The PlayStation Wrap Up, a breakdown of all the hours played, Trophies earned, and more, returns to deliver all your 2020 gaming stats, including any time your account has spent on PS5 so far.You can head to the official PlayStation Wrap Up site to get your breakdown of PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 games you’ve played.PS4 stats are the primary focus, with the number of games and hours played, your top played games, hours spent locally vs. online, your average playtime every day of the week, and more. The Wrap Up also includes some generalized stats pulling from all PS4 player data for games like The Last of Us Part 2, Ghost of Tsushima, and MLB: The Show 20.
Additionally, PS5 owners will see some stats as well, like top game and hours spent with it, total hours played, and the number of PS5-specific trophies earned.
Players can also grab a free dynamic PS4 theme in honor of the Wrap Up. To actually access the information as well, PlayStation requires players to have a registered PSN account, be 18 years or older, and have at least played on a PS4 for 10 hours during the last calendar year.
Have you played PlayStation 5?
PlayStation’s Wrap Up returns after previously offering players a look at Trophies, top games, and more for 2019.
And while you’re looking back at your PlayStation past, don’t forget to look ahead to what’s to come, including the current state of PlayStation studios and their active projects, the biggest games coming in 2021, and why PS5’s 2021 lineup has us so excited. And for the latest on all things PlayStation, be sure to watch our weekly PlayStation show, Podcast Beyond!
Jonathon Dornbush is IGN’s Senior News Editor, host of Podcast Beyond!, and PlayStation lead. Talk to him on Twitter @jmdornbush.
Remedy’s supernatural thriller Control was one of the best games on the previous generation of consoles, but it’s also one that clearly struggled on the hardware. In 2019, when I reviewed the game on a base model PS4, you could feel the action chug along when the action got too intense. It worked, but just barely. (I don’t think any game has made my PS4’s fan quite so loud.) We already know that one of the best things about the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X is that they make older games better, whether that’s through backward compatibility or, in the case of next-gen Control: Ultimate Edition, brand-new versions that make use of the hardware. And now that I’ve spent a few hours with Control on the PS5, I can say it really feels like the ideal way to play.
The most obvious improvements are the expected ones. As with many XSX and PS5 games, the new version of Control offers two modes: one focused on performance, the other visuals. In the former, the game runs at a constant 60fps, which makes a big difference. Control is an action game about constantly moving: you use a combination of telekinetic powers and a shape-shifting gun to take out enemies, but sit still too long, and you’ll be overwhelmed. This makes speed essential. When the game stutters during a big shootout, even a little bit, it can really interrupt your flow. That doesn’t happen on the PS5.
The other mode lowers the frame rate to 30fps but turns on high-end graphical features like ray-tracing. Control’s setting is dark and gloomy, but there are lots of shiny surfaces, like marble flooring or underground puddles, where you can see the more realistic reflections. It looks great and adds more depth and texture to the world, especially because it’s typically so dark. But having the game at 60fps is my preference. It makes the game’s incredible combat just that much better. 30fps is still playable, but it can be hard to go back once you’ve played at a higher frame rate. (For a more technical breakdown, be sure to check out this analysis over at Digital Foundry.)
Control with ray-tracing enabled and turned off.
The PS5 version also goes an extra step and makes use of the DualSense controller as well. Much like games like Fortnite, the triggers now provide a bit of resistance when you fire your weapon. It sounds small, but it does help make the act of firing virtual bullets just a bit more satisfying. Control is also one of the few non-Sony developed titles to make great use of the controller’s more subtle haptic vibrations. You can feel small footsteps as you wander around the creepy office, and it’s especially fun when you start using flying around tossing around objects with your mind. You can feel all that tension in your palms. Combined with the better frame rate, it makes Control’s many lengthy battles much more thrilling.
Of course, all of this comes with a caveat. While you can play your current version of Control on a new console through backward compatibility, to get all of the next-gen benefits you’ll have to purchase a brand-new copy for PS5 or XSX. There’s no free upgrade path for existing users. (Though there’s a slight workaround if you’re a PlayStation Plus subscriber.) Because of this, you also can’t use your existing save file with the next-gen versions. Basically, if you want to enjoy Control on your shiny new console, you’ll need to buy a new copy and start the game over from scratch. This is the best version of Control — but it’s up to you whether that’s worth the hassle.
