BYTE: Decisive December

I'm Paul ... and this is Paul & The Popcorn...

Welcome to a Decisive December, and, what's more - CHRISTMAS! The time for goodwill to all men - and of course children, women and animals - Christmas - however you perceive it, is the time to love each other, share that family time and generally try to make the world a better place. In January, the landscape changes to the new year and that is when we can start new, better habits and look forward to the year head, while simultaneously looking back over the journey we have come.

BUT! 2015 is not over by a long shot, even though, on the 9th December 2015 we still have a good three weeks or so of the month left. Lots of announcements for next year but the biggest thing this month is STAR WARS!

The hotly anticipated film number 7 of the unbelievably popular franchise is stirring emotions and the hype machine is in more overdrive than the Death Star crossed with a Borg cube! There's plenty of conspiracy theories, fan pics and suggestions and even curious things from the cast themselves but there's a few things we can be sure of - the original cast (where possible) is in it, and there is officially no Jar Jar Binks. I've got tickets for the iMax version in 3D - so I'll drop a review off as soon as I see it. Or near as!

Let's get to the computers - Star Wars has infiltrated this medium too with Star Wars: Battlefront - haven't played it yet but it looks great and has some great visuals. Looking like perfect match between FPS and our beloved Star Wars, it takes some of the iconic backdrops and allows you to take part in numerous battles the galaxy over. Is it any good? If you've played it - let me know in the comments.

The Steam Autumn sale has just recently finished and the new one, the awesomeness that is the Steam Winter Sale is (allegedly) kicking off on 22nd December. Save your money as there will be bargains aplenty.

If you are interested in Steam games but want to expand your horizons from just the triple A rated blockbusters and have a peek at other offerings - including indie developers, you could do no worse than checking out a SteamCrate. It says that each game is worth at least £3 and you get 10 random games each month - which could be anything from the latest releases to goodness-knows-what. I have subscribed to this and I'm going to do a review soon - so keep an eye out for it to see if it is worth it or not. They give you a 10% discount if you subscribe to their mailing list too, so it's worth doing that if you want to take advantage.

Looking at the latest stuff as well:

>   Xbox Live:  Games with Gold this month includes:

XBOX ONE gives you:

The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing

Knight Squad

Thief

XBOX 360 gifts to you:

Castlestorm

Sacred 3

All the Xbox games have limited availability and are yours to keep once you have purchased them. However, some are only available at the beginning of the month, some at the end and some longer than that. Generally though, there are some games for the first two weeks and then a different set two weeks after, so you need to move quickly.

>  PSN: PS Plus this month is as follows:

PS4 has:

King's Quest: Chapter 1: A Knight To Remember*

Gauntlet: Slayer Edition

PS3 gets:

SSX

Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon

Vita receives:

Freedom Wars

Rocket Birds: Hardboiled Chicken

Of course usual rules apply in that if you stop your subscription those games'll stop workin'. I know this to be true because it has happened to me.

* King's Quest is a five part game - I'm expecting you will have to pay for Chapters 2-5 - season pass is listed currently as £23.99.

Origin has another game on the house and it's Jade Empire: Special Edition - this was an awesome game in it's time so get it now before it's gone forever. As always you need to have an Origin account to get this - but it's really worth the time to get this game as it's fab. If you like Knights of the Old Republic and the more recent Old Republic MMORPG you'll love this.

As always we have Loot Crate and Nerd Block unboxings to look forward to...

...AND Marvel Collector Corps in December which, I'm told, is Guardians Of the Galaxy!

It's time to go now but - have a brilliant Christmas and a fabulous new year and I'll see you soon.

Keep being awesome!

Until next time

Paul

BYTE: A-May-Zing May!

Welcome to May - it's spring time and summer is round the corner!

Time for some movie blockbusters MAYbe?

 

Well, let's be honest Avengers: Age of Ultron will take some beating. have you seen it yet? Finnally you guys in the US have got to see it too - and it looks like it's going to be a (Hulk) smash hit!  The next anticipated behemoth of a movie is Star Wars in December. But you don't have to wait that long to get a superhero fix as Ant-Man and Fantastic Four will be popping by over the summer. If you wap in the Minions Movie and the new "in-your-head" Pixar movie, we still have some things to look forward to.

 

It's been a crazy month so far with no signs of stopping. We are only three days in and we've had the birth of the royal baby - a little princess who is yet to be named. I'm going for Scarlett Diana, but who knows?

 

Sadly though, we've also lost people - the legendary Ben E King (famous for Stand By Me, one of my favourite songs from the 60's), the iconic writer Ruth Rendell and Rebecca Ferdinand, Rio Ferdinand's wife have all passed away the last few days. Sad times, and our thoughts at P&TP HQ are with their families. #RIP

 

There's a lot of stuff going on in this month too. Yesterday it was World Free Comic Book Day and I picked up quite a few free comics. I had picked up Secret Wars #0, and Avengers one, a 2000AD one and others at my local Forbidden Planet. Did you get to get some too? If not, don't worry - it happens every year so make sure you're up bright and early for next time. And, the following two days later (or tomorrow as I write this) is May 4th - which is Star Wars Day. I had to explain this to someone - May The Force... May the Fourth... oh never mind. If you are a member of Star Wars: The Old Republic MMORPG (like myself - unfortunately my character is called StarJediLord - sorry; but feel free to add ;-) ) they are doing some celebrations, so get logged on for some free digital swag, including, I hear, a free droid. Meanwhile if you are misty eyed about Knights of The Old Republic, the awesome game from a few years ago, Google Play is selling it on Android for the ridiculously low price of £2.33 (not sure how long for) - check it out https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.aspyr.swkotor. 

 

In the UK, on May 7th we are having a General Election, and, 5 years ago, I tried setting up a blog and my first post was all about it. Sadly, the blog never got past about 4 entries, and, as an homage to that, I might rerelease one of the movie reviews I did back then for you. I reckon, one of them was Iron Man 2 but I could be wrong.

 

Looking at the latest stuff as well:

>   Xbox Live:  Games with Gold this month includes the full game of Mafia II on XBOX 360 and for the posh 'uns who have XBOX ONE you are treated to Pool Nation FX (still) and Castle Storm Definitive Edition to download free if you are a subscriber.

>  PSN: PS Plus this month hasn't really updated just yet so nothing new to report on this front. Though you can get Destiny for £24.99 if you don't already have it.

 

If you want a free game for your PC, and you like the Ultima series, you can get a free digital copy of Ultima 8 by signing up to EA's Origin and you can download it for free - it's an initiative they have called "On The House". If you do sign up, they do this regularly so it might be worth keeping the account. We've had quite a few games already and my collection is building up - but most of them are older games, but still goodies. Hey, what do you want for free? Please note, though, I am not sure if this would work outside the UK but you could always have a crack to see if it does.  

 

As always we have Loot Crate and Nerd Block unboxings to look forward to...

 

...AND Marvel Collector Corps!

Anyway I've wrote enough now - have a MINT MAY and I'll see you soon.

 

Keep being awesome!

 

Until next time

Paul