First batch of uploads for June 2016 - nearly
With May rolling around, that means new games available for download.
For this month that means Sunset Overdrive on Xbox One:
On Xbox 360 I think it's Grid 2. As I'm a Burnout man at heart, this game is unlikely to be checked any time soon
And finally on PS3, we have LocoRoco:
And Bionic Commando 2: Rearmed
[if you are reading this then I haven't yet uploaded the video]
Rather than talk through the games in the blog (seeing as I do so on the videos), I'm instead going to sidestep (or strife if you like) and go into a mini-rant on technology, as I seem to do from time to time. The following is a first world problem.
Depending on what point you read this, the chances are that there are three videos above. However, as I write this, there are only 2 video's and Bionic Commando is waiting.
This is largely due to my internet connection which it can be easily guessed from those who watch the YT channel is not great.
Ookla when we test it regularly shows a download speed of 5 MBp/s (give or take half a MB here or there) and an upload speed of around 0.5MBp/s. The roughly 15 minute LocoRoco video took around 3.5 hours to upload to Youtube in the early hours of Monday morning (the 1am to 5am period or there abouts). As I share the capture laptop with Mrs Zombie Killer who will generally need access to the internet by 7am each morning - I knew that I wasn't going to have time to add a second video.
The following night it also wasn't uploaded as I was left with the choice of uploading that video or downloading the next update for Black Ops 3 and a digital copy of Resident Evil Revelations for Mrs ZK. I'm hoping that they have finished by the time the little terrors wake up the following morning.
The beta for Overwatch has suffered a similar fate and I wasn't able to properly play that as I never actually finished the download. On a positive note, at least the Xbox One trait of being able to start playing a game whilst it is downloading means that I was able to capture the tutorial level of Overwatch at least. But even with the extension to the beta, I was not able to get online with it.
It's somewhat reminiscent of the days of dial up modems - where you had the choice of using the phone, or going online. You'd hope family wouldn't need to make a call and you would even find yourself hoping that no-one would call you (remembering that mobile phones were still not a common item).
Considering that I live within the boundaries of one of the larger towns in the UK (which could easily be granted city status), it does seem like a step back that I'm having to prioritise upload and downloads. Yes, my normal working life means that I only really get a couple of hours in the late evening to get in any online gaming or video work but this is something I have been noticing more and more over the last year.
We've enquired about fibre - our provider said that it could do it even though one of it's main competitors was unable to provide a quote. Then we asked the key phrase - "Is is to the box or to the house?"
The answer was not to the house.
And this is a problem as the box is around 500 yards away, with anything up to 11 connections, all underground., and with known flooding issues. Our internet connection is not the most stable at the best of times (we've had various engineers in to look at noise on the line, random dropouts over the last year) and GTA Online is not really playable on Xbox One (it does better on the 360 version).
If we were add a reasonable amount to our monthly outgoing costs, it would be good to know that there will be a corresponding increase to the connection stability and speed. Despite leaving in an urban area, we are not convinced that we are going to see enough of a benefit at this point.
I'm afraid that I'm going to have to carry on with my somewhat erratic upload schedule in the meanwhile - apologises for the rant. There is already a campaign lead by Which to get broadband providers to be more transparent in their dealings - I'd like to see a greater deployment of fibre to a greater number of recipients (hopefully the Openreach near monopoly on the infrastructure will loosen to a point where this could happen)
For this month that means Sunset Overdrive on Xbox One:
On Xbox 360 I think it's Grid 2. As I'm a Burnout man at heart, this game is unlikely to be checked any time soon
And finally on PS3, we have LocoRoco:
And Bionic Commando 2: Rearmed
[if you are reading this then I haven't yet uploaded the video]
Rather than talk through the games in the blog (seeing as I do so on the videos), I'm instead going to sidestep (or strife if you like) and go into a mini-rant on technology, as I seem to do from time to time. The following is a first world problem.
Depending on what point you read this, the chances are that there are three videos above. However, as I write this, there are only 2 video's and Bionic Commando is waiting.
This is largely due to my internet connection which it can be easily guessed from those who watch the YT channel is not great.
Ookla when we test it regularly shows a download speed of 5 MBp/s (give or take half a MB here or there) and an upload speed of around 0.5MBp/s. The roughly 15 minute LocoRoco video took around 3.5 hours to upload to Youtube in the early hours of Monday morning (the 1am to 5am period or there abouts). As I share the capture laptop with Mrs Zombie Killer who will generally need access to the internet by 7am each morning - I knew that I wasn't going to have time to add a second video.
The following night it also wasn't uploaded as I was left with the choice of uploading that video or downloading the next update for Black Ops 3 and a digital copy of Resident Evil Revelations for Mrs ZK. I'm hoping that they have finished by the time the little terrors wake up the following morning.
The beta for Overwatch has suffered a similar fate and I wasn't able to properly play that as I never actually finished the download. On a positive note, at least the Xbox One trait of being able to start playing a game whilst it is downloading means that I was able to capture the tutorial level of Overwatch at least. But even with the extension to the beta, I was not able to get online with it.
It's somewhat reminiscent of the days of dial up modems - where you had the choice of using the phone, or going online. You'd hope family wouldn't need to make a call and you would even find yourself hoping that no-one would call you (remembering that mobile phones were still not a common item).
Considering that I live within the boundaries of one of the larger towns in the UK (which could easily be granted city status), it does seem like a step back that I'm having to prioritise upload and downloads. Yes, my normal working life means that I only really get a couple of hours in the late evening to get in any online gaming or video work but this is something I have been noticing more and more over the last year.
We've enquired about fibre - our provider said that it could do it even though one of it's main competitors was unable to provide a quote. Then we asked the key phrase - "Is is to the box or to the house?"
The answer was not to the house.
And this is a problem as the box is around 500 yards away, with anything up to 11 connections, all underground., and with known flooding issues. Our internet connection is not the most stable at the best of times (we've had various engineers in to look at noise on the line, random dropouts over the last year) and GTA Online is not really playable on Xbox One (it does better on the 360 version).
If we were add a reasonable amount to our monthly outgoing costs, it would be good to know that there will be a corresponding increase to the connection stability and speed. Despite leaving in an urban area, we are not convinced that we are going to see enough of a benefit at this point.
I'm afraid that I'm going to have to carry on with my somewhat erratic upload schedule in the meanwhile - apologises for the rant. There is already a campaign lead by Which to get broadband providers to be more transparent in their dealings - I'd like to see a greater deployment of fibre to a greater number of recipients (hopefully the Openreach near monopoly on the infrastructure will loosen to a point where this could happen)
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