Castle
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The Big Picture: a 3D-printed castle
Yes, people, this isn't a dream. What you see above is, indeed, a 3D-printed castle. After working on it for a few months, an architect from Minnesota has now finished building a fancy home made out of 3D printing materials. The man behind it, Andrey Rudenko, began his construction adventure back in April, when he decided he wanted to be the one to set a new bar for 3D-printed homes -- there have been some in China, but questions have been raised about the quality of them. "It has been two years since I first began toying with the idea of a 3D printer that was capable of constructing homes," Rudenko told the site 3DPrint. "When I started out, people struggled to believe this project would progress any further." Well, its very real now, and we can only imagine how dazzling it looks in person. [Image credits: 3D Print]
Shroud of the Avatar sells player-owned towns for a steep price
An "epic" Shroud of the Avatar update this week revealed that Portalarium is making significant changes to its pledge tiers and store offerings. These changes include the ability to obtain more than one character per account, two additional pledge tiers, and a stretch goal store with horse mounts. Portalarium also showed off the new row house, concept art for the city of Ardoris, and announced the ability to purchase player-owned towns. These towns won't come cheap, however: Prices start at $750 and go up to $4000 for the privilege. Shroud of the Avatar will be re-opening Release 6 for play from June 9th through June 13th.
Shroud of the Avatar celebrates one-year Kickstarter anniversary with giveaways and events
Shroud of the Avatar is bearing down on its one-year anniversary since the title was successfully funded on Kickstarter, and Portalarium has several giveaways and events planned for the occasion. The events planned include several hour-long developer hangouts, an all-day hangout telethon on April 7th, and access to Release 4 for backers on the 7th as well. The studio will be giving away an Alienware gaming laptop, a trip to Austin to visit with the team, Founder adventure pledges, and weekend passes for Release 5. Portalarium also announced that it's creating a fourth housing lot size to fit castles for Lords of the Manor. It's a four-fold increase in size over city lots and even comes with a moat -- because why have player housing if you're not able to drown your visiting friends?
E3 2013: Prime World tones down gender issues
The MOBA-slash-city builder known as Prime World was an important stop during our grand E3 tour this year. We've been interested in hearing Nival's been preparing this Russian hit for a larger audience since seeing it in action in March. The game is currently in closed beta testing for a North American release. A Nival developer was on hand to give us an overview about what makes Prime World stand out as well as to answer a few questions about the sticky issue of gender choice (or lack thereof). Join us as we stroll through a brightly colored battlefield and consider where we'll set up shop when this title lands in NA.
Lovefilm, Disney UK deal brings ABC content across the pond
If you're living across the pond and hankering for ABC's content, it's en route. In what could be considered a response to Netflix's expansion to the UK market, Lovefilm has joined forces with Disney UK to offer members on-demand streaming access to ABC Studios' content. Available titles include Castle, Lost, Desperate Housewives, Happy Endings, Grey's Anatomy and the Ghost Whisperer, with all episodes available after their first run in the UK market. Compatible streamers include the PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, iPad, smart TV's and Blu-ray players and the service itself starts at £4.99 ($7.65) per month. Still no news as to when the Camo Snuggie will make its European debut.
ArcheAge fan translates interview, analyzes new video to reveal siege details
A fan translation of a Korean dev interview is our latest clue as to what ArcheAge siege PvP will look like. A thread on the ArcheAge Source forums analyzes the new CBT4 teaser video that XLGAMES released last week and concludes that the free-for-all nature of the game's third continent will lead to a lot of PvP action. As of now, there appears to be no real consequence or penalty for either death or inflicting death on other players, though there is an interesting mechanic relating to building or sieging castles. The construction process requires a "core" element called akium, and there's also a limited number of areas where this core may be used to control land (and subsequently build structures). The core element is carried by players and is dropped when they are either killed or log off, which may result in some fairly intense struggles for control of ArcheAge's PvP continent. It's worth noting that two of the game's three continents will still feature housing and PvE, but if you're looking to PvP or contribute to a castle, you'll need to brave the FFA continent and coordinate with your buddies to control the akium long enough to stake your claim.
Golden Age goes for a walk on the town
Forget the silver age or the iron age -- the Golden Age is totally where it's at. Where what's at, you ask? Apparently where MMOs meets real-time strategy and crosses paths with castles and tall ships. Aeria Games is ramping up publicity for this upcoming title by releasing five new screens showing off the common town where players will bump into each other while they check out the sights. Golden Age is a free-to-play browser RTS where you can assume the role of the lord of a castle in the golden lands of yore. When you're not building up your fortress, you can go on hundreds of quests in the surrounding areas and unleash hell with your elite armies. You can take a tour of the town in the gallery below. Right now the title is in beta for both North and Latin America, so if you're ready to move out of your parents' basement and into a roomy 200-room keep, head on over to the official site to sign up! %Gallery-131092%
RuneScape launches Clan Citadels
Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird... it's a plane... it's a... floating castle? If you're one of RuneScape's legions of players, you might be waking up to just that sight today. Jagex's golden child has released its Clan Citadel update, and with it the ability to move into one of these sky castles. Just pray that the anti-gravity generators don't fail. Clan Citadels are meant to be a pumped-up version of other MMOs' guild halls, a place where clans can congregate and party when not slaughtering everything in sight. There are four variants of castles, each of which can be customized to your heart's content and upgraded through seven tiers. These citadels aren't just for show, but for hardcore use: Each comes with a battleground editor that allows you and your clan to create a tailored combat scenario, including capture-the-flag, to compete with other clans. RuneScape VP Daniel Clough says that this will make the game the toast of the town: "We have been looking for a unique and innovative way to provide new multiplayer features to the game, and we are hugely excited to see what the community makes of this update."
