mountain
Latest
The UAE wants an artificial mountain to increase rainfall
Desert countries are frequently victims of their elevation. They tend to be mostly flat, making it tough for air to climb upwards and form rain clouds. The United Arab Emirates thinks there's a direct solution to this, however: make your own mountain. It's in the early stages of developing an artificial mountain that would force air upwards and create clouds that (with seeding) could produce additional rainfall. In theory, an arid landscape could become verdant over time.
Risk of Rain, Jazzpunk among IndieCade 2014 finalists
Juried game event IndieCade has announced its 2014 finalist picks, revealing a lineup of standout independent works that will be featured at this year's festival in Culver City. Featured picks include recent releases like Jazzpunk, Hack 'n' Slash, Risk of Rain, and Mountain, along with upcoming games such as Elegy for a Dead World, Classroom Aquatic, Hyper Light Drifter, and Never Alone. All finalists will compete for a spot in the Closing Awards ceremony on the event's final day for the Festival Audience, Developer, and Media Choice Awards. IndieCade kicks off this year on October 9, and runs through October 14. [Image: IndieCade]
Mountain proves a hit on iOS, coming to Android, PC
Mountain, a quirky game from filmmaker David O'Reilly, has only been available for a week, but has already topped the iTunes App Store charts in numerous countries. Mountain lacks most traditional game-like qualities. There are no enemies to stomp or aliens to shoot. Instead, the game generates a picturesque, stylized mountain based on a player's interactions within the game, then invites them to subtly influence the area while nature unfolds. Despite (or because of) this novel premise, Mountain reached the top of the iTunes best-selling charts in Germany, the number five spot in the United States, and according to O'Reilly, was the best-selling roleplaying game in "in 33 countries." Unfortunately, as O'Reilly points out, Mountain is a $1 download with no in-app purchases to speak of, so it's yet to crack the crucial top-grossing charts. Those hoping to play Mountain, but lacking the necessary Apple device, may not be waiting much longer. O'Reilly plans to release Mountain for both Android and PC platforms, though a solid timeline of when those iterations might arrive remains absent. [Image: Double Fine]
Double Fine's publishing program moves a Mountain to PC, iOS
The next game to launch courtesy of Double Fine's publishing program is Mountain, an artistic simulation game that's now available on PC, Mac, Linux via the game's site and iOS for $1. Developed by filmmaker David O'Reilly, Mountain has players answer three "questions" in the form of single words with drawings, then the game generates a mountain with the drawings on it. The mountain changes as the omniscient players tap out music on their keyboards, watching weather cycles pass and, as the developer puts it, seeing nature "expressing itself." Double Fine began its publishing initiative with Escape Goat 2 in March, providing "promotional assistance and distribution" for the game. It then assisted developer Sam Farmer with sci-fi noir adventure game Last Life in April, which earned $103,058 on Kickstarter in the next month. We had an opportunity to check out Mountain at the Horizon conference at E3 along with other games like Metamorphabet, Gnah and Night in the Woods. [Image: David O'Reilly]
The man who made the game in 'Her' is about to release a game you can play
He's fresh to game development, but David O'Reilly has already created a game you likely know very well: the game in Spike Jonze's excellent film, "Her." While that "game" was, ya know, in a film and not a real game, he's just about to release his first actual game in Mountain. O'Reilly describes it as a "mountain simulator" -- he explained to a crowd at Los Angeles' Museum of Contemporary Art this morning that it enables you to "live out all your dark twisted fantasies" of, uh, being a mountain. Okay, so what in the world is happening here? In actuality, it's a game about interacting with a relatively static mountain. Weather changes, music changes, and you can input melodies (via touch on iOS, keyboard on PC/OS X) which alter the state of the world. Sometimes you push forward time, sometimes you change the weather, sometimes you zoom out into outerspace -- where your mountain lives, apparently! O'Reilly says it'll be out in the next few weeks, and it'll cost "about a dollar."
Mountain hiking in DDO: Shadowfell Conspiracy's Stormhorns
Dungeons and Dragons Online: Shadowfell Conspiracy, the game's second expansion, isn't just mucking about in a trashed prison city with your new premium classes. Turbine is taking us beyond Forgotten Realm's civilization to the Stormhorns, a mountain region that comprises DDO's first mountain wilderness area. For our third tour through Shadowfell Conspiracy's new content, we put on our hiking boots and headed out for some fresh mountain air. Will this region bring out the beauty of Faerûn or show the creaky underpinnings of this aging title? And why are we going out there to begin with?
