If you’ve found this article in 2021, it’s probably because Bebo is relaunching.
What a blast from the past this is! I was just on Twitter and saw Bebo was trending. My mind raced by to sharing “the luv” to a handful of people per day and being “married” to be heterosexual mates. Ah the good old days, but why is Bebo trending on Twitter today? Is the original social media platform making a comeback? I’m afraid not.
What Is Bebo?
For me, Bebo was the original social network, even before Facebook had a “the” in the name. Your Bebo homepage was this bizarre mix of hand-drawn art, comments photos and posts. It was a place where friends came to have fun and make fun.
It was, to the people of Ireland, effectively what MySpace was to the rest of the world and for some reason it really took off here. Scrolling through Twitter I saw that Bebo was trending and people posting images galore brought quite a bit of nostalgia down on top of me. Like just look at this craic.
It also reminds me how a young mind can think something so stupid as your “Luv” counter or profile views can equate to some sort of real life self worth and that today social media is no different for people young and old.
You used to be able to fill in loads of details about yourself. People would spend hours crafting the perfect interest page spread across things like:
Music
Films
Sports
Things your scared of
List of things your happiest doing
What your favourite slang is
Anyway, why is Bebo trending on Twitter? Is there a big comeback on?
Does Bebo Still Exist Or Is Bebo Making A Comeback?
Back in 2014 Bebo did make a short-lived comeback as a messenger app. Yet again it’s a story of wrong place wrong time for the social media innovator. Bebo’s comeback was something akin to what Bitmoji was, giving you a kind of personal avatar. People were also give the opportunity to download old images back in 2013 which really sent people down memory lane.
In 2017, Bebo had begun to offer streaming software which could be plugged into the gaming giant Twitch. After Amazon bought Twitch they shifted focus towards this new purpose Bebo and bought that too for a cool $25 million.
Do whether or not Bebo still exists is debatable. One thing for sure is that the social media platform that you remember and maybe even loved, is gone forever.
Sorry.
Why Is Bebo Trending On Twitter?
I can only conclude that Bebo is trending on Twitter because people love a bit of nostalgia in this weird Coronavirus world we find ourselves in. It’s been shown that retro is a big thing for gifting this Christmas. With the world falling apart around us some nice memories bring us back to happier times. Nothing wrong with that.
Explore Old Bebo
You can, however, in a limited extent explore old Bebo the way you used to remember it. This is made possible through the Way Back Machine. There’s plenty of things missing and broken images everywhere, but you can still stumble around old pages and see the featured Bebo pages of some users throughout history.
Today, Permanent TSB announced that they now support Apple Pay. Paying with your phone has grown in popularity during COVID-19 as you can use your phone to pay with contactless for transactions over €50 and up to your daily limit.
Using Apple Pay With Permanent TSB
To use this, set up Apple Pay and then just hold your iPhone or Apple Watch near a payment terminal to make a contactless payment. Every Apple Pay purchase is secure because it is authenticated with Face ID, Touch ID, or device passcode, as well as a one-time unique dynamic security code.
Still No Google Pay
Last month, Bank of Ireland announced they had launched Apply Pay and Google Pay. This means Permanent TSB was the last Irish bank to launch Apple Pay and they have yet to launch Google Pay. I’ve reached out to Permanent TSB to ask if there is a timeline for Google Pay.
Update: Permanent TSB has confirmed that Google Pay will be launched with them in the first half of 2021.
The 2020 market has been absolutely swarmed with incredible audio accessories. From high quality noise cancelling headphones to earbuds to help you work. There really has been something released into the market for everyone this year so now it’s time to reveal the best headphones and earbuds of 2020. These will be ranked by quality and, where possible, include a best possible and value option.
Headphone Buying Guide
When it comes to buying a pair of headphones or earphones, there are a few things to consider. I’ve already touched on one there.
Headphones or Earphones?
Do you want headphones or earphones? Believe it or not, there is a difference. Headphones are the big ones that fit over your head. Earphones are the buds you pop into your ears.
Sound Quality
Sound quality is naturally quite important but it will also vary in importance versus some of the other features you need to weigh up. For example, if you’re chasing the ultimate in sound quality you might be ruling out most earbuds. But if you want earbuds first and foremost, you’ll need to, generally, let sound quality drop down your list of priorities.
Active Noise Cancelling (ANC)
Active Noise Cancelling (ANC) headphones use small microphones to detect sounds from the world around you. They then do their best to intercept and neutralise this noise. The most constant the noise, the better ANC headphones will work. For example, ANC headphones are great at blocking out the monotonous drone of a jet engine while you fly but not so good at blocking out a crying child.
Needing ANC headphones is far from a foregone conclusion. You may want awareness of your surroundings for running or even opt for noise cancelling ear buds instead.
Listener or Talker?
In recent years one thing that’s shocked me is how important call quality is for
Wired or Wireless: Does Your Phone Have A 3.5mm Jack?
Seems like so long ago that having a place to plug in headphones on a phone was just assumed. Not any more I’m afraid. Now, to be honest, it was time we killed the headphone jack and iPhone might even release a portless phone next year.
I digress. Most headphones in this guide are bluetooth with an option of a 3.5mm cable. Some people will really want 3.5mm connections and others will just rather keeping it wireless.
Battery Life
There are some great earbuds on the market. However, many of them don’t have great battery life. Buying some audio equipment for long-haul business trips? A 3-hour ear bud is no use to you.
