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Play a free, futuristic 'Cops and Robbers' on your Xbox One
Rumors are swirling that we could see more of the new Crackdown in just over a week's time at E3, but until Microsoft's media briefing you'll just have to make due with All Points Bulletin: Reloaded. The free-to-play online game of futuristic cops and robbers recently launched on Xbox One after a lengthy delay, and if you log in within the first month (or before its initial patch, whichever comes first), there are a few bonuses for you. In addition to weapon skins and a placard for your avatar if you play for 10 hours, there's a special weapon (the Fireworks Flare Launcher) and vehicle (Mikro JC14 "New-Cross") in store for everyone, regardless of play-time.
The Micro is a $200 3D printer that can make a teacup in an hour
There are more than a couple of reasons why 3D printing hasn't truly hit critical mass, and the team at M3D thinks it's sidestepped them with The Micro, its $200 - $300 3D printer. The Micro is hitting Kickstarter today with the sole intention of becoming the first consumer 3D printer that's at once accessible, affordable and easy on the eyes. "The dream here is definitely that you take something and install it as fast as the fastest plug-and-play device that you've ever seen and you're focused on the end result," Michael Armani, M3D's CEO tells us. "You take the design, put it in the printer, it prints as quickly as possible. The focus here isn't on the 3D printing process ... [it's] on 'yeah, I want to make a mold for chocolates.' It went to the fun part so you can enjoy it as much as possible."
CES 2013: Shazam adds TV (and TV ads) to its music finding service
Shazam's Executive Vice President of Marketing, David Jones, kindly found some time to meet up with me during CES 2013 today, and we chatted about what the company has been up to lately. You probably remember Shazam from their very early days on the iPhone as a music-finding app (you can use the app to "listen" to any music you hear, and it will tell you the artist and title of the song), but in the past few years the company has grown to be a lot more than that. Specifically, instead of just finding music, Jones says the big push for the company lately is in recognizing television shows and television ads. The company's two biggest news stories out of CES have nothing to do with iOS: The Shazam app is going to come pre-installed on a series of Android phones, and the service is also joining the QNX car audio architecture. But both of those new developments are really signals that Shazam has grown way beyond its now humble iOS roots. The app can now be used to identify any television broadcast, and the company has joined up with over 200 brands, and more all the time, to try and make every TV ad "Shazam-able" as well. Jones said that Shazam not only fingerprints every broadcast, but even the specific time of every broadcast, so the company can know exactly when and where you set the app to listen in. "We can make TV ads, for the first time ever, interactive," Jones told me. Shazam's monetization strategy is a patchwork quilt of different deals and techniques: Generally, the company will make content "Shazamable" for free, but will then ask the broadcaster to somehow mention (either via a quick explanation or just a logo on the bottom of the screen) that Shazam is enabled. As a result, says Jones, Shazam has picked up about 10 billion impressions from TV in the last year, which not only drives users back to the iOS app, but also just raises awareness among users that they can "Shazam" shows and ads. Shazam also deals in sponsorships and advertising, and will sometimes make money off of referral links directly into iTunes or other marketplaces. As Shazam has opened up into tracking more and more content, the company's technology has gotten better as well. Right around this time last year, the company started doing "live ingestion" which means that as soon as something was broadcast, it could be identified by the app. And better search and find algorithms mean that identifying a broadcast is faster than ever. When Shazam actually finds your program, it provides you with a list of options and content related to it. For TV shows, it can pull up cast information, or, Jones says, a very popular option that lists music heard in the show. Sportscasts are one of the most Shazam-ed forms of content, and when those shows are brought up, Shazam can show sports scores around the league, and can even time them out to the exact point in the broadcast that Shazam was listening in (if a user happened to be watching a game on DVR, for example, and didn't want the results of other games spoiled). Live music shows are another popular choice for Shazamed content, and awards shows are big as well: Jones expects a lot of traffic for the upcoming Golden Globes show. Of course the Super Bowl is a big win for Shazam, and Jones says we can expect the app to show up in the worldwide broadcast at some point (though he said details on exactly what that will entail are still being kept secret for now). Jones says there's still plenty of room to grow for Shazam. The company has done all of this pushing on TV and ads even while keeping its music-finding business going (and growing), so that part of the app is still very important. 2013, said Jones, will likely be dedicated to continuing to grow the TV ads business, but there are plenty of other places for Shazam to go, including radio, and even inside retail stores (so you could hold a phone up in a retail store, and automatically get information about not only the music playing, but any current sales or promotions on what you're shopping for). Shazam started out early on the iPhone with its music history, but there's a lot more left for this company to do.
