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Angry Birds Space gameplay gets revealed -- briefly (video)
We've already gleaned that the extra-terrestrial edition of Angry Birds will involve some sort of gameplay departure from the add-on style of previous versions, but gameplay-wise there's been less information. Fortunately, makers Rovio has now leaked out a very brief taster in its lastest video. You'll have to skip to the three-minute marker, but you'll get a glimpse at some anti-gravity avians, bubbles, explosions and atmosphere re-entries. Take a look for yourself after the break. [Thanks Ville]
The Daily Grind: What's your favorite in-game wildlife?
The general rule of MMOs is pretty simple to understand -- if it moves, either get a quest from it or kill it. Natural critters other than enemy soldiers exist mostly so that you can occasionally kill ten rats rather than killing ten beastmen. But from the chocobos of Final Fantasy XI to the elementally affected critters of RIFT, there are a plethora of different creatures that roam the land that you aren't necessarily meant to kill -- or at least those that serve a purpose in the world's ecology. In some games, such as the deep space setting of EVE Online, you're not going to find much in the way of wildlife. But in the games that do feature animals meandering about, which ones are your favorites? What local fauna catches your eye, either because it reminds you that the game takes place in a living world or just because it's so alien and bizarre? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Satellite-borne lasers tracking woodland happenings, who knows what else
It may shock your senses, but this actually isn't the first time we've heard of lasers being used to track birds and their habitats. But this go 'round, an Idaho University team is using a satellite-borne laser in an effort to "predict in which part of a State Forest the birds might be living." In particular, the crew is developing methods that'll help them track the North American pileated woodpecker, namely because these creatures are pegged as being great indicators of overall bird diversity. Currently, the laser is only capable of analyzing vital characteristics of a woodland, but scientists are using this information to take a stab as to where the aforementioned birds would be. Essentially, this laser spotting approach enables gurus to spot highly dense sections of forest -- plots where the pileated woodpecker loves to hang -- from above, dramatically cutting down the hide-and-seek that would previously take place on foot in much larger areas. Now, if only they could get lasers onto the birds, we'd have an all new brand of rave to consider.
TUAW's Daily App: Trucks and Skulls
I'll be honest, at the expense of disagreeing with some of you: I don't really like Angry Birds. Sure, I'll admit it's a quality app, and I obviously can't deny all of those sales. But personally, it's just not my game -- I don't find it nearly as fun as some of the other games on the App Store. That said, I know plenty of people enjoy Angry Birds, and for those people, Trucks and Skulls will probably scratch the same itch. Gameplay is almost exactly the same, except instead of birds, you're throwing trucks, and instead of pigs, you're attacking ... well, you can probably guess. There are a few new mechanics, a full level maker and screenshot sharing service, and the stages are obviously different, but otherwise, it's more of the physics puzzle goodness that Angry Birds has, only done with a heavy metal, death trucker aesthetic. Heck, maybe that appeals to some of you even more than Rovio's title. Trucks and Skulls just recently released a free version, and the full game is just US 99 cents on the iPhone and $1.99 on the iPad, with Game Center integration included. If you've already blown through Angry Birds and the recent holiday edition, give Trucks and Skulls a try.
Robins can see magnetic fields with a keen right eye
When it's time to migrate, how do birds find north? The going theory is that some avians can literally see the magnetic fields. Talk about a birds-eye view. However, a recent experiment shows that ability is hampered unless the creature in question has good vision in the right eye. Outfitting a variety of European robins with goggles frosted on one side and clear on the other -- but transmitting the same amount of light to both eyes -- a team of researchers at Goethe-Universitat in Germany discovered that the birds with blurred vision in their right eye were disoriented, while those with obscured sight on the left headed north without delay. Since we mastered the compass ages ago, there are precious few lessons here for robotic bird builders -- but perhaps once these scientists are satisfied with ocular experiments, they'll get around to figuring out how carrier pigeons manage those cellphone-smuggling return flights.