Champions Online reveals new Mountain archetype
Champions Online has a new protector in town, and he's about as subtle as Gregor Clegane (though quite a bit nicer). The game's newest archetype is called The Mountain, and Cryptic has revealed all the vitals on Champions' official website. The Mountain is "an embodiment of the rocks and earth that surround us, standing firm in the face of [his] foes," and Cryptic says that the archetype boasts knock-downs and considerable damage-soaking abilities. The devs have also provided a handy power listing that details everything from 1 to 40, as well as a few concept phrases -- like rock golem, earth elemental, and primordial entity -- to give you an idea what you're in for if you make a Mountain.
iOS code names head for the hills
Apple's modern desktop OS is famous for its feline monikers -- Panther, Tiger, Leopard/Snow Leopard and Lion, among others. But what about the other Apple operating system, iOS? While the code names for those versions aren't used in the public branding and promotion of the iPhone/iPod touch/iPad family the way Mac OS X leans on Lion, they still exist, and there's still a pattern to them. iOS developer Steven Troughton-Smith tweeted the full list of iOS code names over the weekend, and while they might seem a bit random they actually have one thing in common: snow. Alpine, Kirkwood, Timberline, Telluride and the rest are all ski resorts in the western US. Does Scott Forstall enjoy some time out on the slopes? These names are certainly cute, but they also have a dark side. The 'Alpine' code name was used as the default SSH password for earlier builds of iOS, and users who jailbroke their phones but didn't bother to change the password found themselves susceptible to a potentially malicious SSH worm. [via TiPB] Photo by laszlo-photo (cc)
SSX trailer re-introduces Mac to the mountain
SSX Deadly Descents (sorry, it's just SSX now, we forgot) has a brand new trailer out, and there's a peek at the new version of SSX standby Mac Fraser, who looks ... just as generic as all the previous versions. At least all that powder and those gnarly ramps look fun.
Swiss van driver gets stuck up a 'glorified goat track,' blames GPS
It's reassuring to know that while some things may change dramatically, others will and do stay the same. Overreliance on GPS is one of those highly consistent trends, as exhibited most recently by one Robert Ziegler, a full-time van driver and part-time goat track explorer. The unfortunate gent found himself growing increasingly uncomfortable with the directional instructions his satnav unit was handing out, but his hope was that "each little turn would get [him] back to the main road." Eventually, after having its fun, the GPS guide told Robert to turn around, but by that point he wasn't in a position to do anything other than call the local rescue services, who kindly airlifted him and his van back to more hospitable terrain. See a picture of the van's delivery to ground level after the break. [Thanks, r3loaded]
Halo 3's 'Believe' and PS2's 'Mountain' make 'epic ad' list
Halo 3's amazing "Believe" campaign and the less well-known PlayStation "Mountain" ad have found a place on AdFreak's list of "The 25 most epic ads that aren't [Apple's] '1984.'" The Halo 3 campaign made it all the way to the eighth spot, while "Mountain," with its 1,500 extras, climbed to 17th place. The PS2 spot just barely beat out the incredibly memorable US Marine Corp "Chess" ad -- yeah, the one with the wizards and knights. Halo 3's ad campaign was certainly an achievement, with atmosphere that eclipsed anything the game eventually provided. "Believe" had all those memorable elements: the diorama (wow, that diorama), the old men reminiscing, the History Channel feel of it all. It was the type of pretentious that works -- which is more than we can say for Halo: Reach's Nair boy and his Gatorade injections. Check out the "Believe" campaign and "Mountain" ad after the break.
CCP Games conquers Mount Kilimanjaro, one step closer to world domination
CCP Games is a company with a singular lofty goal: World Domination. From their humble beginnings in a small office in Reykjavik, Iceland, they released an experimental sci-fi MMO into an untested market. Almost seven years down the line, EVE Online has been a consistent success and CCP as a company has expanded at an incredible rate. Now with additional offices in China, North America and the UK and two exciting new games on the way, they're well on their way to meeting that gargantuan goal. Last month, CCP took their plans to dominate the earth literally as they conquered Africa's highest peak. On March 1st 2010 at approximately 6:30AM, CCP developers "CCP Solomon", "CCP Diagoras" and "CCP Punkturis" from the company's Reykjavik office arrived at the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania. Along with a fourth friend named Sveinn Sveinsson, they completed an impressive 6 day trek to the peak through harsh conditions. On arrival, they literally planted the CCP flag at Uhuru peak, an incredible 5895 metres above sea level. [Via MMORPG.com]
Halo 3, PS2 get nods from AdWeek for best commercials of the decade
The average American viewed over 9 million advertising messages over the past decade -- logically, a few would stick out in your mind as being better than the rest. Advertising trade publication Adweek recently voted on the best piece of video marketing to be released this decade. Two video game ads you might remember made the final nominees: "Diorama," for Halo 3, and "Mountain," for the PlayStation 2. Sadly, both of these ads lost to Honda's "Grrr" ad -- if only Sony's "Horrifying, Reverse-Weeping Baby" spot had made it into the list of nominees, the company could have brought home the gold. [Via IndustryGamers]
The Queue: Meow now
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW Insider's daily Q&A column where the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Adam Holisky will be your host today. The above picture took me all of five minutes to put together. Super Troopers is a great movie, and I encourage you all to go watch it today. But finish reading WoW Insider first, and in particular finish reading The Queue to understand the reference. How many times can Alex say Mountain Dew? The answer is a lot. Update: Go and read Massively's take on the coming Mountain Dew. It's quite good.037 asked..."Now that you can queue for battlegrounds from anywhere, are we looking at the new ghetto hearth?"
