exploration
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China promises to put more humans in space, less trash
China's recent Beidu GPS launches were mere firecrackers compared to its space ambitions for the next five years. These have been laid out in a 17-page government document, which fortunately reduces down to just a few key points once you filter out the abstract bluster. Top of the list is a pledge to prepare for the construction of more "space stations" -- plural -- to complement the Tiangong module and allow for "medium term" human habitation. Officials and scientists will also find time to plan for a "human lunar landing" as well as surveying the moon with rovers. Lastly, it seems that China wants to fix its nasty reputation as a space litterer, by moving "aging GEO satellites out of orbit" and "fully deactivating" used Long March rockets to reduce the risk of them exploding and scattering debris in the busiest lanes. Regardless of how these lofty goals pan out, the juxtaposition with America's own dwindling dream is obvious.
Daily iPad App: Grand Theft Auto 3
I'm not quite willing to call Grand Theft Auto 3 old school -- I spent so much time on the original top-down versions of the series that those are still more retro to me than the fully 3D graphics and living, open-world city that GTA3 made famous on the consoles (a tradition that continues right up into Saints Row: The Third, which I recently played on my Xbox, and next year's Grand Theft Auto 5). But it's been ten years since we first saw the streets of Liberty City from the ground up, and Rockstar Games has now brought this classic to iOS as a universal version. And especially on my iPad 2, I'm willing to call it the best console port I've ever seen. The graphics look and run terrific, and the virtual controls, while still a little creaky, actually work really great despite all of the various things you can do. Newcomers to this one used to modern console games will probably notice all of the polygons, but as a reproduction of the original game, it really does look and play very well. And though it's only been ten years, it's really awesome to drive around the streets of Liberty City once again, and listen in to Lazlo's Chatterbox and all of the other great radio stations, checking out all of the open world city conventions (from grabbing any car to escaping the cops) that originated right here. If you've never played this game, you might find it a little aged. The missions are a little unclear compared to today's more simplistic fare, and there's no line to follow on your minimap: All you get is a little dot to go after. But for those of us who really enjoyed the heck out of this one all those years ago, this is great to see, and it's clear that Rockstar has brought it over to this platform with great care. This is an excellent version of this great game, and playing it on my iPad 2 took my right back to those days in my parent's basement when my friends and I would just drive around trying to get four stars and try to escape the cops. One note of warning: The game says it's built for all current iOS devices, including the iPad 1, but a lot of the iTunes reviews say it doesn't run great on those older machines. If you have an iPad 2 or an iPhone 4S, however, it should run quite well. I had one audio glitch while playing, but it definitely wasn't gamebreaking. Grand Theft Auto 3's anniversary iOS edition is available for $4.99 right now.
New ArcheAge beta videos feature sailing, exploration
If you're not in the ArcheAge beta (or if you are but can't figure anything out due to the language barrier), you'll want to check out a series of new gameplay videos at Steparu.com. The fan site has uploaded six clips that show off the high seas adventuring to be had in XLGAMES' forthcoming sandpark title, and there's an hour's worth of footage sure to be of interest to those of you chomping at the bit to do a little nautical exploring. ArcheAge's oceans are apparently vast, as the party makes use of the fastest ship in the game and still spends quite a lot of time looking for an island to call home. There's also a bit of island exploration footage, and you can find the first video after the break.
NASA building a harpoon to fire at comets, suddenly renders plot of 'Armageddon' plausible (video)
Whatever Michael Bay uses to propel that "high-concept" imagination of his, he's obviously passed some of it to the boys at NASA's Goddard Space Flight center. A team there is developing a hollow-bodied harpoon that can be fired from a cannon toward comets too dangerous to land on. Once landed, it fills up with sub-surface samples before winched back aboard the waiting space craft. It's currently being tested by firing the harpoon (using a six foot ballista) into a bucket of dirt -- if they fired it horizontally it'd travel about a mile. After the break we've got video explaining this madness in some detail -- which we promise is Aerosmith-ballad free.
