Friday, July 18, 2008

KotOR MMO confirmed, as if everyone didn't already know it.

An EA rep dropped the bomb that the upcoming BioWare developed MMO for LucasArts is, indeed, KotOR. Of course, when news hit that BioWare was working with LucasArts again, everyone immediately suspected a KotOR sequel. When it was announced that it would be an MMO, the frenzy increased drastically.

I know the MMO market is getting clogged, but this is one MMO that I'm glad to see coming about.

Ever since it was announced in 2006, BioWare's massively multiplayer role-playing game has been shrouded in mystery. Though the Canadian developer opened a satellite studio in Austin, Texas, just to develop it, its cofounders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk maintained an iron wall of silence. However, Electronic Arts knew enough about the title to help convince the company to buy BioWare/Pandemic for $860 million last year.

Today, as E3 2008 wound down, the fog hanging around BioWare's MMORPG appears to have dissipated. Less than 72 hours after presiding over EA's own press event--where the project was nowhere to be found--CEO John Riccitiello almost casually revealed the MMORPG in question is a sequel of sorts to Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.

"We've got two of the most compelling MMOs in the industry in development," Riccitiello told Conde Nast Portfolio magazine. "The first title, based on the Warhammer property, will launch soon. And the one that people are dying for us to talk to them about in partnership with Lucas [Arts is] coming out of BioWare, which is, I think, quite possibly the most anticipated game, full stop, for the industry." When contacted by GameSpot, BioWare reps declined to comment further.

BioWare's first Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic game was released in 2003 for the original Xbox and PC, and was named the year's top RPG by GameSpot. An Obsidian Entertainment-developed sequel was released in 2004 and 2005 on the same two respective platforms. Both critically acclaimed games are set several thousand years before the events of the Star Wars films, and cast players as adventurers who eventually become powerful Jedi Knights.

Currently, the Knights of the Old Republic MMORPG is set for release sometime in 2009. Once it launches, it is unclear what will happen to LucasArts' current massively multiplayer title, the Sony Online Entertainment-developed Star Wars Galaxies.

- Source

more...

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Is greed good?

In essence, greed has killed off all of our food sources in the Chesapeake Bay. Greedy fishermen took more than they should using huge dredging machines to wrench up every possible oyster. Greedy companies sloshed their waste into the Bay to avoid having to properly dispose of it. When oysters got low, the fishermen turned their leering eye towards blue crabs. Now they, too, are almost all gone. A nation of excess finally paying for taking so much and giving so little. Good game, idiots.

It's an anxious summer for watermen harvesting the Chesapeake's best-loved seafood, the blue crab.

The way some see it, the crabbing business here isn't just dying. It's already dead.

Crabs have thrived in the bottom muck of the Chesapeake and its tributaries even as centuries of overfishing harmed oysters, fish and other species in the nation's largest estuary.

Now blue crabs are in trouble, too, and when they go, a way of life is sure to go with them.

"There was a time when crabbers were only out here from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Now, it's about all we have left," says Kellam, 53, steering his 30-year-old rig "Christy" out of the Potomac River and onto the bay for a day of crabbing.

The contradictory decor in the cabin sums up the outlook of today's waterman: a red wooden good-luck horseshoe dangles over a mud-splattered copy of "The Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook."

The bay's blue crab stock is down 70 percent since 1990 due to overfishing and water pollution, according to Virginia and Maryland fisheries managers.

The states have imposed steep cuts on this year's female crab harvest, aiming to reduce the number of crabs taken by more than a third.

For Kellam and his neighbors in southern Maryland, where the working rigs and crab picking houses that sustained these communities for generations have been replaced by yachts and vacation homes, hopes are dim that the blue crabs will ever come back.

"It's looking worse every year," says Bob McKay, who at 74 is the oldest working waterman in St. Mary's County. He still sells crabs out of a shed in his yard but doubts the industry will live much longer than he does. "I don't know what the solution could be."


Really? Let's see... a few paragraphs up there was, "The bay's blue crab stock is down 70 percent since 1990 due to overfishing and water pollution, according to Virginia and Maryland fisheries managers." Okay, okay. Let me try and figure this one out. Hmm. Okay, I think I got I got it. Stop overfishing and polluting the fucking Bay.


