clear all the fog of war" gamer in me. Both of which are largely inconsequential (though former is pretty annoying at times). I did rather enjoy killing people with their own traps, the terror stuff was pretty cool (though it seemed very hit and miss on how frequently it happened, only really the spike traps that did it 100%).

http://www.pcr-online.biz/news/read/pc-games-have-surpassed-console-games-globally/033849 So stats are suggesting PC gaming has surpassed Console gaming, which isn't a massive surprise given Steam alone is thundering up to console capacity and that doesn't include big beasts like Blizzard and LoL. Of course what is worth mentioning is that we are at the start of a new console gen, and generally there tends to be flux at the end as people move to PC to get thier modern gaming fix while last gen consoles age. Though in the past Digital wasn't as big a thing as it is now and that is definetly giving PC a massive kick in flexibility and long tail sales.

More than likely not my type of film, but certainly one that might be interesting given the production process.

UKIP in a bunch of bother this week. From racist MEP hopefuls to racist poster boys, to poster boys about how EU immigrants are taking British jobs is played by an Irish actor. I like in the Lenny Henry article BBC have asked Nick Griffin what he thinks. I had almost forgotten BNP was still a thing, it's like UKIP has taken thier place as the political punching bag party.

http://www.torontosun.com/2014/04/25/driver-that-struck-teen-suing-dead-boys-family This has been doing the rounds. Woman who killed child on a bike is suing family for emotional trauma.

The Manga is worth a read through, if you haven't. Quite different to the film (even more so than Hobbit book to film), though both stand very well on their own.

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/216199/Xbox_One_increases_Microsoft_revenues__but_its_cost_cuts_into_profits.php They're going to "channel inventory drawdown for Xbox consoles,". Aka slow down how fast they churn out Xbox Ones cos they're building them faster than they can sell them.

It's funny for brits. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jon_Snow

The Room 2.

The Room. Pretty fun little game, looks pretty good and certainly a title that works well with the platform it's out on. And it was free (for me) so certainly a good deal there.

I got Carcasonne for free on Amazon app store. I've generally been severely underwhelmed by the Android HIBs. Tend to be either super buggy, or mostly built for tablets cos it's just a PC game ported to Android.

I have used it and http://forum.pressxordie.com/topic/2052-games-youve-bought-2014/page-12#entry126975 And yeah super simple stuff. I did a bunch of survey stuff when unemployed and it takes yonks to earn much to trade for like amazon credit n what not, lot of long surveys with weird questions and watching videos and describing adverts and stuff. This though it's like 7 or so yes/no questions with about 50-60p at the end which is enough to grab and app there n then or save up a bit and get a slightly bigger app. Might take a while to buy a Final Fantasy title though.

It was on sale. Woohoo free store credit.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/nadiaarumugam/2012/10/25/why-american-eggs-would-be-illegal-in-a-british-supermarket-and-vice-versa/ Now here's a weird one. Something as simple as eggs and US and UK go about them completely differently. In the UK we vaccinate our chickens and produce unwashed eggs. Means the egg retains the natural barrier against infection, so it'll last longer and doesn't need to be kept in the fridge, as well as drastically reducing the risk of salmonella(150K versus 500/yr). In America where the chickens are left to own devices (vaccination is encouraged but not mandated) and the eggs are washed (it took me a bit to process F v C, I was like "90 degrees?! that'd soft boil the egg!") to remove dirt and shit. No points for working out which system is cheaper. (US hens are also "force moulted", a process where they're starved for 1-2 weeks which triggers a moulting which also reboots egg production. In UK that's not allowed. When they're done they're shipped off to become chicken nuggets.) US eggs also come from a different breed of chicken(leghorn), hence them being white. They're not white from the washing process. Also on topic of salmonella, a few weeks back I found out why rabies came under my same mental list as quicksand as "things childhood books tell you about, but is near mythological". UK is a rabies free nation. Bonus of being on a tiny island I guess. Anyway, yeah. Eggs. Interesting things.

What box? That's almost square, even more so than a PS3 box would be.

Lego Marvel Super Heroes. It's only 23.6% complete, but I've beaten it! Might go back and try and collect shit, but tbh that's kinda unlikely. Fun game, good fun lines, nice simple puzzles great for a lazy weekend.