Simulator Special 2

Ebonix is a "Simmer" - someone who plays the Sims a lot! And she also designs clothes, outfits, hairstyles and in-game jewellery! She told Chris Berrow more... 

Ebonix - I've been a gamer from as early as I can remember. I think one of the one of the first consoles I had was Sega, and that's that's come from me and my dad playing when I was younger. So as soon as I got older the Sims came out. I'm thinking like 1999 - 2000. So I had the very first Sims and it was very basic and there wasn't in terms of like character creation. The element of wanting representation in the game that wasn’t even the third or fourth thought. It was just here's your character. Here's what they're gonna look like. You're just gonna accept and you're going to play the game. As the years have gone on the idea of character creation and actually being able to customize the character and having the character look in a way that you wanted to look has definitely boomed and The Sims, whilst they have done really really well in the features department so you can customize your character and give them features in like the facial structure and stuff that you can customize it as much as you want when it comes down to things like hair, which is really really big in black African Caribbean culture.

Chris - Well I mean you obviously must love this game but why not design this kind of jewellery in real life?

Ebonix - Whenever like a new pack would come out I wouldn't be at school that I would be calling in sick that if a new pack and it's just it's just one of those very timeless games where possibilities are endless and that's what I like about it. Yeah I can design these things in real life if I really wanted to but it's something that is so deep and so close to my heart and I've invested so many years into it. It only feels right that I invest as much time and love as I have into the game into creating content for this game.

Chris - How important is that representation?

Ebonix - Being able to see yourself in a game and I know some people will say it's just a game but no being able to see yourself in a game and create something a character that looks like you can really change your perspective on yourself. Because I will say back in the day when I think I'm around Sims 2 I never really used to make black characters because there was no content and I said you probably make like white characters or Latino characters. But when I started finding more content where I started finding like dreadlocks and and braids and afros and things like that it made me feel like I was seen. And so I wanted to replicate that feeling in the Sims 4.

[Addendum / correction added after publication: Please note that we stated incorrectly in the programme that you have to buy Ebonix's Sims 4 hairstyles, accessories and jewellery. They are actually completely free to download; we apologise for that inaccuracy.]

What is Fallout First? And why was one fan annoyed about it? Chris Berrow and Leigh Milner find out...

Chris -  It’s a yearly subscription service… that... and I’m quoting… “enhances the Fallout 76 experience. Members receive access to Private Worlds, exclusive cosmetic items” etc etc etc

Leigh - Well not all fans were happy with this announcement… and one even decided to buy the website “falloutfirst.com” and write some pretty harsh things about it. Fair to say, it’s caused a bit of a stir online.

Chris - That man is Dan Stapleton… and I asked him... why he did it...

Dan - I was driving home from work after I saw the announcement earlier from Bethesda and thought to myself you know what this is ridiculous. This is it's a complete scam and I was driving home and I thought you know what with how Bethesda has been handling things lately, let me check on GoDaddy to see if they actually registered the domain. And of course they didn't. And it was kind of like a snowball because I was thinking oh well you know what... I'm gonna I'm gonna buy this. And then from there I was like well let's see if I can download their page. And I was able to download it. Which then allowed me to edit it. And then from there it was just a snowball.

Chris - So what are you hoping to actually achieve with this?

Dan - You know it takes many forms but the biggest thing that I wanted out of all of this is maybe not necessarily towards Bethesda but to continue or start a conversation that has already been going on. You know the only reason that this is viable is that Fortnite and one night you have kids playing the game and they love the skins which cosmetic items I don't care for if you want to spend your money. I can't even yell too much in regards to cosmetic items because in League of Legends I've probably spent over two thousand dollars but when you're putting gameplay features behind a paywall you know no one likes Pay to Win systems. And if I've already paid sixty dollars for a game that's not OK. So the big thing for me was to start a conversation about all this. I mean I'd love I'd love for Bethesda to take a step back and go OK we realised that this was a bad idea let's roll this back let's refund all the money of the people who already bought the service and let's give you what you want, you know. And if that happened they'd be amazing.

Chris Berrow and Leigh Milner review the latest CoD game...

Chris - When I finally finally managed to get to the game I started off playing the single player... before we launch into the online because that's what Modern Warfare is all about you know. One of my favorite super super smooth bits you know that the shooting is amazing the story's pretty good actually some of the favorite characters make an appearance again like Soap. It's a guy called Soap because and it's  very similar very similar if you played a Call of Duty before you have played essentially this game. This the second mission though quite violent and it's terrorism on the streets of London. And for me it didn't sit right. It seems okay when it's kind of you know notionally random bad guys but when it's when it was on the streets of London, especially given recent times that I don't know that it feel right to me to do that.

