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McDonald's interactive Pong billboard brings big-screen elation, tomorrow's lunch
You could enjoy that Big Mac in the peace and artery-clogging quiet of your local McDonald's, or you could just catch the next flight to Stockholm, where Ronald apparently serves his meals with a side of interactive, outdoor gaming. It's all part of something called Pick n' Play -- a new (and pretty ingenious) ad campaign that invites pedestrians to play a game of Pong on a giant Mickey D's billboard, using only their smartphones. All you have to do is stand in front of the display, log on to Pick n' Play's site from your handheld, and wait for your phone to verify your location. From there, you'll have to manipulate an onscreen paddle using your device's touchscreen, while doing battle with a game that gets increasingly more difficult. Last thirty seconds, though, and you'll get a free, lipid-drenched treat of your choice, courtesy of the Golden Arches. Best of all, you won't even have to download an app to get your Pong on -- putting you one step closer to that coronary you've always wanted. Trot past the break to see it for yourself.
MotorStorm Apocalypse dev diary details 'The Festival' campaign mode
Sony has delivered a MotorStorm Apocalypse dev diary video -- and it's quite festive. Seriously: it features "The Festival," which is the single-player campaign mode of the game. As you can see in the video below, the Festival mode will offer up a real story to go with your urban wasteland racing, seen through the eyes of three characters: a rookie, a pro and a veteran. Races in the mode occur in a set sequence, and while some will make use of the new Supercar and Superbike classes others will get crazy with vehicle choices, like pitting one measly motorcycle against a whole field of competitors in big rigs. This latest sequel to MotorStorm and its Split/Second-esque take on urban racing is looking pretty darn good from a gameplay standpoint, but its visuals are clearly still a ways from being finished. Hopefully they'll be spruced up by the time the demo hits.
Final Box.net iPad campaign video
Box.net has released the final video covering their project to set up a company called D7 Consulting with 20 iPads to implement in their day-to-day business. It sounds like the whole thing has been a rousing success -- back when the project first kicked off, D7 said they wanted to use the iPad to track statements and reports directly from their construction work sites, and according to this video, that's exactly what they've done, reducing paperwork and serving as a great example of how to put Apple's consumer technology to use in the workplace. There's also some information in the video about Box.net and their service, and of course the whole project was developed partly as a demonstration of what's possible with Box.net's filesharing software. But what's really impressive about this for everybody is that with the ubiquity of powerful, connected devices like the iPad, almost every kind of business can benefit from having access to files and all of the other features that the iPad brings to the table. Stay tuned -- we're aiming to do one more visit with D7 Consulting to see how the project went and what they learned from putting the iPad to work in their office. TUAW originally helped kick off this project with Box.net by helping them choose someone from our readership to start using these iPads, and there's definitely more to learn from what Box.net and D7 have done with this project.
Left 4 Dead 2 fan campaign drops the survivors in City 17
Valve's latest featured fan campaign for the PC version of Left 4 Dead 2 should be instantly familiar to anyone who's enjoyed the developer's seminal Half-Life series. The five-chapter campaign is set on the streets of Half-Life 2's police-state metropolis, City 17, where the oppressed citizens have been replaced by zombies, and the totalitarian Combine have been replaced by zombies, and ... yeah, just about everyone's been replaced by zombies there. As with all its featured community levels, Valve's temporarily hosting servers running the City 17 campaign. If you feel up for a romp through your ol' crowbaring grounds, you should take advantage of this delightful opportunity.
Halo: Reach campaign preview: Into Nightfall and onto the Tip of the Spear
In Halo: Reach you're Noble Six, the new guy -- the sixth man in an elite team of Spartans. So what's it like playing Halo alongside five other AI-controlled super soldiers? The truth is you aren't always flanked by a full team of the illest killers humanity has ever engineered. That would be unfair. Instead, Reach often pairs you with just one of your new pals at a time. Such is the case in "Nightfall" and "Tip of the Spear," the fourth and fifth missions of the campaign, respectively, which showcase what executive producer Joe Tung calls the game's "breadth of experience." Realizing this phrase only vaguely suggests what might make Reach special, Tung offers a more precise comparison of the two missions: "They're different in tone." Your objective in Reach, as in any Halo game, remains largely the same throughout: eliminate hostiles "by any means necessary" -- words barked in a trite line of dialogue during Tip of the Spear that rather neatly sum up what this game is all about. Of course, your means are never quite the same.