NASA looks to send landers to Europa in 2020, wants to break the ice
There's still a lot of mystery surrounding Jupiter's moon Europa, but researchers at NASA seem fairly certain that there's a watery ocean lurking beneath its icy exterior. Their theories may finally be put to the test later this decade, thanks to a concept mission crafted by astronomers at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. According to Space.com, JPL researchers have come up with a plan that would send a pair of landers to Europa by 2026, in the hopes of finding out whether the rock has ever supported life forms. The endeavor certainly wouldn't be easy, since Jupiter blankets its moon in heavy radiation, but researchers think they can mitigate these risks by sending in an extra lander as backup, and by keeping the mission short and sweet. Under the plan, each 700-pound robot would use a mass spectrometer, seismometers and a slew of cameras to search for any organic chemicals that may be lodged within the moon's ice. Neither craft will sport a protective shield, so they'll only stay around the planet for about seven days, so as to avoid any radiation damage. At this point, the mission is still in the concept phase, though the JPL is hoping to launch both landers by 2020. JPL researcher Kevin Hand was quick to point out, however, that this would be a "habitability mission," and that NASA doesn't expect to find any signs of current life on Europa. Lars von Trier was unavailable for comment.
EVE Evolved: Touring a galaxy reborn
EVE Online recently celebrated the release of its incredible Crucible expansion, noted as one of the most feature-heavy expansions in the game's history despite the majority of its features being produced in a period of just a few weeks. Two years' worth of graphical upgrades, features, balance upgrades and quality-of-life fixes hit Tranquility all at once, and the response from players has been incredibly positive. Last week I rounded up all the information there is to know about the Crucible expansion, but reading articles and news posts is no substitute for hands-on experience. This week I took a tour around parts of New Eden to explore the incredible new graphics Crucible delivered. As I have a background in graphics programming, the graphical upgrades are obviously the most exciting change for me. The astounding background nebulae are even more impressive when you know just how difficult it would be to build a nebula system that looks this incredible from any location. In this week's EVE Evolved, I explore a reborn galaxy and catalogue my adventures in a massive HD gallery.
WildStar explores its Nexus
WildStar Wednesday is upon us, again! The team at Carbine Studios intends to give a weekly update for its upcoming MMO WildStar. Before finishing off part two of From Concept to Creature, Senior Community Manager Robert "Robeardo" Land decided to sidestep the creature aspect of the world and concentrate on the history of the WildStar central planet, appropriately named Nexus. Robeardo had to call on the talents of Narrative Designer Chad Moore to assist him in the developer blog. Moore explains that Nexus was once the home of the Eldan, an ancient, advanced race that disappeared from the galaxy over a thousand years ago, leaving behind all of its technology to rot. Part of the excitement for the player is exploring the planet and unearthing artifacts. Moore explains further: The rusting wrecks of giant robots lie half-buried in shifting desert sands, and strange and deadly alien creatures prowl in the shadows of extraordinary monolithic machines. And hidden among all of these wonders are the dark secrets of the Eldan themselves, and the answers to why they disappeared from planet Nexus so long ago. WildStar is locking in the explorer type of MMO player, and we at Massively will keep our eyes out to see if it hopes to hook the social, killer, and achiever types, too.
EVE Evolved: A new nullsec for everyone
Several weeks ago, EVE Online developer CCP Greyscale published possibly the single most important devblog of the past two years. Titled Nullsec development: Design goals, the blog laid the ground rules for high-level discussion on EVE's upcoming nullsec revamp. For those who live in nullsec, territorial warfare and nullsec life represent the true endgame of EVE. It's in these massive lawless regions of space that players forge alliances, build their own empires, and lead massive fleets of ships into enemy territory to kick over some space sandcastles. Over the past two weeks, I've been delving into the discussion surrounding the upcoming nullsec revamp and speculating on what changes we might see. I started with a look back at the early days of nullsec industry and went on to give some ideas aimed at reclaiming those glory days. I followed that up with last week's summary of EVE Online's empire-building history, the problems faced by today's territorial warfare mechanics, and further speculation on how the system could be radically changed for the better. In this week's EVE Evolved, I conclude this series of articles on the upcoming nullsec revamp with an examination of the discussion surrounding PvE, the local channel, and the potentially revolutionary smallholding system that could give even casual and solo players a taste of nullsec.
Captain's Log: Incoming messages from the devs... again
Captain's Log, Stardate 65131.6... Hello, computer (and players)! I seem to mention this all the time, but I believe it to be true: The developers working on Star Trek Online are more transparent with their work than the devs of most other games. Whether or not this transparency has been always been a good thing is debatable, though. Still, no matter what one's thoughts on this are, I think we can all agree we like to be "in the know" when it comes to new things in development. This past weekend, a select group of STO players was able to attend another Dine with the Devs event, hosted by yours truly, where transparency was taken to the next level. As I let you all know last week, the second-ever Dine with the STO Devs event coincided with some STO devs' visit to the Star Trek Las Vegas convention. Over 50 players gathered at a local Vegas restaurant to eat, drink and bombard Cryptic's developers with their most burning questions. Because 99.99% of the game's players were unable to attend, I captured the entire event on audio and would like to present you with a basic transcript of the evening's events. So make some food, grab a drink, and get ready to fire up the Holodeck for another edition of Captain's Log. Ensign, warp 10! Auxiliary power to the Holodeck matrices and brace for impact...