Apple Or Not To Apple?
When it comes to headphones there are no Apple-made options. There are, however, some products built with Apple in mind. Of course, there are Apple ear buds but that doesn’t always mean your have to buy them versus other manufacturers.
Best Active Noise Cancelling Headphones
Active Noise Cancelling (ANC) headphones used to be a popular choice for people who regularly take to the skies, flying from A to B for business or pleasure. 2020 wasn’t a great year for travel but interest in ANC headphones soared. There are a few factors driving increased interest in ANC headphones:
people are seeking focus while working from home
work places are offering people budget to buy headphones for home working
some people have disposable income and are looking to buy headphones previously too pricey
Indeed, ANC headphones are usually amongst some of the most pricey headphones on the market but if you know you need them they are money well spent.
The Best Active Noise Cancelling Headphones: Sony WH-1000XM4
Year after year, Sony rolls out their flagship ANC headphones and year after year they are jaw-droppingly good. This year’s model is no different in either quality or their silly name. The Sony WH-1000XM4 provide the best ANC experience and arguably one of the best audio experiences in general. However, it comes with a pretty hefty price-tag of nearly €400 which usually leaves me recommending you go back a year. The Sony WH-1000XM3 headphones are last year’s model but, even more so than usual, Sony added very little to the WH-1000XM4 headphones to justify spending the extra cash over going for the older model.
The Best Value Active Noise Cancelling Headphones: Soundcore Life Q20 Hybrid ANC Headphones
Looking for value in the ANC space is a very risky game to play. This recommendation comes with a ginormous caveat. If you’re gifting to someone who asked for ANC headphones don’t go with these. They’re brilliant but people who say they want ANC headphones will be fuming if they don’t get something like Bose or Sony.
The Soundcore Life Q20 Hybrid ANC headphones are great but they do make sacrifices versus headphones which cost four to five times more. The obvious benefit is that these will set you back just €60 and still deliver quality far beyond that price-tag suggests.
If you are gifting, the best thing to do is go back and get an older model from a really well-known brand. The difference here is that value takes on a new meaning along with a heavier price tag. While the WH-1000XM3 are still a bit spicey to be called value, the Bose QC35 II at about €250 are a great price. I bought these myself a few years back and they’re still my headphone of choice, although the Huawei Freebuds Studio do come close.
Best Headphones For Commuting
Plenty of people still commute for their jobs these days. If that’s not you, there’ll come a time when you commute again. Having a great pair of headphones can make all the difference during a commute, turning that extra hour of your day from stressful to a place of zen.
The Best Headphones For Commuting: Huawei Freebuds Studio
Huawei has frantically been scrambling to fill the smartphone-sized gap in their tech offering following the lack of Google support for the P40 Pro Series. Audio has been one area the Chinese tech giant has focused on and some of the products have been incredible. The Huawei Freebuds Studio are the top-rated product I’ve ever reviewed on Goosed.ie, bringing together a range of key features to make a great pair of headphones.
From surprisingly good ANC to great battery life and featherlight weight, these are a near no-brainer choice for people seeking zen on their morning or evening commute whether that be death metal or podcasts.
The Best Value Headphones For Commuting: Huawei Freebuds 3 or Apple AirPods
This comes down to which phone you have really. If you’ve got Android, the Huawei Freebuds 3 are a little older now but for in or around €99 it’s impossible to go wrong. I still use these regularly though mainly for calls given their crystal clear mic quality. However, a slim design and being the world’s first shell ANC earbuds makes these a great value choice for commuting.
If you’re an iPhone user, those Huawei Freebuds 3 will still work perfectly fine but they won’t have all the functionality that you get to enjoy with a pair of buds designed for your device. You’ll pay a little bit more but the second generation AirPods are the Apple alternative.
Best Headphones For Gaming
Another big space this year is gaming. Even before the confirmation of new next-gen consoles from Microsoft and Sony, gaming was on the up because so many people were sat at home with nothing to do. Headphones make a massive difference when your gaming too and this is largely down to things like the sound stage. The sound stage determines how clearly you hear the world around you and is essential when it comes to figuring out where a sniper is firing from.
The Best Headphones For Gaming
I’m currently working on the full review for the JBL Quantum One gaming headphones but they are a damn impressive pair of gaming headphones. There are some bells and whistles which are overkill but the critical features from sound stage to chat mic are nothing short of perfect. You pay for the privilege unfortunately, but that’s why I’ll give you a value option too.
The Best Value Headphones For Gaming
I remember the EKSA E900 Pro gaming headset landing on my desk and thinking they look pretty neat. I plugged them in, wasn’t madly impressed by them or anything but enjoyed using them. I like their look and feel and along with delivering fairly good audio I was fairly impressed by them. When left me shook was the price. At under €50 you will not do better than the E900 Pro for gaming.
Best Wireless Earbuds
This is one of the biggest minefields out there because there’s just so much personal preference involved. For that reason I’m going to break it up a bit.
Best Noise Cancelling Earbuds
This is one of the few categories that’s no challenge whatsoever. The Huawei Freebuds Pro offer incredible ANC in general, not just for a pair of earbuds. This follows the Freebuds 3 saying they have ANC but really only offering some kind of ANC-lite. They also offer great call quality too.
This is another win for Huawei and the older Huawei Freebuds 3. Already talked about them but their price now versus what they give you is just amazing. Some clever design means they are amazing for calls too. If they are just a little too hot in terms of price, check out their little sister the Huawei Freebuds 3i.
