Did I fit enough puns into that title? For those of you who don’t know her, Aloy is the star of 2017’s Horizon: Zero Dawn, one of the best games of that year (and it was an exceptionally good year!). The game itself centered around Aloy, an orphan of unknown origins finding the true history of her parentage and (inevitably) leading her people to combat a world-ending threat. Everything about it was sublime from the way you handled your bow, to the stunning design of the techno-animals to the way it handled the incredible graphical fidelity. It even had a brilliant marketing campaign showing what each city it was being marketed in would look like if it were in the game.
O’Connell Street after the third lockdown
Recently there’s been a lot of buzz around Aloy for a few good reasons, and I’m here to break them down and hopefully get you as excited as I am to see her get here long-overdue time in the sun.
The Battle Bus launches today
Anyone under the age of 18 will probably be well aware of the news that Aloy will be making an appearance in Fortnite later this week. That’s right, the bow-slinging, robo-dinosaur slaying heroine is paragliding in on her own custom Glinthawk glider. If you buy the skin, you’ll not only get her and her custom glider, but you’ll also get a skin for your pickaxe to make it look like Aloy’s spear.
Aloy always thanks the driver
It gets even better if you’re playing on a PS4 or PS5. Starting now, there’s an event that will allow you to unlock the Aloy skin by eliminating other players and getting as many of those coveted Victory Royals as you can. Every elimination will earn you points, with bonus points being awarded depending on how well you do in the game. Fittingly, if you get any eliminations with a bow, you’ll get even more bonus points! If you’re playing on European servers, you just have to finish in the top 800 players after 10 matches and you’ll unlock all the goodies.
But wait, there’s even more! If you’re playing on a PS5 you can unlock an extra skin for free. Any early adopters out there can get the Banuk Ice Hunter character skin for Aloy as well. So what are you waiting for?
Play at Home
This time last year, Sony decided to do their bit to help those of us who were in lockdown with the Play at Home initiative. The idea behind this was to provide 2 free PS4 games to help alleviate some of the boredom that comes from being cooped up indoors. These games were completely free with no PS Now or PS+. These weren’t the games that Sony didn’t mind giving away, either. The Nathan Drake Collection and Journey were up for grabs. Not exactly obscure gems. Play at Home returned this year with Ratchet and Clank being offered to everyone regardless of their subscription level. A fantastic game that I would recommend to everyone. Get it quickly though, because it’s being replaced with, you guessed it, Horizon: Zero Dawn Complete Edition.
If you own a PlayStation, you owe it to yourself to play this game. As I said, it was one of the best games of the year it came out. The story is brilliant, with natural dialogue and fantastic acting from some big names. The gameplay is engaging and strikes a perfect balance of challenge and reward. The visuals are revolutionary in the way it allows even base PS4 systems to render stunning scenery and intricate monster models in exquisite detail. There’s no better time than now to pick up this masterpiece, especially considering…
Horizon: Forbidden West
We can still be hopeful that Horizon: Forbidden West will make an appearance in 2021. The Pandemic has played havoc with the development of any number of movies, games, and TV shows. In fact, Phil Spence of Xbox said last year that 2021 is when we’d see releases slow down, not 2020. It’s fair to say that Sony was ambitious with their projected release windows for some games they announced back at their PS5 reveal event. God of War: Ragnarök, Horizon: Forbidden West, and Ratchet and Clank were all given 2021 release dates. This would be a tall order in any year given all three would require enormous teams putting in a herculean effort to hit the expected standard. In a pandemic, this goal seemed downright insane. Thankfully, Ratchet and Clank has been given a June 2021 release date, so I’m extremely excited about that. God of War hasn’t been mentioned since so I think it’s fair to say we won’t see that until the back end of 2022 at the earliest.
So where does that leave Aloy’s latest adventure? Well according to PlayStation Europe CEO Jim Ryan we can rest assured that HFW will be out this side of Christmas. This is still only a target, mind, and still subject to change but there’s always hope that we’ll be able to catch up with Aloy and find out what she’s been up to later this year.
The Data Protection Commission has today launched an “own volition inquiry” into Facebook following reports of a massive data leak. Last week, it emerged that there had been a leak of personal data belonging to approximately 533 million Facebook users worldwide. Within this group were over one million Irish social media users.
In response, the social media giant believed “the information in the data-set released this weekend was publicly available and scraped prior to changes made to the platform in 2018 and 2019” and had not reported anything to the DPC. Following a short period of consideration, the DPC today confirmed that “having considered the information provided by Facebook Ireland regarding this matter to date, is of the opinion that one or more provisions of the GDPR and/or the Data Protection Act 2018 may have been, and/or are being, infringed in relation to Facebook Users’ personal data”.
Own volition means the DPC may not have necessarily received an official complaint or has received a complaint and is first looking at the situation more broadly, as is the case with my own complaint against the Church’s handling of data under GDPR.
The ultimate goal of this action by the DPC is to determine whether or not Facebook Ireland “complied with its obligations, as data controller, in connection with the processing of personal data of its users” on any Facebook platform, including Instagram and whether or not the platform has not met the requirements of GDPR.
I don’t often get to write about music, but I do love a good tune. I love a good tune making a point more than anything. Lil Nas X recently released MONTERO, but now it’s apparently being pulled from streaming platforms. Is it really about to be pulled from the public or is this all a bit of a marketing ploy by the American rapper?
Is MONTERO Being Pulled From Streaming Platforms?
Today, the rapper took to Twitter to break the news that his latest track might be about to be pulled from streaming platforms, thanking his fans for the support he’s received to date.
not even joking. everybody stream call me by your name hard today because it may no longer be available tomorrow and there’s nothing i can really do about it. thanks for all the support tho! 🤍
Now, my first reaction was “this is a genius marketing ploy”, something this song has not been short of. The rapper followed up with another tweet encouraging his followers to “screen record” the track so at least they still have it in their gallery.
everybody screen record the audio/video on youtube so you will have the song in your gallery worst case scenario https://t.co/pjGd1CP2tw
A call to pirate the track is hardly a regular request from a music artist. At the same time, this would could inspire millions to fully stream the track on YouTube or another streaming platform. The result would be the track racking up play numbers and sending positive signals to ranking algorithms.
