01 May,2022 07:13 AM IST | Mumbai | Jaison Lewis
Postal 4: No Regerts
In Postal 4, you play the Postal Dude whose camper van has been stolen along with any money he has. Postal Dude has to make his way to the closest town called Edensin. Once there you will have to do a bunch of odd jobs on a daily basis to earn some money. The game's story unfolds in days and you can get through these days by running errands. This all sounds like a great idea but the problem is the writing is atrocious and the conclusion of a story arc almost always amounts to nothing. There are no layers what you see is what you get. It's just crass for the sake of being crass and the dialogues seem like they were written by a 12-year-old. There is no nuance or hidden humour to be found, just reproductive organs, poop and references to sexual acts posing as jokes.
The tasks in the game are also downright boring and unimaginative. Whether it is shovelling poop, catapulting Mexicans over the wall or killing inmates in a prison. Spoiler alert, it's all boring. The open-world concept also doesn't work for this game. You have to walk/run long distances to get where you are going, there isn't much to see or do. Edensin is a ghost town with hardly anyone around.
The game is also inherently broken; you will spend hours staring at jerky screens despite owning a fabulous PC gaming setup. I ran the game on an Nvidia RTX 2070, despite this the movement was not smooth. The combat at best is clunky, aiming is difficult, but your opponents actively seek the end of your barrel. That is if the tone of the innumerable crashes doesn't get you first.
It doesn't do any better in the visual department either. The game looks a lot like Postal 2, which was released in 2003. The level designs and the character's look seem like they were meant to be retro but it isn't done in a good way. Instead, it feels lazy and unfinished. Developers Running with Scissors should consider retiring or maybe selling the franchise to someone who can do a Postal game right. Not decide to loot loyal fans with a sub-standard addition to the franchise.
Postal 2 was one of those cult games where its crass humour and outright shock value made it fun to play even though it wasn't the best game around. There was a soul in Postal 2 that is sadly missing in Postal 4. Never mind the bugs and the boring combat.
I can finally say this; I have well and truly played the world's (possibly the universe's) worst game. There is nothing that redeems Postal 4, and unlike the name I only have Regrets. The only reason someone would even play this is that they lost a bet and it was either finish this game to the end or part with your first born. I would have given up my first born. I believe if the combat ran well and Postal 4 was not so choppy on the PC it could have gone up a few points. Maybe even a whole point more. My recommendation is to avoid Postal 4 unless you want to have regrets as well.
Snapchat announced a new pocket-sized camera drone called Pixy that can fly a few feet above to take photos and videos. The Pixy will cost $230 and will be available only in the United States and France for now. The device has six pre-programmed flight patterns that are available from a dial on the top of the drone. The Pixy weighs in at around 100 grams and has a swappable battery. The battery provides up to 20 seconds of flying time. The drone has a 12MP camera and 16GB of storage that lets you store 100 videos of 1000 photos. There is no information on when this will launch in India, but it is available on Pixy.com.
Microsoft has added a VPN to its Edge browser. The service is called Microsoft Edge Secure Network and it is available right now for free as a preview. The service will encrypt your Internet connection and protect your data from hackers, it will prevent online tracking and keep your location private. Every signed-in user will get 1GB of data for free every month. The service can be found in the Settings Menu under Secure Network. Cloudflare powers the Secure Network, which is used by many large websites to prevent hacking attempts.
Earlier this month, Nothing revealed its plans to launch a new phone called Phone 1. To let users experience some of the features of the upcoming phone, they released a new launcher for certain Android phones. The launcher adds various features including a different look, some new ringtones and a few wallpapers. For now, the Nothing launcher is available from the Google Play store for Samsung S21 and S22 series, Google Pixel 5 and Pixel 6 series. It will be made available for One Plus phones a little later.
