Explosions
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What does Santa want for Christmas? World of Tanks!
Boom boom boom. Boom boom boom. Boom boom boom ba-boom. Dashing through the shells, waging war today. O'er the fields we drive, blowing tanks away! HEY! It just wouldn't be Christmas without a little panzer turret action, right? Well, never fear. Christmas is finally here. Wargaming.net has given us a Yuletide trailer to fill your life with holiday cheer -- and canon fire, of course. Today, the company released a new World of Tanks teaser to whet your warring appetite. Wargaming.net CEO Victor Kislyi knows that Kris Kringle likes a little ka-boom with his jingle-jangle. "The first present I got from Santa was a tiny plastic T-34, so I'm pretty sure that he just loves tanks. In fact, we've got a letter from Lapland recently with him asking to film a Christmas of his dream. We didn't hesitate for long and have come up with something he will surely like," explains the gaming executive. To catch this explosive video, follow after the cut. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from World of Tanks!
DOFUS brings the holidays to players, then blows them up
The colorful world of DOFUS seems well-suited to a holiday celebration, especially with the amount of character embedded in the game's graphics. And one is taking place on Kwismas Island, beyond a shadow of a doubt. But there's still something else for players to look for, something that's far less merry than the dungeons of the island (whose merriness is already a rather dubious quality). It's the newest class of the game, the Rogue, a class focused on guns, explosives, and the use of both in tandem. Capable of summoning a variety of elemental bombs as well as making elementally charged pistol attacks, Rogues are the 13th class in the game, available as a premium feature now. All DOFUS players can enjoy Kwismas Island, however, previewed in our gallery just below. Take a look at the Rogue teaser video past the cut, and consider the possible combination of holiday dungeons and heavy explosives. (It beats fruitcake and caroling.) %Gallery-111466%
Atomic bomb tests make for pretty, if unnerving, photography
The things America got up to in the 50s, eh? The New York Times has this week published a gallery of arresting images from atomic bomb testing done by the US military in the middle of the 20th century. From nuking its own destroyers and airships while gauging out their "vulnerability" -- let's hope that vulnerability was categorized as "total" -- to producing atomic cannons like the one you see above, the USA really went to town with its nuclear warfare practice. The Times' story is about atomic cameramen and the crazy risks they took to document these events; we'd advise giving it a read, but if you're pushed for time, just hit the source for all the wild visuals.
Apple: "Exploding" iPhones succumbed to external pressure
There's been much news of "exploding" iPhones lately. If you're unfamiliar with the story, the European Commission formally asked Apple to investigate a series of reports that users' iPhones were abruptly cracking and/or catching fire. According to the French periodical Les Echos, an iPhone in Aix-en-Provence, France, started to "crackle and pop like a deep-frier" before breaking violently apart. This past Friday, Apple said that, in all cases, the iPhones in question were damaged by an "external force," not a faulty battery or glass screen: "To date, there are no confirmed battery overheating incidents for iPhone 3GS and the number of reports we are investigating is in the single digits. The iPhones with broken glass that we have analyzed to date show that in all cases the glass cracked due to an external force that was applied to the iPhone."It does seem odd that at least four cases have been reported in France in short order. Still, it's even stranger that iPhones would suddenly turn into Molotov cocktails. We'll keep you updated on this story.
Jerry Bruckheimer Games explodes onto scene, Halo 3 exec on board
MTV and Hollywood movie baron Jerry Bruckheimer made their union official this morning, lifting the 17-month shroud of secrecy off their joint venture, oh-so-creatively dubbed Jerry Bruckheimer Games. The new studio will be steered by former Microsoft exec and Halo 3 executive producer, Jim Veevaert, as the company's president of production. Veevaert will share the wheel with Jay Cohen, who joined the studio in March, his role now revealed as the company's president of development.What Cohen and company will be developing exactly, however, remains a mystery, with the studio saying only that it will create original IPs that "convey and reflect the high standards of entertainment value set by Jerry Bruckheimer." For fans of shaky cams and explosions, one thing's for certain -- finally there's a studio out there with your best interests at heart.
Rumor: Ubisoft exec takes job at MTV/Jerry Bruckheimer game venture
Jay Cohen, who recently left his position as North American VP of publishing at Ubisoft, is apparently taking the reigns of MTV and Jerry Bruckheimer's ever-gestating video game initiative. The Cut Scene reports that "numerous sources" have confirmed that Cohen has taken a job at the studio formed by the two media giants.This is actually the first murmuring we've heard about the joint venture since it was announced 15 months ago. No word yet what the next step will be for the studio, but at least they've got a guy at the top who could make Bruckheimer's name mean to games what it does in movies and TV.
