Ghost
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Infinity Ward talking about spin-off game starring Modern Warfare 2's 'Ghost'
Though Modern Warfare 2 is rife with instantly accessible, beloved characters with fascinating names, we all know that one stands out as the franchise's most memorable protagonist: Ghost. You know, Ghost! He's got that skull mask, and there was that one scene where that guy's about to shoot you, and then Ghost shoots him right back. He's already risen to fame somewhat when he received a six-part comic series telling his story -- but if the actor who provides the spectral hero's voice is to be believed, he might just show up in his own video game as well. Craig Fairbrass, who not only did the voice for Ghost in MW2, but also voiced the equally unfortunately named Gaz in the original Modern Warfare, mentioned, "I'm now voicing a guy called Ghost, who now just got a spin-off comic of his own and they're talking about another little game to go with it." Little game? Based on the number of Michael Bay-esque explosions in the first five minutes of Modern Warfare 2, we're not sure Infinity Ward is capable of making those.
Ghostwire augmented reality game coming to your creepy motel room, DSi in 2010
Majesco's just announced an augmented reality game for the DSi, Ghostwire: Link to the Paranormal. While the Ghostwire title had been previously unveiled, Majesco has apparently just signed on to publish it. The game makes use of the DSi's camera and microphone so the player can hunt for ghosts in their surrounding, actual environment. Once the ghosts are detected, the player will have to track down objects to bribe them into peacefulness. Ghostwire is expected sometime in 2010, but until then, we'll just keep walking with our own ghosts.
Breakfast Topic: The joy of phasing
Rayless on the General Forums asks a question that I've always wondered about but never poked into; how exactly does phasing work? If you've leveled through the Death Knight starting area, done the Wrath Gate questline, or quested in Icecrown (and you should really do all three), you've had the opportunity to see Blizzard's most intricate phasing in action. However, Zarhym and Crygil are pretty cryptic on how it's done, and it's up to players to fill in the details. In a nutshell, phasing is all about the information that's sent (or not sent) to your computer by the game server; Blizzard can toy with anything that's not client-side, affecting which buildings and NPCs you can "see" but not affecting the game's basic geography. I was surprised to discover that phasing has technically been in the game since launch -- ghosts and stealth are a form of phasing, as are (I would assume) the ghosts of Caer Darrow -- but the hugely elaborate set pieces of Wrath are simply a more complicated evolution of the same mechanic. Given the success of phasing, players have been kicking around suggestions for instances or zones that could do with a touch of it, and Gnomeregan seems to be a pretty consistent pick. I'd have to agree, but I'd also add the Echo Isles (the Gnomes and Trolls have overcome their low-level foes by now, surely?) and perhaps Duskwood for starters. Is there any other zone or instance that you think would benefit from a little reality-bending?
Autofollow + AFK = bad idea
Many thanks to Agate of Eldre'Thalas for providing us with the video! So I was out working on heroic Steam Vaults with some friends last night. Like usual Hydromancer Thespia was being a pain, and we wiped a couple of times. On one of the death walks back, fellow guildie Agate and I meet up with another group of ghosts running over to Coilfang Reservoir. Nothing new there.Except Agate noticed a couple of guys running behind him. After a bit of moving around he confirmed that they were in fact on auto-follow. "Hahaha, look at this, these two guys are following me. Should I have some fun?" he asks over vent.
How would a Starcraft MMO work?
Speculation over Blizzard's upcoming MMO continues unabated, even with the lack of anything new to feed upon. The biggest hope, I dare to say, is that it's going to be Starcraft that gets the treatment, even if it's still a long way away from release. Starcraft holds fast in many gamers' hearts, including mine, so it's only natural to want more. But when actually considering the possibility, how would it play out?Our Krystalle has already given this a glance over on WoW Insider, and our recent Ask Massively asked a similar question, but I'd like to take it deeper. Let's take World of Warcraft as a point of comparison and see if we can run down this mythical beast.
Speculation: Bungie's next project is an MMO?
