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Amazon Music now offers synchronized transcripts for podcasts
Amazon Music now offers podcast transcripts synchronized with the audio, but only for some shows.
Google’s Pixel phones will soon save transcripts of screened calls
Google's Call Screen feature has been a boon to Pixel 3 owners wary of tedious telemarketing calls. Instead of taking your chances on an incoming 'Scam Likely' call, you can just get Google Assistant to answer for you. One of the major criticisms of the service, though, is that once the call is complete, the transcript of the conversation disappears. So unless you managed to grab a screenshot of the transcript, or were paying attention to the screen during the call, you'd have nothing to refer to later beyond a caller number. None of this is really conducive to fuss-free spam filtering. But Google has been paying attention to feedback, and it seems that Call Screen transcripts are on the way.
Amazon fixed an exploit that allowed Alexa to listen all the time
Amazon's Alexa is good at listening, since it has to be ready when you say its wake word, like "Alexa," "Echo" or "Computer." That very same feature, though, has people worried about their own privacy. Researchers from security firm Checkmarx have found a way to get Alexa to listen in and send a transcript of any conversations that it records while eavesdropping.
Second Wind Roundtable: The final days of Warhammer Online
I know it's been a while, but the Second Wind Roundtable is back for a special occasion: the shutdown of Warhammer Online. As you may know, Mythic's long-floundering RvR title is officially shutting down on December 18th, taking with it the war between Order and Chaos that's been waging since 2008. I was never a die-hard WAR player, but I did have an account still in good standing, and the game was made free for all former subscribers, so I figured that I'd jump in for a last hoorah despite the icky taste it left in my mouth the last time I played. I wasn't about to do this alone, though, so I pulled my now-ex-friend Eliot Lefebvre along for the ride. A post on the official site promised new NPCs to power up our characters and "other unique experiences," so I expected a big end-of-the-world bash as former players returned and boosted to max level for one final brawl. What we got was... well, just read on past the cut. I need a drink.
Second Wind: Fallen Earth
My favorite thing about the Second Wind column is the idea of coming back to a game you once loved and rediscovering what made you once love it. It could be a game that possibly burned you with a new update or left you heartbroken after a patch, but you just can't get that game out of your mind. For me, that game is Fallen Earth. It's not so much that the game burned me at any one particular time; it was a gradual decline in respect for the game after years of playing through horrible AI, broken pathing, and unfixed lag that made the game unplayable at times. The changeover to F2P didn't help anything, and when most of the core staff was eventually laid off, I lost interest. But what always kept me going was the overwhelming good points about the game. The setting is perfect for me, the faction wheel is (was) genius, and the sense of humor is unmatched. I played Fallen Earth relentlessly since beta because it scratched so many itches for me, but the problems soon became too much to overlook. But I just can't get her outta my mind.
Second Wind: Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, part two
Welcome back to Second Wind, one and all. You may remember that a couple of weeks back, I published part one of my impressions on the recently released Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn. If you didn't read it, either because you didn't care (but for some reason care about part two) or because it was too long (sorry), you missed out on most of my feelings about Disciple of War and Magic progression in FFXIV, but not quite all of them. So here in part two, I'll be summarizing my seemingly endless thoughts on that subject as well as my thoughts on gathering and crafting, which should wind all this up and let me stop analyzing the game and start playing it. Maybe. At any rate, if you'd care to know more about high-level adventuring progression (which I've found to be markedly different from the low- and mid-levels) or the time-honored crafts of the Disciples of the Land and Hand, click past the cut and I'll do my best to satisfy your wonder.
Second Wind: Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn, part one
The time is finally upon us, everyone: Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn is live. It has been for a few weeks now, actually. And over those few weeks, I've spent just about every spare moment of my time in the fantastical world of Eorzea, running my remarkably adorable Miqo'te tail all over creation to save the world from rampaging primals and the nefarious Garlean Empire -- and occasionally sewing some rather fetching clothes. There's no denying that Square Enix has taken titanic strides in revamping its much-maligned MMO. Whole game systems have been torn apart and rewoven into something barely recognizable, and I'm not even going to entertain whether or not the changes were for the better. They absolutely were. The real question here is whether it will be enough to change the game's course. And as it happens, that's just the question I plan to answer in this multi-part edition of Second Wind.
Second Wind: EverQuest II, part two
Hello again, friends, and welcome back to another installment of Second Wind. You might remember that last time around, I decided to jump into the world of Norrath by way of EverQuest II and found the experience to be more than a little bit... mind-boggling, let's say. The game is so immense, in fact, that it couldn't be contained in a single feature, so I had to split it up into two parts. In part one, I took a look at some of the game's basic features and systems, such as progression, questing, and combat (which I thought were solid, lacking flow, and a bit clunky, respectively), but I didn't have the opportunity to tackle some of the game's deeper features, such as dungeons and crafting. So now that everyone's up to speed, let's get down to business. I've spent a great deal of time in Norrath at this point, and I believe I'm finally starting to get a feel for the game. Of course, the fact that it's taken me this long to get to that point should tell you something, but I'll leave that for later. For now, how about jumping past the cut to find out what I've discovered during my recent adventures?