CAPCOM has just released some interesting info confirming the height of “everyone’s favorite towering mistress” — Alcina Dimitrescu. With the unveiling of the vampiric female character, possibly coupled with the toll from the pandemic, many fans took to social media to express their “fondness” for the mutant human antagonist.
In a tweet from CAPCOM, Resident Evil Village art director, Tomonori Takano revealed that Alcina Dimitrescu, with her hat and high heels factored in, stands at a staggering 2.9m in height, or 9’6”. The number of Alcina Dimitrescu tweets captioned with “step on me” has since exploded.
Your love for Lady Dimitrescu is loud and clear. ?
Here’s a message from our RE Village art director Tomonori Takano, along with a very curious fact you may have wondered about: pic.twitter.com/Lj4m5pN2dJ
— Resident Evil (@RE_Games) February 2, 2021
pic.twitter.com/E6C8Ut2XyR
— Damon (@808_Blasta) February 2, 2021
Me when I see her the first time in the full game pic.twitter.com/d55Sk6i1Ps
— Hype Your Games (@HypeYourGames) February 2, 2021
pic.twitter.com/XYF4G7cwc0
— Rodriguez (@Raffy230) February 2, 2021
pic.twitter.com/TMJCzZ9FdV
— Devañte Walker ? (@DevanteWalker3) February 2, 2021
For more gaming news, a full gameplay video of the canceled GoldenEye 007 remaster for Xbox Live Arcade surfaces.
Last year, when everyone started wearing masks, it became difficult to use Apple‘s Face ID feature to unlock iPhones. The company made unlocking slightly faster by immediately bringing up the passcode screen when your iPhone detected you’re wearing a mask.
Now, it plans to let you unlock the phone with Face ID while wearing your mask — but you would need an Apple Watch. As noted by Engadget, the new iOS 14.5 developer beta allows you to do that if you’re wearing an unlocked Apple Watch.
[Read: India’s new customs duties will make your next phone pricier]
This is how the feature would work: you’ll have to manually enable an option to unlock your iPhone with a less accurate Face ID along with your Apple Watch for authentication.
You’ll be notified on your watch every time you unlock your iPhone successfully — which can be really annoying if you unlock it frequently. I’d rather stick with passcode punching for when I’m wearing a mask.
As my colleague Callum suggested, it would be nice of Apple to bring back Touch ID. The company included Touch ID under the power button in the iPad Air released last year. It could come up with a similar solution with the iPhone, or as Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman suggested, it could debut its own under-the-screen fingerprint scanner.
new iPad Air
Right now, the new Face ID unlock system is in testing, but bank on us to write a guide in our Basics section when it’s available to everyone.
Did you know we have a newsletter all about consumer tech? It’s called Plugged In –
and you can subscribe to it right here.
Apple(AAPL) is set to introduce a new requirement for users to give explicit permission for apps to track them across the internet, a move that has roiled Facebook, which relies on data collection to target ads.
Now, Facebook plans to show a prompt “of our own, along with Apple’s” in an effort to show users how personalized ads “support small businesses and keep apps free,” the company said in an update Monday to an older blog post called “Speaking Up for Small Businesses.”
“As we shared in December, we disagree with Apple’s approach, but will be showing their prompt to ensure stability for the businesses and people who use our services,” Facebook said in the post.
For Facebook(FB), the stakes of Apple’s new privacy change couldn’t be higher. The social media company, which makes almost all of its revenue from advertising, has repeatedlywarned investors that Apple’s software changes could hurt its business if users reject tracking permissions.
In December, Facebook took out ads in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Washington Post, saying the requirement could be “devastating” to millions of small businesses that advertise on its platform. It alsoheld a press event to trot out small businesses opposed to the change and debuted a new hashtag to discuss it.
Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO and cofounder, hammered a similar point on a conference call with analysts last month to discuss the company’s most recent earnings report.
“Apple has every incentive to use their dominant platform position to interfere with how our apps and other apps work, which they regularly do, to preference their own,” Zuckerberg said. “This impacts the growth of millions of businesses around the world, including with the upcoming iOS 14 changes. Many small businesses will no longer be able to reach their customers with targeted ads.”
While this latest move may seem like yet another shot fired atApple, Facebookis taking Apple up on its offer for any developer to explain why it wants certain permissions for tracking. “We feel that people deserve the additional context, and Apple has said that providing education is allowed,” Facebook said in the blog post.
