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New Defiance video showcases set design
The nice thing about having a game that's tied into a show is knowing that the environment will receive lots of loving attention. For example, Trion Worlds and Syfy teamed up to provide a look at what the sets for the Defiance TV show. Given that the TV show and the Defiance MMO are going hand-in-hand, we think this is a good place to start imagining what the upcoming game will look like. The team also talks about a lot of the theory of the town of Defiance. The town is a melting pot of strange alien technology and earthbound invention and is meant to show tremendous life and potential despite the having gone through a devastating war. Skip below the cut to get an eye on the goodies yourself. [Source: Trion Worlds press release]
HTC Rezound review
The Motorola RAZR and Samsung Galaxy Nexus seem to be the two Verizon LTE juggernauts enjoying the lion's share of the spotlight, with the HTC Rezound sandwiched smack dab between the two of them. But that doesn't mean the device has any less to offer -- you might even say it's entitled to some bragging rights. It's not the thinnest phone, nor does it have Ice Cream Sandwich (yet), but being the first carrier-branded handset in the US boasting a 720p HD display should carry a lot of weight. The Rezound -- as you might have gathered from the name -- is also the first HTC gizmo in the States to integrate Beats Audio. So does it fare well against its LTE competition? Is it enough to take your mind off of the Nexus? Read on below to find out. %Gallery-139234%
T-Mobile Springboard hands-on at CTIA E&A 2011 (video)
HTC Flyer touches down at T-Mobile, Scribe pen not included T-Mobile Springboard and Galaxy Tab 10.1 finally get official launch dates Developer does the math: only 3.4 million Honeycomb tablets in the wild? CTIA Enterprise & Applications 2011 has blessed us with a 7-inch tablet by the name of the T-Mobile Springboard. Similar in look and feel to the HTC Flyer, this Huawei-made slate is just as easy to hold, though it's completely sans a fancy pen. The device has a 1.2GHz dual-core CPU, runs on the latest version of Honeycomb (Android 3.2), and offers a 5MP rear camera with a 1.3MP front-facing shooter. We couldn't get any confirmation on pricing or availability, aside from being told to expect the Springboard sometime during the holiday season. That may not narrow the timeframe down as much as we'd like, but at least you know it's an idea for that holiday wish list you've been trying to put together. Head below for a full smorgasbord of pictures and a hands-on video. %Gallery-136312% Update: We were informed by T-Mobile at this evening's media event that the Springboard will debut for under $200, though no additional solid information is available yet.
Nokia N8 used to shoot world's largest stop-motion film, 'Gulps' up the competition (video)
In today's rapidly evolving smartphone market, the Nokia N8 seems almost... ancient. But if there's any doubts that its camera is still the gold-medal champion of the bunch, "Gulp" will shut up the critics. The video you see below is the world's largest stop-motion movie, filmed on a beach in South Wales using none other than the phone's famed 12 megapixel sensor. Okay, that's not entirely true; it was actually done on three of them, not just one, with the aid of a massively tall crane to lift them up. Everything you see in the flick -- including the fisherman and his boat -- is life-size; the largest scene spans over 11,000 square feet. The Sumo Science production, in all of its 90-second glory, is ready for your viewing pleasure below, as is a short documentary explaining how it all went down. For sure, you're either going to lust after a N8 once again, or vow never to go fishing again.
Samsung Galaxy R winks at the camera for all to see (video)
Good ol' Sammy's playing another round of Galaxy Alphabet Soup. Judging by a rather legitimate-looking video that's posted after the break, R could be the next character to identify Samsung's rapidly-growing Galaxy lineup. It's speculated to be a version of the Galaxy Z, a more affordable spinoff of the Galaxy S II up for pre-order in Sweden -- one that'll be fitted with a 4.2-inch Super Clear LCD, 1GHz dual-core CPU, "HD" video recording, and 8GB internal memory. According to SammyHub, the unannounced phone could be destined for Europe before expanding its sphere of influence to southwest Asia, China, and the Middle East. If this one doesn't fit your fancy, don't worry -- there's plenty of letters left to claim.
BlackBerry Bold Touch 9930 gets the hands-on treatment, complete with elevator music (video)
Have the leaked specs and tutorial video got you yearning for more BlackBerry Bold Touch coverage? Well, today's your lucky day, RIM-o-philes, because we've got new some moving pictures with real, live human fingers doing the touchscreen two-step on the diminutive display of a next-gen Bold 9930 (codename Montana). Though a small sample, the footage does confirm earlier reports that the screen is quite responsive, so it shouldn't have trouble making capacitive converts out of those in the optical trackpad troop. We know, BlackBerry World and the new Bold's debut can't come soon enough, so do some self-soothing, view the new vid, and breathe -- you'll have your hands on one before you know it.
