Cloud gaming is nothing new. In fact, it’s been around for longer than you think. When they first hear the phrase most people will immediately think of Google Stadia or Steam Link. It can be argued, however, that browser games like the old Flashgames of the late 90s and early 2000s are the precursors to these newest iterations on the technology (shout out to everyone who grew up on Newgrounds).
Anyone remember Bloons Tower Defence?
What we now think of as Cloud gaming is essentially the Netflix of video games. You pay for a subscription to a video game service that allows you to stream the game of your choice to practically any web-enabled device with a screen. Whether it’s your PC, your phone or your tablet, the promise of most Cloud Gaming companies is to have a seamless, consistent experience across all platforms. However, this hasn’t appeared to be the case lately. Stadia, Google’s offering, has been panned as being poorly optimised with buffering issues and high input lag (the length of time it takes between you pressing a button and your character doing something in-game). Steam Link also strongly recommends a wired internet connection on most devices for optimum play. Even streaming relatively simple games like Jackbox Party Pack is taxing over WiFi. To be fair, these drawbacks are understandable. Video games are reaching such unprecedented levels of graphical fidelity and mechanical complexity that it makes sense that it’s tough to stream an HD game over your bog-standard internet. These issues, coupled with recent news that Google would no longer be developing games for Stadia, could put the question of the viability of Cloud Gaming in doubt.
Hope is on the horizon
There is one company, though, that may have just cracked the issue. Microsoft. They first showed off their cloud gaming aspirations at last year’s Samsung Unpacked event with Myth showing off his ability to play on the go, streaming his favourite games to his Samsung S20 Ultra. Seeing as the service wasn’t launching in Ireland for some time I promptly forgot about this little showcase and continued with my life as normal. However, after watching this year’s Unpacked event I thought I’d give it a go and see what the fuss was about. Safe to say I was impressed. Extremely impressed.
Tech by Samsung and Nintendo, bamboo phone holder by Ikea
First thing’s first, to use this service, you’ll need a subscription to Xbox Gamepass. This is a service that really is a no-brainer if you own an Xbox or a gaming PC. You pay a monthly fee for access to an enormous library of first- and third-party titles that you can download and play at no extra cost. These include all first-party games on launch day. EA have also added their games to the service and and Ubisoft are rumoured to be joining them soon. I also played these games on my Samsung S20+ with a Nintendo Switch Pro controller, as a hardware reference (though that shouldn’t matter too much). The service does offer on-screen touch controls but for many games these may not be feasible.
Walk before you can run
I thought I would ramp up slowly, testing the service on smaller games before moving up to bigger and more demanding titles. I chose Donut County as my first test case and all went well. I booted up the app, selected the game and I was right in after a short load time. The game ran well and there was practically no input lag. Thankfully, Donut County is more of a puzzle game that relies on your ingenuity and creativity rather than lightning-fast reaction times so input lag wasn’t a factor. I was zoned out on the couch, leaning forward looking at my phone, but outside that I was playing an Xbox game. A perfectly run of the mill experience.
Low-poly indie gaming seems like the best place to start
And that’s the key, this was a normal gaming session that just happened to be on my phone. This is what Cloud Gaming should be aiming for. To be on par with everything else and so far, so good.
Ramping up slowly
Next, I thought I’d pump up the graphical fidelity a bit while staying in the realm of single player games. Ori and the Blind Forest seemed like a good benchmark with its detailed environments, colourful characters, and sublime animations. I was late to the Ori party, only playing at the start of lockdown but it quickly became one of my favourite games. I was praying that my experience wouldn’t be ruined by a bad stream.
Ori’s vibrant environments are a perfect test case for how Xbox Cloud can look
Thankfully, the stream defied all my expectations, and I was able to play Ori without any hitches at all. The controls responded as they would if I were playing on a normal Xbox or PC, the game ran at a minimum of 30FPS and it looked stunning. If I didn’t know any better, I’d say this Cloud Gaming thing might just catch on.
We use live ammo here
Finally, it was time for the big boys to come out and play. I booted up (is that the right thing to say with cloud gaming?) Gears 5 to see how the cloud would handle a Triple-A online game. All seemed well upon starting the game and navigating the menu (something I admittedly had some teething problems with, having played Gears on PC for the last 4 years) and I made my way into a Horde match. I’ve never been one for the PVP modes in Gears and I thought it would be wise not to try and face off against humans for this test, rather I would play with them instead. I got myself into a lobby, chose my character and my class and it was ready to go.
You can probably see why a controller is my preferred option
Gears 5 Horde mode seems to have a persistent issue for me and me alone, wherein picking up the Fabricator (the item that helps determine where you’ll set up your base) boots me from the game (even if I’m the host) so I took some time early on to refamiliarize myself with the controls. After getting my bearings and hunkering down behind cover I was ready to take on the Swarm.
I had only intended to play through until I died in the game, but I found myself so absorbed in the experience that I finished the whole match (about 40 minutes of play). I honestly barely noticed any difference between play on PC and play on Mobile. Truthfully, there was a small bit of input lag from time to time and the resolution dropped occasionally, but to be honest, I’m still blown away by how the service performed. It also must be said that neither of those issues were significant enough to dampen my experience. The thing that flummoxed me the most was using a controller instead of the keyboard and mouse that I’m used to.
The future is green
Safe to say that I’m a Cloud Gaming convert at this stage. But if you needed more convincing, I checked my battery level and my phone’s temperature (only to the touch, I didn’t get super fancy with it) after my whole play session. After about an hour and a half of total play time my phone’s battery had only dropped by 10% and it was in no way hot, or even warm to the touch. Again, I was using a flagship phone at the time so your mileage may vary but I was stunned at how low the power consumption was, especially considering I was playing one of the most detailed games on offer for the Xbox right now.
Will this be my preferred way to play going forward? No, I’ll stick to my consoles and PC for the time being. But if I find myself at a loose end with a stable 4/5G connection you can bet that I’d prefer to jump into a game of Escape or a race on Forza than mindlessly doomscrolling on Twitter. Cloud Gaming has come a long way, and it still has a distance to go, but I, for one, will be alongside it every step of the way. It is the future.
Rural broadband in Ireland is catmalogen. I would say people working from home has shown how bad it is, but the truth is we all knew. The difference now is that the Government is scrambling to quicken up the National Broadband Plan roll out to meet the demands of a decentralised workforce. Unfortunately for them, Elon Musk has other plans and the include Ireland. Starlink is the brainchild of Musk, founded under the umbrella of SpaceX, which seeks to offer high-quality internet to people around the globe. And it’s coming to Ireland.
What Is Starlink?
Starlink, simply put, is an internet service provider (ISP). For consumers, they are little more than another player in the market to take on the likes of Eir or Virgin Media. Of course, given Musk is involved, there’s more to it than that.
Starlink was founded in 2015 and is another example of how Elon Musk tends to see solutions and not care how wild they might seem. Traditional ISPs depend on copper or fiber connections to get you online. Starlink is building its own network of satellites to provide internet to people around the globe.
60 satellites pre-launch: Official SpaceX Photos – Starlink Mission
By it’s very nature, Starlink is a global offering and that means it’s coming to Ireland too.
Is Starlink Available In Ireland?
Starlink is indeed now available to order for Irish customers. I’ve tested the Kilkenny/Carlow area on the Starlink website and it’s confirmed a launch of the service in mid to late 2021. The rest of the country may be slightly different. You can sign up for Starlink today. It requires a €99 deposit, which is refundable prior to SpaceX shipping the hardware to you. The deposit confirms your position in the Starlink global queue.
Musk believes that Starlink will be available to most of the world by the end of 2021.
How Fast Will Starlink Internet Be?
It’s expected that Starlink internet speeds will match or exceed typical fiber speeds. Starlink Beta users were told they could expect speeds between 50Mbps and 150Mbps. Musk confirmed that the expectation is to double that speed to 300Mbps.