On Apple’s privacy and data webpage, the company said developers are allowed to do this “so long as you are transparent to users about your use of the data in your explanation. … Apps must respect the user’s permission settings and not attempt to manipulate, trick, or force people to consent to unnecessary data access.”
Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Apple declined to comment.
In a December tweet, Apple CEO Tim Cook shared an image of what Facebook’s app tracking transparency messaging could look like. Under the permissions prompt, the example language said: “Here, in addition to other screens, Facebook can explain why users should allow tracking.” Users can then “ask app not to track” or “allow.”
Singapore (CNN) — No one wants to be stuck in a foreign country during a global pandemic.
But, by his own admission, 25-year-old Jon Lu, an American software engineer, chose to remain in Singapore when the world’s borders began to shutter last year.
“I arrived in Singapore for the first time in August 2019, although my time was mostly spent abroad for work,” says the New York native. “I didn’t start truly living in Singapore until March 2020.”
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) grad says that he had a choice of where he wanted to be based during his year-long project in Asia.
Fluent in both English and Mandarin, Lu — a recreational figure skater who used to participate in intercollegiate competitions — ultimately decided on Singapore.
He worked hard for the most part, practicing figure skating about four to five times a week. But he also did what Singaporeans do best — eat.
As of today, the American has visited a total of 255 food and beverage establishments including cafes and hawker stalls, covering 30 Michelin-rated restaurants with 37 Michelin stars collectively (55 Michelin stars including repeat visits).
An impressive feat, considering the city’s restaurants were closed to in-person dining for more than two months, not to mention the fact he was temporarily sidelined due to ill health.
When the city entered into a nationwide partial lockdown — also known as the Circuit Breaker — from April 7 to June 1, 2020, eateries were forced to offer takeout only. That didn’t stop Lu, who continued to eat well by ordering food deliveries, not once but twice a day, for the first half of the period.
But these were no ordinary meals. He chose to focus on the city’s many gastronomic offerings, including Michelin-starred venues that often take weeks if not months to secure tables in.
“It was such a tough time for the F&B industry — I wanted to do as much as I could to help support local businesses,” Lu says, adding that some of his most memorable Circuit Breaker meals were tasting menus designed for the home, where he’d have to put finishing touches on the dishes himself.
“One such meal was from Odette at Home,” says Lu, who even managed to procure a table cloth and a small potted plant from staff in the hotel he’d been staying in for a month to recreate the feted French restaurant’s booth seat within his room.
“It was such a tough time for the F&B industry — I wanted to do as much as I could to help support local businesses.”
Jon Lu, American software engineer
But in early May, Lu started having issues with his vision.
Doctors diagnosed him with retinal vein occlusion, caused by extremely elevated LDL cholesterol levels — presumably a result of the foodie’s dining habits over the preceding seven-month period of intensive traveling and eating before the lockdown.
It didn’t help that gyms and ice rinks were closed.
“I worked with local specialists to treat the vision symptoms and started running every day,” Lu says. “I also went on a low cholesterol, heart-healthy diet for two months during which I avoided foods moderate to high in added sugars.”
After two months of dieting and running, Lu’s health issues were resolved. In July, just a few weeks after dining in was allowed under the city’s second reopening phase, he started populating his calendar with reservations again.
Lu’s top dining picks
American software engineer Jon Lu has eaten at Michelin-starred Odette, helmed by chef Julien Royer, four times.
Jon Lu
Having sampled the cream of Singapore’s top restaurants, a feat that even food critics would take a year or two to accomplish, Lu is well-positioned to offer advice on where to find the city’s finest eats.
Joining his ranks of favorite Michelin-awarded restaurants is chef Julien Royer’s three Michelin-starred Odette, where Lu has dined four times. He highly rates the contemporary French restaurant for its “incredibly refined and technically well executed” cuisine, headlined by Royer’s signature Pigeon “Beak to Tail” course, that “tastes amazing.”
In the Japanese category, Lu singles out the one Michelin-starred Sushi Kimura, which he has visited twice. He says that chef-owner Tomo-o Kimura offers “thicker” and “more exotic” cuts of fish — like sujiko (salmon roe sac), oki aji (white-tongue jack fish) and usubu hagi (unicorn leatherjacket fish). That’s not to mention Kimura’s shari (sushi rice), which is “amazingly firm and airy” and served at the “perfect temperature.”
