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Elon Musk painted as 'thin-skinned billionaire' in court documents
The fallout from Elon Musk's ill-advised "pedo guy" comments -- made last year about British cave rescuer Vernon Unsworth -- is not going away. In new court documents, Unsworth didn't hold back when it came to his opinion of the South African tech billionaire, accusing him of orchestrating "a malicious, false and anonymous leak campaign in the UK and Australian press."
Elon Musk will go to court over 'pedo guy' comments
Elon Musk hasn't had success avoiding a trial over his accusations that cave rescue diver Vernon Unsworth was a "pedo guy." Judge Stephen Wilson has determined that the defamation lawsuit is strong enough to go to trial, with the court battle due to start on October 22nd. While Musk's attorneys argued that he was just stating his "opinion," the judge pointed to emails Musk sent to BuzzFeed where he made detailed (and unsupported) claims that Unsworth had a child bride. In the context, the judge said, an observer would likely conclude that Musk was making "assertions of objective fact" rather than sharing his thoughts.
Elon Musk apologizes for calling cave diver a 'pedo guy'
SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has apologized to a British cave diver for calling him a "pedo guy" in a Twitter rant over the rescue of children trapped in a cave in Thailand. "My words were spoken in anger after Mr. Unsworth said several untruths and suggested I engage in a sexual act with a mini-sub," he tweeted this morning. "Nonetheless, his actions against me do not justify my actions against him, and for that I apologize to Mr. Unsworth and to the companies I represent as leader. The fault is mine and mine alone."
Elon Musk's mini-sub was 'not practical' for Thailand cave rescue
The Thai cave rescue is over, with all 12 boys and their coach safely above ground. Elon Musk's miniature submarine clearly arrived too late. However, it's now clear that it wouldn't have seen use regardless. In the last few hours of the operation, joint command center lead Narongsak Ostanakorn told Musk that his tech was "good and sophisticated," but that it was "not practical" for the rescue. While officials haven't provided detailed reasoning, a look at the logistics of the rescue might explain why.
Elon Musk's Thailand cave rescue would use a 'kid-size' submarine
Elon Musk is quickly solidifying his offer to help rescue a boys' soccer team trapped in a Thailand cave, and in just the way you would expect from a technology entrepreneur. He has revealed that the "primary path" for his attempt will involve a "kid-size submarine" that uses the liquid oxygen transfer tube of a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket as its hull. He added that it be "extremely robust" and would support many as four air tanks, with four handles that could be used as hitching points for ropes and cables.
Elon Musk is sending teams to assist with the Thailand cave rescue
Elon Musk has offered assistance in the rescue of the boys' soccer team trapped in a cave in Thailand. Engineers from SpaceX and The Boring Company will travel to the country on Saturday to help with what is becoming an increasingly perilous rescue effort. As CNN reports, conditions are becoming life-threatening, with a former navy diver involved in the operation losing his life after a sudden drop in oxygen levels underground.
Rejoice: Loot Cave 2.0 surfaces in Destiny
Decided to blow up our Loot Cave, Bungie? Our precious, treasure-dumping respawn point in Destiny? Fine then, we'll find another one. In fact, PS4 Trophies did just that in a new video, detailing a new legendary farm point in the game's rocket yard area. Get it while it's hot, people!