Is Starlink Free Or How Much Does Starlink Cost?
Starlink is not free. Actually, it’s one of the most expensive internet providers by Irish standards. To start the process of getting Starlink internet access, you’ll need to pay a €99 deposit. The hardware, which is usually free with Irish internet providers, will set you back €499 and to get it shipped costs €61. To top it all off, your monthly service will set you back €99 per month.
Your first year with Starlink will set you back €1847 and your second year for service alone will cost €1188.
I don’t want to underestimate how ambitious all fo this is from Musk and those prices, believe it or not, are quite reasonable. As someone who is often living with rural broadband, I’d pay that for a decent internet connection. The project faces plenty of challenges which is one reason Starlink requires a deposit. This is the same approach Musk took with Tesla. Which flags one word of warning. Tesla deliveries were vastly later than initially promised.
In terms of price, however, Musk did confirm that should things work out as planned and if they “don’t fail”, consumers can expect the cost “will improve every year”.
How Long Is The Contract With Starlink?
There is no duration for the agreement. So, there’s no 24-month contract or anything like that. The terms and conditions state that “you may cancel the Agreement and Services at any time”.
How Does Starlink Compare To Irish Providers?
It’s impossible to tell how the internet provider compares in terms of quality beyond the hope that new technology is better than what we’re using already. If you live in a built up area and already have access to something like Virgin Media, you’re probably better off with that. Starlink is really for those who have been neglected by ISPs in terms of internet speeds.
Starlink is notably more expensive, you own the hardware and are not locked into a contract duration. These are some of the big trends being bucked.
How Big Is The Starlink Hardware?
The Starlink hardware is about the size of a large pizza.
We’ll be monitoring the top questions on Starlink and updating this article with answers too. Hit us up on Twitter with your own questions and hit the bell in the bottom left corner to get updates.
Early in the pandemic, I took it upon myself to find the best face covering to wear. After finding a few decent masks, I settled on the Italian-made U-Mask to wear. The brand had become the mask of choice for may F1 teams so they had appeal. They were incredibly comfortable and, while pricey, promised to protect the wearer as a any medical grade mask would.
U-Mask’s integrity has been questioned in the past few days, so are they safe?
Is U-Mask Safe To Wear?
Before continuing, yes. U-Mask is safe to wear. While there have been some questions asked of the masks, none of them suggest that the masks were ever dangerous so to speak. The questions really focus on how effective the masks were not whether they were made from a harmful material. But let’s look closer at what has been asked about the mask.
Italian Government Ban U-Mask
On February 19th, the Italian Ministry of Health took precautionary steps and banned the sale of U-Mask Model 2 in Italy. The problem for U-Mask is that it’s believed they’ve taken advantage of the current global situation to sell a solution everyone wants. A comfortable mask, offering medical-grade protection that looks pretty cool.
The U-Mask website is excellent at selling the story. The multi-layered mask protects others, protects you and all of this while looking stylish. But the Italian Government wasn’t convinced and wasn’t convinced U-Mask had gotten the correct certifications to back up their claims. The certifications they did get were apparently from an unlicensed lab. Though I’ll be honest, I’m largely working from Italian media reports here and I don’t speak Italian.
The important thing to know is that U-Mask makes big claims about being a medical grade device that you can wear for up to 200 hours. These claims have had doubt cast over them.
U-Mask Response To Ban
I reached out to U-Mask and asked them what all of this meant. Here was their statement:
“The precautionary measure announced on 19 February 2021 by the Italian Ministry of Health regarding U-Mask is based on administrative grounds in Italy only and has nothing to do with the safety of the mask.
In response, we have presented to the authorities new analysis and certification which you can find published here: https://www.u-mask.eu/certifications, confirming a bacterial filtration efficiency (BFE) in both directions of above 99%.
We reiterate that U-Mask is a safe product, it does not harm health in any way and fully complies with the legal regulations for which it was registered.
We will continue to defend the quality of our products, our reputation, and the transparency of our conduct”.
U-Mask Opinion
We’re left with more questions than ever regards U-Mask. I’ve reached out to the HSE and will update this article as soon as I hear back. For me, the U-Mask Model 2 is comfortable and does provide a cool option in a world where we must wear face coverings. However, the claims the manufacturer makes are big and for those to be questioned means proper answers are needed. An Italian Wired article emphasises how little we know about the science in the masks and given the hefty price tag, that’s not great.
However, the masks being expensive and even quite vogue right now doesn’t mean you should be worried about wearing one. Just make sure you’re also keeping your distance from others, washing your hands and all that other good stuff. Guidelines on face coverings in Ireland suggest U-Mask is ok but I have asked the HSE for clarity. Considering I saw a guy pulling a t-shirt up over his face as “an acceptable face covering” suggests to me you could do a lot worse than U-Mask. I’m looking at you too vent mask wearers.
Hit the bell in the bottom corner of this page and you’ll get a notification when we update this article.
Someone pinch me, I must be dreaming. After a prolonged absence (543 days to be exact) we finally got our first full Nintendo Direct in a long, long time. While there have been one-off special Directs like the Mario 35 event, the odd Smash character reveal and a few Pokémon announcements, we haven’t seen a full general Direct since September 2019! I know that may seem like it was the last time any of us outside in the real world but as I said up top it was a good year and a half ago. The drought was so long, in fact that many of us had completely given up on the idea of Nintendo Directs altogether.
But our prayers were answered, and we got a full 50-minute direct last night. Nintendo generally like to temper expectations in advance of going live and this time was no different. They assured us that everything we would see would be an update to about an existing game, or a game that was due out in the first half of 2021 (it should be noted here that Nintendo uses the April/March fiscal year, so we saw games due out in August). This turned out to be a lie but that just makes it more exciting!
Here’s everything that was announced and discussed at our (hopefully) first Nintendo Direct of 2021.
Super Smash Bros: Ultimate
The first update we were treated to was the announcement of the next DLC fighter in the Smash Bros. Fighters Pass Volume 2, Pyra and Myrtha from Xenoblade Chronicles 2. The introduction was played quite seriously with Rex showing concern over his missing companion. However, the comedy was dialled up when it was revealed that Pyra had ditched him to join the fun. These characters seem like an odd return to form for Smash. It looks like one of their special attacks will allow them to transform into one another, each offering different move sets. This is interesting because, as long-time fans of the series will know, Zelda and Sheik used to have this ability up until Smash Bros 4. Why Pyra and Myrtha were merged into one as opposed to being Echo Fighters I don’t know, but I can’t wait to try them out and see how they fare! There are still 2 characters left to be announced this year so stay tuned to find out who they are.
Fall Guys
At long last, Fall Guys is coming to Switch. Launching this summer, I think the chaotic free for all game will be right at home on the little console that can. Fall Guys is perfect for short-burst gaming sessions, which is what the Switch excels at. If you’ve got 10 minutes to spare on a train, in a coffee shop or even chilling at home I can think of no better source of dumb mindless fun and now there’s no better place to play it than on the Switch. Nothing has been said about cross-platform play yet, but there are rumours that the developers will be rolling it out eventually.
The Outer Wilds
One of the best Indie games of 2019 is making its way to the Nintendo side of the street this summer. Developed by the aptly named Mobius Digital, the game centres around a dying galaxy that throws the player into a 22 minute time loop. It’s essentially Sci-Fi Groundhog Day with much higher stakes. Winning a number of awards and focussing on multiple short-loops this will be another perfect game for the Switch’s play-on-the-go niche!
Famicom Detective Club
Ok, I can’t be the only one who’s never heard of these, right? First developed for the Famicom Disc System in 1988 Famicom Tatei Club was a text-based detective game that played out in a similar fashion to modern visual novels or something like Danganronpa. While there was a prequel made, with both games ported to the Gameboy Advance as well as the Virtual Console on the Wii, the series never saw a release outside Japan. That’s about to change with this remake of the originals with new visuals and voice acting. Both games are due out in May and seem like a great time to launch yourself into a mystery novel that you can play!
