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RIM announces BlackBerry 7 OS with better browser and BlackBerry Balance, but no legacy support
The BB OS 6.1 update that grew too big for its name has just been made official by RIM as BlackBerry 7. Its ambassador into the wide world of smartphones will be the newly minted BlackBerry Bold Touch, which is expected to arrive "this summer." What can you look forward to? The user experience is promised to be both easier and faster, voice-activated searches are available for content both on your phone and the web, and the browser has been "significantly enhanced" with new features like a JIT (just-in-time) JavaScript compiler and HTML5 Video support. BlackBerry Balance is also part of the new OS, allowing you to compartmentalize your personal and professional lives into neat and separate piles of content. Full PR can be found after the break. Update: RIM has just noted that there will be "no legacy support" with BB 7, meaning that older devices, even those running version 6 of the OS, won't be getting any (official) updates to the latest stuff. This has been justified by how tightly integrated the software build is with the underlying graphics hardware in the touch-capable Bold handsets. Basically, the old phones won't be able to run the new OS. Oh, and in case you were wondering, there's no trace of QNX in BB 7.
Dark Age of Camelot releases version 1.109
It's pretty fashionable to declare the MMO subscription model dead nowadays. Given the meteoric rise of F2P and the swarms of new titles that are blotting out the sun, it's easy to overlook the fact that some of the genre's oldest titles are still soldiering on with no end to their success in sight. One such title is Dark Age of Camelot. Mythic's fantasy stalwart -- released way back in October of 2001 -- continues to crank out updates nearly a decade later, with today's version 1.109 being the latest example. The patch features a few class balance tweaks, including the addition of a reactive snare proc to the Bard's dreamweaver ability, as well as the usual bug fixes and client optimization tweaks. Also noteworthy is the removal of housing rent, which Mythic's patch notes indicate is a concession to the recent disasters in Japan (and the inability of some players to log into the game and maintain their property). Check out the patch announcement and the full notes on the official Dark Age of Camelot website.
ArcheAge's Jake Song says balance doesn't mean equality
ArcheAge lead developer Jake Song has answered a round of fan-generated questions at OutpostGamez. The interview starts out with some interesting nuggets on world size and fast travel before moving on to a variety of topics including player content, crafting and the economy, and class balance. "Those balance issues concern us as well. We will test and balance classes constantly. However, we don't think that all the combinations should be equivalent. There will be a class that is far more difficult than others," Song says. ArcheAge is also setting the hearts of sandbox fans aflame courtesy of its deep non-combat gameplay, which purportedly includes an extensive crafting and economic system. Song cautions that while XL Games intends for the player economy to take precedence, the devs are not omitting loot drops and their associated mechanics altogether. Instead, XL is limiting the usefulness of mob drops in relation to their player-made counterparts. "Crafted items will be allowed continuous enhancements and improvements whereas such obtainable items wouldn't," Song explains.
Students use Wii Balance Board for kids' physical therapy system (video)
Nintendo's kid-tested, researcher-approved Wii Balance Board has struck at the heart of the medical supply industry yet again -- this time, the Bluetooth-connected scale is being used to help physically challenged children at Shriners Hospital in Houston. Seniors at Rice University hand-machined a set of force-sensitive parallel bars and programmed a monster-shooting game called Equilibrium to get kids excited about improving their walking gait, where they can play and score points with each proper step they take. The game automatically ratchets up the difficulty as patients improve, and handrails will play a part too, with a custom three-axis sensor box able to detect how much patients rely on the parallel bars (and dock points accordingly) in an effort to improve their posture. Yep, that sounds just a wee bit more useful than the Balance Board lie detector or the Wii Fit Roomba. Video after the break.
Scientists unlock the secrets of bike stability, make riders optional
We've peered back in time to the early days of the universe, just following the Big Bang, and unraveled the mysteries of the human genome -- yet we don't really know how a moving bicycle manages to stay upright without a meatbag manning the handlebars. Scientists have long thought that it had something to do with the gyroscopic effect created by the spinning wheels and the caster effect of having the front wheel trail the steering axis (don't worry, it's all explained in a video at the source link). Researchers at Cornell, however, have created a tiny bike that generates neither of those effects yet, thanks to carefully calibrated mass distribution, still stays vertical when moving over 5MPH. The insights learned here could lead to self-stabilizing rides for us and cooler wheels for our pedal-happy automatons to inherit. PR after the break.
