>BlerdTech>:

So you're on the market for some new gear, and in your search you stumbled upon Microsoft's Surface Headphones, but you're not ready to make the plunge until you get some more research under your belt, right?

I don't blame you. The right head candy can be an expense these days, but hopefully this short and concise review can help!

Let me start by acknowledging that sound and music are more personal in nature, and everyone has their natural preferences. I happen to dig all kinds of music from musical soundtracks and trap to neo-soul and hip-hop. That aside...

Let's begin!

LOVE DEATH + ROBOTS | Official Trailer [HD] | Netflix

Despite everyone saying that they’re going to cancel their Netflix accounts, I find it really difficult to devalue the service to such an extent, given most of my favorite shows and movies are on there. So let’s add another one to the watch list...

Netflix presents Tim Miller and David Fincher’s “Love, Death + Robots” and I think I’m going to love this 18 sub-story feature to death. It reminds me of the old “Animatrix” stories that came out a decade ago, but with updated animation, cinematics, and of course CGI. 

Did anyone else know the Pinkertons, the villain agency from the Red Dead series was real??? And that they're suing Rockstar???

https://kotaku.com/the-pinkertons-are-still-around-suing-over-red-dead-re-1831750643

The Pixel 3 just came out, and it's been getting some great reviews! The camera especially has received a plethora of accolades, as one of the best for any flagship phone. It's music to my ears, as an Android person and a hobby photographer. But I still get compliments (usually from iPhone users thinking it's an iphone) about my Pixel one's picture quality.

The images you see above were taken with no filters from my original Pixel. The only post processing was done through the phones software called "Lens Blur".

If I were to suggest a new Android phone for someone in the market, I wouldn't tell them to get the Pixel 3, I would go for the pixel 1. It's going to be way cheaper and still give you more than enough camera quality to impress all your Instagram followers.

**SPOILERS**

There’s few game franchises that get me excited to play them, and on top of that make me think about the characters and story even while I’m at work. However, Red Dead Redemption 2 is probably one of the single greatest games created (outside of Last of Us) this decade. If you haven’t given it a try, then you’re really doing yourself an injustice...

RDR2 is a love letter to the old days of open world gaming as much as it is to the future of it. The game’s setting takes place during the year of 1899 in the American West and South. Historically, 1899 was a period of America finding itself. About 40 years before, the Civil War had just ended, giving a new found freedom to slaves that were held in bondage for generations, even though that new freedom came with a hefty price of Jim Crow laws designed to control and terrorize the newly freed men and women.

Some would also consider this period a time where America was really starting to identify itself as a nation of immigrants, where we saw huge influxes of Germans, Irish, and Asians. It was a time at the end of the Reconstruction Period; a time when 13 African American congressmen were elected to office (https://history.house.gov/Exhibitions-and-Publications/BAIC/Historical-Data/Black-American-Representatives-and-Senators-by-Congress/). The last black elected congressman was George Henry (1897-1901 - Republican - North Carolina). The next African American elected to congress would be in 1929, due to the southern backlash of Jim Crow.

Knowing this history, when games like RDR2 have settings that take place during the 1800s, or early 1900s, I always ask how they represent the struggles of the disenfranchised.

Red Dead Redemption 2 unlike most games, doesn’t cower away from tackling America’s injustices during this time period.

In fact, there’s some very thoughtful missions dedicated to portraying the adversities that minorities and women of the time had to deal with. Amongst the topics are racial terrorism, women’s suffrage and rights, colonialism, and immigration. The characters of the camp have their own backstories that lend extra flavor to the overall tone of the time period. On this note, I’ll provide brief over views of some of the characters who embody these struggles (***POSSIBLE SPOILERS***):

Our first mission with Lenny has us tracking down a group of ex-confederates who resided on an old plantation. He talks about a run-in with them and how they were likely going to lynch him. There was another mission where an old confederate gentleman lost his house, “and all [his] history with it”. He asked us to get his ledger and we found it contained the names of slaves. When we confronted him about it, things escalated pretty quickly. 

Charles Smith is born to a African American father and Native American mother, and he’s probably one of the noblest in the gang. One of our missions, has us traveling with him to track down some bison poachers. We eventually confront the poachers and find their reasoning as surprising as it is disgusting.