Topping the App Store charts with Angry Birds
Angry Birds is one of the growing number of phenomenal success stories coming out of the App Store. It's a simple game; you drag birds in a slingshot in order to try and get them to knock down structures and hit green pigs. It's really resonated with audiences, though, and just like we heard with Doodle Jump, a string of constant free updates has propelled it to the top of the charts. I got to talk to Mikael and Niklas Hed, cousins and chief officers at Rovio Mobile (the company behind Angry Birds), last week at E3 about their game and its success so far. They told me that the game has had four million downloads to date across, both, its paid and lite versions, and they said that they'll keep updating it "as long as the underlying market keeps growing." I asked them why they have chosen this model of just supporting the game with free updates, and they pointed to Valve's Team Fortress 2 as an example; they're updating the game just because they're "focused on bringing great value" to their customers. Future updates to the game will include new birds to play around with and a little bit of multiplayer functionality, which is coming in a "huge update" very soon. I also asked about the iPad version (which has gotten some bad reviews, since it's basically the same as the iPhone version), and they said that it was just a matter of resources, but they did want to update that version of the app in the future.
Massive, solar powered bird is overseeing Coachella, pretty stoked about its chance to see Phoenix
This massive structure will greet you this weekend if you're headed to the Coachella music festival. It's a 45-foot tall solar-powered crane (the bird), and it boasts multicolored LEDs for what will surely be an awe-inspiring night. The huge art installation has a wingspan of 150 feet and weighs about 35,000 pounds. The photovoltaic-powered birdie was designed by Crimson Collective, and it's just another reason we're regretting our decision not to head out west for the festival. If you're lucky enough to be at Coachella, be sure to snap some closeups of the origami-styled crane hanging out with Steve Malkmus for us, okay? Hit the source link for a bunch of other photos.
Macworld 2010: We discuss iBird Pro with Mitch Waite
We had the opportunity to interview Mitch Waite, the developer of iBird Explorer Pro (US$29.99). This is an iPhone/iPod touch App running under OS 3.0 or better. According to Mitch, it is fourteen field guide books rolled into one App. Apple liked the App so much that it was included it in an iPhone TV commercial. Macworld liked the app too and it was awarded the best reference App of 2009. This is one big App, since it contains over 900 beautifully rendered pictures of birds, that Mitch will tell you all about in the video. It weighs in at 391MB, which may be a concern for those of you running out of storage. It's self-contained, needing no Wi-Fi or cellular connection. This was a wise design choice, since out in the wild, Cell signals can be a hard commodity to come by. We apologize for the poor audio syncing of the video, but Mitch's story is quite fascinating. Click on the 'Read More' link to view the video interview and demonstration of iBird Explorer Pro.
Mirror's Edge for iPhone trailer
EA has released a trailer for the iPhone version of Mirror's Edge, and I have to say, it's looking good. As we surmised earlier, it's not the same first person gameplay as the console title, but instead it looks like the same running, jumping and sliding heroine has been translated onto the small screen with a nice amount of polish and flair. The Canabalt comparison continues as well (tell me you didn't see the birds flock up and think of that one), but you can see that there's also some enemies to take on, and I'd presume there's some accelerometer-based gameplay in the balancing act seen in there. Looks good to me -- no price or date yet for the release, but I'd imagine it's just around the corner.
Anti-Aliased: Sometimes, it's the little things in (virtual) life
After playing so many games, there are moments that stick out in my mind that make me smile. Some of them are these really epic stories about boss battles, or hard fought PvP moments, or personal notes of glory and triumph. Yet others are drastically different. They're calm, touching moments, where the game either really affected me on an emotional level or wowed me with some attention to detail.In the frantic picture of game design, balancing, art direction, content, and bug squashing of making a highly complex MMO, development teams begin to miss things. Who cares about how a daisy moves when there's serious issues at hand, like item drop rates not working out the way they should be? Yet some development teams do see these little issues and they do take the time to program them in. Not every user may notice them, but some users will, and appreciate them.This column is dedicated to the little things in our virtual lives. Come with me as we look through some popular and some unpopular MMOs, and highlight some of the things that development teams have done to really hook us into their world.
