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God of War: Ragnarok is an astounding achievement, and Return to Monkey Island is a delight. Plus, Xbox FanFest Trivia is coming soon.

Facing the end of the world in God of War: Ragnarok

Kratos has always had a difficult time managing his rage, but in the new God of War game he’s got a pre-teen son as a constant companion. Is it any wonder that he loses his temper every now and then?

Ragnarok picks up not long after the 2018 game that refreshed the franchise for Playstation, and this sequel delivers against every expectation. The story, riffing off Norse mythology, is inventive and interesting, the expansive environments evocative. You feel cold at times when playing this game.

Ragnarok follows the same overall structure as its predecessor. Kratos and Atreus navigate through the world, often by canoe, with Atreus asking questions and Kratos and the disemobdied head, Mimir, filling in the details of mythology both Norse and Greek.

These slow, composed moments are punctuated by areas where you’ll be solving environmental puzzles and dealing with all manner of beasts and enemies.

Kratos has both axe and twin blades at his disposal again, and you can upgrade them and your armour as you progress through the game. Atreus is also a willing warrior again, fighting competently on his own but available for you to direct his attacks, too.

The combat took me a bit to get used to, but once I remembered the rhythm of attack, sidestep, parry, it became more fun. But it’s not easy. I was caught swearing at the game more than once as the swarms overtook me.

It was my 12-year-old who chastised me for my language, and he’s the reason that Ragnarok left such an impression on me. I have that same pre-teen in my house, and while he’s not the spawn of a god like Atreus, he’s every bit as important and irritating. He’s every bit as magnificent and cocksure.

Kratos is such an interesting father. Cory Barlog was the director who reimagined Kratos as a father for the 2018 game. Barlog, a new father himself at the time, clearly levereged his feelings about that role. The developers at Santa Monica Studio have made him believable in sometimes achingly painful ways. The way he talks about his son, the way he struggles to hold Atreus close, even as he knows he needs to let go.

Christopher Judge brings that full emotion to the role of Kratos, and Sunny Suljic’s Atreus is a pitch-perfect adolescent, right down to the changing voice. Richard Schiff as Odin and Ryan Hurst as Thor are only two of the supporting actors who bring life to this game.

There are aspects of the game that harken back to the PS4 generation, most obvious in the pauses in the game where Kratos and Atreus have to climb a wall or slip through a gap in a cave. These are moments where less powerful consoles are loading the code required for the next section of the game and they are only noticeable to those of us priviliged enough to have been playing almost everything on next-gen consoles and playing things developed for next-gen consoles.

Ragnorok had to be built for the PS4, too. That’s okay.

I can hear Kratos telling us all that, “It pays to be patient.”

God of War: Regnarok is available exclusively on PS4 and PS5. Rated mature.

You’ll love every minute of your Return to Monkey Island

Guybrush Threepwood is also a father, and Return to Monkey Island is kinda extemporaneous, the story being revealed as he tells his son, Boybrush, about his adventures on Monkey Island.

It picks up directly after the first two games in the series, The Secret of Monkey Island (1990) and Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge (1991).

These are point-and-click adventure games, renowned for the clever puzzles and witty dialogue. Original creators Ron Gilbert and Dave Grossman returned to create Return, and brought on Rex Crowle as art director, and his paper, pop-up style is perfect for this refresh of the franchise.

Return to Monkey Island is available for Nintendo Switch, PS4, PS5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. Rated teen.

Get ready for the next round of Xbox FanFest Trivia

If you’ve got some free time on Saturday afternoon/evening, and you’re interested in a chance at winning some Xbox gear, get yourself ready for FanFest Trivia.

It takes place starting at 3:30 p.m. PT (that’s 4:30 p.m. MT and 6:30 p.m. ET), and it’s all online, of course.

You can watch the whole thing on Twitch, and if you want to participate you’ll also need to be logged in to your Xbox FanFest account.

Prizes for knowing lots about Xbox include a grand prize of an Xbox Series S console, Elite wireless controller, a year of Xbox Game Pass, a personalized jersey, two PowerA controllers, and a bunch of gift cards and Microsoft Rewards points.

Another 860 prize packs will also be awarded that include a mix of those same prizes.

The 90-minute show is hosted by Kelly Lombardi and Malik Prince.

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This week on The Shift, guest host Bruce Claggett and I talked about the single-player campaign for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II, Call of Duty branded gift ideas, the intensity of Nintendo’s MarioKart, Ross Chastain pulling off a video-game manoeuvre in a Nascar race to qualify for the championship, and Netflix’s new ad-supported subscription and profile transfer feature.

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Modern Warfare II gives us the best Call of Duty story in years, and there’s lots of merch to go with it. Plus, PS VR2 comes out on February 23 at a cost of $750, and a race car driver uses video game tactics to get into a championship.

Modern Warfare II is the best Call of Duty story in years

The latest edition of Activision’s Call of Duty is Modern Warfare II. The name has been recycled – the annual release tradition of this franchise creates some difficulties, and naming is only one of them – but there are elements to the 2022 Modern Warfare II that we would not have seen in versions from years gone by.

Chief among them is the visual experience. Playing on the PS5, the environments are rendered in detail I’ve not seen before. From the scrub brushland of the Spanish coast to mountains and valleys of Mexico to the streets of Amsterdam, there were moments while playing when I thought I was watching a video, not playing a game.

