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This robot therapy duck comforts kids with cancer
CES is flush with giant TVs, smart fridges and plenty of other superfluous nonsense. So it was a breath of fresh air when insurance company Aflac and a company called Sproutel showed up with a robot duck designed to comfort children with cancer. The My Special Aflac duck is, in many ways, not terribly different from other toy pets like Furby or an Aibo. It's cute, cuddly and packed with sensors that allow it to interact with you. Scratch under its chin and the duck will lift its head and let out an appreciative little quack. Find its ticklish spot under the wing and it'll shake about and erupt in laughter.
ICYMI: Underwater robot snake, Earth's ocean saving and more
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-54715{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-54715, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-54715{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-54715").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: Princeton researchers discovered ocean currents can move most anything around the globe within 10 years; which could help replenish dying ecosystems... and also spread around pollution. Norwegian engineers came up with a mechanical snake for underwater sea inspection and simple repair jobs near oil drills. And Harvard wants to encourage kid programming with a new robot that can be used by kindergartners to high schoolers. Once that's conquered, the answer is clearly to make the MIT open-source duckcar. As always, please share any great tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.
Camelot Unchained funds sound engineer, looks to speed up world building
Dear Camelot Unchained: What's up with the duck? Is that your mascot? Does your artist love duck doodles? Or is it referring to a secret race in your game? Please let us know. Sincerely, Massively. Some good news for fans of this upcoming RvR title as City State Entertainment announced that it has crossed the $3,025,000 fundraising mark and thereby hit a stretch goal to hire a sound engineer for the game. Next up on the stretch goal docket is a "Hug the World" campaign at $3,225,000. If this target is hit, Camelot Unchained will hire more artists to "accelerate the building out of the game world" and improve the quality of other art assets.
Disney releases Temple Run Oz, another branded take on Imangi's hit
Just last week we were talking about Disney's potential for originality with a brand new Toy Story app, and now here the company is sticking like glue to some old habits. Disney has released a new app called Temple Run Oz, which, as you might imagine, is a mashup of Imangi's famous Temple Run game with Sam Raimi's upcoming Oz: The Great and Powerful movie. Temple Run: Brave (which combined the first Temple Run game with Pixar's Brave) is still available on the App Store, but this new version is much closer to all of the innovations spotted in Temple Run 2, which means it has curvy pathways, more powerups and various goals to go after and complete. It's not a bad game at all, actually, and like Temple Run Brave, Disney has added in some original gameplay, in addition to the Oz-based sounds, graphics and content. Instead of just dodging trees and cliff dropoffs, you also duck under flying monkeys, and you can jump in a big balloon to tilt your way through the air and collect coins. There are weekly challenges as well, and while the game isn't significantly different from Temple Run (you're still running, swiping and tilting), it does feel a little more substantial than just a reskinned game. The price is also interesting: It's available for US$0.99. That's a buck more than the free Temple Run 2 (which I'd recommend as the better game), though it's likely only for a certain launch period, as you get 99 cents worth of in-app currency when you buy the game. Temple Run Brave is still 99 cents as well, so maybe the price is part of the agreement between Imangi and Disney. Whatever the reason for the pricing, Disney saw a fairly big hit with Temple Run Brave, but it'll be interesting to see what the market is like with four different (!) versions of Temple Run now on the App Store.
Battleblock Theater will have 200 playable characters, and at least one duck
Developer The Behemoth has been toiling away on its latest, Battleblock Theater, for a while now, and all we've learned about the game has come from a few scant glances at various industry events. But the game is finally code complete, so the developer is being a little more forthcoming with details.On the latest company blog, the team goes through the numbers on the new game: There will be over 200 characters to unlock (compared to Castle Crashers' 30), over 200 levels to play through, and over 10 "weapontools" to use. There will also be a full slate of online multiplayer modes, Achievements and avatar awards to earn, and a "soundtrack created by well-known artists and members of our community" (that community being Newgrounds, which was created by The Behemoth co-owner Tom Fulp).The dev has also shared a video (above) of artist Dan Paladin working on some of the creations in the game. The Behemoth promises more announcements later this year – here's hoping they'll finally be able to bring this long-awaited game to players soon.