BlackBerry Bold Touch previewed in leaked tutorials: prepare to pinch-to-zoom (updated)
A slew of leaked video tutorials for upcoming BlackBerry devices is finally giving us a glimpse into what RIM has in store to keep its diehard fans from ditching the platform. Among some more video of the all-touchscreen BlackBerry Monaco / Touch, we're finally seeing how the popular Bold form factor will benefit from some touchscreen magic in the aptly named Bold Touch. We're longtime fans of the traditional form factor, but if anything, the addition looks to be more trouble than it's worth. Like its sliding cousin, the Torch, touch input seems even more gimmicky given that all the same functions can be performed using the familiar (and beloved) optical trackpad -- which doesn't seem to be going anywhere. Sure, touchscreens are all the rage these days and pinch-to-zoom is nice, but we can't help but wonder if RIM is simply killing time until its dual-core QNX-equipped phones hit unsuspecting BBM'ers. Of course, the company has been impressing us with its use of touch on the Playbook, so there's no telling what it might have in store come BlackBerry World. You can peep the Monaco action after the break, or check out a torrent of others at the source link as well. [Thanks, Reagan M.] Update: Uh oh, looks like the original Monaco video got yanked, but fret not, as Crackberry has just posted some more clips -- we got one of the new ones after the break as well.
Video preview of the new Calendar system
Originally set to go live with Wrath of the Lich King, the calendar system is one of the biggest UI changes coming, and we now know that it's going to happen in the big pre-LK content patch (which will probably be numbered 3.0 or so). This nice video will take you on a tour through the interface. So what features will we be getting in this long-awaited calendar? Pre-existing events, like holidays and raid lockouts, will be on there by default. You can select what sort of events you want to see on your own calendar. Any user can create events viewable to their guild and/or to a user-selectable list of invitees. Events can be of various categories, like "PvP" or "Raid." If you send someone an invite, their calendar icon (on the minimap) will flash. They will then be able to RSVP to the event with whether or not they're coming. Events to which people have RSVPed show the total number and number of each class; very handy for raids. You can invite people to a party or raid straight from the calendar interface if they're online. Pretty much all you could ask for, really. The only feature that I haven't heard anything about that I would want is a web interface to the calendar; it would be nice to at least be able to view events without logging into the game, and the Armory would be a natural place for that sort of thing. And the ability to send invites, while excellent, does open the door to yet another form of spam (which can be reported in the interface). Overall though, it is an excellent addition to the guild tools in the game, and, along with guild banks, really should have been in from release. But at least it'll be here soon.
Kil'jaeden preview from VANQUISH
With the gates having opened yesterday or today, depending on which side of the Atlantic you're on, guild are starting to test their might against Kil'jaeden. In this video VANQUISH, of Cho'gall (US), shows an early attempt at KJ. They deliberately showed us a try where they didn't know much, to avoid giving spoilers; nonetheless, of course, if you don't want to know anything about the fight, this is not the video for you. Although it's pretty hard to tell what's going on, it certainly looks epic. Reminds me a bit of Ragnaros, actually. And it seemed to be going pretty well for Vanquish, at least until a small dragon showed up and everybody wiped -- except for one craft rogue player of some sort. Jeez. Good luck to all guilds trying to down him!%Gallery-22869%
M'uru video, interview from SK-Gaming; third kill by Premonition
As the first guild to have killed M'uru, SK-Gaming has now released their video of the fight. You can see it above (if it's working; there seem to be some server issues on their end), or go to their site to download it in full-res glory. There are two different points of view: a BM hunter, and an enhancement shaman. I haven't been able to watch it yet because it's been down, but I'm sure it's an exciting fight. The SK guild leaders also gave an interview a couple of days ago on their site. Here are some things they said that I find interesting: SK is very impressed with the tuning on the fight, and think Kil'jaeden, the next fight, "might turn out to be the best encounter ever made." Everyone gets to take an active role in the fight; for instance, there are adds that can only be killed by an offensive dispell, and melee gets to use stuns, mages get to polymorph, etc. The viability of feral druids has been increased; they think Resto shaman is the "strongest overall class." Most of the loot is pretty good, although they would have preferred a token system. And of course they're looking forward to Kil'jaeden; who wouldn't be in that situation? One final note: a third guild, in addition to SK-Gaming (world first) and Exodus (US first), has managed to down M'uru. Premonition, an Alliance guild on Alleria-US (and the first US guild to kill the Eredar Twins), took him down last night and received the following loot: Breastplate of Agony's Aversion, Bladed Chaos Tunic, Gloves of the Forest Drifter, and Sin'dorei Band of Dominance.