Samurai Warriors 5
Launching this Summer, the latest addition to the ever-popular hack and slash series will continue the story of the warring Japanese states during the Sengoku period with a focus on historical figures like Nobunaga Oda and Mitsuhide Akeshi. A more historically focussed sister series of Koei Tecmo’s wildly popular Dynasty Warriors this instalment promises enormous “1,000 on 1” battles that have become something of a series trademark, as well as an engaging story and colourful characters. Not much is known about how this may differ from previous entries in the series but there will be more information out later this month!
Legend of Mana
Following the success of the remakes of other entries in the Mana series, the first spin-off game is getting the remaster treatment. This will be the first time Legend of Mana is available in Europe nearly 22 years after it first released in Japan. Considered by some to be one of the best PS1 games of all time, this classic RPG will be sure to keep old fans happy while bringing new players into the fold. Releasing this June, Legends of Mana will be sure to be one of the highlights of the year for anyone who loves an old-school JRPG.
Monster Hunter: Rise
The sixth mainline entry in the much-loved Monster Hunter series (the games are loved, the movie was crap) and the third to release exclusively on a Nintendo console this instalment promises to be one of the biggest and best yet. Ostensibly a game about hunting monsters, this latest version will have a larger overarching plot like its predecessor Monster Hunter World. Due out in March, this game will surely satisfy the craving that many Monster Hunter fans tend to get after a while. Rise will be made all the better for the introduction of new Palamute companions, a canine version of the existing Palico cats. These good boys will be key in Monster Hunter’s addictive combat and will serve as fast transport for the player-controlled Hunter. It has also been confirmed by the “Can You Pet The Dog” Twitter account that your Palamute will copy your character’s emotes. Adorable.
Mario Golf Super Rush
18 years. 18 gruelling years is how long it’s been since there’s been a Mario Golf game on a home console. I remember watching the viral marketing videos week after week for Toadstool Tour back in 2003 and I remember playing the game even more vividly. It makes me sad knowing that those memories are now old enough to drink. Anyway, Mario is back at the clubhouse with a new entry in the series and it looks like the best one yet. Of course, there are the standard golf games with quickplay, versus and story modes, but this time there’s an additional mode called Speed Golf which looks like a cross between a regular golf game and a foot race. Offering a very un-Nintendo-like choice between motion controls and traditional button controls this game is sure to be a hole in one. Polish your shoes and get ready to tee off on the 25th of June!
Tales from the Borderlands
Set between the events of Borderlands 2 and 3, Tales from the Borderlands is a typical Telltale adventure game. Point and click mechanics with a character driven narrative, each of the five episodes reviewed very well when they were first released in 2015. The story revolves around Rhys and Fiona and how they came to meet and how they plan to make off with untold riches from the vaults of Pandora. Originally released over a series of months this version of the game will feature all five episodes in one package so there’ll be no waiting to see what happens next when it launches in March.
Capcom Arcade Stadium
A collection of old-school Capcom arcade games from the late 80s and early 90s with 32 games in total. 1943: The Battle of Midway is free to download, but the other 30 will be split into 3 packs of 10 that cost €15 each, with Ghosts and Goblins being extra as well for €2. The packs can be bundled together at a reduced cost as well, but it seems kinda shady to give us 3 different versions of Street Fighter II and claim it’s 3 different games, don’t you think?
Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse
Stubbs is back in a rerelease of the classic Xbox game from 2005. Take control of Stubbs, a zombie out for revenge against the man who killed him, and desperately trying to reunite with his lost love. Bludgeon your enemies with your body parts, or eat their brains to grow your zombie army, do anything you can to hunt down the man who zombified you in the first place so you can “live” a peaceful life once more. Pick up something green before Paddy’s day this year when Stubbs shambles his way onto the Switch on March 16th.
No More Heroes 3
The long-awaited next instalment in the irreverent franchise from the mind of the legendary Suda51. Set 9 years after NMH 2 we’ll once again be following Travis Touchdown as he takes on a group of extra-terrestrial villains, posing as superheroes. If this game is anything like previous entries in the series, you can expect high-octane action with an abundance of toilet humour as the world-class assassin once again takes up arms against a world-ending threat. The wait for this game will finally be over when it releases this August.
Neon White
Demons have gotten loose in heaven and it’s up to you to put a stop to their rampage. You play as Neon White, an assassin who has been sent from hell to clean up heaven’s mess. Use Soul Cards to perform devastating attacks against the demons. But try to be quick about it, other assassins are competing to be the best demon slayer there is as well. Delve deeper into the mystery of their identity this winter.
DC Super Hero Girls: Teen Power
Based on the TV show of the same name, follow Batgirl, Wonder Woman, and DC’s other heavy hitting heroines as they navigate the greatest challenge any teenager can face, High School. Follow the girls as their hero team defends Metropolis from all manner of villains and evildoers when Teen Power launches on the 4th of June.
Plants vs. Zombies: Battle for Neighborville
The third spinoff of the PVZ franchise is coming to switch. Take on the role of a plant or a zombie in this fun, wacky third-person shooter based on the much-loved tower defence game. Each plant or zombie has their own unique abilities and roles to play on the team from healing to sneaking behind enemy lines. It’s refreshing to see that, unlike practically every other game published by EA, all cosmetics and unlockables can be obtained through gameplay alone. You can leave your credit card in the safe confines of your wallet! Crazy Dave is waiting to see you off on the 19th of March!
Miitopia
The 3DS classic is getting a port. Team up with all the Miis you’ve ever made or met and set out to put an end to the evil overlord. While it may appear simple, Miitopia adds in some complexity by adding in relationship stats for each pair of characters. These stats will affect how your Miis fare in battle so be sure to make everyone play nice. Get ready to go adventuring on the 21st of May.
Animal Crossing
Next week, a free update will be available for all Animal Crossing players that will add a variety of Mario themed outfits and furniture to your game. This will likely be the last major event for the 35th anniversary of Mario before the festivities are ended next month. Get the items while you can and have fun Mario-ifying your island!
Project Triangle Strategy
This yet unnamed strategy RPG will be launching in 2022 so it’s still a while away. You will follow Serona, heir to the kingdom of Glenbrook as the Saltiron war rages on between two neighbouring kingdoms. As the game progresses you will be forced to make difficult choices that will test one of three convictions. How these convictions are affected by each decision will shape the course of your game and the decisions of other characters you encounter. This game looks like a blend of Fire Emblem and Octopath Traveller, games that I absolutely love. I can’t wait to find out more info about this one! There’s a demo out now so you can bet I’ve already got it downloading.
Star Wars Hunters
Set between episodes 6 and 7, this free to play arena shooter will promise chaotic fun with a host of new and familiar Star Wars characters. Not much was announced about this game, but we’ll be sure to keep you posted. One warning, however, this smells of a microtransaction magnet so consider yourself warned!
Knockout City
A fresh take on the team-based battle genre. This game seems to combine the art style of Fortnite, the team-based gameplay of most big modern shooters and the real-world rules of Dodgeball. Capture the ball and take out your opponents or use your teammates as a ball! Do anything you can to take out the opposing team. Remember the 5 Ds when Knockout City hits the Switch this May.
World’s End Club
From the makers of Danganronopa comes a side-scrolling action game that sees a group of students’ undersea adventure end abruptly when a cataclysm wipes out much of the surface world. Join a colourful cast of characters as you journey across Japan to find you way home on May 28th.