I'm not quite sure where Hardcore Casual gets this from (I'm guessing it's somewhere between thin air and someplace a little more "intimate"), but he's got an interesting bit of speculation coming off of the big news last week that Halo-maker Bungie and their publisher Microsoft are cutting some ties. He traces Bungie's growth along side Blizzard's (Myth: Warcraft:: Oni: Ghost), and concludes that, now that they're free of Halo and Microsoft's direct influence, Bungie's next project will be their World of Warcraft: an MMO. Now that is an interesting idea. Like Blizzard, Bungie has always been all about the possibilities of online play, and even though Halo 3 is not actually an MMO, there is no shortage of ways for people to interact with each other through the game-- from Forge to the different coop modes, to the "XP" system in multiplayer, Bungie knows how to get people online and keep them there. And Bungie definitely knows how to build worlds-- the Halo universe alone has inspired many books and countless pages of fan fiction and speculation, not to mention that there are big hints that it's connected to Bungie's other big series of games, Marathon. When you look at Bungie's past and the type of games that they've created, they definitely do seem like a great candidate to make a popular MMO.Of course, whatever Bungie does next is up to Bungie, and, as Blizzard well knows, taking on as big a responsibility as an ongoing MMO can change a company all the way down to its foundation-- for better or worse. But as much as he probably just made it up, Hardcore Casual is right-- Bungie's got the reach, the funds, and the knowhow to create the next big virtual world. Whether they choose to tackle it or not is up to them.
Mysterious Mysteries: UFO spotted above Honor Hold
If you have been to Honor Hold recently, you may have observed a strange flying creature circling the alchemists' tower. Insatiably curious, cunningly perceptive adventurers everywhere may well wonder: What in the world is that thing doing there?Lebowski, the resident engineering trainer, teaches his classes not too far from there. "One of my students pointed to it and asked me what it was," He told Mysterious Mysteries earlier this afternoon, "and this gave me the perfect opportunity to unveil my latest invention, the Telesupernaturaspectroscope! It may seem like a mere [Ornate Spyglass], but I have fitted it with a [Super-snapper FX] and a coating of [Ghost Dye], thus allowing us to capture images of spectral creatures while observing from a safe distance!" The Telesupernaturaspectrograph Lebowski took is quite chilling indeed. "You can see here," he tells us, "the Unexplainable Freaky Owl -- or 'UFO' as I call it -- is not only blue, but it seems to have gaping holes in its wings! Yet it flies! I suspect the alchemists are up to something!" We questioned Alchemist Gribble and Magus Zabraxis inside the alchemists tower as to what they think about this strange UFO flying about their tower. Miss Zabraxis replied that she didn't know about freaky owls but offered to show us her latest experiment, while Mr. Gribble stated, "It is the obvious result of conditions and circumstances which brought about its existence! Now go away and come back when you're ready to learn Extremely Advanced Alchemy!" Rorelien, the night elven Herbalist Trainer was seen to be lurking suspiciously in the background, but she declined to comment.Have you spotted any strange or inexplicable items or creatures in your journeys around Outland? Have you any theories as to what they're there for?
Of corpse running and you
I'm sure we've all done it from time to time -- trying to get somewhere new, you've encountered heavy resistance from the locals and died a terrible death. Refusing to give up, you've run back to your corpse and continued on, until you're caught and killed again. Perhaps you thought you'd be smart and run to the spirit healer in your destination zone, far off from where you died, only to tragically see that you've been sent back to the location of the spirit healer closest to your corpse. This does make traveling through areas high above your level quite the challenge -- as I'm sure they were intended to be. Die, run back, rez a bit further down the road -- then simply wash, rinse, and repeat until you've reached your final destination. However, over at Mania's Arcana, Mania provides us with two tricks that will allow you to do the majority of your traveling as a ghost. The trick? If you die on one continent and then spirit rez in the other (yes, you can ride boats and zepplins as a ghost!), you'll be allowed to rez right where you want to. And, perhaps more conveniently, if you run as a ghost to wherever you wish, disconnect, reconnect, and then try to spirit rez, you'll be allowed to.Now, both of these little tricks smack of overlooked bugs, as the intended behavior of the game client is clear. But at present it is a working strategy in-game that can be used to more quickly move you from point A to point B.