Second Wind: Ultima Online
When I (legally) sold my Ultima Online accounts in 2000 for the hefty sum of $1800, the game was already three years old and being challenged by the likes of EverQuest and Asheron's Call. I thought I was done forever. My guild was eyeing Dark Age of Camelot, and I wanted to cash out and rid myself of the chore of maintaining a dozen grandfathered houses on the dying half of a shard struggling to find its footing in a post-open-PvP ruleset. I was wrong. A year later I was back in UO with a new account, prowling around Britannia. And the year after that. And every year since, only I never again made the mistake of selling my accounts even when I took extended breaks. It has a special magic that only a handful of MMOs have captured (let alone topped) since, and what it lacks in modern conveniences it often makes up for in unique features. The granddaddy of MMORPGs and one of the only true sandboxes still standing turns 16 this autumn, having survived EverQuest, World of Warcraft, the internet bubble, EA's blundering, Mythic's takeover, layoffs, price hikes, a recession, and disastrous design shifts. But is it still worth playing?
Second Wind: EverQuest II, part one
Oh, Norrath. I don't know what it is about you, but for some reason I just can't stay away. I probably fell in love with the setting in the early 2000s, when I took my first (somewhat) serious dive into the original EverQuest. In my eyes, it's the quintessential high-fantasy universe when it comes to MMOs, and every time I'm eyeing my bookcase and I catch sight of my Planes of Power instruction manual, I get this strange urge to have another visit. But for this edition of Second Wind, I figured I'd take a look at the other Norrath instead. Let me tell you something about EverQuest II that I quickly discovered: It is absolutely immense. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that it's, in many ways, overwhelming. I imagine I could spend 25, 50, even 100 hours with this game and still feel as if I had only dipped my toes into the sea. That aside, I'm still brimming with things I'd like to talk about, so how about joining me after the cut?
Second Wind: Returning to Wurm Online is a process
After being away from Wurm Online for almost a year, I have to admit I was a bit scared to return. Anxiety levels are high as you log in and have a quick scan of the area to see if you're surrounded by something that will immediately eat your face. It's also fairly unsettling to see how much of your stuff has rotted or been stolen since you left. In fact, once I determined that my house, my boat, and most of my possessions hadn't been taken by other players in my absence, I had to log back off. I just had to do something else offline for a bit while that anxiety flow slowed to a trickle. But I soon answered that unexplainable call to log back in and start my new life as a reborn Wurmian. I've heard so many great things about the game's improvements over the last few months that I just had to check them out for myself.
Second Wind Roundtable: Allods Online
Hello again, kind gentlefolk, and welcome to the latest installment of the Second Wind Roundtable. This time around, I coerced, extorted, and otherwise blackmailed the wonderful Bree and Eliot (and Lis, though she was unfortunately unable to join us for the Roundtable chat itself, but she was there too!) to join me in a few rousing sessions of gPotato's aether-sailing free-to-play title, Allods Online. We laughed, we cried, we nearly died from rage-induced aneurysms. But despite all that, we all survived to tell the tale. So buckle your swashes, raise your sails, and join us past the cut, won't you?
Second Wind: Age of Conan
I remember playing Age of Conan when it first came out; it seems like an eternity ago. So many titles have been released and failed since then that it's easy to get it all mixed up, and it doesn't help when many of those titles are sub-par or just plain boring and forgettable. Age of Conan sort of messed with my head with its insistent instancing and odd combat mechanics. I just couldn't wrap my head around what the game was trying to do. Is it a hardcore PvP-centric MMO? Many would say so. Is it a grand, single-player adventure? In some ways. Is it an immersive romp through the long-lived lore of Conan the Barbarian? I guess so. It's a bit of all of these but does none of them perfectly. I decided to jump back into the game because the last time I played it was when it switched over to its odd freemium model that is all-too-common in Western MMOs these days.
Second Wind Roundtable: NSFW edition
For this edition of the Second Wind Roundtable, I thought it'd be a funny little prank to coerce a couple of my colleagues into playing Scarlet Blade with me. I was wrong. I was so, so very wrong. We lost some good men in there, but those of us who survived to talk about it gathered 'round for some group therapy over hard whiskey and mind-bleach. Coincidentally, we also transcribed it so that you can learn from our mistakes. Be warned, many screenshots below the cut are explicit, though some have been tastefully censored for the sake of all things holy and sacred. No, really, we are not kidding: This post is not safe for work/children/anyone with a sense of common decency. That being said, you can join us after the cut. I'm so, so sorry.
