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Hearthstone: Goblins vs. Gnomes cards and mechanics
Hearthstone announcing its expansion, Goblins vs. Gnomes, is no surprise. The fact that it releases in one month is a surprise. At BlizzCon this afternoon, Hearthstone Game Director Eric Dodds discussed some of the expansion's new gameplay developments in their Fireside Chat. You can see all of the newly revealed cards in our gallery embedded at the end of this post or follow along to learn about the new Mech minions, Piloted Mechs, Spare Parts, and new class cards. Mechs Goblins vs. Gnomes introduces a new minion type: Mechs. Not only are many of the new minions Mechs, but a number of old minions will be placed in this new category, too. The Harvest Golem was offered as an example along with the Alarm-o-Bot and Mechanical Dragonlings. There are enough new Mechs included in the expansion that you could, if you wanted to, build a full Mech Deck.
XBLA in Brief: Spare Parts
It's another one-game week for Xbox Live Arcade. This week's title: Spare Parts, a light-hearted action platformer from EA Bright Light. All the usual suspects are here: power-ups, baddies, robots and coins, lots and lots of coins. It also features the voice talents of Simon Pegg, from the much less kid-friendly Shaun of the Dead. Watch the latest XBLA in Brief and see if Spare Parts brings a spark to any of your circuits. [iTunes] Subscribe to XBLA in Brief directly in iTunes. [Zune] Subscribe to the XBLA in Brief directly. [RSS] Add the XBLA in Brief feed to your RSS aggregator and have the show delivered automatically. [M4V] Download the M4V directly.
European PSN releases for January 19
Today's European PSN update is not only chock-full of delicious, standalone offerings, including EA Bright Lights' Spare Parts and the winter-themed Costume Quest on Ice -- but it also has additions for yesterday's big PS3 releases. Need a new costume for your stitched protagonist in LittleBigPlanet 2? Well, hey, here's a free space suit. Need a buttload of new future-guns for your moderately-sized militia in Mass Effect 2? Well, they've got that too. Choose your platform to view the corresponding release list: (Note: Continue past the break to view both release lists.)
PSN Tuesday: Mass Effect 2, Spare Parts, Mega Man
*BOOM* Our top game of 2010 hits PSN. Mass Effect 2 is available now to download through the digital distribution network, but don't expect to be playing it right away. The title is 12 gigglebytes, which means if you start downloading now, you'll be lucky to finish before the Honolulu sunset. Thankfully, the game is also available at your local retailer in disc form. If you're feeling particularly old school, the original Mega Man is also available. There's also the Simon Pegg-voiced game Spare Parts. Check out the full PSN update after the break. Choose your platform to view the corresponding release list: (Note: Continue past the break to view both release lists.)
Find some Spare Parts on XBLA, PSN this week
EA Bright Light's Spare Parts is coming out this week on XBLA and PSN for $9.99 (800 Microsoft Points). In this online co-op platformer, two robots are stranded on an alien planet, forced to collect junk to repair their ship and go back home. With its cartoony style and its focus on wacky alien technology, it's reminiscent of the Ratchet & Clank franchise. As explained in this dev diary (after the break), you'll need a friend to discover all the secrets and unlock all the Achievements in Spare Parts. You'll also get access a number of special tag-team bonuses, like a synchronized high-five that refills your health. If you aren't entirely sold on the concept, a co-op enabled demo will also be available this week.
Simon Pegg talks robots and cooperation in Spare Parts vidoc
Shaun of the Spaced Fuzz Trek star Simon Pegg recently took a moment to talk up EA Bright Light's upcoming project (for which he's doing some vocal work), Spare Parts. Check out his thoughts on gaming, robotics and the true meaning of friendship in the video below.
Samsung Galaxy Tab can be made to run all apps in full screen, here's how (video)
You might have noticed in our Galaxy Tab review that a number of pretty significant Android apps failed to scale to fully utilize its real estate, leaving an unpleasant black border surrounding their content. Well, you can now take that issue off your list of cons for this otherwise delectable tablet as our buddy JKK has figured out a way to overcome the scaling problemo. Using Spare Parts, a free app available in the Android Market, and a couple of reboots, he was able to convince the Engadget app to run in full screen on the Tab. He's right in guessing that we'd be happy about that, though we imagine owners of Samsung's slate will be the ones with the biggest grins on their faces right now. See the how-to video after the break. [Thanks, Mani]
Simon Pegg provides voice acting for Spare Parts
Spare Parts, EA Bright Light's XBLA/PSN platformer about lovable robots, has a bit of star power in addition to its known cuteness power. Shaun of the Dead and Star Trek actor Simon Pegg has joined the cast as "Con-rad," a computer who guides Mar-T and Chip on their search for spaceship parts. In fact, he may be the cast, since he's the only announced talent. This means that Pegg now has the distinction of playing both Montgomery "Hello, computer" Scott and a talking computer. That has to be important somehow, right?
