kitchen-sink
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EVE Online: Crucible forges a new game today
Crucible is an apt name for EVE Online's 15th expansion, considering that the game, its developers, and its players have gone through a severe testing this year in many respects. CCP is hoping that Crucible will be better received than its previous expansion, Incarna, and is hyping it as "EVE reforged." Today Crucible is coming to the game as a free expansion following a period of extended downtime. It's very much a "kitchen sink" update, with major improvements and reworkings of game systems. These include items as big as improved space visuals and dilating time to allow for large fleet battles to touches as small as contrails, an improved font, and new Captains Quarters. New ships in the expansion are a given, but ground-bound pilots might be attracted to opening up their very own customs offices to tax planetary businesses. There are so many additions and changes, in fact, that it's almost futile to try to crush them into a couple paragraphs, so while you're waiting for the game to come back up, make sure to check out the patch notes, the EVE Online: Crucible website, and our own Brendan Drain's thoughts for more info.
Touch interactive kitchen faucet: we'll take one
If you're like us, you spend a fair amount of time in the kitchen, and you're undoubtedly already aware of the fact that faucets usually leave plenty to be desired. They're often hideous, and are pretty inconveniently set up most of the time, too. This concept -- which has been fully produced as a prototype -- is made from a slab of Corian, and employs tap gestures for operation. Call us crazy, but we're ready to lay down some cash for one of these right now. Unfortunately, they're not for sale (at least not yet) but you can check it out further in the video below.
The Daily Grind: Which patch would you like to see rolled back?
Usually, patches are nothing less than a reason to put on a gaudy party hat and boogie on down in celebration. After all, it's almost always good news, right? Bugs are squashed! Issues resolved! Features added! Content enriched! Classes balanced! Yet sometimes, a patch arrives that leaves a sour taste in one's mouth, as it does more damage than good -- it significantly weakens a class, it introduces a host of new bugs, it shifts the gameplay focus to an undesired area, or it trivializes past achievements. So, assuming that you were granted the divine power to roll back one patch in one MMO -- a patch, mind you, not an expansion -- which would it be? Which patch still grates on your nerves to this very day, a patch so bad that you consider it an abomination to gaming everywhere? What one update to your MMO would have been better never being born in the first place? Speak your mind, or forever hold your peace!
Players miffed over Champions Online's "kitchen sink patch" and Vibora Bay
It's an awkward time for Champions Online. After the last State of the Game post by Chronomancer, things were looking up. The latest patch was slated to fix Lemuria (colloquially known as Lagmuria, due to the extreme system hiccups), add more power to various power frameworks, nemesis changes, the addition of team looting, and changes to the crafting system. Furthermore, the same State of the Game post announced that Champions would be getting its first expansion -- Vibora Bay. However, with the deployment of the "kitchen sink" patch, most gamers have experienced more lag in all zones, some characters are locked in Lemuria, unable to log in, and there are issues with the crafting systems. If all of that wasn't bad enough, Cryptic Daeke has confirmed that Vibora Bay will be a "paid expansion" which will add more content for levels 37 to 40 -- a move which has sent many members of the community into what can only be described as "a frothing rage."