There was a time when Chesapeake watermen made their living off the winter oyster harvest, using hand tongs and later power dredges to supply most of the world's oysters. But disease and over-harvesting nearly wiped out Chesapeake oysters in the 1980s, and despite millions invested in restoration, they've never recovered.

Scientists estimate the Chesapeake now contains about 1 percent of the oysters it once did.

After the oyster industry collapsed, watermen looked to hardy blue crabs to make up the slack. But the next generation may not have another option.

"I want to make a living on the water," says Randy Plummer, a chain-smoking 19-year-old who works on Kellam's crab rig. "But there ain't no future in it. Everybody knows that."

Plummer has wanted to crab since he was a boy, but is instead headed to community college this fall, at the urging of Kellam and his parents.

Even scientists who called for the harvest reductions say overfishing isn't entirely to blame.

The main culprit is water pollution and soil runoff from development throughout a watershed that is home to 10 million people. Excess nutrients wash into the Chesapeake, causing algae blooms and choking the native plant life that crabs rely on for food and habitat. In the summer, large swaths of the Chesapeake contain so little oxygen that scientists call them "dead zones," because few critters can live there.

"It's certainly getting more difficult to make a living on the water," conceded Lynn Fegley, a biologist in charge of crabs for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. But Fegley says the cynicism along the Chesapeake is unfounded. There will always be Chesapeake blue crabs, she says -- as long as watermen lay off them when the stock dips.

"As the watershed gets more crowded, the face of the fishery may change. But people are always going to want seafood, right? It's healthy and it's delicious. What we have to do is find a way to harvest seafood that's sustainable for the future," Fegley says.

But Thomas Courtney, who sells Kellam the alewife fish he uses for bait, laughs when asked whether state efforts to revive blue crabs will bring them back.

"It ain't what we're pulling out of the water. It's what we're putting in the water," says Courtney, 62.

"You've got a cornfield, 20 acres, you put 80 or 90 houses on it, hook 'em up to sewer pipes, put roads and ditches down. That's what's destroyed the bay. It ain't us. They let development take over and then, that's it, we're done."

- Source


So, why are we asking the Feds for money to restore the Bay instead of fining the ever-loving shit out of these companies that are dumping waste into the water? Because greed, for lack of a better word, is good.

more...

Fuck the children.

Congress is considering legislation to give the Food and Drug Administration the power to regulate tobacco. And while the bill would ban fruit and candy flavorings, it would allow the continued sale of menthol-flavored brands. That has led to sharp criticism from some smoking control advocates, who argue that menthol lures some people to try cigarettes and helps keep others from trying to quit. The advocates are pressing for an amendment to ban menthol.

But Phelps said that would be a mistake. "We don't believe it's right to ban a particular ingredient because some people prefer the flavor that ingredient provides," he argued.

- Source


So, they want to ban all fruit flavorings and menthol? What about adult smokers who enjoy that? It's not just kids buying this shit, you fucking retards. Stop enacting this nanny-state bullshit because of "the children." Let me get one thing clear: I hate "the children." Not only do I hate "the children" but I, very specifically, hate your children as well. Kids die. It's a fact of life. And, you know what? No, not all life is precious and not all kids are little miracles or gifts from some god. They're little organic, squishy, meat-sacks with an inflated sense of self-importance.

So, if children are attracted to and use something that they are not allowed to have, then why are tame, flavor-heavy liquors not being banned, such as Malibu Rum? What about cheap beer? What about lollipops which probably induce oral fixation that can later lead to smoking? Better yet, why not just fucking ban everything.

Once more, fuck you and your shitty children.

more...

Feel the Force!

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed has been getting a lot of positive reviews. Now it seems to be getting some serious major media attention. Besides looking like a ton of fun to play, Force Unleashed is also a canonical bridge between Star Wars III: Revenge of The Nerds Sith and A New Hope. Unlike either of those movies, Force Unleashed probably won't make fans cringe quite as horrendously since Lucas probably wasn't able to hands-on destroy it.

