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Firefly Online brings the crew back together (for voices)
Despite the name, Firefly Online isn't really an MMO. But it does feature online interactions, and perhaps more importantly, it does feature the original cast together again. If you were hoping to hear Captain Malcolm Reynolds growl at you while you played the game -- and let's face it, odds are almost certain you were -- you can be happy to know that the main cast will be reprising their roles for the first time since the movie. Alan Tudyk will also be voicing multiple roles, and Michael Fairman will be playing Niska, who is apparently hiring if you're none too worried about your conscience bothering you. The game is set to release in 2015 on multiple platforms.
Amazon Fire phone review: a unique device, but you're better off waiting for the sequel
After producing a long line of e-book readers and tablets (not to mention a set-top box), Amazon has its sights set on the smartphone market. But finding success here won't be easy, even for an established tech giant like Amazon. With the Fire phone, the online retailer is coming in as an unproven underdog, hoping to bring iPhone and Android users into its fold. CEO Jeff Bezos says the only way to do that is to differentiate; to wow potential buyers with new features they didn't even realize they needed. These unique offerings include 3D head-tracking, product scanning and fast help from customer service agents.
Google Glass founder heads to Amazon
The optics savant that helped Google create Glass has just announced that he's "super excited" to be joining Amazon. Babak Parvis was one of the original members of Google's Project X skunkworks lab, and the first head of the Glass project team. Prior to that, the Seattle resident was a researcher at the University of Washington where he developed the first contact lenses with integrated circuits. Later, he worked with Microsoft on research for blood-glucose monitoring contacts with Microsoft, a project he eventually brought to Google. Parvis didn't say exactly what he'd be doing with Amazon, but projects like Google's Tango, the Oculus Rift and Amazon's new Fire phone and Firefly app have made optics designers a hot commodity. Meanwhile, Glass is well past the research stage where Parvis shined, so Google now has design guru Ivy Ross in charge for a likely consumer launch. [Image credit: loiclemeur/Flickr]
Engadget Daily: Amazon's Fire phone, Adobe's digital sketching hardware and more!
Today, we take a look at Amazon's new handset, the Fire, go hands-on on with the $22,000 Vertu Signature Touch, learn about Amazon's new Firefly feature and review Adobe's set of premium sketching accessories. Read on for Engadget's news highlights from the last 24 hours.
The Fire phone is Amazon's ultimate hardware weapon
Amazon's first phone is finally here. But what makes it such a curious little device isn't all that (lackluster) 3D, head-tracking stuff; it's Firefly, the company's new visual search engine. Amazon may have been born unto the internet as a modest bookseller, but it's now become a services company: There's the Kindle Lending Library for e-books, plus streaming services like Amazon Instant Video and Prime Music. Amazon's also a hardware maker. And this time, the company's made something that lets you text mom and use a powerful image-based search system to shop Amazon.com with one touch. It's the Fire phone, and it feels like the inevitable marriage of Amazon's device and services initiative.
Amazon's Firefly recognizes everything you see and hear, then lets you buy it
So yes, Amazon's phone is a real thing... and it's turning out to be quite a sales tool, too. Jeff Bezos just pulled back the curtain on the device's Firefly feature, which scans music, art and even products you have lying around in the real world. Why? So you can buy it all from Amazon, of course.
Firefly Online shows off the AFAS fighter
The titular ship class in Firefly Online won't be the only spacecraft players will encounter when the game goes live this summer. The arrogant Alliance have their own spiffy line-up of ships, and today Quantum Mechanix revealed the faction's first one: the Alliance Fast Attack Ship. The AFAS, also known as Shinigami, was created to counter gunboats such as the Firefly Series 3 military variant in the Unification War. It's a short-range attack ship that might not be as powerful as some of the other hardware in the Alliance's arsenal, but it's cheap and effective enough that they flourished even so. The AFAS is small, quick, has a decent armament of turrets and cannons, and operates in three-ship wolf packs. While the AFAS was mostly retired in favor of the follow-up ASREV, there are still a few in operation in the 'Verse even today.
First Firefly Online details revealed
Browncoats everywhere will be pleased to know that the first look at the upcoming Firefly Online is now here for all to see. Andy Gore, CEO of Quantum Mechanix, has revealed a number of tasty details about the upcoming game based on everyone's favorite short-lived TV show. Firefly Online will utilize a "Free Flight Engine," which gives players a "reactive 3D interface" of the 'verse to assist in their interstellar travels. Gore also unveiled the game's "job" system, which gives players a number of sidequests outside of the main storyline and even lets them create jobs for other players to undertake. The full piece at io9 also shows off a number of screenshots, demo animations, and concept art from the game, so click on through the link below for your fix of Firefly goodness.
