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The Game Archaeologist and the What Ifs: True Fantasy Live Online
As an extremely amateur historian -- and an extremely attractive archaeologist -- I've always been fascinated with the "what ifs" of gaming's timeline. What if Blizzard had pulled the plug on World of Warcraft during development as it did for Warcraft Adventures? What if Hellgate: London had a lot more time and resources before it launched? What if North America had embraced the free-to-play model much earlier instead of the subscription model? What if Shawn came to his senses before he hired me? Life would've been a lot better. Or worse. That's the problem with counterfactual history: We can make educated guesses, but we'll never really know. While it's sad to see MMOs shut down due to underperformance, it's especially maddening to contemplate MMOs canceled before they even made it to the starting gate. In a new periodic series here at The Game Archaeologist, I'm going to look at a few of the "what ifs" of prematurely terminated MMORPGs. And to kick us off, I'm tackling probably one of the most frustrating, painful subjects that still linger amongst potential fans. I'm talking, of course, of True Fantasy Live Online, the game that could've shown the true potential of console MMOs. Or, y'know, not.
Robots learn to share, try to repair bad rep (video)
We've been told time and time again to fear our mechanical friends, so imagine our relief when we heard that some Swiss scientists had a batch of bots that displayed altruism. What's more, these little two-wheeled foragers weren't programmed to share, they evolved the trait. Researchers at EPFL infused Alice microbots with digital "genes" that mutated over time as well as color sensors that allow them to navigate their environment. The robots were tasked with collecting "food" and given the option to keep it for themselves or split it amongst their silicon-brained relatives. The more they decided to give to others with similar genetic makeup the more those virtual genes were passed on to future generations -- including the one for altruism. The experiment is an example of Hamilton's Rule, an evolutionary model for how the seemingly counter-intuitive trait of selflessness could arise through natural selection. Don't let your guard down just yet, though -- the robots are only sharing with each other for now.
MotorStorm Apocalypse trailer shows off features, blows them up
The launch trailer for Evolution Studios' newly released (in North America, anyway) MotorStorm Apocalypse shows off some of the game's most bullet-pointable features on some huge, in-game billboards. Then it blows those billboards up. So, basically, we hope you're a really fast reader.
Samsung Galaxy S II and 10.1-inch Galaxy Tab II confirmed for MWC, 4-inch 3D display, LTE-based cloud gaming coming later
Alright, we've just laid eyes on some internal Samsung documents and can bring you the official names and specs of the successors to the Galaxy S and Galaxy Tab. Firstly, the Galaxy S II will tout a 4.3-inch, 800 x 480 Super AMOLED Plus display, a 1GHz dual-core Orion / Exynos processor, NFC, Bluetooth 3.0, and 24Mbps HSPA+ connectivity. All those stats were leaked earlier this morning, along with the image above, and we've once again seen the 8.49mm thickness for this device, although we now believe it is the measurement at its thinnest point -- it's likely that the S II will fatten up to 9.9mm, presumably to accommodate the camera module, one of the last remaining parts of smartphone construction that require extra girth (NFC being another). As to the Galaxy Tab II, it is indeed the 10.1-inch Honeycomb tablet we've been hearing so much about, with the added bonus of it being a Google Experience Device. That should mean no Samsung-derived skin customizations atop the stock Android 3.0 UI -- exactly what we expect to see from the Motorola Xoom. Also matching the Xoom are the resolution, at 1280 x 800, and CPU speed, at 1GHz, though we couldn't determine whether the Tab II will be a dual- or single-core tablet. Our money's on seeing the Exynos 4210 appear in both new Galaxy devices, but we'll have to wait until Samsung's presser tomorrow to find out for sure. One more note of import on specs: we saw a 16GB / 32GB / 64GB storage listing, but couldn't be sure what product it referred to -- wouldn't it be lovely if the Galaxy S II was the first smartphone to step past the 60GB barrier? Finally, looking toward the future, Samsung is apparently working on a 4-inch WVGA display with 3D capabilities -- presumably autostereoscopic like LG's Optimus 3D -- and an intriguing "Motion UI" control scheme. The latter will allow you to pan inside Google Maps and StreetView just by the movement of your phone, as well as zoom in and out of pages by tilting the handset up and down (a gyroscope will be required for both functions). Samsung also has big plans for LTE, with a focus on pumping out whatever you receive over the 4G connection to a nearby HDTV using dual display technology. The two applications we caught sight of were personal broadcasting, where your Sammy handset would act as an extremely sophisticated internet TV receiver, and cloud-based gaming. Here's hoping we learn more about these future ventures tomorrow.