Global Agenda patch 1.4 goes live today
It's patch day for Global Agenda, and Hi-Rez Studios is re-working several aspects of its massively multiplayer third-person shooter. Version 1.4 kicks off the new Free Agent branding, and players can now experience all 50 levels, as well as every bit of the game's content, for no charge. The long-awaited Dome Defense Raid makes its first appearance in today's patch, and agents level 40 and above can team up to protect Dome City against a nasty invasion of Recursive Colony bots. Global Agenda's Demolition PvP mode is also undergoing a makeover. The game type has been re-dubbed Acquisition, and teams will now need to cross the map and pick up their robot from the opposing team's base, then return it to their own. Additionally, the robots have been upgraded with a new sprint ability and a heat ray weapon. Finally, agents will notice that their skill points have been reset, as the game's skill trees have been tweaked to address balance issues and encourage specialization. Head to the official Global Agenda website to learn more and download the game.
New developer making plans for Lord of the Rings Online's PvMP
PvP in Lord of the Rings Online has always been a sticky issue, with players taking the roles of monsters that always felt a bit underrepresented. But if you've always been a fan of smashing player-controlled spiders or playing one yourself, you'll be happy to see that there's a new developer in town taking aim at the PvMP portion of the game. Kelsan's inaugural post included a call for feedback and a broad PvMP manifesto outlining the overall design goals for the play mode. One of the major areas being examined is the matter of rewards -- both factions are fighting for different rewards and different levels of commitment, which creates a disconnect in play. Kelsan and Orion both want to re-evaluate what players receive from zone control and taking part in PvMP, hopefully creating an environment where more players can get into the conflict. As one would expect, revisions are also being focused on a balancing of skills and abilities to help level the playing field. Lord of the Rings Online players should take a look at the full manifesto and offer any and all constructive feedback possible.
The Soapbox: Somebody should do something about all the problems!
Disclaimer: The Soapbox column is entirely the opinion of this week's writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Massively as a whole. If you're afraid of opinions other than your own, you might want to skip this column. Bugs. They are the scourge of gaming, crawling and chittering their way through lines of code, turning what would have been a sure win into failure, making otherwise useful abilities worthless, crippling quests and destroying playtime. And so the clarion call goes out every time a new bug emerges that the developers should fix it -- a reasonable request, given that we are paying these people every month. (Or, on several occasions, we would be paying if the game weren't such a mess of bugs that they should be paying us.) Yet months roll by, and despite countless lovingly assembled bug reports, these issues do not get fixed. And it's not just bugs, either -- balance issues go untweaked, content goes unfinished, features get rolled back or sometimes removed altogether. What the heck are we paying for? Why in the world doesn't the development team just fix these problems?
Students build self-balancing TIPI robot, plan new world order (video)
Remember this guy, the QB robot that was priced at a whopping 15 grand? Seemingly, the webcam wheeler inspired a team of young minds at the University of Waterloo, who've unleashed the DIY in themselves to build one of their own. TIPI, or Telepresence Interface by Pendulum Inversion, was designed to give humans the feeling that they're not actually talking to a six-foot tall cyclops cyborg with an LCD face and webcam eye, but rather, evoke the emotions drawn when speaking the old, conventional, face-to-face way. Thanks to this team of mechatronics engineers, the low-cost TIPI uses an accelerometer, gyro and pendulum to balance by itself and can be remotely controlled while communicating via its Beagle Board and Polulu Orangutan SVP brain. Head past the break to see the robot struttin' its stuff -- oh, and get ready to rave. You'll see what we mean.
Marvel vs. Capcom 3 patch preps for new mode, tweaks fighters
Capcom launched an update for Marvel vs. Capcom 3 earlier today to prepare for the new "Event Mode" that will be added to the game this Friday -- however, the patch has also quietly introduced a few balance changes to some characters' intricately measured statistics. The most drastic is a reduction in Sentinel's health, which has been dropped from 1.3 million tiny units (the most health of any fighter in the game) to 905,000, according to Shoryuken. The patch also nixes a few fairly unfair loops belonging to Spencer, Akuma and Haggar. Hey, why not remove their grappling hook, forbidden demonic Kung-Fu and impossibly gigantic muscles while you're at it? Those seem pretty unfair, too.