The Braithwaites and the Grays are two generations long, power-hungry rival families that pit the towns folk between their conflicts. However, the Braithwaite son and the Grays daughter have a secret love affair. As a result, our protagonist, Arthur Morgan, gets involved in a women’s rights protest.. As we drive the protesters to their destination in town, we can hear some of the townsfolk (mostly men) booing and chastising the brave women, on their way to stand up for a worthy cause.

Dr. Renaud’s character is more of a side mission I just happened to find during my travels. He’s a black doctor stuck in a rural town in 1899 America, so you can imagine the types of hardships he’s had to endure. Apparently, some white men didn’t like his educated ways, and his practice was taking away from their dealings in the town. So they threatened to castrate and hang him, then stole his wagon to their camp in the marshes.

Javier’s mission was a touched on immigrant discrimination. The mission we were on, had us seeking out some twins who would pay handsomely for some horses we stole. The twins apparently didn’t like Cubans. Javier asked, “Well, what if I like Cubans?”.

There’s another instance where I was just riding between towns, and a carriage sped past me the other way. I heard a woman screaming in broken English that she was being kidnapped and needed help. Her captors were making remarks, “We gonna send you back, you ain’t welcomed here!”

Sadie Adler, is hellbent on revenge against the thugs that ruined her life. She takes actions into her own hands, and doesn’t wait around for the men to save the day. She’s every bit of a bad ass as John Marston or Arthur Morgan.

Ms. Jackson comes from a humble background, and her character is as enigmatic as it is inspiring. I haven’t gotten to any real missions with her yet besides the odd-job errand of picking up a necklace, however the conversations we’ve had are enlightening.

By and short, these are just a few of the examples I’ve come across where Red Dead Redemption 2 takes it a step further than it’s predecessor and tackles social issues that are still relevant in today’s times.

Also, if you’re into reading, there’s a book in the first camp set up after the snowy mountain missions called, “The American Inferno”. It’s actually a good read and an insightful take on the hypocritical nature of American cities and greed.

As of today, my Steam account shows I’ve spent 106 hours of my life on No Man’s Sky. I can assure you not all those hours were spent in one sitting, but rather reflect the total time we’ve been in this on and off relationship for the past two years since the game was released. And of those two years, I’ve played most consistently in the last two weeks since the latest update known as NEXT.

The NEXT update for No Man’s Sky revitalized the stale and repetitive game, and face-lifted it’s drab appearance with a graphics overhaul. In short, what I’m saying is many of the bad things you’ve heard about No Man’s Sky since launch have been completely reversed, fixed, and improved. 

In short, it’s time for you to jump back into No Man’s Sky! Or at least consider giving it a try. I would recommend doing it on PC however via Steam, as the game was originally intended for PC systems.

That being said, the game feels more like what the developers promised some time ago, and many are calling it one of the greatest gaming come backs in history! I’m not in the position to say if that’s true or not, considering my limited knowledge of historical gaming comebacks, but as a tough critic, I have to say Sean Murray and his team have done a phenomenal job of bringing substantial and contextual updates that put meat on the original’s hollow frame. 

So what do you guys in the gaming community think about the update so far? Does it live up to the hype and satisfy that ultimate sci-fi fantasy you’ve dreamed of as a kid? How do you play the game?

I play my game with the procedural music turned off, and the SFX volume at 50%. Then I play some of my own music in the background. Here’s what I have playing when I’m drifting through space...

Background Music Playlist (not necessarily in this order):

Don’t Miss It - James Blake

All I Have (Intro) - Snoh Aalegra

Alive - Khai

Awake -Tycho

Back to Nature - Nightmares On Wax

The Space Travelers Lullaby - Kamasi Washington

Sake Of Love (feat. Sarkodie) - Flavour

Nont For Sale - Sudan Archives

Contact - Logic

Is This Wakanda? - Ludwig Goransson

Ancestral Plane - Ludwig Goransson

Spaceship Bugatti - Ludwig Goransson

Brain Matter - St. Paul & The Broken Bones (great when fighting drones)

 If (feat. Iceboy)(IGBO Version) - Davido

With Me - dvsn

Epilogue “We Will Fight..” - Johan Soderqvist, Patrik Andren

Cloud Atlas Finale - Tom Tykwer

Technicolor - Madeon

Always Have a Choice (Street) - Havoc

Sorry Steve - Great Dane

I can’t believe this $hit....Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption 2 was the only game I was looking forward to in 2017, and now it’s pushed to Spring of 2018! That’s literally a whole year from now! I kind of wish developers wouldn’t say anything about their games until like a month before they know it’s ACTUALLY releasing. Otherwise, this early bird divulging of information keeps us anticipating for a long, long time, like Donald Trump waiting to be impeached (too soon?). 

