What a difference a week makes. Where a week ago was all about the ‘now’ and finding the best deals possible in that given moment, this week is all about reflecting on the year we’ve had and the year that’s to come. On Thursday night, Allegra attended (and I watched live at home, in 4k!) The Game Awards – a night where we can honor those who’ve made the games we love possible. It’s easy to get wrapped up in what games are or aren’t and even easier to forget the talented people and the countless hours they put into creating these worlds. Those of you who’ve subscribed to our weekly newsletter can read more about my thoughts later today and see why I find the show so important.

The Game Awards aside, this weekend is also part of a new tradition created by Sony three years ago – PlayStation Experience, a mini E3-like convention that’s all about the fans. Once a year in December, Sony puts on a show where they unveil new gameplay footages, host panels with developers, and sell plenty of merch. A genius move on Sony’s part to enter the final stretch of the year and the ever important holiday shopping season with a hyped up and loyal fanbase. At its core, PSX is a show that’s designed with fans, not journalists or industry insiders in mind and it’s easy to lose sight of that when you’re on my side of the fence – that for many of those attending, they’re meeting their heroes and role models – and what a feeling it must be for them who aren’t surrounded by gaming/tech news 24/7 to go in and experience new titles and new tech like VR by the company that’s making them.

Dualshock 4 USB Wireless Adaptor

One of the best and perhaps most thoughtful accessories Sony has ever made for PS4 is their Dualshock 4 USB wireless adaptor. As the name suggests, you plug in the USB adaptor to your Mac or PC and download the companion software to connect with your PS4. Once all done, via a native app, you can launch PS4 and do just about anything you normally would do with zero lag.

Now part of that I’m sure comes down to your computer and network connection but it’s worth noting that this is happening locally so it has nothing to do with your ISP or download/upload speed. As long as you have a good router and a new enough computer, you’ll be set. In my case, finding time to fire up the PS4 is hard as I’ve probably written before so the fact that I can just play Destiny or Uncharted on my 27-inch iMac with Retina 5K display is all sorts of awesome.

If you find yourself short on time to put your PS4 to good use but spend a lot of time on your computer, this is the best <$25 you’ll spend and you can order it right from Amazon. Only thing I wish Sony would do is to submit their app in the Mac App Store and Windows Marketplace to better promote it.

Black Friday

The day retail employees dread the most has come and gone and I think we all survived it – i’m assuming you did as well. One way to obviously avoid the whole clusterfuck is by not partaking which is what I’ve technically always done. I’ve never shopped on Black Friday though I’ve participated in it in a sense when I worked at retail. Still that doesn’t mean I don’t get swept up in the whole hoopla, and who doesn’t want to save a few extra dollars if they can?

So when I do shop, it’s all about online deals for me – Amazon Lightning Deals and PlayStation Store flash sales – but I’ve noticed something odd. When it comes to price reductions or sales in general, especially door busters and such, physical media, be it a Blu-ray or a game, always come with a better offer. So if you’re like me who’s transitioned to all digital media, you sometimes get the short end of the stick.

Now I knew this going into it and still don’t regret it because the convenience of just firing up any game I want on the two different PS4’s we have in the house or going to Apple TV and telling Siri to play a movie is awesome. Best of all, all those movies and games travel with me when I go from one machine to another as long as I’m logged into my account.

Still, it makes sense to me for digital to have as good of a deal, if not better because selling one copy of a digital game vs. 1,000 has no extra cost and in fact costs less since there is no packaging, shipping, or retail shelf space. If you scored some good deals on Black Friday, let me know on Twitter.