Best Earbud Battery Life
Here is another easy selection. I couldn’t believe how much the Creative Outlier earbuds. These earbuds have a whopping ten hours battery per charge and a case that lets you enjoy thirty hours of charge in total. They are some of the few earbuds on the market that you could use for an entire long-haul flight or even a marathon.
Best Headphones For Sound Quality
Why didn’t I just start here you might ask? Well, truth be told it’s because I still don’t consider myself to be an audiophile and prefer to judge my headphones and earbuds on everything else before the actual sound itself. For sound quality, there is only one pair of headphones I’ve tested which truly stood out for sound quality. The Audio-Technica ATH-M50xBT don’t have ANC but they are designed to give artists true monitor-quality feedback and sound. This means no false bass like what Beats give you. Just crisp audio sans frequency bleed. These come in two models, the newer of which offers Bluetooth so pick the one you want and be sure to buy the one you need.
Best Headphones For Battery
The JBL Club One were a surprise package of 2020. They offer great build quality, awesome sound and immersive ANC. However, they’ve been unlucky not to really top any of the categories thus far. And that makes sense. Given their pricetag, they needed to be really special somewhere and they never really did that. One slightly non-sexy feature they do excel at is the battery life.
The JBL Club One headphones give you 23 hours of ANC battery life and that’s not just advertised. In my review, I outlined that it’s tough to test this spec but it does feel like that number is on the money. While it’s tough for me to say these are the best headphones in any other category, the Club One headphones dominate when it comes to battery.
And so concludes our best of 2020 headphone buying guide. Feel like we’ve not answered your questions? Disagree with something? Let us know on Twitter and we’ll research or discuss!
Coming into the Christmas season means people are on the lookout for the perfect gift for loved ones. Straight off the bat, I can tell you that the Fitbit Sense is going to be right up there near the top of the list. For this review of the Sense, I’ve worn it for a month and have come to the conclusion that it’s a good fitness tracker, but it’s not great. However, it is a great Christmas gift idea if you’re willing to pay a premium for it.
What Is The Fitbit Sense?
The Fitbit Sense is an ambitious wearable from the world’s best-known fitness wearable company. In fact, it’s not even fair to call this a fitness wearable given his medically-approved health tracking abilities. When the Sense launched I already gave an in-depth overview of what Fitbit promised but this article is setting out to judge whether or not they delivered.
The Modern Health Monitor.
The Sense was to signal a dramatic shift from pure fitness wearables towards a complete health and wellness wearable. How did Fitbit do?
Fitness
The Sense shines through as an incredible fitness wearable. You can tell that this is Fitbit’s brown bread and low-fat butter. When it comes to your workouts, the Sense provides fantastic tracking. You’ll be able to track daily steps, distance travelled, flights of stairs or floors climbed, calories burned and your heart rate. Open up the fitness section and you can track specific workouts from running to circuit training and everything in between. When working out, you’ll also be able to access the Active Zone which gives you additional insight into your heart rate zone, whether it be fat burn or cardio for example.
What might come as a concern to some is that this doesn’t all sound very revolutionary. In fact, it all sounds like the very basic features you’d expect from a fitness wearable. You’d be right in say that too and that’s why the Sense is different. Fitbit Sense aims to deliver the expected and introduce a wide range of new health and wellbeing analytics into your life.
Health
As someone who’s had a small health scare in the past, a total false alarm with my heart, I like the idea of a device with built-in electrocardiogram (ECG) constantly monitoring my heart rhythm. Fitbit was rather surprisingly caught napping by Apple who released this on the Apple Watch quite some ago. What both companies failed to do is achieve a user-friendly way of delivering a constantly running ECG.
Using the ECG feature on the Fitbit Sense
I’m sure some engineer will read this and say “the man wants the impossible” but I have a real problem with the ECG on the Sense. You have to remember to use it. When you do use it, the ECG feature is super simple and fast, taking just thirty seconds of pinching your Sense to deliver you an answer on your heart rhythm. But as much of an impressive technological feat as this is, if you’re buying the Sense for this feature there’s a real chance you’ll forget to use it.
Wellness
The Sense was also Fitbit’s biggest step into the wellness market and it brings the world’s first electrodermal activity (EDA) sensor on a smartwatch to the market. This sensor is designed to help you understand and manage your own stress levels. The Sense does this by asking you about your mood and measuring your conductivity and sweat levels in your skin. Like the ECG it’s a fairly simple process to get a measurement. Just place the palm of your hand over the face of the watch for two minutes.
Like the ECG this does rely on your remembering to take a measurement and I constantly forgot to do this. Also, with my hand over the screen for two minutes, there’s very little feedback to let you know the measurement is still going well. It’s an uncomfortable two minutes of hoping it’s working.
Sense As A Smartwatch
The great thing about choosing a Fitbit smartwatch is that you get all of those fitness and wellbeing features layered on top of what is a pretty decent watch.
Design
The Sense is a sleekly designed watch. The glass on the rounded square watch face is rugged, surrounded by a stainless steel bezel. It’s super light which means you tend to forget you’re wearing it, which may actually cause some of the “remembering to capture metrics” issues I had. The “button” on the left side of the watch is easy to miss and does take a little getting used to. Rest assured that after a few days it becomes second nature.