It’s unclear why exactly the track would be vanishing, but MONTERO is not without some “holy Joe” controversy.
Why Would MONTERO Be Pulled From Streaming?
There really is no genuinely good reason for the song to be pulled other than some people are finding it offensive.
What Is MONTERO About?
In 2019, Lil Nas X, best known for the hit “Old Town Road”, came out publicly as gay. Big whoop says you. The rapper has described MONTERO as his effort to normalise same-sex lust.
I love that this song, and in particular the video. In the video, the rapper is seen playing all the characters, succumbing to temptation, ending up “in hell”, making love to “the devil” before becoming “the devil” himself. Simple synopsis there. Understandably, it’s super provocative to many. And that’s ok. You’re allowed find it offensive and you can even find the shoes the rapper released offensive. But, you kind of have to accept it’s offensive and get on with your life. Because it’s offensive to you, for your beliefs. Just like some people unfortunately find homosexuality offensive. The world has moved on and the love of two people needs to be celebrated, regardless of orientation.
Basically, MONTERO is all about lust and love between two people, regardless of gender identity or orientation being normal, the video is about showing people that’s going to happen with or without you.
Will MONTERO Be Pulled?
Potentially, this could be the reason the song and video fit into the category of “believable content to be pulled”. At the same time, there’s plenty of more questionable stuff on YouTube and other music streaming platforms. I just can’t bring myself to believe that MONTERO is really going to be pulled because some people are finding it offensive.
This is one of the main reasons I’m using GDPR to tackle the Catholic Church on how they handle my records. People in the church have a right to live life their way. I’ll personally fight for their right to live their way of life, but only as long as it doesn’t impact everyone else. I don’t find “the devil” offensive, because it’s a mythical beast, so I appreciate what Lil Nas X is doing here.
Just because some people are finding the video and song offensive doesn’t mean it should be pulled and it would be very worrying that private tech companies bow to personal beliefs on a micro level.
What’s Really Happening With MONTERO?
To be totally honest, from following Lil Nas X on Tiktok and looking at how this song has generally been marketed, I think this is a stunt. It’s genius if it is.
By getting people to screen record the track, the song is going to be massively boosted with full-length plays, generating revenue for Lil Nas X along with boosting signals that influence these platforms’ algorithms. The song is already topping the charts in many countries, including Saudi Arabia which oppresses homosexuals.
If it’s not a stunt, it’s very worrying to see what content private companies will pull and even more worrying what they’ll leave up. Some on social media are claiming that the song has vanished for them, while others can still see it in their regions, saying it’s disappearing region by region.
It all seems like a stunt to me, but we’ll learn more in the next 48-hours. In one interesting development, Billboard had an article stating the song was not being pulled, but that article itself has been removed. In a new article, Billboard said they “can confirm that the song is not being removed”, but give no reason.
I’ve reached out to streaming platforms for comment.
I’ve been on a bit of a journey with smartphones lately, testing all sorts of shapes and sizes. What I’ve discovered is that I tend to prefer smaller phones now. This is mainly down to them being lighter and easier to operate one-handed. That’s why I was interested to test-drive the new OPPO Find X3 Pro. On paper, it’s big but it’s relatively light. After a few weeks with my SIM-card in the new OPPO phone, here’s what I think about a very nice smartphone.
Say Hello To OPPO
If you want to learn more about OPPO before you make a decision, I’d recommend you read my other article that looks in-depth at the Chinese technology manufacturer. Over the past few years, OPPO has left the relative comfort of the Chinese smartphone market to test the waters of Europe. After a particularly big, and successful, push in the UK, they finally landed in Ireland mid-last year. The Irish launch was just in time for the OPPO Reno Series to hit our shelves to modest fanfare.
But don’t let that quiet introduction to the market decide you. OPPO creates smartphones that challenge norms and push design boundaries. Their phones remind me a lot of Huawei and the high success they enjoyed with phones like the P20 Pro and P30 Pro before the unfortunate US-Google ban.
If that’s weighing on your mind, let me address it immediately. There are no problems with OPPO and Google, nor is it predicted that there will be. Remember, even when the Huawei problems began to arise, phones like the P30 Pro which already had Android were unaffected. You can buy OPPO phones with no concerns over that whole Android thing.
The real question is, should you buy their new flagship OPPO Find X3 Pro.
OPPO Find X3 Pro
The Find series of smartphones is OPPOs big flagship range. This is where you’ll find their biggest and best innovation both in terms of tech and design. One of the most memorable phone designs of recent memory was the OPPO Find X which had a full sliding chassis hiding the camera on the rear.
Image of Find X courtesy of nextpit.com
The OPPO Find X3 Pro lives up to the hype too, delivering loads of great innovation and features to justify you handing over your hard-earned cash.
What’s In The Box
What you get in the box is often a bit of a dull affair, but these days it’s a little more interesting.
The Charger: 65W SuperVOOC Flash Charge
First of all, companies like Apple and Samsung now ship their flagship smartphones without a power-brick in the box. There’s some debate over the motives behind the removal of chargers from your new smartphone, but it’s not something you’ve got to worry about with the OPPO. In fact, one of the highlights of this whole phone is the charger you get.
In the box of your new Find X3 Pro you’ll get what OPPO refers to as a 65W SuperVOOC Flash Charger. This will charge your phone so fast you can actually see it flying along.
Until you’ve used and/or needed really fast charging, it’s hard to appreciate it. Look how fast the OPPO Find X3 Pro is.
