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MIT taught a machine to give you nightmares
Robots are learning to create zombie faces and apocalyptic landscapes, and with your help, they can make them even more terrifying. Researchers from MIT and Australia's CSIRO have created the Nightmare Machine, an AI algorithm that can transform a normal face or landscape into nightmare fuel. The AI analyzed 200,000 normal human faces and was soon able to generate its own, but the team wanted to take it in another, freakier direction.
'Bedtime Stories for Awful Children,' a free ebook from 'Year Walk' devs
The dark, freezing woods of Sweden are the perfect breeding ground for terrifying tales of naughty children who get what they deserve. This week, Simogo -- the developer of beautifully macabre game Year Walk, and mysterious narrative experiences Device 6 and The Sailor's Dream -- released a free, illustrated ebook collecting a handful of five re-tooled, scary Swedish folk tales. It's called Year Walk Bedtime Stories for Awful Children, and it's available in English, French, Spanish, German and Italian. "We think obnoxious children all over the world deserve dark nightmares," Simogo writes.
Pre-order Alien: Isolation digitally, watch it download in terror
Digital pre-orders for Creative Assembly's frightful first-person game Alien: Isolation are now available. Players can put money down in advance of the game's impending launch in one week on Steam, PSN and Xbox Live to pre-download the game and pick up its season pass. Xbox One players can pre-purchase the game's Nostromo Edition on Microsoft's store, which includes the full game as well as the "Crew Expendable" bonus content. PS4 and PS3 players can scoot over to PSN to pre-order either the Nostromo Edition or the Season Pass bundle, with individual passes available on launch day, October 7. Likewise, the Nostromo Edition as well as the Digital Deluxe Edition are available to pre-purchase on Steam, the latter of which also includes the game's season pass. The $30 season pass give players access to Alien: Isolation's survivor mode map packs. [Image: Sega]
You can't cover your eyes in Oculus Rift, a study of Alien: Isolation
With Oculus Rift dev kit 2.0, the world of Alien: Isolation appears more real than ever before – you peer around dark corners by tilting your actual head, you can almost feel the cold metal walls of your busted ship, and you cling desperately to the motion tracker, hoping that little green dot never appears. Because when it does, you're dead. Thankfully, dying in Oculus Rift doesn't equate actual death – this isn't Stay Alive, people – but it certainly feels real, if only for a second. This is my excuse for squealing like a piglet while playing Alien: Isolation on Oculus Rift at E3. It might be flimsy, but it's all I have. Alien: Isolation was one of Joystiq's official game selections of E3 2014, and we discussed how the Oculus version went down, in text form, here. But, of course, seeing is believing.
The Evil Within scares up August 26 launch date
The Evil Within will launch August 26 in North America and August 29 in Europe, Bethesda announced today. The latest from esteemed Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami, The Evil Within will arrive on PC, Xbox One, PS4, Xbox 360 and PS3. The Evil Within casts players as Detective Sebastian Castellanos, who's investigating the scene of a mass-murder before being ambushed and knocked unconscious, waking to a deranged world full of gruesome creatures. The game was first announced in April 2013 and is developed by Tango Gameworks, a Japan-based division of ZeniMax Asia founded in March 2010 by Mikami. Our hands-off demo of the game at E3 2013 saw the immediate impact of Mikami's direction. [Image: Bethesda Softworks]
The Daily Grind: What's the scariest MMO quest you've ever experienced?