Hades
The winner of multiple Game of the Year awards, Hades is getting a physical release on the Switch. Delve into the Greek underworld to battle alongside ancient heroes and Gods to find your way to Mount Olympus. Along with a copy of the beloved game you’ll receive a limited-edition art book as well as a code to download the game’s phenomenal soundtrack. This was the go-to game for a lot of Twitch streamers last year and for good reason. If you haven’t gotten around to playing it yet, you’ve no excuse not to once it hits store shelves this March.
Ninja Gaiden Master Collection
Famed for its absurd combo menu and unrelenting difficulty, the Ninja Gaiden prequel trilogy is getting a bundled re-release on modern consoles. Follow Ryu Hayabusa as he hunts down the villains who wiped out his clan and his attempts to take back the Black Dragon Blade that was his signature weapon in the original games. While it doesn’t look like there have been many graphical upgrades to the games, they honestly don’t need much touching up. My fond memories of playing them on my Xbox 360 will certainly bump them up the wish list. The trilogy bundle launches on the 10th of June.
Bravely Default II
Confusingly the third game in the Bravely Defuault series, this will be the first one on a home console. The original on 3DS played with the idea of the using the technical attributes of the console itself to affect certain changes in the game. For example, the game will use Streetpass contacts to help build your main village, you also gain SP (points used to help in combat) by leaving the game on while the console is resting. It will be interesting to see if this new iteration uses a similar system, collecting consumables while the console is in rest mode. We’ll find out next week when Bravely Default 2 drops.
Ghosts ‘n Goblins Resurrection
A reboot of the original run and gun platformer, this game has quite a legacy to live up to. Ghosts ‘n Goblins is generally considered to be one of the hardest video games ever made with punishing enemy placement and insane time limits. Will this newest iteration be just as hard as its predecessor? Or will the addition of companion characters make the game a little easier? Find out next week when Ghosts ‘n Goblins Resurrected hits the eShop.
SaGa Frontier Remastered
An interesting take on the idea of a remaster. SaGa Frontier originally launched on the Playstation in 1997. It featured standard turn-based RPG mechanics and featured 2D sprites moving and battling in prerendered 3D backgrounds. While this was standard practice in the 90s, the remaster really doubles down on the aesthetic. The result is an utterly unique, interesting looking game that promises to deliver the same multi-path story of the original but with a fresh new visual style. I’ll be excited to try it out when it drops on the 15th of April.
Apex Legends
You read that right, the futuristic battle royale phenomenon is coming to Switch on the 9th of March and, as with other versions will be totally free to play. It promises the exact same experience as you’d get on all other platforms and will even be cross-platform ready when it launches. Again, while many of us may have Apex Legends installed on our home consoles already, the promise of taking the battle with you wherever you go is one that many of us definitely won’t be able to pass up.
The Legend of Zelda
Here it is, the penultimate announcement. This one totally surprised me. Unlike most of the internet I didn’t expect anything Zelda related in this direct at all. This year is the 35th anniversary of the franchise so I was expecting (as they kind of confirmed in the direct) that there would be a dedicated Zelda announcement to mark the occasion. While we sadly didn’t get any new information about the Breath of the Wild sequel (which we last saw during E3 2019), we did get a few other nice announcements.
First up, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity will be getting new characters and new battle scenarios as DLC. This is a welcome piece of news as the base game features a plethora of characters that each play in their own distinct way. Honestly, learning how they play and getting good with them is half the fun of the game anyway so more characters to play with are more than welcome.
Next, we got the news that Skyward Sword HD will be making its way to Switch this July. While this is the single most divisive Zelda game with people either loving or hating it, it certainly is the exemplar of “The Zelda Effect”. Personally, I like this game. It’s not a blow-me-away epic like BoTW, nor is it a straightforward dash to the end like Ocarina of Time. It exists as a sort of transition point between the old school and new school Zelda games and many people think it suffers for that (and the fact that you have to do the same boss battle 3 different times). But I still enjoy it and I’ll definitely be picking it up as soon as it launches.
Finally, Aonuma San presented us with a pair of beautiful Zelda themed joycons. The right is modeled after the Master Sword, and the left after the Hylian Shield. Two of the most iconic symbols in gaming, now in the palm of our hands. I’m sure it’ll be tough to get a hold of these once scalpers get a sniff of them, but for collectors and Zelda fans alike these are an absolute must-have.
Beautiful, aren’t they?
Splatoon 3
To take us home, we were given arguably the biggest surprise of the whole show. Splatoon 3 is in development and will be launching some time in 2022. I’m not a huge fan of the series but I know it has a massive following in some circles. I know that this will come with a lot of excitement for a lot of people. Offering new game modes, new weapons, and all new environments this will be sure to please the kid (or the squid) in all of us!
Some of my favourite gadgets completely challenge how I think about things. A while back I got a Meater smart cooking probe. Suddenly, I understood how cooking, something I do nearly everyday, actually works. My mind was blown. Dyson sent me a Pure Hot + Cool Air Purifier to test out for Pancake Tuesday. While that might sound odd, it has once again blown my mind.
Air Purifiers In Ireland
We’re a funny old bunch in Ireland. I remember attending my first big consumer electronic trade show in Berlin and asking “why are there so many air purifiers”. It turns out it’s a massive market that just never really got going in Ireland. I’d wager it’s down to us being somewhat of a skeptical nation. “Ah sure, I breathe the air everyday and I’m fine” kind of mentality.
But Irish interest in air purification is growing. Looking at Google Trends data over the past five years, there’s a clear increase in people searching for air purifiers. From May 2020 there has been particular growth and it makes total sense. With a global pandemic, people are both at home more (even those not working from home) and are more conscious about the air we breathe.
Even pre-pandemic, due to increased mobility of people in general, air quality has been on the agenda for some time. In December of last year, Dublin reached air pollution levels akin to those of the smokey coal era. It’s no joke either with air pollution causing over 1300 premature deaths in the country every year.
You’re still more likely to be in the bucket of people who’ve never considered buying an air purifier. However, now that I’ve got one I don’t know whether to be scared about what I’m learning or happy that it also fixes the problem.
Dyson Pure Hot + Cool Air Purifier
The Dyson Pure Hot + Cool Air Purifier packs in plenty of features and this particular model is probably the most useful one for Ireland.
The Dyson equipment looks incredible where ever you place it
Fan Heater
I live in a one bed apartment in Dublin’s City Centre, beside a very busy arterial street too. The apartment has storage heaters. This means they gather energy overnight and releases it as heat during the day. They’re somewhat unpredictable, but usually only run during the Winter months. The reason the Dyson was perfect for me is because, while it can cool, this particular model can also heat. A feature we’ll get much more out of in Ireland.
It also cools, but you know…we won’t need that much. Good to know though.
Bladeless
I said fan there, but this might be a bit like how people feel when vegan food is labeled using meat terms. The Dyson Pure Hot + Cool Air Purifier isn’t a traditional fan. As is often the case with Dyson technology, like the Dyson Corrale, they’ve looked at the solution on offer and completely reengineered it.
The result is a gorgeous looking piece of kit for your home, packed with technology to improve your living space. One of the standout features being that there are no blades. Obvious bonuses here for parents and pet owners along with those who just like cool looking gadgetry.
Air Purification
This is where the Dyson, not too literally, started to blow me away. You can monitor your home’s air quality in two ways. Either in the Dyson Link app or through the small on-device screen which gives you a quick overview.
The small display on the Dyson keeps you informed with an aggregated Air Quality performance indicator.
Sensing Technology
As I mentioned earlier, we tend to take air quality for granted in Ireland despite the fact it’s degraded significantly in recent years. For me, the most important feature on the Dyson is the sensing technology.
Using three different sensors, the Pure Hot + Cool Air Purifier can detect:
PM10 level
PM2.5 level
Nitrogen dioxide (NO2)
Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs)
Temperature
I didn’t have a clue what all of these (temperature excluded) were, but I’ve looked it up. However, I’m not a doctor or actually in anyway trained beyond the ways of a Google Search.
