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Robot Archer iCub learns to shoot arrows, pierces our mortal heart (video)
How do you make a creepy baby robot downright cute? Give it an Indian headdress and teach it the bow-and-arrow, of course. The same team of researchers who brought us the pancake-flipping robot arm have imbued this iCub with a learning algorithm that lets it teach itself archery much the same as a human might do, by watching where the suction-tipped arrow lands and adjusting its aim for each subsequent shot. In this case, it obtained a perfect bullseye after just eight attempts. Watch it for yourself after the break, and ponder the fate of man -- how can we possibly stop an uprising of adorable robots that never miss?
Teen archer launches cellphone-laced arrows into Brazilian jail
Sometimes we sit around at Engadget HQ and do informal, anonymous surveys of our favorite gadgets of all time. Cell phones are unsurprisingly always at the top of the list. But the bow and arrow always comes in a close second -- call us closet traditionalists. Anyway, seems like a gang in Sao Paulo trained a 17-year-old to shoot arrows with cell phones strapped to the tips over a prison wall to communications-starved inmates. Apparently the misguided teen got at least four phones in before he fired one at a cop's back. Whoops! Still, dang. We much prefer this practicality of this old-new mashup to, say, steampunk flash drives. [Image credit: Robert van der Steeg's flickr]
The Daze of Darkfall Week 3: Keep rollin', rollin', rollin', yeah pt. 2
Lucky for me one of my clanmates ran along and saw me, quickly reviving me. I jumped up, put on my polearm, and ran pretty aimlessly into combat. Two polearm swings later, I got shot in midair while jumping. I fell over dead (again) and was ganked this time. Awwww. My game reloaded and I found myself back at the bindstone, but I was in quite a predicament. Remember the bloodwall? Yeah, well, our invaders had killed everyone on there pretty easily, as they were obviously AFK. Well, they too had respawned at the bindstone... and I spawned in the middle of them. You can't clip other people in Darkfall. You can't push them (except with certain weapons) either. I was trapped in a pile of AFK meat, unable to actually get out. "Sera, where are you at, why aren't you defending?" one of my guild leaders asked. I took the moment to explain to him how I was unable to defend as I was stuck in a pile of AFK people. Really, really, stuck. "If I could compare it to another MMO, I'd say it's like PlanetSide's combat crossed with EVE's rules." "I'll be the judge of that," he gruffly responded, as if he didn't believe me. He walked over to the bindstone, found me jumping up and down in the middle of an AFK pile like an idiot, my purple hair barely making it over the heads of the many orks and mahirim (wolf people) and then lowly said over Ventrilo, "Sera's exempt from defense until we get her out..." But not all is bad and stuck in a pile of corpses After things had calmed down and I had been freed from the corpse pile, however, we were attacked three more times. Out of those three times we had won twice -- succeeding in driving the offenders off or killing them all. We were obviously getting better at this stuff, and it provided an interesting experience for someone like myself. To be honest, it feels like a deathmatch, except without guns. The enemies invade and you pelt them with arrows and/or magic. They get close and you pull out two-handed weaponry or a one-handed weapon with a shield. You attempt to gang up on someone and kill them, while they attempt the same. Then, one side gets obviously defeated while the other side quickly overruns. It's all very predictable. If I could compare it to another MMO, I'd say it's like PlanetSide's combat crossed with EVE's rules. Fighting is focused on cities (or bases) where you attack or defend to hold/steal what's there, except losing hurts and there's no fancy recall into combat. PlanetSide is snappy when it comes to combat because that's PlanetSide's focus -- Darkfall focuses on outcomes, like EVE does. Therefore, combat is not snappy in Darkfall, it's a brief experience punctuated with death and loss. I did survive for one of the battles where we won, if that's what you're wondering. I did archery (I like archery) and even got down and dirty with my polearm. I didn't gank anyone, but perhaps I'll get that honor another time. One more week Well, we're winding down. There's only one more week left in The Daze of Darkfall. I can't speak too much on the clan's activities and plans, but I can say this: There will be raids. Lots and lots of raids. Perhaps now I get to see what it's like on the other side of this thing.I know what you're looking for -- week 1 and week 2. Well, look no further than here!
Go skydiving, do archery, shoot hoops in Wii Sports Resort
Nintendo has just announced three more activities in their upcoming Wii Sports Resort title. The game will make full use of the Wii MotionPlus controller for skydiving, archery, and basketball -- to skydive, your Mii will be falling through the air, and you'll be able to twist and turn the controller in a 1:1 ratio to twist and turn your skydiver as well. Archery looks a little more fun: hit the Z button on the controller and then hold the Wiimote up while pulling back on the nunchuck like a bowstring. And basketball is basically a game of hoops -- instead of dribbling or passing, you just flip the Wii remote up towards the onscreen hoop to try and grab nothing but net.Wii Sports Resort is due out July 26 of this year, all bundled up with Wii MotionPlus.
Play Summer Athletics on your Wii
Because we really needed another multi-sport game collection on the Wii, dtp entertainment (the German publisher behind the upcoming Next Top Model DS game) is releasing Summer Athletics this ... well, summer. The activities in this title will include jogging, cycling, hurdles, javelin, archery, hammer throw, and swimming. We're not sure how all of those will translate with the Wiimote -- the jogging might be similar to what we've seen from Wii Fit, and we suppose the archery, javelin, and hammer throw events could work. But hurdles? Cycling? Swimming? We'll be interested to see how those turn out.You can also check out the game's teaser site here, which has some nice-looking images from the PC version of the game.[Via press release]
Mario and Sonic in the unexceptional screenshots
These screenshots for Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games may not inspire the recoiling horror of the new Sonic Riders or, worse, Cruis'n, but they certainly don't reflect an Olympic-caliber effort. We know that the Nintendo fan's mantra is "gameplay over graphics," but that doesn't mean we should roll over and accept sub-Gamecube graphics on what should be a flagship title worthy of the historic pairing of franchises contained within. At least it's got archery. Archery's pretty fun. To the Sega employees responsible for taking the screenshots: we just wanted to let you know we appreciate your slightly subversive effort to make sure Sonic is dead last in nearly every footrace screen, behind such noted speedsters as Yoshi and Dr. Eggman.
Hudson Soft throws their cap into the minigames ring
Hudson Soft recently announced Deca Sports, a minigame collection with -- obviously -- ten different game types that actually look pretty interesting. The game, which is set to come out this year, was revealed in Japanese magazine V-Jump and appears to include tennis, archery, volleyball, go karts, basketball, and more. As far as sports collections go, Deca Sports actually looks pretty ambitious, and the scanned screenshots are easy on the eyes. Check 'em out for yourself after the break. Looks like EA Playground is going to have a little competition! Frankly, we may have to come down on the side of archery, but controls and content will certainly be a factor for each. We can't wait to see more.