Starcraft: Ghost may be revisited by Blizzard 'one day'
It has been ever so long since we talked about the scar we have from the deep wound Blizzard gave us when they canceled postponed StarCraft: Ghost. At yesterday's Hollywood and Games Summit, Blizzard's Rob Pardo said, "I still believe in that game and the characters but we were not able to execute at the level we wanted to ... Rather than work on that we had to focus on our other games. We're hoping one day to return to it." Yay, there's hope!Although, it's probably hope for our children. With StarCraft II, a World of Warcraft expansion, and that other thing coming, it's going to be a long time before we ever see the resurrection of Starcraft: Ghost. Plus, they'd have to start the programming from scratch again, it's not like they're just going to gussy up the game we already played -- and we all know how long that process takes with Blizzard.
Japanese hardware sales, May 28 - Jun. 3: Explanatory Aqua Teen edition
We know, you were disappointed. Last night, as you happily refreshed DS Fanboy every nine seconds or so looking for this week's Japanese hardware sales, the vim slowly faded from your eyes as the hours ticked into oblivion. We would never willingly deprive our readers so; we were unavoidably delayed! You see ....Thousands of years ago, before the dawn of man as we knew him ... there were the moon men, reigning over the Earth. But this was not the Earth you knew! It was covered in jelly and high-density motor oil, making the planet very slippery. The moon men blamed the corporations, and there was a war and many were killed. The battle raged for millennia until 8000 A.D., when the moon men realized they were not actually from the moon, but from rural Pennsylvania. They then built a monument to the moon but then the Quakers stole it and filled it with oatmeal, and no one knew what flavor. Californians were highly displeased and turned all the Quakers invisible, which is why you never see them anymore. And that ... is where babies come from.- DS Lite: 123,140 4,321 (3.39%) - Wii: 69,748 11,104 (18.93%) - PSP: 26,358 261 (1.00%) - PS2: 11,814 503 (4.45%) - PS3: 8,998 629 (6.53%) - Xbox 360: 2,219 175 (8.56%) - Game Boy Micro: 310 97 (23.83%) - GBA SP: 247 41 (14.24%) - Gamecube: 226 30 (11.72%) - DS Phat: 71 10 (12.35%) - GBA: 16 1 (5.88%)[Source: Media Create]
Starcraft: Ghost listed on TRU, Best Buy sites
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/gaming_news/Best_Buy_and_TRU_list_Starcraft_Ghost_to_be_released_later_this_year'; Listings for Starcraft: Ghost are up on the web sites of mega-retailers Best Buy (thanks, Gazoo) and Toys "R" Us (thanks, Rich) -- do a search on either site for "Starcraft" to see them. As most of you probably know, SC:G was announced as a planned console title in 2002, but "indefinitely postponed" in 2006. It was to be a first-person shooter set in the Starcraft universe, with a Terran Ghost as the main character. Do these listings mean tomorrow's announcement is going to be the long-awaited continuance of Ghost? When I had only seen it on the Best Buy site, I was thinking not: the versions listed are for PlayStation 2, Xbox, and Gamecube, all last-gen systems. If Blizz was working on a new console game, wouldn't they do it for new consoles? But then I was reminded that if this is in fact SC:G, it has been in development for a very long time, and what are now last-gen consoles would have been current during most of its development history. And then I saw it on a second retailer's site, Toys "R" Us; this is far from proof, but it is more suggestive.The release date according to BB is 6/15/07, while TRU has it as 8/15/08. That's a pretty large discrepancy, but what is more interesting to me is the closeness of the date. Blizz never announces a project that close to shipping. Then again, there's a first for everything, and they've certainly had long enough to make this game. TRU has the game at $49.99, but BB has it at a strange $47.49. Sam said he worked for BB and never saw games priced like that...hm. And Mike says that the listing has been on BB ever since the game was announced, and the odd pricing means that pre-orders are not currently being accepted. Anyway, what do you guys think? And can you find listings for this on any other sites? Has the TRU listing been there a while as well?
