There was a time when the platform genre was in high demand with the likes of Super Mario 64 and the excellent Banjo-Kazooie titles creating some fond memories for a lot of players. Whilst Banjo-Kazooie developer Rare seems to have moved on, a few of its staff members formed new studio Playtonic Games to work on the highly anticipated Yooka-Laylee.
Cities: Skylines to Launch for Xbox One on 21st April
Paradox Interactive announced that Cities: Skylines – Xbox One Edition will launch worldwide on 21st April.
Newly optimized for play on a controller by Tantalus Media, the Xbox One Edition brings the creative management game to consoles along with Cities: Skylines – After Dark, the game’s nightlife-focused expansion. Xbox One players will finally have the opportunity to experience the award-winning management game next month when it becomes available for purchase.
Cities: Skylines – Xbox One Edition will retail for £34.99 / $39.99 / €39.99. Cities: Skylines is a best-selling management game, available for Windows, Mac, and Linux PCs, and coming very soon to Xbox One and Windows 10 with all its deep gameplay and unique charm along for the ride.
The Xbox One Edition and Windows 10 Edition include the award-winning base game, bundled together with the popular After Dark expansion, allowing players to plan and design for their cities’ nightlife and tourist attractions.
PLAYBASE Sonos newest wireless home sound system out tomorrow
PLAYBASE, Sonos’ latest addition to its wireless home sound system and the newest speaker in the home cinema line-up, is available tomorrow (4th April) for purchase in stores and online globally. A thin, yet powerful speaker that sits discreetly under your TV, PLAYBASE is priced at £699 and available in both black and white.
PLAYBASE, alongside PLAYBAR, delivers home cinema sound without the complexity, allowing you to choose the best set-up to fit any room.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xh_Ztqqr83k&feature=youtu.be
Features include:
- Great sound when the TV is on and music all the time when it’s off: At just 58 mm in height, PLAYBASE’s 10 custom-designed drivers with dedicated amplifiers – six mid-range, three tweeters, and one woofer – offer everything you’d expect from a Sonos speaker, including access to more than 80 music services.
- A thin, powerful speaker that is radically simple: Designed to disappear within the home, PLAYBASE challenges conventional expectations of sound from a thin speaker. Built from the ground-up by Sonos, PLAYBASE uniquely balances the demands of design, acoustics, wireless and software to deliver great sound in the living room.
- Sonos for your TV space: Inspired by the simple insight that up to 70% of all TVs stand on furniture and are not mounted to the wall, PLAYBASE was designed to accommodate the way people live at home.
Volition “Agents of Mayhem” coming to PS4/Xbox One and PC this August
Today Volition the maker of the Saints Row series, has released the first look at the Agents of Mayhem out on the 18th August 2017 for the PC, Xbox One and PS4, Deep Silver has announced.
After the horrors of Devil’s Night, the world was left in ruins from the devastation that the shadowy supervillain organisation LEGION had left in its wake. They needed heroes. They got the Agents of MAYHEM. In a case of bad versus evil, this elite band of often unstable misfits, armed with a variety of crazy weapons, work under the watchful eye of Persephone Brimstone, ex-LEGION lieutenant, and her girl Friday, to bring down LEGION and its mysterious leader, the Morningstar.
Explore the city of Seoul with a team of three interchangeable agents, each with their own distinct look, sense of humour, weapons, and skillset. Players can build their team however they choose, switching from Daisy, a mini-gun wielding, beer-swigging, foul-mouthed derby girl, to Rama, an immunologist with a futuristic bow and energy arrows, to Red Card, a psychotic football hooligan with a temper that can literally clear a crowd. With a toy box of twelve unique agents to choose from, players can jump between notable TV star/pretty boy Hollywood, to sky pirate and internationally infamous thief Fortune, as the mission demands.
Ears On Review : LucidSound LS40 Gaming Headset
It’s time to review the LS40 Gaming Headset from LucidSound.
First announced at the E3 Electronic Expo earlier in the year, the LS40 is the first headset in the range to deliver surround sound audio, the feature most requested since LucidSound began shipping their debut headset, early in 2016.
Their flagship product brings DTS Headphone:X surround to the game for precise positional audio.
Features and Specifications
- Wireless
- Multiplatform
- Engineered for Comfort
- Tough, Lightweight Construction
- Precisely Adjusted Tonal Balance
- Revolutionary Control Scheme
- Works with Your Phone
- Dual Mics with Mic Monitoring
What’s in the box?
The box contains the headset, a manual, a travel bag, cables, detachable mic and adaptor.
