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Rode's VideoMic Go II changed my opinion on what a shotgun mic can do
Rode VideoMic Go II does more than plug into your camera. The USB connection makes it a versatile podcasting mic too.
Rode’s Vlogger Kit might just find its way into my podcast toolbox
One of the best, quickest and more affordable ways to upgrade your phone videos is an external mic. Rode takes things one step further with a whole kit aimed at improving your social clips.
A Russian drone hunts other drones with a shotgun
No, this isn't an April Fool's joke: A Russian defense contractor has patented a drone that uses a shotgun to blast other drones out of the sky. It comes from Almaz Antey, a Russian defense contractor that manufactures the S-400 Triumf surface-to-air missile that caused a rift between Turkey and the US. The tail-sitting drone takes off on the spot but flies like an airplane for greater efficiency, giving it a 40-minute range while packing a fully-automatic Vepr-12 shotgun with a 10-round magazine.
Homebuilt laser shotgun is every bit as dangerous as it sounds
If you thought building your own laser weapon at home was hot stuff, you haven't seen anything yet. Do-it-yourself fan Styropyro has built a laser "shotgun" whose eight 5W beams are adjustable with lenses, much like you'd adjust the choke on a conventional shotgun to narrow or widen its buckshot spread. As you might gather, 40W of combined laser power is pretty powerful -- and unbelievably dangerous. The gun can destroy everything from balloons to ping pong balls, and there are reflected beams that could easily smack someone's eye. Don't try this at home, folks. It's still an impressive feat of homebrew engineering, though, and Styropyro is hoping to make something "even crazier" before long.
Proporta carbon fiber iPhone case gets the shotgun treatment, survives
We've heard of Lightning charge cables being able to deflect bullets, but here's an iPhone 5/5s case that's built with a carbon fiber lining that can take a shotgun blast at 20 yards. Proporta's Leather Case with Carbon Fiber Lining (US$59.95) takes a blast from "Uncle Barry's shotgun" and is none the worse for wear when it is recovered by the film crew. The company also has an iPad mini with Retina display case that has survived the shotgun test. If you happen to be going out duck hunting with someone who has lousy aim, it might be worth it to buy a bunch of these and place them around your body... Just sayin'.
Levine: BioShock Infinite won't favor close-range weapons, Objectivism
Ken Levine and the team at Irrational Games are switching things up for BioShock Infinite -- instead of being based on the Objectivist society of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged, Infinite is aiming for more of an Erik Larson's Devil in the White City feel, with a focus on physics rather than gene splicing. Irrational is also switching up some of the most recognizable gameplay from the first two BioShock games, namely the ability to beat them almost entirely with the shotgun and Electro Bolt, Levine told PlayStation.Blog. "One of the first things we did when we started on BioShock Infinite was to draw a graph with y and z axes, and to say that one of those axes was the number of enemies in an encounter and the other was the range of those enemies," Levine said. "In the original BioShock, the entire game lived in one corner of that graph – few enemies, all at close range - so the Electro Bolt and shotgun were perfect. BioShock Infinite is going to have much greater ranges and, potentially, far more enemies, so we're greatly increasing the spectrum of encounters that are possible, and that requires the player use a broader set of tools." That sounds like a challenge if we've ever heard one. You're on, Levine. You're on.
Wasteland Diaries: Weapon balance
Rock, scissors, paper. It's not quite that simple when referring to the three weapon classes in Fallen Earth. You have the two ranged disciplines: rifles and pistols. And then you have melee weapons. They all have distinct advantages in combat, and they are all viable in PvP and PvE when played properly. There is a lot of debate about weapon balance on the forums and in the game (gotta love global chat) about weapon balance. I come from the school of thought that believes the weapons are currently as balanced as they have ever been. Many people will disagree with me on that point. But the vast majority of people who agree that the combat is well-balanced in Fallen Earth's current system are my contemporaries who have been PvPing since alpha, beta or launch. Many newer, less experienced players feel that certain weapon classes are overpowered or useless. I say that is not the case. Continue past the cut and I'll explain why I feel that way.
Walmart.com lists SOCOM 4, Michael Jackson: The Experience pre-order exclusives
Walmart is offering up two exclusives on pre-orders for upcoming games this week. First up, Ubisoft's Michael Jackson: The Experience is available for pre-order on Xbox 360 and PS3 via retailer's site right now. Not only is the game on sale for $46.54, but you'll get the exclusive track "Another Part of Me" -- featured in Captain EO and in the old Moonwalker arcade game -- as part of the deal. There's also a promotion going down with SOCOM 4, where you can pre-order the game and get an exclusive SU90-S Shotgun to use right away (as opposed to, say, GameStop's exclusive map). Let's see: a gun or an entire map? Hmmm ...