What Is PM10?
PM10 measures particles in the air measuring 10 micrometers or less. These are impossible to see and are more or less a gas. Despite, or rather because of, their size they can be very harmful to your health.
What is PM2.5
As logic would dictate, these are indeed particles in the air measuring 2.5 micrometers or less. Given their size, PM2.5 particles can penetrate deep into our lungs and cause harmful disease.
Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2)
Because of where I live, this was the most interesting to me. Nitrogen dioxide is generated, typically, by the burning of fossil fuels. Basically, cars, trucks, vans and busses when it comes to what my machine can measure. I was interested to see if there would be spikes during peak commuter times and indeed their was. That pollution gets in somehow!
Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs)
I had no idea what this was until I did some research. Another search trend right now is for people asking about “mould”. Black mould is a massive issue in many Irish homes with poor ventilation. While this is just one example of a VOC, the Dyson can detect this in the air and filter it. Another fantastic feature given the health impacts that VOCs like mould can have are grave.
Together, these measurements generate the aggregated Air Quality score, displayed in the app. You can also dive down into individual measurements too.
This was caused by cooking!
Filtering
Sensing all this stuff is one thing. What about clearing it up? The purifying technology in the Dyson is just as impressive. Also, because of their incredible engineering background, they bring a certain amount of authority and trust into the situation too. From their product demos I’ve seen that Dyson sometimes carries out their legally required tests and then goes even further to the higher level of testing they believe should be mandatory but isn’t.
Once the Dyson detects impurities in the air, it kicks into action. Sucking air in, filtering it and then passing it back out into your room. The filtering process involves the air passing through many different layers of cleaning to eradicate the different particles detected. A carbon filter removes gases and a glass HEPA filter removes 99.95% of allergens and pollutants as small as 0.1 micrometers.
Living With The Dyson Pure Hot + Cool Air Purifier
With the Dyson in my apartment for a week, what do I think?
The Good
I love it. Like I said at the very outset, I love technology that lets me know more about how things work. We can only truly start to care about things once we understand them. Every second of your life involves air, yet we often do very little to care for it. The Dyson was my window into what the air in my home is like. But what did I learn?
Well, for Valentines I bought a painting kit for me and my partner to have a bit of craic with. The Dyson actually picked up on the paints in the apartment as VOCs. That’s how sensitive it is. The sensors taught me a lot.
Scented candles pollute the air a lot
Cooking causing massive pollution in the apartment
Outdoor pollution does impact internal air
That’s what I’ve learned in just a week with the machine. I can’t wait to find out what else triggers the Dyson to start cleaning the air knowing that previously it would have gone undetected and ended up in my lungs.
The Dyson Link app is great, offering both controls for your fan and insights into your air. You can also connect to an Amazon Alexa, though no support for Google, at least in Ireland.
The Downsides
There are really only two negatives that I can think of.
Volume
First of all, is the volume. It’s not a quiet machine when “goes turbo” which is what we’ve started calling it in the apartment. This is typically when cooking and the machine is set to “Auto”, basically cleaning the air as quickly as possible.
The flip side of this is that Dyson actually states the running volume of the machine is 62 decibels while the highest I’ve had it running is a little over 50 decibels. Also, if you’re a concerned remote worker, the noise is exactly the kind of background noise most conferencing technology and headphones removes.
The Price
Ok, like a plaster, just pull it off and get it over with.
The Dyson Pure Hot + Cool Air Purifier will set you back just under €600. And that is a massive amount of money, there is no two ways about it. It’s also important to note that buying the machine is pointless unless you’re willing to swap out the filters when the Dyson Link app tell you to. These cost in or around €80 and if you’re running the machine for 12 hours, you’ll get a year out of the filters.
The machine is designed for single room use. I’ve just tested this in our living area with an open kitchen but will be moving it to the bedroom too to learn more about the air in my home. But the idea here is that you really should buy one for the most popular rooms in your home. Typically the bedroom and the living room.
How can you justify the price? Well, it’s as simple as facing reality. We spend this kind of money on smartphones, TVs and other gadgets that, if anything, are more likely to negatively impact our mental health. This piece of tech is designed to improve your physical health. With you spending more and more time at home right now, it’s absolutely time to consider investing in an air purifier. Being totally honest, I’ve been a bit shocked at how quickly indoor air quality can deteriorate from just cooking dinner.
Dyson Pure Hot + Cool Air Purifier: The Verdict
I won’t shy away from this being the upper end of investments for your home. What’s changed for me since getting the Dyson is understanding the air in my home, that I’m breathing every second of every day. I can see commuter times raising lower air quality and cooking filling my apartment with a harmful atmosphere.
Now, having a machine that cleans it gives me peace of mind. If you don’t have any respiratory issues, count yourself lucky. One massive endorsement for air purifiers in general is that they are listed as a recommendation on Asthma.ie.
If you’ve been thinking about the air in your home more and more, I personally believe this will be a great purchase for you. If you’ve haven’t thought about it, it’s time to consider it.
While NO2 levels remain save, you can see where road traffic increases using the Dyson
If you’re a Chrome browser user, you may have noticed it likes to slow down your laptop with massive consumption of resources. Turning to extensions like The Great Suspender meant you could control how long tabs claimed these resources. Unfortunately, The Great Suspender ended up in the wrong hands and was filled with malware, but can you still use this Chrome extension safely?
Chrome Is A Hungry Hippo
I’ve swapped over to using Safari for most of my browsing these days. I’ve also tried to use Firefox or Brave browser more in the past. The reasons are manifold. From just not liking Google very much (well, beyond the Pixel 5) to privacy concerns, there are lots of reasons I try to steer clear of Chrome. The biggest reason is that Chrome is a hungry hippo when it comes to my laptop’s resources.
But I still have to use Chrome. Whether it be for work or some application that’s built specifically for Chrome. It’s the necessary evil that won’t go away. Thankfully, there was a solution to shut down unused tabs and save some of that memory. And yes, I do realise my leaving open 30 tabs at a time is not really Google’s problem. The solution, was The Great Suspender.
Story time: The Life And Times Of The Great Suspender
What is The Great Suspender? Why did it go rogue? It’s all a fairly typical tech story to be honest.
What Is The Great Suspender?
The Great Suspender is a Chrome extension which lets you set a certain period of time, after which Chrome tabs would be paused. So if I opened a website and didn’t come back to that tab for 30 seconds, it would stop eating resources. At the click of a button, it would re-load and let me continue where I left off. Beautiful.
The Early Days
The Great Suspender was a massive success. The extension’s developer likely never predicted how popular it would grow. Over 2 million people installed this extension. I understand that Google doesn’t really want features like this in Chrome, but you would imagine over 2 million people using something suggests it would be a fairly popular feature.
The Sale
With the unexpected success that came with The Great Suspender, the developer who created the extension was unable to dedicate the time or resources to keeping it maintained. Every time Google or Microsoft release a browser update, small tweaks would be needed to keep the extension running.
It’s not the developers fault. This is massively time consuming and I’m sure the number of users was weighing on them somewhat. So they sold it. There were plenty of suspicions about the sale of The Great Suspender. No-one knew who bought it, yet it was sitting in the browser of over 2 million internet users. The extension is open-source, which means it was never intended to make money. Why would someone buy it?
The Great Unsuspended Malware
That’s an awful heading. Sorry.
The mystery buyer did exactly what everyone feared. They modified the code to include malware. In the 7.1.8 release of the extension, a code update included scripts that tracked user behaviour among other things. While Microsoft pulled the extension, it would be re-introduced later without the malicious scripts. The damage is done though. The new developers can’t be trusted and now Google has also removed The Great Suspender from the Chrome Store.
So no more efficient use of Chrome. Unless….
Want To Keep Using The Great Suspender?