In the box you’ll find two straps; one regular and one really long one. I would say I have an average wrist and I just use the last notch. Take some time to pick the right notch too. I had picked the wrong one first and felt some irritation which was resolved by going a little looser. Most importantly this didn’t impact heart rate measurement.
The Fitbit Sense is comfortable while working out, working or sleeping. Totally non-intrusive.
The only snag with the design, and this is a somewhat personal preference, is that the Sense doesn’t look like a traditional watch. I prefer my wearables to look like a regular watch with a rounded face and actually like them to be a bit bigger than the rather small Sense.
Battery
As is so often the case, I have problems with testing batteries because I’m used to Huawei products. Both the Huawei P40 Pro and Huawei Watch GT Series have remarkable batteries capable of two days and two weeks respectively. The Fitbit Sense can’t challege for two weeks but you’ll comfortably get five to six days between charges.
One frustrating feature of the Sense is the fact it uses a proprietary charger and doesn’t support wireless charging. With so many smartphones supporting reverse wireless charging these days, it seems a shame that if you were to head away for two weeks and you forget your charger, you’re stuck.
No Storage For Music
I was delighted to see native support for Spotify thinking I could sync my favourite music and leave my phone at home. Unfortunately not. You still need to carry your phone. Apparently, Deezer can sync music but I wasn’t able to get this to work and there are a lot fewer people out there with Deezer too. There’s no option to copy your own music files onto the watch either so I’m afraid you’ll still be bringing a phone with you if you were hoping to ditch it.
Alexa Only, For Now
The Sense does offer Alexa support as your smart assistant. I didn’t find myself impulsively using this feature very often as you can’t use voice-wake. Google Assistant support is will land soon but it’s baffling that this wasn’t the first assistant to ship with the Sense given Google’s parent company Alphabet bought Fitbit late last year.
Fitbit Pay
Not a Sense-specific feature at all but this watch does support Fitbit Pay. You can link up your bank card, if they support it, to your wrist for contactless payments. We’re all trying to use cash less if we can and this is a handy way to use contactless above the €50 limit. If you use Google Pay, Apple Pay or Fitbit Pay you can pay up to your daily bank limit which is usually €2000 or more.
Fitbit Premium
As part of this review I also got to test out Fitbit Premium. While I’m on the fence about the Sense’s value, I’m completely decided on Fitbit Premium. You can avoid it. Fitbit Premium offers some additional insights into some of the stats, like sleeping for example, while also offering a range of workout and generally wellness videos. After trying one or two workouts, I ended up on YouTube looking at much better workout videos which weren’t costing me a penny.
I found the disconnect between these workouts and my Sense to be rather unusual too. It felt as if the two systems were completely unlinked. At €8.99 Fitbit has overpriced what they’re delivering. Companies have realised that the real money is in subscriptions and not hardware but this Sense and Premium combination feels a bit rich twice.
Fitbit Sense: The Verdict
There’s no question that the Fitbit Sense is a fantastic wearable. However, the price is why this review might generally sound like I’m a little disappointed in the Sense. At €330 the Fitbit Sense sets an impossibly high expectation and I’m not even sure what Fitbit would have had to have done to deliver satisfaction for that price.
This is why the Fitbit Sense is probably going to be such an excellent Christmas present this year. If your shopping for someone who is big into their fitness and well being and that price is in your budget for a loved one’s “big present” then they’ll be eternally grateful that you got them the Sense.
If that’s a bit rich or you’re shopping for yourself, the Fitbit Versa is €230. It removes some of the fancy sensors that didn’t really impress me all that much and retains the excellent fitness tracking core you’d expect from Fitbit.
There are times in tech where I need to eat humble pie. Macbook is one of those things. I used to give out about people calling their Apple laptops “Macbooks”. They’re just laptops like, what makes them so special? Then I bought one and I fell in love. I suddenly got it, I got the appeal. I’m no closer to understanding why anyone buys iPhone but I got Macbook and today my trusty 15-inch Mac is probably my favourite gadget. I’ve just updated the the latest MacOS known as Big Sur but on the operating system’s launch day something unusual happened. As a result a wide range of security issues with the new Apple operating system has surfaced and Apple’s near pristine approach to security has taken a hit.
What Is Big Sur?
Apple has a history of naming its operating systems along with giving them release numbers. The most recent release is MacOS 11, also known as Big Sur. Before it became an OS name, Big Sur referred only to an unmapped wilderness area in California. It was called El Sur Grande, The Big South or Big Sur.
What Happened On Big Sur Launch Day?
Apple’s launch of Big Sur was accompanied by lots of fun for the Californian company. Apple experienced server outages which meant users were unable to download or install the new OS. Worse was the fact iMessage and Apple Pay also went down. Most surprisingly of the lot was performance issues for users running older operating systems on their Macbooks. In fact everything from MacOS Catalina and before saw performance issues, my own included. At the time I was worried my Macbook was finally coughing and spluttering but no. It was a centralised issue affecting all Apple laptops. Seems odd right?
Well, it seems odd only because I’ve been reading about how a security researcher dug deep into the release and has flagged some pretty frightening issues for a company heavily reliant on security as a brand cornerstone.
Apple’s Ethos
Apple is a bit like Trump. Wait now and hear me out. Apple perpetuates an image and keeps saying things so that we all believe it. “It just works” was their old battle cry, but like Trump’s “I won big”. If you say things enough, enough people will believe it without scratching the surface. Yep, people believe Trump won and people do believe Mac “just works”. Apple has also pushed the privacy side of their operating systems. “We at Apple believe that privacy is a fundamental human right” said Apple CEO Tim Cook.