This is 65w SuperVOOC Flash Charging. Just did 0% to 70% in less than 20 mins. pic.twitter.com/cDFp4YHnw2
I’ve seen fairly fast charging before, but this really is incredible pace. For the few weeks I was using the Find X3 Pro, I did feel like the battery life wasn’t as impressive as some other phones, like the Huawei P40 Pro. But the big benefit for the Find X3 Pro is that it’s sacrificing that battery power to make the phone lighter. More on that later.
The important thing to note from this part of the review, is that you get a great 65w fast charger in the box with both power brick and cable. You’ll need to have both for the best charging experience.
A Really Nice Case
While one trend has been to remove chargers from the box, many manufacturers have started adding cheap protective cases with new phones. These are usually TPU (Thermoplastic Polyurethanes) cases. Transparent and super-cheap looking things that are purely designed to protect your phone if you were to hop it off the ground.
The quality of the case included in the box is great
The OPPO Find X3 Pro actually includes a case that I wouldn’t be mortified to be seen with. Actually, quite the opposite. The case included with your new OPPO phone is so nice I personally wouldn’t go buy another case at all. This is great news given that finding cases for OPPO in Ireland can be tricky, purely down to them being a relative new phone maker on the market here.
Also in the box is a decent, but not amazing, pair of wired USB-C earphones. Nice that you get these because, as is a bit of a norm these days, there is no port for 3.5mm audio accessories.
Phone Design
I mentioned that the OPPO Find Series is where the company’s designers and engineers get free roam to really push the envelope. The Find X3 Pro is a unique looking phone, clearly born from a company trying to push boundaries. One look at the phone, particularly with the case off shows you just how unique the Find X3 Pro is.
The Find X3 Pro has a unique “single pour” cast body which rolls over the camera array
The most striking element of the design, at least visually is the “fluid” casing which flows over the camera. Typically, manufacturer sit the camera into the body, whereas OPPO has created a single unit. While the look is unique, the result is also a sealed smartphone with an IP68 water and dust rating.
Flip the phone over and there’s nothing especially worthy of note. Keeping in with the liquid motif, the display flows over the phone’s edges with a narrow black bezel visible on the forehead and chin of the phone. You’ll spot a small speaker at the top here too, so no in-screen speaker which features with the competition and is really a matter of personal taste.
The display is home to an in-screen fingerprint reader and a cut-out selfie camera. Another added bonus is that the phone comes with a screen protector already applied. Combined with the free case and the overall design of the phone, the Find X3 Pro is incredibly comfortable to hold.
I’ve also been testing the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra at the moment. While that review isn’t quite finished yet, one thing I will say is that the S21 Ultra is a massive, unwieldy phone. Owning to great design and the reduced battery capacity, the Find X3 Pro is, for its size, a remarkably light and easy to handle the phone. Weighing in at just 193g, it easily beats the S21 Ultra (227g) and Huawei P40 Pro (209g). If you want lighter, you’ll need to look at the Samsung Galaxy S21 or iPhone 12 which are both the guts of 30g lighter.
I’ve mentioned the battery quite a bit so far, so let’s take a closer look.
The Battery
I’ve mentioned the reduced battery capacity a few times, but I really have to add some context to that statement. The OPPO Find X3 Pro has a 4500 mAh battery, which is by flagship standards – average. On paper, it beats the Huawei P40 Pros 4200 mAh, but in reality, Huawei’s smart power management means a better battery experience. Typically, I was just about getting a day from the Find X3 Pro when testing it. Even the iPhone 12 that I’m testing feels like the power management just isn’t quite there for OPPO. But this isn’t a problem to be honest.
It all comes back to the 65W SuperVOOC charger. What ever OPPO has done to shave weight off this phone does seem to have done something to their power management. But with a charger as impressive as the one you get in the box, that just doesn’t matter. Pop this phone on charge for just 10 minutes and you will be left with 40% battery from nothing.
Smartphones are a world of compromises these days. Each manufacturer is quickly learning that they need to cut out their own niche instead of just packing phones full of every spec. Big screen, powerful and light is what OPPO went for here, and it really works out for them.
Camera
This is the second smartphone I’ve tested from OPPO, the first being the Reno4 Pro 5G. While this is an impressive smartphone capable of impressing in a new market, one area marked “could improve” was the camera. While impressive, it simply could have been better.
As you might expect, the Find X3 Pro camera is a step up and very much worthy of the flagship title. Without wanting to take it easy on OPPO I put it up against the Samsung S21 Ultra when I was out for the millionth walk of April.
OPPO Find X3 Pro (Left) Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra (Right)
The camera is able to stand toe-to-toe with the very best smartphone cameras I’ve tested. OPPO has opted for 4 lenses in total. Some more typical than others. The dual-primary lenses, for day-to-day shooting, are a 50MP Ultra-Wide-Angle Lens and a 50MP Wide-Angle Lens. The main reason I love the camera on the Find X3 Pro is the consistency. Often, when switching between lenses on a smartphone, you gain or lose something. OPPO promises to be different.
You can see the Find X3 Pro delivers great depth of colour regardless of lens, even when using the phones excellent Ultra Wide Angle lens.
One fault I found with during my first OPPO test of the Reno4 Pro 5G was every now and then you’d get a blurry photo. This was a result of a slight movement at the real wrong moment. The Find X3 Pro employs some pretty impressive optical image stabilisation to remove this problem.
While these cameras are excellent, they aren’t as mind-blowing as the 3MP Microlens. Now, will you use this every day? I doubt it, but it does blow my mind that a smartphone can do this. This Microlens, as the name suggests, is like having a microscope in your pocket. I tested this out on some Goosed.ie merch I got recently.
Do I have a really practical use for what I'm about to show you? No. Is it still cool? Hell yes! The new #FindX3Pro from @oppo has a microscope lens. Just look at the high-quality threads in the @goosed_ie merch!
