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Humanity's historical fascination with wearable wheels
Turns out one of our best ideas for people-powered locomotion was also one of our first.
That time France tried to make decimal time a thing
During the Revolution of 1789, France briefly considered converting the realm's clocks to run on a 10-hour day. It did not end well.
Coming to terms with my game backlog
I used to be scared of the RPG genre. Growing up, I played plenty of video games like any other kid, but I stuck to stuff I could pick up and put down. Mario, GoldenEye, Doom. I lacked the dedication, the loyalty and the skill to tackle an intimidating dozens-of-hours role-playing adventure. And yet I would ogle screenshots in GamePro or exotic box art like on the SNES game Secret of Evermore or even just mysterious, enticing names like Chrono Trigger. The idea of these cartridges, and the fantastical little universes they contained, had a pull over me: They promised a story-based experience that's unique to the medium of the video game. Sure, I made some stabs at playing the games, but even the high-school-freshman version of me was too busy for the commitment. I had just gotten a car and a part-time job. I played sports, there were girls to date. You know, non-nerd stuff. But oh, how I longed for the nerd stuff.
How many hours would it take to clear your Steam library?
It's exceedingly easy to let your Steam library spiral out of control when faced with daily deals and seasonal sales, but at least SteamLeft provides a fun estimate of just how many hours you could spend plowing through it all. SteamLeft uses How Long to Beat's crowdsourced averages to estimate a playtime for any Steam library, offering a fairly reasonable argument that maybe we should slow down and spend some of this money on our savings accounts instead. As haunting neat as it is to get a time-based conversion of our libraries, SteamLeft's suggestions for alternative time sinks are probably our favorite part of the experience. For example, we could run 108 marathons instead of spending 493 hours playing through our Steam library. We could also listen to Mulan's "Be A Man" 7,405 times, which we'll just go ahead and get started on now. What's the hour count for your libraries? What ridiculous feats could you conquer if only you were driven mad with devotion to similarly-time consuming tasks? Share your stats with us ... and then join us when we inevitably buy more games we don't have time for during the next seasonal Steam sale. [Image: SteamLeft]
Ship date for built-to-order Mac Pro slips to February; fully loaded config tops $18K
' Three words: pent-up demand. That is what's behind the quick jump from a label of "shipping in December" to "shipping to February" if you're trying to order a Mac Pro configured to your specifications on the Apple online store. The way the backlog has increased in just a few short hours has us believing that the ship dates may slip even more. If you want one of these towers of power soon, heading to your local Apple Store with credit card in hand may be your best option. Speaking of configuring a Mac Pro to order, a quick calculation using the online configurator tool showed that selecting the "power user's" option for every item that can go into one of the little cylinders can add up quickly. Grabbing a six-core and dual-GPU model and then tricking it out with 12 cores, 64 GB of memory, 1 TB of flash storage, dual AMD FirePro D700 GPUs with 6 GB of VRAM, a 32-inch Sharp 4K display, a Magic Trackpad, an Apple Wireless Keyboard and an AppleCare Protection Plan will set you back US$13,581. While you're at it, you may as well add on a black 2.0 meter Thunderbolt cable and a PROMISE Pegasus2 32TB Thunderbolt 2 RAID system. Now you're up to a cool $18,219. Fortunately, many creative professionals have been saving their pennies for this day and can write off the equipment purchase as a business expense...
Number of folks unready for DTV transition falls to 4 million
Just days ago, we heard that the DTV voucher waitlist was completely gone, and now that those have started to flow again, the amount of Americans still unready for the switchover sits at 4.1 million. Compared to right around two months ago, that's definitely a marked improvement from 6.5 million still in the dark, and we fully anticipate that number to continually shrink as we inch closer to June 12th. Of course, there's going to come a time when the figure simply won't fall any lower, as a sliver of those still not ready will, frankly, remain that way. More power to 'em we say -- just keep the booze and bullets locked up and everything will be okay.
Sony looking to make PSP PSN more like Virtual Console
In hopes of bolstering its PSP PSN download scene, Sony plans to expand its digital catalog to include non-PlayStation console titles. "In general, there's a lot of discussion about [publishers'] back catalogs that will finally find its way to PlayStation Network in the back half of this year," said SCEA's John Koller to MTV Multiplayer. That would include both the promise of more PSOne titles (as North America seriously needs to catch up to Japan in that regard) and pre-PSOne retro titles. Despite becoming more Virtual Console-ish, this expansion of the PSP side of PSN will also offer more portable versions of PS3 downloadable titles, such as PixelJunk Monsters and the already released Super Stardust Portable. Koller says that Sony's studios are preparing more internally developed download-only titles. This strong focus on digital distribution makes us wonder if the whole "dropping UMD" rumors are true.
The B[ack]log: The Snake is a Lie
This article contains enormous spoilers, just so you know. Playing Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty again, after all these years, has had an interesting effect on my opinion of it. Which is to say, I actually like it now. I'm tempted to compare it to a maturing, fine wine, a substance I'm sure was heavily consumed during the game's development, but the truth is that Sons of Liberty remains every bit the unhinged and convoluted mess I remember it to be. A mess that, with patience and even the slightest idea of what you're getting yourself into, becomes considerably easier to navigate. Wait ... does that make me the wine?
The B[ack]log: Metal Gear?!