However, kudos to Rockstar, because they knew the backlash from the gaming community was coming with this delay announcement. In return for our broken hearts, they’ve released some very fine pixel screenshots. So what I’ll be doing diving into the details, and what it could mean as far as the game’s environment, characters, and gameplay.

The 431 Train

Let’s talk about this train shot, which has a mile of information on it. The first thing I noticed was the “431″ inscribed in gold on the side of engine car. 

So I looked it up on google by searching “old fashioned trains 431″ and here’s what popped up, along with a few other links referencing VTS (Vermont Rail System). Now there were a few other pictures of 431 trains from Pennsylvania, but most of it was specifically related to Vermont’s rail system. So maybe 431 was a rail line going from Vermont to other parts of the country. That being said, given the size of maps these days, I’m pretty damn sure the whole game won’t be in one state or location. This could be a very massive game, and with a railway system, it could mean Rockstar is providing us a way to travel across vast distances in old west coast and middle American landscapes. 

Speaking of landscapes let’s get down into the imagery of landscape in the following screenshot.

Landscape

You’ll see the screenshot of the game in the upper left corner, and the other real photographs of Vermont landscape. If you notice, the trees look pretty similar to the game...or I guess you could say the game trees look similar to the ones in real life Vermont. 

The trees have the same triangular shape, and the same kind of spacing between the branches and leaves. The clouds look similar, and the rolling hills and mountains are also favoring each other. 

You’ll see striking similarity between the RDR2 shot on the left and an actual picture of a redwood forest on the left. A quick google search of redwood natural habitats produces the following result...

So it looks like we can put Oregon, Northern California, and Vermont as probable locations to traverse in Red Dead 2. Maybe there’ll be like an easter egg mission centered around the old classic 8-bit Oregon Trail games. 

What also confirms this northwestern region is the previous screenshot of American Bison, which during the period of 1850 to 1900 were largely located in Wyoming, where currently Yellowstone National Park resides. 

Return to Blackwater?

There could also be a return to the town of Blackwater.

Street Lights and 1880 or 1890?

In this picture we can see electric street lights and power lines, and their given rudimentary style might suggest a time period of late 19th century circa 1880 or 1890s, which would make sense considering the story of the first Red Dead Redemption, which was placed around 1911. Since RDR2 is supposed to be occurring years before RDR1, when John Marston was still part of a gang, this could make plenty of sense. Also you’ll notice the character in this screenshot is holding two different pistols, with barrels that have obviously unequal lengths. This may suggest dual wielding.

 Captain Jack Hands

Last but not least, we have this awesome screenshot of random hands with very detailed rings and gun embroidery. 

I have seen some reviews that suggest these are a woman’s hands, given the rings and the blouse-like shirt. However, if you look closely, the hand closest to us seems to have a light brushing of hair texture, which suggests it’s a man. Also, looking at the finger tips closely, at least in my opinion, those are more man-like. However, this is the wild wild west, and certainly they could be the hands of a very capable, tough, and rough female lead character. The rings on the two fingers, are that of a lion with red jewel eyes, and a very fancy letter “D”. Obviously the D could stand for a infamous character from the first Red Dead (I’ll let you figure that out). The lion ring could mean anything, and at this stage I’m just not sure exactly what it refers to. 

Overall

So there we have it. Red Dead Redemption 2 looks promising and HUGE based off these screenshots. I can imagine it will easily require 50GB on any console and even more if a PC port comes out, which most likely won’t come out until years after the console release. 

