Steve

This is a small command line utility that lets you download TV programmes and radio shows from BBC iPlayer, which are then converted to DRM-free formats. You can download it here: - https://github.com/get-iplayer/get_iplayer The basic functionality is easy to get to grips with, but as it's a command line utility that also has some fairly advanced features, you'll need to check out the Wiki here: - https://github.com/get-iplayer/get_iplayer/wiki There are some different frontends for this, although I've not tried any of them. If anyone can recommend one, please post a reply. Oh yeah - this does not let you bypass the geofencing restrictions that are in place with iPlayer, so if you don't have a UK-based IP address, or you're not using a VPN that lets you appear to be in the UK, it will not work.

In the UK this will be a whopping £210. The replacement stick modules are £20 each, which is pricey, but it's cheaper than buying a new controller or paying a third party repair place to solder in some new sticks. The controller will be available from January 26th.

Some are obviously better than others, but would you use any of them? None of them sound that great to me.

I unlocked the 142nd and final achievement in Vampire Survivors yesterday. I've put almost 50 hours into the game, which, given that I've only being playing it for about a month is pretty crazy. I only paid £3.19 for it, so value-wise it's hard to beat. There's new DLC coming out for it today that adds a huge new map which is 25 times bigger than any map currently in the game, 8 new characters, 13 new weapons, 6 new music tracks, and some new achievements. It'll cost less than £2. The devs have also announced that they're going to continue updating the main game for free.

If any of you have this game on Xbox and you have Game Pass Ultimate, one of the Game Pass perks that's currently available is a free upgrade to the Deluxe Edition.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FoLJ4HgWqw4 I've posted it as a link cos it's age-restricted and can only be watched on YouTube anyway. I'm so hyped for this, cos the BioShock games are some of my all-time favourites. No release date has been announced, but it'll be coming to PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC, so current gen only.

I posted about their previous gaming headset, the Penrose, as I had high hopes for it, but it turned out to have a few issues that made me write it off. The new Maxwell headsets seem like Audeze's attempt to put things right, as they have supposedly directly addressed the criticisms people had with the Penrose. This is what the new headset looks like: - It has 90mm planar magnetic drivers. It has 5 microphones built into the headset itself, along with a detachable boom mic made by Shure. The 5 built in mics are used for AI noise reduction. Battery life is a whopping 80 hours. It has USB-C fast charging and can be charged from empty to full in 2½ hours, with a 20 minute charge giving you 20 hours of use. It supports high resolution audio wirelessly, at up to 24bit, 96KHz. It uses the latest version of Bluetooth, version 5.3. You can also make various adjustments via a smartphone app, including creating EQ presets. The headband is made of steel, with an adjustable suspension strap. The controls on the headset itself allow you to adjust volume, the balance between chat and game audio, and mute your mic. There's a 3.5mm socket so you can use it wired if you want to. The PlayStation version is $300, while the Xbox version is $330 due to it coming with a Dolby Atmos license and them having to use MS's security chip. The criticisms of their previous headset were: - Battery life was only 10-12 hours The mic quality was not good when used wirelessly There was some background hiss in the audio (not really noticeable when you're gaming though) The headband had plastic parts that could crack/break If they really have addressed all of the above, it'll be an awesome headset, but I'd definitely wait for reviews/user impressions before buying one!

Earlier this evening I checked out Gundam Evolution, which is a free to play multiplayer game based on the Gundam franchise. You play as a giant robot. There's a bunch of different ones you can play as, each with their own unique weapons and abilities. There's 3 different objective-based game modes, all of which are 6 Vs. 6, 10 different maps, and there's casual and competitive modes. It's free to play and supported by micro-transactions and there's a battle pass you can purchase if you want to. Some of the robots are locked, but there's still a decent amount that are ready to play right from the beginning, without spending any money. I enjoyed playing it and will definitely play it some more. It's available on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. If you like team-based shooters I'd recommend giving it a try, especially given that you can download and play it for free.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-63866869

Ramattra gameplay: -

The game's economy has been ruined by a glitch, so they have shut down the in-game auction house. Basically, someone made a Super 7 challenge card where you had to drive up the inside of an angled pipe. When he was testing it, he found that his car kept getting stuck with the wheels spinning, but the car not moving forwards, which caused burnout skills to be triggered. When he eventually completed his own card, the game awarded him a shit ton of credits. Once this was discovered and posted to YouTube, loads of people made their own variants of the glitch, so by wedging the accelerator down for about 20 minutes and having your car do repeated burnout skills, you could earn hundreds of millions of credits. That led to thousands and thousands of players suddenly having 9 figure bank balances, so they went to the auction house and started buying up cars, which then caused the prices of cars to rise and rarer cars to become unavailable. What sucks is that it took them over a week to patch the glitch, and they have announced that they will not be issuing any bans over it, nor does it seem like they will be revoking the credits/cars people obtained through it, so it's legit players like me that get shafted.

