Most of the year I was looking for a mindless escape in video games, so FIFA was my go-to most of the time, although there were some gems in between.
Mafia: Definitive Edition
This is my game of the year. I actually liked the first Mafia when it came out, so the feeling of nostalgia was strong. And developers made actually a great game even for the 2020. I played this game twice in a row to get Platinum, which as I think back, becomes somewhat of a tradition — to get Platinum for one game a year (last year it was Spider-man).
I would recommend playing Mafia: Definitive Edition, even if you didn’t play the game before. It is good.
Mini Motorways
When Apple Arcade first came out this was the main game I played on my iPad. Sitting on a couch with Apple Pencil in hand it is just perfect. You can try to strategise your way through the game, or you can almost mindlessly connect the roads, it is totally up to you.
Grindstone
Another one from the Apple Arcade, this one I played mostly on my iPhone. If it wasn’t on the service it would have been one of those pay-to-play games, but here it’s great. Beautiful, fun and sometimes very challenging, but without constant nagging to buy coins.
Assemble With Care
The last game I enjoyed from the Apple Arcade. From the developers of Monument Valley, it is more of a visual story than a game. It is fun, delightful and relaxing. Looks great on a bigger screen of 12.9” iPad Pro.
The Witcher 3
This one didn’t come out this year, obviously, but when it did I didn’t have a PlayStation, so here we are.
I enjoyed it quite a bit, but it is too long. For the first half, I would go through every possible side-quest and wanted to finish everything, until I got a known bug when I couldn’t finish one mission because I went some place before the mission was available. After that, I just went through the story.
Also, it was fun to play it in original language, especially because I’m trying not to forget Polish.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
This is an honourable mention because I actually don’t like the game in the end, but it helped me during some hard times and was perfect for that. The Game doesn’t have much of a story, sure there is a main line, but mostly you wander around trying to find out what to do next. I realised that I need a story, even in the open-world game. But when I had a nervous breakdown, I would take my Nintendo Switch to the balcony and play The Legend of Zelda and my mind would relax, for which I’m thankful.
Although I’ve had iOS 13 on my phone since the day it came out, I’ve waited for iPad OS, before signing up for Apple Arcade. I won’t be able to play my PS4 for about a month, so it was the perfect opportunity to test it out. Yesterday, after installing iPad OS 13.1, I immediately signed up for the free trial of Apple Arcade and downloaded my first games.
After connecting PS4 controller I downloaded a couple of games for starters, for no particular reason other than – I’ve read on Twitter that people enjoyed them. The games I’ve downloaded were – Sayonara, Oceanhorn 2 and Cat Quest II. I’ve played all of them for about 10-15 minutes each and I think I will be playing all of those more, the favorite out of them was Cat Quest, which is fast paced, beautiful and funny.
Playing on the big screen of the iPad Pro 12.9” with the controller attached is a blast. I could only imagine that playing on Apple TV would be something really close to the console, I’m already thinking about buying one, just for the games.
Before going to sleep I’ve decided to try out one more game – Mini Motorways and it was a mistake. I couldn’t stop playing. There is a saying – it is easy to learn, but hard to master, it is totally about this game. It’s fun, seams easy, the music is almost meditative. I’m afraid I will spend hours playing it over and over again.
I will probably write something more in-depth about the service later, but right now, this is the most fun €4.99 a month you can spend on a service.
Yesterday Apple held its biggest event of the year. As was rumored we’ve seen three new iPhones, watch and so much more. Luckily this time not all rumors came true, we’ve had a couple of surprises. On the other hand, some were expecting too much, so as always my strategy of not reading rumors before the event pays off.
Arcade
If you didn’t notice, Apple is services company now, so it started with two of them. Apple Arcade is gaming service, starting from 100 exclusive high quality games. You will pay the subscription fee and play whatever game you want on iPhone, iPad, Mac or Apple TV. The games in the trailer look amazing. Considering that Apple announced support for xBox and PS4 controllers, this could be a very big deal for many.
As it often is, game demos are the weakest part of Apple presentation, after Tim Cook said “I won’t waste your time with usual updates” we’ve watched three game demos in a row with one of them being Froger, in 2019.
It will be available September 19 in over 100 countries around the world for a price of $4.99 per month for the whole family. And Apple will give 1 month free trial.
