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E3 2014: Underground and underwater with Landmark's Terry Michaels
You didn't need to be at E3 2014 to partake in Landmark's latest (literally) groundbbreaking patch. In fact, if you were at the con as I was, chances are you haven't been able to log in and experience it for yourself yet! Luckily, Senior Producer Terry Michaels was on hand to offer me a peek at the new features before I broke down in heap of deprivation-induced agony from my Landmark withdrawals. What was the big deal with this latest update? It included the first iteration of caves and the second phase of water. Players can now go spelunking deep in the earth to find large veins of minerals, explore uncharted biomes with new plants, and even find treasure chests filled with special items. On top of that, they can swim through the bright blue oceans that surround each island. As Michaels helped me get my Landmark fix, we talked about everything from the newest content to heroic movement to my pet topics: player books and theme-enforced islands. Oh, and did I mention that combat is planned to appear by SOE Live in August?
Caves and swimming come to Landmark
It's Big Patch Day over at Landmark, and the new caves are the darling of the update. These underworld passages (are there any other types of caves?) offer a different type of environment to explore and exploit. Larger deposits of ore and special treasure chests are the rewards that the dev team is dangling to prospective spelunkers. Interestingly enough, these caves are only the first "phase" of several that will see these subterranian landscapes expanded. Other additions in today's patch include underground resource detection, the ability to swim, a makeover to plant harvesting, and tweaks to trees and potions. You can read up on the patch notes on the official forums and watch a preview video of Landmark's caves after the break!
The Daily Grind: Does underwater combat add that much?
Underwater swimming and combat is one of those tetchy subjects that people seem to have strong opinions regarding, even though I personally don't think it makes much of a difference whether you can do these things or not. Games that haven't had underwater combat didn't make me miss it, and games that had it made me feel like I was flying very, very slowly. So let's tack this today: Does underwater combat really add that much to an MMO? Is it a waste of developer resources or an important part of creating an immersive world? As a bonus question, when's the last time you went underwater to fight jellyfish with a spear gun in the real world? 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!
Georgia Tech models swimming, cargo-carrying nanobots
The nanobot war is escalating. Not content to let Penn State's nanospiders win the day, Georgia Tech has answered back with a noticeably less creepy blood-swimming robot model of its own, whose look is more that of a fish than any arachnid this time around. It still uses material changes to exert movement -- here exposing hydrogels to electricity, heat, light or magnetism -- but Georgia Tech's method steers the 10-micron trooper to its destination through far more innocuous-sounding flaps. Researchers' goals are still as benign as ever, with the goal either to deliver drugs or to build minuscule structures piece-by-piece. The catch is that rather important mention of a "model" from earlier: Georgia Tech only has a scientifically viable design to work from and needs someone to build it. Should someone step up, there's a world of potential from schools of tiny swimmers targeting exactly what ails us.
Garmin Swim watch tracks your water workouts, we hit the pool (hands-on)
Garmin is adding a new product to its line-up of fitness watches, and this one is dedicated to workouts of the aquatic variety. The $150 Garmin Swim tracks your distance swum, average pace, workout time and more, and it uploads those stats to the web to help monitor your progress. Though it's meant to be a part of your exercise routine, the Garmin Swim watch looks like your average plastic digi-timepiece. The watch has six buttons with functions for viewing the time of day, scrolling through the menu options, controlling the timer, viewing the menu and entering workout mode. The setup takes some getting used to, but the illustrative icons on the watch helped us get into the rhythm quickly. Getting started with the Swim simply entails entering the size of your pool, with options to measure in yards or meters. Once that info is uploaded, you press the swim button and are ready to get splashing. We spent a solid half-hour doing laps, and the Swim duly recognized and recorded that we varied our strokes. Stopping the timer each time we took a break created a new interval for our workout, with a rundown of the elapsed time, distance in meters, number of strokes, type of stroke, total laps, average speed and calories burned. That's a lot of data to pore over, and Garmin lets you wirelessly upload it all to the Garmin Connect site. To do this, you have to pair the watch with your computer using a USB ANT stick: once it works, it's an efficient, easy way to review your workout, but it took us a few tries before our laptop recognized the watch. Garmin says the watch's battery will last a full year, which is plenty of time to log some serious laps. For more about the Swim, check out the press info past the break. %Gallery-159003%
Humanoid bot created to analyze mechanics of swimming, replace unreliable carbon-based life forms
Meet Swumanoid. He's the replacement Tokyo Institute of Technology researchers have whipped up for pesky earthlings who can't identically repeat tests or minutely change their swimming style. The bot can reproduce a swimmer's full body movement and measure water resistance in an effort to shed some light on the forces acting on creatures like Michael Phelps. Created with 3D printed parts of an inferior human swimmer at half scale, it's attached to a drive unit and confined to a circulating water tank; Swumanoid takes two minutes and thirty-six seconds to swim roughly 300 feet, so it'll be a while before he and his kin chase you down. In the meantime, you can watch nightmare fueling footage of the bot presumably training for the Ironman Triathlon after the break.