When LucasArts releases "Star Wars: The Force Unleashed" on Sept. 16, the video game will serve as George Lucas' official median between 2005's "Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith" and 1977's "Star Wars: Episode IV -- A New Hope." In the game, players become Darth Vader's secret apprentice and use The Force to hunt the remaining Jedi.

"Force Unleashed" allows gamers use supercharged Force powers to bust through objects, wield a lightsaber, blast lighting bolts and fling around foes. The game will also change the way fans view "Episode IV" through "Episode VI -- Return of the Jedi," LucasArts project lead Haden Blackman told The Associated Press at the E3 Business and Media Summit.

"There's a couple of big twists and turns in the story," said Blackman. "One revelation in particular really impacts the rest of the saga as a whole. It goes way beyond filling in gaps. We try to make a bridge on every level. The story has a real implications on 'Episode IV.' In some ways, without the apprentice, 'Episode IV' couldn't happen."

Versions of "The Force Unleashed" will be available on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, PlayStation Portable, Nintendo DS and PlayStation 2.

- Source


So, they're making it for the fucking PS2 but no love for the PC? Not that I'm shocked, but I am disappointed.

Force Unleashed vids:

Gameplay footage 1 @ E3


Gameplay footage 2 @ E3


E3 Stage Show Demo


Newest Trailer


more...

Wednesday, July 16, 2008

A lot at E3.

Yeah, E3 is very different this year. Gone is a lot of the hoopla and it's now a closed-to-the-public event. Still, a lot of great news has been coming out from it.

Return to Castle Wolfenstein.



Having successfully developed Quake 4, Raven was also revealed as the developer of id's revival of its seminal first-person shooter franchise Wolfenstein. First teased by id CEO Todd Hollenshead way back in February 2006, the tentatively titled Return to Castle Wolfenstein once again drops players into the role of all-American hero BJ Blazkowicz as he wages a one-man war on the supernatural sect within Nazi Germany's Third Reich.

As for new details, Activision said today that Wolfenstein will be a story-driven shooter that will be presented over the course of interlinked missions. The publisher also noted Wolfenstein will offer "class-based team objective gameplay," and online gamers will be afforded both conventional and supernatural weaponry. It is currently slated to arrive on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC.

- Source


EA publishing id's upcoming title, Rage.



Today's Electronic Arts press conference at the E3 Media & Business Summit ended with a shocker. Namely, that id Software had decided not to partner with longtime publisher Activision for its next project, Rage. Instead EA will distribute the game under its EA Partners program, which lets independent developers take advantage of the massive publisher's marketing, sales, and support expertise without having to surrender any sovereignty over their IPs.

- Source


Random stuff from EA event.



[3:32] A totally unassuming Will Wright shambles onto stage in a black T-shirt to talk about Spore, which apparently began with his childhood chemistry set.

[3:33] A slide show describes his fascination with science, up to and including the work of Dr. Frankenstein.

[3:34] He said the goal of Spore is to have science and expression overlap.

[3:35] He said they reason the Spore Creature Creator was released first was to have everyone populate the game with 100,000 creatures in two months. The game now has 1,756,869 species of creature--more than on Earth itself.

[3:36] And that only took 18 days--just 11 more than God, Wright jokes. Ergo, Spore creators are 38 percent of God. Lightly blasphemous laughter ensues.

[3:37] Now slides of various creatures are shown, including all-bone animals, realistic humans, and a giant red living whack-a-mole machine.

[3:38] YouTube now boasts 85,000 Spore videos, including ones from celebrities ranging from David Lynch to...Melissa Joan Hart?!?!?!?

[4:12] Onto the stage walks Greg Zeschuk, co-founder of BioWare, to loud whoops. He's gonna show off the recently renamed Dragon Age: Origins. He says the game is the spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate.

[4:13] He says the "origins" refers to the fact both that it's a return to BioWare's roots, but also how the characters will have detailed back stories. "You origins are the lens with which you will see the game."

[4:14] Roll Dragon Age trailer. It shows a very Lord of the Rings-like stand off with Orc-ish monsters attacking a castle.

[4:15] The game's Elf-like hero is assaulted by a minotaur, and then ends the trailer.

