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I visited Jurassic Park in VR and tried to pet a dino
Imagine you're in a dense forest with the largest lizard-like creature that has ever walked the planet. It's just you and the Apatosaurus, one of the many dinosaurs featured in Jurassic World. You sit and watch her sleep from a few feet away. It's strangely calm, but you want to plan your escape anyway. You look around and see a Jeep with a bold red stripe on your left. There's nothing but lush sunlit trees to your right. In front of you, the giant sprawled on the ground starts to move a little. You should probably panic, but the creature doesn't scare you. Not yet. She slowly wakes up and notices you. As she plonks her heavy feet on the ground, you cringe reflexively. Her long reptilian neck swoops in to sniff you. Her nostrils flare and her big blue eye looks right at you. Now you're scared. But you reach out to pet her, anyway.
JXE Streams: going Jurassic with 'theHunter: Primal'
How long would you last on an island full of dinosaurs when you've nothing but a rusty machete and the clothes on your back? That's the question theHunter: Primal poses. It's also my absolute childhood fantasy. You start the game with essentially nothing and need to find your way around a paradisical atoll full of thunderlizards that'd rather eat you than sing songs about the alphabet. We'll be joined by folks from Avalanche Studios (Just Cause, Mad Max) so they can help guide me around the island and hopefully aid in uncovering the secrets of raptor-whispering. Oh! and we'll be giving away download codes for the PC game as well; get your haikus ready.
Scientists create chickens with dinosaur snouts to study evolution
How do scientists study the evolutionary transformation from snouts to beaks as those winged dinosaurs became birds? By putting dinosaur snouts on chickens, of course. A team of researchers at Yale were able to modify the chickens' genetic make up in a way that would make then grow a snout like their ancestors (similar to the Anchiornis model above) rather than the beaks we're all familiar with. The modification allows scientists to study the molecular foundations of the evolution. More specifically, they can examine the difference in bone structure and the genetic pattern birds exhibit that reptiles and mammals don't -- the one that causes a beak to form. Despite how awesome it would be, the research had nothing to do with building a real-life Jurrasic Park. [Image credit: Lou-Foto/Alamy]
Barely Related: Avengers: Age of Ultron trailer is full of surprises
Surprise! It's Friday! Now let's get down to some geeky business. Welcome to Barely Related, a conversational Friday column that presents the non-gaming news stories that we, the Joystiq staff, have been talking about over the past week. And no, we're not stopping our focus on industry and gaming news. Think of this as your casual weekly recap of interesting (and mostly geeky) news, presented just in time to fill your brain with things to discuss at all of those weekend shindigs. Grab a fresh drink, lean back in your armchair, and get ready to talk nerdy with us.
Rumor: Killzone dev's new game has robot dinosaurs
Robot. Dinosaurs. Images posted on a Chinese forum present the next game from Killzone series creator Guerrilla Games, according to the forum member and corroborating reports. The two pictures show giant robot dinosaurs fighting against Viking-esque human warriors in a snowy landscape. One of the fighters is a red-haired woman with a compound bow, a description that fits previous rumors surrounding Guerrilla's next move. NeoGAF picked up the images, watermarked with the Chinese forum's name. NeoGAF says the game is code-named "Horizon," and initial reports suggest it's an RPG. If all goes according to rumor, Guerrilla should reveal this thing at E3 2015, with a planned launch that fall. [Image: A9VG]
Barely Related: The Rock is Black Adam, telepathy exists
Today, let's take a moment to stop and revel in how amazing, terrifying and grand the world is. Our lives are composed of dark, light and every shade in between. That's why, when we get serious shade thrown our way, we can absorb it and move on. Welcome to Barely Related, a conversational Friday column that presents the non-gaming news stories that we, the Joystiq staff, have been talking about over the past week. And no, we're not stopping our focus on industry and gaming news. Think of this as your casual weekly recap of interesting (and mostly geeky) news, presented just in time to fill your brain with things to discuss at all of those weekend shindigs. Grab a fresh drink, lean back in your armchair, and get ready to talk nerdy with us.
The Stomping Land is switching to Unreal Engine 4
Dino-delay or evolutionary upgrade? The situation might be both for The Stomping Land, which has been on the down low while its developer works to bring it to a new game engine after the old engine lost studio support. "It has been quiet in The Stomping Land community but that is certainly not the case behind the scenes!" Developer Alex "Jig" Fundora told Kotaku. "The game is being moved to Unreal Engine 4 to take advantage of technical and creative opportunities, and while the game was so early in development, I didn't want to keep working for years with a game engine (UDK) that had officially lost support by Epic. The move has put a bit of more work on my plate, but the already discovered opportunities using UE4 are exciting, and I'm confident fans will be satisfied with the long-run decision." The dinosaur-themed survival sandbox went into early access this past May 30th.
More dinosaurs had feathers than we thought
Realistically, we'll probably never successfully clone a dinosaur -- but if we ever do, we may be surprised by how the beast turns out. A fossil found in Siberia threatens to change our perception of what history's giant lizards may have looked like. We already know that not all dinosaurs were scales and teeth -- fossils from the 1990s show that some carnivorous theropods may have worn feathery coats -- but the new fossil suggests that far more dinos were covered in birdlike feathers than previously suspected. The Siberian discovery suggests that plant-eating dinos may have had feathers too.