Hyperspace Beacon: Six things SWTOR and GW2 can learn from each other
As I'm sure most of you can guess by the title of this piece, I spent a little time in another MMO this weekend. That doesn't mean that I will be trading in my Jawas and Wookiees for Asura and Charr. However, I will admit that Star Wars: The Old Republic does not contain everything I want from an MMO. That's also not say that Guild Wars 2 has all those missing elements. But I believe there are quite a few things that both of these great MMOs can learn from each other to make the overall MMO experience better for everyone. Before I begin this breakdown, I should state that this is not a comprehensive list of everything that I liked and disliked from either game. At the same time, I want to also state that, besides the 20 or so minutes at trade shows I had with the game, this weekend marked the first time I've spent any serious time in Guild Wars 2. My opinion here is far from complete, and my experience is really based on the first 10 levels of GW2. Lastly, I'd like to say that Wookiees will always be cooler than Charr!
Fish are lazy, naive, easily led by robots (video)
What does a fish look for in a leader? No doubt a nice fishy smell is important, and maybe a sense of direction too, but the overriding factor happens to be something much simpler, and indeed simple enough for a robot to mimic. Our old friend Maurizio Porfiri and a colleague from New York's Polytechnic Institute have shown that a fish-bot will quickly attract live followers if it has a nice, fluid swimming motion. When the stroke is just right, real fish will pull up alongside and visibly relax their own motion to conserve energy, just like geese flying at the rear of a 'vee' formation. It's hoped that, in the future, robots might be used to guide endangered fish populations away from oil spills and other calamities, in much the same way as battery-powered leaders have guided humanity since the dawn of time (allegedly).
Magellan unveils Switch, Switch Up GPS watches for runners, swimmers, extremists
Magellan is tossing its hat into the sporty ring today, with the Switch and Switch Up -- a pair of GPS watches designed for number-crunching runners, cyclists and other endurance enthusiasts. Boasting a petite, 1.26-inch display, these petite devices allows joggers to monitor and record their distance, pace and elevation, thanks to a sensitive GPS receiver that promises an accuracy range of between three and five meters. Its onboard ANT+ wireless technology, meanwhile, provides biometric and performance data culled from an optional heart rate monitor or a variety of other accessories, including bike sensors and power meters. Swimmers can take solace in the fact that the Switch is water resistant at depths of up to 50 meters, while truly hardcore Ironmen and women will be happy to know that they'll be able to store up to 60 hours' worth of data on the watch, which promises up to eight hours of battery life while in workout mode. The Switch Up, pictured above, offers many of the same benefits, but features a vibration-based alert system and ships with a multi-sport mount for bikers and triathletes. Magellan has yet to announce a release date for these watches, though the Switch will be priced at $250, or $300 with the heart rate monitor. As for the Switch Up, it'll cost you $300 (including the accompanying Multisport Mounting Kit) or $350, if bundled with the monitor. Head past the break for an extra image of the Switch.
Trouble hearing? Advanced Bionics' waterproof implant is paddling your way
If you're one of the 200,000 deaf people who've received cochlear implants, then here's an upgrade worth considering: the Neptune from Advanced Bionics claims to be "the world's first and only swimmable, waterproof sound processor," and it's just received certification for the US and Canada. Read on for more details in the full press release and soon you could be bantering while you bathe.