The Daily Grind: What's your favorite game world?
Today we're going to ask you to strip away your normal preconceptions of what makes an engaging MMO, whether it be the combat, the features, the customization, or the IP -- and look at the game world itself without any of those distractions. I guess this goes hand-in-hand with Environment Week that's going on right now in our One Shots column. Out of all of the MMOs I've played, only a small handful have bothered to construct worlds that teemed with personality, history, and unique flavor. When I'm really honest about it, most of these settings are about as generic as can be, hardly indistinguishable from the others. Yet while many games may tack on interesting elements to the flannel board of a boring world, occasionally developers put just as much time and effort creating a place that dares you to explore and get to know it intimately. So today I'd like to know what your favorite game world is -- and why. What makes or made it so special? What about it do you wish other MMOs would emulate? 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!
EVE Online dev blog outlines major long-term changes
A couple of weeks ago, we told you about an EVE Online initiative to bring about substantial changes to the game's nullsec regions. Yesterday, CCP expanded on the initial concept via a lengthy new post that should banish any doubts as to whether or not the devs expect the game to be around in the far future. CCP Greyscale outlines 12 bullet points discussed at length amongst both the dev team and the Council of Stellar Management, all with the aim of making nullsec the place to be in terms of EVE Online's primary gameplay. The post talks everything from mining to territory and conquest to intel and exploration. CCP Greyscale uses this last one as an example of how far-reaching the changes to EVE are shaping up to be. "Hopefully the amount of stuff in here will also make it clearer why we're saying 'more than five years.' For example, those few bullet points under 'exploration' mean replacing all of the exploration content that's been developed in the past five years," he explains.
Captain's Log: The reverse slingshot effect
Captain's Log, Stardate 65056.3... Hello, computer (and players)! The slingshot effect is a maneuver, shown throughout the Star Trek franchise, which allowed starships to move back through the time continuum. By traveling at a high warp factor towards a star with a large gravitational pull, the ship would whip around it and time travel. While this seemed to only exist within the realms of the IP, it looks as though Star Trek Online's Executive Producer Dan Stahl took us on a reverse slingshot course, giving us a glimpse into the future of the game. Before we returned to the original timeline, he made sure to write up everything we saw along the way for those who couldn't make the trip. In layman's terms, for those of you who missed the news earlier this week, July's Engineering Report has been released. While this is a monthly publication that contains the development pipeline for STO, including some items that have been featured in past issues, there are always a few bullet points added that seem to spark a healthy amount of debate -- one of these includes the ability to auction off your in-game Emblems, a form of currency, for C-Store points that have been paid for with real money. For information on this, including a response from Cryptic's PR department, and more, read ahead past the jump for this week's Captain's Log entry. Ensign, warp 10! Let's pull a slingshot maneuver of our own...
Star Trek Online posts the latest Engineering Report
With the launch of Season Four now behind the developers at Star Trek Online, the team is now focusing on what lies ahead for its Captains. The latest Engineering Report, a monthly forum post that is released and written by Executive Producer Dan Stahl, foreshadows some upcoming content that we will see soon™ and commits to the eradicating of bugs that recently came to life. There are even some new additions that are sure to bring some "healthy" discussions to the Cryptic forums. Between now and Season Five, we will see the introduction of the Duty Officer system, STF revamps, new gear sets, more Klingon updates, and the advancement of the Borg into Federation space. While it has been said that Season Five will most likely not be released until 2012, players can look forward to seeing major updates for fleets, a rework of how exploration works, more in-game species, and the introduction of fleet starbases. Make sure to take a look at the full report, as well as this week's upcoming Captain's Log entry, to read about these and other updates coming to a starship near you.
The Daily Grind: Would you like more exploration options?
Let's not mince words -- when you hear about a new location in any MMOs, you know it's being added so you can go in and kill its inhabitants. There's nothing inherently wrong with that, especially seeing as every new level brings MMO characters new ways to dice, filet, and otherwise demolish said inhabitants. But as many players have noted, it would be nice if there were occasionally other options, such as the puzzles and traps that Dungeons and Dragons Online places in some of its adventures. So would you like to see more exploration options in MMOs? Would you enjoy the chance to have a new location where you had to puzzle your way past traps and not draw your sword (or gun or electrical magic or whatever)? How about exploring a landscape without certain knowledge about what was on the other side? Or do you feel that's a thing of the past and so long as answers and guides are freely available online that exploration can't quite be replicated? 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!