Geolocator-equipped backpacks to track bird migrations
We've seen birds tasked with carrying around sensors in order to provide data about external happenings, but up until now, tracking birds' migration patterns from start to finish has been a tedious, if not impossible task. Gurus from York University in Toronto have apparently figured out the solution, and it all sounds much simpler than you might imagine. By equipping birds with minuscule "backpacks" -- which weigh less than a dime and use geolocators to collect all sorts of information about flight times, patterns, stopovers and speed -- scientists can get an accurate look at where the animals were and when they were there. In a recent test involving 34 birds, researchers were able to retrieve the packs from 7, and while that may not be a majority, biologist J. M. Stutchbury noted that this "was 7 more than anybody else." Right you are, Doc.[Via New York Times, image courtesy of PaulNoll]
Tower owners, FCC musing over how to stop taking out birds
Cell towers have obviously always been a danger to aircraft and the occasional light changer or BASE jumper, but the FCC's been facing scrutiny from environmental groups for years over the risks towers pose to another group of fliers: birds. A February court battle brought against the feds by the American Bird Conservancy -- dealing specifically with the threat of so-called "tower kill" on migratory birds in the Gulf region -- saw a ruling demanding that the FCC finally get down to business and come up with a game plan for dealing with the threat that cell sites pose to birds, particularly at night. Naturally, there's still some hemming and hawing, legal wrangling, and wringing of hands going on amongst tower owners and their allies, largely over concerns that the ruling's going to lead to denied and delayed applications for new tower construction. Apparently no one's bothered to teach those little guys what the red lights mean?[Via textually.org]
First-time modder wings it, produces classy DS mod
Kudos to Flickr user Obajoo, who went and did what none of us are brave enough to do: despite having no previous experience, she added this classy design of two silhouetted birds to her Metallic Rose DS. Writing about the process on her blog, Obajoo makes it sound reasonably straightforward -- so much so that we're even beginning to think about contemplating whether or not to maybe consider customizing our DS. Hit up Obajoo's Flickr for more photos. Not all custom paint jobs end up looking quite as nice as Obajoo's. Take, for example, Elyssa's Marth tribute, viper640_0's misguided Triforce design, or this frankly frightening custom GBA. On second thoughts, we might leave ours as it is.
The best of WoW Insider: April 29-May 6, 2008
All the crows you see above are actually players. A bunch of Druids in crow form (as part of the Penny Arcade Alliance on WoW's Dark Iron server) decided to recreate "The Birds" in the game You'd think this is pretty awesome (and it is), but really, this is just another story on Joystiq's sister site WoW Insider. If something cool happens in the game of Warcraft (like, oh I don't know, controlling the game with your eyeballs), we're there every day to cover it. Here's our best from the last wek. News Season 4 items unveiledThe next Arena season's items are slowly leaking out on the servers -- find out the gear you'll be wearing if you can pull off that Arena rating. Level 70 Elite Tauren Chieftain featuring an orphan on air guitarIt's Children's Week in Azeroth (you can check out our Horde and Alliance walkthroughs as well), and a little Blood Elf girl learns to shred with Blizzard's band. M'uru world first kill by SK GamingThe next boss in the Sunwell Plateau goes down for the count. Can WoW be beaten?World of Warcraft is doing great lately, and a looming expansion only means bigger things are coming. Or will two big competitors take a bite out of Azeroth's population? Diablo3.com acquired by BlizzardBlizzard takes over what might be the new website for the Diablo sequel we've all been waiting for. Features Guildwatch: The aftermathThe best part of playing an online, massively multiplayer game: the backstabbing, lying, and drama. New M'uru items dataminedA gallery of new gear from the M'uru encounter. Shifting Perspectives: Druids just wanna have funA flock of Druids descends into havok in Nagrand, to hilarious results. Officers' Quarters: We love you, but L2PIf you're raiding, sooner or later, you'll have to make sure you (and everyone you raid with) knows what they're doing. Build Shop: Shaman 18/43/0Our talents column takes a look at a kickass Shaman Enhancement build. You want to Shock and Awe with your totem dropper? Here you go.
Mythos crew addresses the issue of bird-men
At this stage of the game, it really feels like we've culled absolutely every bit of information that Flagship Studios has to give about their upcoming dungeon crawler Mythos. We've already found out about the in-game mall, email system, group content, mini-games, the class differentiation, and what color sherbet Max Schaefer prefers on a particularly hot day.As it turns out however, there's always more minutiae to mull over! In the latest interview, the Flagship boys are asked about a bunch of things that you likely didn't even think to ask in the first place. What's going to be done about farmers, griefers, and spawn campers? (Something) How awesome will crafting be? (So awesome!) Will there be a bird race? (Like Big Bird? Maybe...) And as to the elusive question of whether and when the open beta is going to start, they still wouldn't give a solid answer. While that disappoints a little bit, at least their release date isn't set in mud, because we all know what that meant.