There is no out of date software which can really be used safely. Updates keep these bits of tech running safely.
You can still download version 7.1.6 of The Great Suspender from GitHub and install it manually using Chrome’s developer options. But this isn’t recommended. It’s an out of date piece of software and it’s only a matter of time until it stops working. Before then it will likely have security holes of some sort.
If Chrome is really doing that much damage to your browser experience, it might be time to try something else, like Firefox or Brave Browser.
Not that long ago, ear buds were expensive with an absolute maximum of three hours battery. Noise cancelling was fancy technology only found in top of the range headphones. These key specs are thankfully much more accessible these days. A fantastic example of that is the Soundcore Liberty Air 2 Pro ear buds. I’ve been using these for a few weeks. I’m happy to confirm that if you’re in the market for a pair of earbuds, at €130, these are absolutely worth considering. Here’s why.
Sound
I often find some reason to talk about some other feature of audio equipment other than sound, but it’s got to be the start point for these buds. While small, and particularly light, the buds remain capable of packing punchy bass and crisp high tones too.
While you may not know Soundcore as a brand, they’ve been making headphones and earbuds for sometime. The first pair I tested were the Liberty Air buds. They lacked a little punch in the volume area but sound quality was great. The biggest challenge facing Soundcore isn’t audio quality. It’s simple that they aren’t a household name. So they’ve cleverly gotten ten Grammy winners to endorse them, including NE-YO and Foxes. Personally, I don’t go for that kind of craic, but if it helps you see past the fact these aren’t made by Bose then I’m happy.
Sound quality is obviously going to be the bread and butter of a pair of ear buds. The fact the Liberty Air 2 Pro don’t stumble here, and in fact that they impress, means the other features they bring to the table could set them apart.
So what are the other features I hear you ask?
Battery
I’ve tested some cracking buds over the years. Some favourites, like the Huawei FreeBuds 3, remain in my daily selection for calls or listening on a quick walk. But many share the same spec failing of having quite a poor battery. They advertise three hours and some might be close to really offer 75% of that.
The battery life of the Soundcore Liberty Air 2 Pro buds is genuinely mind blowing. I’m not trying to be overly dramatic here. These buds are light. That usually means short battery life but somehow Soundcore has sidestepped that stereotype. Pun intended.
The buds themselves will last for nearly seven hours of use. Seven hours! Back in the olden days of being able to travel, a single charge of your buds would have gotten you from Cork to New York. The charge case let’s you recharge the buds three times. That’s over 26 hours before you need to worry about being bud-less.
Speaking of the charge case, it also supports wireless charging. This is a great feature for jet setters who also have a phone offering reverse wireless charging. Charge your phone, buds and your bud’s case, all at the same time. This does give the buds an edge over the similarly priced Cambridge Audio Melomania Touch, which while awesome don’t have a wireless charge case.
Design
The inclusion of a wireless charge case is a nice example of the though gone into how the Liberty Air 2 Pros have been designed. I’ve already mentioned how incredibly light the buds are too. Combined with the long battery life this actually fights ear fatigue. Yes, that’s a very real thing.
Everything from the loudness of your audio to the design of your earbuds or headphones can cause ear fatigue. This means ear aches, pressure building up in your ears and possibly headaches. Going further, your music and even conference calls may start to irritate you more than ever.
A well designed pair of ear buds can go a long way towards helping with this and I would consider the Liberty Air 2 Pros to be a top option to combat ear fatigue. While they offer the long battery life that you might require for a day of work, they are light and not too tight in the ear. This means pressure is less likely to build up and you might even forget about them.
The side effect here is that you may feel like the buds aren’t all that secure in your ears. Fine for working at home, but if you’re going for anything more than a walk, you will fear losing a bud. There is quite the selection of silicon tips in the box and dipping into these will make a massive difference when it comes to getting a secure fit. Just remember, the tighter the fit, the more susceptible you become to ear fatigue again.
Call Quality
Call quality vanished as a feature of headsets people cared about until recently. Between work and staying connected with family for afar, call quality is back as a prime feature. The spec page for these Soundcore buds makes that abundantly clear by calling out calls as a key feature. Six noise cancelling mics pick up sounds around you as the buds work to drown them out.
In reality, the buds do indeed offer very good call quality. You can hear some of the background noise on the caller’s end but the voice carries well. I don’t think these would be top of the list for buds purely based on call quality, but considering the rounded overall quality on offer here it’s another string to the bow of the Liberty Air 2 Pro.
Noise Cancelling
At the outset, I pointed out that noise cancelling, in very recent memory, was a premium feature. Often, when introduced on cheaper audio equipment, it also wasn’t very good. This was the one feature of my much beloved Huawei FreeBuds 3 which left the buds wanting.
I’ve mentioned my use of the kitchen extractor fan a few times in reviews. My choice of old was to stuff my bag with headphones when ever I travelled, but those days are gone for now. I’m going to make the kitchen extractor fan the standard test from now on. Who said tech reviews couldn’t be sexy.
Noise cancelling was one of those jaw dropping moments for me in tech. I was super late to the party given I think the Sony WH-1000XM2 were probably the first air of active noise cancelling (ANC) headphones I tested. As luck would have it, the Sony WH-1000XM4 landed on my desk this week which means I get to compare the Soundcore buds against a market leader.
I had high hopes, but in-ear buds simply cannot compete when it comes to ANC. They’ve come a long way, but if you’re shopping with the focus purely being on ANC, you should be looking at over-ear headphones. Now, that may sound damning but it’s far from it. The opinion is formed on a pure comparison of ANC. That means without any music playing. As soon as I hit play, I wasn’t even sure if the old extractor was on or not!
What am I actually saying here. Well, ANC is naturally always going to be better with over-ear headphones. By their very design, they isolate more external audio. In-ear ANC technology has come on leaps and bounds. Recently the Huawei FreeBuds Pro knocked this out of the park and left me wowed.
It just adds yet are reasonably good spec to a well rounded pair of buds
The Liberty Air 2 Pro are on par for ANC here, and I didn’t expect that. If ANC is just something you’d like to have, for these Soundcore buds, it just adds yet are reasonably good spec to a well rounded pair of buds.
These is but one definite draw back I could find with the buds and that’s a lack of multi-device support. In a world of working from home, I often listen to music on my phone while quickly swapping to my laptop for a call. Odd how the use for devices has flipped like that. A feature I’ve become very used to is my headphones being smart enough to swap devices as I used them. Not a deal-breaker, but still. I miss it.
Soundcore Liberty Air 2 Pro: The Verdict
What I keep coming back to here is the price. At €130 from Amazon Germany, or oddly also £130 for UK readers, this is a lot of audio quality to slap into your earholes. My initial reaction to the lightweight design was hesitancy, but there’s no lack of quality audio here. That good news is doubled down on by the lightweight design meaning comfort for longer, supported by whopper battery life.
If you’re an iPhone owner, you’ll probably still find your way to AirPods. But if you’re in the minority seeking an alternative or are either and Android user or working from home person, these could be the answer to quite a lot of your audio questions. If you’re still not sure, drop onto our Twitter and pop us a question.
“A delayed game is eventually good; a rushed game is bad for ever”. The immortal words of the creator of Mario and father of modern gaming Shigeru Miyamoto. While generally these words have a good bit of truth to them (Doom Eternal springs to mind as a recent example), the last few months have done their damndest to prove Miyamoto wrong. We’ve all heard the horror stories of Cyberpunk 2077, the new poster child for delayed games that never came good. But now there’s a new kid on the block. A game that is at the same time polished, but unfinished. Rushed, but had a 3-month delay. Exciting and fun to play, but bitterly disappointing and shockingly overpriced. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Destruction Allstars.