Second Wind: Champions Online
I remember playing and disliking Champions Online when it first came out. My wife and I had the same reaction when we both thought it looked funky and played oddly. It was as though the game was attempting to be some sort of kitschy '60s-inspired comic book game, so it was hard to take it seriously. It just wasn't that much fun. Granted, that was a long time ago, and since then the title has changed hands, been patched up, and been smoothed over. I've played it off and on since my first experience but always felt it lacked... something. I knew I needed to give it a second chance, and what better avenue to do it in than this very column? I've been really diving into it over the past few weeks, and I've discovered that the game is actually really good. And really fun. And that it looks good! I streamed it live just to double check, and sure enough, the game holds up well and made me so happy that I continued to try it out. I even subscribed! (Will wonders never cease?) So today, I want to tackle the game from a fresh, newbier perspective than the one taken in our weekly superhero column, A Mild-Mannered Reporter, where Eliot has been chronicling the playerbase's frustration with the game's content-update shortcomings. Be sure to check out the embedded livestream later in the article. It really shows off how fun the game can be, as well as covers some of its finer details. %Gallery-185352%
Second Wind: The Old Republic at the 15-month mark
A long time ago, I previewed Star Wars: The Old Republic. It was a beta build, and a limited press preview to boot, so it's fair to say that I didn't have the full measure of BioWare's latest Star Wars opus. Even so, it exceeded my expectations in some respects, and despite the reams of hate fan mail I received for being Massively's leering, anti-SWTOR Sith villain, the truth of the matter is that I love Star Wars and video games to such a degree that it's impossible to stay away from any product that marries them. I own Super Bombad Racing, for funk's sake.
Second Wind Roundtable: Torchlight II
Welcome to the first ever installment of this "roundtable" edition of Second Wind, where the best and brightest (or barring that, whoever's available) here at Massively get together for an evening to act stupid in video games and then talk about it. For our first trip down the rabbit hole, Bree, Eliot, Lis, and I decided to give our mouse-clickin'-fingers a workout by way of Runic Games' Torchlight II. Our intrepid party of fearless adventurers was made up of Viase the Engineer (played by Eliot), ZERKIN the Berserker (played by Bree, and yes the caps are necessary), and a pair of Embermages played by Lis and me because it was the only class neither of us had played yet. We spent a few hours hacking and slashing our way through the first couple of zones of TL2's campaign, and much hilarity ensued. Click on past the cut for our full, insanity-fueled conversation on the ups and downs of our joint Torchlight II experience.
Second Wind: World of Warcraft
When I originally started playing World of Warcraft, things were different. Priests were still waiting on their first big class patch. Regular mounts required level 40; most players couldn't afford the 100ish gold fee without a loan from their guild. Epic mounts were so prohibitively expensive as to be considered rare. Raids required the dedication and skill of 40 players, and only a couple of guilds per realm actually even bothered to run high-end content. WoW was, as they say, srs bsns. But that was eight years ago. Since then, World of Warcraft has seen four enormous expansions (Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King, Cataclysm and Mists of Pandaria) and countless minor content updates. Edges have been softened, skills refined, classes reinvented. Subs have ballooned to a peak of over 12 million, waffled up and down for a few years, then fallen most recently to 9.6 million. Some would argue that the World of Warcraft of 2013 bears only a passing resemblance to the one we played in 2005. Others would claim it's still the same excellent/terrible game, just gussied up with fresh paint. As a longtime WoW lover but recently lapsed subscriber, I ventured into Mists of Pandaria to sort it out for myself.
Second Wind: Taking another look at TERA
I am beautiful. Seriously, I'm the best-looking game character that has ever pretended to live. Not only am I gorgeous, I'm lethal. With my massive lance, heavy shield, and ridiculously tight dress, I can make short work of pretty much any foe with the stones to come at me. I am as dangerous as I am attractive, and that is saying quite a bit. This is TERA. Launched in the west by En Masse Entertainment back in May, the fantasy MMO promised gorgeous graphics, fast-paced action combat and a different way to experience a now-familiar formula. Lured in by pretty trailers and compelling class descriptions, I picked up the collector's edition of the game just before release. I played for a few weeks, streamed it a couple of times, and promptly forgot it existed. When my initial 30 days expired, I never subscribed for more. But now TERA is going free-to-play. And since En Masse was kind enough to give me (and everyone else) a couple of free weeks of playtime before the F2P transition, I figured now was as good a time as any to revisit the title and see if removing my wallet from the equation would be enough to keep me engaged. The answer? Perhaps.%Gallery-152724%
Second Wind: Vanguard
Welcome ladies, gentlemen, and small, furry creatures from Alpha Centauri to the premiere edition of Second Wind, where we'll be taking you through the annals of time to revisit some of the past's greatest (and not-so-greatest) MMOs to see how they hold up today. In this installment, we'll be checking in on Sony Online Entertainment's Vanguard. Here's a quick backstory for you: Vanguard originally launched in January of 2007 when Massively was still months away from its inception, and it was a mess. Bugs as far as the eye could see! Believe me -- I know because I was there. I played Vanguard at launch and lasted about a month before I grew tired of the never-ending parade of bugs and glitches and left. In the six years since Vanguard's launch, it's been sort of the red-headed stepchild of SOE's stable of MMOs. Content updates have been few and far between, and most patches the game has received have been (sorely needed) bug fixes. And of course, the game ended up going free-to-play back in August of last year. Now, six years after my first foray into Telon, I decided to jump back into Vanguard to give the game a fresh look. Did I find a diamond in the rough or just a big lump of neglected coal? There's only one way to find out: Follow me past the cut!