I've been playing Vampire Survivors. It's a 2D old school arcade shooter with graphics straight out of the 90s. The controls are about as simple as they could be; you use the left stick or WASD to move and that's it. Your character fires automatically. You start off super-weak and with a single weapon, but most enemies that you kill drop gems, and as you pick those up, it fills up a bar. When that bar is full, you level up. Levelling up gives you 3 options to choose from, which could be new weapons or powers, or upgrading an existing one. You can carry/use a bunch of weapons/powers at the same time. The beauty of this game is that there are a TON of different combinations of weapons/powers you can have, you level up very regularly so you're always getting stronger, and there is way more depth to it than you initially think. Also, with each play-through you earn coins that you can use to upgrade your stats, and that carries over to all subsequent play-throughs. You can refund the coins you've spent on upgrading your stats as many times as you like if you want to try something different, and the game doesn't penalise you for doing so. There are a bunch of different characters you can play as, each with their own particular buffs/starting weapon. There are quite a few different levels, with tons of different enemy types, mini bosses, and bosses. It really does master that "just one more go" feeling that old school arcade games gave you. It's part of Game Pass, but it's also dirt cheap; under £4 on both Xbox and PC. As it's very light on resources, you can play it on even ancient PCs. I highly recommend it! It's really addictive! It's only available on Xbox and PC right now, but I'd be very surprised if it didn't come to other platforms further down the line.

It emulates tons of systems including newer consoles like the Switch. Seems like it's the ultimate handheld setup for people wanting to play retro games from older systems. This video does a great job of explaining how to set it up and what it's capable of: -

Not this time. I was hoping The Artful Escape would go on sale, as that left Game Pass before I finished it. I've been waiting for a sale on that Floor Kids game you mentioned ages ago too. Neither are part of this sale though unfortunately. Floor Kids hasn't been on sale since mid-2019, so I think the publishers have abandoned it.

Here's a list of all the stuff that's on sale: - https://www.trueachievements.com/n51900/xbox-black-friday-2022-sale You can change the currency at the top of the list. There's a ton of stuff on sale, but I don't think I'll be picking anything up this time. The PlayStation one starts this Friday.

A new update has been rolled out just now for all Xbox consoles, and it brings some nice improvements to the Discord functionality. Now, when you open the guide and go to the "Parties & chats" tab, underneath where you start a party is a new "Discord" option. When you click on that, it will show the servers you're a member of, you click on one of those, then you can join a voice chat channel direct from there. No more messing about doing it via a phone, then having to jump back over to the console. It's about as simple as they could have made it now. They've also added Discord's "Krisp" voice suppression technology, which uses machine learning to filter out background noise, such as keyboard typing, dogs barking etc. You can turn it on and off in the settings, so it's not forced upon you.

Well, the Donut Media story is an absolute bag of shite. It's made up of 5 short events that are boring to play. You get some clothes and a car out of it, although the car is not new to the game.

I really like Bandcamp as a buyer, plus they only take a 15% cut of sales - and that drops to 10% if you hit $5,000 worth of sales - which is decent. As for putting your music on Spotify, Apple Music etc., check out TuneCore.

I'm 9,413th in the Hall of Fame on this game, which is not bad considering there are 24,497,784 players! There's a new Donut Media story being added to the game tomorrow, which will also be the theme of the playlist.

I've got a Pixel 7 Pro now, and I love it. The hardware is very solid, with great battery life and a really nice screen. The cameras are awesome; it's the second highest rated phone by DxOMark, with the #1 phone being $400 more expensive and only beating it by a couple of points. The fingerprint scanner is fast, plus it also has face unlock now; 2 things that the previous Pixels were criticised for. The software is fast, slick and simple to use out of the box, but with all of the advanced customisation options that Android offers if that's what you want. The only thing I miss from my OnePlus 7 Pro is the hardware switch to switch between regular, vibrate, and silent, which AFAIK is unique to OnePlus phones, but I found it really useful, especially as it vibrated a certain way depending on the switch position, so you could easily switch modes with the phone in your pocket. I guess if I was nit-picking, the speakers are not super-loud, but they are good quality and you can crank the sound up the max without any distortion. Don't get me wrong; the speakers are plenty loud enough for listening to music/podcasts/videos or whatever, but if you're one of those bell ends that likes to play music in public via a phone, then A) fuck off, and B) there are louder phones out there. I would like to see Google commit to supporting their phones for a year or two longer. They offer a minimum of 3 years of Android OS updates, and 5 years of security updates, which is certainly not bad at all, but it's not industry-leading.

I can't get any 5G service where I live. Less than 60% of the UK population can get it. The providers all say "rolling out soon" when I do a coverage check, but they've been saying that for ages.

There's a new tank coming to the game in season 2. Origin story: -

I've got around 80,000 points in the bank, but the rest have been cashed in every now and then, mostly on gift cards and subscriptions. Points you earn don't expire, but codes you get from redeeming them do, although I think you have a year to use them. Also, if you buy gift cards, you can spend them on pretty much anything in MS's store, including hardware. I dunno about that man. You're in a different region to me, so you'll see different stuff. I think it's just the daily set you have to complete to contribute towards the streak, but I'm not 100% sure. I'd try disabling your adblocker temporarily to see if it's that.

Yeah, I used to spend a lot of points on those giveaways and scratchcards. I never won shit, apart from occasionally winning more points.