Category: Gaming

Observations,mistrust chronicles and exploits

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What are you current priorities?

Keeping focus is a critical tactical skill nowadays.  There are so many distractions and attractions where you can very easily wander down a non-revenue generating rabbit hole.

I’ve debriefed myself from InfoSec Europe, London’s annual Circus gathering of Security folk but now deep into the flashing press releases, demos and surprises at E3.

My upcoming game list is still hooked on Last of Us 2 but the surprise new free game in the Life is Strange Universe promised for this month is perfect timing as I get to the end-game of FallOut 4.

Last of Us 2 - release date unknown
Skull and Bones – release date 2019 unknown month
The Awesome Adventures of Captain Spirit - June 26th 2018
The Division 2 – release date March 15, 2019 – Beta expected

Today’s brute force attacks on my site were routed through Panama 45.227.254.252…interesting.

STAR WARS Battlefront II – step back on focus
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Simple Gameplay

The Directive on security of network and information systems (the NIS Directive) was adopted by the European Parliament on 6 July 2016 and entered into force in August 2016. Member States have to transpose the Directive into their national laws by 9 May 2018.

Naturally, this law has been sidelined in favour of the more popular GDPR which was entered into force on the 25 May 2018.

Maybe it’s “too” technical or doesn’t have a good acronym. I’ll just call it DENIS (DirectivE on security of Network and Information Systems) to keep it simple.

Two new Laws that just made things a little bit more complicated, but wait, there’s a shortage of InfoSec experts and salaries are not rising in proportion to the work, and wait, the InfoSec profession is 90% male or has all the industry reports suddenly fallen to the bottom of the agenda.

Cute little single player game INSIDE has got me laughing and panicking at the same time as I play the role of a boy escaping Big Brother….it kinda feels like Orwell’s 1984 vision.  The simple game design is what makes it an absolute winner in the era of 20 bottom combination moves.

INSIDE – Simple but brilliant gameplay
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Walk on by

I’ve always seen following walkthroughs as a second-hand experience but in the right circumstance, especially tough linear games, it can be the key to sanity.  I have limited time to solve some puzzles and frustration can grow rapidly.

It’s been 2 years I explored the Alien Isolation environment, it’s a brilliant and artistic re-creation of the early years of Ripley but really difficult as the chilling music and sound effects of the Alien hunting you distract your from objectives.  Unlike other Alien titles, you have no big guns so you are forced to use stealth which adds up to a scary game of cat and mouse.

Alien: Isolation – last played January 2016

So let’s cheat, whoops sorry, I mean look up a walkthrough.

Some sites are dedicated to creating the best walkthrough as soon as the game is released and YouTube is filled with Pros, fanatics, commentators and streamers.  Some authors have taken to documenting and selling complete illustrated walkthroughs which must be tough considering all the free stuff out there.

Alien: Isolation – Beautiful Artwork
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Erase yourself

Probably inspired by GDPR, some Global vendors are following the tracks of social media giants by making it easy to download ALL your data.

It will take seven (7) days but I just put in my request for info to Apple hoping for some surprises.  There will be many of us who state that we have “nothing” to hide and don’t care what information is held.

You don’t know what you don’t know

https://privacy.apple.com

Self-discovery is always a healthy thing gives you the power to decide to delete ALL, correct or reset.

Basic discovery

App Store, iTunes Store, 
iBooks Store and Apple Music activity
Apple ID account and device information
Apple Online Store and Retail Store activity
AppleCare support history, repair requests and more
Game Center activity
iCloud Bookmarks and Reading List
iCloud Calendars and Reminders
iCloud Contacts
iCloud Drive files and documents
iCloud Mail
iCloud Notes
iCloud Photos
Maps Report an Issue
Marketing subscriptions, 
Marketing downloads

 

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5 hour Disruption

At just rank 17, Star Wars Battlefront 2 version 1.08 is as addictive as ever.

Its in-game economics have been nicely engineered to only reward the player with better guns through hours and hours of gameplay only.  No more using real money to buy in-game weapons but, for me, this resulted in total disengagement from real life just to focus on ranking up and avoiding being killed every 10-30 seconds or so.

STAR WARS; Battlefront II – Trying to become an elite manager

The ranks system means the upper upgrades are only available at Rank 22 and 35.  In-game currency can only be used for cosmetic changes to your appearance.

The multiplayer sessions seem to be crowded with either folk over Rank 50-100 or newbies like me under 22.

Negative side effects

Poor eating or drink
Lack of quality sleep
No communications with friends or family
Total AWOL on projects
....I can't feel my legs (only kidding)

Conclusion: An absolutely fun game to play and a dream for real Star Wars fans wanting to relive the movies (now down to $23.99).

STAR WARS Battlefront II – Already an old game.

It’s too much of a disruption to my life (2-4 hours continuous gameplay) so I’ll eject the disk and conceal it in the office till the winter months and probably a new game patch.