[4:15] Looks like the subtitle isn't the only announcement from BioWare. Dragon Age "is coming to the PC and consoles in the future," says Zeschuk.

[4:15] Enter Valve Software's Gabe Newell to display Left 4 Dead, which "will let you feel like you're inside in a horror movie."

[4:16] He says the goal of Left 4 Dead is to combine the social aspect of Counter-Strike and Team Fortress with the narrative of Half-Life 2.
[4:19] The game will have an AI "director" which will change how events unfold in the game depending on how you play the game. Play badly and the game will offer lesser challenges, but also lesser rewards. He shows the difference in the form of a shootout at a gas station. The bad players only face a few zombies, while the skilled players face a whole wave of zombies--and are rewarded by a massive explosion.

[4:20] After showing some detailed character models, Newell says the game is shipping November 4 for the PC and Xbox 360. Cue another trailer--easily the bloodiest yet.

- Source


Dragon Age: Origins E3 2008 trailer






Apogee to return.



In December, 3D Realms shocked the industry by showing, for the first time since 2001, brand-new footage for the long-regarded-vaporware Duke Nukem Forever. While scarcely more than a minute of footage, the teaser indicated that 3D Realms was on the verge of releasing Duke Nukem Forever in 2008. Comments by 3D Realms' George Broussard notwithstanding, a report from the Dallas Business Journal indicates the developer is targeting an Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 release, in addition to the PC.

With the Duke's revival assured--dare it be said--it now appears that one more remnant from the past will reemerge. Today, Apogee Software--abandoned by 3D Realms as a publishing label since 1996--announced that it would be relaunching its publishing efforts for smaller-scale development by bringing back a number of games from its legacy catalogue, as well as all-new properties.

Apogee's first project will be a three-episode Duke Nukem Trilogy that it plans to bring to the "handheld market." The trilogy's individual installments will be titled Critical Mass, Chain Reaction, and Proving Grounds. However, Apogee did not elaborate on which specific platforms the games would arrive, when they are expected to hit the market, or if the three titles were part of a single product or part of a trio of releases. Apogee had not responded to requests for comment as of press time.

"This marks a new beginning for a famous publisher with a history of market-making innovation," said Apogee chief operating officer and cofounder Terry Nagy. "I can't think of a better character than Duke or a better franchise than the Trilogy to usher in a new era for Apogee."

- Source


Upcoming Golden Axe title for PS3.



Golden Axe's triumphant return to the modern era is largely unchanged from the classic medieval brawler. You still run around with a huge sword, unleash magic attacks and beat up sack-wielding gnomes for goodies. The biggest difference is that cooperative play has been left out entirely; you'll have to slay these dragons alone. We went hands-on with the first level of Golden Axe: Beast Rider today, and it retains the fun, grizzly feel of the original.

- Source


Hands-on with Ghostbusters game.



There was no Stay Puft Marshmallow Man this time, but Terminal Reality and Sierra did stop by to give us a tour of the famous library scene from the original Ghostbusters movie back in 1984. With PKE meter in hand, we got a chance to play the PlayStation 3 version and make our way through the library to trap the pesky ghost while racking up a small fortune in damages. What stood out the most was the detail in the environments that we were exploring and the proton pack--it kind of makes you want to get your own.

- Source


Hands-on with Fable II.



While roaming the E3 showfloor earlier today we noticed that a demo version of Fable II is playable on two of Microsoft's kiosks there. We have an appointment to check out the game with Peter Molyneux tomorrow but we're as eager to play the game as you are so, ahead of what will likely be a more substantial Fable II story 24 hours from now, here's a rundown of what we saw:

- Source


Hands-on with Left 4 Dead.



It's not often you can say you were lucky enough to be caught in a zombie apocalypse, but that's just what happened to us earlier today when we paid a visit to Valve's E3 2008 meeting room. Tucked away from the show floor proper, Valve had four PCs running to give players a chance to test out their co-operative skills in this four-player shooter that uses the Counter Strike Source engine. Although our team of four failed just shy of reaching the salvation, we enjoyed every moment of it.

- Source


Gears of War 2.