Jukebox Heroes: Tracy W. Bush opens up about WoW, Dungeon Runners, and DCUO
Odds are that even if you don't know who Tracy W. Bush is, you've allowed him to pipe music from his mind directly into your ears at one point or another during your MMO gameplay. Bush has contributed to tons of MMO soundtracks over the past decade-plus, including World of Warcraft, Tabula Rasa, Dungeon Runners, Auto Assault, and DC Universe Online. It was actually this column's discussion of the Tabula Rasa soundtrack that prompted Bush to write in (fun fact: Blue Turns to Grey was the first track he wrote for the game, but the team held off putting it in until the very end), and I asked him if he'd be open to chatting about his collective work here. That didn't take much arm-twisting, no sirree. So with that, I'm going to turn the mike over to Tracy Bush and let him share with you what it's like to create soundscapes that echo so powerfully in your memories.
Cult TV series Firefly coming to iOS next summer as an RPG
Fans of the cult TV series Firefly, created by Buffy scribe and Avengers director Joss Whedon, will be happy to hear that an RPG of the sci-fi western will arrive on iOS next summer, according to Polygon. Not much is known about the game other than Fox Digital Entertainment has teamed with QMXi and Spark Plug Games to develop the property, and that players will take the role of a captain who needs to recruit crew to lead missions and trade with other players. Firefly will make its debut as a universal app for iPhone and iPad. Interested parties can sign up for updates on the Official Firefly Online website. Also be sure to check out the teaser trailer below.
Firefly Online coming to mobile devices in 2014, Firefly Universe Online ceases development [Updated]
Well Browncoats, it's true: Firefly Online is about to be a thing. It may not be as big of a thing as you may have hoped, however. Developer Quantum Mechanix Interactive revealed that the title will be a mobile game for the iOS and Android platforms. It looks to have the full support of Fox and is scheduled to hit the app stores in summer 2014. QMx is aiming to both misbehave and to recreate the Firefly experience for wannabe captains. Players will customize their ships, hire a crew, and seek jobs in the 'Verse. This project is not to be confused with the dubious Firefly Universe Online. The official announcement trailer is after the jump.
Everyone's a potential traitor... even you: WildStar's Dominion faction
Last week, we revealed WildStar's Exile faction -- a Firefly-esque group of rebels, pirates, and vagabonds. Today, we're finally able to put our eyeballs on the game's Dominion faction, including three of its four races, plus a newly unveiled class, the Stalker. My instinct was to assume that the Dominion faction was meant to be a parallel to Firefly's Alliance -- space cowboys versus authoritarian aristocrats. But having explored them in more detail, I saw a lot more of Star Wars and Allods Online than I expected, and that's brilliant. Allods also has two factions, the "evil" one of which is a unique blend of Imperial Russian industrial dieselpunk and high-society technocracy. Blend that with Human High Culture propaganda from the Star Wars Extended Universe and maybe a dash of Brazil's dystopian humor and you've got WildStar's Dominion. But don't take just my word for it. Let's have a look at the videos!
You can't take the sky from me: WildStar's Exiles
You can't dip into a setting like WildStar's without hearing the familiar chords of Firefly's opening theme, and it's no accident; the game's two factions were surely set up to mimic that IP's rustic space cowboys and refined imperial aristocracy. Today, the embargo drops on a truckload of information, screenshots, and videos about the Exile faction (the Dominion faction, I fear, won't be fully revealed until next week).
Fireflies' bumpy abdomens may lead to brighter LEDs
Scientists who evidently spend too much time with fireflies have managed to put all that bug-watching to good use: developing brighter LEDs. One problem with that tech is that a lot of the light gets reflected back into the device due to the way photons travel through LED materials, causing them to lose efficiency. But researchers from the University of Namur in Belgium noticed that the misshapen abdominal scales on fireflies act to prevent reflection, letting more light from the luminous insect's "lantern" shine out. Scientists in Canada took it a step further by doping standard gallium-nitride LEDs with a similar material, and found that light transmission increased by 55 percent. They claimed that such a process could be done to "nearly every commercially available LED," which could one day bring insect-inspired energy savings to commercial products.
The Nexus Telegraph: WildStar is serious business
Science fiction. It's a genre all about man's eternal struggle against space aliens, cyborgs, and people with British accents in very large flagships. Or, you know, about things larger than humanity, about exploring the unknown, and about the sense of wonder at exploring strange new frontiers of a world similar to our own but unfamiliar at the same time. It's a chance for us to step beyond the boundaries of our own world and into the great beyond just a few paces at a time. But it's mostly the cyborgs and flagships. That stuff is really cool to watch. WildStar is a science fiction game. But it takes more than a few cues from a show that also had the audacity to lend a lot of the wild west to a deep space setting. It's hard not to pick up on the Firefly vibe from the previews, after all. But it's been very illuminating to see what the designers have to say about influences and the direction they want to take the game's storytelling because it's very different from other science fiction games on the market right now.