Bright Light teases unannounced XBLA/PSN game from Spare Parts team, explains internal dev culture
Bright Light, EA's Guildford-based (UK) studio, is hard at work on at least four titles: Create, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Episode 1, Spare Parts and a fourth, "secret [downloadable] project." At an EA press event last week, we spoke with Bright Light senior international PR manager Deborah Coster, who teased the "secret project" and explained the studio's dedication to fostering creativity and its at least partial focus on smaller, polished titles. "The team's actually been doing the equivalent of 'iron man development,' so they're making two games," Coster told Joystiq. "And they've been making a secret game, which we haven't announced yet, but they've been making it at the same time as Spare Parts. So they've been basically doing week one: Spare Parts; week two: secret game; week three: Spare Parts; week four: secret game -- literally back-to-back." Coster confirmed our suspicion that the Spare Parts/secret project team is focusing solely on digitally distributed titles. "Yeah, this is a group that's been looking at 'What can we do digitally? We don't really wanna be making packaged goods, so what can we do?' And XBLA and PSN: the numbers are getting bigger and bigger and bigger," Coster reasoned.
Spare a moment to check out some Spare Parts media from TGS
Spare Parts has charmed us through cunning use of "cute robots." We were raised to fear metallic beings -- mostly thanks to Terminator -- but seeing them cute it up yet again in this TGS trailer, it gives us hope that we'll be allies in the future. It should come in handy once the zombies rise.
Spare Parts trailer has an acute case of cute robots
As the first screens implied, the first trailer for Spare Parts confirms that its co-op protagonists (cotagonists?), Mar-T and Chip, are entirely adorable. Apart from this confirmation, the trailer also shows off some of the cooperative gameplay, which amounts to baddie smashing and platforming.
First Spare Parts screens have charm to spare
The first screenshots from EA Bright Light's co-op action-platformer Spare Parts have been revealed, showing us exactly what kind of robots we're going to be dealing with, here. We're pleased to report that the game's pair of upgradable protagonists, Mar-T and Chip, fall into the Asimo category in terms of adorability, with paneled, Wall-E-esque eyes and bright color palettes, reminiscent of the old Transformers. As far as robot source material goes, it's hard to get much better than those three.%Gallery-94980%
EA's 'Spare Parts' to be assembled on XBLA, PSN
EA's Bright Light is working on the next Harry Potter game, but the studio evidently has got something else in the pipeline as well: Spare Parts. It's a downloadable title for XBLA and PSN about robots working together to rebuild their spaceship, according to EA's E3 lineup announcement. In this cooperative "online action adventure," robots Mar-T and Chip collect "upgradable action parts" to enhance their abilities, according to the official description, so they can survive long enough to find the necessary parts to repair their ship before Lord Krung and his Super Huge Mega Laser destroy them. Along the way, they hope to rescue other robots. Spare Parts kind of sounds like a robotic Metroidvania crossed with Toe Jam & Earl, based on EA's description. We'll learn more during E3!
Spare parts for iPhone next-gen show up in Hong Kong
Even though the new iPhone is still hypothetical, imaginary phones need spare parts too. German site iphone-ticker.de reports that one of their readers contacted Hong Kong firm China Ontrade seeking replacement items for his iPhone 3G, and much to his surprise they told him "This is great honor for China Ontrade (HK) chinaontrade.com to be the 1st started to supply iphone 3gen 2009 parts directly from factory." Indeed, the photos sent along with the offer of parts for a yet-unannounced phone seem to show a black front bezel instead of chrome, a tapered bottom of the case (vs. the rounded end of the current model) and a revised headphone jack. We'll keep an eye out for more photos of bits of the iPhone-in-waiting and pass them along when they appear. Thanks to Ben and Nicholas for sending this in, and Heidi for translation assistance.
New fabrication technique promises "human spare parts" on the cheap
Despite appearances to the contrary, there are in fact technologies other than inkjet printers that are being put to use to create or repair various human body parts, as evidenced by this latest bit of kit developed by Finland's VTT Technical Research Centre. Apparently, the contraption you see above makes use of a visible light, ultra short pulse laser to get the job done, which has the benefit of being considerably cheaper than other similar systems that rely on pricey "femtosecond titanium-sapphire pulse lasers." Despite that relative cheapness, the setup can pump out biomaterial structures as small as 700 nanometers, which can then be applied to tissue engineering scaffolds. According to the team behind it, the technology's already in the process of being commercialized, although we're guessing that it's still a ways off from coming in a home version.[Via Gizmag]