When it comes to Singaporean cuisine, it’s the Michelin-starred Labyrinth by chef Han Li Guang that pulls at Lu’s heartstrings.
The restaurant is famed for showcasing elevated versions of local dishes — like the Signature Chilli Crab — that are unmistakably Singaporean in origin, with ingredients mostly locally sourced. Lu declares his November trip to Labyrinth, his second, to be one of his favorite post-Circuit Breaker meals.
Among Lu’s top Japanese picks in Singapore is Sushi Kimura.
Jon Lu
Menu standouts include the Ang Moh Chicken Rice and An Ode to Cairnhill Steakhouse, both of which pay homage to Han’s grandmother and grandfather respectively.
Michelin-rated restaurants aside, Lu also makes a point of checking out new eateries. His favorite new opening, Euphoria, serves “gastro-botanica” cuisine created by Singaporean chef-owner Jason Tan during his time at the one-starred Corner House.
“At the heart of Euphoria are four botanical essences made purely from vegetables,” says Lu. “I was extremely impressed by how tasty every single dish was, and particularly by the complexity of flavor from the vegetable components.”
In spite of his impressive coverage of reputed restaurants, Lu says he does not believe in “star chasing” — i.e. dining at a restaurant solely on the basis that it has been awarded stars by Michelin. There remain 13 starred restaurants in Singapore that he has not visited.
His most-visited venue in Singapore, the two-year-old avant-garde restaurant Preludio, has no stars.
Run by Colombian chef Fernando Arevalo, Preludio serves “author’s cuisine” that revolves around a yearly changing theme called “chapter.” From its debut Monochrome chapter, Lu raves about the Pata Negra course with “astounding” flavors, featuring panko crumb-breaded Iberico pork shoulder with a “distinctive” blend of spices — cumin, cayenne and paprika — paired with tomatoes soaked in a two-day marinade.
“As someone who usually doesn’t like to repeat dishes at fine-dining restaurants, the fact that I’ve already dined at Preludio nine times (in 2020) is a testament to their inventiveness,” says Lu.
Inspired by “Chef’s Table”
Lu says that eating out and exploring food spots has been a hobby since 2015, when he interned in downtown Chicago and was surrounded by myriad food options within walking distance of his office.
Since then, the avid food lover says he’s visited at least 300 different restaurants every year, starting with cafes and casual outlets, before graduating to finer venues in 2019.
Attributing his interest in fine dining to the Netflix Series “Chef’s Table,” Lu says he was fascinated by how the show depicted food as a seemingly boundless art form, limited only by the chef’s skill and imagination.
“There were so many instances where I’d watch an episode and immediately bookmarked the featured restaurant, saying to myself that I need to dine there one day,” says Lu, who visited popular global restaurants GAA, MUME, Central, Dinner by Heston, NARISAWA and Momofuku Seiobo between September 2019 to March 2020. He’s shared many of his dining experiences on his Instagram account.
The American says that Singapore has certainly been the “most impressive” dining city so far, and that it is “entirely possible” to eat out every day at a quality venue without repeating meals for years.
“The variety of cuisines as well as the range of available ingredients (which truly span every corner of the world) in Singapore is incredible,” says Lu.
If you’ve been following recent news about Resident Evil Village, the next game in the hit horror video game franchise, you may have heard about Lady Dimitrescu, a very tall woman / probably-vampire who has become very popular.
Seriously, she’s tall — just look at this GIF from Sony. Lady Dimitrescu towers over the other women / probably-vampires in this scene.
A lot of people have wondered exactly how tall Lady Dimitrescu is, apparently, and Kotaku’s Ash Parrish even went to great lengths to estimate that Lady Dimitrescu is 96 inches tall (8 feet). On Monday evening, though, the official Resident Evil Twitter account revealed that Parrish wasn’t even close.
If you include her hat and high heels, Lady Dimitrescu officially stands at a giant 2.9 meters tall, which equates to a height of approximately 9 feet and 6 inches, according to Tomonori Takano, Resident Evil Village’s art director.
Your love for Lady Dimitrescu is loud and clear.