Haze says no to HD, yes to HDD
Free Radical has confirmed that ambiguously exclusive PlayStation 3 shooter, Haze, will not be the source of standard, high-definition visuals. Speaking to Ripten, Creative Lead Derek Littlewood explained that, much like other sub-HD games, the 1024x576 resolution was chosen to ensure "a nice smooth framerate." Says Littlewood: "Well, as you develop an engine you're aiming for a certain thing, but as all the pieces slot into place, you end up realising what sort of resolution you can run it at and that's where we ended up with for Haze."Though the PlayStation 3 will upscale 576p images to 720p (1280x720), it's unlikely to provide Free Radical's penance in the eagle eyes of pixel-counting pedants. With any luck, people will be too busy complaining about geebees to notice the lack of pees, as Ubisoft also confirmed that Haze will require a 4GB installation. Look forward to discussions involving the game's more obscure features (gameplay, story, blah blah blah) once it's out on May 20.[Via Eurogamer]Read -- Not very many PsRead -- Too many GBs
O'Neill's GPS NavJacket with integrated display and audio
Ever get lost in a euphoric off-piste blaze of snow and emotion only to emerge truly lost somewhere on the mountain? Good, the NavJacket is for you. The GPS equipped jacket from O'Neill is the result of a partnership with MyGuide. The Gore-Tex jacket features integrated audio in the hood and a display in the sleeve which shows your speed, updated weather forecasts, and time and distance to après-ski. A "friend finder" function helps track your new "friends" long after the slobbering begins. All the important tech bits about communication, controls, and that flexible display (not to mention the price!) are still missing. No worries, it's not due for another 9 months as part of O'Neill's Fall/Winter 2008/2009 collection. 'Til then you'll have to rely upon your keen sense of gravity to get you to the bottom of the hill. [Via Pocket-lint]
Watch out, SmashMyStuff: mountain men completely obliterate a PS3
We'll be the first to admit that the whole "smash this object" craze is getting a tad out of hand, but the latest rendition of demolishing a perfectly functional PlayStation 3 is just revolting. While we've witnessed Nintendo's Wii being cautiously dissected and publicly mangled, a couple of mountain men (and their canine companions) decided to take their newly purchased 60GB PS3 to the woodshed. After rambling about and capturing their mountaineer lifestyle in perfect fashion, they decide to crush the box with a large chunk of timber, only to make matters worse by busting out the ole hacksaw. Further abuse was bestowed care of a gas-powered chainsaw, and for the finale, it was set ablaze to cheers of evil laughter. While the motive here is certainly clear, and the tools used to inflict punishment are indeed respectable, you'd think someone willing to trash $600 (not to mention to probable near-death experience trying to acquire one) would actually show the PS3 within the box. But alas, no "real" proof is ever shown, so be sure to peep the YouTube vid after the break and chuckle at this glaring oversight.
DS addiction: just can't put that DS down!
Avid flickr user and mountain climber extraordinaire Rappateng recently had a buddy of his take some snapshots during their latest mountain-tackling adventure. A few of the snapshots are of great interest as Rappateng reports he took several breathers to throw down in some Mario Kart DS mid-climb. We can't condone such an activity as it presents several clear dangers. These include: Dropping the DS Lite to its doom Banging the DS Lite against a rock while trying to snake No Wi-Fi connection in nature Jealous friend could very well kill you with a rock, take your DS Lite, and leave you to rot under a pile of Poison Ivy We assume Rappateng's next adventure will include climbing some icy mountain in a foreign country, all in an attempt to make the most badass Christmas card ever.[Via Infendo]
