Did you spend the Christmas weekend not playing games on your PS4? Could you not watch Netflix because the server couldn’t validate your license? With the DDOS attacks affecting Microsoft and Sony for the weekend it was only a matter of time before the idea of apologies was thrown around. Well, Sony has dropped their news via the PlayStation Blog that all Plus Members who were affected by the outage will automatically have their service extended by 5 days. Also, PSN members will receive a coupon code allowing a one time discount of 10% off of an entire cart purchase. There you have it, the Lizard Squad ruined gaming for a few days to “prove a point”, but its ok because we get a coupon.

Happy New Year! Since access to PlayStation Network was impacted during the holidays, we wanted to show our appreciation for your patience by offering all PlayStation Plus members that had an active membership or free trial on December 25th a membership extension of five days. The extension will be automatically applied, so no action is necessary to receive the extension. We will post additional information here on PlayStation.Blog when the extension becomes available. If your membership or trial ends before the extension is available, you will receive five days of Plus to enjoy once the extension becomes available (we will notify you when).

In addition, sometime this month we will announce that for a limited time, we will be offering a 10 percent discount code good for a one-time discount off a total cart purchase in the PlayStation Store as a thank you to all PSN members.

This discount can be used toward content available on PS Store including blockbuster new releases, award winning indie games, game add-ons and season passes, and an enormous selection of TV and Movies.

In case you missed it, click here to read about all the great games included in the January 2015 PlayStation Plus Instant Game Collection lineup.

Thanks again to all our loyal PlayStation fans and welcome to our newest console owners. Wishing you all a very happy holiday.

The consensus on 2014 was that it has been a banner year for music, one boasting a broader and deeper selection of standout performances across genres and generations than many a year in recent memory. Or Not. Music can be messy. There’s too much, too many genres, too many ideas, for anyone to make sense out of all of it – or even to hear all of it. There’s not one genre or aesthetic or feeling that dominates the whole thing. Instead, I’ve got a list that zig zags wildly between explosive joy and wizened self-aware depression and staring-out-windows indolence and feverish all-consuming rage.

Run The Jewels ‘RTJ2’

The story of Run The Jewels coming together was already a feel-good epic before ‘RTJ2’: two underground rap veterans from vastly different scenes coming together, finding common ground, discovering a shared ferocity that jolted both of their careers to a different level, becoming best friends in the process. These two had chemistry from the first moment, and a year and a half on a shared tour bus has only deepened it. ‘RTJ2’ opens with Mike in full-blown profane motivational-ranter mode – “I’m finna bang this bitch the EFF out.” It ends with a clangorous, expressive piano solo from a dead man. In between, we get about 40 minutes of frantic, chaotic, merciless, gloriously fun hip hop music. Lyrically, both of them are having even more fun on ‘RTJ2’, coming up with convoluted and extreme ways to say “eff you,” sounding like they’re doing whatever they can to impress each other in the studio. But there’s more pathos and feeling in what they’re doing, too: Mike recounting a nightmare arrest on “Early” and lamenting the consequences of his actions on “Crown,” El grinding his noise-synths onto mournful melody on “All My Life” and “Angel Duster.” They’re operating at the tops of their games here, Mike and El sound more like each other. Mike’s delivery is more knifelike, more apt to cut against the flow of the track. El has concentrated his once-cluttered flow into pointed bursts of on-beat double-time. His beats are slower, thicker, more composed – If anything, it’s a loving homage to the Bomb Squad’s soundscape circa 1989. ‘RTJ2’ never lets up, and yet there are so many ideas and feelings and moods within that storm. It kicks you in the head, and it leaves you with plenty to think about. The soundtrack for the shame of Ferguson.

St Vincent ‘St Vincent’

Any artist who can insert the mundane nature of masturbating into a song without batting an eyelid must be special. Sometimes self-titling a record several LPs into a discography is meant to signal a new phase of old things, a mid-career back-to-basics. Other times, it’s something like St. Vincent’s newest offering: an announcement, an arrival. Though ‘St. Vincent’ wasn’t as shocking a step forward as Strange Mercy had been from Actor, it still feels like a destination toward which each of Annie Clark’s albums had been incrementally building. We couldn’t see it with the sinisterly sweet ‘Actor’ or even with the sweetly sinister ‘Strange Mercy,’ but this version of St. Vincent was always what was meant to be – this version, of colorless hair and sci-fi aesthetics and guitar and synth layers ranging from melted to glassy but always, always remaining sterile and ethereally chilly. Clark had steadily been on her way to becoming one of the luminaries of this era of indie, and this album – with mutated grooves like “Digital Witness” or reflections as moving as “I Prefer Your Love” – feels like the official coronation. A heady combination of perfect songwriting, performance and production. As immediately thrilling on the first listen as it remains on the 50th. More than just album of the year, this is one of the albums of the decade.