Firefly Universe Online continuation alleged to be a hoax [Updated]
Did you think that the promise of Firefly Universe Online coming to life seemed a bit too good to be true? Or at least a bit unlikely? Because as it turns out, cynicism might have been the right attitude to take for this particular bit of news. According to Kotaku, the entire announcement that the game had the go-ahead to proceed may have been nothing more than a hoax and we still won't see this particular version of the Firefly MMO project come to fruition, although not for the reason that many people expected. As Kotaku argues, the hoax was perpetuated by The Yes Men, a strongly anticonsumerist group that apparently thought the best platform for this particular parody was a relatively obscure science fiction show. At this point it's not clear exactly what statement the group was attempting to make, although some sort of spoof on Kickstarter seems the most likely target. Either way, hopes for a Firefly MMO remain unrealized -- and at this point if such a game ever does get approved, we won't believe it's real until it's on the shelf. [Update: As fans of the franchise point out, FUO representatives have updated their Facebook page with what they allege is a screenshot of the game and an explanation for The Yes Men's involvement. What do you think? Is it a hoax or is it legit?]
Firefly Universe Online reactivates with Fox's 'well wishes' [Updated]
Is the dream of a Firefly MMO still flying? The folks at DarkCryo Entertainment think so. The unlikely project seemed doomed due to an unauthorized use of the IP, but that may have changed. DarkCryo posted a notice on the project's Facebook page indicating that Fox has given something of a go-ahead: "With the well wishes of Fox Entertainment Group, we have reactivated the FUO MMORPG Facebook page in preparation for our upcoming Kickstarter campaign. A popular alpha launch may re-awaken licensing consideration, in which case we may then include an expansion pack containing derivative content." According to the counter on the front page, the crowdsourcing attempt to fund further development will begin in 16 days. Firefly Universe Online was officially (or unofficially, as the case may be) announced back in June of 2011. [Thanks to Tarka for the tip!] [Update: This "announcement" has since been alleged to be a hoax.]
The Daily Grind: Who is your favorite NPC?
If you asked me who my favorite NPC was and I had to answer on pain of porcupine, then I'd probably say, "Every single character in The Secret World." How do I choose between them all? There's a mobster mummy, a police officer who cries over his dead kittens, and Frankenstein's descendant. And that's just for starters! But if pressed, I'd probably go with Hayden Montag, the headmaster at Innsmouth Academy. Not only is he voiced by horror star Jeffrey Combs, but the guy is just a hoot in and of himself. He's completely without tact, says the most horrible things with a steady voice, and obviously has a really dark past. Plus, those omnipresent blue gloves are an obvious call-out to a certain science-fiction show many of us love... So who is your favorite NPC and why? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Must See HDTV (November 5th - 11th)
Halo 4 After more than a decade the Halo series is still going strong, although development has moved from Bungie to 343 Industries. Fans shouldn't let that switch worry them however, as Joystiq's review assures it is a "decadent show of strength" for the series that lives up to its predecessors in single player, co-op and multiplayer. A new co-op mode that's updated weekly will also probably help find some allies instead of foul-mouthed adversaries should you choose to head online. There's a trailer after the break, but we're pretty sure you already know if this is the game for you. ($59.99 on Amazon) Entourage The Complete Series If you'd like to see every season of Entourage in HD, this is your chance. The complete series is coming to Blu-ray (yes, before The Sopranos) and anyone who caught it during its run on TV can attest to the sharp visual style and always timely soundtrack. Vince and crew have never looked better, and at $140, it's not too expensive for serious fans to enjoy. ($139 on Amazon) Firefly 10th anniversary Browncoats unite. The Science Channel is airing a special reunion of the short-lived show Firefly, complete with never before seen footage and more. Check out the official site for more info and a chance to unlock more exclusive clips, and tune in Sunday night to relive all the action. If you missed the Comic-Con reunion panel, video is embedded after the break. (November 11th, Science, 10PM)
MMO Blender: Bree's big-budget sandbox
Writing MMO Blender feels like getting three wishes from a magical lamp and having to think very, very carefully about what you ask for. You have to word it just right and ponder the consequences of each wish on the others because you just know that Genie's going to screw with you. If I were stronger, I'd reject the wishes (here, the 1000 words) outright, knowing they're a trap, but I just can't resist a turn at this column. I want a new sandbox. A good one, not one made by gank-obsessed fanboys on a shoestring budget. I don't think sandboxes are dead; I just know it takes money to make money, and modern indie sandboxes are forgetting that rule. Fortunately, I don't need money for this column. I'll take my MMO Blender wishes and build a sandbox that's more than just a pile of sand and an empty box.
