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Tell me, Muse, when The Next Penelope launches on Steam
The Next Penelope, an interstellar spaceship racing game from Arkedo co-founder Aurelien Regard, is due out on Steam Early Access on January 22. The Early Access version includes a complete single-player campaign for PC, Mac and Linux. The Next Penelope is also confirmed for Wii U, with other consoles "likely." The Next Penelope is a fast-paced racer with weapons and boss fights, and it will eventually feature four-player local multiplayer and extra-hard missions. Its story is based in Greek mythology, but placed in a futuristic world – Penelope, faithful wife of the famed adventurer Odysseus, travels a neon-tinted galaxy as Poseidon's evil threat grows, managing suitors and taking out baddies. Arkedo, the studio behind Hell Yeah! and Big Bang Mini, is now a one-man operation: Co-founder Aurelien Regard is responsible for the code, art and music of The Next Penelope. Arkedo closed shop as a studio in February 2013 under "good conditions." See the Early Access trailer for The Next Penelope below.
It turns out the world's oldest 'computer' dates back to 205 BC
The device regarded the world's first computer (analog, of course) could have been used even earlier than researchers thought. Inspection of a dial from the 2,000-year-old Antikythera Mechanism and an examination of Babylonian eclipse records revealed the device's origin to be 205 BC, 50-100 years before previous findings indicate. The new date offers a clue as to how Greeks predicted eclipses and planetary position, too. Until now, scientists thought the system was based on trigonometry, but that method didn't exist yet, so instead, the mechanism relied on Babylonian arithmetic. Using a process of elimination, a pair of researchers compared records and recovered pieces of the dial that aided with eclipse prediction in order to arrive at the new calculation. The hunt continues for the rest of the Antikythera Mechanism, as a team is hoping to continue its search of the shipwreck where fragments have been found this spring. [Photo credit: Louisa Gouliamaki/AFP/Getty Images]
Rumor: Titan might be a time-traveling, earthbound MMO
The folks over at Project Titan claim to have a huge leak on Blizzard's upcoming Titan project from a reliable (and unnamed) source. While we are certainly wary of rumors, particularly on this scale, the author says he is "extremely confident" about the leak in particular. So what is Titan, according to this post? Several bullet points sketch a picture of an MMO that is based on Earth, is big into historical mythology (including Greek, Roman, and Viking myths), and involves "a lot" of time travel. The leaks says that Titan will play from a third-person view, has a new game engine, could also be headed to consoles, and has a strong e-sports emphasis. The leak purports that over 150 developers are working on Titan, including Jay Wilson. Apparently we'll be seeing a teaser of Titan at BlizzCon before it goes into friends and family testing in early 2014. So what do you think? Is this too elaborate to be a hoax, too vague to be the real thing, or a possible advance insight into what Titan is? Sound off in the comments! [Thanks to Mynsc for the tip!]
Jailed ARMA devs thank fans and friends for support in handwritten note
The Bohemia Interactive developers being detained in Greece sent a handwritten note to fans and friends expressing thanks for words of encouragement and the knowledge that they are "not forgotten." The note, sent last week, is now online at HelpIvanMartin.org.Ivan Buchta and Martin Pezlar were arrested after being accused of spying on Greek military installations on the island of Lemnos. They've since spent 81 days in jail, with the Czech president recently asking the Greek president to treat their case with "special care."In the note, the Czech devs say they are being treated well, and that they are doing their best "to stay optimistic and use this time well." They go on to thank the 14,000+ signatories of the petition created to show support for the detained pair.We have a full version of the note in text after the break.
Czech diplomats get involved in ARMA developer detainment in Greece
A Czech ambassador was reportedly invited to a meeting by the Greek president regarding the detainment of Ivan Buchta and Martin Pezlar, two developers from Bohemia Interactive accused of espionage. HelpIvanMartin.org, which has been following all the developments of the case, states the meeting was set up following a letter from Czech President Vaclav Klaus to Greek President Karolos Papoulias.HelpIvanMartin.org have a full primetime news report with translation on the diplomatic maneuvering. The developers were recently refused bail and are accused for photographing Greek military installations on the island of Lemnos. They have been in jail for 75 days.
Teaming up with Hi-Rez for some Halloween SMITE
Halloween is a holiday when people typically dress up in outlandish costumes and go out hunting for treats. This year, I got to put a bit of a different spin on it by dressing up as a mythological god and going out to hunt for gold and items in some games of SMITE. Hi-Rez invited Massively along for its Halloween stream earlier this week, and I tagged along for some great fun. Despite being relatively inexperienced with the game, Reason Gaming's Lassiz was along for the ride as well, and his professional play helped lead us to a decisive victory. Although it's still in closed beta, SMITE currently boasts a surprisingly large playerbase with hundreds of thousands of players and a very unique twist on the MOBA style. If you're looking for more information or a way to try the game for yourself, read on!