Budos Band ‘Burnt Offering’

The first way I ever heard the music of The Budos Band described was “the Dap-Kings meets Black Sabbath.” I would only add “70’s car chase soundtrack through a dingy underground club” to that and it’d be pretty spot-on. Everything about this instrumental group reeks of mysterious, ethereal radness. The Budos Band are a nine-piece instrumental group from Staten Island, who’ve previously released three albums’ worth of hard-hitting afro-funk party music, dense with horns and congas. Their last album started to see a bit of B-movie darkness creep into their sound, the funk increasingly mired in nocturnal gloom. But ‘Burnt Offering’ is something else again, the strident, urgent blast of trumpet and sax now pitted against scabrous, grinding guitar in a fight to the death. The Budos Band are the real deal, and ‘Burnt Offering’ is quite a ride. For connoisseurs of heavy sounds, I can’t recommend this highly enough. The 10 tracks on Burnt Offering will pump you up for a battle against Five Armies or chill you out for a couch battle against Five Guys.

Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings ‘Give The People What They Want’

Written and recorded prior to her diagnosis, ‘Give the People What They Want’ has nothing to do with Jones’ battle or any of the adversity she suffered over the past year. But, its songs are confident and spirited, the songs of someone who could grapple with cancer and emerge victorious. On opener “Retreat!”, she’s downright vicious about it: “Play with me and you play with fire/ I can make you pay/ I burn you up/ This is my desire.” This first track makes it immediately apparent that the Dap-Kings are still one of the best backing bands in the business. Bosco Mann’s production treats the horns, backing vocals, and acoustic rock instruments like a small orchestra, fiddling with every tone so that each stands out behind Jones’ powerful voice. Each instrument can be picked out of the stereo field, concentrated on, and the pure musicianship at work absorbed. We are SPOILED to have recorded music this good.

Sylvan Esso ‘Sylvan Esso’

You can glean a lot about Sylvan Esso’s auspicious debut from its opening cut “Hey Mami.” It is, in case you didn’t know, about girls getting cat-called (guys, don’t do it) and begins with the sound of the streets wafting through an open window. Amelia Meath’s vocals are stacked and stacked again to provide a nursery rhyme melodicism, and then—BAM!—there’s a drop and a beat you can bust a what to. This isn’t Feist gone folk, this is something else: a collision of clarion-call crisp tones and fuzzed-up synths, each song a surprise to unwrap. Like all the best records, the highlights are too numerous to list here, but the hypnotic sway of “Could I Be,” the peaks and troughs of “Play It Right,” and breakout song “Coffee,” compelling even in its moments of whispered hush, are just a few. This is record to get lost in.

Honorable Mention(s): Black Milk ‘If There’s A Hell Below’, Madlib & Freddie Gibbs ‘Pinata’ & Damon Albarn ‘Everyday Robots’

When it comes to video games, it feels like everything BUT the good ones was headline news in 2014. IMO, it was the worst year for games in recorded history. I don’t think there’s been a more polarizing time for video games and those who play them in, errrr, ever. Busted, hunk-of-scrap big-budget releases are raining from the sky as though we’re standing in the aftermath of some quality-obliterating explosion, portions of gaming culture are at war with each other, and even wildly innovative games are finding it harder and harder to stand out. But amongst all that, triple-A games and indies alike are tapping into a rich vein of interesting ideas, people are doing incredibly fascinating things in the games they play, and more strange, quirky, undeniably heartfelt games are appearing out of nowhere than ever.

Telltale Games (The Wolf Among Us, Tales From The Borderlands, Game Of Thrones, The Walking Dead)

I came into the Telltale fold thanks to The Walking Dead’s melodramatic stylings, but Telltale actually has a long history of comedy. With Tales From The Borderlands,a game I really wasn’t expecting much from, they made a fine return to form. I laughed a bunch and found myself really liking multiple characters. TOTB was crammed with intriguing puzzles and difficult moral conundrums. fine examples of emotional, taut, interactive storytelling.

Telltale is red hot right now. Between The Walking Dead Season 2 and The Wolf Among Us, Telltale Games has had an excellent 2014. Add in the above mentioned, Tales From the Borderlands and the first episode of Game of Thrones: A Telltale Games Series was nothing short of excellent. Telltale’s new dialogue-driven adventure game based on George R. R. Martin’s pop culture fantasy phenomenon almost perfectly channels the dark, shock-laden brand of storytelling found in HBO’s hit TV show. We are in for an amazing Season finishing up in 2015. Oh and Mojang has teamed up with Telltale Games for the development of a Story Mode for the massively popular Minecraft construction game.