I’m really struggling to play down this feature. I can’t imagine it being a clincher for many people to choose the phone, but give how generally impressive the camera is, it’s a real feature to set it apart from others on the market.
Display
I only touched upon the display earlier, but now it’s time to dive into the detail. As I mentioned, it’s got a curved 6.7-inch screen that flows over the edge of the phone with a 120Hz refresh rate. But that’s all fairly typical features these days. The amount of colour this phone can shoot with its camera and return on its screen, on the other hand, is not quite so typical. The company has gone through a particular effort to make clear the “billion colours” ability of the Find X3 Pro. You can even set the phone up to display colours in a tailored fashion for you by taking a quick test.
Whether you’re browsing through the snaps you took while out for a walk in the park or the latest movie on Netflix, the Find X3 Pro display is fantastic. Combined with the colour-depth, refresh rate, what I believe to be one of the highest screen-to-body ratios I’ve ever seen and Dolby Atmos sound, the phone is an entertainment beast. It’s ideal for gamers, movie buffs and mobile photography and videography enthusiasts.
Other Bits Of The Find X3 Pro
The OPPO Find X3 Pro is not light on eye-watering specs and there are some other features worthy of note. The phone is, again as is becoming a modern standard, 5G. With Ireland’s ever growing network of 5G mobile internet becoming more accessible, this will probably be a big deal in 2022. For now, we’re stuck at home where the Wi-Fi connects automatically anyway. The good news is that the phone also supports Wi-Fi 6, so even that’s lightening fast too.
The OPPO Find X3 Pro with SIM try and Nano SIM card
All of that speed is underpinned by the brainpower of a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 5G and a whopping 12GB RAM and even more impressive 256GB storage for videos, photos, apps, games and more.
OPPO Find X3 Pro: The Verdict
The truth is that when you are picking a phone, it’s an incredibly personal choice. What I love, you may hate. Most of the time, it’s just about trying to make sure you don’t pick the wrong phone and I can nearly guarantee you, you will not regret buying the Find X3 Pro. It’s a premium smartphone packed with enough features and specs to meet and exceed the needs of many.
From the unique design to market-beating specs, the Find X3 Pro does enough to deserve being a part of everyone new phone selection headaches. The edge of the OPPO is that it’s hard to imagine a use case that’s not covered. It’s not failing because of it being a “jack of all trades”, it’s just really good at a lot of things.
The OPPO Find X3 Pro isn’t a cheap phone and is expected to retail for €1149, but as I said, you get a lot of phone for your money. We’re still waiting for a full list of networks and retailers that will be selling the new OPPO flagship in Ireland. Hit the bell in the bottom left corner to get updates as soon as we know. In the meantime, check out the cheapest SIM plans to see if you might be best off buying the phone outright instead of from a network.
OPPO Find X3 Pro Specs, Pricing And Comparisons
We’ve pulled together the most popular specs, pricing and comparisons with competitors phones.
They call it “The Treaty County”. It’s a gorgeous place, home to one of Ireland’s most impressive sprawling University Campuses and an envious location where you’re only ever a short drive from stunning coastal views. In 2020 alone, the City was shortlisted as a European Capital of Culture and in big national news, was crowned the 2020 All Ireland hurling champions. Limerick is home to ambitious people who want the best for their locality, nation and beyond.
While we all know and love Blindboy Boatclub from the Rubber Bandits, Limerick’s biggest success has to be Stripe. Given the drive and determination that comes from The Treaty County, it’s no wonder that the brother pairing of John and Patrick Collison call Limerick home. They are a product of Limerick’s mentality.
A stunning piece of graffiti in Limerick City, shared on the Embassy of Ireland USA Twitter Account.
Limerick is one of the top places I would want my kids to grow up. The City is buzzing while the countryside is stunning. From the Hunt Museum to the University and beyond you get everything from culture to natural beauty. Sporting success is engrained in Limerick, the spiritual and physical home of Munster Rugby. The Milk Market is where you can find food from around the world. I myself am a product of Limerick City. I was born in Kilkenny and lived most of my life there. I moved to Dublin where I ended up a DCU dropout. I didn’t really know what I wanted to do, but I had a lot of friends who had spent their first year studying in the University of Limerick so I moved. Seven years later and I left Limerick a Master in History with a job in a Dublin phone shop, a transfer from the same chain in Parkway, Limerick. I owe Limerick with my career, my experience and even my partner who I met on Erasmus during my studies.
During my time in UL, I spent some time working in Moyross on placement. Here was the first time in my life, a lived experience showed me just how horrible the media can be with untrue headlines to sell a paper. I worked with excellent kids and locals who took me and my fellow students into the community. It was a rewarding time for me and a massively important part of my development.
Now, as much I would like to compare myself to the Collison brothers, this segue is not to try and do that. The Collison brothers have enjoyed incredible success. I’ve used the company they created in various website builds and personal projects. Stripe is a beautiful integration for websites to accept online payments. It’s beautiful in its simplicity, security and functionality. Stripe was founded in 2010 when the brothers “were appalled by how hard it was to charge for things online”. The fruit of their company’s labours is that I’ve never known how tough that might have been simply because when I went to build my first e-commerce solution, Stripe was on the market.
While Stripe prides itself on both ease of install and day-to-day use, the platform not only processes payments for small business but also billions of dollars of payments for the likes of Amazon, Shopify, Lyft, Booking.com, and Target. Nearly half of all transactions online in the United States last year went through Stripe. Today, when e-commerce companies launch in the States, targeting 1% of the e-commerce market is enough to make the company a fortune.
Now, Stripe is considered to be the most valuable private company in the United States and they have just raised $600 million in funding with a valuation of $95 million. In just 11 years, Limerickonian Collison brothers have become the world’s youngest self-made billionaires ever.