Here’s a message from our RE Village art director Tomonori Takano, along with a very curious fact you may have wondered about: pic.twitter.com/Lj4m5pN2dJ
— Resident Evil (@RE_Games) February 2, 2021
That sounds terrifyingly tall to me — I’m nearly six feet tall, so I’d crane my neck trying to look her in the eye. (I guess that’s the perfect way to get me to expose my neck so she can chomp down on my jugular.)
But myself and a few of my colleagues wanted to get a better idea of just how tall that really is. Here are just a few comparisons:
Basically, she’s really, really tall. But I have just one more question — when Lady Dimitrescu takes off her hat and kicks off her shoes after a long day of hunting humans, how tall is she then? Guess we’ll just have to play Resident Evil Village to see if this very important mystery gets answered.
The game’s out on May 7th, so we won’t have too much longer to wait.
The Revival is expected to use the Milwaukee-Eight 107 engine
Don’t Miss Stories on Motorcycle.com
Harley-Davidson announced it’s 2021 touring lineup last month, but we can confirm the company has one more model up it’s sleeve, and we’re not talking about the Pan America. Harley-Davidson’s 2021 model virtual presentation included a teaser image of a fuel tank console with the word “Revival” written on it. Motorcycle.com can now confirm that the Harley-Davidson Revival will be a 2021 touring model powered by the Milwaukee-Eight V-Twin engine.
The confirmation comes via the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency which certified the Revival alongside its returning touring models. The filing includes both the M-8 107 and 114 displacements, but Harley-Davidson typically reserves the larger engine for the Specials. Unless Harley-Davidson breaks away from this nomenclature, we can assume the 2021 Revival will use the same 107ci (1746cc) version of the Milwaukee-Eight as the Electra Glide Standard, Road Glide, Road King and Street Glide.
We don’t know when Harley-Davidson will announce the Revival. The company’s immediate focus is on launching the Pan America 1250 on Feb. 22, and Harley-Davidson will likely want to put enough space between its first adventure-touring bike and the Revival. We’re also getting to the point where manufacturers are announcing their first 2022 models, so Harley-Davidson may not want to wait too long.
Harley-Davidson is set to announce its year-end fiscal results tomorrow, along with the first details of the company’s new Hardwire business plan. This may include some details of the Revival.
Check back with us here on Motorcycle.com for the latest information as it becomes available.
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Network security provider SonicWall said on Monday that hackers are exploiting a critical zeroday vulnerability in one of the devices it sells.
The security flaw resides in the Secure Mobile Access 100 series, SonicWall said in an advisory updated on Monday. The vulnerability, which affects SMA 100 firmware versions 10.x, isn’t slated to receive a fix until the end of Tuesday.
Monday’s update came a day after security firm NCC Group said on Twitter that it had detected “indiscriminate use of an exploit in the wild.” The NCC tweet referred to an earlier version of the SonicWall advisory that said its researchers had “identified a coordinated attack on its internal systems by highly sophisticated threat actors exploiting probable zero-day vulnerabilities on certain SonicWall secure remote access products.”
Per the @SonicWall advisory – https://t.co/teeOvpwFMD – we’ve identified and demonstrated exploitability of a possible candidate for the vulnerability described and sent details to SonicWall – we’ve also seen indication of indiscriminate use of an exploit in the wild – check logs
— NCC Group Research & Technology (@NCCGroupInfosec) January 31, 2021
In an email, an NCC Group spokeswoman wrote: “Our team has observed signs of an attempted exploitation of a vulnerability that affects the SonicWall SMA 100 series devices. We are working closely with SonicWall to investigate this in more depth.”
In Monday’s update, SonicWall representatives said the company’s engineering team confirmed the submission by NCC Group included a “critical zero-day” in the SMA 100 series 10.x code. SonicWall is tracking it as SNWLID-2021-0001. The SMA 100 series is a line of secure remote access appliances.
The disclosure makes SonicWall at least the fifth large company to report in recent weeks that it was targeted by sophisticated hackers. Other companies include network management tool provider SolarWinds, Microsoft, FireEye, and Malwarebytes. CrowdStrike also reported being targeted but said the attack wasn’t successful.
Neither SonicWall nor NCC Group said that the hack involving the SonicWall zeroday was linked to the larger SolarWinds hack campaign. Based on the timing of the disclosure and some of the details in it, however, there is widespread speculation that the two are connected.
NCC Group has declined to provide additional details before the zeroday is fixed to prevent the flaw from being exploited further.