First gameplay video of Alientrap's Apotheon is gorgeous, coming in 2013
Alientrap, developers of PC and XBLA game Capsized, recently unveiled a gameplay trailer for its next game, Apotheon. The side-scrolling action RPG game draws from Greek mythology in both its appearance and story, as players control a hero on a quest to stop the now-evil Greek goddess Hera after she de-thrones Zeus.The description for Apotheon from Alientrap's official site notes "a large single player campaign in a massive open world Mount Olympus," as well as "online multiplayer with deathmatch and team based gamemodes." The game is in development for PC, and will launch on Steam sometime in 2013. %Gallery-168851%
Twitter announces it's now available in three more languages: Greek, Czech and Basque
Early last year, Twitter kicked off its Translation Center efforts in hopes of bringing support for more languages to the site with help of amicable volunteers from all over the globe. Naturally, this has helped the renowned Blue Bird network immensely during its global gibberish quest, having added compatibility with right-to-left idioms since the program started and, more recently, Ukranian and Catalan. To make things even better, today Twitter's announced it's now available in a few more, including Basque, Czech and Greek -- which means that a simple trip to account settings can now translate your current 140-character experience into one of the aforementioned languages if you so choose. Twitter's Translation Center is open to anyone willing to lend a hand, so those interested in helping the cause can pay the more coverage link a visit to learn how to get involved.
Vatican and Oxford libraries scan ancient works, let scholars stay in their armchairs
Two of the world's most hallowed libraries are about to get even quieter, having been given $3 million to go with the flow and put some of their oldest collections online. The Vatican Library and Oxford University's Bodleian Library will together offer up 1.5 million pages of hoary text, including Gutenberg's Latin Bible from the 15th Century, a 1,200-year-old Hebrew codex called the "Sifra," and enough Greek philosophy to make even Homer seem succinct. At the end of a five-year flatbed scanner marathon, these digital copies will be accessible to speakers of dead languages everywhere, and hopefully for less than sacrilegious prices.
MapleStory goes Greek: New island coming to the game April 6th
It's no April Fools' joke: Nexon is adding a Greek-themed island to MapleStory on April 6th, ancient columns and all. Chyrse is a floating island -- thanks to a mysterious power -- that's long since left the world and has been in isolation because of its distance. Now things have changed, and Chyrse is open for business and for war. Xerxes, a fearsome baddie, has declared war against the friendly giants of the isle, and it's up to you to stop him. MapleStory players between the levels of 55 and 75 are encouraged to team up with friends to take on Xerxes and his forces. If players are victorious, Nexon promises to reward them with new, unique weapons and gear. While you wait for the 6th, you can check out the first images of Chyrse in the gallery below! %Gallery-16709%
Wonderland Online patches up to version 4.0 with The Cursed Palace
Free to play 2-D fantasy MMO Wonderland Online has recently update with a brand new version, adding in new quests, a drastic change to the current storyline, and the ability to hold instances in their game. With all of these additions comes their new 13 dungeons, the wings of the Cursed Palace.The former Hell Generals of the evil King Howert (now deceased as of this patch) have captured Apollo, the Sun God, forcing the world into eternal darkness. Players will have to pass the tests of the Cursed Palace, a place that only Hercules had survived before, to reclaim Apollo and bring light back to the world. If you haven't noticed, this entire patch has a very Greek theme to it, introducing the Greek Polis area, which is a combination of all of the old Greek city-states, and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon in addition to the Cursed Palace.For the full look at the 2-D MMO's large patch, check out their dedicated site to the update on the main Wonderland Online home page.
Professor: Epic drops have epic literary origins
The conventional game mechanics of today's WoW-like MMORPGs are thousands of years old -- at least dating back to the Ancient Greeks. That's the thesis of Classics professor Roger Travis of the University of Connecticut in an article he wrote for The Escapist, called "Achilles Phat Lewtz."He compared the excitement he experienced when gaining a rare drop in The Lord of the Rings Online to similar instances in Greek poet Homer's epic war story The Iliad. He also located examples of quests, guilds, character classes, grinding and boss fights in Homer's work. Check out the article; it's insightful and entertaining.Travis also runs his own blog on the subject of relating games and ancient literary epics called "Living Epic: Video Games in the Ancient World." The various posts there are substantial and fascinating. Give it a look-over.
Odissea the Musical
Odissea the Musical by Marco and Massimo Grieco is based on the The Oddysey by ancient Greek poet Homer, and features 18 singers, 20 dancers, 8 acrobats, and assorted computer-generated 3D characters. In addition to their run in Italian theaters, there will also be a live performance in the virtual world of Second Life. The live performance will feature ten of the twenty-five musical scenes from the theatre production performed by the theatrical cast, and run for more than an hour. The performance will be taking place at the Pæstum theater in Italia Vera, which we are told can seat more than 300 avatars.