Lord of the Rings Online releases Update 2
If you've been waiting for the next installment of the epic story behind Lord of the Rings Online, today is your day. Update 2 is now live, containing among other things the beginning of Book 3 for the current story. Along with the revisions to make the preceding Volume II much easier to solo, players who love delving into the game's story and lore will have plenty to be happy about in this update. But there are improvements for the endgame as well. Aside from the previously mentioned removal of radiance, the update features two three-player instances, two six-player instances, a new 12-person raid, and three new scaling skirmishes from the depths of Mirkwood. Add to that the revisions made for monster players, class revisions for Hunters, Burglars, and Minstrels, and a variety of improvements to quality of life, and the most recent Lord of the Rings Online update should bring plenty for everyone. %Gallery-9579%
Self-balancing Domo-kun WobblyBot looks drunk, won't tip over (video)
He may look like he's had a few too many sake bombs, but this animated Japanese superstar is actually built to teeter about. The Domo-kun WobblyBot comes to us by way of Eastern Geek and uses a relatively simple pendulum, with the pivot situated at the axle, to keep the balancing bot from tipping over. As is the case with punching clowns, the bottom part of the WobblyBot is significantly heavier than the top, serving as a counterweight to maintain balance. It also sports DC Geared Motors and two D cells, and, as its creator points out, you can customize its shell to give your favorite cartoon character the tipsy treatment -- hyphy Hello Kitty anyone? Check out the source link to make a WobblyBot of your own, but only after having a laugh at the video just beneath the break.
Final Fantasy XIV's patch 1.16 goes live with a new producer's letter
As we learned yesterday, patch 1.16 for Final Fantasy XIV has gone live today, bringing along a much-awaited infusion of new content and mechanics. The full patch notes are fairly meaty, with the new sidequests and several improvements to local levequests topping the bill. Players will also see slower gear deterioration for appropriate equipment, enlarged enemies with visible aggro warnings, new targeting modes, constant regeneration of MP while in passive mode, and a variety of general improvements. If that's not enough, Naoki Yoshida has chimed in with another producer's letter, this one discussing the results of the second player poll. Players have responded positively to the questions, and Yoshida interprets the results in great detail, with the ultimate conclusion that small-scale PvE content is in the works for groups, while solo leveling and solo content remains high on player agendas. It's a busy day for Final Fantasy XIV's fans, but given the recent development pace, it doesn't look to be slowing.
Massively Exclusive: Age of Conan's Craig Morrison on Blood and Glory, grind, and the future
Interesting times are just over the horizon for Age of Conan, and whether it's due to the Dreamworld game engine upgrade or the recently announced Blood and Glory PvP servers, Funcom's sword and sorcery epic isn't standing still as it moves toward its third anniversary in May of 2011. On the heels of the PvP ruleset announcement, we sat down with Funcom executive producer and AoC game director Craig "Silirrion" Morrison for a chat about ruleset specifics, PvP balance, grind, and what we're likely to see once Dreamworld hits the live servers. Join us after the cut for all that and more.
Lost Pages of Taborea: Balancing vs. viable vs. fun
Thoughts of class-balancing, class-viability and triple-class combinations have been swimming in my head lately. In the wake of RIFT's open beta, Frogster announced that Runes of Magic will be moving to a triple-class system in early April. Along with a lot of speculation on how this will change RoM, there's talk of how badly three-class combos will upset class-balancing where some already feel classes are skewed. Viable and balanced are pretty subjective terms in the MMO genre that make it hard for any two players to be on the same page. I find it even more confusing when some make it sound like there's a mass exodus to RIFT because of -- in part -- the idea that RoM's classes are more out of tune than yours truly trying to sing Zombie. These ideas are highly speculative. I'd like to throw my own opinions in about what makes a class in RoM viable, what not to look for when trying to find balance, and why we may not want to squeeze every possible class combination into the holy trinity of healer, DPS and tank.