Samsung's Galaxy S is set for an 'evolution' at MWC in February
That Samsung intends to bring a Galaxy S successor to MWC 2011 was already a known known, but now the company's turning up the hype machine with an update to its Samsung Unpacked website. There, for the pleasure of your eyes and the tickling of your imagination, Sammy has positioned its familiar super-selling Android smartphone alongside a not-too-cryptic message promising that "evolution is fate." We're smelling a cute play on words here, similar to what LG did with its Revolution handset, potentially implying that the next Galaxy flagship will have LTE (Long Term Evolution) connectivity built in. That, along with the promised dual-core chip within, should easily outshine the Infuse 4G (which has HSPA+ and a single-core Hummingbird inside) recently announced for AT&T in the States. We'll get the next dose of our teasing on February 1st, the site promises, before the full unveil in Barcelona on February 13th. Our hearts are all aflutter already. [Thanks, Patrick]
Fly with the bears in Moonlight Online
Have you ever dreamed of a truly special mount in your MMO, perhaps a half-lion, half-tiger that you name a Liger? While Ligers may be a dream of the future, Moonlight Online has plenty of fanciful mounts now that don't easily fit in typical MMO stereotypes. Coming soon to the game are a plethora of bizarrely beautiful mounts that run the spectrum from dinosaur (Megalosaurus), Harry Potter pal (Phoenix), combustible lupine (Flaming Wolf), round (Crystal Ball), blind (Bat), and two of the most unstoppable forces of nature combined into one (Angel Bear). Players will be able to "evolve" these special mounts over time as well. Every time a mount levels up, it increases its attributes, gains faster speed, and even has the chance to gain a cool new skill, such an an AOE attack. Mounts also change in appearance as they evolve, which means that Angel Bear just got 100% more awesome. Check out the new mounts as well as the game over at IGG's Moonlight Online forums.
CyberPower gets diminutive with LAN Party EVO SFF desktop family
Look out, Shuttle -- CyberPower's getting all up in your territory with its new LAN Party EVO series. Introduced today, this foursome of minuscule monsters relies on mITX and mATX motherboards and plenty of high-end internals to deliver solid gaming performance in a desktop that's at least somewhat portable. The Party EVO Mini is wrapped in a Silverstone SG-07B enclosure, while the Xtreme, Commander, and Ultra tout In-Win's Dragonslayer. Aside from integrating its Max Airflow Package to keep things a couple of notches below "Molten Lava," the whole crew is equipped with a 64-bit copy of Windows 7, a three-year warranty and free lifetime phone support. As for specs, the Mini ($1,079) gets a Core i7-870 CPU, 4GB of DDR3 memory, a 1GB ATI Radeon HD 5770 GPU and a 1TB HDD, while the Xtreme ($799) steps down (oddly enough) to a Core i5-760 and an HD 5670 on the graphics front. The Commander ($999) includes a Core i7-950, 6GB of DDR3 RAM and NVIDIA's GeForce GTS 450 (1GB), and finally, the Ultra ($759) branches out with an AMD Phenom II X4 955 CPU, 4GB of DDR3 memory, ATI's Radeon HD 5670 GPU (1GB) and a full terabyte of hard drive space. So, which is going to be, buster?
Dear Aunt TUAW: Burn baby burn
Dear Aunt TUAW, Is iTunes slowly encouraging the death of CDs? The burn icon at the bottom of the interface has disappeared as you can see in this screen shot. Concerned, Your nephew Sean
CE-Oh no he didn't!: Acer founder characterizes Apple as a mutant virus
Wow, a mutant virus? This analogy may sound like a ringing bell for another cat fight on the playground, but Acer founder and retired chairman Stan Shih is actually semi-praising Apple here. Speaking at the launch of an Acer touch-themed design competition, Shih said that while Apple's taking the "revolution" highway to tackle the PC market, Acer's success has always depended on its time-consuming but more pragmatic "evolution" strategy, and it'll keep doing so to lay the ground for the next 30 years or so. Here's how China Times paraphrased Shih: "Apple is like a mutant virus, escaping from the traditional structure of the PC industry, but the industry will still eventually build up immunity, thus further blocking this trend, and we believe the size of the non-Apple camp will exceed Apple's, because this is how the industry normally evolves." Assuming the second half of Shih's quote refers to the tablet market share, this certainly echoes the words of his good friend JT Wang. That said, this is also the man who's boldly predicted that all American PC brands will be gone within 20 years, but there's no promise that Apple won't be kicking out a few more revolutions in the coming years. Anyway, doesn't Acer have more to worry about for the mean time?