We got our first glimpse at Destruction Allstars during Sony’s PS5 reveal stream back in June where it promised high-octane car-based chaos with a diverse host of characters. Originally planned as a launch title for the PS5, a month before release, it was pushed back from November to February. By way of apology, all those who had pre-ordered were given full refunds and it was announced that the game would be free on PS+ for two months starting in February, the game’s new release date. Now that’s PR done the right way!
It’s a great thing that the game is free too, because to be honest, that’s the only price-tag that is justified right now.
Rev up the fun
I have to say that apart from the original trailers I had little knowledge of this game when I first jumped into it. After an extremely helpful tutorial I jumped into a free for all match and had an absolute blast. The core gameplay loop is as simple as “smash other cars with yours, and avoid having your car smashed”, and it really doesn’t get much more complicated than that. There are a couple of other game modes that I’ll talk about later but they’re all just variations of a remarkably simple (but effective) theme. The controls are as simple as they come as well, with acceleration, steering and drifting mapped to the buttons you’d expect. However, every car has two boosting abilities too, one for a forward burst of speed, and another to give you a quick left or right shimmy. These are invaluable for causing damage to other vehicles or characters and are on a cooldown timer to prevent anyone just spamming boost to wreak maximum havoc.
Each character’s vehicle has its own Ultimate power
Each individual racer also has their own unique abilities. One of these is their “on foot” ability that ranges from setting fire to the ground you run over to being invulnerable to being knocked down by enemy vehicles. The other is tied to their car, a unique “Ultimate Ability” similar to what you’d see in Overwatch, Gears 5, or a multitude of other multiplayer games these days. These abilities, like their users, come in all shapes and sizes from covering your vehicle with massive spikes to activating a massive shredder mounted to your front bumper. Some of these are less than helpful, however. One is just a covering of smoke on vehicles you hit. Not gonna be of great utility in many games I don’t think.
The roster features an impressively diverse cast of characters, with people of every size, shape, colour, and from every point on the gender spectrum being represented. It can be fun to play as each of them to find out what their ultimate is and see how it works, unfortunately, this is pretty much the only way of learning the basics of each character. If you’re new to the game, there’s no way of knowing what your character’s abilities, strengths, and weaknesses are going to be before jumping into either a live online match or the Arcade mode. This can lead to some very un-fun matches if you get stuck with a character you don’t gel with and may put some players off quite early on.
This game is to be seen, not heard
As with most games on the now-current gen consoles, Destruction Allstars looks fantastic, with bright, vibrant colours on the vehicles and arenas, and more particle effects than you could imagine. Each driver has a host of skins and costumes that you can deck them out in as well as different paint jobs for their car. These can be earned either through gameplay or via (you guessed it) microtransactions and in-game currency. While this is a trend in gaming that I have never liked I feel I should trot out the usual response of “at least it’s only cosmetics that are purchasable, and there are no pay-to-win mechanics”. That’s about as charitable as I get with this kind of thing.
You can imagine there are a lot of car parts flying everywhere in this game
Unfortunately, while the visuals are something to behold, the audio isn’t quite up to snuff. The sound design of the crashing cars is great, and the voice acting for each of the characters really captures their personalities quite well, but how’s the music? Well, there isn’t any. No, I’m not joking. When you’re playing a match there’s literally no music. It’s just the characters, the cars, and the announcer. For a game that’s set in a massive stadium with massive speakers visible on screen this seems like an egregious oversight to me. It’s not like this is a bug or a glitch or anything. According to a Reddit post made by the community manager this was intentional! This misstep is only compounded by the fact that, on the character customisation menu, the music (yes there’s music in the menus, but not in the game itself) will change slightly to match the personality of the character that’s highlighted. For example, Ultimo Barricado, a luchador themed driver will add a Latin beat to the theme, whereas Fuego will add some heavy metal undertones. This is an excellent piece of polish that really adds to the disappointment in the overall product.
Come for the fun, stay for… what exactly?
The game modes leave a lot to be desired too. While the core gameplay is fun there just doesn’t seem to be enough of an incentive to keep me playing. As I said, the 4 game modes all centre around crashing cars as much as possible. The Free for All mode is pretty self-explanatory I think, while Downfall is exactly the same game, just on an ever-shrinking platform. Not exactly a massive formula shake-up. There are two team modes too. Carnado encourages you to smash up as many cars as possible before “depositing” your own car in a central column of purple smoke. Stockpile is basically the same but with a King of the Hill vibe, requiring each team to hold certain points in the arena by continually depositing gears from cars they’ve wrecked.
There aren’t any rewards for progression or doing well in these matches either. Outside earnable coins that can be used to buy emotes and skins there doesn’t seem to be any incentive to complete the daily or weekly challenges. There’s even a prestige system that seems like it offers nothing for hitting the maximum level and re-upping.
Why couldn’t we have gotten something a bit more creative than “whoever smashes more cars wins”? Why not something like a guardian mode, where each team needs to protect one driver from being hit while at the same time trying to hit the opposing team? Or a Last Man Standing mode where there are no respawns? How about a Destruction Derby type mode where you have to race through checkpoints while taking out the other team at the same time?
No pay, no play
100 Destruction Tokens is €1 and there’s one of these for every character
To be fair, that last example does exist in the game. It’s in the paltry “challenge mode” where, in theory, each character has their own story to play through and complete various challenges in to earn those (apparently) coveted skins and emotes. I say in theory because you are only allowed to access Ultimo Barricado’s story from the get-go. You don’t unlock any others through gameplay either. No, you unlock them with a credit card. You read that right. This game was due to retail for the price of €70 and they have the audacity to ask you to pay for the campaign. I was annoyed enough about the skins and emotes being paywalled, but to excise the campaign from the main package for the sake of wringing up to a fiver a pop from the players is just unforgivable in my opinion. These aren’t just collections of missions that are linked to each character either. No, there’s a story for each and there are fully animated cutscenes. In order to get the full experience of this game after March, players will be asked to fork over nearly €150 as well as their PS+ subscription and then they may pay for skins and emotes on top of that. If this is what passes for a first-party showcase title nowadays, I’ll just get off the bus right now. I want no part in it.
Hit the brakes and back away
All this leads to the conclusion that this will probably be the most disappointing game I’ll play in 2021. As I said, I had a great time playing a few matches and causing untold destruction with my fellow players, but there’s just not enough to keep me coming back. Deep down there is the potential for this game to be one of the greats, a real mainstay of my casual online roster. But that potential is buried under so many layers of terrible choices, exploitive monetization, and low effort corner-cutting that it may be irredeemable at this stage. I’ll be back to update this review if there are any significant changes but for now, get it for free while you can, or don’t get it at all.
Ireland has been very slow to adopt online shopping. That’s a broad statement that needs a little bit of digging. Irish businesses, more specifically, have been slow to accept Irish shoppers want to spend online. Irish shoppers on the other hand have been more than happy to buy what they need from web stores. Today, PayPal has released figures confirming that nearly a year into the pandemic little has changed with 88% of Ireland’s online shoppers buying from international websites over the last year.
The Pandemic Problem
First of all, I’m not trying to belittle how awful this pandemic is by talking about online shopping. COVID-19 has been horrible for everyone but let’s be honest. During some of the grim dark days stuck indoors, waiting for the DHL guy to arrive has been a rare highlight.
This is because people are shopping online more than ever. For shoppers, the money goes where the value is. Unfortunately, Irish businesses were caught napping in the early stages. Largely, years of neglect and focus on bricks and mortar had left them unready for online trading. Efforts were made to drive home messages with shoppers like “shop local” to keep people spending with Irish businesses. Indeed, this is actually the second biggest reasons people still like to shop with Irish websites according to this research.
Unfortunately for businesses, online shopping opens up a raft of opportunities for Irish shoppers seeking value which means simply getting your products online isn’t enough. The prices need to be competitive and retailers are not just competing with the store around the corner any more.
