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Storyboard: A second descent into madness
I had a lot of stuff to talk about on the subject of madness. As it happens, I had so much to talk about that I elected to split it up into two columns instead of writing one monster, scratching and crawling about in a lone column's space. And as I sat down to write this column, I realized that I have an entire column's worth of things to say about a single facet of madness: acting mad. Herein we come to the meat of what bothers me about madness as most players use it: It winds up getting used as something wacky. It's an excuse to do things that are wild and unpredictable because your character is so crazy. That bothers me because there's so much to be done with madness and so many ways to make it an interesting character trait. It's not something for casual or shallow use.
Yesterday's gritty, gutsy style makes us excited for tomorrow
Welcome to the Renaissance.The point-and-click adventure is back and it has nothing to do with Tim Schafer, Double Fine or Kickstarter. This particular revolution is being led by Pendulo Studios' gritty, stylized PC thriller, Yesterday, which marks a departure from the developer's previous title, The Next Big Thing, in a few crucial and exciting ways: Yesterday is not a comedy, though the dialogue retains a brilliant wit. It has nothing to do with the film industry. It involves the psychological analysis of a homeless man who believes his son, who was definitely killed in a tragic subway-tunnel collapse, is still alive.Maybe you have to be just as disturbed as Pendulo's fictional homeless man to really appreciate that last one, but if you are -- boy is it a treat.Pendulo has a solid track record in the point-and-click adventure genre -- they liked it before it was cool, even -- with the Runaway series and The Next Big Thing, but the studio had something to prove when it boldly announced that it was giving up comedy to offer an original, dark thriller with Yesterday. The game retains Pendulo's trademark art style, exaggerated features and colors that appear hand-painted over 3D models, and it is just as appealing as it was in 2003. This time around, however, not just the story is darker, but the palate is as well, with much of what I played taking place in a derelict, abandoned subway channel (I bet you can guess which one).
CCP reveals World of Darkness details to bloodthirsty fans
Details about CCP's World of Darkness are popping out of White Wolf's The Grand Masquerade in New Orleans this weekend, and they're definitely worth draining for every last sweet drop of... information. While the game is still in pre-production -- and as such, nothing is set in stone -- the devs weren't hesitant to dish out a lot of the ideas and features that they hope will make this the best vampire MMO to date. It's CCP's desire to emulate LARPing (live-action roleplaying) as much as possible with World of Darkness, with plenty of metaplots running inside the game and without. Players will begin as a mortal human who can make the choice to become a kindred (vampire) or stay mortal for the duration of their characters' lives. There's a very real danger that characters might experience "final death" -- permadeath -- if they take too many risks. If you get in over your head, you can retreat to your character's Haven for safety. The entire game will take place at night and on one server, and CCP is definitely aiming it toward the hardcore set. Nudity, gore, and insanity effects are all par for the course. If players push outside of the acceptable boundaries too often, they'll lose "humanity" points and could become flagged for constant attack by other players and NPCs. Play your cards right and you may become the prince of the city. The game will change over time with dynamic events, and CCP promises that there will be real consequences for player decisions. Look for our World of Darkness interview with CCP coming later this week. [Thanks Pilgrim for the tip!]
The Daily Grind: When has an MMO driven you to madness?
Theoretically, MMOs -- like all games -- should be relaxing. They're entertainment, right? Where we go to unwind, to get away from the stress of life by mindlessly slaughtering thousands of virtual beings? For the most part I like to believe that this is true, but I know that there are exceptions. Dark exceptions. There are moments when MMOs show a cackling face from the void as they work to drive you to near-madness. Sometimes it's when you've run a dungeon 500 times for a piece of loot that never, ever drops. Maybe you're oh-so-close to completing an epic quest and you get ganked at the last second by a Rogue on PCP. Perhaps it's losing a battle to the almighty random number generator. So when has an MMO driven you to madness? When did a game tip you over into that swirly void of lunacy and give you a big ol' shove? Join us in the psych ward today by sharing your tale! 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!
Apple TV Lowtide (Front Row) running on iPod touch
It's been Apple TV-palooza here at TUAW today. Shortly after discovering that the Apple TV iOS firmware could be downloaded and unpacked, we took our first peek under the hood and saw just how similar the new Apple TV, with its Lowtide software, was to previous Apple TV releases. Soon after, we discovered that the Lowtide application was built with multi-device support, including the iPad, in its list of supported hardware. Now, developer Dustin Howett has managed to port Lowtide to an iPod touch and run it under iOS 4.1. You can see him running the Apple TV Lowtide software in this video. It's really amazing to see just how compatible the diverse systems are.