Bungie closes Destiny's 'Loot Cave,' discusses future fixes
Well that was fun while it lasted. The infamous "Loot Cave" that allowed Destiny players to collectively shoot into the darkness and reap massive rewards has been fixed by Bungie. "The Hive of the holy 'Treasure Cave' have realized the futility of their endless assault on Skywatch and have retired to lick their wounds and plan their next attack," the developer wrote in its latest update notes. Bungie also issued notes on some of Destiny's other issues that it plans to address in the future, in which it said that "shooting at a black hole for hours on end isn't our dream for how Destiny is played." Aside from addressing the Loot Cave exploit, Bungie will "increase engram drops from completing activities" and allow players to opt-in to voice chat during online matchmaking sessions. The developer also plans to increase damage dealt by players and reduce the impact from bosses during Strike missions as well as issue a number of balance changes to impact the effectiveness of weapons at different ranges. [Image: Activision]
Destiny has a cave-shaped loot exploit
Remember how Bungie wanted each piece of loot in Destiny to have a "badass story" attached to it so badly that it scrapped player-to-player trades? A new exploit documented by Force Strategy Gaming (video posted below the break) flies in the face of such hopes, as the trick lets Guardians mow down continuously-spawning waves of enemies to amass a pile of loot for everyone in the vicinity. The exploit involves a cave found on Old Russia, which Acolytes and Thralls spawn and rush forward from in waves. In order for the trick to work, players need to stand back far enough to allow spawns to keep happening, while ensuring that a lone enemy doesn't escape and go hide behind cover, therefore hindering future spawns. For a sense of what to expect, Force Strategy Gaming claims that 15 minutes worth of shooting rewarded them with stacks of green Engrams, as well as a few blue and legendary-tier pieces. The same area occasionally plays host to a public event however, so bringing backup would be wise. [Image: Force Strategy Gaming]
Landmark video goes spelunking in caves
Caves are boring, right? WRONG! Well, wrong if you're in Landmark, at least. Caves are a relatively new and unfinished feature to the game, and in a new video, the developers attempt to explain what makes them an exciting part of the exploration process. Landmark's caves are layered on top of each other, with each cave system corresponding to the surface biome. Right now, players can delve into only the first tier of caves, but in the future they'll be able to go as far as three tiers down in the search for treasure and crafting mats. You can watch the full developer video after the jump!
Japanese shoot-'em-up developer Cave ceasing Western presence
Deathsmiles and DoDonPachi series creator Cave Interactive is shutting down its Western-facing public presence, ending its long-running English-language blog and closing up shop on Twitter. After marketing its games exclusively in Japan for many years, Cave made great strides toward establishing a presence in the West with iOS ports of its popular bullet hell shoot-'em-ups DoDonPachi Resurrection, Espgaluda 2, and Bug Princess. This week's announcement follows the recent departure of studio head of development Makoto Asada as the company restructured its business to focus on mobile and social games. Cave ported many of its arcade shoot-'em-ups to the Xbox 360 in Japan, and partnered with North American publishers to produce localizations for games like Akai Katana and Deathsmiles. The studio previously self-published an untranslated version of Deathsmiles 2X in North America via the Xbox 360's Games on Demand service in a bid to gain a foothold in the Western market.
Former Cave head Asada working on Xbox One game at Mages
Makoto Asada is developing an unannounced Xbox One game at Mages/5pb, having left his job as head of shoot-em-up specialist Cave to work on the next-gen project. Asada moved on from Cave back in June after five years at the studio, having helped produce Guwange, EspGaluda 2, Akai Katana, and Deathsmiles among plenty of other games. Details on Asada's Xbox One game are sparse, but Dengeki Online (via Gematsu) does report it'll be packaged, and that more info should be forthcoming shortly. Mages also announced it's publishing Constant C, a 2D action-puzzle game that was one of the 100 recently Greenlighted on Steam. Mages is bringing Constant C to Xbox 360 as a downloadable game in early 2014, although it's unclear if that'll be limited to Japan or not.
Cave dev head Makoto Asada leaves to work on next-gen projects
Cave Interactive, revered house of bullet-hell shmups with funny names, has lost its head of development today. Makoto Asada announced his departure in a blog post, where he thanked fans for supporting his five-year tenure with the company and revealed he's moving on to next-gen console projects. Asada's most recent contributions were on Dodonpachi Maximum, a Windows Phone installment in Cave's popular series. Asada also worked on Deathsmiles, EspGaluda 2, Guwange and pretty much every other shmup the company put on Xbox 360.
DoDonPachi Maximum hits iOS Oct. 26 with iPhone 5 compatibility
Cave's previously Windows Mobile-exclusive bullet-hell shmup DoDonPachi Maximum is headed to an iDevice near you this Monday, October 29, according to Siliconera. The game, which includes ships from DoDonPachi: Blissful Death and DoDonPachi: Resurrection, requires an iThing no older than an iPhone 4 or an iPad 2, though that does translate to iPhone 5 screen resolution compatibility. The universal app will cost $6.99 at launch, and then jump up to $11.99.DoDonPachi games (and bullet-hell shooters in general) are a much bigger thing in Japan than they are here, generally speaking, and that may have to do with the Japanese arcade vibe. So to get the most out of your iOS purchase here's how to get that authentic Japanese arcade bullet-hell-playing experience at home: Lock yourself in the smallest closet you have, fill it with smoke, and then hire someone to be better than you at every game you own.
