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Not for sale: Every PlayStation 2 game ever made, sealed and in mint condition
Did you buy Zone of the Enders just to get at the demo version of Metal Gear Solid 2? Did you summon half your street to join you in a game of TimeSplitters? Wouldn't you have enjoyed your PlayStation 2 games much more if you'd just left them sealed on the shelf? That's the eye-watering achievement collector Ahans76 has achieved, spending the last decade stuffing first edition (only with the Sony hologram attached) titles into a bookcase and steadfastly refusing to open them. In an interview with PlayStation Collecting (hit the source link below) he reveals much about the collection but doesn't mention if he ever opened his PlayStation 3. That would certainly be one way of keeping your credit card secure.
British Library and Google Books partner up to digitize 250,000 out-of-copyright works
Oh paper, ye olde guardian of human wisdom, culture, and history, why must you be so fragile and voluminous? Not a question we ask ourselves every day, admittedly, but when you're talking about the British Library's extensive collection of tomes from the 18th and 19th century, those books, pamphlets and periodicals do stack up pretty quickly. Thankfully, Google's book digitization project has come to the rescue of bewildered researchers, with a new partnership with the British Library that will result in the availability of digital copies of works from that period -- spanning the time of the French and Industrial Revolutions, the Crimean War, the invention of the telegraph, and the end of slavery. In total, some 250,000 such items, all of them long out of copyright, will find a home on Google Books and the British Library's website, and Google has even been nice enough to bear the full cost of transforming them into web-accessible gems of knowledge. Jump past the break for the similarly digital press release.
Device Analyzer Android study wants to track your every move, if you'll let it
And here we thought folks were concerned about protecting their personal data. As it turns out, however, a surprising chunk of Android users have volunteered to give a group of University of Cambridge researchers a look at exactly how they use their cellphones. By downloading the Device Analyzer app from the Android market, more than 1,000 participants have allowed the data collection program to harvest statistics in the background while they use their phones. Those statistics -- varying from when the power is switched on, to which apps are in use -- are then made available to users via the Device Analyzer website. Of course, this is Cambridge, a rather well respected institution of higher learning, and the researchers involved say the data collected is stripped of personal information "as best as possible," but we're not keen on anyone peeping our cell stats. If you're an Android exhibitionist, however, you can sign up for the study at the source link below.
Guild Wars 2's Eric Flannum on promises, pets and purpose [Updated]
"Think of the personal story in Guild Wars 2 as you would the 'main' storyline of a great single player RPG," ArenaNet's Eric Flannum said in an interview with GamerZine. Instead of rote MMO quests, this storyline will be full of significant, one-time choices that will have a huge impact on your character. This is just one of the many promises that ArenaNet has made in regard to Guild Wars 2 as the studio strives to differentiate it from the rest of the fantasy pack. The interview covers the main features list of the game: the event system, the personal storyline, and the emphasis on exploration. When pressed about in-game events and holidays, Flannum said that many Guild Wars holidays will be returning: "We haven't planned out exactly what we're doing yet, but we certainly plan to support all of our usual holiday events in Guild Wars 2. Since our event system is very robust I imagine we'll be able to do a lot more things than we were able to do in the first game." He also said that the team is striving to "push the fun and collectability" of the mini-pets system over Guild Wars 2's predecessor. You can read the full interview at GamerZine. [Update: Tap Repeatedly also has a whopper of a GW2 interview up today, this one with Jon Peters and Jonathan Sharp!]
Massive Final Fantasy collection for sale on eBay
This Final Fantasy collection for sale on eBay is one of the most impressive assemblages of video game titles we've ever seen. Not only are all of the numbered Final Fantasy games brought together by this seller, but almost all of the various spinoffs and versions are included as well. From the very first Final Fantasy cartridge on Famicom up to three different versions of Final Fantasy 8 on the PC -- and even an Advent Children Cloud Black PS3 console bundle. In short, just buying this collection could set you up as the curator of your own Final Fantasy museum, dedicated to huge swords and great battle themes from throughout the years. The price for such an honor? It's currently sitting at around $15,000, with no bids as of this writing. If that's something you want to invest in, we can only wish you good luck ... and could we borrow a buck?