Waging WAR: The taboo of cross-realming
What happens when you take Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning (which offers arguably the best PvP in any MMO currently available) and mix it with controversy, corruption, and a heaping helping of taboo? Well, for one, you get this week's topic for Waging WAR: cross-realming. Today's issue takes a look at the what, why, and how of it all. Recently, during a conversation with a guildmate, it was suggested that achieving renown rank 80 was a simple matter, requiring little time or effort. At the time, I was flabbergasted. There I sat, at RR74 (after having spent innumerable months getting there), listening to someone tell me that all my effort was somehow misplaced. It was no coincidence that we were also talking about what my guildmate referred to as "organized dueling." It is my unwavering belief that WAR is not balanced nor designed to be a system of careers and classes based on 1v1 (or similar) odds. Thus, dueling in WAR has always seemed to me to be an effort in futility, and every time the subject comes up in the realm's general chat, I've been outspoken against it. I believe the addition of a duel mechanism would be detrimental to the base concept of RvR, and would inevitably detract from the very essence of group-based, organized combat. Indeed, my vision of dueling in WAR would resemble some sort of fight-club held in one of the old, abandoned Fortresses far away from any keeps, warbands or sieges, as combatants from both realms enter a pit from which only one will emerge as the victor (the other emerging a few moments later, after shaking off the effects of resurrection sickness). "But Greg," you ask, "doesn't that sound more like cross-realming to you?" Indeed it does. Let's talk more after the break.
Samsung dispatching free Galaxy S handsets to iPhone 4 whiners on Twitter?
Well this is one lucky Tiffany here, but she's not alone. Wired UK was first to report that Samsung's been quietly dishing out free Galaxy S handsets (the European flavor) to a few lucky British Twitter users. How so? Oh, four of them just made a fuss about their iPhone 4s, and the fifth guy needed help to choose between the Desire, iPhone 4 and Galaxy S. Before you all start tweeting your way to a free Android phone, though, it looks like the Korean giant's only picking certain influencers for some cheap publicity -- turns out our Tiffany here works in Digital Marketing for Condé Nast, which is coincidentally Wired's parent company. Tut tut tut. The other tweeples all appear to be similarly involved in marketing or publishing, with the exception of one student. As if it hasn't already rubbed enough salt into Apple's wound, Samsung UK's also running new Galaxy S ads that take an indirect shot at the iPhone 4's antenna controversy with a clever bit of typography -- you can see the dirty work after the break. Very nice, Sammy, but you better be careful playing with fire here, as we've found it pretty easy to death grip Galaxy S phones like the Captivate into losing a fair bit of signal. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
The Daily Grind: How would you make a D&D MMO?
We've made it no secret here at the Massively offices that we love us some Dungeons & Dragons Online (especially with our regular Wednesday evening guild play), but we'd be naive to think that DDO is the last D&D MMO we'll ever see. Considering that the franchise has a long tradition of console titles, PC games and MMOs (dating back to 1991's Neverwinter Nights), we'd go as far as saying that another D&D MMO is probably closer than we'd expect. So if you could define the parameters of this theoretical new game, what would you choose? What studio would handle it? What D&D setting would you like to play in the most? What edition of the rules? How would you overcome the difficulties of transitioning the pen-and-paper game into a MMORPG? Would it follow DDO's highly instanced format, or be something else entirely? Cast your level one spell of Creative Thought, and let us know: how would you make a D&D MMO?
The breakdown of Final Fantasy XI's VanaFest 2010 announcements
After a month of heavy anticipation from the fans, VanaFest 2010 finally has come and given us all the information that we could want about where the game is heading from here. And the show did stay focused upon Final Fantasy XI -- the only mention of Final Fantasy XIV was the announcement that its first wave of beta testing will start on March 11th with a limited number of participants. That left quite a bit of show left to detail all of the changes coming to the game. And there was certainly a lot of news to be shared. An increase in level cap, new add-on zones, job reviews, conclusions to existing content, server merges, new seasonal gear -- there was no shortage of surprising announcements. Continue on past the cut for the short version of what came out during the show and what players can expect.