Dragon Age: Inquisition 

I’m still trying to find the time to finish up November’s “Inquisition.” However, I’ve played enough that I can pretty safely say it’s one of my favorite games of the year. The third entry in Bioware’s fantasy series has more than enough missions to complete, lore to thumb and companions to woo to overwhelm even the most ambitious marathon player. The story and characters represent BioWare in top form, and the world is massive. It’s an audaciously big and unwieldy game, but so much fun to get lost in. BioWare’s role-playing epic has everything you could expect to want in a fantasy saga: war, magic, exploration, romance and, yes, dragons. I’m sure I could spend hours upon hours in its lush, frightening world. I’m sure I will.

Five Nights At Freddy’s

Five Nights at Freddy’s is the most distilled expression of fear in gaming form I can think of. It is unbelievably simple and effective, almost devoid of anything but gameplay. The dread that accompanies the act of clicking through a variety of security cameras throughout Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza is inimitable. It is easily one of the most purely frightening games I have ever taken up, not to mention that robotic, anthropomorphic woodland creatures are innately horrifying, and at $5 full-price, it is a no-brainer. And check this, some online theorists propose that “Five Night’s At Freddy’s” is a living nightmare of Nathan Dunlap, the man arrested for the Chuck E. Cheese murders. The nightmare is that Dunlap is forced to work at the restaurant in which arguably the worst event of his life occurred and be continually haunted by the employees he once worked with. That is some scary ISHT.

Honorable mention(s): Alien: Isolation (PlayStation 3 and 4, Xbox 360 and One, Windows) & Dark Souls II (PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Windows)

What are your favorites that didn’t make my list? Let me know.

-Dagobot



Get at me on twitter: @markdago

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Download my latest EP for free: markdago.bandcamp.com



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Tom, Lance, Vance, Jacob and guest Arthur discuss their best last minute nerd gifts, as well as their current gaming whatnots

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The crew assembles to talk about “PlayStation Experience,” with guest Ben who attended. Lots of news, and lots of excitement. If you have any questions or topics you want to hear us talk about email us at feedback@entertainmentisdead.com.

“Tales From The Borderlands: Episode One – Zer0 Sum”; 8 out of 10; Rated M for Mature; Available on Windows, OSX, Playstation 4, Playstation 3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, iOS and Android.

I don’t know much at all about the Borderlands lore. Sad to say, I don’t get into first person shooters as much as the next person so I have never played through any of them. One, 2 or the Pre-Sequel. I might have to revisit my FPS convictions and give the loot driven adventure a go after getting through Tales From The Borderlands: Episode One – Zer0 Sum.

Instead of a open world cooperative shooter, Tales From The Borderlands is an interactive drama. It puts emphasis on story, player choice, and as little actual game mechanics as seemingly possible. That formula has done wonders for the Telltale games so far. The Walking Dead and The Wolf Among Us have raked in the cash and critical acclaim. The Borderlands universe is ripe for the picking for this treatment. The setting is unique, the characters are wacky, and there’s really no limit to what you can do. As odd as it may sound, this amalgam is a match made in heaven.

Zer0 Sum is all about introducing these characters and putting them into the crazy world of Borderlands. What makes this whole thing work is the strong writing. While not “likable” per se, the main characters Fiona and Rhys, are well fleshed out and interesting. They’re not simply archetypes played up for comedic effect. I can’t decide if it’s an adventure with tons of comedy. Or a comedy with tons of adventure.

Tales From The Borderlands maintains the visual benchmarks that we’ve become accustomed to from Telltale. With its hand-drawn art style and complementary cel-shading, it stands out and looks very crisp overall. It also sounds pretty great, thanks to impressive writing, hilarious dialogue and homages to its popular license (from what I’m told). That, and a talented voice cast, which includes the likes of Troy Baker, Laura Bailey and Patrick Warburton.

In Zer0 Sum, there are some big choices to be made. These pop up during certain moments in the story, and pause the game to let you carefully choose how you wish to proceed. When this happens, there are only a couple of choices. For example, Fiona carries a small pistol with just one bullet. A couple of these big choices ask you whether or not you want to use that bullet. Again, these choices don’t seem to affect the story at large, but do allow you to role-play a bit.

Occasionally, you’ll be allowed to move around and explore. When playing as Rhys, you can press L1 to use his cybernetic eye. This allows you to scan various items for flavor text. When using Fiona, she can keep track of her bank account. There are points in the story when you can spend money to equip different accessories.