A Closer Look
Final Thoughts
The LS40’s have a very solid feel to them and the look great. The ear cups use a memory foam to ensure comfort, especially if you are planning on having a very long gaming session. Even after a number of hours of wearing them they still felt very comfortable.
The ear cups themselves have all the controls on them, including the power button, volume controls and the ability to answer your phone calls (if you have it paired with your phone), change tracks if you are listening to music and even pause the tracks. Having everything situated on the headset itself is very useful.
There are two mics with the LS40 – the detachable boom mic and the built-in mic. The built-in mic is great for making phone calls and the sound quality is good, but you really wouldn’t want to use it for gaming chat. That’s where the detachable boom mic really comes into play. The quality of that mic is excellent and your speech will come across very clearly. And when you don’t want to use it you can easily detach it and store it away.
There is a built-in rechargeable battery that you charge using the USB cable in the box. The battery life is excellent – LucidSound claim you can get around 15 hours from a full charge, and they were not exaggerating! If the battery does happen to run out though you can still use the LS40s in passive mode.
The travel bag is a nice touch – it not only keeps the LS40 clean and the cables tidy, it also looks nice.
The LS40s are wireless, so once you have paired them with whatever device you plan on using them with you are good to go, and pairing them was very simple.
The LS40s provide 7.1 Surround Sound when used with a PlayStation 4, Xbox One or PC. They also use DTS Headphone: X for superior sound quality. And the sound quality is superior, especially when you use them on games that have been designed with surround sound or DTS in mind. You can literally hear footsteps when you walk around, or the sounds of bullets whizzing past you.
There are two modes for the surround sound – gaming surround and boosted surround. Both modes work very well and you will probably find you have a personal preference for one of the modes and are likely to stick with that.
The LS40s work with PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, Mac, PlayStation 3 and mobile devices.
If you want an awesome sounding wireless headset then look no further than the LS40 – you simply have to own them.
The LS40 Gaming Headset from LucidSound is available now priced around £179.99.
Review : DatAshur Personal 2 USB Drive from iStorage
Here is our review of the DatAshur Personal 2 USB Drive from iStorage.
The iStorage datAshur Personal2 is the world’s most secure, easy to use and affordable USB 3.0 flash drive, employing PIN code access with military grade XTS-AES 256-bit hardware encryption. The datAshur Personal2 incorporates a rechargeable battery allowing the user to enter a 7-15 digit PIN onto the on-board keypad before connecting the drive to the USB port.
All data transferred to the datAshur Personal2 is encrypted in real-time with the built in hardware encryption engine and is protected from unauthorised access even if your datAshur Personal2 is lost or stolen. The datAshur Personal2 automatically locks when unplugged from the host computer or power to the USB port is turned off and can be set to timeout (lock) after a predetermined amount of time.
Specification
- USB 3.0 Flash Drive
- Capacities up to 64GB
- FIPS PUB 197 certified
- Bootable drive
- XTS-AES 256- bit hardware encryption – no software required
- OS & Platform independent
Who are iStorage?
From their website:
iStorage is the trusted global leader of PIN authenticated, hardware encrypted data storage devices, that include: USB Flash Drives, Hard Disk Drives, and Solid State Drive formats. We deliver the most innovative products to securely store and protect data to Military specified encryption levels, safeguarding your valuable business information whilst ensuring compliance to regulations and directives.
The iStorage range of products are accredited across the range, include FIPS 197 (Advanced Encryption Standard, Computer Security Standard, Cryptography), FIPS 140-2 Level 2 (Tamper Evident, and seals), FIPS 140-2 Level 3 (Responding to attempts of a Physical attack), IP57 (Protected from limited dust ingress and water immersion up to 1M), CESG (National Technical Authority for Information Assurance), CCTM (Claims Tested Mark).
What’s in the box?
The box contains the drive and a quick start guide.
A Closer Look
You can even add laser etched text or a logo if you want to personalise the drive, something that could be very useful if you wanted to brand them for your company.
Using the Drive
When you want to use the drive, you press the Key button and wait for the locked padlock LED to be right, as shown below.
Then you press the buttons that correspond to the PIN number (within 10 seconds) and if that is successful the green unlocked LED will light up.
You then have 30 seconds to plug the drive into your computer.
Once connected the blue LED under the key button will light up and you are ready to use the drive.
Final Thoughts
The DatAshur is the same size as an average USB drive, with the only different being the front panel with the keypad and LEDs.
Using the drive is very simple – just enter your code and the drive is ready to use. When you have finished with the drive just remove it and it locks automatically.
One nice feature is the ability to have an Admin code on the drive, so if you forget your code you can use that one to gain access.
You may be wondering why the drive has a keypad and why you wouldn’t just use the keyboard on your computer to unlock the drive. It’s to stop keyloggers and brute force attacks from gaining access to the drive.