Sega haunts the Wii with Ghost Squad
Much to our disappointment, Ghost Squad bears no relation to either the Ghost Busters series or the Wu-Tang Clansman, Ghostface Killah. No, it is merely a light-gun arcade game that Sega has decided to port to our fair console.If you've never had the fortune to come across Ghost Squad's arcade cabinet, it's an on-rails shooter that comes armed with plastic assault rifles for you to aim with. Playing without the modeled weaponry sounds like a downgraded experience, so hopefully there will be optional controller shells for us to equip by the time Sega releases the game this holiday season.This port will feature Wii-specific game modes, new ways to use the Wii remote as a "multi-purpose tool," and four-player co-op support. We've got a few screenshots that we grabbed from Jeux-France past the post break, but uh ... they're not very flattering. We think we'll stick with Umbrella Chronicles for all our light gun needs for now.
North Carolina cops offering cash and console to stop vandalism
We've heard of the Federales handing out aging Xbox consoles in return for random pieces of weaponry, but a modern day case of Jet Grind Radio has Garner, North Carolina officials miffed. In a peculiar bout with vandals who are littering the town with "Ghost" graffiti tags, the local police are actually offering up some handsome rewards to informants that lead the boys in blue to any rightful arrests. Of course, the $1,000 cash prize looks tempting enough, but if the "miscreant is a juvenile," police are offering $500 or their choice of a Microsoft Xbox 360, Sony PlayStation 3 (the 20GB flavor, we presume), or Nintendo Wii on top of the cool thousand just for participating. Here's to hoping the bandits are kids, eh?[Via NintendoWiiFanboy]
Get your Ghost images into Boot Camp
Suppose you're in a mixed-platform environment, and you've got a library of Symantec Ghost images happily tweaked and configured for your Windows XP deployments. Wouldn't it be great if you could get those Ghost images into a form where you could use them for your Boot Camp machines? Sure, Ghost images are not really hardware-independent, but why not try?At my office, this was a much-desired outcome; the problem was that the standard DOS disks used in Ghost imaging won't boot EFI-based Intel Macs, and even bootable CDs made with Ghost generally failed to see our multicast image server, if they came up at all. We finally came up with a strategy -- a bit like the Wesleyan University process detailed here, which I wish I'd seen earlier -- for migrating a Ghost image over to a Mac, and thence, via NetRestore or WinClone, into a format easily cloned to other Macs. The key to this Rube Goldberg-like process, first suggested by my colleague Steven, is a free Windows bootable CD maker called BartPE. Read on for more of the conversion process, and note that Your Mileage WILL Vary.
University's Morgui robot deemed too scary for kids
Terrifying robots most certainly aren't anything new, and be it frightening or downright creepy, there's probably a bot out there weird enough to freak just about anyone out. Enter Morgui, the University of Reading-based robot that has been around for some time, but is just now getting the credit a bizarre skull that follows humans around should. The creation, which consists of a disembodied head, oversized blue eyes, and a classically evil grin, has been officially banned from testing around anyone under the age of 18 (permission notwithstanding) by the school's ethics and research committee, leaving the "Magic Ghost" to spook only mature audiences from here on out. Mo, as it's so aptly nicknamed, sports a metal head, the ability to detect visual / auditory cues, and sensors for radar, infrared, and ultrasonic detection as well, but oddly enough, it cannot detect human emotion, so you better not count on this fellow to have sympathy on your soul when you're screeching. The purpose of the machine is to judge how "people react to robots," and when the bot just so happens to lack any form of facial covering beyond a skeletal structure, we're sure the reactions are quite noticeable.[Via CollisionDetection]
Ghost Rider coming from Take-Two
Take-Two announced yesterday that they would be publishing the game starring everyone's favorite motorcycle-riding, head-engulfed-in-flames antihero on the PS3 (given that they don't officially say that the title is releasing for the system, it is releasing on "consoles" simultaneously with the movie, so it's a safe bet to assume it will). The game is said to be based on both the comic roots of the character as well as the film adaptation, set to release in February of 2007, starring Nicholas Cage as Johnny Blaze himself. Take-Two hasn't shown any screenshots or said much beyond the title will feature "an immersive, supernatural third person world with a seamless blend of hand-to-hand combat and high-speed motorcycle action."
