tombstone
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Digital tombstone fails to catch on
A few years ago, a company thought they'd hit upon an ingenious enhancement for modern cemeteries -- namely, a tombstone with an embedded video screen. The idea was that visitors to your grave-site could watch a slideshow of images, all while listening to accompanying audio (accessible via a handy headphone jack) -- like a giant, morbid iPod. You would think an idea as modern and tasteful as this one would have caught on, but apparently after years of work, maker Vidstone LLC is still not seeing the numbers. "I haven't sold any," said Doug Ellis of Riverview Monuments in Wisconsin -- a sentiment not uncommon amongst dealers. Cheri Lucking, Vidstone's national sales director says, "We don't release our sales figures," adding, "It is not a huge number at the moment." We're wondering what our forward thinking, gadget-obsessed Engadget readers think... would you drop the $2,000 for a "Serenity Panel?"[Thanks, Lenman1]
Halo 2: Desolation and Tombstone map pack photos
We have a slew of screenshots and concept artwork from the upcoming Halo 2 map pack for you, in a joy-filled Joystiq gallery. The new maps, Desolation and Tombstone, are less than a week away ... but that still gives you plenty of time to study these and try to come up with some kind of strategy for action. They're both pretty wide-open maps, and does that giant crane in Tombstone actually do anything? Looks like it might drop fusion cores, although we're hoping you can crush people with it, Ivan Drago style. %Gallery-2368%
Bungie talks Halo 2 maps
In Bungie's latest Weekly Update, Frankie went into greater detail with regards to Tombstone and Desolation. He complimented Certain Affinity's ability to bring Hang 'Em High and Derelict successfully to Halo 2's gameplay changes from that of Halo. There was obviously a lot more thought put into the changes than just changing the textures and taking away the roof, as the map also features fall damage, which we believe is to be exclusive to that map at this point. As for Desolation, it's been streamlined for competitive play and features grav lifts, ramps around the perimeter, as well as face lifts, moving from an abandoned spacecraft to an open forest.
