Gaming is blighted with formulaic bug ridden titles that are often just a series of tweaks on last years version of the game or an update that borrows from it’s competitors often degrading what made it great in the first place.
Rocket League on paper sounds awful. Football with cars in an up to 4vs4 arena. The cars are rocket powered too and with that description it sounds pretty rough. You know what – it’s pretty damn fantastic.
It’s out on PC and PS4 for £15 and if you are a PS+ subscriber it’s free through July. You can play offline but the main game is all about online multiplayer and we flew through 3 hours of gaming last night. The telling factor was it had that ‘one more game’ addictiveness. Despite racking up (many) losses we still came back for more ending the night with a great win. It has a very accurate physics model and although it’s easy to pick up and play there’s a real depth to the play that requires skill that will take time to develop.
Rocket League allows you to customise your car type, colours, boosts, wheels etc but most telling is that it doesn’t make you a better player. There’s hardly any difference between the vehicles so it’s really player skill and lag that make the most difference to winning or losing a match. Alongside the customisation there’s support for Twitch and a replay editor and it’s already got a large and vocal community.
Rocket League reminds me of Grifball in Halo 3 and is a great online game. If Psyonix can keep the servers up (straining a bit due to popularity) then they’ve got a hit on their hands. This was totally under the radar for me which makes it all the sweeter. Enough typing, back to the game – I’ve got flying to master.
Another week, another referendum, another No victory. It was also the week that more words than ever were written about a music service. Thanks Apple Music.
A Most Dangerous Game – Welcome to calcio storico, a centuries-old competition in Florence with very few rules and the sort of human wreckage generally associated with the gladiators.
A World Without Work – For centuries, experts have predicted that machines would make workers obsolete. That moment may finally be arriving. Could that be a good thing?
To Apple, Love Taylor – Taylor Swift is no doubt one of the most powerful artists in music today and no doubt means well by this, but if Apple paid for the three months then no doubt some anti-trust government type would investigate. It turns out Apple are paying more than others to cover the 3 month trial period, but only 1.5% which doesn’t seem much.
I’ve not run for four weeks now due to a niggling but pretty sore knee. I first noticed it around the start of May but thought nothing much of it. But a week to ten days later and it was getting worse. Getting and our of the car was difficult and if I stretched my leg in a certain position it was agony – like someone stabbing my knee. All this was accompanied by a quite horrible tearing noise and a burning sensation that lasted for ten to twenty minutes. But I could still run, walk etc so just carrie don regardless.
Then around mid May I ran five miles and an hour after that the knee was in pretty bad shape. Nothing during the run but so sore after sitting for a while. For a few days after stairs were tricky and I decided to rest the running for a while to see if it helped. After a week it felt a bit better but I really missed going out for a run so to test it I did a four mile walk. Ouch.
About half way through I had to stop as every step was sore. I had a slow stroll home and decided to rest it some more. Most folk told me to seek out a physio but my stubbornness kicked in and I thought rest would be enough. It eased off slightly but every few days I’d tweak it again and it would reset back to the start. Roll onto this week and I bit the bullet and booked in to see a physio.
While he couldn’t diagnose what was wrong there looks to be no permanent damage and nothing that I should be apprehensive about. The advice was to do a variety of stretches and strengthening exercises and also to start slowly – walk before I run. I’ve to ice the knee frequently too to help with any slight swelling.
Hopefully I’ll be back running in the next 3-4 weeks as I really do miss not only the exercise but it’s a great way to clear the mind. Whatever happens, this has been a bit of a lesson. Next time I get an injury I’ll be visiting the physio far earlier. One day I’ll learn!
Live with Phil – this write up of The Talk Show Live from Marco Arment is a great read. It’s clear that the normally private Apple does read the blogs and listen to the podcasts from the many Apple enthusiasts.
Chairman Zhang’s flatpack skyscrapers – 19 days to build a 57 storey skyscraper. Great web design from the BBC, hopefully the skyscraper is as well thought through.
It’s been well over a month since I started using the Apple Watch and after reading Dan Frommer’s post last week on his one month thoughts here’s my take so far.