Network Archaeology used to 'excavate' the past structure of networks
Predicting the future configuration of a network is pretty straightforward. Whether you're talking about social networks like Last.fm or biological networks like those associated with protein interaction within cells (you know the type), many of them share common growth patterns, making it possible to predict the future of a network being studied. Unfortunately, you can't really work backwards using the same process, so until recently it wasn't really possible to determine a past state. That's why a paper recently published on arXiv.org is so promising. According to a light beach read called Network Archaeology: Uncovering Ancient Networks from Present-day Interactions, researchers Saket Navlakha and Carl Kingsford have been able to do things like "decompose" actual observed networks to correctly guesstimate when Last.fm users signed up, and determine the age of proteins and how they evolved by looking at how they duplicated and mutated in the past. Rumor has it that Mark Zuckerberg has a keen interest in developing this technology, if only to spare current social networks the fate of Friendster.
TUAW's Daily App: Evolution Defense
Evolution Defense is a pretty good tower defense title. While it doesn't add a whole lot to the genre (there is some innovation in terms of how towers are upgraded, and support towers can be built and added in around damaged towers), it is a smooth and direct TD game that's made for the iPhone. Your job is to attack pathogens that are invading a bloodstream, and as with the usual tower defense spiel, you need to build up towers along the pathway (according to the currency that you have). It's pretty basic stuff, but a solid amount of tower choices and some excellent (if a little strange) graphical representations make for a quality game. Best of all, it's completely free. It seems like it's been a while since we featured a freebie, so head on over to the App Store, and pick it up right away. Facebook integration will add a little extra oomph to the gameplay, and there's supposed to be a pretty good multiplayer mode (that, unfortunately, didn't work on my 1G iPhone) where you put your own creations up against a friend's tower setup. All in all, it's an excellent bit of fun for the low, low price of free.
Citizen Evolution concepts tickle our green fancy, freak us out
We've nothing against sustainable living -- in fact, we wholeheartedly support it -- but Wollersberger & Charlesworth's first project is certainly out there. Showcased at the opening of the 'Project Vienna – How to react to a city?' exhibition at MAK Vienna, Citizen Evolution demonstrates four specific service models for humans of the future. From a sophisticated funneling system that gathers pigeon waste and converts it into power for the home to a downright creepy energy gathering apparatus that taps into old coffins, there's a whole lot of far-fetched ideas here that may just morph into reality before we know it. Hit the source link if you're looking to expand your mind on a day when most shut it down.
iPhone 4 or EVO 4G: which one should you get?
Hoo boy. This is a tough one, isn't it? In our years at Engadget, we've rarely seen such deafening debate and adulation for a pair of devices. In one corner we have the iPhone 4, coming off a few relatively easy rounds atop the smartphone mind share heap. However, the Droid and its ilk have weakened Apple's spot, and here comes the HTC EVO 4G in for the kill, sporting a larger screen, 4G data, and all manner of HTC sexy. If the devices themselves weren't enough, the debate has turned into something larger and metaphorical, with Apple representing tight restrictions and a singular top down vision, while Google's Android stands for something perhaps a bit more haphazard but democratizing. The gloves come off after the break.
iPhone 4 vs. the smartphone elite: EVO 4G, N8, Pre Plus, and HD2
We know how the iPhone 4 sizes up against the aging 3GS -- but how does it fare against its fiercest competitors from all the major platforms? We wish we had some production Windows Phone 7 kit to check out here, but in the meantime, take a look at the results against the gruesome foursome of the EVO 4G, N8, Pre Plus, and HD2. You might be surprised by some of the results -- and sorry, RIM, you don't get to play until you bring some fresh, media-heavy hardware to the table. Nothing personal!
HTC EVO 4G's appearance on HSN is either a great sign, or a harbinger of the apocalypse
Remember to use Tootie!
