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Say 'ta ta' to the Tata eMO: the $20,000 EV you'll never set eyes on
This story ends before it even starts, but it's nice to look at what could have been, should destiny -- or a corporate boardroom -- have taken a different course. Tata Motors, maker of the Nano EV, has been working on new concept -- the eMO -- that it already tells us, we'll never see. It claims the nifty looking car would do 100 imaginary miles per charge and a theoretical 65 mph top speed. It would cost a fictitious 20,000 dollars, thanks to lots of non-existent weight being saved through thrift design principles -- such as space saving suicide doors. There isn't even a hatch for the trunk to easily put away all that shopping you didn't buy. Back in the real world, however, we'll be seeing at least a little more of this fantastical EV as the firm enters it into the Michelin Challenge Design at next week's Detroit Auto Show.
Free for All: Is free to play turning our kids into Vegas pirates?
I think it's the hair. In fact, I know it. The constant flicking -- it drives me nuts. How in the world did wearing your hair like 60-year-old businessmen become such a fad? I've now had my groceries bagged by 16-year-old kids with eyeliner on and dual piercings in their lips. When did looking like a Vegas pirate become so popular? The flicking of their hair -- it does something to them. Justin Bieber, in a recent interview, said that he was crazy. He insisted on it. Of course, his agent wanted to push this tiny public cry for help off as some sign of genius, but we all know what Bieber meant: "This hair is *flick* driving me *flick* flat-out bonkers." What also seems to be an issue with the youngins these days is an unfiltered access to the internet. I'm not kidding -- next time you're at the mall, ask the kid with the 30 Seconds to Mars t-shirt on who the vice president is. Then ask him to spell "lose." See, on the internet and inside any number of free games, he doesn't need to know this information. After all, the only time he might be worried about "loosing" anything is when he is busy PvPing. I might be onto something. Get the hair out of your eyes, join me after the cut, and we'll discuss it further.
The Road to Mordor: Pippin's top five plugins
This past week in LotRO's been a bit like riding river rapids: There's been a lot of rapid ups-and-downs, violent lurches to avoid dangerous objects, and a whole lot of noise that's drowning out the calmer waters ahead. For every piece of good news and positive word-of-mouth, there's been a lot of unfortunate bumps, such as server queues, dynamic layers, mouthy trolls and Codemaster's launch delay. However, I believe it's all going to settle down in a couple more weeks, and LotRO will emerge the better for it. So if this is your first week in Lord of the Rings Online, welcome! Find a great kinship, take time to smell the flowers, and hunt some orc for me. Today I'd like to take a look at one of the unsung heroes of the recent content patch -- the ability to create and use plugins (also called mods and addons) to enhance your user interface. While the system is still in beta and has a rough-around-the-edges feel to it, it's already shown great potential, particularly though the creativity that mod designers are pouring into it. While there are only a small number of plugins available as of right now and Turbine has yet to expand the scope of these Lua scripts beyond constrained limits, it's not too early to beef up your UI with these spiffy additions. Read on, free peoples of Middle-internet!
Officers' Quarters: Ragequit fallout
Every Monday Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership.If you've played WoW long enough, and if you've raided enough, odds are you've wanted to quit your guild right in the middle of a run at some point. Some people actually go through with it. I'll never forget the night many years ago when our raid's main tank quit the guild and zoned out of Onyxia's Lair while he was tanking the boss. Yeah, that guy had some anger issues . . .But what happens when a guild leader ragequits in the middle of a raid? Read on to find out!Hi Scott,A friend and I started a guild about 5 months back. I assumed the Co-Gm role, led the raids and recruited quite a bit. After a slow start we ended up making an impact on the server as a stand up crew and were moving into the top rankings for 10 and cracking the 25 man progression as well. The other Co-Gm was very good at handling issues and I admit that was not my strong point. Things worked really well until unfortunately I had an "EMO" moment.
Video: Emo Labs' invisible speakers visibly demonstrated
Emo Labs is out on a crusade to unify audio and video into one cohesive, delectable whole. If you'll recall, the company's Edge Motion invisible speaker tech relies on implanting a clear membrane atop display panels, which is then vibrated by piezoelectric actuators to generate stereo audio. We've grabbed a couple of vids of it in action to whet your appetite, and while there's still no word on when, plans are afoot to embed the technology into LCDs, laptops, mobiles and even handheld gaming devices. Dance past the break to hear, and maybe even see, for yourself. [Via eCoustics]
Emo Labs concocts its own invisible speaker technology
Emo Labs didn't stir up too much commotion while CES was going on, but apparently it did have a tiny presence in Vegas. The crew at Technologizer was able to listen to a sneak preview of the startup's Edge Motion technology, and if the demo is indicative of the end result, we could be onto something special. Much like NXT's SoundVu tech that seemed to fizzle out about as quickly as it hit the scene in 2005, this system creates a so-called invisible speaker by "using arrays of motors to wiggle the edges of a clear membrane." Gurus at the company are hoping to have it integrated into panels of TVs by the end of this year, though it'll be a bit longer before the same can happen on space-constrained laptops.
