No Man’s Sky – Review

New game review: No Man’s Sky             3.5 out of 5 stars

There has been a lot of hype surrounding a new game which was released last Saturday August 13. Available on PC and PS4, “No Man’s Sky” is set in a massive galaxy. You explore and confront aliens and animals on each planet, and they are all a bit different. The biggest feature of this game is the realism and size of the galaxy. The makers estimate that it would take one person 5 billion years in real time to visit each planet for only one second each. Once you land on a planet, you have find a civilization and develop your resources. You might also have to learn the language of that planet. If you are the first discover a planet you can re-name it. You can stay on that planet for as long as you like, as there is always something else to be done.

The view of GirtOnline students is that it is not worth its current price of $60, but it still a good game. We expect the price to come down in future. The hype surrounding it has proven to be unwarranted.

Snapchat

Snapchat is a way of communicating using photos, videos, text messages, audio and live video chat. It is a free app, but you have to be 12+ to access it. When you first download snapchat, you go through a very short and easy sign up process. Once you have made a snapchat account you can add friends. There is many ways you can add friends, you can add friends by username, from your contacts, using their snap code and you can search for people nearby. Snapchat has a series of fun and colourful filters. The dog filter and the face swap are the most popular filters on Snapchat. On snapchat you can post a picture or video to everyone of your friends, this is called your story and you can say how long it stays up for. Some people don’t realise that while it might go away after a short period of time, it can be screen shot, so always be respectful. People use stories as a way to show people what they are getting up to in their daily lives. In conclusion snapchat is the most popular social media site available to people over the age of 12, and is a great way to communicate with your mates. 

 

Nic Watts (9M) and Will Russell (9M)

YouTube – Pewdiepie

Watching YouTube has never been more popular. Many GirtOnline students subscribe to over 60 different YouTubers.

The most famous YouTuber is Pewdiepie (Felix Kjellbeig). He is 26 years old and is the most popular YouTuber in the English Speaking World. He lives in Sweden and posts one or two 5 -10 minute videos every day, mostly of himself playing video games. He accompanies his playing of the games with witty commentary, as well as occasional screaming and yelling. He also does real life challenges such as the ice-bucket challenge. Yesterday he posted a video of him playing on a virtual reality game, where he freaked out and threw his equipment away. His popularity is based on his personality and his sense of humour. He currently has a massive 43,745,905 subscribers around the world, which makes him the highest paid YouTuber ever, earning around $4 million per year.

(Current Youtubers at Girton include Lachlan Trounson 11R, who posts about once a month and has 10 subscribers.)

By the GirtOnline student group

Student Review – Angry Birds 2

Angry Birds 2

This is a new version of the very popular game called Angry Birds. It was Number 1 on the app store 7/8/2015. You still use the bird to destroy structures, but the main difference from the old one is you go on missions to beat the boss, who is different on each level.  It is free to play the game but you do have health points, which disappear if you fail on the mission.  If you run out you will need to use gems which you buy so you can get more life, or wait for about half an hour to regenerate, or you can watch advertisements from the sponsors. It is a game for all ages with plenty of cool characters and other stuff so download it and try it for yourself.

Student Reviews – AdVenture Capitalist

AdVenture Capitalist

AdVenture Capitalist is an easy time-absorbing game that is fun for people of every age. It is a game that consists of lots of tapping and even more time. You start as a normal person trying to get by with a job of selling lemonade. As you gain wealth, you begin to start new companies. It doesn’t take too much gameplay to finally get your first oil company. You collect payments over time. For example, the payment from an oil company will take much longer than that of a lemonade stand. But here’s the catch. As you buy more and more, you unlock faster ways to earn your pay. Once you have 600 oil companies it may take as little as 7 seconds to earn your pay. As you venture further into your capitalist career, you can reset your game and earn ‘Angels’, which is a much quicker way to earn profit.

Fan Fiction – Five Nights at Freddy’s

An example of Fan Fiction, based on the game Five Nights at Freddy’s.

By Lachlan Trounson

Chapter 1.       The incident

Hello everyone. If you are hearing this, then this is proof that I have survived. I should never have gone to Freddy Fazbear’s grand reopening. I did not want to go, but my little brother Timmy wanted to and when he wants something, he gets it.

I hated the place. The creepy robots that roamed around the dinner tables and interacted with people had a weird scent to them. Almost like blood. As we entered the pizzeria, I notice that there is an unusual amount of security cameras. Are they trying to keep an eye on the kids? Or something else?