I'm going to go out on a limb here and suppose that you've played a lot of MMOs. You're reading Massively, after all, and since we're something of a specialist site, well, there you go. Since you've played a lot of MMOs, I'm also betting that you've done your fair share of quests. Some of these quests were probably boring. Some might have been well-written or mechanically novel. And some might even have been scary. Since it's Halloween and stuff, why don't we get into the spirit by reminiscing about scary MMO quests. What's the scariest quest you can recall? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Chaos Theory: The Secret World's scare factor
There's a subgenre of horror video games that sometimes falls within "survival horror," where the developers design an experience where you're limited in some fashion to make you feel more vulnerable. Alone in the Dark, Silent Hill, Eternal Darkness, Amnesia -- all of these give you characters that move slowly, fight poorly, get freaked out easily, or have to cower in the shadows because they can't fight at all. This feeling of vulnerability amps up the fear because whatever is going bump in the night is much more powerful than we are. The game trains us to avoid confrontations as much as possible, which triggers a second scare technique: keeping the monsters more in your imagination than on the screen. There is nothing more terrifying than what our minds can conjure up, at least in video games, and a good dev knows this and uses it against us. Yet for all of its horror trappings, The Secret World takes a polar opposite approach. We are the super-powered, heavily-armed, nimble-footed, nigh-immortal hunters. We come, we see, and we shoot to kill. On top of that, we're almost always surrounded by other players to give us psychological and physical support. So that makes me think: Is The Secret World scary? If so, how does it accomplish this without an inherent feeling of vulnerability that's present in the other games I listed above?
The Daily Grind: Have you ever been scared in an MMO?
With the release of The Secret World, the topic of horror in MMOs has taken a sharp uptick in player conversations. For some, the title is creepy and spooky as all get out; for others, it's hard to get frightened with all these other people around and a solid shotgun in your hands. But The Secret World doesn't have a monopoly on scares in MMOs, as even the most benign titles may produce a moment or two that gives you the willies. It could be a monster that pops out of nowhere, a creature design that sincerely unnerves you, or a situation in which you feel utter dread and despair. I always felt that Fallen Earth delivered more than a few locations and moments that deeply unsettled me, and I'll admit to even jumping in fright once when I saw a giant wolf come out of the shadows in a darkened boiler room. So what about you? Have you ever been scared in an MMO, and if so, what happened? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Cyborg cockroaches inch closer to reality, blame science
Few things on this planet are more indestructible than the lowly cockroach -- except, of course, a cyborg cockroach. That's what researchers at Case Western Reserve University are looking to create, and they're a lot closer than you may think. In fact, chemistry professor Daniel Scherson has found a way to harvest energy from the chemicals swimming within these insidious insects, meaning that they may soon be able to create robot cockroaches with a more reliable power source. To do this, Scherson and his team incorporated enzymes capable of converting a cockroach's food intake into electrons, which can then be funneled through a fuel cell to generate electricity. Unlike similar developments, Scherson's technique doesn't rely on an external source like light, movement or batteries. All you need is a cockroach and a steady food supply -- basically, a college dorm room. [Image courtesy of The Life Files]
Pinoky makes it easier to pretend like your stuffed animals are real friends (video)
Seated above, from left to right, are Ms. Snuggleberry, Mr. Cuddlekins, and Professor Puddles. They congregated atop this egg yolk for what they thought would be another customary meeting of Mammalian Malice -- a vaguely neo-Jacobean slam poetry collective founded in the aftermath of the Crimean War. Little did they know, however, that they were walking straight into Yuta Sugiura's trap. Sugiura and his colleagues, you see, have created a toy known as Pinoky -- a small, ring-like device that wirelessly brings stuffed animals to "life," as Snuggleberry, Cuddlekins and Puddles soon discovered. Developed as part of a project at Keio University, Pinoky uses a micro controller, a Zigbee input device and a servo motor system to move an animal's extremities, with a set of photo sensors designed to measure the angle at which it bends. All you have to do is grab your favorite imaginary friend, strap a Pinoky around his limb, and use the accompanying remote controller to make him flail around like a fish on house arrest. See it for yourself, after the break.
League of Legends unearths harrowing Halloween skins
It's not too late to sign up for Riot Games' Institute of Horror, brought to you by League of Legends and your deepest, darkest nightmares! During the Harrowing event, fright-proof players can enjoy Halloween goodies and decorations sprinkled around their favorite maps. Skin collectors (ew) will be delighted to hear that there are four frightfully fascinating variations to nab, as Annie, Blitzcrank, Nidalee and Nocturne now boast a spooky makeover. These will be available as soon as the patch goes live. Unfortunately, these skins will be gone once the Harrowing is over, so get them pronto or forever hold your peace. You can view League of Legends' severed-tongue-in-cheek Harrowing trailer after the jump.