Marvell unveils Avastar 88W8797, first wireless SoC for mobile devices with 2x2 MIMO
The days of the shotgun modem live on with MIMO -- multiple-input and multiple-output adapters that offer numerous antennas to aggregate numerous parallel connections. Marvell just became the first to put such a solution on a tiny SoC, debuting its Avastar 88W8797 with dual 802.11n connectivity for transmission and receiving. This allows for 300Mbps transfers along with Bluetooth 4.0 and even FM transmission and reception, all built into a single chip with "advanced power management designed specifically for handheld products such as smartphones and tablets." You know what that means: shotgun WiFi in next-gen mobile devices. Yee haw!
Wasteland Diaries: Choose your weapon
The new Fallen Earth combat system is sweet. I really don't have much to complain about. But there is a serious lack of balance between the weapon types (I almost said classes). I like the fact that when I shoot someone in the head with a shotgun, I see results -- not the kind you'd expect to see in an ultra-realistic tactical FPS, but very tangible results for an RPG. The focus on weapon damage (aka white damage) has made the combat system more intuitive and user-friendly. But it has also (despite a decent increase in everyone's health) made combat much more decisive. Making a shooter with firearms and melee weapons is a daunting balancing act. If you make the firearms too powerful, nobody will use the melee weapons. There will always be those who use the under-powered weapons, but in the competitive world of PvP, most PvPers will opt with the most powerful ones. The pendulum of balance has been swinging since Fallen Earth launched in September 2009, but more often than not, one weapon type has come out on top every time. In fact, one weapon is very popular and has been since launch. Oddly enough, that weapon isn't even a 180 weapon; it's a 164. That's right, you can be dual-wielding the most deadly weapons in the game at level 45. Most of you seasoned vets know what weapon I'm talking about, and after the cut I'll confirm your suspicions. If you are a new player, you should also read on.
New Mass Effect 2 DLC armor, shotgun available tomorrow
A post on the Bioware forums has revealed that two new bits of DLC will be coming to Mass Effect 2's Cerberus Network tomorrow, February 9. Players will be able to download both a new set of armor and a new shotgun for free via the game's DLC pipe. The Cerberus Armor ups heavy weapon ammo capacity, shields, and health by 10 percent each, and the M-22a Eviscerator Shotgun is "a longer-range shotgun with armor-piercing loads" that "also violates several intergalactic weapons treaties." But those "treaties" were never ratified by the Citadel Council anyway, so who cares? The new DLC should be released by 2pm ET, so you can start ganking with the new space shotty then. [Thanks, Michael]
Fallen Earth set to release on September 9th
Almost as if they could read our thoughts, Fallen Earth LLC announced the game's release date just as we were wondering when said announcement would be made. The game will be made available at both retail and through digital distribution, although no mention was made of which services will be offering the game for download. Launch day is now set for September 9th and, come to think of it, really isn't too long from now. Strangely enough, this happens to coincide with The Beatles: Rock Band's release date. We're sure there isn't too much overlap between people who love post-apocalyptic games and fans of the fab four. Then again, The Beatles fanbase is pretty huge and diverse, plus we're talking about a new Rock Band game.Well, those of you who plan on getting both games could always blend them into your day. Jam on about your octopus garden and then shoot some ghouls in the face with a shotgun. Actually, that sounds like a pretty good day! Yeah, those Fallen Earth guys are onto something with this idea.
Splinter Cell: Conviction pre-order bonus is opposite of stealthy
Listen, Ubisoft. You're taking your flagship stealth franchise in a decidedly un-stealthy direction -- we get that. We got it at E3 when you showed us the game's high-octane gunfights during the Microsoft press conference, and we certainly got it when you showed us hobo-Sam blowing up hot dog carts in a crowded park. Don't you think you're pushing the message a tad hard by making the pre-order bonus for Splinter Cell: Conviction an in-game semi-automatic shotgun? That's like, the least stealthy weapon in the world.From the gameplay we've seen, it looks like players will be able to choose between stealth and brute force -- why not throw a free sneaky-themed weapon in there as well? Maybe a prison shank? A garrote? Or perhaps love -- the sneakiest weapon of them all. Yeah, man. That's deep.[Via Destructoid]
Fallen Earth dev journal focuses on weapon balance
The upcoming post-apocalyptic MMO Fallen Earth has the potential to bring a very different kind of setting to the fantasy-dominated landscape in massively multiplayer titles. One of the interesting aspects of Fallen Earth is the variety of weaponry players can obtain. In true Mad Max fashion, the game's weaponry can can often be found and modified objects, bringing a 'use what works' approach to inflicting harm upon your fellow survivors in the wasteland. Then again, other weapon choices will be decidedly high tech. Could this create a disparity between the haves and have-nots in terms of improvised vs. manufactured weaponry? Fallen Earth's system designer Brandes Stoddard has written a developer journal for MMORPG.com that's focused on how the dev team is balancing the game's weapons. Hopefully, he relates, they're creating weapons that fill the right niches -- no one weapon should be the best for every task, but should really be the ideal choice for certain situations. Check out his dev journal over at MMORPG.com for images of some of the weapons players will be able to use in Fallen Earth, and read about why shotguns probably won't be an i-win button once the game's ready for release.