The Daily Grind: What do you collect in-game?
Recently I was lamenting to my wife that I don't really have a good collection of anything. I think that really interesting people usually have some oddball collection that they work on over the years. For example, my friend Howard is a Pez fanatic, who has not only thousands of Pez dispensers but Pez t-shirts, belt buckles and a huge Pez tattoo down his arm. Howard knows the joy of a good collection. But then I realized that perhaps my urge to collect is being sated in MMOs. I usually always love to collect non-combat pets (if the game I'm playing has them), or goofy titles, or awesome outfits. There's something deeply satisfying about sitting on a well-stocked treasure-trove after a long period of working on it. So do you collect anything in MMOs? Do you store away statistically useless yet cosmetically perfect weapons just to have them? Is there a huge menagerie of animals parked in your garage, ready to transport you in style? If an MMO has a collection system, do you take full advantage of it? 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!
Don-8r the panhandling robot set to make the homeless obsolete (video)
Until now, one field has been safe from robotic interference: collecting money on the street. Not for long. A space already overcrowded with guitar playing hippies, dogs in bandanas, and children carrying bright orange UNICEF boxes has a new force to reckon with. It's Don-8r (pronounced "donator," for those who don't speak robot), programmed expressly to collect change and be adorable. University of Dundee student Tim Pryde created the coin-fueled robot to help raise money for charity. It's taken a few spins around the school's campus and has already mastered the three Ps of money collection: politeness, persistence, and performance -- the latter accomplished via color changing lights in its orb-like head. Video of Don-8r doing its thing after the break.
Breakfast Topic: Do you collect anything in WoW?
This Breakfast Topic has been brought to you by Seed, the AOL guest writer program that brings your words to WoW Insider's pages. I'll admit, I have an obsession with companion pets -- much to my warlock's chagrin. She'd much prefer to burn the little critters, but I can't help amassing as large a collection as I can. At last count, I had over 100 pets and am still striving to get even more. While I have several titles, special mounts, and the like, I devote more time to building my pet collection than anything else. Of course, my collection wouldn't be where it is today without the help of some really good friends (especially the one who tirelessly slaved away killing Bogflare Needlers for my coveted Captured Firefly -- eeeek!). Do you collect anything in WoW? Whether it be common things like mounts or titles, or something a little more obscure, I want to hear about it -- unless, of course, you have a better pet collection than I do. Don't make me cry.
Splinter Cell Classic Trilogy sneaks to June 21, Prince of Persia HD on Blu-ray also delayed
Originally due to be released today on both Blu-ray disc and PSN, the HD-ified Splinter Cell Classic Trilogy has slipped off the radar and into the shadows. IGN reports that it'll wait there, for undisclosed reasons, until resurfacing on June 21. It's not alone -- the retail release of the Prince of Persia HD trilogy, also expected today, has been pushed to April 19. Both trilogies will retail for $40 when they finally arrive on Blu-ray. The three high-res Prince of Persia games are already available via PSN at $15 a pop.
Alter-Ego: A quick and dirty guide to Area 51
When it comes to taking your first steps in DC Universe Online, the sheer amount of different types of missions and objectives can be a bit daunting. "What is this Alert thing sitting in my quest log?" you might say. "What does it do? It is PvP? PvE? What's the point of doing an Alert?" Well, to help demystify some of DC Universe Online's content for you, I wanted to offer up a basic overview to the very first in-game Alert: Area 51. However, knowing that some of you have already run this instance, I also wanted to make it useful for those who may have popped in but not spent a great deal of time in the zone. That's why this post not only contains a first-timer's overview of this Alert but also gives more advanced players a handy guide to all the Investigations, Player Briefings and Collections -- as well as a couple of other things I found in the Area 51 zone that might have been missed otherwise. Ready to dig in and help beat Brainiac back from trying to take over? Curious about what kind of extra goodies can be gained? Join me after the break as I take some of the mystery out of the notorious Area 51!