The Mog Log: Echo chamber
So the third producer's letter from Naoki Yoshida is out, and I remain insanely impressed by this man. He's been shouldering quite the burden with all of the changes to be made, and he's been doing so with grace and aplomb. I've talked before about how refreshing it is to be receiving regular communication from the game's producer, and the fact that his letters communicate clear and interesting goals definitely helps. The list of planned updates has expanded again, too, and it's starting to help paint a more coherent picture of where the game is going as a whole. Storylines and world quests are en route, more class-based gear is coming into the game, there are instanced dungeons on deck for the higher-level bands... they're big changes. And while we don't know the implementation of several attributes just yet, it looks like Final Fantasy XIV is moving away from the highly sandbox-based core of its launch playstyle. If anything, it's looking a lot like another game altogether.
Scott Hartsman answers RIFT player questions
RIFT's launch is getting ever closer, and that means more and more questions for players to start wondering about. Scott Hartsman recently took part in an interview responding to several player questions, ranging from guilds and dungeon grouping to the disruption the eponymous rifts can wreak upon a questing environment. As Hartsman puts it, the large-scale changes that can happen as a result of the dynamic spawns can shut down questing, but that's part of the goal, and it's tuned so that an empty zone will never be subjected to a cascading series of unbeatable enemy invasions. While the game isn't set to have any sort of group-finding system in place on launch, Hartsman is of the mind that it's better to wait and launch an excellent tool than to simply put in a half-hearted attempt. He also expands on the varied high-end content available to players beyond simply raids as well as what players can expect for content releases down the line. While RIFT still has about half a month until release, the information already available is painting a fairly cohesive picture.
Warhammer Online bringing 1.4.1 out for testing
Scenarios have formed one of the PvP cornerstones for Warhammer Online, leading to a large-scale overhaul of Scenarios several months ago. Certain Scenarios were placed on a weekend rotation, while others were permanently available at different level bands for players to enjoy. Patch 1.4.1, which is due to hit the public test server, Warpstone, tomorrow, is making some alterations to which Scenarios may be played at all times, with some cycling into a permanent slot and others entering retirement for a time. While the shifting lineup is certainly one of the big elements of the patch, it's not the only one. Balance changes have been made for several Skaven abilities, including several overhauls for the Packmaster class. A number of item sets have had their Renown Rank requirements lowered, as well, to give players easier access to the items; there has been a new set added to fill the newly created gap between the Warlord and Sovereign sets. Warhammer Online players can examine the current patch notes and take part in the testing starting tomorrow.
Dervishes get a major turnaround in Guild Wars
Introduced with the third campaign of Guild Wars, Dervishes have always been a unique class, swinging scythes in wide arcs and using a combination of enchantments and melee strikes to take out opponents. Of course, being a unique class also leads to a lot of unique issues, which the development team is hoping to address with the coming update. The preview promises that over 90% of the Dervish skills have been changed, with the overall goal of improving the class in a broad spectrum rather than just tweaking the numbers on a handful of skills. Among the more far-reaching changes are several Dervish skills using Adrenaline, the addition of new "flash enchantments" to allow Dervishes to enchant themselves while on the move, and a restructuring of the many "teardown" combos in place that capitalize on Dervish enchantments. Several of the new skills are previewed, as are examples of how players can use the changed mechanics to still retain the essential playstyle of a Dervish with much more flexibility than before. If you're a Dervish in Guild Wars, the changes should keep you spinning up in the best possible way. [Thanks for the tip, Teina!]
BlackBerry Balance details emerge: available in two months' time, coming to PlayBook too
If you're champing at the bit to separate your work life and personal life into two distinct, impenetrable entities, RIM's got your back: it turns out that the Balance product announced a few days ago will be available in just a couple months' time. In a recent chat with Retuers, the company's senior VP of business and platform marketing revealed that Balance is already in testing with carriers ahead of a wide-scale launch -- and furthermore, it'll be available on the upcoming PlayBook as well. As a refresher, Balance seeks to let you do all your personal stuff on your BlackBerry while still giving the IT suits in your office unfettered access to the secure stuff -- corporate email and the like -- which means you can carry a single device (as long as you're okay with that one device being a BlackBerry) where you might have previously carried two. Of course, if you've got a phone and a PlayBook, we suppose you'll have two devices anyhow -- but regardless, at least you'll be able to Facebook your face off without corporate security getting in the way.