First Look: Sudoku Real Edition
According to its developers David Jones and Amy Burton, Sudoku Real Edition offers a game play experience that aims to be "as real as possible, almost as if you bought a Sudoku book and sat down at a table to play." As this sneak peek video shows, that goal is not too far off the mark. Priced at $2.99, this new iPad app was built using real world graphics that were digitized for game play. If you're into Sudoku, you'll probably be impressed by this application's beautifully designed interfaces. It's nice to see how thoroughly the developers created a custom iPad experience. One discordant note is that they used standard Apple switches (ON-OFF buttons) in their Settings dialog instead of creating a custom choice control that better matched their other UI elements. Also, it's not clear whether you'll be able to use full screen play in addition to the tabletop presentation in the video; it seems like a natural transition for landscape to change into a full screen portrait view. That having been said, it looks lovely. I particularly liked their sliding bookmark element, that keeps track of an on-going game. All in all, it looks like a beautiful game and a worthy member of the new iPad App Store community.
Real Time Worlds has MS raise total Achievement limit
When David Jones of Real Time Worlds was looking at the ideas for Achievements for Crackdown, they had at around 200 or so to choose from. Jones said he wanted to just reward gamers for doing what they do best, having fun. When Microsoft told them they were allowing a total of 50, David felt that would cripple the whole concept of how they were going to approach the game's Achievements. So, when Microsoft recently altered their policy on Gamerscore, they also moved the total Achievements to 80 at Real Time Worlds' request. This gave Crackdown some breathing room with the upcoming 100 and potential 250 Gamerscore add-ons. Hopefully with proper feedback, their new content will be as fun and fulfilling as the current list. What Achievements would you want to see on top of the current set in Crackdown?
Crackdown glitches already found
The Crackdown demo has only been available since yesterday, and glitches are already popping up. Posted on the Flickr account of im_the_real_scooby are several images of glitchified Crackdown in action. It looks as though he managed to fall through the map and look at its undersides from the ocean below. We can't help but think of Saints Row (and its fabulous musical). With any game of this scale, glitches are bound to be discovered, but we never expected them to be found so quickly. Considering that Crackdown is already gold, it looks like the glitches are here to stay, too. Hit the "read" link to see more images.
Crackdown demo assaults Xbox Live
The day has finally arrived. Today is the day that all of us can finally try out that free game that comes with the Halo 3 beta. We keed, we keed. We're actually genuinely excited about Crackdown and even woke up early to get the demo downloaded. We'll be playing it as much as possible and updating you with our impressions later today. The demo is over 1 gig so you'll want to get started with the download as soon as you can. Anyone manage to play this already? What do you think?
Crackdown goes gold, demo not so much
Microsoft announced today that Crackdown, the much anticipated sandbox action game (and golden ticket to the Halo 3 beta) has gone gold. In other words, Crackdown has been certified and is ready for production. Microsoft notes that interest in the game is high, citing the game's significant number of pre-orders. While we don't doubt that the game will be a lot of fun, we imagine the high number of pre-orders has something to do with the Halo 3 beta invite. Maybe just a little. Still we're excited to get our hands on the demo, which 360 Fanboy readers will know is not certified yet, and should arrive some time this month. Crackdown is scheduled to hit shelves February 20.Full press release after the break.
Crackdown achievements: 100 points missing
The achievements for Crackdown have been revealed by Achieve360Points.com. There are currently 43 achievements totaling 900 points -- falling 100 short of the standard 1000. It is assumed that more achievements will be added after the game ships (probably via downloadable content). The achievements in Crackdown mirror the sandbox nature of the game, asking players to do things they were bound to try anyway. One of our favorites is "Car Juggler," which requires you to juggle a car in the air for at least 7 seconds with explosives (like a rocket launcher). Other achievements ask you to perform certain stunts in your vehicles (not unlike some of the Dead Rising achievements), kill gang members in creative ways, or just show off your skills (kill 5 gang members in one jump). We have to admit, we're getting pretty excited about Crackdown. A sandbox game with Live co-op sounds like just what the doctor ordered.And no, there is no achievement for unlocking the Halo 3 beta invite.
Crackdown demo hits XBLM Jan. 18th
Crackdown, the anticipated title from Grand Theft Auto creator, David Jones, is hitting retail shelves on February 20, 2007. On January 18, 360 owners will be able to download a demo of the game from Xbox Live Marketplace. The demo will feature both single-player and online cooperative modes, giving players a chance to experience what Crackdown has to offer. We've been covering as much Crackdown as possible in the last several months -- Joystiq even got a chance to play it -- and we're very excited to give the demo a try.Anyone else raring to get a crack at Crackdown?[Thanks, Tony]