Anarchy Online celebrates its 11th birthday
Has it really been 11 years since Anarchy Online burst onto the scene with one of the smoothest launches of all time? It must be -- Funcom is throwing a birthday bash for its faithful players. There will be two birthday celebrations, one on the Atlantean server on Friday, June 22nd, at 1:00 p.m. EDT and one on Rimor on Monday, June 25th, at 1:00 p.m. EDT. Both in-game celebrations will be marked by spawning events, special mobs, and in-game items. If you're down with the party scene, the community will be throwing a monster rave to end all raves. Funcom hinted at a few of the surprises, including new costumes, action figures, vehicles, and the love of a duck and a cake. The studio will be handing out a free jet pack for all players who log in during the celebration.
Duck Amuck breaks both screens' fourth walls [update 1]
Duck Amuck is the best concept for a minigame collection we've ever seen. It may also be the best concept for a licensed game we've ever seen. It's based on the classic 1951 Merrie Melodie, in which a malevolent animator (later revealed to be--SPOILER-- Bugs Bunny) jerks Daffy Duck around as the cartoon plays. Locations are changed, Daffy is frequently erased and redrawn, and his attempts to regain control of the cartoon are met with punishment.The concept of "Daffy Duck being dropped into hilariously unfortunate circumstances at the hands of an animator" translates into a DS game well, since gamers are used to manipulating onscreen characters. DS gamers, in particular, are used to doing so with a pen. We watched the trailers and looked at the screenshots, expecting to have our enthusiasm thoroughly dampened. But the screens actually look good, and the trailers are well-animated and funny. What? Humor? In our video games? Even though we're pretty sure it's all concept art and not real gameplay footage, we're already impressed. We're also inclined to support WayForward, our new favorite DS developer (pending playtime with Contra 4.)[Update: A producer at Warner Bros. Games wrote in to confirm that all of the footage is in-game, done with Flash!]%Gallery-4960%[Via NeoGAF]
How Ultimate is Ultimate Duck Hunting?
We aren't sure if Ultimate Duck Hunting is truly the last duck hunting game we'll need. Our requirements for duck hunting games are stringent, you see, and it would take a truly robust and deep duck hunting game to fill the spot of the decisive duck hunting game in our collection. We wonder if the game will really be the authoritative work the title claims it will be.We're actually kidding about the stringent requirements, and like most people, we consider the duck hunting genre well and truly filled since 1985. Have a look at some screens and decide for yourself if you should update your library of duck hunting video games.
PSP Fanboy Theatre: Volume 19
PSP Fanboy offers the latest and greatest movie and game trailers, formatted for the PSP in this new weekly feature. Check it out every Saturday. PSP owners can download files wirelessly via m.pspfanboy.com.Instructions: Save all movie and thumbnail files to the VIDEO folder. These high resolution 480x272 videos require firmware 3.30 or above. (Note: OE custom firmware will also play these videos.) Tales of the World [PSP]Video 1: Download MP4 (3.3MB) | Download JPGVideo 2: Download MP4 (3.9MB) | Download JPG The following videos are featured after the break: Bug, Good Luck Chuck, Duck, MLB 07 The Show (PS3)
Super Rub 'a' Dub makes a splash on Europe PS3 Network
Super Rub 'a' Dub, the one-time tech demo turned PlayStation Network game, is now available to download for European PS3 owners. In the game, the Sixaxis tilt control is used to balance the world and move the big duck around, akin to Monkey Ball, and try to collect all the little rubber duckies before reaching the exit. The game has an "introductory price" of 4.99 Euros / 3.49 British pounds (approximately US $6.75) until May 23. Trailer of the game embedded after the break. No word on when the US version is arriving.
We wonder ... what if the Xbox 360 was a duck?