The Big Sur release heavily undermined two of Apple’s pillars; functionality and privacy. Here’s how bad it is.
Big Sur Privacy Issues
Security researcher Jeffry Paul has published the innards of what’s going on. He outlines how the days of simply powering on your Macbook to do a task are gone. Instead, the simplest boot to undertake a simple task means a log of your activity gets sent to Apple. Paul has found evidence that Apple’s OS sends the company a unique identifer containing every program you run as you’re running it. You’d never notice it because it runs quietly in the background but it surfaced with the Big Sur release when things slowed and crashed, the two incidents being directly linked.
This isn’t a small privacy issue either. You might even be asking yourself “so what?”. Well, here are the things Apple is harvesting:
Date
Time
Computer
ISP
City
State
Application Hash
Apple can determine quite a lot here. They can tell what you’re doing, when you’re doing it and why. Apple also has access to your IP address which can be considered personal data. Paul also highlights that since October 2012, Apple has signed up to PRISM, a program which allowed the US federal police and military access to all of this data freely, access they made use of over 30,000 times in 2019 alone.
Paul spells out the simple truth that “this data amounts to a tremendous trove of data about your life and habits, and allows someone possessing all of it to identify your movement and activity patterns. For some people, this can even pose a physical danger to them”.
Un-privacy By Design
Now, as is often the case, things like this emerge and through a simple installation, the problem is solved. Like online ads. They’re annoying so we install ad blockers. Until Big Sur, a program called Little Snitch. This allowed you to block all communication between your laptop and Apple. Nice, right? Well, Big Sur prevented Big Sur from working properly. To me, it sounds like Apple really wants that data.
I’m no stranger to GDPR and am a little concerned about what Apple might be gathering all this data for. Sure, I’ve got nothing to hide but that doesn’t change the fact it’s my data and my decision what to share, not Apple’s.
For now, there’s not really much you can do about it all. However, if you think Apple is really security focused it might be time to recalibrate your thinking. I know I have.
Assassin’s Creed is back with the latest addition to one of gaming’s most iconic series. Assassins Creed Valhalla is less stealth and speed and more smash and destroy as is the Viking life, taking place during the Viking raids of England. You play as Eivor, the male or female main protagonist while you pillage your way through the lands in a gorgeous open world landscape.
Generally speaking the two biggest issues with Assassins Creed titles is that the games are two big and two repetitive, while these issues still slightly carry, your main man Eivor is soooo far away from the traditional assassin of games gone past. Unlike games gone past Eivor’s main story arc really has to do with the Viking life with intermittent Animus interruptions. As I said Valhalla is a bit of move away from the traditional Assassins Creed games and with more combat and gore than ever before, it’s time to raid!
Pricing & Release Date
Ok i’m later than expected getting this article done because I was too busy playing but it’s been out since November 19th on PC, Stadia, Xbox and PlayStation with new consoles also getting their own releases and and starting at €70 with prices going up as far as €120 for the Ultimate edition.
The Big Bad World
I honest to God loved this game, it’s well written and designed and you can see why Ubisoft took an extra year in development to give the series a much needed boot in the hole. Look it’s not perfect, there is no point saying as such but considering where the game has come from to now you have a lot to be happy about. The open world map os not as amazing as Read Dead, but what is, nor is it as explorable as Witcher, again what is, nor is the combat as good as Ghosts of Tsushima, again what is but Valhalla gives us a wonderful blend of all three that makes up for a stunning game with hours of entertainments.
While the open world like many games can be a bit of a slog to travel across, every village and camp is unique, no copy and paste jobs here and within each there are villagers to interact with whether that be in a beer chugging contest, Viking style rap battles…well flyting but it’s basically old timey rap battling and your usual shops and blacksmiths to trade with for different weapons, tattoos and even limited time products.
What can be a bit annoying is how far you have to travel at times to get from one mission to the next, we get it you made a big pretty map but keep the missions closer together please. The idea here is to force you to explore but it’s also an opportunity to test out the cinematic mode on horseback and in your long both, which offers stunning visuals of Anglo-Saxon England. Plus collect enough vantage points and fast travel will take away most of that pain and on you go.
A Slow Burn but well worth the wait
Assassins Creed has always had a particular way about it and to it and the games always, always take a bit of time to get going, I must have been a day in and hadn’t reached Mercia yet but once you do get going properly the game flows so well. Yes it takes time to get places but find your high points, syncronize and make use of the fast travel. In terms of the story it also take a bit of time to get moving, I mean unlike any other games you don’t leave your base to go explore because of an indicent that makes you an outcast or something along those lines, it’s because peace is declared and what self respecting Viking wants to hear about peace. Funnily enough it’s actually a bit of a contradiction because when you get to Mercia your overall goal is to takeover and claim peace. Yup leave to get the exact thing you’re striving for, solid Viking logic right there.
The game is visually stunning and battles are epic and they get better in time with more skills, abilities and weapons to get make things really interesting. Essentially this ain’t like other Assasins Creed games, its a bit more wild, the pacing is extremely varied and to be honest it makes for a really nice change of pace.