When we sat down, I couldn’t help but notice that the animatronics were coming closer to me every 5 minutes. They would go to a table, start a conversation and leave to the next table. I think their names were Bonnie the bunny, Chica the chicken and Freddy the bear. My dad was part of the police force and wanted me to be safe. When the female chicken walked over to me and her eyes fixed with mine, with them a faint red glow, I knew something was wrong. I told Timmy that we had to go but he said that the ‘special show’ was about to start. The chicken was very close now, about two tables away. I gripped the taser in my right pocket. It was small but powerful. 250,000 volts powerful. If it works on humans, it should work on robots right?

Chica clenched her right fist and made heavier footsteps. By the time she did this, I noticed that she was glinting in the light. Like metal. She had stumbled on some party hats and was starting to lose her balance. Taking this opportunity, I launched myself into the air and hit the ground right next to her. I delivered the shock.

Chapter 2.         The Job

I awoke in a strange looking office with doors on each side. There was the manager waiting for me to waken. I listened carefully to what he said to me about what happened earlier on today. After that, he said that this would not go without a punishment. He then gave me a tablet and said that I had to earn money to fix the robot. I knew what he meant. He was going to keep me here until I have enough money. When I asked him how much, he said that the robot only lost its central processor (gives the ability to understand programming) and it came up to about 5 nights worth.

Game Review: Crossy Road

Crossy Road Review.

Crossy Road, a simple game that just the tap of a finger and pure concentration. The point of the game is to get a good high score. The game is a block game with simple movements. Your character depends on what you start off with. Once per day you will get a random amount of money (G). If you get 100G you will be allowed to role the machine for a new character. However the characters don’t help in any way. For example, the dragon sprays fire burning everything in the path but doesn’t remove the objects. That’s about it. The highest score in Crossy Road in Girton that we know of so far is 516. The image below shows a sister of a Girton student scoring nearly 900!

In other news, Ketchapp, also made by the people who designed Crossy Road, is very popular at the moment.

Vector

Vector is a free, popular game among Girton students at the moment. It’s rated 9+ (5 stars on App Store)

It’s about a guy who runs away from his evil work place because he was scared. There are hunters chasing him with tasers and you have to complete each obstacle course by doing tricks and collecting bonuses. There are three stages so far: Downtown, Construction yard and Technology Park.

I like this game because it’s very engrossing and even though it makes you rage sometimes, people still comeback for more because it’s SO ADDICTIVE😭😭😭 *please help me*🙈

By Nicholas Watts and Sylvan Rodnight-Blackwood.

Qoo.Me

Qooh.me What is it? A social media report from the GirtOnline Student group.

Qooh.me is a social media website designed for people to get feedback on certain questions that people have. It allows your friends or other people to post anonymous questions that you can answer any way you like. It is also used to get feedback about yourself. You can ask “Thoughts on me?” and people can provide you with anonymous feedback. People who you know (but it could be anyone) can ask anonymous questions to get to know you better. There is a certain status associated with having a high number of questions and answers. You can link it to your Facebook account so your friends can see what others are saying about a certain topic or piece of information about you. You can also ask yourself questions and answer them, share something you would find difficult to do in person.

Students and parents should be very cautious about this site and understand the pitfalls. See this advice below from the federal government’s Cybersmart website:

• Will banning my child from Qooh.me protect them? Are there other platforms like this?

Banning the use of sites or apps may not be the best option as new platforms are being developed all the time. It is more useful to talk to your child about the risks and your concerns and establish boundaries and expectations.

It is a good idea to explore the different social networking sites with your child and decide together which are the most appropriate to use.

It is also important that you explore the reporting and safety functions with them.

Talk about cyberbullying and inappropriate comments before they are confronted with it. Look at some of the questions on open profiles on Qooh.me and discuss the questions and how your child would respond (check the profiles are appropriate before exploring). Discuss that it is possible they will receive unpleasant comments from ‘anonymous’ users trying to upset them and sexual comments from other ‘anonymous’ users. Discuss how they will manage this and get them to agree to tell you or another trusted adult if it happens.

CyberSmart (http://www.cybersmart.gov.au/) also has information on other platforms you should know about including: Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Kik, Tumblr, ask.fm, Snapchat, and Minecraft.

App of the Day

 

 

 

Geometry dash is a game based on “the impossible game” for those who have heard of it. (“The impossible game” is the same game as this but almost impossible to complete, unlike this one where it can be done in a few goes.) The game is high paced. You are a cube that has to complete a course and all you have to do is tap the screen to make your costumed character jump over spikes and blocks. It may not sound very entertaining but it is very addictive.

Users have the ability to customize your little jumping cube with different looks and colours to complete the 147 different courses, which all have their own set of music tracks and colour schemes and difficultly levels. It is a game of true challenge and skill, and was the third most popular app on the 30th of May 2014.

As a perk, like “the impossible game” you can now fly due to portals that give you rockets to ride for parts of levels.