dark side of the moon
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China’s rover finds mysterious minerals on the far side of the moon
Early this year, China's Chang'e-4 lunar lander made history when it became the first spacecraft to touch down on the far side of the moon. Now, according to a study published in Nature, the lander's rover, Yutu-2, may have detected the first signs of lunar mantle material. If the minerals it found prove to be part of the moon's mantle, the discovery could help scientists better understand how both the moon and the Earth formed.
Champions Online brings back the Bloodmoon event and prepares for space gladiators
Players of Champions Online, rejoice! The Bloodmoon has risen once again, and dark and dire perils threaten Millennium City. From this Thursday at 3:01 p.m. EDT until Tuesday at 2:59 a.m. EDT, you'll be able to hop into the action and bathe in the blood of your ghoulish enemies. Do ghouls have blood? We'll assume so. Did you know that there are aliens hiding on the dark side of the moon? Of course you did! But here's the thing: There are also aliens hiding on the dark side of the moon in Champions Online. They've been kidnapping heroes from earth to fight in their lunar gladiatorial arena. Soon, the Forum Malvanum custom alert will be open to any Earthling brave enough to step up to the challenge. Skip below the cut to catch a bit of history on what the Bloodmoon is all about.
NASA films dark side of the moon, finds no evidence of Brain Damage (video)
Take a moment to Breathe, because this one's kind of heady. NASA has just published a new video of the Dark Side of the Moon and, contrary to popular belief, it's not really all that dark. (We'd probably describe it as a subdued gray, if we had to, but feel free to go with Any Colour You Like.) Compiled into a 30-second video clip, this footage provides a cursory glimpse of the moon's hind parts (its "B-Side," if you will), panning over the rock from north to south, in all its crater-y glory. It's all part of an initiative from NASA's Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL), which presumably spent a lot of Time and Money to build its twin spacecraft, nicknamed Ebb and Flow. On January 19th, the lab sent the pair up to that Great Gig in the Sky, as part of the GRAIL MoonKAM mission -- a "progressive" educational outreach program geared toward middle school students. Ebb was charged with filmic duties, and did a remarkable job of shooting On the Run with its MoonKAM camera, returning high res footage to NASA's engineers, and giving both Us and Them something to think about during the next lunar Eclipse. See the video (along with its eerily sync-able counterpart) after the break, and if you've got any questions about it, please don't hesitate to Speak to Me.
The Daily Grind: Would you play a game with no economy?
In the bullet-point list of most every MMO on the market, a "functioning in-game economy" comes as a standard feature, much like AM/FM radio and power steering, er, I mean like PvP and spacebar-as-jump-button. Being able to buy and sell goods and the occasional service between players adds a layer of depth and strategy to the game world that -- for once -- isn't solely about killing something. A few select players even eschew the rest of the game to focus on playing the auction house or crafting goods to sell. Unfortunately, like the Force and the moon, in-game economies always come with a dark side. Economies are tricky to balance, and the longer a game runs, the higher the risk for it to spiral out of control due to mudflation. Late-comers to the game often find themselves at an economic disadvantage in comparison to extremely wealthy veterans. Economies also need the support of a lot of desirable things to sell and a useful interface through which to do it (such as an auction house), creating a lot of work for the dev team. And, of course, with any economy comes the headache of gold farming and selling. Out of curiosity, would you play a game with no real economy? Some games such as Free Realms and Guild Wars de-emphasize their economies greatly in favor of other parts of the game. Do you find MMO economies to be more of a bother than a blessing? If a fun game came out that lacked this "essential" feature, would it be a deal-breaker?
Fable 3 'almost at its final edit' stage, says Molyneux
The head of MGS Europe assuredly has a few more things on his plate than the third game in a franchise he helped create, but in a recent feature on Peter Molyneux at Develop, the British creator calmly pronounced the game to be nearing its "final edit" stage of production. Whether he means "ready for submission to Microsoft" or "we haven't started polishing it yet" (or, heck, anywhere in between) remains unclear, though we'd certainly like to get our hands on the final product sooner rather than later. Additionally, Molyneux triple dips on his love for Valve, proclaiming Half-Life 2 as his "favourite" game ever (you crazy Brits!) as well as the game he would most like to have worked on, and also notes the developer as the one he most admires (get a room, you two!). And hey, if you've been hankering to know his "favourite" album, it's Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon." (Yep, we were kind of disappointed too.)