A shinier WoW
WoW is a fairly good-looking game, especially when compared to some other MMOs, but let's face it: it hasn't had much of a change to its graphics quality since its release in 2004, and you can tell. To give you an idea of how pretty it could be, Youtube user qelss has rendered several models from WoW with more light and some additional filters; you can see one above, and more on his profile page. As MMO-Champion notes, these are fan-made and not previews of anything, but it's still fun to look at the gleaming swords and armor.[via MMO-Champion]
Phoenix Hatchling caught on video
I'm so excited about this pet that it's getting silly. Last time on "Tiny Phoenix Obsession," we discovered that it's acquired as a drop from Kael'Thas, in his incarnation as the final boss of patch 2.4's 5-man Magister's Terrace, and speculated that it's probably a pretty rare drop. WOWDB has it at a 1% drop rate, apparently in both normal and heroic mode, although it doesn't say how many kills that's based on.Now we have in-game video! It's just as appealing as its picture, and I really like the fiery aura that surrounds it. And that calm, confident hovering...I must have it! Look out, Kael'Thas, the day 2.4 goes live I'm coming after you, and I'm taking your cute little fiery bird. Are you prepared?[via Blizzplanet]
Magister's Terrace videos
Spoiler alert: this video shows a successful kill of Kael'thas, the final boss of the new 5-man Magister's Terrace in patch 2.4.
Dungeon cinematics in Sunwell
Here's something very new in Patch 2.4: what appears to be a cinematic cut-scene for the 5-man dungeon in Sunwell Plateau. I couldn't quite tell what was going on in it, but it's certainly an interesting idea with some potential. Will we only see it the first time we visit the dungeon? Can we skip it? How is it synchronized? What do we see while someone is watching the cinematic -- does it look like they just take forever to zone in? Will we see cinematics in Wrath, or maybe even retrofitted ones for BC and old-world dungeons? As you can see, I have more questions than facts here. At the moment, as you can see, this is a rather crude cutscene; something more cinematic, with dialog and such, might be nice. But this is cool as a sort of level overview, as seen in many other games (Mario Galaxy, why do you haunt me so?).[via Blizzplanet]
New fire animation in 2.4
As you all know by now, patch 2.4, currently up on the PTRs, is going to bring many changes (although not as many class changes as I would have liked, but what can you do). Here's one more: a new animation for fire! As seen in the YouTube video above, it currently seems to apply to outdoor, stand-in-one-place type fires, but we can only hope it will be applied to fire effects from spells as well. Mm, fire...[via Warlock Therapy]
Two players take on Karazhan
Two players with five characters each, that is! Suvega, the man who brought us quite a nice DKP system a while back, appears to be running out of challenges, so he and his girlfriend decided to see if they could multibox their way through Karazhan. So far, they've beaten Attumen, Moroes, the Maiden, and the Wizard of Oz Opera event, which is pretty darn impressive if you ask me. Check out a trailer above (or in higher quality at Stage6), follow their progress on their blog, or check this thread for pictures of their hardware setups (drool-worthy, if you ask me). Their class breakdown: Suvega controlled a Holy priest, a Prot warrior, and three Fire/Arc mages, while Vyndree helmed a Resto shaman, a Prot pally, and three Elemental shamans. What do you all think of this accomplishment?
Je suis un mage
Jean-Claude Van Damme's French "What's Your Game" commercial, promised a few days ago, has gone live, and I rather like it. He is, apparently, a troll mage; he's put his physical combat days behind him. My French is a bit rusty, but I can catch most of it, and for the rest, Blizzard has kindly provided an English translation:
WoW Moviewatch: Nihilum vs. Essence of Souls
I don't care how you feel about Nihilum as a guild, this looks like a great fight. Props to the art folks at Blizz for the animations; this is definitely the coolest-looking boss I've seen in a while. One warning, though: the video is rather long. If you want to download the full 365-MB WMV version, head over to WarcraftMovies.[via World of Raids]Previously on Moviewatch
WoW Moviewatch: With a little help from Wowhead
This may be the first time I've seen a video about a WoW web site. Wowhead is a site I'm very fond of personally, for reasons that I think this video makes clear: how else are you supposed to know where your SWORD is? The animated short is by the people behind the "Looking for Group" comic, and I must say I'm pretty impressed with the animation quality. Take that, rat!Previously on WoW Moviewatch
Moviewatch Extra: Starcraft 2 gameplay
Hot on the heels of screenshots and the trailer from Starcraft 2 comes this gameplay video! Man, it's an exciting time to be a fan. Thanks for the YouTube link, Fisker! You can also download the video from RapidShare. Follow the cut for one more video on YouTube.[thanks again, Rich]