Officers' Quarters: /facepalm
Every Monday Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership.Sometimes I get an e-mail describing to me a guild leader who fails for so many reasons that I am simply at a loss for words. However, words are all I have to work with here, along with my trusty Picard ASCII (courtesy of Blizzard poster Datth), so I will do my best. I warn you that this e-mail is a very long read. But those of you who want some insight into exactly what not to do as a guild leader, read on! Dear Scott, Around May the more progression-ready members of my casual guild started filling in spots for an established raiding guild doing 10man content with promises of moving to 25man content fairly quickly in order to see the BC raid instances pre-WotLK. One thing led to the other and I ended up gutting my guild of those more dedicated members and all of us joining up with the raiding guild which seems to be usually how these things go. What I ended up discovering is the guild I joined into had been much bigger and more organized at one time but was in its last throes and the person who brought the two guilds together was given the GM role in order to facilitate his, and others, dreams of 25man content. Long story short the raid guild had long since mastered Kara, but always struggled on ZA, and had only barely glimpsed the insides of the 25man instances.
Barrens Chat: One Tauren's trash
You never realize how much junk you have until you have to move. It is the same in World of Warcraft. You never realize how much junk you're carrying around in your bags until you get a really great drop, followed by the "inventory is full" message. There is never enough bag space.Sometimes it's the junk I pick up that makes me giggle as I play. It makes me wonder, just what sort of people could come up with a joke like that, or an obscure reference that is stretched to the very edge, but still very recognizable.Either way, your guess is as good as mine. So, what do you think he's doing with that particular item in tow?This comic is dedicated to, and somewhat inspired by, my friend Jesse. I almost introduced a new character from the Alliance, but I know how much he hates Horde, so I had to use my Tauren to spite him.See you all next week! %Gallery-22361% Barrens Chat is a weekly comic strip about everything from well used jokes, to picking fun at the things of the future. From Engineers to vials of tears, nothing is safe from the insanity of Megan Harris. Check in every week for a new addition to the madness!
WAR's November podcast previews Shadow Warrior class
Yesterday we saw a preview of the Swordmaster class, and today we've got a look at another one of the High Elf classes for the upcoming Warhammer Online, the Shadow Warrior. Mythic sent us their November podcast, in which they get a little wacky while telling us about what they're working on for the class that loves their bows. In the words of Paul Barnett, these are "indie, emo High Elves" that play as scouts, "but unlike scouts that sell you cookies, these guys only sell death."There are two specialties within the Shadow Warrior career-- one is all about increasing ranged damage as much as possible, and the other is about adding a little bit of melee effectiveness at the end of all that ranged damage. They make it super clear that it's only a little bit of melee-- as you can see from the still above, Shadow Warriors love their bows: "bow bow bow bow bow." But one tree of the Shadow Warrior class will let you finish off foes with melee, adding a little extra dimension to what is primarily a ranged class.There's also just a tiny bit of game video in the podcast, but way too little-- they even say that they couldn't get much approved to show off yet. At any rate, this looks like yet another interesting addition to Warhammer's already mixed bag of tricks.
First Impressions: Dungeon Runners
Dungeon Runners is a game by NCsoft that trades off of the popularity of Blizzard titles WoW and Diablo II, but does it with a sense of humor. I'm not going to rehash gameplay mechanics here, but I'll give you my impressions of the experience of logging on, creating a character, and playing for about an hour. Maybe this will give you an idea of what to expect; whether or not this is something you'll want to invest any time in pursuing. Remember, this is not meant to be a strategy guide, nor an in-depth look at how to optimize your stats. This is one person's take on what it's like to play Dungeon Runners.We'll start with character creation after the jump.%Gallery-9833%
Ubisoft defends Splinter Cell series changes
All Ubisoft wants is for Splinter Cell fans to give emo-Fisher a chance. It seems reaction has been quite strong to Sam Fisher's new look and the departure from the light-and-shadow gameplay. 'Cause, you know, Splinter Cell without light and shadow is basically that other famous stealth action game (except you'd need to add a healthy dash of eccentric characters -- really eccentric characters). Speaking with GI.biz, Splinter Cell producer Mathieu Ferland says, "We've been working very closely with the fans from the beginning ... Their first reaction was, 'What's going on? Where's Sam?' And then they discovered these new possibilities, this new mechanic and they said, 'That looks awesome. I want to play it."Ferland goes on to say that if the game doesn't do well that they'll go back to the darkness and shadows that Fisher called home for so many years. It looks like Conviction is trying to do for Splinter Cell what Blood Money did for Hitman, by making the controls less complex and more intuitive. The game is still expected to release later this year and we don't expect Sam Fisher to release a book of poetry before then.