When finding Xbox 360 news from the Something Awful forums, you know it's going to be good and today is no exception. IanJ over on the forums posted his creative interpretation of what video game consoles would look like if they were ... ducks. Of course IanJ would fittingly only use the program professional graphics artist's all over the world use, MS Paint. Our favorite ducks have to be the cyclops Xbox 360 duck (of course), the four eyed Game Cube duck, and the three legged Virtual Boy duck. And if you were worried, no they didn't forget to show some original Xbox duck love.[Via Digg]
Happy ducks on the NES music day
After putting together 15 game music Fridays over the past 5 months or so, you might think that we're beginning to run out of ideas for mostly regular feature. Well, you'd be wrong. Our imagination for this kind of thing knows no limits. You give us three random video game music videos from YouTube and we will manage to connect them in some semi-coherent way to make a passable music day theme because that's what we get paid for, dammit!With that in mind, please enjoy some YouTube videos featuring music from NES games that featured ducks. Including: A suitably digital-sounding version of the Duck Tales theme A surprisingly competent, jazzy tune from Darkwing Duck A death metal anthem based around Duck Hunt. Yes, Duck Hunt.
New Virtual Console games on the horizon [update 1]
Yes, the U.S. Virtual Console launch line-up is a bit ... anemic. We know, it hurts. However, one has to consider why it doesn't really matter: 1) We'll all be too busy playing Twilight Princess to bother with the Virtual Console immediately, and 2) Nintendo has promised ten new Virtual Console releases per month. That's quite a bit, especially looking at how often Xbox Live Arcade is updated, but the question then becomes: what's on the horizon?Well, thanks to the ESRB, we've got a clue. The ESRB requires that games be rated before release, which obviously means that companies need to send in their product quite a bit in advance. Since they publish their ratings, we've managed to score a list of eight potentials, and quite an eight they are (all rated E for Everyone): Duck Hunt Hogan's Alley Kid Icarus Kirby's Adventure PilotWings Pro Wrestling Punch-Out Wild Gunman Kid Icarus, Duck Hunt, and Punch-Out? Holy hell. The Virtual Console is awesome.[via Joystiq][Thanks, Zeke!][Update 1: Legal issues?]
Wave-powered Edinburgh Duck desalinates seawater
Sure, in theory we could use the LifeStraw to purify enough water to quench the thirst of thousands of people, and if Aqua Sciences proves successful in its endeavor to pull water out of thin air, desalinating the seas could prove unnecessary. Nevertheless, Stephen Salter at Edinburgh University in the UK is working with a research team to perfect the "Edinburgh Duck" and provide useful water for needy individuals. The desalinating critters convert wave energy into pressure changes that aid the collection of pure water (in the form of steam) from seawater; by lowering air pressure, the system can draw steam from water at lower temperatures. The pressure-driven machines operates sans electricity by using the crashing motion of waves to operate its innards in a "piston-like motion," slowly but surely creating salt-free water that's pumped back ashore through the two legs that tether the duck to the seabed. Although current prototypes are only pumping air, finalized units could be 10 meters in diameter and 20 meters long -- a device large enough to supply water for "more than 20,000 people." While we're sure the targeted audience here is arid countries with good access to seawater, those days at the beach would be much more enjoyable without generous helpings of NaCl finding their way into our mouths.[Via Slashdot]
Use your Apple power adapter duck with other adapters
macosxhints brings us another juicy tid-bit of information, this time pertaining to a sneaky way to save space when packing all your electronics for a trip. When I travel for more than a few days, I pack 3 power-bricks that all use the same standard two pronged power interface that is so common with consumer electronics. Rogue Monk figured out that the Apple power duck (no, I'm not sure if thats the technical term, but it works for me), that little adapter head with the flip out metal tabs that you find on your iPod adapter, 'Book adapter, and Airport Express will fit in this standard plug. Now, I'm not sure what one does if they want to use more than one of the adapters they packed at a time, but it's a cool idea none-the-less.