People who use SonicWall’s SMA 100 series should read the company’s advisory carefully and follow stopgap instructions for securing products before a fix is released. Chief among them:
If you must continue operation of the SMA 100 Series appliance until a patch is available
Enable MFA. This is a *CRITICAL* step until the patch is available.
Reset user passwords for accounts that utilized the SMA 100 series with 10.X firmware
If the SMA 100 series (10.x) is behind a firewall, block all access to the SMA 100 on the firewall;
Shut down the SMA 100 series device (10.x) until a patch is available; or
Load firmware version 9.x after a factory default settings reboot. *Please back up your 10.x settings*
Important Note: Direct downgrade of Firmware 10.x to 9.x with settings intact is not supported. You must first reboot the device with factory defaults and then either load a backed up 9.x configuration or reconfigure the SMA 100 from scratch.
Ensure that you follow multifactor authentication (MFA) best practice security guidance if you choose to install 9.x. SonicWall firewalls and SMA 1000 series appliances, as well as all respective VPN clients, are unaffected and remain safe to use.
This post was updated to correct the description of the SMA 100.
One of the downsides of working in games media is that it’s hard to be too precious about things like completions. The nature of the job means that I’ve ended up with my account showing hundreds of games with difficult (if not now-impossible) 1Ks, games I have no interest in returning to, and games I never would have played in the first place had some kindly soul not paid me to do so. Sure, I could have set up a second account for stuff I didn’t want on my main tag, but that would have meant a second Live sub, plus that ship sailed for me years ago and I’ve pretty much made my peace with it. My completion percentage may forever be in the gutter, then, but that doesn’t mean I’m not keen to give it a bit of a boost when the right game comes along. I initially started up Cyber Shadow with the intention of putting together a quick Game Pass First Impressions piece last week before other stuff got in the way, and I didn’t take a look at the list before I fired it up. I definitely should have done. I am an idiot.
Wearing its 8-bit inspiration on its sleeve as it does, Cyber Shadow was never going to be an easy game to get through even casually. But after the first achievement popped at the end of Chapter 1 and I audibly muttered ‘oh no’ to myself at the 16G reward, I figured it was time to finally check out the list. Oh no indeed. Not only does the entire list consist of 16G, 31G, and 91G achievements, but it’s also only, like, an unobtainable and a grind achievement away from filling out an entire ‘evil achievement’ bingo sheet. Speedrun achievement? Check. 100% achievement? Of course, and one for 0%, too. Collectables? By the dozen. Missables? You know it, and plenty of ’em. Deathless achievement? Obviously. It’s one mean list, and I initially had no interest in going for the completion. But as the game opened up and its wonderful retro aesthetic, tight gameplay, and killer soundtrack drew me in, I slowly came around to the idea. Not only that, but I still wanted to give it some love on the site, although having missed the boat on both a first impressions piece and a review by that point, we’d have to get a little creative to do so. Thus, The Road to 1K was born — part review, part guide, part diary, and all in all, just a (hopefully) fun new way to shine a light on games we on staff are loving and trying to complete, but which we might not otherwise be able to cover. There may be a few ‘spoilers’ in terms of game content, in case you’re bothered by that kind of thing. Well, with the explanation bit out of the way, let’s get into it…
Session one: 0-363G
I was actually tempted to call it a day when that first 16G achievement popped, since it rounded out my score for the first time in ages. Still, a combination of wanting to cover the game in some way and curiosity to see more drove me onwards in spite of all the awkward numbers that were bound to follow. Looking at the stats on-site, I certainly wouldn’t have been the first to tap out there — Saving the clan, that first achievement I unlocked, has been earned by 97% of TA players, while the achievement for completing Chapter 2, Rise to the challenge, drops way down to just 47%. Turns out there were several more I could have unlocked before my first, too, as every boss has its own achievement for defeating it under certain conditions. Even after checking the list, this still managed to throw me off, as they’re not listed in the order they appear in the game. Also, I wasn’t going to go out of my way to try and get these during my ‘casual’ first run, since it was clear from the list that it was realistically going to take at least three full runs (100%, 0%, speedrun) to grab the lot, so there’d be plenty of chances to mop up later.
