Our twelfth episode of Super Pixels Radio debuted this week, and it was not only the first episode where Stuart wore a hat but also the first episode where we killed a fly on air…
As always, I ask you please to give the show a listen if you’re interested, and to check out the lowdown of what we discussed this episode.
Stuff and Things (News round-up)
Amazon’s latest household venture, the Echo, is set to release in the UK and Germany this month, bringing voice-activated AI. The device (which looks suspiciously like what a Pringles tube made by the Empire from Star Wars would look like) is being dubbed a “smart home device” and will allow users to perform simple tasks such as playing music or turning on a light through voice commands. It has an AI called Alexia built-in, and personally I can’t wait to see how she gets on with Siri and Cortana. Soon every device in your house will have a female AI living inside it!
In gaming news, Yacht Club Games announced the second free expansion for their popular 2014 platformer, Shovel Knight. The game sits at an impressive 90 on metacritic and has a large fanbase, so this extra content is good news indeed. “Spectre of Torment” will release in early 2017 and is to be followed by another piece of free DLC after that, which means that in total Shovel Knight will have had three expansions, plus an Amiibo-activated co-op mode. Not bad for a little Indie studio, huh?
We also discussed the lack of mods on the PS4 versions of Fallout 4 and the not-yet-released Skyrim remaster. It would appear that Sony are concerned with the security and safety of their console, having had the PSN taken down by hackers numerous times over the past few years. The trouble is, Bethesda have promised mod support to their fans and needless to say people are not pleased, and nor are Bethesda. We discussed whether this will have an effect on sales of the PS4 version of Skyrim compared with Xbox and PC versions, and this topic moved us nicely onto…
The Main Event – The Return of the Console War
Anyone who was around during the late ‘80s and early ‘90s will surely remember the vicious rivalry that Nintendo and Sega had. And probably remember that Sega soon stopped making consoles after that. Anyway, that was the first instance of the “console wars” and since then the forefront of the competition has been between Sony and Microsoft. Over the past couple of years it seemed that Sony had a clear edge over Microsoft, and things had begun to settle down. Until, that is, the announcement and specs of the new versions of the Playstation and Xbox. Both of these devices are more powerful than their respective predecessor, but the Xbox “Scorpio” seemingly blows the Playstation 4 Pro out of the water in terms of features and graphical capabilities. However, it isn’t due to release until Q4 next year so it’s hardly surprising that the Playstation is unable to compete. Either way, tensions are high right now among gamers and this is a good thing. This level of rivalry and competition between the two console giants is going to spur on innovation and hopefully push them to new heights.
And then there’s Nintendo…
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