Under Promise, Over Deliver
A lot of the talk prior to the Apple Watch release was battery life. 18 hours sounded pretty short but the reality is that battery isn’t an issue. Charging overnight is fine and even if I didn’t I’d still get a good few hours out of the next day.
I’ve worn the Watch every day and it’s been comfortable and sweat free despite the plastic feeling strap and also the doubts expressed in some reviews. In fact I’m surprised how normal the Apple Watch feels. It’s become part of my day to day and I’ve never not thought about wearing it. I always did wear a watch during the week (hardly ever at weekends) but this has changed with the Apple Watch and it’s primarily down to one thing – activity tracking.
Activities during May
Activity tracking is addictive
I’ve used a Fitbit for three years so no stranger to the addictiveness of tracking steps and activity but the Apple Watch makes it easy to see visually how you are doing. It’s very clever (apart form the stand metric) and for the first part of May I was determined to complete my circles each day. Extra runs, walks at work, walking to the underground instead of driving into town are all positive activities that I was doing to get my circles filled.
The downside, and it may be entirely unrelated, is that my knee has taken a bit of punishment so from the middle of May I’ve had to lay off doing any fitness work.
I’ve found the heart rate tracking interesting. While it’s nothing new and I could have worn a tracker for years I like the fact that the heart rate tracker is hidden in the Watch and it’s fascinating to see heart rates rise at unexpected times – meetings, driving…times where I’m obviously feeling more stress.
Apps are pretty weak
Despite the 1000’s of Watch app’s already released there’s only a few I use frequently. Todoist is really useful and it’s notable that they waited until the Watch was out and developed on an actual device – it shows. Dark Sky is great and the updated Overcast is a nice way to control podcasts.
Messages is fine especially the smart replies that are offered but the Digital Touch features are pretty poor in use. Most of the time if I want to run an app then I’ll goto the phone as it’s quicker – hopefully watchOS 2 will help improve the speed of many of the app’s.
Notifications and Siri
Once I got control of my notifications I was actually impressed how useful they were. Reading notifications for Messages or WhatsApp was quicker than unlocking the phone especially if you just need the information and don’t need to reply.
I actually find the BBC News notifications useful now as I can quickly see when there’s breaking news, something I used to have turned off as it was a faff to get them on the phone.
One thing I can’t get used to is Siri. It does work well but it still feels a bit awkward to use day to day…it’s that talking to the wrist that feels a bit off. I need to persevere though as it is reliable and is a great way to send a message or add a todo.
Whats Next
July should see the launch of Apple Pay in the UK. I can’t wait to pay for stuff with the Watch. Then in the fall comes watchOS 2. Alongside app’s that actually run on the Watch, third party complications will be a great new feature so I can replace in built weather app complication with Dark Sky’s…I hope. New faces and the time travel feature, a nightstand mode although it probably ruins any stands that have currently been sold and some nice add-on’s for Siri are all solid upgrades.
I still wouldn’t recommend an Apple Watch if you are unsure of it but equally I wouldn’t put anyone off from a purchase if they wanted one as it’s useful and interesting to see how it will take off over the coming months. It’s a great 1.0 product but not yet essential.
How Well Can You Hear Audio Quality? – Interesting test that audiophiles in particularly should take and remember before they spunk hundreds of pounds on a cable.
Travels with the Apple Watch – I’m getting much more use out of the Apple Watch than I expected. Todoist this week was a nice addition and we should see more at WWDC.
Google Wants To Be Your Everything – Google Now updates look impressive and Photo’s works well on iOS. I still use so many Google tools despite being on Apple platform.
Alistair Carmichael urged to quit as MP for leaking anti-Sturgeon memo – Carmichael has always struck me as quite the buffoon. The fact that he couldn’t even cover his own tracks and then lied on camera surely means he has to go. Ridiculous that the Liberals are backing him on this. Desperate.
Apple Watch And Continuous Computing – Great insight from Ben Thompson and the first update for the Apple Watch delivered a nice update for third party apps.