Considering the price, I feel like this is the one to at least try. As I said games look good, the lineup of developers looks strong with some big names and indie.
tv+
As every company under the sun Apple is launching original content. tv+ will have three shows at start adding more every month. Tim Cook was so excited that the trailer for the Morning Show was “one of the most watched trailers ever” it wasn’t even funny.
We also saw a trailer for the TV show See, which looks very promising.
It will cost $4.99 per month for family and will be available in over 100 countries. What was surprising, you will get 1 year of the service included with the purchase of any Apple device. Considering Apple only has a couple of shows at the start and doesn’t have any backlog this is very smart strategy.
iPad
This one was a surprise. There were some rumors about new iPad, but most thought it would be shown in October event later this year.
What Apple did is update it’s most popular iPad, the original size one. It is now 7th generation iPad, they’ve changed screen size a bit, increasing it to 10.2 inches (instead of 9.7). It has updated specs and is shipping on September 30 starting from $329.
Interesting how Apple doesn’t compare it to other tablets (because that market doesn’t even exist), all of the comparisons were with top selling PC and of course iPad beat it in every aspect.
Up until now, this was The iPad to get, considering the price and power you get. It remains the one device in Apple lineup which you can consider inexpensive and well worth every dollar you spend.
watch
Tim Cook started with the video showing how Apple Watch save lives with its ECG function. What was nice this time – it also showed how Apple Watched helped get healthier by asking you to close your rings or stand. Those videos are always Apple at its best.
There will be three new studies – Hearing, Women’s health and Heart and movement study. Those are great, but unfortunately available only in the United States.
And here is the announcement I was most surprised by – new Apple Watch. Watch Series 5 will have THE feature, the one many asked for from the very beginning – always on display, while still having all-day 18 hour battery life.
All the watch faces were optimized for low-power mode when it shows time, so you don’t have to tilt your wrist or tap the screen. This is the feature for getting a new watch, especially if you didn’t upgrade to the Series 4 last year.
As everything in the US, Apple Watch now has a compass. As most of the cities in the US were built considering the directions, this will be helpful to Americans, but also around the world, Maps app will now be able to show where are you heading more precisely.
There will also be international emergency calling in more than 100 countries if you have cellular Apple Watch. Amazing feature, which I hope nobody has to use.
This year Series 5 is available in a couple of new finishes – two Titanium models and white Ceramic. They look great, but will cost accordingly.
Apple Watch Series 5 will start at $399 for GPS model and $499 for cellular. You can already order one and it will ship on September 20.
What also interesting, Apple leaves Series 3 in its lineup for $199. It is great entry price, but only if you don’t care about the look and newest feature. By itself it is ok, but if you ever come across Series 4 or 5, two year old model looks very old and dated.
iPhone
The main star of the event – iPhone. Last year, I think Apple confused buyers with releasing three models which were hard to differentiate for average consumer (believe me, I know, the amount of questions I got about which one should someone buy was like a customer sat – through the roof). Fortunately this didn’t stop iPhone XR to become the most popular iPhone and smartphone in the world.
This year the lineup is much more clearer. First, there is iPhone 11. Which you can consider the standard one – everyone who wants to buy an iPhone this year should get this one. It has 6.1 inch display, Haptic Touch and Spacial Audio.
It also has two cameras this year, but instead of adding telephoto, the second camera is ultra-wide. This will allow you to switch to x0.5, which means you will be able to capture 2 times more of the scene from the same point.
This is also shown in the new camera interface. When you launch it, it will look more immersive, showing you the whole available picture instead of black bars.
Although there is no telephoto camera, Portrait mode is still made using hardware, so it will work on animals, unlike the iPhone XR.
Apple also showed Night mode, which in presentation looked great, but we will need to see comparisons with Google Pixel, where night mode is just out of this world. Hope Apple delivers.
If photography is something Android manufacturers, especially Google, mastered, in videos Apple is still unbeatable. Adding to that ultra-wide and cinematic stabilization, makes it even more impressive.
Front camera was also updated, it is now wider 12MP sensor which will take normal selfie, until you rotate it sideways and it will get wide.
Apple also added 4K video support and slo-mo to the front camera and invented the word Slofies – which is probably officially the worst word of 2019.
A12 processor leads the industry, the overhead it has is not even funny, it is still faster than all the newest Android phones and Apple made it even faster. A13 Bionic is the new processor inside iPhone. It is so ahead, it will take Android manufacturers a couple of years to catch up.