Barely Related: Marvel mixes it up, Comcast service facepalm
One great thing about live streams of The International and LCS championships – you can read awesome articles between the matches. Welcome to Barely Related, a conversational Friday column that presents the non-gaming news stories that we, the Joystiq staff, have been talking about over the past week. And no, we're not stopping our focus on industry and gaming news. Think of this as your casual weekly recap of interesting (and mostly geeky) news, presented just in time to fill your brain with things to discuss at all of those weekend shindigs. Grab a fresh drink, lean back in your armchair, and get ready to talk nerdy with us.
Dino-survival: Hands-on with The Stomping Land's early access alpha
Yesterday, I examined up-and-coming dinosaur-survival MMO Beasts of Prey. Today, let's look at another game in the same niche genre: The Stomping Land. The Stomping Land isn't technically billing itself as an MMO, but it boasts a semi-permanent world. But my experience in it was nothing like the trailers shown back in May. The current game is totally different. In fact, it seems to have regressed. There's no customization, there are no berries, and no one I talked to knew how to name a tribe. It feels like a semi-permanent shooter, similar to other survival games except without a lot of the building. You either make a teepee or you don't. You make a bow or you don't. You have a dinosaur mount or... you don't. The biggest servers I saw had 24 people, meaning I was able to avoid other players very often, but the game was more fun when I encountered people -- at least people who didn't one-shot me and waltz away.
Dino-survival: Hands-on with Beasts of Prey's early access alpha
When I first dived into the horror-survival genre, I knew there would be zombies, but I never expected dinosaurs. You don't get much bigger than a T-Rex stomping around your neighborhood (though I am still waiting for an underwater survival game that randomly has blue whales unintentionally ruining your kelp fort as they hunt for krill). When dinosaurs started to replace zombies, I knew that my inner child would drag me in, even if I once again had to pay for alpha. It's this very idea of "paid alpha" that inspired me to tackle not one but two titles from the newly spawned dino-survival based genre. Apologists will say that it's just alpha, but the reality is that you get only one launch, and to me, launch is you start letting people buy your game and don't hold them under an NDA. With this in mind, I decided to try my hand at both Beasts of Prey and The Stomping Land to see which, if either, feels the most deserving of my time (and money). Today, I'll start with BoP.
Beasts of Prey is a dinosaur-themed survival sandbox MMOFPS
If The Stomping Land and Durango aren't enough to sate your appetite for dinosaur-themed survival MMO gameplay, then here's a third game to add to that growing menu: Beasts of Prey. It's currently in early access alpha on Steam for $34.99, though developer Octagon Interactive hopes to launch beta in October. What does your money pay for right now, exactly? "Beasts of Prey has been funded privately and your purchase will help us to further develop the game and pay bills for designers/coders & infrastructure. Additionally and more importantly we need your feedback on what we have created so far so we can make the right adjustments to successfully change game-play & mechanics." The game boasts a single-server infrastructure, a detailed crafting and gathering system, a randomly generated world that adjusts its size based on the population, and dinosaurs that can wreck a camo-colored car much faster than a zombie ever could. [Thanks to Dengar for the tip!]
Departing Samsung exec dares to criticize his own products
Samsung's former head of TV innovation, Richard Bullwinkle, insists he's still on good terms with his old employer. But that could change when the company discovers what he really thinks about its smart TVs. In an interview with FierceCable, he admitted that some models he's worked on are just too slow: "The switch from live TV to Netflix takes over two minutes," he's reported as saying. "That's dinosaur speed." More broadly, he said that the whole smart TV industry is "in trouble" due to a lack of good content and apps, which is encouraging a "very high percentage" of people to rely on a separate device like a "Roku box or Apple TV box" instead. Burn.
Velociraptor-inspired robot can run almost as fast as DARPA's Cheetah
There's a new robot that's almost matched Cheetah's speed record, but it wasn't designed after another speedy cat. Instead, it takes cues from something more terrifying: a velociraptor. The two-legged machine named Raptor was created by scientists from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, who've even outfitted it with a tail like the extinct reptile's for balance. In its current form, it can go as fast as 28.58 mph (46 km/h), just a bit slower than the famous mechanical cat's max speed of 29.2 mph (47 km/h). Compared to DARPA's robotic cat, though, Raptor's technology is a lot simpler, even using ordinary springs as tendons to be able to run fast more effectively. Right now, Raptor's confined to running on a treadmill like Cheetah's older iterations, but its creators hope to make it more stable so it can run on any surface without a tether. Once that happens, all it'll need is a velociraptor suit for the KAIST researchers to start their own (hopefully safer) Jurassic Park.