Bringing back a bit of humour
So very early on in the game you have to help a bloke get a hard on so he and his mrs can do the nasty, how to do this? Burn down their house because they first did it during a raid….yup that’s part of the game alright. On another ‘quest’ you convince a lady to release her cats so they rid her field of mice that eat here crops and in another you go on a kiddy rampage with some local youths learning the Viking way. Again unlike many Assassins Creeds games of the past this bit of fun and general humour has lacked and in male or female Eivor you have the perfect character to take these moments of madness in their stride.
To be honest I played most of the game as male Eivor but about halfway through changed and if I’m honest the game feels like it was built with her to be the main protagonist, you can swap so no harm giving both a go and seeing what suits you best. I personally believe that she fits the game’s subtler lines more, and is a more interesting character to control through conversations. It feels like the game would benefit from female Eivor being the sole protagonist, and it would have been nice to see an Assassin’s Creed Valhalla big enough to stick with her alone.
The Goosed Verdict
Assassin’s Creed games are typically stand out titles, the type of game that people wait for, just to loose hours upon hours in some outstanding landscape. Assassins Creed Valhalla is no different and if i’m honest having been an avid fan down the years, this is probably their best release yet. Norway looks good, England or Mercia as it’s called is stunning and you can really tell this game was built with next gen consoles in mind. As with any of these games some of the missions get a tad repetitive like raiding but the overall gameplay and story telling really make up for this slight downfall in spades.
Sure look here’s the deal, if you like Assassins Creed already or general open world RPG’s you’re going to love Valhalla, yes it’s more guts and gore than some of the more stealthy previous titles, but that should be expected when you’re a Viking. Oh and if the rest ain’t a selling point for Valhalla in early spring 2021 (St. Patrick’s Day perhaps?), ‘Wrath of the Druids’ will be the first expansion pass of the game, where players will get to journey to Ireland to uncover various myths and legends of our little island.
Watch Dogs Legion is a great game with a sneaky message, we have the power to rise up and fight against authoritarian governments when we need to do so. Ubisoft decided the way to send that message was to create a game without a hero. You can play as any one of nine million NPC’s (well not really NPC’s but you get me) to recruit them to your team of plucky hackers. The graphics of London are brilliant and the game play is simple and effective with some really cool missions to keep you glued to the screen and even more mad gadgets to whet your whistle for tech based chaos.
In this latest techy title Watch Dogs Legion takes us to the streets of a somewhat dystopian London taken over by Albion with organ harvesting, gulags, government monitoring and even self driving cars. So a mad world for a mad game but that adds to the fun and games.
The Overview
Watch Dog’s Legion kicks off with you playing a mini tutorial while you play as the Kingsman/Bondesque superspy Dalton as you fight your way through the British Parliament to thwart some form of terrorist bombing. Sure because it’s a tutorial it’s about setting the tone for the overall story and you ultimately are unsuccessful, the hacker group Albion take over London leaving your beloved Decsec dead in the water. Now it’s up to you to rebuild the hacker group and take back London.
What’s funny is if anyone has watched Black Mirror, Watch Dogs is really giving off that vibe and with no main character you can bring anyone into play to overthrow the establishment.
This dark future which in places often feels somewhat close to the knuckle, is almost at odds with the gameplay loop and characterisation you’re being presented with.
Only a handful are technically skilled hackers as part of their character, most are street sweepers or delivery drivers and the like, but thanks to a phone with AI built in, hacking is a simple process.
If you can forgive that leap in logic, it’s a fairly unique idea and one that, for the most part, works out well. Recruiting certain high-level or unique team mates adds some interest.
After all, who wouldn’t want an Aston Martin driving spy on their team with the ability to tap their expensive watch and disable everything around them?
From reality TV stars to career hypnotists, there’s a plethora of characters and career sets. Each has their own unique pros and cons, some may have quicker hacking cool downs or earn more crypto currency from devices they fine.
While others might have prior wrap sheets meaning once caught will spend more time in jail or even just an awful case of the hiccups in high stress stealth situations, which isn’t ideal when infiltrating large compounds full of enemies.
Some are equipped with a uniform for their day job, allowing you to slip in to certain areas without avoiding suspicion, though you can’t let anyone make eye contact for too long or you’ll be caught out and all hell breaks loose.
The Story
I actually really enjoyed the story, granted it probably isn’t anything new age, ground breaking or eternally different but my god is it enjoyable with some really cool gadgets to keep you occupied. Basically bust through missions, side quests and rampage the streets of London to take back control from Albion a neferious hacker group. That’s really it for the story you’re DedSec the hacker group for good and you can recruit literally anyone you walk past in the streets to become a member of the crew to wrestle back control for the people. You’re painted as the team of underdogs but with a powerful leader you get all the tools, gadgets and level ups you need to hack into cameras, go undetected through security and smash the face off your opponents wether it be in bare knuckle boxing bouts or while working your way through an establishment to complete a mission.
The Gameplay
It’s a bit like pretty much any game of this type, a lot of the missions are pretty similar but getting harder as you go through the stages. In Watch Dogs Legion your tasks are to infiltrate enemy stations, find evidence, take out targets and that kind of thing. With the gadgets at your disposal from cargo drones to spider bots you can get around places, do some stuff away from prying eyes before going into a base and getting your face blown off. All in all it’s pretty fun but some characters are limited so if you have perma death turned on and loose a teammate permanently you will need to find a new folk on the streets to take their place.
Not gonna lie my favourite character is the Dub I started with and his one liners had me chuckling away to myself as his language and demeanour doesn’t fit with the Cockneys and posh Londoners you generally will play with in this game.