I’m sorry to hear it’s delayed, but as Rockstar stated, they need that extra time to make sure they crank out the best possible product for their eager and loyal fans. Quite honestly, I really respect that tone, especially since Rockstar has the BEST reputation for developing games that might take a while, but you know damn jack shit well you’re getting the best game out there. And for them to release these screenshots, just shows how classy the ladies and gents developing our classic western escape are. 

The stage was perfectly set with blue undertones, the artist constructed her digital masterpiece on the screen before us, and the techno music played lightly in the background, all while the Microsoft logo radiated a soft welcoming glow.

Little did my group of Microsoft Insiders and Student Ambassadors expect the CEO, Satya Nadella to walk out in front of us, look us dead in the eye, and tell the story of his past childhood, and the sacrifices his father made in India to get him to America, which eventually led to Nadella becoming the CEO of one of the most innovative tech companies in the industry.

This was beyond awesome to say the least! Seeing Nadella up close with the utmost humility and giving life lessons to the audience was something I will never forget. After his unforgettable introduction speech, came a slew of educational presentations centered around the Hololens, the new Windows 10S, and last but not least the Surface Laptop. 

The Hololens: 

So below you’ll see me in geek heaven, trying out the new Hololens. It was actually a lot lighter than expected, and it fit very comfortably over my glasses as you can see. It was easy to adjust a fitting that was snug but not too tight, allowing me to focus on the experience in front of me. As you can see, the headset looks pretty futuristic, almost to the point of making me look embarrassingly outdated (I could of trimmed my beard too, but hey ya win-some ya lose-some).  

Let me take a brief moment to speak on the quality of the demo. It was limited, to the point of just being able to use 3 general hand-gestures (zoom out, zoom in, and escape/close). The graphics were more sub-par than I expected. It seemed that the image was a little grainy and a tad dim for my liking. Last but not least, you could tell the image was in a limited box frame, which unfortunately cut off portions of the galaxy I was looking at. I had the feeling of just looking at a Augmented Reality program through my phone screen, rather than feeling like the virtual image took over the space in the room. Nonetheless, I appreciated the opportunity to try it out, and also realize that it’s a beta demo. I think Hololens definitely has potential in the classroom and commercial business sectors, and maybe even in settings like Disney or Universal Studios. However, I do believe the immersion aspect of it, at least from what I experienced, could use some more fine tuning. 

Windows 10S:

So what the heck is Windows 10S? Here’s how Microsoft themselves define it, “Windows 10 S is a specific configuration of Windows 10 Pro that offers a familiar, productive Windows experience that’s streamlined for security and performance. By exclusively using apps in the Windows Store and ensuring that you browse safely with Microsoft Edge, Windows 10 S keeps you running fast and secure day in and day out.”

On top of that, Windows 10S is really meant for students in a classroom environment using the new Surface Laptop. By limiting the apps to the Windows Store and only allowing Bing or Edge to be used, it allows school administrators to better lock-down the Surface Laptops that they provide to students. 

But don’t fret, because if Windows 10S is a bit TOO streamlined for comfort, you can easily upgrade for free this year 2017 for free to a regular standard Windows 10 experience, which includes being able to use apps outside the Windows Store. 

Honestly, I don’t see Windows 10S being helpful to the average user, and I’m pretty sure Mircosoft knows that. However, this is an opportunity for them to pair this OS with one of their most well-received pieces of hardware, the new Surface Laptop. And by pairing the Windows 10S with the laptop, they can better ensure people will stick to using only the Microsoft products like OneDrive, Edge, and Bing. Basically, it’s like Microsoft is trying to get people used to using their ecosystem of products, which is oddly like Apple. 

Surface Laptop:

While I was at the Microsoft event, I unfortunately didn’t get the chance to try out the Surface Laptop, but I did see it up close...and it definitely is a super beautiful laptop. It comes in metallic blue, burgundy, platinum, or gold. Of course, according to where you live in the world, only certain colors will be available to you. 

The laptop starts at $999, and that gets you the base model with an i5, 4GB RAM, and 128GB SSD. It get’s pricier with the increase of RAM and HDD or SSD storage. Honestly, charging ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS for a measely 4GB RAM and the LOWEST amount of SSD storage smells very familiar...very apple-ish. Then charge like an extra $300 for just 8GB is even lamer...so I’m pleading and hoping that MS doesn’t keep this trend up.