It didn’t simply happen by magic, or happen overnight. Their success comes as a result of hardwork and the place they call home, a mentality that’s quintessentially both “Irish” and “Limerick”. It’s not just something I’m making up either, the brothers themselves agree. When suggested by an inexplicable and terribly incorrect piece of writing in Forbes, which has since been deleted but is still available on the Internet Archive, tried to claim the brothers had clawed and scraped their way out of Limerick to be a success, Patrick Collison disagreed completely. The co-founder of Stripe said “not only mistaken about Limerick but the idea of “overcoming” anything is crazy. We are who we are *because* we grew up where we did”.
Not only mistaken about Limerick but the idea of "overcoming" anything is crazy. We are who we are *because* we grew up where we did.
In what feels unlikely to be a coincidence, the Embassy of Ireland USA Twitter tweeted some stunning images of Limerick, a tweet that was liked by John Collison. Indeed there has been an outpouring of love for Limerick on social media following that article and now #LimerickAndProud is trending.
But rather than focus on what is simply sensationalist and cynical headlines in a poor attempt to be edgy and generate traffic, let’s focus on the two great success stories here, both of Limerick and the Collison brothers.
Gaming has changed a lot in the last decade. From the way we play to the way we buy, and even the definition of gaming has been changed. One change that’s been the subject of much discussion is the advent of so-called Live Service games. Or at least their migration into the mainstream. Put simply, a Live Service game is any game that receives continuous support, updates, or content additions from the developers. Most of us of a certain age will have come to know them as MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games) and they took the form of games like World of Warcraft, Runescape, and Everquest. These games were populated with real people as well as non-player-characters (NPCs) and were only playable online. Over the years, these games would be updated to remove glitches, add new storylines and items, and even add more servers as the player base grew and grew.
Marvel’s Avengers is the latest example of a Live Service game being taken to the extreme.
This model has been largely retained for modern Live Service games. One key change however is that the formula is now being applied to more than just Role-Playing Games, something many of us are welcoming. It’s good to see our multiplayer games get new characters, maps, and challenges to enjoy. Sadly, another key change is that the Live-Service model is no longer only being applied to multiplayer games. Some games are getting content updates and extra levels in their single-player modes and it’s not all for the benefit of those playing.
The Good
I’ve been a big fan of the Gears of War franchise since day one. The story of the original trilogy seemed to come to a satisfying end with 2011’s Gears of War 3. The big bad was defeated and a new day dawned as we were reminded of what we were fighting for all along. “Tomorrow”. This was quickly tossed aside when Gears of War 4 decided to go for a soft reboot of the franchise, bringing us to the present day and Gears 5. This is probably the game I’ve played the most since its 2019 release with nearly a week and a half in total (that’s 264 hours and counting) under my belt. It’s no exaggeration to say that Gears 5 has helped my friends and me stay sane. We play a couple of nights a week for a few hours of Horde.
This game has kept me safe from boredom and the virus!
One thing that has helped this, in my opinion, is the regular content updates in the form of numbered Operations. These come about every 4 months or so and bring with them a slew of new characters, new maps, new challenges, and even new weapons to play with. The Coalition (the developers of the game) also uses the Operation drops as opportunities to bring a range of updates to the game, from small gunplay tweaks to massive character playstyle overhauls (one class has gone from being melee focussed to being a flamethrower-based class for example). This, in my mind, is Live Service gaming done right. Every time you log in to the game there’s something new and exciting to keep you hooked.
This is just half of the free updates that Gears 5 got 6 weeks ago!
Of course, this all must be paid for and, as in most live games, Gears 5 hosts a bevy of cosmetic character upgrades that can be bought for real-world money. However, these can also be earned by playing the game as you normally would, so this system gets a tick in my book. There is the issue of certain features being disabled so as not to disrupt the in-game economy but that’s a whole other article! As things are now, I would say that Gears 5 is a class leader for games as a service.
The Bad
Things aren’t always as rosy, however. As I’ve said in a previous article, FOMO is a powerful marketing tool. Players will be more likely to buy your product or play your game for longer if they feel like they can receive an exclusive item or a limited-time bonus. Such is the case with Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. Currently, the game is going through its Ostara festival (named for the Anglo-Saxon Spring Goddess, from whom we get many of our Easter traditions), which features many limited-time decorations for your settlement, items for your character, and paint jobs and sculptures for your longship. This follows on from the Yule festival that took place over Christmas and will no doubt be replaced with some kind of Summer festival at the end of the month. This is all without mentioning the seasonal sales in the Helix Store (a sort of micro-store that you can spend real money on) that give different discounts on certain items depending on what time of year it is.
Reject hunting Templars; Return to hunting eggs.
This might seem like a nice thing to have in a game, and I’m only speaking for myself here, but when I finish a single-player game, I don’t keep playing it for the sake of playing it. I may go for 100% completion, or I may get all the achievements, but that’s about it. At most I’ll replay the story and ignore some of the side quests, but I’m not gonna hang around to see what might be coming later. I’ve got other fun, cool games to play and enjoy! Why, then, does Ubisoft want me to keep playing Valhalla like it’s the only game I own? Well, remember that Helix store I mentioned? Yeah, all the seasonal items get put in there once they’re released. So, if I ever get FOMO, or if I just miss getting one, I can buy whatever I want with real money. Obviously, if I spend more time in the game, I’ll be more likely to spend more money on it to get rare items (the sunk-cost fallacy is to blame here). It’s a win-win for Ubisoft. They can tempt me with their new fancy items for free to keep me interested in their product, and they can tempt me into buying their items down the road. But who am I buying these for? There’s nobody to show off for, other than bits of code that look like NPCs. There’s no multiplayer mode to show off a cool skin so people will say “Oh, he unlocked the Jötunheimr armour, he must be good”. It’s vanity. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but I don’t think it should be exploited to make a quick buck.