ESRB outs WWII-based opening of Bad Company 2
The original Bad Company spinoff in the Battlefield series kept the franchise's setting firmly in modern times, but if the Bad Company 2 ESRB description is true, you'll be seeing a return to WWII in the sequel. At the very least, the game's opening will bring players back to the Pacific side of the war, with the ESRB description saying, "In single-player mode, players conduct missions on an unnamed Japanese island during World War II and then move into the modern day through jungles, deserts, and snowy terrain." Just like we've discovered in our way too many hours with the game's multiplayer demo, the description details the inclusion of "melee attacks with a power drill" (yes, seriously) and the characters use of profanity "during cutscenes and in the heat of battle." And yes, we're just as excited by the former as you might imagine. %Gallery-43916%[Via BigDownload]
Crackdown 2's VGA trailer invites you to 'blow #&$^ up' with it
As you might have already guessed, last night's Spike Video Game Awards show's "World Premiere" trailers have landed on the web via GameTrailers.com. First up for us this morning: Crackdown 2. Featuring the first campaign footage from the game that we've seen, it looks as though we'll be cooperatively taking down enemies with other agents when the game launches. Moreover, the entire trailer glories in the mass destruction introduced to us in the first Crackdown, backed up by a "Would you like to blow &%^$ up with me?" soundtrack. Color us excited. %Gallery-78857%
Apple maintains "Think Different" trademark
When Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1996, the public's perception of the company was grim. To make a long story short, Steve's plans for resurrection included changing that, and the "Think Different" campaign was among the first steps. There were television ads, print ads and slogans printed on Apple packaging. The phrase was replaced with the "Switch" and "Get A Mac" campaigns, but didn't disappear for good. A portion of the poem from the TV ad can be found on the high-res version of the TextEdit icon in Leopard and Snow Leopard. Earlier this year, "Think Different" began appearing on 21.5" and 27" iMac boxes. This week, Patently Apple reports that the US Patent & Trademark Office has published Apple's new trademark application for Think Different (it's application 77882684 if you were wondering). It could mean a revitalization of the campaign, but it's more likely that Apple just wants to keep it in their stable. Many consumers still think of Apple when hearing "think different." Like most iconic aspects of pop culture, there have been many parodies. Here's my favorite. [Via MacNN]
Gigabyte's M1305 ad campaign says docking a laptop is like picking your nose
External graphics cards may well be a rarity these days, but we're not sure if this simple fact justifies the launch of a grotesque and debatably heinous ad campaign. As you can so clearly see above, Gigabyte disagrees. In order to promote its Taiwanese M1305 CULV laptop cum external graphics card dock (housing an NVIDIA GeForce GT220 desktop VGA card), it released posters featuring a disoriented person poking his / her nose, each of which were presumably in the process of "doing some soul searching." Curious as to what these ads actually say? "How good is an expansion dock with integrated graphics card? Plug in a Gigabyte laptop and you'll find out!" Thanks, but no thanks Gigabyte -- we're currently preoccupied with flushing our memories of this visual disturbance you've just forced upon us. Psst... two more posters after the break for extra raunchiness! [Thanks, TheLostSwede]
Samurai Puzzle Battle getting GotY edition
I hadn't even thought about it, but sure enough, we're coming up on the end of the year, and there'll be quite a few iPhone titles in the running for best mobile game of the year. This certainly isn't the first year we've seen a nice crop of App Store picks coming out, but it's the best so far. One of my favorites, Samurai Puzzle Battle, isn't even waiting for the choices -- they've announced that they'll be releasing a Game of the Year edition very soon, with improved graphics and better online features. The game itself is a Puzzle Quest-style mix of RPG and gem matching gameplay, with extra modes that allow you to play a full campaign, or just jump in and match some gems. It's a lot of fun, and I can't wait to see what the new version looks like. The update will be a free upgrade for current owners, and we haven't yet seen a price to buy outright (though it probably will be less than the original $4.99 price, probably closer to $1.99). I don't know that I'd choose the game for Game of the Year quite yet, but it's great to hear that a good game is getting better.
Verizon asks 'if the iDoesn't, what does?'
The "there's a map for that" ad was a pretty aggressive way to broadside AT&T and the iPhone, but it looks like Verizon's just getting warmed up. We're hearing that the carrier will be kicking off a major new campaign this evening during the Yankees-Angels game that'll feature "a very different look and a whole new attitude," calling out the "iDevice" (their words, not ours) for all the things it can't do. That's a bold offensive for a carrier that historically has lacked breadth and depth in its smartphone lineup, but with the big new Android releases coming down the pike, this might be perfect timing -- and a strong implication that we can seriously put those endless Verizon iPhone rumors to bed for a little while.
