Nuclear Monster

  • Tasos Lazarides has a huge list of updates to the version of Minecraft for phones and tablets:

    These are just a few of the additions in this huge update, and you can see now why I said this update really changes the game up and brings mobile gamers closer to being able to play the full PC game on the go.

    It’s 2015 and Mojang is still paying for the mistakes of using Java to develop Minecraft by almost just now coming up to the features of the Java version of Minecraft in this just-updated C++ Pocket Edition.

    Cross-platform game development can be easy when you use the right technologies. Java is useful for prototyping. Java is not useful for shipping a truly cross-platform game in 2015. I never thought I’d say this but it feels like Microsoft might just have been the right steward for Minecraft. I’m not sure they have the balls to ditch the Java version entirely and open up a desktop version of Minecraft to modifications and tinkering in the face of whatever backlash it’ll create, but I hope that Mojang, and Microsoft, do it.

  • Here’s three hours of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain at 720p60. I can’t believe how well MGS V has merged open-world exploration and stealth action along with X-Com style base building and each component is done better than any other similar game. Some games stagnate as sequels stack up, MGS isn’t one of them.

    With every sequel Metal Gear Solid sheds its skin and becomes something new. Kojima fools us each time into thinking that this new MGS is like other sequels and to buy it in the comfort of finding something familiar. The band-aid is ripped off quicker than ever in Metal Gear Solid V, in a little more than an hour you will already be surprised and then find yourself doing similar things to what I’m doing in that video and there are still many more surprises ahead.

  • Metal Gear Solid V launched last night on Steam and today on consoles. This is supposedly the final Metal Gear Solid game from Hideo Kojima after some discord internally at Konami who have basically done everything they can to get out of the console game business choosing instead to focus on pachinko and mobile games. The only other big game coming out of Konami after Metal Gear is soccer.

    MGS V’s Windows version was to be released a few weeks after the console versions but it shipped on-time and looks great. Reviews are overall extremely positive and the PC Gamer report on the technical aspects of the Windows version is positive. The game runs very well on my machine, and the only real technical disappointment that PC Gamer failed to mention is that the companion app for tablets and phones, iDroid, will only link with the console versions of MGS V.

    I stayed up until 2AM playing last night after it unlocked around 9PM Pacific. MGS 5 is just that good.

  • John Koller on the Playstation Blog has some of the improvements coming to the Playstation 4‘s operating system. In addition to YouTube’s new streaming service we’re finally getting an increase in storage space for cloud saves:

    PS4 online storage capacity has increased from 1GB to 10GB for all PS Plus members. In 3.00 system software, you’ll see that we added a handy usage meter to monitor your available storage capacity, and a new Auto-Upload menu has been added to Application Saved Data Management.

    The 1 gigabyte limit was ridiculously small. Microsoft has no storage limit with their cloud save service on the Xbox and while it did require a subscription for the service on Xbox 360 that requirement went away with the Xbox One.

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    Alien

    Matt Matthews:

    I’ll admit, watching GameStop is a spectator sport for me. Despite all the negativity directed their way, consumers continue to buy at GameStop’s stores and partake of the pre-owned product pipeline that fills the company’s coffers. Pure digital consumers (like myself) have become a significant part of the video game industry, and yet the brick-and-mortar bruiser continues to flourish.

    I’m reminded of Ash’s words about the creature in Alien (1979): “I admire its purity. A survivor — unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusions of morality.”