The- ERROR-37 HEADER NOT FOUND
Do you remember the most controversial game of 2012? Funnily enough, the series saw a lot of controversy recently when its latest release was thought to be an early April Fools joke. Still at a loss? Ladies and gentlemen, Diablo 3. This was still back in the days when PC games were sold on discs (remember physical media?). When I went into town, bought one of my most anticipated games of the year, popped the disc into my laptop, and installed it I was understandably excited to enjoy some good old-fashioned demon-slaying. Unfortunately, that excitement was cut short by a textbox informing me that I had encountered “Error 37”. The servers were apparently so overloaded with players trying to access this “always online” game that there wasn’t enough room for little old me. The problem here is that I was trying to play the single-player mode. I couldn’t’ play a game by myself because too many people were playing it. Let that sink in. Now, it should be said that there were a multiplayer mode and an online “auction house” that naturally required an internet connection to play. That’s fair enough. But to say to players “you can’t play on your own right now because we can’t afford more space” or even “at some point down the line we won’t support this game, so you won’t be able to play ever again” is absolutely atrocious PR.
Just seeing this image is giving me terrible flashbacks.
The decision to have the game require an internet connection was to prevent players from cheating and scamming other players in the auction house. This auction house was quite straightforward; if you found an item in the game that you didn’t want or need (some items were specific to certain classes so if my Demonhunter found an item that only a Barbarian could use it was worthless to me) you could auction it off to other players for in-game gold or real money. It was a handy way for some 20-year-olds to make a bit of cash on the side *cough* *cough*. Say, though, I found an incredibly rare and valuable item and I wanted to try and resell it many times over, that’s where we encounter a problem. If a player had a local save that wasn’t synced to the cloud they could, in theory, keep reloading that save to effectively clone the item, breaking the in-game economy (and costing Blizzard their premium from all real-money sales). Seemingly the only way around this at the time was to require all modes of the game to be synced to a single online save-file. An unfortunate side-effect of this was that if your router died or if your ISP had an outage, your goose was cooked. This is a pretty bad example of a game being presented as a service, but it’s absolutely not the worst.
The Despicable
DRM or Digital Rights Management is a catch-all term used to describe the various anti-piracy methods that game companies use to ensure their games aren’t stolen. Back in the old days, there might be a code or password in the game’s manual that you would be prompted to enter at a certain point in the game. This was a favourite of LucasArts point and click adventure games. A little while later developers cottoned on to methods of design that wouldn’t prevent the game from being pirated but would completely ruin the experience for the player if they were. Some of these were honestly hilarious, like in Crysis where all your bullets would turn into harmless chickens, or Witcher 2 killing Geralt in a cutscene, thus ending the game, or tricking the player into romancing their in-game grandmother. Nowadays, however, many companies will require games to be verified online in a one-off connection test or, for many live service games, require an internet connection at regular intervals. This is generally seen as ok as this kind of DRM is fairly rare. However, one recent example springs to mind for backfiring so terribly. Crash 4’s DRM on PC actually gives pirates a better game.
Even Crash himself knows what’s up.
Crash Bandicoot 4 is a single-player game. There is literally zero online content. There are outfits and skins to unlock and it’s likely there’ll be some downloadable content down the line, but there’s no communication between any two players at all throughout the whole game. There isn’t even an in-game store where players can spend money. On any console of your choice, this is irrelevant as you can play the game whenever, wherever (on the Nintendo Switch), and whether you live within 100 miles of an ethernet cable or not. However, on PC, the game requires you to be always connected to the internet, essentially turning the game into a Live Service. Remember all those issues I pointed out with Diablo 3’s launch? Yeah, imagine those only 10 years later and without the inclusion of a multiplayer mode and an auction house to justify them.
This is to prevent pirates from stealing the game as if you have an unauthorised copy of the game and try to play, it won’t be able to connect to the server and won’t start (something that will even happen to the official game once the servers are shut down in a few years). Seems straightforward enough, right? Well, some very clever people were inevitably able to come up with a workaround for this and now the game is freely available to all people of fortune who sail on the SS Piratebay. The official game needs a constant internet connection to play, the pirated one doesn’t. No matter how you slice it, the pirates are getting a better experience here. Oh, did I mention that this unofficial fix only took 20 hours to do? That’s right, people hated this decision so much that they fixed the game within a day (The fans that is, Activision still forces legitimate customers to use the online-only system). Activision pushed the Live Service envelope too far (all for the sake of fattening their wallets) and the gaming community said that enough was enough.
So what?
Like many things, the idea of a Live Service game can be fantastic in the right arena. Providing content for long-term players of some multiplayer or “endless” game is a wonderful thing (as I’ve learned over the last 12 months). However, there’s still every chance publishers will take things too far all in the name of greed. The best way to know if a game will have the kind of content you like or not is to read reviews or watch some gameplay videos. Preordering your games is a sure-fire way to set yourself up for disappointment like all of us who wanted to get on Diablo 3 ASAP! As always, the best way to make our opinions heard is to vote with our wallets. If you don’t like it don’t buy it. Some of the armour sets in Assassin’s Creed are cool though…
A couple of months back I got the frantic text from a mate I was waiting for. “PS5 is in stock on Smyths”. Before I’d even really thought about it, and still quite sleepy after being woke up, I had a PlayStation 5 ordered. FOMO had hit me hard. It wasn’t a measured purchase anymore. I had the ability to buy something that no-one could get and I took it. But, was it worth the rush? Was it worth me buying the more expensive disk version over the slimmer PlayStation 5 Digital Edition? Ultimately, no.
The PlayStation 5 Is Great
You may have already ready Alex’s review of the PlayStation 5. Not one fault could I find with that review. I agree with nearly all of it. I love my PS5 and would be fairly sad to no longer see it taking up that sizeable space beside my TV.
