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The best online STEM resources, according to a veteran teacher
After the schools shut down last week, my social media feeds and inbox lit up with color-coded homeschooling charts and agonizingly long lists of everything I should use to educate my kids. Fear, panic and an overwhelming sense of grief settled over me as I considered not only how I was going to explain what was happening to my curious kindergartener and second grader but also how we were going to manage working, schooling, living and staying sane and healthy in our tiny condo for the foreseeable future. As veteran teachers, my husband and I vowed to maintain normal as best we could. We'd stay virtually connected to family and friends and let the kids play and be bored and eat cookies and watch movies and attempt whatever work their school sent home. To calm myself, I composed my own non-exhaustive list of resources, called "Things I might actually use if the internet doesn't die" and sent bits of it to a few friends, who exhaled relief and gratitude. "Thanks," they said. "I might actually use these!" Here it is, reconstituted. I hope it lets you exhale too.
Amazon stops taking orders for some non-essentials in France and Italy
Amazon is taking dramatic steps to prioritize orders in areas hard-hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. The online retailer told Reuters in a statement that it would temporarily stop taking orders for "some non-essential products" in France and Italy to help Amazon warehouses focus on more vital deliveries. The company didn't say just what it was stopping, but it believes essentials include groceries, health products, household items, personal care, industrial goods, scientific products and pet supplies.
Microsoft closes all of its stores due to coronavirus risk
Microsoft is closing its store locations around the world in response to the escalating coronavirus outbreak. In an email to customers, the company said, "We are closing Microsoft Store locations to help protect the health and safety of our customers and employees. During this unprecedented time, the best way we can serve you is to do everything we can to help minimize the risk of the virus spreading." Microsoft also said it will continue to pay employees for their regularly scheduled hours.
Transformers Universe rolls out Pandemic and Outsider
Transformers Universe is currently attempting to make waves at Eurogamer Expo 2014 with tournaments, free play, and the addition of two new characters. Now in the game's beta test are Pandemic and Outsider. Pandemic is a Decepticon sports car controller who has a flexible weapon set that can mess with enemies and pin them down. Outsider is an Autobot who can teleport to and from the front lines of battle as well as yank enemies around with a gravity well. We've got the first look of these new warriors in a video after the break!
Nexon puts millions into Rumble Games
Rumble Games, founded by former BioWare/Pandemic CEO Greg Richardson, has just received a nice cash boost from Nexon and its investment partners. Rumble announced today that Nexon, Google Ventures, and TriplePoint Capital have invested $17.5 million in the studio, which intends to use the funds to expand its markets and further support its stable of free-to-play and mobile titles. Nexon, the Tokyo-based producer of online games like Mabinogi, Combat Arms, and MapleStory, apparently sees something it likes in Rumble's games, which include KingsRoad, Ballistic, and Nightmare Guardians.
Pandemic: The Board Game infects iPads on October 3
Real-life board game Pandemic is coming to iPads on October 3 as Pandemic: The Board Game, developer Z-Man Games has announced. Pandemic: The Board Game will join iOS games like Pandemic 2.5 and Plague Inc, the latter of which is developed by Ndemic Creations. Because none of these names could possibly confuse anyone. In Pandemic: The Board Game, up to four players take on one of seven roles, such as Scientist and Medic, to help stop the spread of deadly diseases. The game will feature an animated interface, interactive tutorial and multiple difficulty levels. It is unknown whether or not it will also include tips on how to tell friends about the game without confusing them as to which Pandemic you are talking about.
Blood Pact: Taking care of your DoTs
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Pact for affliction, demonology, and destruction warlocks. This week, Megan O'Neill admits to problems with DoT clipping (*gasp*) and finds a way to fix it. Every warlock has at least one damage over time effect to take care of. Destruction has Immolate. Demonologists flip between Corruption and Doom (Metamorphosis), though I suppose you could count Shadowflame off Hand of Gul'dan as one. Affliction is the "DoT spec," starring Agony, Corruption, Unstable Affliction, with appearances of Haunt.