Leigh - Yeah. Some people would say you know it's fictional and fighting goes on all the time all over the world and we see that in games.

Chris - I mean I'd say six out of ten for the solo. Now the multiplayer which is what it's really all about when it comes to CoD is the best yet. Super super smooth. The best online experience I've had playing. There's this thing called Hardcore Team Deathmatch which is my ideal my ideal way of playing this game.

Chris Berrow & Leigh Milner review Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.

Chris - So if you've ever played any of the Uncharted games it's very much like that. So it's like Uncharted 4 for example is super super slick.

The lead actor, who is - you know - the character in this game, he plays Joker in Gotham and he's really great... Cameron Monahan, who's honestly he's amazing in the first mission. It's like they spent all the money in the world on making the best ever ever Star Wars experience. I loved it. I was blown away. You saw it as well. I mean I did like Star Wars.

So the first mission was probably the best I've ever played, and I was thinking this is a "10 out of 10" game; I love it so much I going to carry on playing. I carried on playing; the first mission very good. I'm on a fourth mission right now. It gets a bit more jerky later on. So your character it's not as smooth running for some weird reason. The further down the line you go there's something a bit weird where you get to like a meditation point as a Jedi and you go and relax your mind and you can heal and spend your points and stuff like that. But when you do that and you heal yourself up, all the enemies respawn for some unknown reason, which doesn't make any sense at all.

Leigh - We love it though, definite must buy!

Chris Berrow and Leigh Milner review Pokemon Shield...

TRAILER

Chris - Now there's a few different things about Pokemon Sword and Pokemon Shield; the only one that matters for Leigh is that, in Pokemon Shield, there's a Pokemon called "Pony-ta" and the Pokemon Shield version is a pink fluffy unicorn. Yeah. Version. Yeah. Right. So that's why we got that version. Come on then Pokemon fan, what you got for me?

Leigh - I haven't stopped playing it.

Chris - You were so tired today, you were literally falling asleep today!

Leigh - I fell asleep with it in my hands.

Chris - I know that

Leigh - I had just been on radio 4 for talking about Stadia. I got straight home into my PJs and played Pokémon.

Chris - And how are you doing at pokemon?

Leigh - I love it so I've got a new strategy because obviously I played all the Gameboy games yet. This time I'm trying to catch them all, so I finally get it.

Chris - Yeah cause I said to you. You said I can't be bothered to catch up pokemon. I said you do know that you have to catch them all.

Leigh - Yeah I know; I'm doing that more this time. It used to be all about the battles. Now like I'm gonna collect them all!

Chris - There are about 400 Pokemon to this game

Leigh - That's fine. I've got plenty of time. The graphics are great. This time you'll meet in different pokemon but not just different pokemon but like they come in different sizes.

Chris - Yeah and the bigger they are the higher the level. Now there's this new thing in this Pokemon game which I'd never heard of before called something like Gigantamax. Yeah well basically you'll come across a Pokemon. You know you go into like a red beam of light. You walk in and then the pokemon that you and up to three other people are facing is absolutely massive, and a much higher level. So you can then if you've trained your Pokemon up enough - if your bars fall - you can then like maximize your Pokemon as well, so you get these two huge massive Pokemon fighting each other and you find that quite an interesting 'cos it just shakes it up a bit and also the battle scenes are much much more interesting.

Leigh - They've really ramped it up. The storylines better to follow as well is good isn't it.

Chris - I found the music a bit annoying; did you?

Leigh - I just turn it down. 

Chris - There's also no voices still in the game like the characters don't speak. 

Leigh - No and I kinda like that. Because you have the sound effects. And they used I think they still use the retro sounds from game day... that's just a nice little touch.

Chris - The only other thing and this is not really a complaint but that the signs in the game are in Japanese rather than in English and you think well I've chosen the English translation so you'd think it would say Pokecentre instead of... I can't read symbols.

Leigh - I'd give it an 11 out of 10!

Leigh Milner and Chris Berrow review the new version of MediEvil!

Chris - First released in 1998. So it's 21 years old now actually... aesthetically a massively improved version from the original but then I never played the original whereas you had so what do you think?

Leigh - I think the graphics are the biggest change. I think it's much smoother. I think I can actually see what he looks like is a bit pixilated before it was wasn't it. You know how the old games looked on the PlayStation everything was chipped - you look through walls and you think I shouldn't see that.

Chris - The concept for this game is that one of the funniest concepts I've ever heard. So basically you're this hero and he is supposed to defeat is an evil wizard. But the truth is that actually he got shot by an arrow in the eye and died. And if one just pretended that he defeated the big boss. So now that this big boss has returned and revived everybody from the dead it's like Oh right I better actually defeat the big boss this time because it's my real chance to do that. But there's sword combat and stuff. It's actually really good.