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!]
ArcheAge CBT3 review talks crafting, labor points, and nautical exploration
If you've been curious about the crafting and gathering systems in XL Games' forthcoming ArcheAge sandbox, you'll want to check out the third and final part of ArcheAge-Online's extensive CBT3 review. The piece has a detailed breakdown on the game's labor point system (a third point pool, if you will, much like more traditional health and mana pools). Labor points are somewhat scarce despite regenerating over time, and most of the game's non-combat activities require them (harvesting apples from apple trees, chopping down said trees, building furniture and boats, etc.). It's a unique system, and ArcheAge-Online goes into the nitty gritty of the mechanics and offers up plenty of opinion as well. The review also features commentary and video footage on sailing and nautical exploration, with interesting tidbits about boat construction and the discovery of player settlements on uncharted islands off the beaten path. Head to ArcheAge-Online for more.
The Old Republic dev blog outlines codex system, exploration mechanics
You may have heard about the fact that BioWare is banking heavily on story as a selling point for its Star Wars: The Old Republic MMORPG. Narrative has arguably been the focus of BioWare's marketing campaign over the past year, and by all accounts, TOR will have story in spades. How will individual players keep track of the sprawling mythology? And how will they keep track of how their particular class-flavored vignettes fit in with the larger whole? Enter the codex. If you're familiar with BioWare's single-player RPG titles, notably the Mass Effect and Dragon Age series, you'll likely feel right at home with TOR's version of the codex. In a new dev blog, TOR lead designer Damion Schubert explains how BioWare devs borrowed from Mass Effect's encyclopaedia-style codex and Dragon Age's chronicle-style codex to arrive at the perfect system for The Old Republic. Aside from being a lore dissemination tool, the codex also functions as something of a questing system, with many entries locked behind requirements such as exploring certain locations in the game world. "All of these features combine to make a nice little collection game for the player, where the reward for the act of collecting is more lore and context offering insights and depth into the world of Star Wars: The Old Republic," Schubert explains. Check out more of his codex-related insights on the game's official website.
Around the world in eight days: A journey in Wurm Online, part two
My journey around the world of Wurm Online continues on today through the second half of the trip. In yesterday's story, we explored the eastern and southern shores of the map's mainland, and now we get to see the western and northern shores in all their glory. Although that southwestern-most tip of land is heavily populated, you're back to desolation when you make your way up into the cliff faces of the western shore. I spent one night in the side of a rocky mountain, only slightly protected from the elements as I chiseled my way into the rock just enough for a fire and shelter for the night. I decided to roleplay a bit during the trip, setting up proper shelter before I logged out of the game for the day. What's funny about this particular shelter is the fact that I discovered a very rare diamond only three squares into the cave. I've dug entire mazes of underground mines and never found a diamond before, so this was a sure sign that the rest of the trip was going to be bountiful. And it was! Follow along below for more.%Gallery-120997%
Around the world in eight days: A journey in Wurm Online, part one
Wurm Online is a unique MMO. I can't think of many other games that allow the freedom of Wurm, which may be why I still consider it my favorite online game to this date. For anyone who hasn't tried the game or heard me yammer on about it on the Massively Speaking podcast, I'll explain the basics. Wurm Online is a sandbox game created to allow players unbelievable freedom. If you've played Minecraft, you have the basic premise of Wurm, but multiply that experience by about 100. In fact, Markus "Notch" Persson was the co-founder and co-creator of Wurm before moving on to Minecraft and world fame. Wurm Online starts you off as a fairly inanimate and uncustomizable character whose goal is to simply build. Find a spot of unclaimed land, throw down a settlement token, and build to your heart's content. You cut down trees for wood, mine stone for ore, forage and fish for food, and use it all to create the world that lives within your imagination.
Visualized: Mercury
It may look like a spotty, monochromatic water melon, but we're taking NASA's word on this one -- the image above is the very first taken from an orbiting spacecraft of our solar system's innermost planet. Mercury has been snapped by NASA's MESSENGER probe, which is currently preparing itself to start on its elliptical trajectory around the planet and commence collecting data about it in earnest. Hit the links below to learn more about this bold exploration project.