Choose My Adventure: Live streaming of Robinemia's insanity
Choose the adventures of the WoW.com staff as we level our characters in <It came from the Blog> on Zangarmarsh (US-PvE-H). Robinemia is streaming right now via Justin.TV for the next hour or so. We're going to be beating up Syndicate again. You wanted grinding. You're getting grinding. I think we'll all have earned the Insane title by the end of this, whether we get the actual in-game one or not. Join us in-game if you are in the high 20s or higher or watch us on the stream. I use the audio on the stream as a kind of voice chat. Only it's just me ... babbling. If you're looking for serious business, this isn't it. Seriously. Also, I'm sorry in advance for the funsuckers. They can't help themselves. Their lives are so sad that they have nothing better to do than try to ruin other people's fun. But they can't. We're going to have fun in spite of them. They are destined to fail and therefore deserve our pity. Awwww. Please join us on Zangarmarsh (US-PvE-H) in <It came from the Blog>. Ask any member online for an invite; guild ranks of "Blog Lurker" or above have the power. You are all welcome as long as you play by our simple rules, that can be summed up with "Don't be a Funsucker!" Also, please see the guild FAQ for the most common questions.
Aabar Investments takes 32 percent stake in Virgin Galactic, we're still not cool enough to go to space
United Arab Emirates company Aabar Investments and today announced that it would be taking a 32 percent stake in Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic space tourism venture, a deal worth about $280 million dollars. Though the deal has yet to be approved by US regulatory agencies, Aabar, which is an investment vehicle for Abu Dhabi's government, said that it plans to build a spaceport in the capital city, and that it's committed an addition $100 million to fund satellite launch capabilites. The deal gives Aabar the regional rights to host tourism as well as scientific research flights. When asked how they felt about having Richard Branson hanging around their city, reps from Aabar said, "King Crazy? We love that guy!"[Image credit: David Schrubbe]
Fan-made Cuddle me Yoggy
Greyseer of Lorecrafted posted this cute little version (that site there is slow, but don't worry, we've mirrored all the pictures for you to browse through below, so don't take bandwidth from there if you don't have to) of the Old God of Death the other day, and he's just about as adorable as an ancient, malevolent deity can get. For some reason, Blizzard's new big bad has captured the fascination of their fans, and Greyseer has chosen a cloth-based representation of the fearsome creature.He says he only had the patience to make about five maw/eyes, and the fabric he used for Yoggy's belly has hearts on it, but we think that just adds to the charm. His little flipper/tentacle hands are great, too, and Greyseer calls the plush a "prototype," so maybe more are on the way. We're constantly amazed at what you players can do with some fabric and thread -- keep these plushy bad guys coming!%Gallery-63313%
The OverAchiever: Starting Glory of the Hero
Time for some thrilling heroics. -- Jayne, "The Train Job" When I look at the Dalaran landing pad, I see fewer red proto-drakes than I should be. This pains me, dear readers. The 5-man heroic achievements are a lot of fun, if admittedly time consuming, and they force you to think on your feet and wring the most out of your character's abilities. Plus - it's a proto-drake. If you didn't get a 10-man or 25-man drake before 3.1 hit, you're out of luck there. Odds are good that you're still waiting for a green one to hatch out of the worthless egg that snake-oil salesman from the Oracles sells you, some jerk is camping the Time-Lost spawn 24/7, and the worst DPS in your Pinnacle PuG was the guy who won the blue drake off of Skadi, right right?A lot of the WoW population has been at 80 for a while now and has some quality gear under their belts, much of it obtainable without setting foot in a raid. You should be able to pull off all of the 5-man heroic achievements in decent blues with a good group. I highly recommend trying to run with a stable set of players and -- if at all possible -- at least one Shaman. This is more true if your group is still gearing up and needs the damage boost provided by Bloodlust/Heroism.I thought initially about organizing these from the easiest to the hardest, but I think it's ultimately less confusing to list them dungeon by dungeon. We'll address each dungeon alphabetically, so let's get started with Ahn'kahet:
Wii keeps prisoners alive
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/nintendo/UK_child_murderer_spends_his_days_on_Wii_with_prison_staff'; 34-year-old Ian Huntley, who was convicted of the murders of two young girls in England, is apparently spending his evenings doing something you probably do as well -- he's playing Wii. In an effort to keep Huntley alive (he's attempted suicide multiple times), The People reports that Huntley has a Wii, as well as other luxuries, in his cell to keep him happy. Huntley had a GameCube, but complained that Nintendo's last console was out of date, and asked for months for a Wii. He even gets to enjoy a little multiplayer -- prison guards have been ordered to play along. As we figure visits to the ol' exercise yard are out, since Huntley's been attacked by other inmates before -- we can't help but wonder if he won't start pestering them for Wii Fit next.