Blood Pact: When datamining is not what it seems
Every week, WoW Insider brings you Blood Pact for affliction, demonology, and destruction warlocks. This week, Megan O'Neill admires the new season 12 PvP gear for Mists and hopes she can save enough to get that purple set. I admit it: I looked at the latest MMO-Champion datamining and rolled my eyes at all the lower numbers on affliction spells. A sigh later and some words about why fix destruction when you can just nerf the other specs. That seems to be standard warlock balance operating procedure half the time, right? Wrong. Affliction mechanics actually changed a little bit, which required some number shuffling. I don't know if you saw that blue post about destruction embers, so we'll go over that and other small changes, too.
Mercenaries 3 footage gives taste of canceled game
When Pandemic shut down last year, it took several projects with it. Kotaku has obtained footage of what was to become Mercenaries 3: No Limits. It would appear this game is not related to the announced Mercs Inc., which is currently on assignment in Limbo. The showreel is rough, giving an idea of new game concepts and revealing a character who sounds a little like Uncharted's Elena after swallowing bad-girl pills. Head on over to Kotaku to see the Mercenaries that once upon a time you may have been able to eventually pay for.
Killspace Entertainment pulling from ex-Pandemic, EALA; working on two unannounced games
Ever heard of Killspace Entertainment? Yeah, neither had we until Supererogatory spotted the unannounced development studio's website (replete with strange video). In a Digital Development Management brochure (warning: PDF link), the studio is advertised as having one "Original IP with major publisher" in development and one "Licensed IP -- TBA," though it's said to be working on games for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC, iPhone, and Facebook. A quick search on LinkedIn shows that the dev house has been picking up employees from the likes of Obsidian Entertainment, Pandemic Studios, Red 5, and EALA, and will be focusing on "3rd and 1st person character action" titles. It also appears that some employees have been with the studio for over a year, meaning it's not exactly a brand new venture. Odder still, it appears that one Douglas Markland of Killspace Entertainment is down as the contact on a WHOIS of both ApocalypseNowGame.com and WarIsNotAGame.net (though both sites are still devoid of content as of this writing). We've reached out to the studio for information on any of this and will update this post if we hear more.
Amazon offering Borderlands for $40, The Saboteur for $20
If you've got a handful of twenties just lying around, then first, congratulations for staying so moneyed during trying financial times. Second, Amazon's got a couple new deals you should look at -- the online retailer recently knocked the price of Borderlands down to $39.99, further reducing the game's gun-to-dollar ratio to a staggering 1 to $0.0002. If you're on a somewhat tighter budget, you can grab Pandemic's open-world swan song The Saboteur for just $19.99. Sure, it didn't receive as much critical acclaim as Borderlands, but if you pronounce its title with a hard "a," it turns into The Sabo-Tour, a sports simulator following the life of bespectacled Cincinnati Reds legend Chris Sabo. That's well worth the $20, in our humble opinion.
Exhibit B, Q or X: 'Legends' concept art from canceled Pandemic project
Following Pandemic's closure last November, several "secret projects" previously handled by the EA-owned studio slipped further into obscurity. While Mercs Inc. is apparently still in the works at EALA with the help of former Pandemic staff, "Project B" and "Project Q" (code names once used by Pandemic) were reportedly canceled -- and the status of a third mystery game, "Project X," is unknown. The not-to-be Wii racer, The Next Big Thing, was supposedly Project B or Q, and the recently unarchived project, Legends, is likely the other of the two. Former Pandemic artist Dorian Compo has posted alleged concept art of the so-called Legends project on his self-promotional blog. "This is a project I worked on for a while, but then it was canceled -- not sure why, because it would've been awesome," Compo writes alongside the series of art stills, which depicts a fantasy-type sky world complete with various aircraft designs. More recently, Compo posted a set of "tarots" bearing a Mercs Inc. logo and said the game was also "canceled." While providing a seemingly erroneous update, perhaps Compo was merely suggesting that the particular version of Mercs Inc. he had once worked on is no more. [Via superannuation]
Recently laid-off devs rant about being recently laid off
I think we can all agree that, aside from being hit by a speeding train or dropping a hot meal you've been cooking for hours, being fired from your job is like, the worst thing that can happen to you. As such, we expected the speakers on last week's GDC rant panel, titled "Fired and Fired-up: Jobless Developer's Rant," to be especially inflammatory. We were not disappointed. Just past the jump, we've highlighted three of our favorite presentations from the panel. Some of them get awfully, explicitly blue, so if you happen to find yourself reading this video game news site while at work, you might want to think twice about going beyond the break. (You should also get back to work, you lazy so-and-so!)