Garmin's Forerunner 910XT sport watch begs to become your new swimming buddy
After introducing the Forerunner 610 alongside its lineup of runner-friendly watches, Garmin has introduced a new high tech gadget that's targeted to hardcore swimmers and triathletes: enter the Forerunner 910XT. With a price tag of $400, it's certainly intended for the most dedicated (or affluent) jocks, but for the outlay of cash, you'll find it provides detailed metrics such as swim distance, pool lengths, along with stroke identification and count. It even goes so far as to report one's SWOLF score, which is a measure of a swimmer's efficiency (calculated as the number of strokes to swim a lap, plus the time to travel said distance). The Forerunner 910XT is water resistant to 50 meters, but it's certainly apt for use on dry land, too. For instance, it provides stats about one's elevation, heart rate and speed, and offers built-in GPS. The battery life is limited to 20 hours, although we'd imagine your endurance will give out long before that time. If you've found your new obsession, you'll find the full PR after the break.
Hyperspace Beacon: Bucket list
Once we start Star Wars: The Old Republic, we will not be able to stop. After only playing the game twice, I have a hard time going back to other games because -- among other things -- voice-over dialogue is far superior to walls of text any day. Then, of course, we can't forget character choices. We will be able to tell the quest-giver what we think of fetching that item for him at the shop when he could just as easily get it himself if he decided to walk 10 feet to the building next to him. That leads me to the point of this article. Despite all the incredible things we will be able to do in SWTOR, certain others will be missed once the game launches. Particular staples of MMO games, in general, will never be seen again. As someone who is placing his MMO future in TOR, I suggest creating a bucket list. Let's face it: When The Old Republic releases, we cannot look back to other MMOs. They will be dead to us. After the cut, I have complied a list of 10 items that we will never see again once we start playing TOR. Count them down with me.
Aquapulse heart rate monitor finally ships, misses out on Michael Phelps fervor
It's not often that a product takes two full years to go from announced to shipped, but such is the case with Finis' Aquapulse. For those who weren't exactly paying attention in April of 2009, the aforementioned company busted out a head-mounted device that relies on an Infrared sensor to monitor heart rate via your earlobe. Said rate is then communicated to you in real time through bone conduction technology. Naturally, it's fully capable of heading underwater for swimmers and heavy sweaters, but is understanding just how hard your hardest working muscle is working worth $149.99 to you? Hit the source link once you've made up your mind.
Polar RCX5 training computer feels your multi-sport pain
The French didn't only invent the guillotine. They also bequeathed us something even more painful (though that's hard to prove): "Les trois sports", aka the Triathlon. A swimming-cycling-running succession of pure hurt, which Polar's latest RCX5 training computer seeks to measure using an array of sensors -- much like its rivals the Garmin Forerunner 610 and Timex Ironman Global Trainer. You can buy the RCX5 now for $350 in a basic pack, which includes the watch plus the WearLink+ Hybrid, an amphibious chest-strapped heart rate monitor. Alternatively, you can pick up a pricier bundle containing an extra sensor of your choice. The Bike bundle ($390) includes Polar's CS W.I.N.D. speed sensor that installs on a fork and spoke. The Run bundle ($420) comes with a s3+ stride sensor that clips to your laces. Finally, the top-of-the-range Multi bundle ($480) replaces both those options with a G5 GPS sensor, which ought to work equally well for both both runners and cyclists thanks to our shiny friends out in orbit. Hit the PR after the break for further details or the extra coverage link for triathlete DC Rainmaker's seriously in-depth review.
Choose My Adventure: It's ALIVE!
Alrighty folks! I have consulted the crystal ball (polls) and now have the answer we have been so anxiously awaiting: It was Mr. Green, in the study, with the candlestick! Er, wait... sorry, let me just dust it off a bit. There we go. Actually it's armed MJ in Secret Cove with a shovel! Go terraforming. Thanks to your votes, we have the backbone of the next Choose My Adventure guinea pig. For the most part, you Massively readers were pretty unified in your support; armed combat and terraforming led by a landslide, while Secret Cove and architecture also maintained significant leads. The only choice that was a close call was the second skill -- scavenging beat out hunting by a mere three votes. Although we had plenty of choices for our polls, they didn't come close to covering the choices that must be made when creating a character before we ever set foot into the game world. Age, birthday, stat points, and multiple choices to create skin color are just some of the other choices the greet a new player in Xsyon. Follow me past the cut to get an in-depth look at the creation process and to meet your guide/puppet/object of amusement in the land of Xsyon. Tahoe, ho!
