The Videogames Tab

I haven't used my game console for Netflix or any of those other apps in almost 8 months. All the streaming apps are on my television. Plus one of the good things about the X-Box One is that it's completely silent. No fan noise whatsoever.

The PS3 Netflix app is far superior to any Smart TV version I've seen, including my own, and definitely faster than my BD player's. Apparently the Xbone's is the best of the lot.

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"Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how the Tatty 100 is done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves." - Brendan Behan

I have a extremely fast internet connection so I'm fine with speed and to me Netflix is Netflix. The layout (seen below) is fine for me on my Vizio smart tv. A quick scan of what's available, with the plot on the right. And it loads with a quick touch of the Netflix button on my controller, plus the play, FF, Rew. and all those buttons are a great touch when watching the film.

Nothing to do with internet speed - why would it? The speed the app loads and navigates is far quicker on consoles, which is obviously because they've got much more powerful hardware inside.

The Xbox One is connected to the internet as well as the smart TV. I though don't use the app on the One cause of the TV. I had Netflix on my 360 and it loaded slower. It buffered with the Netflix logo for about a 30 seconds and then the app came on. But since I got my Vizio I uninstalled it and the app loads literally in a touch of a button.

It should have to do with internet speed in a way though. Because Netflix runs because of the internet. And your console/x-box live whatever wouldn't be working if you didn't have it connected to the internet.

At first, yes. If you play long enough to get the lay of the land, then getting lost is only an issue during heavy fog or blizzards. Which has happened to me a few times.

Give the Xbone app a try then, it's supposedly the best of the lot. I imagine it's pretty similar to the Windows 8 one, which is pretty impressive.

You've been told about insufferable pedantry, haven't you?

Anyway, back to games. I've been cracking on with Dragon Age Inquisitions recently and it's definitely improving. If only the combat was remotely enjoyable or satisfying...

The UI is terrible and they still haven't fixed the keyboard controls but I can put up with them. UI has never been Bioware's strong point, now that I think of it.

The game's saved by it's plot and characterisation. And art direction - The Orlais sections are staggeringly stylish. Cassandra has now found a rival for my affections (yep, it's still a shag-em-up) in the form of Vivienne:

FYI, there's definitely a difference between connection speed and app speed. Poorly designed or poorly optimized apps can be sluggish completely regardless of how fast an Internet connection is.

Well, yeah.

Just a quick unscientific experiment with the two Netflix apps I have to hand - My PC: 3 seconds from pressing the button until it's booted into a searchable state. My BD Player: 20 seconds.

Both connected to the same router.

I'll give it a whirl.

True. The 360 app sucks.

Yeah, my sense of direction and location in games can be a problem which I worried about once I started playing. I tried again a bit ago and another problem for me is finding objects. I actually feel the allure of trying to stave off death but at the same time I'm not sure looking for the objects required to do so will be much fun, especially when I apparently overlooked a few in my first couple of playthroughs.

I normally find treasure hunt stuff boring as a mechanic, but in this there is a fun wrinkle in that you've got to make use of light (IE foraging in the dark will mean missing loads of stuff - stuff that could save your life - but light is powered by finite resources most of the time). Maybe it just makes it that bit more fun that you've gotta search for stuff against the clock - either to avoid using up your light source or to make best use of peak daylight. Add in the classic encumbered-conundrum, and somehow it becomes engaging. (Although I guess anything could become engaging in that sense if you put death as the punishment. Peter Molydeux should write a game where you die if you stop sneezing or something )

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Virtual Reality chatter on a movie site? Got endless amounts of it here. Reviews over here

Old DOS games in your browser!!

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Yep, someone sent me a link to that yesterday and I immediately fired up The Oregon Trail, which works like a charm.

Dunno how legal it all ultimately is - The site reminds me of all those old Abandonware ones that gradually got shut down.

Got Dragon Age Inquisition for Christmas. I don't think I like it. If they hadn't changed the entire button scheme for fights it wouldn't be so bad. And no I haven't tried to change it yet, maybe I will. The quality is epic though, very pretty game.

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You are no Vader. You are just a child in a mask.

Checkout Jetpack there if you guys get a chance. I played that game a ton when I was a kid. Has a level editor, even, which seems wildly ahead of its time. I built a bunch of levels in that thing. All hopelessly elaborate.

Oo, Archive.org are bastions of fair use archiving, so hopefully they've done it sustainably. I do find some dubiously-allocated stuff in their self-submission areas sometimes, but this section does seem to be a bit more closely curated.

And hey... Prince of Persia

Have to play some more, but if overlooking things is too easy to do that's a big problem for me. And, as I said before, if needing a solid directional understanding of the environment is just a tad important but not so simple to get down, that's going to be a problem as well. Wish the game could be played with a controller too.

Awful, generic title aside, I've got hopes for Hellbound ... err blade. It's by the people behind the criminally underlooked Heavenly Sword, DMC and Enslaved Colon so expect lots of flashy button-mashy spectacle fighter shenanigans. Heavenly Sword is a game I really must play through again...

That trailer really doesn't show much and I wanted to play Heavenly Sword but with no PS3......