PS5 Gaming Is Better Than Xbox One
I’ve already owned a few games on both Sony’s PS5 and my old Microsoft Xbox One. Yes, I went full migration with this one and left behind a raft of digital-only copies of games on my Xbox. The best have been acquired through some way, shape or form for the PS5 and have left me pleasantly surprised. FIFA 21, which Jon wasn’t a fan of, does feel like a much better game on the next-gen console. It’s possible that my tendency now to steer clear of FIFA Ultimate Team instead opting for Seasons is helping with that, but the improved game is indicative of other experiences I’ve had too.
None mores than Formula One 2020.
Now, I had bought the exclusive Michael Schumacher Edition of F1 2020 and I’ve lost quite a few of the nice bits that came with that purchase. The base game is still the same and it comes as part of PlayStation Now, one of two memberships I’m paying for with my PS5. My big fault with the original on Xbox was the online experience being really poor due to slow matchmaking. I’m guessing that by moving to PS5, I’m witnessing what gaming is like on the more popular console, but I’m making some assumptions there.
Ultimately, it feels like gaming on the PS5 is better than the Xbox One. I’m not even talking about graphics and all that craic. Just the experience and matchmaking feels better.
The Controls
Like learning to walk again. That’s how it felt to pick back up a PS5 controller after many years away. Now, after just a few short months, it’s second nature again. The PS5 controller is something special, not least because of the those adaptive triggers.
I’m going to stop myself there for one reason. This isn’t a review of the PS5. I’ve already said I love the console, and Alex’s review goes into plenty of detail describing many feelings I share.
My problem is with the hype.
The PlayStation 5 Is Overhyped
Just because I love my PS5, doesn’t mean I have to love everything that, figuratively, comes with it. I was a bit shocked that a week into owning the PS5, I was enjoying old PS4 or even some PS3 games from the back catalogue my memberships got me. I bought the next-gen Spider-Man and enjoyed it somewhat, but it didn’t captivate me. Some review codes started to land in but one particular game didn’t even get a review because I turned it on once and it was so awful I couldn’t face into it again.
I’m not talking about Destruction Allstars either which Alex somehow did manage to stomach long enough to review.
Browsing through the games menus, there are some games worthy of excitement. A new Resident Evil game, a game called Returnal and just this week EA Sports confirmed they are working on a new golf game. All of these are due to land in the coming months. Sure, some of them are closer now, but after all the hype and excitement of getting your hands on the what is supposed to be the world’s most exciting games console, it’s a bit disappointing to be left with nothing but pre-order options.
PlayStation 5 Still Not Widely Available
And that’s why I wrote this article. Am I glad I got a PS5? Yes. But I know I’m in a minority of people who “got lucky” and got online in time to buy a console. I thoroughly enjoyed a week of playing Stranded Deep on my new console. Just this week I bought myself Gran Turismo Sport and have to say the online competition mode is one of the best I’ve ever played.
At the same time, I expected more from a “next-generation” console. Perhaps what really happened is that I fell for the hype myself. It feels like Sony rushed the console because Microsoft was going to land their on time and not being in the market would be a disaster for Sony. Is that true? I don’t know. It’s speculation on my behalf, but I hope you can take something from this. If you don’t have a PS5, you might feel like you’re missing out on a lot. But you’re really not.
Working from home has become a massive normal thing to come out of nowhere in the past 12-months. Today, Revolut has helped shaped what that normal might look like in the coming years. The online-only bank with 1.2 million customers in Ireland will allow their employees to work abroad for up to 60-days per year. This is great for people who call home a different country or just want to get a bit of sun during work hours!
Revolut, which has about 50 employees in Ireland, studied applicable corporate tax, income tax, immigration and social security regulations to create a policy that is as beneficial and convenient as possible for employees. This is an interesting development as tax is one of the most common reasons given for companies not providing dual-country working policies.
The new working abroad policy was launched to enable the company’s internationally diverse workforce to visit families more often and/or for longer periods.
Revolut staff members who wish to work outside their country of employment for personal and non-business related reasons, will be able to do so for a period of up to 60 calendar days over a rolling 12 months. Employees can start availing of the policy as soon as travel restrictions are eased and must adhere to guidelines of national health authorities in both their departing and arrival destinations.
Jim MacDougall, VP of People at Revolut, said:“Once countries start to lift travel restrictions or slowly move away from lockdowns, after over a year behind closed doors, we believe this new policy will be a huge success among Revoluters. As we’re eliminating frontiers within financial services, it made sense to align our internal policy with our product mission. Our employees asked for flexibility and that’s what we’re giving them as part of our ongoing focus on employee experience and choice”.
A few weeks back I got to test out a Dyson air purifier. I’ve become someone who’s quite conscious about my home environment. The reason I really loved the Dyson air purifier was because it makes the invisible visible. Small particles in the air, invisible to the naked eye but still quite harmful, could be sensed and destroyed by one piece of tech in the corner. Today, Dyson has announced a new air purifier that is capable of both sensing formaldehyde and destroying harmful particles in the air. Last month, I got to sit in on a virtual briefing that introduced the new Dyson Purifier Hot+Cold Formaldehyde.
Obsessed With Airflow
I love Dyson briefings for one reason and one reason only. The Dyson people are proper engineering nerds with an amazing ability to trust the data and not pre-conceptions. For example, they designed a special backpack for children to measure pollution when walking to school versus sitting in a car and found that being out in the open exposed children to cleaner air than sitting in traffic.
My own Dyson air purifier
We humans get through 10,000 litres of air everyday and nowadays we spend 90% or more of our time at home. Yet, what do we do to actually protect ourselves from harmful particles in the air we breathe? It’s natural human behaviour to be dismissive of what we can’t see. Just look at how the harm we’re doing to our oceans is out of sight and out of mind.
The New Dyson Air Purifier Range
What Dyson machines do incredibly well is make obvious to us what is invisible, informing us and protecting us, focusing on three key areas; sensing, capturing and protecting. The Dyson purifier I’ve tested does these three things and I love it. The great news is that Dyson’s new air purifier range does this too with some added benefits.