The B[ack]log finally returns with a special, three-part look at Metal Gear Solid: var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/playstation/The_B_ack_log_Metal_Gear'; It seems I've become the architect of my own failure. Instead of demolishing the skyscraper of untouched games in my living room, I recently and rather foolishly added three more stories to it. Three very involving, convoluted and relentlessly ridiculous stories, mind you, but ones that I've already been through once. With the release of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots close enough for me to start using the word "impending," I thought it was time for a Metal Gear Solid replay.A word of warning: While I've tried to steer clear of plot-related spoilers, we're talking about a game that's nearly ten years old. FYI, the Titanic sinks at the end.
DS Daily: What's in your backlog?
If you're anything like us, you've probably bought tons of games that you haven't even touched (or maybe just barely scratched the surface). So, how big is your DS backlog? What games have you bought, but not really delved into? Do you expect to actually play them any time soon? And, speaking of which, why haven't you played said games yet? Lack of time, or perhaps buyer's remorse?
Netflix shipping HD titles cross-country to clear backlog?
Personally, we've never received a title from Netflix that wasn't shipped from a nearby facility, but it seems as if the firm may be resorting to cross-country tactics in order to clear the apparent backlog of HD titles. According to Andy, during his year-long relationship with Netflix, he has yet to receive a disc of any flavor from a hub other than the one closest to his Connecticut domicile, but just today, he received specific word from the outfit that it would be shipping License to Wed on HD DVD from Reno, Nevada. Of course, this could just be a total coincidence, but if it truly is an effort to get more high-definition movies out to more customers regardless of location, we all should see those "Very Long Wait" statuses clear up in the not-too-distant future. Hit us up in comments if you too are expecting an HD DVD / Blu-ray Disc from a faraway hub.[Thanks, andyg8180]
The B[ack]log: Coming clean (about Dirt)
[The B[ack]log now returns from hiatus which, given the subject matter, is probably a bad thing.]A few weeks ago, I experienced my first proper gaming injury... and it wasn't at all how I imagined it would be. My fantasies of physical folly usually involve a mangled foot on a Dance Dance Revolution machine or a Wii remote lodged in an eye socket, bodily damage incurred from activities that largely require, you know, activity. I considered it a dubious achievement to have unlocked pain in a part of my body simply by sitting on a couch and fervently pushing buttons. How fragile my body is! Though the process of waking up is generally one I try to avoid -- it feels too much like being dragged through the dangling rubber strips at the top of an airport baggage claim -- I immediately knew that Monday morning was off to an even worse start than usual. The immobilizing lower back pain was the obvious clue, its origin being quite the mystery at first. Was I picking up refrigerators in my sleep? Did someone replace my mattress with a pile of rakes? Or did I really manage to hurt myself by playing Dirt non-stop for a weekend?
The B[ack]log: Elite Beat Addict
Alex Ward isn't going to appreciate me saying this, but I recently beat Elite Beat Agents. In one sitting, I might add. If you've ever read one, you'd know that a typical video game manual generally frowns upon such protracted play sessions, urging you to take a break every hour and go stare at something that isn't comprised of polygons. That seemed like terrible advice at the time, and for two very good reasons. The first, being the one most concerned with my personal health, was that severing the connection and stepping outside would result in a sudden depressurization and my intimate inspection of a churning jet engine. Perhaps this would have been the superior option had I packed Lost in Blue for the 5-hour flight from New York to Los Angeles, but I wisely went with Nintendo's music-and-rhythmer instead. The second reason then, was that I found myself far too enthralled to even consider giving up for a moment -- not even when I was losing.
The B[ack]log: Happy Anniversary, Miss Croft
Jacqueline Natla is quite obviously the villain in Tomb Raider: Anniversary. In the 1996 original, the only initial clues to her evil nature resided in a somewhat condescending tone of voice and a far too serious haircut. The opening moments of the Crystal Dynamics remake, however, show a more conniving woman with flowing blond hair, almost alien facial features and suspiciously long fingers. Still a bit of a condescending hag, though. "My company has recently turned its focus on the study of ancient artifacts, and I am lead to believe that with the right incentive, you are just the woman to find them for me," she says, addressing one of gaming's most iconic characters, Lara Croft. "I'm afraid you've been mistaken," comes the decorous reply. "I only play for sport." Ah, but Natla's done her research. "Which is precisely why I've come to you Miss Croft. This is a game you've played before..." Though trusting the words of a noticeably vile video game character is generally not advised, they're true in this case. Tomb Raider: Anniversary is indeed a game you've played before, at least if you had the good sense to play Tomb Raider at some point in your fulfilling life (replace "fulfilling" with "miserable" if you haven't). The reworked puzzles, contemporized controls and modern presentation may set Anniversary apart from the groundbreaking effort by Core Design, but beneath those layers lies the same game with the same ideals. Either Tomb Raider was nearly eleven years ahead of its time, or the games we play just haven't changed all that much.
The B[ack]log: Katamari Do Your Best
Well, the title seemed sort of clever at the time. "The B[ack]log" represents one gamer's fight against that seemingly insurmountable and entirely self-inflicted obstacle, the ever-sprawling backlog of games that are either unfinished, unplayed or unloved. That's the "Backlog" part. After surgically inserting some brackets, it becomes "B[ack]log," a reference to both the blog format and the unique sound emitted whenever I view the stack of games I keep adding to every month. And every week, I hope to subtract at least one and ramble about it for a few paragraphs... if you don't mind. A review this is not. It seems simultaneously appropriate and depressing then, that the first game to be ejected and examined (and then ejected again) is one primarily concerned with hoarding as much stuff as you possibly can -- We Love Katamari for the PlayStation 2.