Perpetual delays Gods and Heroes, cuts jobs
Clash of the Titans fans take heed, as Perpetual Entertainment has once again postponed the release of its upcoming Roman mythology MMO Gods & Heroes: Rome Rising, laying off 30-40 employees as the project transitions from development to playtesting. The announcement marks the second such delay the game has suffered, the first coming in late 2006 when budget concerns resulted in 35 of the San Francisco-based MMO developer's employees losing their jobs. Explaining the rational behind the layoffs in a recent interview, Perpetual CEO Chris McKibbin cited a need for "a much smaller, more focused and agile team," rather than the larger team required for the game's actual development. In a positive spin, the executive notes that Perpetual plans to help those impacted by the layoffs in finding new positions with other developers, or working on the studio's other MMO Star Trek Online.In addition, while Gods & Heroes was originally planned for release this fall, McKibbin downplayed the delay, noting that "we have been targeting a fall launch and we are extending the time in beta to focus on quality and polish ... from our standpoint we want to give our game more time to get to [that level] of polish, rather than rush to a ship date."
HDTV Listings for July 13, 2007
What we're watching: For a Friday the 13th, we have an amazing lack of horror flicks tonight, but there's a new show on ABC, Greek, and Bruce Lee in Enter the Dragon on HDNet.Our traditional high-def listings continue below.
New Wii games revealed in Greek interview
The name George Katrinakis probably doesn't mean much to you unless you happen to live in Greece, as he's the CEO of Nortec Multimedia, the distributor of Nintendo products in the region. And it turns out this George knows a thing or two about the future of Wii gaming, dropping some clues on us ignorant folk about a pair of new titles. Wait, new games? Rock!First up is a game, which is being dubbed Health Pack at the moment, that is certainly the most interesting in our eyes. After performing some exercises in the game, supposedly your personal data will be sent out to hospitals that have been contracted out by Nintendo via a new Channel and later returned as some kind of evaluation. Information on how the data will be collected and presented is sketchy as of right now, but we're pumped for a new Channel, let alone the doors this could open for future Channels and/or games.The second title, Wii Music, sounds a lot like the orchestra demo that Shiggy demoed during the E3 keynote. In it, players will not only be able to control specific musicians in the orchestra, but also save their compositions and send them to other Wii users. While this doesn't tickle our fancy as much as Health Pack, we're certainly not in any position to complain about more games.According to the interview, both of these games are to be released before the end of 2007.[Via Joystiq]
Greeks demand local Apple support
Macworld reports that Greek Mac users want a greater Apple presence--and an official Greek localization. They feel neglected and overlooked despite their fondness for Macintoshes. The aptly named WeWantAppleGreece.com has sprung up to help fill the support gap. The group offers both Hellenic localization and greek fonts under the GNU general public license. They've also started a e-mail protest campaign to demand that Apple "treat your Greek clients and end consumers equally to the rest of the Europeans".
Hands-on with God of War II
IGN got an early hands-on preview of God of War II, and they're lovin' what Sony's Santa Monica studio has come up with so far.Without revealing too much of the sequel's plot, our hairless hero now sports some new magical attacks and context-sensitive finishing moves. Needless to say, prominent Greek mythological figures will also be showing up to keep Kratos company, and there will certainly be a lot of flashy slashing-first-ask-questions-later kind of action to fill the hours.For more spoilers on "an early section of the sequel," simply follow the image link above or Read link below, where you can find a few more details on the new power-up system and annoying enemy combatants (otherwise known as smarter fodder for your sharper blades). A practical explanation goes into the reasons for keeping things on the PS2 rather than the PS3, and hopefully less frustrating puzzles are revealed as well. More will likely be revealed at Sony's big E3 press conference today.See also: New God of War 2 director speaks God of War's Jaffe inspired by Britney vs. Christina God of War 2 GDC video leaked online
God of War 2 GDC video leaked online
No one was supposed to be recording at the time, but it appears that the trailer for God of War 2 (from Phil Harrison's keynote at GDC) has managed to find its way onto the intarwebs and into our hearts.There you can observe good ol' Kratos jabbin' and choppin' and doin' his thing with his mythological Greek friends. Of course, if you haven't played (or finished) the first God of War game, be aware that a minor spoiler is revealed early on by the trailer's narrator. (Didn't see that one coming, didja?)But, yeah... who do we have to thank for breaking Sony's embargo on this footage? Apparently some guy named "Element" who helps out at playsyde.com. Will Sony act against YouTube for hosting such a video? We'll have to see now, won't we? Whatever the case, an official direct-feed version would certainly be appreciated if it can be managed.[Thanks, David; via digg]See also: Playsyde cam-footage post thanking "the great Element" for this clip Sony confirms God of War 2 worldwide Q1 2007 Unreal Engine 3 and other PS3 tech demos from GDC floor [no GoW?] GDC: The PS3 keynote blow by blow [a few GoW 2 details]