PayPal Reveal Irish Online Shopping Trends
Today, PayPal has revealed figures confirming the worst fears of Irish retailers. 88% of shoppers in Ireland have bought from international websites over the past year. The data should be eye-opening for Irish retailers as it uncovers some untold truths about Irish shopping trends.
Why Do People In Ireland Shop Online Abroad?
The answer to this question is simple, but it’s great to see some data to support it. The main reason people in Ireland shop online with international websites is simply seeking the best prices. Another reason, and one I definitely relate to is access to a wider range of products. As a small country, we don’t always get the latest tech or products in general.
So where’s the money going?
Amazon UK Remains Popular In Ireland
I’m sure many retailers had hoped Brexit would help slow the momentum of Amazon.co.uk. In the past year, four in five of those shopping on international websites shopping with UK retailers and I would wager Amazon.co.uk makes up a large portion of that.
I’ve shopped on Amazon for a few bits in January and it’s actually fine. Even with the customs deposit, it’s often cheaper and faster to get products from the e-commerce giant, even if you don’t like them for very understandable reasons.
Shopping With Our EU Neighbours Is Popular
The European Union is working hard to normalise cross border shopping. This is being achieved through the creation of a Digital Single Market. This whole policy framework is the reason you can use your mobile data while roaming now. While it’s been a while since most of us have travelled, I think we can all agree EU data roaming is amazing.
Another pillar of this policy is access to online products and services being made more easily accessible between EU states. The success of EU shopping depends on shipping being simplified to mean uniform cost of delivery and returns regardless of the country an order is shipped from or to. One of the reasons people choose to shop with Irish retailers is faster delivery but this is a weak argument. An Post has been struggling to cope with home deliveries leaving many disappointed with the online shopping experience.
This might be daunting for Irish retailers but it truly is an opportunity. We have some of the most exportable goods in the world so making EU shopping the norm means Irish retailers will no longer be targeting just under five million people but instead have access to the entire 446 million inhabitants of the EU.
Irish shoppers are already turning to EU retailers with 43% of people surveyed by PayPal saying they bought from an online shop outside of Ireland but within the EU. There is opportunity here for Irish businesses willing to take the leap.
International Spend Higher
Another interesting finding of the study was that Irish shoppers are spending more internationally than back home. There can be many reasons for this, including just spending more for the “big international delivery”. However, it’s also possibly down to better value on higher priced items.
On average, those who shop online spent €385 with retailers outside of Ireland in the last year while those shopping with Irish online shops spent an average of €357.
So What Now?
This isn’t a doom and gloom article. The future for online businesses is massive but only if they act now. Surviving 2020 was enough and leaning on the loyalty behind “shop local” helped many businesses keep the lights on. But that loyalty will wear thin.
Remote working means more people than ever will have access to staying home to work and the Irish government has confirmed that’s going nowhere. This means reduced footfall in stores and more predictable patterns for home deliveries. All of this means online shopping is only going to get more popular.
Irish shoppers are motivated by value and range. It’s time for Irish retailers to meet that demand head on while also starting to appreciate the wider EU market opportunity.
Joachim Goyvaerts of PayPal sums it up nicely by saying, it’s “absolutely necessary that Irish businesses provide a digital offering. Of course, they shouldn’t look at this as a short-term investment because the growing dominance of online shopping won′t ease – even when restrictions do”.
Update: About The Data
This data is not directly taken from PayPal transactions. The study was conducted by Censuswide and involved more than 1,000 consumers in Ireland.
Do you remember when we used to care about data caps? It seems like a long long time ago, right? As someone who used to live with a 1GB Meteor limit, that’s mind blowing that I live without worry of exceeding mobile data limits these days. I stream or download as much as I like. Cool, eh?
Today, Virgin Media has joined the party and confirmed that all of their customers will now have access to unlimited data. So, if you’re in the market for a new network today, who offers proper no limits data access?
The Mystery Of The Fair Usage Policy
Today, if you join one of the holy-trinity networks in Ireland (Eir, Three or Vodafone), you’ll be able to get connected to mobile internet claiming to be unlimited in some shape or form. They managed to all use different terms for it which naturally leads to confusion and suspicion! So if you’re shopping around, just who offers internet you can buy and forget about?
Virgin Media: Unlimited Data Until July
Today, Virgin Mobile announced that all of their mobile customers will no longer have to worry about data caps at all, prompting me to start this little data dig.
All customers who have a data limit on their plan will now become unlimited and all those on unlimited plans will have the 80GB fair usage policy removed. That means you can go wild and download as much as you like. Sure you already have gone wild! Virgin Mobile confirmed that 2020 brought a 47% increase in data usage on their network.
It’s not a complete commitment to a future of unlimited internet access on-the-go. Unlimited mobile internet will remain in place until July 18th 2021.
Unlimited With The Big Three Mobile Networks
Virgin Mobile is an MVNO using Three’s network but I’ll compare them to the value competitors later. First, let’s look at how they weigh up against the big three.
Vodafone: Unlimited Data With Some Speed Limits
If you’re buying an phone with Vodafone, and taking a plan costing at least €60 per month or their €35 SIM only plan, well then it’s all unlimited. Completely and tee-totally. If you take the €40 phone plan or the €25 SIM only option, you don’t have to worry about data caps. Your internet usage is unlimited, in terms of the amount of data you can use. Vodafone does, however, limit speeds on these plans to a maximum of 10Mbps. That’s like the internet in my Mam’s house. It’s grand, but you won’t be enjoying 4K HD video streams on it.
Three: All You Can Eat Data With No Hidden Limits
Three doesn’t use the term “unlimited”. They never have, instead opting for the term “All You Can Eat Data” and avoiding the criticism of having “unlimited plans” alongside a fair usage policy. In response to the pandemic, Three had temporarily removed all fair usage limits from their “All You Can Eat” data plans. In May 2020, they confirmed this step would be permanent. If you’re on the Three network, download all you like once you are on an All You Can Eat Data plan (that’s all bill pay and all but one prepay plans).
Eir: What Is “No Limits” Data?
While Three avoided criticism by using “All You Can Eat”, Eir’s use of “No Limits” Data just made me worried enough to look in the terms and conditions. My fears were well founded. While Eir claim to have “No Limits” mobile internet, their highest mobile plan retains a 120GB fair usage policy. This means that should you go over that data cap, Eir retains the right to limit your access to the internet on your mobile data connection.
I’ve never really had an issue with fair usage policies, but 120GB is a very low fair usage policy to not mention up front. It feels like a dated entry in the terms and conditions that someone simply forgot about!
The Value Networks
The value networks of Ireland are typically, 48, Clear Mobile, Gomo, Tesco Mobile and Virgin Media.
48
48 is up front with their offering. €10.99 per month for 100GB of 4G mobile internet access. They don’t try to sell “unlimited” so let’s move on.
Clear Mobile
On the surface, Vodafone’s new value brand might get you excited with their “Unlimited Data” for just €12.99, but there is a limit. The speed is capped at a fairly upsetting 5Mbps.
Gomo
Gomo promises all calls, texts and data for €12.99 per month. But because it’s run on the Eir network, I was immediately suspicious again. Sorry, but I was right to be too! Like the parent network, there is a 120GB fair usage limit. Again, it’s not that it’s an insignificant amount of data to get through, it just feels a bit sneaky.
Tesco Mobile
Tesco Mobile doesn’t mess around either. All of their plans are clear in their data offering, ranging from 5GB to 30GB bill pay data plans. Nothing hidden here, well played Tesco.
Virgin Mobile
And we’re back to where we started.
It’s welcome news that today Virgin Mobile confirmed they would remove fair usage policies and go properly unlimited until July. I’m labouring that date a bit because it’s important you remember to check if they re-introduce data limits again. Their old fair usage was as low as 40GB on some plans, one that would be easy to go sailing past.