Graphics & Performance
Watch Dogs Legion is a stunning looking game and the London streets are slick and realistic in their look and feel. Sure enough it’s not a direct replica of London streets with certain aspects missing or moved to improve the flow and layout from a gaming perspective. Anyone who I’ve seen complaining about the lack of 100% street authentic should really get a grip, if a game was set in Dublin I’d hope they would take a bit of creative licence to make travelling a bit more logical, we might have a working Luas or see some electric scooters.
To be honest burning through the streets of London in a Double Decker flooring Albion recruits or using an Aston Martin to cruise the streets is a fucking cool little experience if you ask me. Look this game is built for the next gen consoles so there will be some some bugs, annoying yes, debilitating no.
The Goosed Verdict
Watch Dogs Legion is a cracking game, fair enough it’s not quite up to the last Watch Dogs San Francisco title, but I really enjoyed the story, graphics and the craic. London is huge and it’s a proper playground, some people don’t like the voice acting but it is authentically English and my first character happened to be from Dublin. With every single player in the game a playable character it really shows the imagination of the game, there doesn’t need to be a hero when everyone can be one.
I think the game is properly addictive and there is hours upon hours of gameplay, I still have a bit to go since I’ve jumped to Assassins Creed for review on that front but 1,000% i’ll be going back and finishing this one. These are the games that are going to be the big sellers this Christmas and that’s for sure.
Writing and, dare I say journalism, isn’t all that hard sometimes. I use Google just like most of the internet world to find what I’m looking for. Google has a tool that shows trends and they’ve quite cleverly called it Google Trends. Using this tool, I can see that there’s a tonne of people searching for terms like “how to play chess” or “learn to play chess by yourself”. So, being a tech writer, I see it as my job to tell you why this is happening, but also to give you some ways to learn chess online.
The Queen’s Gambit On Netflix
First of all let’s address why there’s a sudden surge in people learning how to play chess online. As is so often the case, the cause of this interest is Netflix. Recently released, The Queen’s Gambit is a fictional series about a child chess prodigy. While on a quest to become the world’s best chess player, she battles everything life throws at her. Her parents killed in a car crash, she is reared in an orphanage. Here she learns how to play chess but she is also kept neutralised with tranquilisers. The result is a genius chess player suffering with addiction and emotional problems.
Now, I’ve only watched the first episode so I can’t go any further into The Queen’s Gambit. But I can tell you the show has been trending at the top of Ireland’s Netflix charts for days straight. It’s the first new show in a while I’ve heard several separate conversations, even in isolation, recommending and I’ve enjoyed what I’ve seen so far.
What I’m here to talk about today is the fact that this has stoked interest in learning how to play chess.
What The Interest In Learning How To Play Chess?
There’s a few things going on here. First of all, people have been locked up quite a bit this year. When you’re locked up you’ve got two choices. Either you let it get to you or you try and spin a positive out of it. I’ve experienced both and that’s probably most peoples’ experience. When it comes to trying to spin a positive, nothing beats an upskill.
Chess is one of those things that I’ve personally always wanted to learn. When I was younger I was pretty handy at draughts. So handy in fact that I was part of the Clara team who qualified for the Under 14 All Ireland draughts finals in Mosney back in the day. Unfortunately, I was also overage by a few months. An administration error “by the grown ups” that cost the team our big day out.
I digress. People are locked up at home with nothing to do except learn and upskill. In the past I’ve learned things that I always wanted to but never had the time. This honestly included how to pick a lock! The next project is learning how to play chess, spurred on by The Queen’s Gambit, so I set about finding the best app for the job.
Best Apps To Learn Chess With
I’ve taken a look around to find the best ways to learn how to play chess. Naturally, if you live with others buy yourself a chessboard. But if you live alone or want to get learning right away, it’s time to go online.
Learn Chess On YouTube
YouTube is probably the world’s most impressive bank of “how to videos” yet you might not think of it right away when it comes to learning. There are lots of dedicated chess apps out there but most of them have learned that the education side of things is a big money maker. I’m a big believer in education being free and that’s something YouTube excels at. Ok, it’s not really free because if you see ads you’re paying with you time but still, you get the point.
It’s a great introduction video that I found exceptional.
This video is brilliant because it runs through all the basics and touches on the basics of strategy too.
Theory is great, but the reality of Chess is practice makes perfect.
Chess.com
When someone has a website called chess.com, it’s a fair guess that they’ll be handy enough at chess. The Chess.com Chess App is a great mix of chess lessons and practical chess play. As I mentioned earlier, some of the learning in the app is ringfenced for premium-only members but some beginner lessons are free. Then you can take what you’ve learned on YouTube and here into a real game of chess against a virtual opponent.
Create an account and you can play online versus friends and strangers to really hone your skills against the wits of a fellow human. I do strongly advise you get beaten regularly by a computer before you put it up to a chess master though!
Play Magnus
Magnus Carlsen is a Norwegian chess grandmaster. Generally speaking, he’s right handy at chess and naturally, when that happens, you can build a brand on it. The Play Magnus app is that brand coming to life. This is a really nicely built app with one unique bit of appeal. It features a special engine based on Carlsen’s own experience which you can control. Basically, you can dial the difficulty of playing against Carlsen up or down based on his ability at certain ages. Pretty neat!