Looking at timestamps, it took me about 45 minutes to get through the second level (kinda embarrassing considering I can now do it in about ten), mostly due to the fact that instant death is only ever one wrong input away there. With limited recovery options early on, one tap from an enemy can send you tumbling into pits, spikes, or acid, and sent unceremoniously back to the last checkpoint. Each of these can be powered up with the currency you find to offer better recovery and even free items, though you need to be careful with the latter as buying the items can sometimes make the boss-specific achievements (notably Focused effort for beating the Chapter 3 mid-boss without destroying its turrets) much harder. Difficulty in general ramps up pretty quickly — damage is high, instant death hazards prevalent, and the learning curve steep. But from the end of Chapter 3 onwards, Cyber Shadow starts throwing amazing tools your way. Airstrike might seem like a simple downwards attack but it’s actually an extremely useful movement tool for adding height and distance to jumps, or recovering from hits. And as a huge Street Fighter III: Third Strike fan, I was delighted to unlock the parry, replete with the exact same input of tapping forward to deflect incoming blows (if only projectiles here). An oh, how I parried. I unlocked the No you achievement for parrying 50 times less than ten minutes after unlocking the ability, but what can I say? I just bloody love parrying.
As the difficulty continued to snowball, I pressed on. A few parts had me wanting to hurl my controller into the sea (the bike section towards the end is rough until you know the enemy and hazard patterns, and a couple of the later bosses worked me over pretty hard), but generally speaking, the satisfaction of eventually overcoming these obstacles made all that hardship worthwhile. As soon as you unlock Charge and pop Overpowered, Cyber Shadow turns into a completely different game. You don’t just run and jump any more — you soar. It’s a little overwhelming to have all of your abilities boosted at once, but once you learn how to chain it all together, it’s stupidly rewarding to just string dash slashes together, ground underfoot or no, and blitz entire sections in seconds. If you thought the game had some cool risk/reward stuff going on when it gave you a parry, just you wait until it breaks out the good stuff later on. One mistake can ruin everything so the stakes are high if you want to go fast, and you will. It’s just that much fun.
Before too long, I found myself at the last boss (read: three bosses, back-to-back). The first is pretty much free as it’s a rematch with a familiar face, but the second and third have some pretty novel mechanics which take a bit of working out. I took a bunch of intentional deaths here to start over when things went south early, but got there in the end. Ten hours and 550 deaths (at least 50 of which were intentional wipes on that last boss rush) after starting the game, I had reached the credits, and stayed up way too long doing so. Before bed, I decided to dive back in on a new file while I was still in the zone, to see how the two achievements related to the first mini-boss — Pacifist, for reaching Smasher without killing anything, and Smashing for beating it without destroying the turrets in the area — were. The answer was ‘absolutely fine,’ as it turns out, and I had both done within 15 minutes. With my first clear done and over a third of the Gamerscore earned in one sitting, it was time to finally hit the sack, dozing off with that banging soundtrack still echoing around in my head. But it was only just beginning. The real Cyber Shadow starts here…
Session two: 363-532G
Sitting down for my second session, my main objective was to round up the collectables I missed first time. I went out of my way during my initial run to jump between checkpoints and grab the few I knew were there once I had the relevant abilities, so that didn’t leave too many. One in particular cost me a lot of time and deaths — the very one guarded by the rude mini-boss in the image above, actually. You’ve likely faced this thing a few times by the time you reach this one, and while the fight itself is basically the same, the arena here means you need to approach it in a much cleaner and safer way unless you enjoy falling to your death. I do not. I really do not. The enemies on the platforms can be removed with dash slashes or charged shots from the checkpoint power-up, but the balls that orbit the boss can be a little erratic and while parrying and reflecting its projectiles is extremely effective, it’s also likely to lead to a death if you fluff the input or get crossed up and end up pressing the wrong direction. Again, got there in the end, leaving just one of each upgrade to find and with both in Chapter 6. These took a while to find, but I did find a bunch of really cool secret areas in the process, one full of chatty robot friends, and another a clear reference to Super Mario Bros.’ warp areas and even discovered in the same way — by running over the top of a section of the visible level — which offered a selection of power-ups for reaching it. I grabbed the Swag Blade (which very much lives up to its name, by the way) and continued my search, eventually managing to find and collect the last two things I was missing within five minutes of one another.