It still surprises me how many people don’t know about Scholly, a scholarship search app co-founded by Christopher Gray, an African-American student who literally won 1.5 million dollars in scholarships, and was listed as a Forbes 30 Under 30. Scholly also took home two sharks, Lori and Daymond, from the NBC hit show, SharkTank. So that should tell you it’s not a gimmick and has some solid backing and believers, including yours truly!

One of the best things I can say about Scholly is it’s simplicity. If you check out the video above, you’ll see how it works, but basically you build a quick profile and based off of that, it matches you to scholarships.

Now I bet you’re wondering if there’s a cost, and you’re correct it’s a measly $2.99 a month. That’s less (and much healthier) than a happy meal or your favorite alcoholic beverage. What’s included in that is an actual curated menu of scholarships tailored specifically to the profile you created. It’s just not a site that pulls data via web crawl from other sites. There’s actual database people, sitting down for hours at a time, and inputting scholarships into the database.

And to be honest, there are some mean reviews on the playstore, because people are complaining about it being a monthly charge. However, I think if you’re THAT cheap, and don’t want to invest in your own education, then maybe you’re missing the whole concept of...well...potentially earning thousands of dollars for school. I’ll tell you what, $2.99 a month is MUUUCCCHHH cheaper than the crappy student loan premiums you’ll have to shell out each month after graduation. 

Hey guys, Blerdstatic here today on the topic of Horizon Zero Dawn and the upward trend, or maybe lack thereof, with regards to diversity in gaming.

First, lets get down to the review of what I believe is a probable contender for Game of the Year (GOTY), HORIZON: ZERO DAWN. It’s an instant classic, like the Last of Us, it grips your attention visually as well as mentally. And it’s a true open-world adventure game at it’s core, with absolutely no multiplayer gimmick strings attached.

Story Mode, Atmosphere: One of the things, I really liked about this game is the story. It’s not the best, nor is it the worst. However, it does give the sense of a real universe and you do care about the characters in a way that’s rarely done in games of the genre nowadays. Starting out as a child and growing into a full warrior, was a nice way to show the protagonists personality and history, and paves the way for the player to care about reaching the end of the story. 

The atmosphere is just great! I frequently just found myself standing around and taking screenshots of the environment. Sometimes, I would just look in the distance and listen to the sounds. And a few times, I literally moved the character at a walking pace just to really take in the scenery. You get the feeling that this world is tangible and real, which is what Guerilla is known for, but never has it been so masterfully done on this scale. 

Graphics: Phenomenal. I’ve never seen graphics like this game on PC or console quite honestly. Everything about it is just fresh and eye popping. Every detail, from the greenery to the robotic fauna is expertly crafted with artistic love, that you can feel seeping from every pixel! If I only have one regret, it’s that the game is a PS4 exclusive (for now). It would be great to max out this game on a high end PC with 4k resolution and above 120hz. 

Multiplayer: Honestly, this will be the shortest section, because there was no multiplayer - and I was VERY HAPPY about the developer’s choice to ditch this stupid trend of “always connected” and focus all their money and resources on a great story driven single player experience. 

Replay Value: Even though it’s single player, and no multiplayer, there’s still still some replay value, as of course, it’s an open-world and there’s multiple approaches to taking down enemies. I do however wish there had be some sort of co-op mission mode, and maybe multiple endings. However, since this is probably going to be a new franchise and it’s definitely getting a sequel (no spoilers, promise), I’d say it was fair to leave co-op and multi-endings on the bench. 

DIVERSITY: Not only is the color of the environment in Horizon beautiful, but so is the variety of NPCs. The developers really did a great job showing the diversity of people and tribes, and did it in a very inclusive way that must be commended. There were multiple tribes, and in each one there were representations of people from varying ethnicity. 

Given the recent trend of women protagonists, Aloy stands out for a few reasons. She’s a protagonist, and the game centers mostly around her perspective, but she’s not the only hero, as the other NPC’s are more than capable of handling things on their own. She acts like a bridge between the separated tribes; a glue that brings together warrior heroes from other areas of this world. 

I also like the fact that her outfits aren’t super skin tight and show a non-practical amount of skin. The outfits appear to be practical, functional, and true to the tribal atmosphere of the world.