Killzone 2 = pretty explosions
Sure, Sony didn't show this new Killzone 2 trailer off at their press conference, but instead snuck it up onto their press site after the show. Why? That's a good question, but don't worry your pretty little head about it. Just check the video out for over a minute of new Killzone 2 footage, including some more gorgeous explosions. We don't mind seeing grey and green 90% of the time when these super-colorful explosions are our reward. More explosions please.
Fallen Earth gets a visual facelift
Fallen Earth is a massively game that's been in development for some time now, although that's not entirely unheard of for the massively genre. When a game has been in development for as long as Fallen Earth has, sometimes the graphics it started with just don't seem to cut it anymore. Well, this problem is something the FE team is in the process of fixing. Not only have we been given some examples of these new improvements, but we've also gotten a bit of an informational update as well.
Badass Crackdown Physics Video
Sometimes words can't quite describe something just the way you want it to. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words, and extrapolating from that, 30,000 words per second of video. In any case, the above clip leaves us speechless. YouTube's seemore10 has taken some clips from the Crackdown demo, and exhibited the physics engine's capabilities in regards to explosions added to nearby vehicles. Combining a pile up with some remote mines, he got devastating results that remind us of the Crashbreakers from the Burnout series. He's got some other gems available on his user page worth checking out. If you get a little creative in Crackdown with the camera rolling, give us a shout. [Via Digg]
Ridiculously awesome Metal Slug trailer
Things blow up real good in this insanely awesome Metal Slug Collection trailer. You might notice the trailer is surprisingly gory, featuring "blood, blood and more blood." The trailer clocks in at over 5 minutes, making it quite an amazing montage of guns, explosions and gore: sounds like the perfect game for me. And because I love you guys, you can download a PSP formatted version here.[Via Gamespot]
Recall update: Acer consults Sony, HP still holding the line
It's sort of sad when the news that a laptop manufacturer is not initiating a battery recall has become notable enough to cover, yet with Apple, IBM / Lenovo, Panasonic, Toshiba, and Fujitsu having already followed Dell's lead in pulling back some 6.6 million dangerous packs, HP's recent claim that its Sony-made batteries are all fine and dandy would seem to make it one of the only holdouts in this ongoing debacle. You may recall that HP immediately took a proactive stance when this saga began by dubbing the problem "a Dell issue," and now the company is citing its high quality standards as the reason it rejected Sony batteries for almost a year before finally bundling them with its machines; however, HP can't say for sure whether the units it chose not to purchase were among the explosion-prone batches. Like HP, Acer also claims not to have received any battery-related complaints, but the company has nevertheless decided to take Sony up on its recent offer to consult with OEMs "just to make sure." With HP's many woes as of late -- save for its purchase of VoodooPC -- avoiding the ranks of recallers would certainly be a welcome relief, but keep in mind that all it takes is a lone fiery incident for a manufacturer to get tangled up in this ugly mess.Read- HPRead- Acer [Via laptoping]
Dell recalls 4.1 million batteries
Details are still thin about the specific models affected by this latest battery recall, but it would appear Dell is working with the Consumer Product Safety Commission in recalling what's been said to be "the largest safety recall in the history of the consumer electronics industry." We're talking 4.1 million units installed in Dell machines sold between April 2004 and July 18th, an absolutely mind boggling number compared to their last recall, which was in the thousands. The kicker here is the batteries were actually contracted out to Sony for manufacture, meaning of course that anyone else using Sony-built batteries, like, say Sony (and Apple, should we be looking your way?) may also have their units taken back. While we are a little wary of one Dell exec's statement that they're "getting ahead of the issue," which in our opinion would have actually been issuing this recall four months ago, we're glad they're finally taking care of business before someone actually gets hurt.[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]Update: Dell's press release states the recall covers the following machines, so be aware! Dell Latitude D410, D500, D505, D510, D520, D600, D610, D620, D800, D810; Inspiron 6000, 8500, 8600, 9100, 9200, 9300, 500m, 510m, 600m, 6400, E1505, 700m, 710m, 9400, E1705; and Dell Precision M20, M60, M70 and M90 mobile workstations; and XPS, XPS Gen2, XPS M170 and XPS M1710. Also, you're to go here, and to pop that batt post haste.
iPod Shuffle wins battle with knife-wielding owner
Not that we should really have to remind you of such things, but trying to fix your own gadgets by bludgeoning them with a knife is not only ineffective, it can also result in you swearing and screaming in pain after the capacitor you impaled blows up in your face.[Thanks, Dave Z.]