The Daily Grind: What zone creeps you out?
In the early levels of pretty much every MMO, the setting is idyllic. Sure, there are rats that could devour a housecat in abundance, but the environment feels fairly sedate. Once you get into the higher levels, however, you start walking through regions that are less welcoming. Some of them just feel unreal and alien (Final Fantasy XI's Promyvion regions), while others are real environments pushed far beyond the breaking point (World of Warcraft's Shadowmoon Valley). Whatever the cause, though, there are definitely spaces in the game where you really don't want to own a house. Every person's tolerance of creepy is going to be different, and for some people the opening of RIFT in the midst of a bleak and hopeless future is going to be creepy enough. But we're not going to tell you what the creepiest possible region of a game world is; you're going to tell us. So what in-game zone makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck, and why? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Automated shoulder surfing makes it easier to steal passwords, isn't very tubular, brah (video)
Here's something mildly terrifying to chew on: researchers in Italy have developed a way to automatically harvest anything you type on your smartphone's touchscreen, using only a camera placed over your shoulder. The software, created by Federico Maggi and his team from the Politecnico di Milano, takes advantage of the magnified touchscreen keys you'll find on most iOS, Android and BlackBerry devices. Because these magnifications often pop up in predictable positions, the spying system can recognize and record them with relative ease, with the help of a camera aimed at a targeted display. And it's not like bobbing and weaving around will help evade its watchful eye, since the apparatus can instantly detect sudden movements and adjust its gaze accordingly. Researchers say their tool is capable of accurately recognizing up to 97 percent of all keystrokes and is fast enough to transmit copied passwords in "quasi real-time," which must be music to a lazy criminal's ears. Tiptoe past the break to see the beast in action and spend the rest of your life in an everlasting state of fear.
The Daily Grind: Things that go bump in the night
Imagine this: You're wandering along, minding your own business, when you hear a Rogue's attack -- then your character is dead. Or perhaps you've been getting your zen on while mining, only to realize all too late that your can of ore was flipped and someone now has kill rights on you. Perhaps your heart started pounding after seeing the big nasty boss you've been working up to finally unleash his fury on your group. Plenty of opportunities exist for us to be scared in our favorite games. For Halloween, we want to ask this: What's your most memorable MMO scary moment? Was it your guild pulling off a long-standing prank on you? Perhaps it was someone staging a coup on your corp? Or maybe it was something completely innocuous like someone startling you over vent? Leave your tale of MMO terror in the comments below! Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Scare up some fun with Angry Birds Halloween
Just like Doodle Jump, another big-name App Store game is getting in the Halloween spirit. Angry Birds Halloween is now available on the App Store. It's a US$0.99 "special edition" of Angry Birds with 45 Halloween-themed levels, which are complete with "scary" backgrounds and pumpkins for you to smash. Unlike the Doodle Jump "Doodlestein" update, Angry Birds Halloween is a totally separate app from Angry Birds, so even if you own the original Angry Birds, you'll still have to pay $0.99 for Angry Birds Halloween. But considering how much fun Angry Birds is, another buck for 45 new levels isn't a whole lot to ask.
The Daily Grind: When has an MMO creeped you out?
Horror, scares, and heebie-jeebies aren't usually applied to MMORPGs -- after all, when you're playing in a world alongside thousands of other people, it's hard for a game to give you the sense of isolation that is necessary for many frights. And yet, it does happen on occasion. A particular zone begins to get under your skin and makes you all twitchy. You get lost in a dark, forboding section of the game and something finally jumps out at you. The artists create a monster model that makes you scoot your chair back in utter revulsion. You get, to put it politely, creeped as all get out. So when has an MMO ever creeped you out? Maybe none of them has ever outright scared you, but I think we're all grown up enough to admit that there are times we felt more like we were in a horror game than in an action, fantasy or sci-fi setting. Has there ever been a setting, a creature, an instance, or a moment that made you long to bolt back to the warm, comforting lights of civilization? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of our readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's The Daily Grind!