Switched On: Riding Shotgun in a traffic jam
Each week Ross Rubin contributes Switched On, a column about consumer technology. Often, a shotgun is used at the beginning of a dash, but not so in the world of connected GPS devices, where Telenav launched its Shotgun portable navigation device days after Dash decided to exit the hardware business with its pioneering Dash Express. Unlike Dash, Telenav was no newcomer to the guided navigation space, being a leading provider of turn-by-turn navigation services to cell phones. Its customers include Sprint and AT&T, and consumers can subscribe to the service directly through Telenav -- even if their carrier doesn't support it -- as long as their smartphone does. The product is free to download, but carriers charge a subscription fee for unlimited use, or offer it on a per-diem price. Because it is designed for an inherently wireless device, Telenav software includes features such as traffic notification, which is a premium feature in portable navigation devices. In addition to physical advantages such as the large screen, the Shotgun has at least one important advantage over Telenav's cell phone services. Since its maps are local, the device continues to route even when you drive outside of cellular coverage areas. But there's at least one holdover from its cellular heritage that Telenav needs to shed on the Shotgun -- an unceasing, bright blue LED signaling wireless connectivity, which is hugely distracting to the driver, especially at night. Perhaps a bundled strip of black duct tape will do in the meantime.
Telenav Shotgun connected GPS launched, reviewed
It doesn't seem like the connected GPS market is the best place to be at the moment -- Dash just dropped hardware sales in a radical restructuring and Magellan's halted development of the 5340 -- but Telenav isn't shying away, throwing its hat into the ring with the $300 Shotgun. A $12/month GPRS subscription gets you the usual slew of web-enabled features like real-time traffic and weather, live POI searches, gas pricing, and online trip planning, all wrapped in the usual Telenav PND UI and bolstered by 11 million preloaded POIs. Sounds like an interesting piece of kit, and it's apparently well done -- GPS Review took an early look at the 4.3-inch touchscreen PND and found it to be a "good start," albeit with some minor annoyances that will hopefully be remedied in a future software update. Still, we're just not all that convinced that another subscription fee is going to appeal to many in this economic climate -- we'll see if the Shotgun manages to fire. Peep tons more pics in the gallery.%Gallery-36523%
Team Fortress 2: Meet The Sandvich
Meet Team Fortress 2's "Edible Device" and shotgun replacement, the Sandvich. Valve really missed a good opportunity for a bad pun here by not calling it "Meat the Sandvich," but hey, it's still pretty damned funny. What's next in the series of loony videos? Meet the Bullet? Seriously though, we'd watch them all. Heck, just throw a TF2 cartoon on the air as part of Adult Swim and we'd be glued to our sets.[Thanks Giroro, Alistair and Vandell]
Feedback Friday highlights beefier shotguns, other changes
For all the complaints one could levy against Tabula Rasa, the one you almost never heard was that the game was lacking in varieties of awesome firepower. Even if you counted yourself as a heavier Logos ability user (as this blogger did with his lightning-happy Demolitionist), you could still bust some skulls with good old-fashioned lead to the head. This week's Feedback Friday revealed that they're looking to expand on this awesome firepower with the inclusion of new kinds of Incendiary shotguns, adding double and even triple barrel version for maximum Bane-blasting goodness. And that's just the first stop in a whole new line of weapon upgrades.They're also looking to expand expand character customization to address player concerns that avatars aren't unique enough. They plan to do this by making character profiles distinct from NPCs, and adding the ability to dye armor multiple colors, to give them a more snazzy look. Good to see the team under Tom Potter finally getting around to some long-time player complaints.
Nokia E90 meets maker courtesy of 12 gauge shotgun
We think the emphatic "For Parts ONLY" in the description of this well-loved E90's eBay auction pretty much says it all.[Via Just Another Mobile Phone Blog]
DARPA sets it sights on shotgun-deployed camera network
DARPA's already dropped a chunk of cash on some tiny, camera-equipped scout robots, but it looks like the ever-funding agency isn't satisfied with its surveillance options just yet, with it now turning to a camera network that has a rather unique means of being deployed. As DefenseNews reports, the cameras developed by CDM Optics are capable of surviving terminal velocity drops, meaning they could be deployed from high-altitude aircraft or even fired from a shot gun. In the latter case, the cameras could apparently be affixed to a spike and fired at walls, forming an ad-hoc network to cover a particular area. While complete details on the cameras are obviously a bit light, they apparently have "surprisingly good performance" and are said to be "very cheap." While there's no word on further development of that particular system just yet, DARPA's larger ELASTIC program has reportedly netted some other results, including an "electronically steered imager array" developed by Toyon and JPL, which has now received some follow-on funding. [Via Danger Room]