Massive Mario collection will make your inner 5-year-old jealous
Remember when you were 5, and you went to McDonald's one day with your parents and they got you the Happy Meal with the windup Luigi toy in it? Remember how ecstatic you were that you had a real version of Mario's bro in a plastic bag along with your cheeseburger and fries, and remember how you went home and played with it all day until it stopped winding and you completely forgot about it until you had to clean out your desk drawer for college? Well, 11-year-old Oscar Bown has that times a thousand. The kid's collected over 1,000 bits and pieces of Mario-related paraphernalia, and you can see most of them in a video after the break. He's got everything, from Mario Monopoly to Mario band-aids to pretty much every single vehicle toy from Mario Kart. Just saying: Whenever he eventually leaves for college, that desk drawer is going to be pretty full.
Massively's hands-on with Rift: Planes of Telara's dynamic content
Just a few weeks ago, I was invited to attend Trion Worlds' Gamer's Day in San Francisco to get some hands-on time with a couple of the company's upcoming titles, including Rift: Planes of Telara. If Rift seems to have come out of nowhere, that might be due both to the acquisition of EverQuest II veteran Scott Hartsman to head the project as executive producer, and to a clever name change meant to reflect the team's shift in development focus. In fact, that shift in development focus is precisely what I was at Trion's studio to test -- I got to check out the Rifts themselves in all their glory, in the context of the greater dynamic content system that the developers are so excited about. Massively's writers have been able to play and report on character creation and the starting areas of Rift several times over the last year or so, including earlier this summer at E3. But until today's embargo lift (coinciding with the reveal at Gamescom), no one had quite seen the fabled planar invasions and takeovers in action. Now we have.
Vaska of Kiev and the 1000-core Oriental rug
Usually when a handsome, chiseled foreigner with a fitted baby-blue tank top tucked into his Levi's offers to take us for a ride on his magic carpet, we smile coyly, mumble an excuse, and keep walking. But something about this man took us by surprise: we can't tell if it was the perfectly-cropped widow's peak or the smell of a 27-year vintage Intel 80286 wafting from underneath his fingernails. Long story short, we followed him home and never looked back.
The Daily Grind: What bonuses do you want from a collector's edition?
I did something with Final Fantasy XIV that I've never done before -- I purchased the collector's edition. Normally, my love of in-game pets and art books is counterbalanced by my love of saving $25, but an extra eight days of playtime is fairly non-negotiable for me. Everything else that comes with the collector's edition is a nice side perk, but nothing worthy of the extra expense in and of itself. Of course, there's no shortage of players who consider the additional cost of a collector's edition well worth some in-game vanity pets and an art book. For some, simply having something labeled as a collector's edition is justification enough, as it signals some sort of elite status as a player. What sort of things make you interested in a collector's edition of a game? Do you prefer in-game benefits to display to other players, or trinkets for fond reminiscence? Or are you mostly motivated by games that give you an early start or something similar?
Call of Duty: The War Collection listed by retailers
Maybe you don't need another World War II shooter, but how about three? If recently spotted listings on GameStop and Amazon are accurate, a new Call of Duty compilation, dubbed Call of Duty: The War Collection, will be released next month. The collection bundles together the three WWII-based games in the series available on Xbox 360: Call of Duty 2, Call of Duty 3 and Call of Duty: World at War -- all for $60. Given that Call of Duty 2 was never released on PS3, it seems unlikely that Sony's platform will receive this particular collection. That's three (old) Call of Duty games for the price of one standard Xbox 360 game. Not a bad deal, especially for Modern Warfare players in need of a history lesson. According to GameStop and Amazon, The War Collection will be released this June. [Thanks, Iain] Source - Call of Duty: The War Collection at Amazon Source - Call of Duty: The War Collection at GameStop
GTA tops the list, and other game news
For some reason there's a flood of gaming news coming from the App Store this afternoon. So we've rounded it up for you to take in all in one read: Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars [iTunes link] has reached the top-grossing spot on the store in just two days, which means it's probably taken over the previous record holder. Good news for full-scale gamers: we can expect to see more direct ports from other handheld platforms like the DS and the PSP. Still not sure if GTA is worth the $10? Stay tuned for our review later tonight. Sega is releasing an Ultimate Genesis Collection on the App Store, which is more or less an official emulator. You get Space Harrier II with the free download, and then in-game purchases allow you to pick up other Sega games: Sonic for $6, Ecco the Dolphin for $3, and so on. They've released these games separately before, but this will give them a one-stop hub for official versions of older classics. Assassin's Creed II Discovery, the iPhone version of the Ubisoft hit, will reappear on the App Store in February at $9.99. In this interview with Appmodo, producer Ben Mattes talks about the iPhone and what Ubisoft plans to do with it. Finally, Magnacarta II is an RPG for the Xbox 360 that now has a character guide iPhone app. We've seen PC titles release complimentary apps before, but this is the first instance (I know of) where a console game has supplemented their release with an iPhone guide. Something to keep an eye on. Exciting news all around! Looks like some major developers are finally starting to figure out some interesting and profitable ways to take advantage of Apple's handheld platform.