Verizon removes gloves, begins 'There's a map for that' anti-AT&T ad campaign (video)
Ouch. If you've been waiting for another flare up in the old carrier wars, here you have it. Turning Apple's "there's an app for that" slogan on its ear, Verizon has introduced a campaign touting its network coverage. The ads -- which highlight the company's new tongue-in-cheek "there's a map for that" catchphrase against tuneful, chirpy music -- also boast that Verizon's 3G blanket is a whopping five times the size of AT&T's. Does this do anything to dispel the idea that Verizon and Apple may be getting together for that phantom tablet? Who knows, but it's fun to watch the fireworks. Check out the full commercial after the break. [Via All Things Digital]
Hands-on: Halo 3: ODST Campaign
Wait. What? You mean ... My thought was suspended as I, the Rookie, was deployed in a one-man pod from a warship in orbit over New Mombasa. Here we go: I'm now an Orbital Drop Shock Trooper. While "shock" troops denote the shocking of an enemy force, I was the one shocked. Halo 3: ODST immediately chucks its Rookie into unknown territory. You mean, the tutorial level is not a corridor crawler through a spaceship? After a rough insertion, I awoke six hours later, dangling precariously above New Mombasa's streets. This is the night-cast world we'd seen at E3. Bungie calls this map "the hub," the open-world environment through which the player accesses campaign missions (portrayed as flashbacks). "Film noir" is another term we've heard, and it's a reference to atmospheric elements, like New Mombasa's glowing-red dim, smoky streets and its jazzy background cuts; rather than a classic plot outline that goes something like: handsome good guy led astray by beautiful femme fatale. There is, though, a mystery to unravel.
Former LucasArts president making Congressional bid
Jim Ward is best known for being the no-nonsense president of LucasArts from 2004 to 2008 -- a period where the company seemed to dust itself off, and start making good games again. His claim to fame might change in the near future, however -- he's currently running to represent Arizona's 5th District in the U.S. House of Representatives in the 2010 Congressional Election.Ward's fairly conservative viewpoints are evident in his campaign website, but regardless of how you feel about his policies, he's got to be a staunch supporter of the gaming industry. Plus, he might just be the only person who can push legislation through mandating the re-release of Day of the Tentacle.[Via GamePolitics]
New ad campaign attempts to discourage use of 'gay' as disparagement
In today's society, "gay" is often used as a pejorative, losing all meaning and gaining a negative slant. ThinkB4YouSpeak is on a mission to change that, with a new campaign targeted to raise awareness throughout schools in America about anti-gay bias and reduce the use of ignorant, homophobic language.The statistics may startle you; according to ThinkB4YouSpeak's website, "9 out of 10 LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) students report being harassed at school in the last year," with over one third being physically harmed. ThinkB4YouSpeak's campaign consists of three posters, replacing the unfortunately common phrase, "That's so gay" with a generalized remark on specific types of students: jocks, cheerleaders and gamers. It would seem the purpose of the campaign is to be hurtful, to showcase how hateful speech is often based on stereotypes.Gamers are no strangers to hateful speech. Xbox Live user know of the well-documented hate mongering in online multiplayer titles like Halo, and while the majority of players across all platforms are smart enough to know hate speech is wrong (we hope!), it's never pleasant to see it rearing its ugly head.[Via GamePolitics]
Valve undecided about Left 4 Dead DLC working in L4D2
Valve raised quite a stink after announcing a new downloadable campaign for the original Left 4 Dead with only a few months remaining until the release of Left 4 Dead 2. What everyone still wants to know is whether this content will be compatible with the sequel -- and we do mean everyone. In an interview with Edge Online, Valve's Chet Faliszek explained that even the game's creators are unsure whether the new campaign will be playable in the second edition of the zombocalypse sim.Faliszek remarked that Valve is "struggling" with how the campaign's story elements (that is to say, the in-game chatter between the original four survivors) would work when the new cast is introduced. He says it would be jarring to "put new characters in old places," but recognizes that "there's a whole group of the fans who don't care." What say you, readers? What would you find more disruptive -- re-worked character dialogue, or recently purchased, incompatible DLC?
