One of the most intriguing things of the past week was the announcement from Microsoft that their next operating system won’t be labelled Windows 9, but rather will be known as Windows 10. For one, it shows that Microsoft aren’t afraid of throwing naming and numbering conventions out of the window (just look at the Xbox One), but the more important thing to keep in mind is that the new platform will ship with DirectX 12. You can find the details on that here, but I wonder how that might play into Kevin’s PC-rebuild project.

Elsewhere saw the launch of Shadow of Mordor which seems to have been receiving many plaudits around the gaming world. I haven’t played it yet, but I know that I should be. Further to that, we have Alien: Isolation launching on Tuesday. Anyone ready to change their underwear a bit more than normal?

Nick

The thing about space travel is that it only takes a mistake of a couple of seconds to mean that in a few hours, or even days, you’ll be dead. Burn your engines for a fraction of a second too long, or in slightly the wrong direction and you’re dead. Not dead straight away of course, no, you’ve got plenty of time to write your last will and testament, take a few last pictures and even watch a film or two, but even so, for all purposes you’re nothing more than a corpse-in-waiting.

Yesterday I flew a shuttle mission in Kerbal Space Program and everyone died. Not a particularly rare occurence, I admit, but this time I gave the crew the worst thing I could have done, I gave them hope.

A miscalculated de-orbit burn brought their shuttle down over a wide expanse of ocean, miles from land. Death was a certainty – I’ve never succeeded in a water landing with a shuttle, so all the crew were really doing was counting down the seconds before they died.

But then I saw it – an island, far in the distance. A miniscule, improbable little possibility of survival that I leapt on immediately. Dropping flaps, adjusting the glide-path, I held my breath.

Could we reach it? Could I save them all?

No, no I couldn’t. Sorry chaps.

Jon

Well, I’ve actually done very little PC gaming recently. What with (work) conferences, holidays and a busy schedule, finding time has been… challenging.

So most of my gaming’s been done on my iPhone, and 99% of that was on the superlative SuperPixel Lander.

It’s a simple game- tap the screen to fire the rocket and go, well up, and then you tilt your screen to go left or right. You then concentrate on staying alive long enough to collect gems.

It’s incredibly kinetic and a life will usually last only a minute or so (if you’re good) but it’s compelling as hell and I just can’t put it down. My current PB is 16 gems, so, you know, beat that.

Chris

I’ve largely been playing Destiny this past week, while I have shared some early thoughts in conjunction with Steve over here, I really need to get a move on and delivery my Verdict. If I can pull my finger out, I’ll be working on that this coming week. It is a brilliant game, with some undeniable flaws. One such issues arose this week when I dived into the Strike mission on the Moon with two randomers. I thought we were getting off to a good start, that was until I realised that the third member of the team had decided to up-sticks and leave within the first few minutes. Unless you are really highly levelled, completing a Strike mission without a full team is nigh on impossible.

Apart from Destiny, I’ve been getting into the football spirit with FIFA 15 on my PlayStation. I haven’t checked out the game in any seriousness for a few years, and I only dabbled with FIFA 13 on the PC. However, diving in on the new-gen machine has been a fun experience, even if my failures when trying to defend will ultimately undermine any attempt I make at playing the game seriously. I have though started a Be a Pro career with Shamrock Rovers, my go to team when I can’t play as TNS (just read up on any of my Football Manager reviews for more). The season has started and I am making good progress towards my targets of creating or scoring over 20 goals and achieving an average match rating over 8.2. Hitting my passing accuracy targets might take a bit longer to achieve, at least until I am more comfortable with the game. A good start though.