Just getting 100% collection rate isn’t enough, though. The game specifically demands a 100% completion for the 100% achievement, so I’d need to go and say hello to that trio of bosses one more time. Okay, a few more times. Things can go wrong very easily in the second and third phases. On my way back, I noticed something interesting to return to once the bosses had been dealt with, so a few runs later when I was 91G better off from my 100% clear, I did just that. There’s a room just before the final fight where a couple of respawning enemies appear with staggered timing, perfect for preventing their tracking projectiles and bouncing between them to earn the Airtime achievement for staying off the ground for 30 seconds. I messed around with this for a bit and eventually got it down to a science (I can defy gravity there endlessly now, should the need ever arise), and after getting the achievement, I noticed this one didn’t have a guide on TA yet so I decided to call it a day there, take a few pics, and throw together a quick guide to inform others of this fantastic risk-free spot. Only four achievements down, but I came away with a much better feel for game mechanics, and with one of the big ones ticked off, so I’ll take it.
Session three: 532-691G
I am no master strategist, and my third time loading into the game ended up being split across my original save and three new files: a new ‘normal’ run to get the boss achievements while learning the game some more, a 0% file in which I wouldn’t be able to fall back on health and SP boosts, and a burner file for attempting the deathless run. After grabbing two relatively easy achievements I’d missed on my main save, the boss run took priority, as learning the early game would be essential for the other two runs. One by one, I beat those bosses again while meeting the achievement conditions, and I was able to make it as far as Chapter 4 mid-boss Mekadragon pretty easily. Dry socks, unlocked by beating this boss without ever touching the water, tripped me up hard (I struggled with this guy’s unpredictability even casually), so I took this as my cue to start up my 0% run. Which, actually, went a lot smoother than I expected. Experience in the early game really paid off, and I managed to make it to the end of Chapter 3 with only two deaths, both to the tank mini-boss. Inspired by this, I tapped out when I reached Mekadragon (seriously, screw that jerk) and decided to go for the deathless run.
This doesn’t need to be a full completion, rather you just have to reach the dojo shortly after the end of Chapter 3 without taking a death to unlock it. Based on my 0% run, that seemed perfectly doable, so I went for it. Within a few attempts, I was consistently getting deep into Chapter 2 or even 3 before biting the dust and starting over… both stages punish mistakes hard and are rough to go back to when you’re used to having the recovery options of endgame at your disposal. I’m told you can quickly quit out and reload if you see a death coming early enough, but I’m not doing that. I want to earn this legitimately, and I know I can do it. Back-to-back ‘almost’ runs (both of which were entirely on me, like most deaths are in Cyber Shadow) led me to take a quick break and go back to my original save to pick up two of the three remaining achievements there — Don’t touch the paint, for beating that horrible bike section without taking damage, can wait until another run, as getting back to the trigger point is a pain. With those out of the way, I went back to trying Live forever, but with tiredness setting in and leading to sloppy play, it seemed like this should be saved for another time as well. I’ve been so close I could taste it on several occasions now and can beat all six bosses flawlessly, so I just need to hold together a decent run (read: not fall in holes like a chump) and I’ll have this done easily. Next time! Still, nine new achievements was solid progress, so I’m not gonna complain.
Well, that pretty much brings us up to date with my progress with the Cyber Shadow completion so far… 31/40 achievements done, 691/1,000G earned, and a couple more achievements already within spitting distance. The boss run will be a cakewalk as soon as I get Mekadragon down, and that’s five of those checked off right away — six if I can muster the patience to do the bike section one on this run as well, which I probably should. All that will leave is 0%, speedrun, and deathless. Deathless I have on lock, and that’ll come soon, plus that save file will be a great jumping-off point for the speedrun achievement, since I’m consistently getting almost a third of the way through the game in half an hour on my deathless attempts. 0% is the only one that scares me, but checkpoints are generous enough that by the time I hit that one up last, I should be in a good place to give it a proper go. Once I’m closer to my goal and can see myself joining those 13 elite ninjas on TA in earning my Cyber Shadow completion, I’ll be back to tell you more about my failures.
Or maybe not, if you all hate this. It’s something new, so we never know. Let us know in the comments if this was in any way entertaining/helpful/interesting/distracting from the fact that the world is on fire. We like to try out new things but it’s difficult to know how they will land, so your feedback is invaluable. In the meantime, check out Cyber Shadow if you like great games with evil achievement lists. It’s a proper challenge, and I’m loving it…