The thing that really stands out for me in this app is how it trains your brain within the rules. When you pick a piece it shows you where it can go. You can go premium and get assistance but to be honest, there’s merit in just playing through a few rounds against a five year old Carlsen. I take great pride in being a very inexperienced chess player who was able to draw against a virtual version of Carlsen’s child brain.
There are countless other apps out there but I’m just learning and really there’s no point in downloading 40 different apps. Instead, the winning formula for learning chess is:
Spend some time on the theory with YouTube
Play some virtual games to practice the theory
Then test yourself out against human players and virtual grandmasters
What goes around comes around. It looks like Netflix has come full circle and is set to offer its subscribers its own scheduled TV channel, Netflix Direct. Well, that’s if it gets past the testing stage. Netflix are currently testing their new linear programming channel in France due to France’s consumption of traditional TV.
In a world where everyone now more or less watches the majority of their programmes on on demand streaming services, such as Disney +, Prime TV and, of course, Netflix, the streaming giant is now going back to basics and offering scheduled television. If Netflix Direct gets the green light, they will continue to offer international TV shows and movies. But why are Netflix taking this risk when, let’s face it, they basically revolutionised streaming TV?
Is there such thing as too much freedom of choice?
We all like being able to choose what we want, when we want. But we’ve become so used to it now. Even though we’ve got hundreds of TV shows and movies at the tips of our fingers, we still love to complain. How many times have you said “there’s nothing on Netflix” as you mindlessly scroll through it’s endless library, only to flick over to Prime and have the same issues. Sometimes, we need some structure. “Many viewers like the idea of programming that doesn’t require them to choose what they are going to watch.”
I, for one, regularly find myself heading back over on to Sky Go and flicking through channels only to stick something on as background noise, only to be sucked into it after 10 minutes. “Whether you are lacking inspiration or whether you are discovering Netflix for the first time, you could let yourself be guided for the first time without having to choose a particular title and let yourself be surprised by the diversity of Netflix’s library.”
When is Netflix Direct coming to Ireland?
Following the soft launch in France earlier this month, Netflix will now be offering Netflix Direct to the rest of the country in early December. Which means we’ll probably see the channel in Ireland pop up in or around the new year. Given that most people are at home almost all the time these days, Netflix is in a prime position to roll out this new channel in order to gain maximum consumption from its users. Whether or not Netflix’s newest shows and movies will only be available on Netflix Direct is yet to be seen, as they have not released details of how they will pick and choose what content will be available on it. But as long as they don’t mess too much with their new on demand set up, but hey, we won’t say no to new things.
The mental battle in my mind rages between which console I’m going to opt for this year. Yes, I know it’s a bit odd that I’ve not caved and picked yet, a bit like that undecided voter on election day in the US. If this sounds like you, you’ve decided on Xbox Series X or are just ignoring it all and sticking with your Xbox One well then I’ve got some good news. You’ll soon get EA Play for free with your Xbox Game Pass Ultimate membership.
What Is EA Play?
Gaming is a funny old business. Games generate interest on-par with Hollywood movies when they launch. I remember driving through New York City when Red Dead Redemption was released. It was standing shoulder to shoulder with the biggest ads in Time Square. But as time goes by games lose their appeal. It’s nothing to do with their quality, they just become harder to find.
EA realised there was a gap in the market here to make some money from their back catalogue of games which, individually, didn’t have the same draw that they used to have. The solution for EA is simple and it benefits gamers too. EA bundles all of these older games into a service called EA Play which they previously referred to as EA Access. Much like Game Pass, you pay a monthly subscription to EA Play and have unlimited access to EA’s selected back catalog of games. You can either pay €4.99 per month or save 50% and pay €29.99 per year.
What Games Are On EA Play?
EA Play gives you access to over 60 EA games varying from the very latest releases to some golden oldies. Here’s the full list as of 09.11.2020:
How do I feel about that list? Well, there are some gems in there and I’m not just talking about Bejeweled. Games like The Sims 4 and Need for Speed have genuine appeal all year round. It is hard to ignore the fact that the catalogue is padded out significantly by older versions of annual sports games, the over-recurrence of which makes our Jon a little disappointed.
For me, this is why the news that EA is teaming up with Microsoft makes me a very happy man. I’m sick and tired of having to pay a million different subscriptions to watch sport, movies and TV before even getting to music and gaming. So, more on this partnership.
EA Play Free For Xbox Game Pass Ultimate Members
If you’re already paying for an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate Membership, you’ll now also have access to that full EA Play catalogue of games I just listed off, the newest of which being Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is the same idea as EA Play except this comes from Microsoft and has various game production studios on tap. The monthly subscription gets you access to over 100 games on Xbox, PC and Android. I’ve been playing Flight Simulator 2020 loads lately all with my Xbox Game Pass Ultimate membership. That’s the big benefit. When Microsoft releases a game, you already have it. When EA releases FIFA 2021, you’ll have to wait a few months before it’s free with EA Play, hopefully something that changes in a while.
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate will set you back €12.99 per month so the maths adds up immediately here. You can save yourself €5 per month or €30 per year if you already pay for EA Play and are a Xbox Game Pass Ultimate member. If you’re not an Xbox Game Pass Ultimate member, maybe you see more value in paying a little more and getting EA Play for free as an extra.
For some, this is simply another subscription. For others it’s an affordable gateway to some quality games, the value increasing with EA and Microsoft teaming up. EA Play will be available on Xbox Game Pass for PC on Windows 10 via the Xbox App for PC and the EA Desktop app (beta) from 10 November 2020.