The opening cinematic narrated by Marcus Fenix is accompanied by a sweeping view of the world that we will return to in Gears of War 2. Ever since the Game Developers Conference earlier this year, it has been hard not to keep a close watch on this sequel. At the Microsoft Press Event to jump-start E3, design director Cliff Bleszinski and senior producer Jonathan Zamkoff were able to play through a brief but exciting section where the locusts have returned and are now sinking entire cities.




- Source


Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War II



The yearly E3 convention is traditionally the time and place to reveal exciting new details on upcoming games, so what better venue to take the wraps off of the hard-hitting new intro video for Dawn of War II, the sequel to Relic's fast-paced and violent real-time strategy game based on the classic sci-fi universe? The mighty Space Marines return to battle against the feral Orks and their other rivals in a sequel that will feature impressive destructible terrain and a brand-new single-player campaign in which you'll guide a small squad of soldiers and equip them with piles of loot, not unlike how you'd normally develop an adventuring party in a role-playing game. While you watch the new trailer from Plastic Wax, you can also pick up some new details on the game at E3 in our exclusive interview with producer Mark Noseworthy and lead designer Jonny Ebbert.




- Source

more...

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Did Wall Street's greed cause our current economic crisis?

As I listened to Chain of Blame co-author, Paul Muolo, talk about Wall Street's complicity in creating the mortgage crisis that is currently still looming over our heads, I couldn't help but think of Gordon Gekko's infamous words: "greed, for lack of a better word, is good."

The subprime mortgage crisis has led to more than a million home foreclosures and has sent ripples through the world economy. But who is to blame for this situation? According to financial writer Paul Muolo, fingers should be pointing at Wall Street.

Muolo is executive editor of National Mortgage News. He and reporter Mathew Padilla wrote Chain of Blame: How Wall Street Caused the Mortgage and Credit Crisis. The book focuses on Angelo Mozilo, founder and CEO of Countrywide Financial, using his story to trace the complicated events that led to the crisis.

- Source


Go to the source above to listen to the NPR Fresh Air segment.

nothing after the jump




more...

Blinded with raving!

Some concertgoers lost up to 80 percent of their vision after attending the Aquamarine Music Festival on July 5, the newspaper Kommersant reported.

"It is just a deterioration in the sharpness of the eyesight, not a burn," she was quoted as saying, and said she could not confirm the injuries came from lasers.

"The treatment is not very pleasant. It involves a lot of needles," Grishina said. "But all the patients are in optimistic spirits, and we are hoping for a good result."

According to the reports, concertgoers said the festival's dance floor was covered by a canopy because it was raining. The lasers were pointed horizontally under the tent instead of into the sky, which led to the injuries, the reports said.

"After five or ten minutes on the dance field, I couldn't see anything," a young man in sunglasses identified as a concertgoer said on NTV television. "I could see out of my left eye, but my right eye is all fog."

The broadcast showed video from the festival recorded by cellular phones, one of which appeared to burn out when a laser shone on it.

The festival was held in the Vladimir region east of Moscow. During the summer, techno music enthusiasts often organize open-air raves on empty fields outside Moscow.

- Source



nothing after the jump




more...

Who's the asshole?

Trouble has been brewing for quite some time between Viacom and Youtube, but it's still not completely over just yet. Viacom has demanded that Youtube give up user data. What Viacom plans on doing with this, I don't know. Many are wondering. Will Viacom try and go RIAA on those users and sue them? Your guess is as good as mine. The best part is, a judge who probably doesn't know jack-shit about IT or about internet privacy concerns has ordered Youtube to give these records to Viacom, saying that privacy concerns are minimal at best. I'm sure I could track down some people with an IP addy and a list of searches as well as other contextual information.

he video-sharing site YouTube will be allowed to mask the identities of individual users when it provides viewership records to Viacom Inc. and other copyright holders behind a $1 billion copyright-infringement lawsuit.

YouTube disclosed late Monday that it would substitute user IDs, Internet addresses and other identifiers before submitting the database to Viacom as required under a July 1 court order widely criticized by privacy activists.

"We remain committed to protecting your privacy and we'll continue to fight for your right to share and broadcast your work on YouTube," the company said in a blog posting.