Tales From The Borderlands starts and ends well. The emphasis on puzzle-solving is gone but with what’s taking place in this game and universe, I’m okay with it.

Telltale does a superb job at keeping a player engaged and involved, in particular when it comes to the moral dilemmas players have to make. The studio has made these games not only fun to play but also fun to watch. These games are a cinematic experience, and especially in the case of the licensed games, feel like a true extension of the source material. I GET the Borderlands universe now. The thing with Telltale games is that they have pretty much eschewed as much gameplay as possible in favor of storytelling. The trick is that the story has to be worth telling. With Tales Of The Borderlands – Zer0 Sum, it has it in spades.

-Dagobot



Get at me on twitter: @markdago

Like me on THE Facebook: facebook.com/markdagoraps

Download my latest EP for free: markdago.bandcamp.com

Listen to MY podcast http: http://poppundits.libsyn.com

The crew assembles after a Holiday hiatus to discuss their favorite hacks and cheats. You also get an update on their black friday purchases. The video doesn’t start till :17 seconds in so either wait it out or skip till that moment. Enjoy!

While this borders a tad on the ridiculous side, it is still pretty fun to see the Dark Knight wielding a light saber. Do you agree with the victor?

You should totally play Five Nights At Freddy’s right now. Don’t look it up first. Just go and play it. Trust me on this one. But don’t learn anything about the gameplay or the story beyond what you have. At first you might be upset at me for telling you to do this. But later you’ll realize you were glad you went in unspoiled. The good thing is that you’re only out five bucks if you decide to play it and it’s put together well enough to justify a few plays. The game is full of little hints, Easter eggs, tricks, and plot devices that make it more than just a silly horror game.

Now that you have given it a go. Let’s theorize.

My theory is that you play as a new hire that has to try not to get killed by animatronics for at least five nights. The bear’s name is actually Freddy Fazbear, which is what the title is referring to (it also refers to “nights”, which is not unlike the “nights” you spend in the game, of which there are five).

You’ll also notice that there’s no Quad Damage power up, so it is unlikely that FNAF is an unofficial sequel to Quake. However, if you film yourself listening to the song “Love Shack” in reverse while playing FNAF, then reverse the resulting video, it’ll look like you’re playing a game in reverse while listening to Love Shack normally. It won’t get any views on YouTube.

If you try to run the game in Windows 3.11, it will not work. This is likely a reference to the fact that there aren’t 311 animatronics in the restaurant where the game takes place.

If you hold down the keys “R”, “^”, and “Backspace”, you’ll look foolish. Some fans say this is proof that Freddy Fazbear is not real. On a related note, if you rearrange the letters in “Freddy Fazbear”, you’ll have wasted time you could have spent elsewhere.

A “bear”, a “fox”, a “chicken”, and a “rabbit” are actually real animals. Some take this to mean that other animals are also real. FNAF, when questioned, had no comment on the subject. I for one feel that this means that FNAF is not a patch for “AI assistant” software like Siri or Cortana.

Or maybe something else that would fall under the term ‘crackpot’.

The ‘Bite Of 87’ was actually a false flag conducted by Obama administration and ISIS, as part of a plot to scare people away from Freddy Fazbear’s Pizzeria so that they could unearth Oliver North’s gold, which they would then use to enact gun control legislation that would make us defenseless for the inevitable invasion by the Leather Goddesses of Phobos.

This would lead to the Goddesses implementing Plan 9 from outer space, leading to Obama to use the chaos caused by the plan to reveal that this was actually ANOTHER false flag designed to lure the Goddesses and ISIS into complacency, as he was really working for the terrorist organization COBRA. It would then be revealed that Cobra Commander built a giant mechanical snake underneath Benghazi, which would gas the aliens and have the side effect of brainwashing humanity into buying Cold Slither albums, thus finally knocking Justin Bieber off the American Top 40.

I read in a book somewhere, “When you describe a thing, you start killing it,” meaning you strip it of its magical allure turning it into mundane reality. Try and make it past ONE night & we can talk.

-Dagobot



Get at me on twitter: @markdago



Like me on THE Facebook: facebook.com/markdagoraps



Download my latest EP for free: markdago.bandcamp.com



Listen to MY podcast http: http://poppundits.libsyn.com 

With 3D Realms making a triumphant return to game design, it’s only necessary that you pick up the anthology. Hang out with Tom for an hour whiile he remembers how bad he is at “Wolfenstein 3D” and “Commander Keen”. 

Jimmy has ventured into Toms lair yet again and the two are up to Shenanigans. If the capture card isn’t acting up they’re gonna go ham on Girl FIght, Commander Keen and Ultra SF 4. Prepare for chaos… or video games.