Leon, Mexico to use biometric scanners in 'all aspects of life'
First it was CCTV surveillance, and now a Mexican security firm called Portoss is teaming up with biometrics manufacturer Global Rainmakers, Inc., to make the city of Leon in Guanajuato the most potentially oppressive in the world. The secure city initiative will provide "unparalleled iris identity fusion" by wrapping the city in miles of fiber optic cable, creating a central database that will contain of all convicted criminals (as well as any good citizens who wish to "opt in"), and a network of iris scanners. As you can imagine, the man in charge of selling this stuff -- Global Rainmakers CDO Jeff Carter -- is something of a "true believer." Fast Company attributes the following quote to him: "Every person, place, and thing on this planet will be connected [to the iris system] within the next 10 years." Great! There's also this one: "If you've been convicted of a crime, in essence, this will act as a digital scarlet letter. If you're a known shoplifter, for example, you won't be able to go into a store without being flagged. For others, boarding a plane will be impossible." And how about embittered bloggers? Will we be prevented from accessing the Internet to point out how unbelievably frightening this is? PR after the break.
The Daily Grind: Careful where you point that thing
There are parts of the game that you look at it without a great deal of affection. They're bland but functional, the sort of thing that doesn't show up in pre-release screenshots for obvious reasons. Then there are the parts that you look at that could curdle milk based solely on the visuals. They bring you to a state of Lovecraftian horrible knowledge about the hideous true nature of the universe. Maybe something has been modeled to be something particularly ugly, or perhaps it's a combination of poor polygon counts and bad choices in terms of color. In creator-heavy games such as City of Heroes and Champions Online, you might wind up with a character whose calculated appearance is eye-searing. What's universal is that they are so ugly that even if you're used to playing games with unskinned conglomerates of polygons, they strike you as downright hideous. What have you seen in your favorite game that made you just recoil in shock, horror, and possibly disgust? Was it a badly-designed model, or something that was meant to be horrific and succeeded far too well? Did you take screenshots to prove how nauseating it was, or did you just get away and never look back?
Talkcast reminder: Macs that go bump in the night! 10 pm ET
It's the Sunday before Halloween, and that can mean only one thing! No, not that you should have set your clocks back an hour -- that's next weekend. Tonight is about scary tech and the users that love it: Apple's most frightening products of all time. Whether the fuzzy-scary iPod Socks or the just-plain-scary Performa series, there are plenty of bonechillers out there... pick your favorites over at Apple History, the Apple Museum or Wikipedia and bring your nominations to our chamber of terrors tonight! To participate on TalkShoe, you can use the browser-only client, or you can try out the classic TalkShoe Pro Java client; however, for maximum fun, you should call in. For the web UI, just click the "TalkShoe Web" button on our profile page at 10 pm Sunday. To call in on regular phone or VOIP lines (take advantange of your free cellphone weekend minutes if you like): dial (724) 444-7444 and enter our talkcast ID, 45077 -- during the call, you can request to talk by keying in *-8. Talk with you then!
Bloodbot draws blood, inspires fear
We've seen our fair share of scary robots in these parts, and we're not going to mince words here: there is no way we are going anywhere near one that's armed with a hypodermic needle -- and we sure as hell aren't going to sit still and let it draw blood! Currently being developed by a team at Imperial College in London, the Bloodbot is designed to probe your arm for the presence of a vein, stick you with the needle, puncture the vein, and then stop short of rupture. The system, which has thus far only been tested on one patient (sounds like we're not the only ones with reservations regarding the device) has been accurate about 78 percent of the time, meaning it only resulted in screaming fits 22 percent of the time -- unlike your friendly neighborhood nurse or medical technician, who is accurate nearly 100 percent of the time (and still inspires the occasional fit, but that's another story). [Via Switched]