Meet Durango, Nexon's dino survival MMO
Pop quiz, hotshot! Which of these things do not go together: dinosaurs, wooly mammoths, hot air balloons, chainsaws, survival gameplay. It's actually a trick question, because in Durango, Nexon's newest MMO, they all do. Nexon recently revealed the survival-based dino-tastic MMO with a teaser site. From the looks of it, players will be put into a mish-mash prehistoric isometric setting and challenged to survive by making tools, constructing traps, fighting dinos, and building up a safe home. The title is being made by the folks who did Vindictus. In an interesting twist, Durango will be heading primarily (from the looks of it) to mobile platforms, including iOS, Android, and Nvidia Shield. You can check out the teaser trailer after the jump.
Make My MMO: May 4 - May 10, 2014
This week in MMO crowdfunding news we said hello to The Stomping Land and goodbye to Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen. The former is a PvP survival sandbox focused on taming dinosaurs, pitting the larger beasties against one another (because they're unkillable by puny player characters), and avoiding the typical gank squad behavior that's certain to manifest. The latter is of course Brad McQuaid's bid to recapture his EverQuest glory days. The latest bit of news, aside from various unsubstantiated internet rumors, involves McQuaid's decision to continue development with a volunteer dev team. Click past the cut for Massively's list of crowdfunded MMOs and their latest news updates.
The Stomping Land's dinosaur survival MMO is coming to Steam this month
The Stomping Land, a survival MMO with a generous heaping of dinosaurs, is set to arrive on Steam Early Access on May 23rd for backers and May 30th for everyone else. The cost will be $24.99 for non-backers. The MMO was successfully funded through Kickstarter last year and is being developed by Alex Fundora. The Stomping Land challenges players to survive as a human in harsh environments that include rather ravenous dinos. Hunger and thirst are issues that must be dealt with, and these are made all the more challenging by a lack of internal inventory (everything must be carried in hand or stored on the map). The game encourages players to form tribes for survival and allows them to capture, tame, and even ride dinosaurs. The Early Access version will launch with one island, and you can check out the trailer for the release after the break.
The Queue: Prehistoric
Welcome back to The Queue, the daily Q&A column in which the WoW Insider team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Matthew Rossi is your "Hey, it's that guy" guy today. Not going to waste any time on my trifling little stories about the time I was shot in the leg with an arrow or the time I made a flamethrower to hunt rats in the basement of a collapsed mansion, it's time to talk about prehistoric animals! Elizabeth Harper (@Faience ) asks: What dinosaur do you most want to see in the next WoW expansion? See, the question isn't which dinosaur. It's which animals. I love so many different kinds. Not just dinosaurs, but all shapes and sizes of extinct fauna. Because oh man. First up, as always, I'm pulling for Inostrancevia (seen above) a gorgonopsid therapsid from the Permian. No, she's not a dinosaur, she's more closely related to us than to them. But she's still awesome. Look at that jaw full of teeth. Next up, I'd like to see some more basal forms, older Triassic ones like Plateosaurus and Liliensternus. And that's just for starters - I'd love an Eocene inspired zone with Andrewsarchus and Megacerops. Then a smattering of Oligocene species like Paraceratherium and Hyaenadon Gigas and man, I could serious just natter on about this all day. There are like three different species of prehistoric crocodillian I'd like to see in WoW, at least two flightless prehistoric predatory birds, a whole bunch of ancient pre-dinosaurian archosaurs... so much that would be so awesome. But yeah, my first choice is Inostrancevia.
Rise and Shiny: Dino Storm
I have a real love for finding tiny, unknown, indie titles -- especially ones that are obviously made for younger gamers -- and playing them for a write-up. It's one of the perks of the job; I get to dig up these gems and tell thousands of people about them. Games like Dino Storm also serve to remind me about why I got into blogging about games before I was ever paid to do it. There are virtual worlds to discover out there, and I find that thrilling. I especially like it when they boast this level of quality. Dino Storm might not challenge a more mature player, but it's surprisingly complex. It's got everything it needs to be considered a full-fledged MMO, but it also keeps in mind that younger players need a little help along the way. You'll play the role of a cowboy or girl who rides around on the backs of well-animated dinosaurs ranging from tiny to massive, and you'll also hunt after all sorts of quests and goods. I did have a few small issues with the game, but the development team seemed willing and ready to patch them up.
Patch 5.3: Even more battle pets from the PTR
If you're a fan of pet battles, then patch 5.3 is for you, bringing new pets, new pets, and new pets. And while we were already excited about the creepy/cute Unborn Val'kyr, now Wowhead has turned up more information -- along photos and drop locations -- on what to expect from the pets in the upcoming patch. Many of these are being added to Burning Crusade era raids for the Raiding with Leashes II: Attunement Edition achievement which requires you to collect 10 pets from Karazhan, Serpentshrine Cavern, and The Eye. The reward for collecting all of these pets? It's another pet, the still mysterious Tito. But while most of the pets discovered so far require revisiting old raids, there are also some new wild pets and drops, including the previously mentioned Unborn Val'kyr as well as mini-Gahz'rilla Gahz'rooki, the ooze Filthling, and a couple of adorably miniature Direhorns, the Stunted Direhorn and Direhorn Runt. So what's our favorite? Well, you already know how we feel about dinosaurs.