Xbox Live launching streaming television service this fall
Xbox! Live TV! This fall, Xbox 360 will be getting content from a variety of US-based and international television providers, all searchable through Microsoft's Bing service, Microsoft announced this morning during its E3 press conference. As indicated in previous reports, the service is will bring a variety of programming to the Xbox 360, though no content providers have been announced thus far. We spotted "Castle," an ABC show, during the sizzle reel, as well as ESPN, but we'll hopefully have more info soon. The service, still unnamed, will launch this fall on Xbox 360.
Rumor: Evidence for a Castle in the 'iCloud' for Lion
French blog Consomac sent us a heads-up that they've done a bit of digging in the current developer preview, searching for further evidence of the suggested Find My Mac feature in Mac OS X 10.7 Lion and the fabled iCloud domain name. What they found was fascinating. In searching through Lion's strings for references to Find My Mac, iCloud or MobileMe, they came up with the localized strings seen in the image: "Complete your Castle upgrade," and "Click OK to open System Preferences and complete your upgrade from MobileMe to Castle." Now, as much as we'd love to see Apple's email, calendar and cloud storage offering converted into an ABC romcedural starring the delightfully geeky Nathan Fillion, that might not go over so well with everyone. As Consomac's post suggests, the likeliest explanation for this string set is that 'Castle' is a code name for the next-generation online service offering from Apple. Said online service, naturally, is what we suspect the iCloud domain will be used for in the next OS version -- and chances are we'll see it in action at WWDC. Thanks to Sylvain for the tip.
Siege in an all-new way with the Heroes of Gaia: Ascension expansion
Snail Games has officially announced the fourth expansion for its strategy game Heroes of Gaia. Ascension allows players to rise to five new levels of fame, access new cooperative instances, hire temporary mercenaries for castle sieges, and adopt three new command styles for castle development. However, HoG is not done expanding. As Snail Games USA Director of Operations Mark Hill explains in a resent press release, "This is only the first of two major expansions we have planned for Heroes of Gaia. We have an extremely dedicated group of players on HoG, and we are proud to offer them these new and exciting ways to experience the game." Let's get real: Who hasn't wanted to own a castle? Now you can, and with the new Ascension expansion, the developers have redesigned the tutorial and an adjusted novice gift pack, which will allow a new player to gain the skills and equipment he needs to compete with more veteran players. Check out all the latest on this and future expansions for Heroes of Gaia on the official website... and have fun storming the castle!
Palm's tablet is codenamed 'Topaz,' keyboard accessory leaks out
Okay, it's not exactly the new webOS hardware we've been waiting for, but we just got this shot of a Palm Bluetooth keyboard from a trusted source -- we're told it's an accessory for Palm's upcoming tablet, which is codenamed "Topaz." Interestingly, we're told the keyboard features a Windows key in addition to some webOS-specific keys -- we'd guess that HP will sell it for general use as well. As for the Topaz tablet, it's said to be extremely slick, with no hard buttons on the front and a design that echoes the design of the keyboard -- we're told it's due out in the first half of 2011, which matches up with what we've heard from Palm. We're also told Palm's planning a low-end teen phone that's something like a Pre with no keyboard -- it's codenamed "Castle," (just like the original Pre and Pixi) and due to hit Sprint, Verizon, and AT&T. That seems like a likely followup to the Pixi, but what we're really anxious for is some news on a new high-end phone and the Topaz tablet -- we'll keep digging and let you know.
City of Heroes developer diary: Going Rogue, new powersets, new enemies, new problems
As of right now, City of Heroes is in a state of flux. Like any game with a new expansion, the superhero game boasts features that are changing and endgame structures that are being disrupted, and the changes of Issue 19 promise to introduce an actual endgame into a game that's long lacked one. But it all started with the most recent expansion, one that gave players the chance to switch sides back in August -- Going Rogue. Much like Rome, the foundation for the expansion wasn't laid in a day. We were granted an early look at a developer diary by Floyd "Castle" Grubb, longtime veteran of the Paragon Studios team and lead designer for the Powers and Entities team. Take a look past the cut for his diary, explaining the various ways in which the powersets of the expansion were developed and fine-tuned, as well as highlights the new additions for both enemies and players.