Hey Apple: about those iTunes Rentals...
This is the kind of stupid I am: I go to the iTunes store and when movies sound really good, I don't want to rent them -- because what will happen if I like them and then decide to buy? I mean, we rented Wii "Cooking Mamma" from Blockbuster and then my kids fell in love with the game so I ended up buying it, paying a $6 premium for trying it first. The iTunes store has the same dilemma. Hey Apple, you really ought to give an option of "Liked it? Buy it!" for $2 off or so after renting. So am I unique in my irrationality here? Do good movie reviews make you hesitate to rent? Would an iTunes rent-to-own option help push you over the edge into renting? Speak up in the comments.
The Great WoW Insider Stormwind Stampede
This was the scene last night on the Horde side of Zangarmarsh, as WoW Insider's It Came from the Blog made bovine history and ran roughly 500 cows from Mulgore to Stormwind. Amidst shouts of "For the Herd!" and "Moooo," hundreds of level one Taurens appeared in Camp Narache -- blue shirts were premade by our own Krystalle and given out to the guildies that showed up, but first we ran out of shirts, and then we ran out of guild invites as we hit the system limit. Last I heard we had eight raid groups going, we had taken over one Ventrilo server, tons of guilds from both Zangarmarsh and other realms (including those down for maintenance) got involved, and at least a few thousand yells went out across the land. Finally, at 8pm server, Krystalle counted us down and the race began.We stuck to the road for a good thirty seconds, but eventually got split up in the Barrens-- we'd planned to all go on the Zep, but another group (including me), split off to take the boat from Ratchet. In Stranglethorn, many burgers were made-- I stuck to the center of the group and watched cows get downed by tigers left and right. I didn't die until Westfall, when stupid human guards on the road decided to one-shot me.Finally, at Stormwind, the scene was chaos-- cows dead everywhere, as stepping inside an Alliance city, even on a PvE server, flags you. People were AoEing on the Stormwind bridge, and even just inside the city, guards were felling cows left and right. A few people made it to the tram (unfortunately, the closest graveyard useable by Horde is all the way at the Eastvale Logging Camp, so it was a long run back), but we heard that the first person to find our Alliance plant, Insiderspy, and blow her a kiss, was Fiverr, our winner. Fiverr gets exactly what everyone else got, though-- a great time. Here's a gallery of what happened (updated as we add more and more photos to it), and we'll put more videos after the break as we find and hear about them. Thanks to everyone who came out! For the Herd!*edited to add* Another video is available after the jump!%Gallery-5943%
Flash game offers doorway into madness
The above is not a screenshot. It's a portal into insanity. Seriously, we're not even sure that you want to click it, lest you lose your already tenuous grip on reality; for that is the price of Game, Game, Game and Again Game, the weirdest thing that's ever happened to us. We know that sounds like hyperbole, but we don't know what else to call a "game" that forces you to collect hand-drawn syringes, represents your score with spinning arrows and punishes you for dying by replacing your "character" with the words "Not Alive" as a disembodied voice chants "C'mon and meet your maker." Also, one of the game's alternate titles is belief systems are small clumsy rolling-type creatures. So ... yeah, it's a singular experience to say the least, but if you can get past the weirdness you'll see the game mocking video game conventions and the very nature of man ... simultaneously. Designer Jason Nelson is either the next Miyamoto or the next Ted Kaczynski. The jury's still out.[Thanks, Jackson F.]
Japanese hardware charts: August 7th - August 13th
The longer we throw unchanging Japanese hardware sales numbers at you, the harder we have to try to make them seem as entertaining as they once were. Our dear Ludwig kind of went off the deep end over in sister-blog Joystiq...God rest his sanity. So what can we do to make these numbers seem...well...exciting? Let's take a look: - DS Lite: 196,719 33,147 (20.26%) - PSP: 41,289 8,063 (16.34%) - PS2: 26,547 560 (2.15%) - GBA SP: 3,051 267 (9.59%) - Game Boy Micro: 2,031 103 (5.34%) - Xbox 360: 1,204 185 (13.32%) - Gamecube: 940 36 (3.98%) - DS Phat: 934 225 (19.41%) - GBA: 23 11 (32.35%) - Xbox: 6 8 (57.14%) Here, we can see the two armies of the arrow-people, evenly matched and fighting bravely. The PSP, allied with the red, has snuck bravely into enemy territory...yet the fearsome DS Lite rests between it and freedom. The battle rages on...who will prevail? What dastardly traitor will switch sides in seven days time? Are we way too hopped up on coffee and cough medicine for our own good? Hmmm... [Source: Media Create]