Hands-on with Rift: Planes of Telara at Gamer Day II
As part of its recent Gamer Day event, Trion Worlds invited Massively back to its studio for another look at Rift: Planes of Telara. Having now been to two of these Gamer Day events, I can say without a doubt that last week's was the more festive -- the player-community leaders and swarm of devs certainly made the whole experience much more wild than the first and reminded me that I was supposed to be having fun (not just studiously taking notes for you lovely readers, although I did that too!). Since this was my second day-long hands-on with the game (the first being last summer when I got to check out Rift's dynamic content), I thought it best to focus on two areas: improvements to systems I'd seen before, and totally new elements I hadn't seen at all (like the Guardian starting zone, PvP, UI enhancements, Deepstrike Mines, and several new souls including Riftblades, Bards, and Wardens!). Follow along after the break for my second impressions of this MMO that continues to surprise me with its glittering shine of polish.%Gallery-101448%
Finis Swimsense swimming performance monitor can tell a butterfly from a breaststroke
In the water, we're such natural swimmers that we sometimes forget what stroke we're using to propel ourselves through that clear, chlorinated cocktail at the Y. If only we had the Finis Swimsense wrist-worn performance monitor that wouldn't be a problem. Using internal motion sensors plus a little information from you (such as pool size) the thing can not only tell you how many laps you swam and at what pace, but how many strokes you took to get there and even what style you were using at the time. At the end of the day it'll spit back total calories burned, which could help us identify just how many crullers we're allowed to down during our apres-swim donut binges.The Swimsense is slated for release in time for stocking season this year, priced a penny under $200.
Massively's hands-on with Rift: Planes of Telara's dynamic content
Just a few weeks ago, I was invited to attend Trion Worlds' Gamer's Day in San Francisco to get some hands-on time with a couple of the company's upcoming titles, including Rift: Planes of Telara. If Rift seems to have come out of nowhere, that might be due both to the acquisition of EverQuest II veteran Scott Hartsman to head the project as executive producer, and to a clever name change meant to reflect the team's shift in development focus. In fact, that shift in development focus is precisely what I was at Trion's studio to test -- I got to check out the Rifts themselves in all their glory, in the context of the greater dynamic content system that the developers are so excited about. Massively's writers have been able to play and report on character creation and the starting areas of Rift several times over the last year or so, including earlier this summer at E3. But until today's embargo lift (coinciding with the reveal at Gamescom), no one had quite seen the fabled planar invasions and takeovers in action. Now we have.
Timex Ironman Global Trainer review
Running has changed quite a bit as an activity over the last decade or so. Moisture-wicking (or "technical") clothing has become commonplace, portable media players are small and light enough to not be a hinderance, and GPS watches and other gadgets have emerged on the scene and rapidly come down in price. While some may think those devices are reserved for only the most serious runners, they can actually be a great tool for those just starting out as well. One of the latest such gadgets is Timex's Ironman Global Trainer, the company's first true GPS sports watch (previous models relied on a separate GPS module), and one of the few rivals to Garmin's well-established Forerunner line. How does it stack up? Timex kindly let us put the watch through its paces so we could find out. Read on for our review.
Caption Contest: Waterproof BlackBerry Storm doubles as flotation device
Following hot on the heels of a similar outing from Samsung, it seems that RIM's finally wading into the oversized novelty smart phone market.Josh T: "Even at that size, the Storm was still difficult to type on."Tim: "HELLO? WHAT? NO I'M IN A SWIMMING POOL. YEAH, IT'S RUBBISH."Darren: "Clickable touchscreen, huh? Riiiiiight."Jacob: "I never thought the Storm could've been such a lifesaver."Laura: "I'm not sure this is what people meant when they said RIM should try to make a BlackBerry that appeals to younger people."Joe: "Looks like it's time to try out that 'rice bowl' trick."Ross: "It's pretty rude of him to sit on those text messages all day." Don: "Gotta watch out for those deep end roaming charges."Nilay: "A U2 backstage pass is not what it used to be."Chris: "Analysts say that the Storm's price is inflated and RIM's touchscreen support is still in its infancy."