Mega Man Zero series to be re-released as DS collection
If you took an extended break from Mega Man in the 2000s, until the release of Mega Man 9, you missed out on some great, punishing games developed by MM9 creator Inti Creates -- and it appears that Capcom's going to give you a chance to go back to them. Capcom Japan opened a site for "Rockman Zero Collection," a DS compilation of all four Game Boy Advance Rockman Zero/Mega Man Zero games, featuring the adventures of Mega Man X's buddy Zero after the X series. He has a sword. The collection will be released in Japan on April 22. Capcom has yet to announced a localization, but we're confident the publisher will, given the general attitude of pro-Mega Man sentiment surrounding the upcoming release of Mega Man 10. [Via The Mega Man Network]
Everquest II aims upcoming Complete Collection at new players
The problem with getting players into a new game after a couple years is that, well, the game has moved on. It has a couple expansions under its belt, it has a whole lot of new concepts, and new players aren't going to be on board for it. A new player is hard enough to rope into an MMO as it is, much less when you tell them they have to buy three expansions and hit level 30 in a month to see some of the cool stuff. Everquest II knows how much of a struggle it can be, which is why they're releasing the Everquest II Complete Collection just in time for both the holiday season and before the upcoming expansion pack The Sentinel's Fate (due out in February). What does it contain? The initial Everquest II, obviously, along with all five of the game's extant expansion packs. If that's not enough, it also offers sixty free days of play (up from the usual thirty) and 500 Station Cash to help buy things from the game's microtransaction system. At the risk of sounding like a marketing press release, it's an ideal way to get a friend into the game over the holiday season, and presumably get them ready in time for the new expansion to hit.
Blu-ray God of War changes are minimal, doubles up on trophies
Here's today's enormous, shocking revelation: The recently announced Blu-ray God of War collection is going to be a whole heck of a lot like its PS2-based counterparts. Aside from a 720p visual boost and perhaps the addition of an HD-friendly HUD and font, the rest of the re-released games will "be the pure experience, what people would have played when they played God of War originally," according to a recent IGN interview with Sony Santa Monica's director of product development, John Hight.If you're put off by the lack of new features, perhaps your raging Trophy addiction will be cause enough to purchase the Blu-ray collection. Hight confirmed that the two games both contain their own unique sets of trophies, adding that there would "probably" be two prestigious Platinum trophies available for hardcore completionists. We shudder to imagine the amount of dismemberment required to obtain these merits. This is us shuddering.
Warcraft Mounts helps you keep track of your corral
As a Pet collector, I'm very much appreciative of WarcraftPets.com's Collector's checklist. As a Mount collector, I've always wanted a similar list to keep track of my climb to the Dragonhawk. Today, that want is fulfilled. Mania's Warcraft Mounts now has a collection feature, just in time for all the new mounts and mount rule changes in Patch 3.2.Once you sign up for an account, you can list up to 3 characters per a screen name and start keeping track of which mounts you have and which mounts you want to have. You can also ignore the mounts you don't want or can't get. Once you have it all sorted out, you can share your collection with others if you wish (For example, here's Mania's collection).The site has always been a pretty handy tool for mount collectors or people who just want a refresher about what forms of locomotion are out there, and the collection tool only makes it better. Kudos to Mania, who's once again come through with a nice little tool for the WoW community.