And with the single player campaign, MWII is very much like playing a movie. This is something that it shares with the best narrative Call of Duty experiences, and it’s why I think the story here is the best in a long time.

It’s not going to be for everyone, and it’s certainly not for kids. This is a twisting story that plays out across the globe, and the stakes are high, but simple.

You play as various characters – many of them will be familiar to people who have played earlier CoD games – jumping between them and locations. You’ll swap between weapons on the fly, getting a chance to try out all the different things you’ll take into your multiplayer games later.

And the missions also provide a range of experiences. Moving through towns and villages where you’re clearing building after building, sniper missions, furious chases with explosions and chaos, and even moments where you’re way off in the distance, supporting your team by dealing carnage from the sky.

All the while, though, you need to be mindful of civilians. Only the bad guys put the lives of innocents in danger here.

By sticking to the tried-and-true, and not making excuses about it, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II delivers a solid, entertaining campaign experience.

Call of Duty branded accessories for the fans on your gift list

With the gift-buying season close at hand, if you’ve got any Call of Duty fans on your list, there are lots of great options celebrating the launch of Modern Warfare II to be found at the Call of Duty Shop, including t-shirts and hoodies, hats, and mugs.

But many other items come with a bit of Call of Duty flavour, too.

Valaclava has crafted limited-edition garments, and Eureka Ergonomic has a CoD chair.

Woojer has a body strap that wraps around your torso and delivers haptic feedback to your entire body.

And Dalstrong has CoD branded kitchen gear including aprons, knives and cleavers, and rolls and bags for those knives and cleavers.

PSVR2 will cost $750 when it releases on February 22

PlayStation’s second generation virtual reality headset is being released on February 22. The PS VR2 will be priced at $750 in Canada, which includes the headset, a set of the Sense controllers, and stereo headphones.

A bundle including Horizon Call of the Mountain will also be available at a cost of $820.

Sony has also designed a charging station for the Sense controllers so they don’t need to be plugged into a PS5 console. The charging station is priced at $65.

You’ll be able to pre-order a PS VR2 on November 15. You can register for updates.

To use PS VR2 you also need a PlayStation 5 console. They come in two editions, one with a Blu-ray drive for $650 and one without a drive for $520.

Nascar driver credits Nintendo GameCube racing for qualification win

Nascar driver Ross Chastain did something a little bit legendary on Sunday in the Nascar Cup Series race at Martinsville Speedway in Virginia.

Chastain was in tenth in the last lap and was going to be eliminated from the championship. Heading into the final turn, he did this.

Here’s what this looked like for the cars he passed.

And here’s dashcam footage from Chastain’s car.

Here’s Chastain with the explanation.

Chastain finished fourth in the race, and secured the fourth and final spot in the championship competition, which will be decided at the Phoenix Raceway this Sunday (November 6).

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Netflix rolls out some changes to its plan and features, Pantone begins charging to use colours.

Netflix rolls out ad-supported plan

Netflix has, as expected, added a new, cheaper plan for Canadian subscribers.

Basic with Ads, which is available now, costs just $5.99 a month.

Advertisements will be shown before, during, and after programs, and will be 15- or 30-seconds long and Netflix said they will average four to five minutes of ads per hour.

There are restrictions that might get people to think carefully before going to the lower cost tier. Video quality tops out at 720p and Basic with Ads subscribers cannot download videos to later watch offline.

And not all TV shows and movies will be available, due to how Netflix licensed those titles.

You can now transfer your Netflix profile

Having a cheaper subscription option is a way Netflix is trying to keep growing its business. Cracking down on shared subscriptions is another.

The introduction of a profile transfer feature feels like one way that Netflix is getting people ready for that crackdown.

With this service, you can now transfer an entire profile off an account, moving the viewing history and watch list, settings, saved games, and more.

And when you transfer your profile, Netflix conveniently creates a new membership for that profile.

It’s so easy!

Pantone plans on charging people for colours

Pantone is a colour-matching system that enables accuracy in design and manufacturing.

If you want to print a t-shirt with a specific shade of forest green, for example, you can ask it to be printed with Pantone 362C and be exactly sure what green you’re going to get.

For graphic designers and printmakers who use Adobe software, being able to use Pantone colours in Illustrator or Indesign or Photoshop has been invaluable.

Soon, though, if you open up a file that uses Pantone colours, they will display in black.

Adobe used to pay a blanket license for users of its software to use the Pantone colour-matching system, but for one reason or another, they’re not doing that now.

So Pantone is charging people directly instead. $21 USD a month.

Cory Doctorow has a full explainer.

Artist (“curator, activitst”) Stuart Semple is having none of this, so he created a plugin that you can use, for free, that maps your colours so you know what Pantone colour to reference without needing to license Pantone’s chart.

Semple’s website, Culture Hustle, has other things for artists, including acrylic inks like Black 3.0: the world’s blackest black paint, White 2.0: the world’s brightest white paint, and Pinkest Pink.

Those inks were created in response to the exclusive arrangement that artist Anish Kapoor has to use Vantablack. Semple is angry enough at the exclusionary arrogance of Kapoor that the products at Culture Hustle are not available to Kapoor.

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