Japanese hardware sales, Feb. 19 - Feb. 25: Angry ranting edition
You know, you know what? We've had it up to here with some of the things we have to deal with everyday, and dammit, we think it's time we let people know. This crap has to stop.Where to start? Let's talk about the freaking CPUs they stick us with here at the Fanboy offices. Intel Core 2 Duo's: pathetic. We mean, what the hell? It's like two normal Intel processors duct-taped together. Look, we need insane processing power to make these blog posts funny and interesting, you know? These conditions are unworkable. And let's not even mention roller coasters. Mechanical and electrical engineers just aren't taking these things seriously enough; they need to start using the medium for proper artistic expression. We need to tell a story full of meaning and character depth during these rides, or people are going to feel unfulfilled and pissed off, like us. And we're really pissed right now.Finally, to Maxis, developers of the best-selling PC game of all-time and the future title Spore, expected to perhaps exceed that mark set by the exemplary Sims some years back: make a game that doesn't suck ass, okay?Ugh, these numbers? Where is the emotion? Where is the meaning? Life is so meaningless ....- DS Lite: 111,814 24,314 (17.86%) - PSP: 66,156 34,054 (33.96%)- Wii: 57,972 20,534 (26.16%) - PS3: 44,000 24,685 (127.80%) - PS2: 15,364 310 (2.06%) - Xbox 360: 3,379 804 (19.22%) - Game Boy Micro: 805 102 (11.25%) - GBA SP: 738 297 (28.70%) - Gamecube: 303 20 (6.19%) - DS Phat: 112 20 (15.15%) - GBA: 25 34 (57.63%)[Source: Media Create]
Ask Joystiq: Hot Topic and Warcraft
Yesterday we received a letter from Ryan, a perplexed Hot Topic shopper and Warcraft addict-to-be. He writes:"Hello. I was at the mall yesterday. I happened into Hot Topic while lookingfor an awesome Halloween costume and came across a $1.99 14-daytrial DVD of World of Warcraft. I thought, What the hell. Everyone else is addicted, why not me? So for 2 bucks I picked it up. I haven't installed it yet but, what I wanted to know was if you have seen these and if I only get it for the 14 days and then have to go buy a $20 box copy, or if I get the 14 day trial and then just have to sign up for an account? There seems to be a bunch of back and forth on this on the message boards. I tried to search your site but didn't find mention of it ... (I wish Weblogs inc. would upgrade their search engine). Anyway, thought it was interesting also that Hot Topic was selling WoW, it not being a game store and all. It begs the question, how long before my local 7-11 sells MMORPGs over the counter."Check out what we discovered after the jump.
LocoRoco gets emo, joins MySpace
MySpace is the biggest site on the internet. Home to tons of emotionally unstable teenagers that have nothing better to do than refresh their Friends list constantly, MySpace is the perfect place for stalkers and advertisers to go to reach such a lucrative audience. Sony has created a page dedicated to Loco Roco to "spread the joy" and make it a less dark, depressing, emo place. So far, it looks like it's working: the blobs have over 6,000 friends so far! Will you add these blubbers to your friends list? I know I will. Check it out, if only for the free ringtone and other goodies offered on the site. If the site makes you happy enough, maybe you won't go into that dark corner in the bathroom writing poetry about how much life sucks.
MySpace video contest: How Wii Play [Update 2]
Nintendo appears to be reaching out to the emo youth demographic, as a new video contest has emerged on the mega-popular MySpace website. A large social networking tool for creepy internet stalkers students and adults alike, MySpace is visited by hundreds of thousands of people every day...a good place to advertise, yeah? The contest, entitled "How Wii Play", is simple enough: create a video showing how you might use the Wiimote in your various everyday endeavors. The prize? Eight DS Lites for those hilarious enough to win the judges' hearts. You must have a MySpace account to enter, and you'll be graded on humor, originality, and creativity. Feel free to send your submissions to us as well; if we like them, we'll post them on the main page for our readers to enjoy.[Update 1: Since strikethrough humor has gone the way of knock-knock jokes, we have reduced the count by exactly one.][Update 2: We should note that it appears Nintendo themselves are not the official sponsors of this contest. MySpace just loves Nintendo, we guess.]