Your Kaliri dodging days are coming to an end
Well, the 2.4 PTR patch notes are up and and making waves across the WoW community. There's some great stuff in there, too. The Sunwell Isle is open and we're going to see more tier drops than ever before! All in all it seems like a great patch designed to help us get a look at more endgame raiding before the expansion drops.But it isn't all lolipops and rainbows. Buried deep down in the depths of those notes is an innocent note, buried way at the bottom under the World Environment category and I'll repeat it to you now verbatim:"Monstrous Kaliri have learned how to chase players going straight up."For those of you that aren't familiar, the Monstrous Kaliri are the big vicious birds patrolling the Skettis in Terokkar Forest. Their only mission in life is to ruin your daily bombing quest and make you miserable. One or two hits from these jerks will knock you off your flying mount and send you hurtling towards the ground. But there's always been a trick. One that most of us have taken for granted up until now. If you fly straight up, they can't seem to hit you. They'll follow you and fly right underneath you, but they can't hit you. An exploit? I think not. In nature, birds only attack downward, as far as I know. It's just Blizzard adding realism to the game. So get your gold while the getting's good.
Robotic falcons poised to shoo away obese pigeons
While San Franciscans (and birdwatchers around the globe) enjoy the beauty of the Sutro Forest through a new MMO, British chaps are figuring out a way to rid a city of an apparent "obese pigeon" quandary. In order to shoo away the unsightly animals, a Scottish firm has delivered Robops to sit atop Liverpool rooftops and "flap their wings and squawk loudly to scare the problem pigeons away." Reportedly, the solution was crafted after officials (and citizens) grew tired of the increasingly nauseating droppings and incessant badgering for food. Proponents of the plan are hoping that the newly disturbed pigeons will find their way to parks and green pastures where their diet will be more balanced, but critics are suggesting that pigeons will "soon realize that these mechanical things are not a threat," effectively rendering the project useless after a short while.
Fembot birds are hot to trot
Apparently male sage-grouses, like some people, really aren't picky enough about their mates to discern between the real deal and a dolled up machine. Unlike 90% of other, monogamous birds, it's that oversexed sage-grouse libido that's fueling UC Davis researcher Gail Patricelli's project, designed to learn the innermost secrets about the game birds' mating rituals. The fembot bird (no Austin Powers jokes, please) wheels -- head bobbing -- around all dolled up, just waiting for males to approach and do their mating ritual. Apparently something's working right, too: Patricelli said of her coquette, "The males liked her quite well." We'd rather not dwell on what "quite well" must mean in her line of work, but we're happy for her -- and her cold-hearted fembot -- all the same.[Via The Raw Feed]
New adventure game coming for DS
Sinking Island, an adventure game coming to a PC near you come February, is to be available on a DS near you soon, as well. A mystery/adventure title from White Birds, Sinking Island is the first in what is to be a series of games starring a middle-aged PI named Jack Norm. The premise of Sinking Island actually has Jack traversing an island sinking from the massive weight of a hotel built upon it.Pre-production on the game has begun, however White Birds did not comment on a release date for the DS version of the game.[Via Go Nintendo]
The Intelligent Scarecrow fights back against birds
It shouldn't really come as a surprise that with so many other professionals being replaced by robots (see: nurses, housekeepers, soldiers), that the humble scarecrow should find himself the target of a high-tech upgrade. Trying to destroy the whole "scarecrows are dumb" myth so cruelly perpetuated by L. Frank Baum, students and faculty at the University of South Florida in Tampa have built a computer-powered model that can detect incoming birds and employ non-lethal countermeasures to protect their wards. The Intelligent Scarecrow, as it's known, was developed to combat the problem of nervey birds trying to feed themselves at the expense of Florida's $42 million fish farming industry, and has been chosen as one of 30 finalists by Microsoft in their Windows Challenge competition. Dressed in a football helmet and jersey, the bot -- which was conceived by Associate Professor of Computer Science and Engineering Ken Christensen -- uses a networked camera linked to image recognition software for identifying winged menaces in the vicinity, and attempts to repel them with a mix of annoying sounds and even more annoying blasts of water. Future versions of the bot will improve on the detection range (it can't currently cover enough area to make commercial deployment practical), and more importantly, the lack of mobility, because apparently even birds get wise to stationary deterrents eventually.[Via The Raw Feed]