Shocking revelations in the newest City of Heroes developer diary
It's fair to say that Going Rogue is going to be a fairly big shock to the system of City of Heroes -- especially if the control-oriented archetypes have anything to say about it. The fourth powerset included with the expansion, Electrical Control, hasn't gotten quite as much press time as Kinetic Melee, Dual Pistols, or Demon Summoning. But it's got just as much spark as the others -- more, in fact -- and a new offsite developer diary by Floyd "Castle" Grubb and Keetsie Braz da Cunha focuses on both the visual and mechanical design of the powers. As Castle describes it, the powerset wasn't originally designed for player use, but as a testbed of several concepts to see how they would play out in the game engine. It was converted to a player set when Going Rogue approached, however... which required a re-design of several parts of the set. The visuals were a hurdle as well, seeing as the set had to feel visually distinct from the many other electricity-themed powers the game already possesses. Take a look at the full diary to see how the problems were solved, showing City of Heroes players another peek at how the development team is conducted.
Palm Pixie (Eos) confirmed via webOS ROM leak?
This webOS ROM leak just keeps getting better and better. The PreCentral guys have reportedly found in the code some interesting tidbit in the miniboot.sh that distinctly references two different devices: "castle" (likely the codename for Pre) and "pixie," which we have previously heard as another name for the rumored AT&T-bound Eos. Is this a sign that Palm's oft-whispered Pre successor is revving up just around the corner? We can only hope.
Firefly announces independently funded Stronghold Kingdoms MMO
Back in April, London-based developer Firefly Studios teased the big reveal of a new installment in its strategy franchise, Stronghold. Today, it delivered, revealing Stronghold Kingdoms, an MMORTS set in the franchise's traditional medieval world. Interestingly enough, Firefly is funding the project itself, giving it the freedom afforded to all independent developers, as well as imbuing it with the fear of crippling financial disaster in the event of failure. Now that's motivation!We know next to nothing about the game, though Firefly is describing it as a "castle-based MMO." We don't know about you guys, but we're thinking about rolling motte-and-bailey.
Castle simulation goes MMO with Stronghold Kingdoms
Being a king will soon be as easy as logging into a game and doing what needs to get done, as Firefly Studios has announced Stronghold Kingdoms, a 2010 dated castle and kingdom MMO. Although they don't currently have a publisher, the Stronghold series is well, for lack of a better term, strong -- we have no doubt it'll find a happy publishing deal in the coming months.The game itself will be very familiar to fans of Firefly's previous works, with lots of besieging, battling and pillaging -- after the proper bankrolling of course. We'll warn the faint of heart now: delve into the official website at your own risk, this is not a casual game of "Let's build castles and play armies!" that Firefly creates. On the contrary, this looks to be a game with enough depth to drown a giraffe twice over.
Palm Eos headed to Sprint as well?
Okay everyone -- grain of salt goggles on? According to PhoneNews, not only is a GSM version of the Palm Eos (AKA Mini Pre, AKA Pixie, AKA Castle) coming to AT&T sometime in the near future, but Sprint will be getting its version of the Centro-like device come Q3 2009. The site claims that "sources within Sprint" have "confirmed" the launch window for a phone with specs similar to those on the device we hit yesterday, and that said device is actually in testing right now. Of course, just as we mentioned with the Eos news, this isn't actually confirmed by anyone at Palm (or even close) right now... and you know how much the internet loves a rumor. Still, this would make a lot of sense as Sprint and Palm are all but joined at the hip, and it helps jibe some of the differing reports we / the blogosphere has heard about carriers. Obviously there's much, much more to this story -- you'll know about it when we do. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Palm Eos: super-thin, 3G, and headed to AT&T?
digg_url = 'http://digg.com/gadgets/Palm_Eos_super_thin_3G_and_headed_to_AT_T'; Liked that blurry photo of a new Palm webOS phone we saw earlier? Well how about some specs, a name, and a better look at this thing? Enter the device above, apparently dubbed the Palm Eos (codenamed Castle... where have we seen that before?), which it seems will be the company's proper follow-up to the Centro -- a quadband GSM / HSDPA phone notably rocking the 850 / 1900 AT&T and Rogers-friendly frequencies. The phone will supposedly be an astounding 10.6mm thin, will measure just 55mm x 111mm (about 2.1 by 4.3-inches), weigh 100 grams, and will tout a 2.63-inch, 320 x 400 capacitive display. Of course, the info we've got right now can't be verified, and since there are a couple of minor question marks here (like barely rounded corners in the OS), you should take it all with a grain of salt... as usual. Needless to say, we're working on getting more details (and some confirmation), so stay tuned! Update: Oh boy -- looks like we just got the full spec list. And yes, it's definitely coming to AT&T (if it's really coming). 4GB storage Price: $349 (pre-rebate) Camera: 2 megapixel fixed focus digital camera and flash / video capture Connectivity: Bluetooth 2.1 w/ A2DP and EDR, USB 2.0 via micro USB Removable 1150 mAh battery (4 hours 3G talk time) Messaging: SMS, MMS (picture and video only), integrated IM client Contact sync with AT&T Address Book MediaNet Cellular Video Email: POP3, IMAP4, and EAS support A-GPS Audio: WAV, MP3, AAC, AAC+ ringtones Video Playback: MPEG4, H.264, H.263
Palm's the master of its own domain, the king of its own Castle
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