Concept art from Pandemic's Mercs Inc. sneaks onto the net
When art or information is leaked on a developer's personal web page, most (especially the bosses) would likely see it as a gaffe. But we eternal optimists like to take these moments as an opportunity to celebrate the artists that far too often are hidden in the shadows of their IPs and big-name studio chiefs. Today, we spotlight Mr. Tony Ianiro, a concept artist who displayed some of his work on Pandemic's upcoming Mercs Inc. on his personal page. At least, he says it's from Mercs Inc., and while we have no apparent reason to doubt Mr. Ianiro's word, you know how concept artists are. [Via VG247]
Best of the Rest: Kevin's Picks of 2009
Halo Wars Yeah, that's right, Halo Wars. I've already caught enough flak for putting this on my best-of list for 2009 (it's hard to even remember that it came out way back in February), but it deserves to be recognized ... so pay attention once your laughter has died down. Ensemble Studios (RIP) proved that you could bring a real-time strategy game to a console, and still make it enjoyable. Sure, you'll never have 1:1 parity mapping everything a full-sized keyboard offers onto a controller, but this game came close. It's a pity Ensemble closed, since we'll never see any expansion packs or a sequel. The good news is that, since it wasn't received with blaring trumpets and the sounds of cash registers ringing, you can pick this up for under 20 bucks for some good fun.
Review: The Saboteur
You've got to feel for The Saboteur. Sean Devlin's one-man war against the Nazi party would have been a fine way to while away the summer hours, but here at the end of a holiday season -- filled with wonderful games -- it's tough to leave it thinking about anything other than its squandered potential. It's a solid open-world action title, but it's one that hits just enough amazing, explosive crescendos to leave you wishing you could have seen it in an alternate reality, where developer Pandemic hadn't been shuttered and was able to give its swan song just a few more months of polish. %Gallery-49266%
The Saboteur's day-one DLC unlocks nudity, self-loathing
Here's at least one reason to buy your copy of The Saboteur new: All fresh copies of the game will ship with a code to download DLC, called "The Midnight Show," for free. The pack contains new Parisian hiding spots, a new minigame and, for better or for worse, the option to unlock nudity in the game. If you buy the game sans code, you'll also be able to pick up the DLC for $2.99 / 240. But at that point, whether you'll admit it or not, you're basically paying to see digi-boobies ... and if you do that, we're just not sure we can be friends with you any more.
'Mercs Inc' officially announced, developed by Pandemic at EALA
This morning's leaked footage, purported to belong to a new multiplayer-capable Mercenaries game called "Mercs Inc," just barely beat EA's official announcement of the (working) title to our front page. In development at EA Los Angeles, the latest toy in the destructive sandbox is paraded underneath the Pandemic banner, held aloft by the "core creative team" that survived the physical studio's recent closure. No target platforms have been announced. According to EA senior VP and group GM, Nick Earl, the swift announcement "demonstrates our continued commitment to Pandemic's rich catalog of intellectual properties." As the press release innocently points out, "Mercs Inc will also be the first Pandemic game" to be released after this December's The Saboteur, the last Pandemic game. Oh, the previous one, we mean.
Rumor: Leaked video shows Mercenaries multiplayer sequel
A leaked video that's rumored to show gameplay of a pre-production, multiplayer version of Mercenaries -- titled Mercs Inc. -- has been unearthed by Bitmob. The project is reportedly in pre-production at EALA, being created by two dozen or so of the Pandemic team that weren't let go when the studio's doors were closed last week. The video features plenty of car-on-car and car-on-dude violence, as well as the extremely rare Triple Teabag, which hasn't been seen since the Ukranian Ice Hurling team's dramatic win over Poland in the 1906 Winter Olympics. It must be seen to be believed, and you can do just that right after the break.
Video: Pandemic goes out with a bang, 'Office Space' style
There's no two ways about it: having your studio shut down does not feel good. However, it does feel good to be a gangsta. Damn good. To prove this ancient adage, some former Pandemic employees put together a little Office Space–inspired video to honor the house that brought us Mercenaries, the Star Wars Battlefront series and the upcoming release, The Saboteur. Kotaku reports that the mercilessly destroyed printer was, in fact, used by the Saboteur team, giving the video an extra layer of sweet vengeance. A word to EA: if you're missing any red Swingline staplers, we might know where they are. Watch the (very NSFW) video after the break.