Sensing
The technology in Dyson’s gear has always been incredibly advanced. Their products could never be classified as cheap, but they can justify their price tag with the sheer quantity of technology they pack in. Just look at the Dyson Corrale hair straightener. The new air purifiers are no different and in addition to the existing particle, NO2, VOCs, temperature and humidity sensors, a new formaldehyde sensor means the new machines are capable of sensing 0.1 microns, including formaldehyde.
Formaldehyde is a colourless gas often released by furniture and wood products containing formaldehyde-based resins like plywood and fibreboard, insulating materials and even do-it-yourself products such as paint, wallpapers, varnishes and household cleaning products. Given how much we’re spending at home and maybe even taking up new hobbies to pass the time, our air is forever changing. I myself have taken up the odd spot of painting and notice that my own air purifier sometimes kicks off because of the art supplies I’m using, or even some candles I’m burning for some artistic ambience.
With the new Dyson air purifier range, you’ll be capable of being more aware of your surroundings than ever before.
The market does have similar machines out there but as you might expect from a bunch of engineering nerds, Dyson does have an edge. One area they focused on was reducing false positives, which is common in competitor formaldehyde sensors.
Capturing
It’s all well and good knowing about all this bad stuff in the air, but what can you do about it? Well, the new Dyson air purifiers promise more particle capture than before, thanks to reworked airways. The result is a full-stalled HEPA 13 purifier capable of removing 99.95% of harmful particles in the air as small as 0.1 microns. The typical comparison here is a human hair which measures a whopping 70 microns.
Protecting
Beyond all of the insights and peace of mind you’ve got so far, the Dyson air purifiers take one more step to improve the air you breathe.
Dyson’s very fancily named Selective Catalytic Oxidisation (SCO) filter continuously destroys formaldehyde at a molecular level. That means it doesn’t just capture it, it zaps it completely. Its billions of atom-sized tunnels are the optimal size and shape to trap and destroy formaldehyde, breaking it down into tiny amounts of water and CO2. It then regenerates from oxygen in the air to keep destroying it continuously without ever requiring replacement for the life of the machine.
One final point outside of protecting that will be a welcome feature is a 20% reduction in noise made by the machine. I love my air purifier, but in a small room it can be a little loud. While not loud enough to be picked up on conference calls and the likes, a 20% reduction in noise being made by the box in the corner is always welcome.
The new Dyson range launches today and starts at €550 for the Dyson Purifier Cool, going up to €650 for the Dyson Purifier Hot+Cold Formaldehyde.
My personal mask of choice for the past year has been made by the U-Mask, made by the Italian company U-Earth. They’re comfortable and promise to protect you as well as others thanks to their “Bio-Layer” filter promising up to 200 hours of protection. I’ve been trying to buy a replacement filter for the past few weeks but they’ve been sold out. Now, U-Earth has now pulled the U-Mask Model 2.1 completely from their website. Here’s what we know so far.
Italian Health Ministry Ban On U-Mask
The U-Mask Model 2.1 proved popular with many, myself included, because of the comfort and protection the mask offers. No other mask was making claims like the U-Mask did. A built-in filter capable of protecting you for up to 200 hours, a mask that only needs to be washed when visibly dirty, it was perfect.
Or was it too good to be true?
The company has come under fire from Italian authorities claiming the U-Earth is advertising features that the mask doesn’t have certifications to back up. After an initial ban on the sale of these masks in Italy, U-Earth continued to sell their masks and published new research supporting their claims. Specifically, questions were being asked about the protective claims made by U-Mask, both the 200-hours of protection and the comparison of the Model 2.1 to medical-grade PPE.
On the Italian version of the U-Mask website, the company has published a banner stating, they “are sorry to inform you that, in compliance with the Provision of the Ministry of Health notified to the Company on March 26 2021, the U-Mask Model 2.1 mask can no longer be marketed as a medical device until the dispute that the Company is in the process of resolving”.
The U-Mask Model 2.1 has been the mask of choice for many F1 teams.
Interestingly, the same notification does not appear on the European version of the website. From a business point of view, it’s understandable, but given the company is having their credibility and transparency questioned, that raises some additional eyebrows.
U-Mask Suspend International Sales
As I mentioned, I’ve been shopping around for some new filters as mine are approaching their 200-hour limit, so I’ve been on the U-Mask website quite a bit. The filters haven’t been available for weeks, but now all products are marked as “out of stock”. This could be a rush caused by the start of the F1 season, but it does appear far more likely to be caused by the March 26 ruling in Italy.
On March 22, I contacted U-Earth enquiring about the filters and was told they “are are constantly restocking items except for specific collections or limited editions. Therefore if an item is sold out, it is very likely that it will be available again soon”. However, just a few days later, the Italian Health Ministry officially banned the masks and now their entire catalog is sold out.
I’ve reached out to the company for comment. They said, “with a provision of 26 March 2021, the Italian Ministry of Health prohibited the placing on the market of the U-Mask Model 2.1. We consider this decision illegitimate and we are taking every appropriate initiative in this regard. However, the sale of the mask is currently suspended, so we cannot currently process any orders”.
Ferrari Step Away From U-Mask
A lot of this is, understandably, playing out in Italy, so I’m trying to piece together as much of the story as I can. Along with the Italian government banning U-Mask, there is somewhat of a campaign being run by an Italian satirical website, highlighting the areas where the mask’s protective claims are coming up short.
With increasing public pressure, it appears that U-Mask may have lost a massive customer in the Ferrari Formula 1 team, who will apparently no longer use U-Mask. No official statement has been by the team, so I’ve reached out to Scuderia Ferrari for comment. The U-Mask Model 2.1 masks are regularly seen around F1 events since racing got going again last year after an initial pause caused by the pandemic.
If you want updates on this story as it develops, hit the bell in the bottom left corner of your screen.