If you enter your code incorrectly 10 times in a row (for example if someone else is trying to guess your code) the user code is deleted. The only way to access the drive is to use the Admin code and reset the user code. If the Admin code is then entered incorrectly 10 times in a row that too is deleted and this time all the data on the drive is also deleted thus protecting whatever you stored on it, so you should feel safe in the knowledge that whatever happens your data is safe and secure.
If you need an encrypted portable USB drive then you might want to take a look at the DatAshur Personal 2 USB Drive from iStorage – frankly its a no brainer.
Available now in 8GB, 16GB, 32GB and 64GB, with prices starting at £39.
You can learn more about iStorage and their product range here.
Win a MAN DOWN Military Bundle
To celebrate the cinema release of MAN DOWN, we have a military bundle to give away.
In a savage post-apocalyptic America, U.S. Marine Gabriel Drummer (Shia LaBeouf, Fury), searches desperately for the whereabouts of his estranged son, Jonathan and wife, Natalie (Kate Mara, The Martian). Accompanied by his best friend Devin (Jai Courtney, Suicide Squad), a hardnosed marine whose natural instinct is to shoot first and ask questions later, the two intercept a survivor who carries vital information about the whereabouts of Gabriel’s family. As we revisit Garbriel’s traumatic past through a debrief with military counsellor Peyton (Gary Oldman, The Dark Knight), we are guided in unraveling the puzzle of his life and the origin of this war torn America.
Man Down stars Shia LaBeouf, Kate Mara, Jai Courtney and Gary Oldman. The film is directed by Dito Montiel, written by Adam G. Simon and Dito Montiel with music by Clint Mansell.
How to enter to win
We have a military style t-shirt, hat and water-can to give away, in fact we have two sets.
All you have to do to be in with a chance of winning is to enter below:
Win a MAN DOWN Military Bundle
The closing date is 12.00am on Sunday 16th April 2017. This contest is only open to those in the UK – sorry!
Signature Entertainment presents Man Down at Cinemas and on Digital from 31st March.
New poster and trailer for War for the Planet of the Apes released
Twentieth Century Fox has released a new trailer which was revealed at CinemaCon, alongside a brand new poster, for WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES, in cinemas 14th July.
Starring Andy Serkis, Woody Harrelson and Steve Zahn and directed by Matt Reeves.
In War for the Planet of the Apes, the third chapter of the critically acclaimed blockbuster franchise, Caesar and his apes are forced into a deadly conflict with an army of humans led by a ruthless Colonel. After the apes suffer unimaginable losses, Caesar wrestles with his darker instincts and begins his own mythic quest to avenge his kind.
As the journey finally brings them face to face, Caesar and the Colonel are pitted against each other in an epic battle that will determine the fate of both their species and the future of the planet.
Exclusive Interview with Philip Winchester for Chicago Justice
I had the pleasure of interviewing Philip Winchester in London for the launch of his new TV show Chicago Justice. We talk about Chicago Justice, Strike Back, his accent and more.
Chicago Justice starts this Thursday at 9pm on the Universal Channel in the UK.
First trailer for Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series
Here is the first ever trailer for Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series, which is set to premiere the first of five episodes on 18th April for $4.99 or equivalent on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Windows PC, and Mac, as well as available to download on the App Store and Google Play.
The series will also be available as a special ‘Season Pass Disc’ on May 2nd at retailers across North America for $29.99, and on 5th May at retailers elsewhere across the globe.
The special ‘Season Pass Disc’ will include Episode One: Tangled Up in Blue, and will grant access to download the subsequent four episodes via online updates as they are released in the coming months of 2017.
Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series is a brand new story of the universe’s unlikeliest heroes: Star-Lord, Gamora, Drax, Rocket, and Groot. In the wake of an epic battle, the Guardians discover an artifact of unspeakable power. Each of them has a reason to desire this relic, as does a ruthless enemy who is the last of her kind, and who will stop at nothing to tear it from their hands.
From Earth to the Milano to Knowhere and beyond, and set to the beat of awesome music, you wear the rocket-powered boots of Star-Lord in an original Guardians adventure, where your decisions and actions drive the story you experience.
The series will feature a star-studded cast of voice talent, including Scott Porter (Friday Night Lights, The Walking Dead: The Telltale Series) as Star-Lord, Emily O’Brien (The Young and the Restless, Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor) as Gamora, Nolan North (the Uncharted series, Pretty Little Liars) as Rocket, Brandon Paul Eells (Watch Dogs) as Drax, and Adam Harrington (The Wolf Among Us, League of Legends) as Groot.