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The 65th anniversary Corvette is a performance beast for data nerds
The Corvette is 65 years old. Take a moment to let that sink in. Typically, in your sixties, you slow down. You relax and if you're lucky, settle into a nice long retirement. The 2018 Z06 Carbon 65 convertible is doing none of those things. If anything, Chevrolet has produced one of the best Corvettes ever. It's fast (duh), but thanks to lightweight materials and an onboard data tracking system, the Vette is ready for the new generation of drivers to take the wheel. Just be ready to drop a lot of cash. Like, all your cash.
Hyperspace Beacon: SWTOR spoiler alert!
Originally, I had my heart set on playing a Smuggler when Star Wars: The Old Republic went live, so I had intended on not playing one in beta. But the temptation was far too strong. I played a couple of Smugglers to try out the different specs and see the storyline from a couple of different points of view. Unfortunately, that burned me out on the class, and I could never finish the story on the live servers. Another of my intentions when the servers went live was to max out a character as fast as I could so that I could get to endgame in a decent amount of time. Therefore, I picked a class that I didn't think would hold my interest: the Sith Warrior. Unfortunately -- or fortunately depending on your perspective -- I fell in love with the Sith Warrior storyline. I was impressed that an "evil" character could have such an interesting story arc, so much so that by the end I was really rooting for her to win. What I didn't know was that there was a connection between the Sith Warrior story and the Smuggler story. I was right there listening to the characters speak, yet I didn't understand at first why I felt that nagging feeling as if I'd heard certain things before. Once I did discover the connection between those two storylines, I sought out other story connections. I found out that SWTOR is full of these tiny links. Since it's been a year since release, I figured that it's safe to share some of my favorites. Yes, major spoilers follow the break.
Hyperspace Beacon: More hidden messages
A little over a month ago, I mentioned there were hidden messages within the Star Wars: The Old Republic website. Site designer Alyssa Gobelle had some fun and riddled all the pages with Aurebesh phrases. This gives the site not only an interesting aesthetic but also a direct tie to the story being told. Gobelle said to The Holonet Project in an interview, "[W]e planned to add some generic Aurebesh to start. But we also wanted to add some hidden teases and notes for you guys to devour and ponder upon and play with. Give some more fuel to the speculation festivities." For those who aren't aware what Aurebesh is, I will explain briefly. Obviously, since Star Wars happens a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, the language is not going to be the same as ours. The accepted history of the "language" starts in 1993 when a graphic designer for West End Games, Stephan Crane, wanted to add some extra flavor to the Star Wars Miniatures Battles Companion. So based on symbols seen in Dark Forces and monitor readouts from Return of the Jedi, he created one corresponding Aurebesh letter for every English letter. And the name Aurebesh, like the English word alphabet, is derived from the first two letters: Aurek and Besh. (Alphabet is from the Greek letters Alpha and Beta.) This week we dive into the messages hidden within the Biography pages and into a bonus screenshot that may give us some insight into a PvP mechanic. Follow me after the break to help me unravel these mysteries.