Mint automatic floor cleaner up for pre-order, shipping this summer
It's not like the automatic vacuum cleaner market could get much more crowded, but Evolution Robotics has put an interesting twist on things with its Swiffer-packin' Mint. If you'll recall, we saw this guy wiping up the downright disgusting floors of the Las Vegas Convention Center back in January, and now it looks as if production plans are moving along nicely. Equipped with a NorthStar positioning technology that enables it to never hit the same spot twice on the same run, this hardwood sweeper is now up for pre-order. Unfortunately, getting in line requires a non-refundable $20 deposit, but the outlay will be applied to the purchase price and will enable you to snag one of the first shipments this summer (which is significantly more awesome than waiting for it to hit retail shelves in Q4). Don't worry -- your Roomba won't be too envious.
Apple to make an HDTV within two to four years?
The famous Gene Munster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray, has another wacky prediction for us: within the next two years, he says, Apple will release a connected HDTV. Unlikely, to say the least -- the thinking around the virtual TUAW offices is that Munster's way off base on this one. Not only is the HDTV market pretty darn price sensitive (Apple is, of course, not one to compete on price), but Apple has always considered television "a hobby," and they're not likely to take on a whole new market unless they think they can do something different. However, we'll give Munster his chance. He says that combining "hardware, software, and content will become a key selling point for TVs" in the future, and Apple does that very, very well. He says that the natural evolution for the Apple TV is to build an all-in-one solution with a screen for about $2000, and that Apple might even offer a subscription service in order to completely oversee the producer-to-consumer relationship. Admittedly, that does sound like something Apple might want to do. Munster also says that such a service could be ported to the iPhone and iPad for a wireless solution as well, and that makes it a pretty tempting idea. Yet again, that presumes Apple wants to get involved in television, and with most of their attention already focused on bringing content to the iPad, that's a bit of a stretch. I guess we'll wait and see. Would you buy an all-in-one TV and subscription from Apple if that's what they decided to do?
Evolving robots navigate a maze, help each other, plot destruction of mankind
You'll say the whole Robot Apocalypse meme is played out. We say it's your lack of focus that'll eventually be the downfall of society. Gurus at the Laboratory of Intelligent Systems in the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale of Lausanne have been working on "evolving robots" for quite some time, but the latest breakthrough is easily the most astounding (and in turn, terrifying) of all. According to new research that was just made public, a gaggle of robots programmed to use Darwinian selection in order to learn, evolve and mutate have now successfully moved sans collisions through a maze and helped each other push tokens around in order to achieve a common goal. Moreover, some of the creatures even displayed early signs of a predatory-prey relationship, which effectively assures mankind that these cute little learners will one day assimilate to rule the world however they please. Keep laughing if you must -- it'll probably make the painful sting of reality a bit easier to take when Doomsday rolls around.
Evolution as it does and doesn't apply to MMOs
A few days ago, we discussed the lack of innovation in the MMO market at the moment, as well as some of the underlying reasons behind it. The topic prompted We Fly Spitfires to postulate the idea that we needed an MMO that broke most if not all of the established and accepted rules of the genre. In his own parlance, we needed a mutation instead of a steady evolution. Those of you familiar with evolutionary science might be quirking your eyebrow a bit, as did Of Teeth and Claws, where it was pointed out that mutation is a part of evolution. Continuing the analogy, it's a part of the slow improvement we see in our genre of choice, as the source leading to feature implementation and improvement. And as Killed in a Smiling Accident added, evolution is not a straight line, nor does it select features based on inherent quality -- the current "standard features" have evolved because they're best at succeeding in the current environment (that is, the market). Ultimately, aside from fascinating extension of the analogy, the biggest point to be taken away from both this discussion and the previous one is that change in the genre isn't something which will happen overnight. While the powerful influence that World of Warcraft has placed upon the genre is beginning to abate a bit, it'll be quite some time before it's discarded wholesale.
Evolution Robotics Mint bot is the Swiffer of Roombas, keeps track of its positioning
If you haven't figured out how to clean your floor robotically by now, you might be a lost cause, but Evolution Robotics is willing to give it a try with its new Mint machine. The bot uses regular Swiffer pads, and is designed for cleaning hard floors with a shove of the wet-nap. Outside of its lack of vacuum, the Mint also differentiates itself with its "NorthStar" positioning tech, which lets the bot keep track of its exact location with GPS-style tech, relative to a base station, ensuring that it hits every spot and doesn't waste time with random meandering. Mint should hit retail in Q4 of this year for under $250. Check out a video of it in action after the break. %Gallery-82160%