U.S. District Judge Louis L. Stanton had dismissed privacy concerns as speculative in authorizing full access to the YouTube logs after Viacom and other plaintiffs argued that they need the data to show whether their copyright-protected videos are more heavily watched than amateur clips.

Lawyers for Viacom and the other plantiffs signed an agreement with YouTube on Monday saying they would accept measures to help YouTube preserve the anonymity of the records. Under the agreement, YouTube can swap the identifiers with other values under a protocol that YouTube has a week to propose.

The new values will still have to let the plaintiffs determine which individual watched which clip and when, but they will mask cases where an existing identifier contains personally identifiable information — such as first initial and full last name in a user ID.

In limited circumstances, it may still be possible to track records to a specific individual based on that person's viewing habits, as Time Warner Inc.'s AOL discovered when it released to academic researchers some 19 million search requests made over three months. AOL substituted numeric IDs for the subscribers' real user names, yet the items searched produced enough clues to track down some of the users and identify them by name.

- Source


Fortunately, Viacom has avoided a major PR backlash by allowing Youtube to anonymize user data that it is ordered to hand over. But who is the asshole in this? Is it Youtube for agreeing to give up the data? They were forced to by a court order, so there's not much wiggle room. Viacom requested it, are they the assholes? What about the judge that dismissed any and all privacy concerns? I think it's a bit too early to tell. What is worrisome is what Viacom plans to do with the data. Hopefully, they will use the data for this case, and this case only, then properly destroy it. If Viacom gets any crazy ideas of going after individual users, they can expect a major resistance and alot of anger coming their way.

more...

All-American piss-swill is now Belgian piss-swill.

Some might be crying over this, but to me it's no big deal. When Bass was sold to Interbrew (which is now part of InBev) it went straight down the shitter. The subtleties of the malt bill that made Bass such a wonderful ale to drink at just below room temperature were entirely gone. Now it's hard to stomach a Bass at proper temp or even at ultra-cold temps that companies suggest their shitty beers are best served at. Bass tastes like Coors. What's the point in paying more for an import of a shitty beer whose doppelganger is brewed domestically? (Bass, although owned by InBev, is actually contract brewed by Coors)

Budweiser won't get any worse or any better because it was bought by InBev. It'll still be the rice-heavy bastard-child of pilsner lagers that was solely engineered to make beer using the shittiest, cheapest ingredients possible. The Anheuser-Busch breweries won't close down because it wouldn't make sense for InBev to try and import Budweiser. All this buyout means is the cash flow has changed hands. Other than that, the shitty, bastardized German-based lagered pilsner that was created for women-folk to drink during Oktoberfest will continue to be the beer of choice for numerous American men at various sporting events and will continue to be heralded by the clueless as a "real man's beer."

For details on the merger as well as a list of the more well-known (in the USA) InBev brands, click the jump.

Belgian-Brazilian brewer InBev has purchased St. Louis based Anheuser-Busch in a $52 billion takeover creating the world's largest brewer in St. Louis on July 14, 2008. The takeover from InBev began in May and concluded on July 13, 2008, after the Anheuser-Busch board of directors agreed on a $70 a share in cash. The new company will have net sales of $36 billion a year, offering consumers about 300 brands. InBev chief executive Carlos Brito, 48, is known for cutting costs, and will head the new company, called Anheuser-Busch InBev. Pictured is a brew kettle at the Anheuser-Busch World Headquarters building in south St. Louis on July 14, 2008. (UPI Photo/Bill Greenblatt)
- Source



Bass (United Kingdom)
Beck's (Germany)
Boddingtons (United Kingdom)
Hoegaarden (Belgium)
Labatt Family (Canada)
Leffe (Global)
Löwenbräu (Germany)
Spaten (Germany)
St. Pauli Girl (USA)
Stella Artois (Global)
Tennent's (United Kingdom)

- Source

more...

Friday, July 4, 2008

Beat this, Country Bear Jamboree!

Penny Arcade is fucking awesome. Without it, I may very well have missed this incredibly awesome video.




You can read the original post at Penny Arcade if you want. There's some other links, including how The Rock-afire Explosion got started.

Nothing after the jump







more...