Author: Tomos Ewing

The next generation of gaming has finally arrived with Microsoft’s Xbox Series X. Unveiled just under a year ago, the Xbox’s November 10th release saw many stores completely sell out of not only the Series X as well as its younger, less powerful brother, the Xbox Series S. Fortunately, I was able to get my hands on one and have been playing with it for the last few days. So how does Microsoft’s self-proclaimed ‘World’s Most Powerful Console’ actually hold up? The first big change is the design of the console: instead of looking like a traditional gaming console, the…

The rules that were put in place for the City of Bangor’s localised lockdown have been overridden by the new ‘firebreak’ lockdown rules for Wales. The regulations set by the Welsh First Minister, Mark Drakeford, will come into play at 6pm on Friday, October 23rd, and will mean that as soon as the Firebreak Lockdown begins, the local lockdown in Bangor City will end. Find more information about the new rules surrounding the Firebreak lockdown here.

Reflecting back a few years, the teenage version of me would have honestly loved to spend all day indoors playing games with no responsibilities, no work, and no school until September. However, this grown-up 20-year-old me just lacks motivation, can’t find anything to do, and is just generally finding ways to support my mental health and keep myself sane during this global pandemic. Like me, many of you may be struggling to find some games to play during all this, so I thought I’d share some of the games I’ve been grinding away at and leveling up on to keep…

After entering a new decade, we are also in the midst of the beginning of the next generation of gaming, and with it there’s a lot of new things that each company is bringing to the table. While Sony has effectively become radio silent, and Nintendo revealing that they won’t be moving away from the ever-popular Nintendo Switch, Microsoft seem to be much more aggressive in their approach. Xbox Series X In December, Microsoft announced the official title of their next generation ‘Project Scarlet’ console. Titled ‘Xbox Series X’, Microsoft has revealed some information regarding the new console, mainly its…

Microtransactions have become a massive factor in gaming during the last decade. That’s not to say that they were never present, but they were never really as aggressive as they are now. Microtransactions were mostly found in mobile games and free-to-play games, but it was at the beginning of the 2010s that they caused a great divide in the gaming community. However, are they as bad now as they have been during the last ten years? So the first instance that really brought microtransactions into full-priced triple-a titles was in 2014 with Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare which introduced Supply…

Bangor High Street was closed off after a fire broke out at Japanese cuisine restaurant, Noodle One, early this morning.  Three fire crews were called out to a fire that started in a flat above Noodle One around 03:00 this morning, although no one was home at the time and there have been no reported injuries or casualties.  The High Street is currently closed between Bangor Cathedral and The Varsity Pub whilst firefighters are looking into the cause of the fire.  There has been no word from Noodle One yet on the state of the restaurant’s condition or for how…

I’ve been quite a big fan of the Pokemon franchise since I was little, however as a child I didn’t play any of the games and instead was an anime-only fan of Pokemon. My first game in the franchise was Pokemon Let’s Go! Pikachu, a remaster of Pokemon Yellow, so I went into Pokemon Sword & Shield with very little knowledge or experience.  The first thing that surprised me about this game was the world design: the new Galar region is heavily inspired by Great Britain and the different influences of British culture and lifestyle is seen throughout the…

For as long as I can remember, any and all discussion involving video game consoles have been split into three groups: Xbox, Playstation and Nintendo. There are some who enjoy all of these, but for the most part, there is a heated debate as to which is the best of these platforms, so I thought I’d delve into my own opinions about each console in this generation, as next year we’ll be seeing a new generation of consoles introduced.  Firstly, I’d like to talk about Xbox. Xbox has been an incredibly successful company when bringing out consoles, games and…

After Halo, Bungie began working on Destiny: a sci-fi rpg looter-shooter which showed promise in the teasers and trailers building up to release: upon release players were frustrated at the lackluster campaign, lack of activities and little post-launch support. The one thing people found redeemable about Destiny was the endgame experiences: the Vault of Glass raid on Venus and the Nightfalls, which were strikes ramped up to 100 in difficulty. Once the first wave of DLC hit, Crota’s End and House of Wolves, the player base maintained itself only with hardcore fans: casual players didn’t really get to experience a…

One of the first games I played on the Xbox One back in 2014 was Sunset Overdrive: an open-world third person parkour shooter from the minds of Insomniac Games, who also developed Ratchet & Clank as well as Marvel’s Spider Man for the PS4. As this is one of my favourite games of all time, if not my number one choice, I decided to revisit the game to see if it was as great as I remember. Spoiler alert: it was.  The game puts you in the shoes of an unnamed character working at a concert for a world-famous energy…