What iPhone XR did have, was amazing all-day and then some battery life. In iPhone 11 it was improved – adding 1 hour.
It will be priced starting from $699 and as I’ve already mentioned, this is the one to get.
iPhone 11 Pro
As Phil Schiller said – this is the first phone Apple called Pro and it is worthy of its name.
There are four new colors – Midnight Green, Space Grey, Silver, Gold. And at least on photos the green looks amazing, I will be surprised if it will be available on first day in enough quantities. The back has a nice matte finish now, which doesn’t even look like glass anymore.
There are two phones iPhone 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max, with the same sizes as last year of 5.8 and 6.5 inches. It will also have A13 Bionic processor, but one of the biggest improvements is battery life. 4 hours more for iPhone 11 and 5 hours more for iPhone 11 Pro Max. As a XS Max user I can tell you this will be amazing, it will bring phones closer to the main iPhone 11. It will also have 18 watt adapter in the box, so you will be able to charge it faster.
There is now three cameras. The ultra-wide was also added to the Pro models. One amazing thing 3rd party developer Filmic Pro demoed, was shooting video with two cameras at the same time. So you have more different footage for the same moment.
Apple also showed sneak peak for a feature coming later this year called Deep Fusion. What it does is it takes 9 photos (8 of them before you even press a button) and combines them to bring a lot of detail. On stage it looks great, we will have to wait for it to come out.
The iPhone 11 Pro will start at $999 and iPhone 11 Pro Max at $1099 with pre-orders this Friday and shipping on Septemver 20th.
Apple will also keep in it’s lineup iPhone XR for $599 and iPhone 8 for $449.
Some already are saying this was the weakest Apple event in recent history, but I think it was good. Making already great iPad even better, always-on display on the Apple Watch making it even better in the market with almost no competition. And iterative update on the iPhone, which should be expected, as this is a mature market already.
One day in May, I opened Twitter and everyone was talking about one thing only. Surprisingly it wasn’t another story about Trump, it was an announcement for completely new game console. I’ve checked the calendar, yeap, it’s still 2019 and yet here we are.
I was pretty late to the Mac party, when I got my first Apple computer, so I’m not personally amazed by the Panic (company behind Playdate), but I’ve heard a lot about it. Considering I follow mostly Apple enthusiasts on Twitter, I see that name mentioned often. I also haven’t played Firewatch, their video game, but heard only nice things about it.
But after looking at the device, I knew that it’s something I would like to buy. And I could see why everyone was so excited about it. Nowadays nobody launches a new platform for video games. Even some old ones struggle to compete in the market. So one thing that’s going for the developers is the desire to support something new and fun.
Another reason why I think people love this new device – they are tired of huge corporations sucking all of our data, of games consisting mostly from lootboxes and monetization. They want something simple, pay the fair price and get a couple of fun games. That’s all. No paying to get to the next level faster or to get another try. Just plain old game.
The device itself is very simple, but very attractive. It has black-and-white screen, but also the best connectivity options there are – Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and USB-C. There is also the crank, which is used for some game mechanics, which is very interesting to see.
We still don’t know a lot about the games, but I’ve already signed up for the e-mail, so when it comes out, I sure want to get one. Hopefully they will ship to Latvia.
I love doing “30 days” challenges. So far I’ve done 30 days without coffee, after which I don’t drink coffee in the morning. 30 days without bread, which helped me stick to the diet and lose weight, the other one I’ve done was writing something for 30 days, that was in the middle of 2012 and still I write something every single day, it could be blog post, but it also can be some note in OneNote, doesn’t matter, the point is to write.
Since Monday, May 12, I’ve decided to do one more 30 days challenge, this time it’s “30 days without games”. Sunday before that I’ve removed all the games from my phone, tablet and PC. I mostly play casual games on my iPad (lately 2048 and Trial Frontiers) and couple of games on PC (the one I’ve played for about 11 years is PES – FIFA in the begging, but hen I’ve changed the camp – and couple of others, that change very often).
Before this week, I didn’t even realize how much time is consumed by playing games. While I’m at home, about once an hour I think about playing couple of matches in PES, watching TV Show? It’s time to fire up some iPad game. I’ve actually started to pay more attention to TV shows and I’m getting more enjoyment out of it.
It’s not even a week and I already see changes, I’m afraid to think how I’ll feel in a month.