Saidaioujou, Cave's latest shmup, to hit Japanese Xbox 360s next year
Cave's newest arcade shoot-em-up, DoDonPachi Saidaioujou, is coming to Japanese Xbox 360s next spring, the company announced today. Saidaioujou hit the country's arcades back in April. The shmup specialists only just released 2011's Akai Katana on Western shores, so it may be a while before Saidaiojou's brand of vertical bullet-hell reaches us. In the meantime, we can look ahead to the game's dress-up shtick. Your ship's abilities and the game's difficulty depend on which outfit you choose for your supporting "elemental doll." Naturally, the skimpy bikini results in the hardest difficulty – though all the outfits look pretty skimpy, as you can see in the arcade game's trailer above. In addition to HD visuals, a new easy mode, and a 360-specific mode, the console port will receive a new elemental doll. Presumably with new outfits. Presumably skimpy.
Cave Vita games reportedly canceled as COO resigns
Mikio Watanabe, Cave's executive vice president and COO, is leaving the company as of May 31 for personal reasons, according to a press release issued by the company today. Watanabe will continue as representative director until the next shareholder meeting in August. Following his departure, CEO Ito Masahito will become the only remaining representative director.At the same time, the latest Famitsu magazine (reported by Andriasang) lists two Vita games by the publisher as canceled. One of the games is a Vita release of its casual/social castle building game Shirotsuku; the other is an unspecified shooter.If you're feeling worried about the seemingly vulnerable company, now might be a good time to remind you that Akai Katana Shin, the company's latest Xbox 360 shooter, is out in North America this week.
Two hearts collide in Bug Princess 2 for iOS next week
Cave's iPhone ports are always of a high quality, to the point that it's kind of unsettling to see so much craziness happening on your phone's little screen. They're also populous -- and to that point, here's news of another one.Cave will release a port of the 2006 arcade sequel Mushihimesama Futari to the App Store on April 5. In keeping with its no-nonsense (or no crazy Japanese titles, which is equivalent to nonsense for many of us) iOS naming policy, it's called "Bug Princess 2." Easy!The game will be available for a promotional price of $4.99 for 4 days; it'll be $6.99 after that.
Akai Katana trailer is a whirlwind of introduction
This trailer for Akai Katana goes by pretty quickly and can be intensely confusing, so consider it practice for the real game.This crazy shooter from Cave is coming to Xbox 360 in Europe and North America thanks to Rising Star Games, who has been publishing niche Japanese stuff in PAL territories forever, and is only just starting up in America. Rising Star promises more details about the American version (currently set for Q2) soon, giving you more time to figure out what's happening in the video.
Dodonpachi Resurrection re-resurrected in HD for iPhone
It's getting difficult to keep up with all the Dodonpachi variations on the App Store. We were confused when we read the latest press release from developer Cave -- we thought Dodonpachi Resurrection was already available on iPhone.It is! The game coming March 15 is Dodonpachi Resurrection HD, which updates the resolution of the iPhone release for iPhone 4 or newer devices. To celebrate the release, it'll be on sale for four days, for $10.99 (vs. its regular $13.99 price). Espgaluda II HD, a previous refresh of an iOS shooter, will be the same price.Does that still sound expensive? You can read about the reasoning behind Cave's pricing here.%Gallery-150489%
Cave's Watanabe on the benefits of premium app pricing
Conventional wisdom says that expensive iOS and Android games don't sell, but in a speech at GDC, Mikio Watanabe, COO of shmup developer Cave, frankly stated the exact opposite. In a presentation entitled "Japanese Retro and Social Games on Smartphones," Watanabe gave advice to developers looking to port their companies' legacy IPs to the rapidly blossoming smartphone and tablet markets.His advice? For starters, keep the games running at a good clip instead of focusing too much on graphical clarity. "When games are running quickly, the human eye misses tiny imperfections in the visuals," he noted, encouraging developers to try to shoot for an average of 50 FPS or better. To increase the profitability, he encouraged developers to include unique and interesting DLC to spur in-app purchases.
