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Gravity Rush demo floats to PSN on May 29 in NA, May 30 in EU
Only five months after it landed on Japanese PlayStation Vitas, Sony's Gravity Rush will arrive on PlayStation Network in both North America and Europe. At least in demo form, that is. After a tweet from EU retailer GAME last week alleged a May 30 date for the game's EU demo, Sony confirmed to Joystiq today that the demo is set to arrive on NA and EU Vitas on May 29 and 30, respectively.That leaves just under two weeks between the demo and the game's mid-June launch, though it's doubtful you'll need much time to decide that it's quite a game.
Report: Gravity Rush demo falling to European Vitas on May 30
You'll forgive us, but every little drip of information about when we can play Gravity Rush is positively thrilling. Knowing that the game doesn't arrive until late June (ugh), we were totally psyched to see UK retailer GAME reporting a demo arriving on PSN on May 30.Yes, that does mean we'll likely see a demo here in North America as well, it's just a question of when. We've reached out to Sony to find out (as well as to confirm the EU demo date) and will update this post as soon as we hear more.In the meantime, might we suggest rewatching the mesmerizing trailer for Gravity Rush just above? That's a pretty thrilling journey for a little apple!
Gravity Rush started life as a PS3 title, inspired by Crackdown
When Sony's internal Japan Studio set out to work on Gravity Rush (Gravity Daze in Japan), the game was positioned as a PlayStation 3 title. According to an interview with the US PlayStation Blog, the team "came across PS Vita along the way" and realized it was "perfect for the game."That's not the weird part, though. The game's primary influence is cited as Realtime Worlds' 2007 Xbox 360 game, Crackdown. "I really like the aspect of unlocking skills and becoming more powerful, and achieving a higher level of freedom as you become more powerful," one team member said. "I enjoyed moving in that game." Given that Gravity Rush is an open world game in a third-person view with an upgradable character, the comparison makes sense. Both games feature unrealistic art styles accentuating the fantastical gameplay, making their crossover even clearer.While Gravity Daze has been out for a bit in Japan, Gravity Rush won't float to US shores for another few months.[Image credit: PlayStation Blog]
Art in service of gameplay: Gravity Rush
Sony's next big internally developed PlayStation Vita game, Gravity Rush, is still a few months from launch in North America. In Japan, however, the game has been out since early February, freeing up art director Yoshiaki Yamaguchi to present his work on the already completed game to a room of GDC 2012 attendees this morning. Yamaguchi spoke of how cel shading and creating a living world helped to service the project's open world gameplay. "The color of the sky provides information about location or acts as sort of like a symbol for that place. However, just simply applying a layer of color would be too direct or too strong, and may even feel out of place," he said. "So we crafted this atmospheric sort of simulation to give it a more natural feel and appeal." The result, as shown off during the presentation, is a vibrant, painterly world that can be fully interacted with by the player. Yamaguchi said the team at Sony's Japan Studio pushed for an open world from the beginning of the project, as seen in the first concept video above (revealed for the first time during his GDC panel). The game's main character saw more of an evolution than the game world, in fact. Seen after the break, Kat saw several iterations before the team settled on a definitive look that would represent a "strong female" as well as a "strong ninja."
Vita's Gravity Rush drops in North America June 12
Neither Sony, with its initial "launch window" estimate, nor retailers, with late May targets, were quite right about Gravity Rush's North American release date. The publisher revealed the real date for the action game on the PlayStation Blog today: June 12 -- just over four months after the Japanese release.While you wait for your chance to fling yourself around a stylized city, constantly reorienting the pull of gravity, we suggest watching this new trailer. Despite the claims it makes, we've heard nothing about the game's ability to give you supernatural apple powers.
Retailers think Gravity Rush is out on May 29
We've been under the impression that Gravity Rush was slated to reorient our Newtonian perspectives sometime during the Vita launch window, but Amazon and Gamestop disagree, listing the title's release date as May 29, which is quite a ways away from the Vita's February 22 launch.We called a local Gamestop to confirm the listing, and an employee informed us that Gravity Rush has a "ship date" of May 30 in their system, which lines up just about right. It's entirely possible that the end of May is within Sony's definition of the Vita's release window, but we won't know what's the dealio really-o until Sony elaborates on the game's "TBD" release date.
Former Lineage II artist returns to NCsoft for new MMO project
NCsoft's prodigal son has returned, and with him the hopes and dreams of the future of gaming. Well that might be a smidge melodramatic, but fans of the company's games certainly have a good reason to celebrate today as former Lineage II artist Juno Jeong has come back to the fold. Jeong signed back on with NCsoft as of yesterday to be the art director of an unknown MMO project. This is a marked step up from his previous role in the company as a member of the character production team, and those who know Jeong's art style are already expressing excitement with his current role. Following his stint on Lineage II, Jeong worked for several other game companies including Gravity, NHN, and Npluto. While speculation is swirling over the exact nature of the project to which he's been assigned, the most common assumptions are either that he's working on another Lineage or Aion title.
NASA's GRAIL spacecrafts enter Moon's orbit, set to map its gravitational field in March
Way back in September, NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory sent a duo of Lockheed Martin-produced spacecraft toward one of its favorite test subjects, the Moon, as a part of its GRAIL mission -- Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory. Now, nearly four months later, the administration has announced that the GRAIL-A and -B twin crafts have planted themselves within our Moon's orbit. According to NASA, they're currently in "a near-polar, elliptical orbit with an orbital period of approximately 11.5 hours," and it plans to execute more "burn maneuvers" in the coming weeks to shorten that time frame to less than two. By March, the research crafts will be positioned in a "near-polar, near-circular orbit" 34 miles above its surface, at which point they'll begin surveying its gravitational pull, by using radio signals to determine the distance between both units. With this information, NASA hopes to better understand how gravity works, both above and below the Moon's surface, by detailing the findings in a high-resolution map. NASA also says that scientists can utilize it to get further insight into how our planets formed. Notably, both spacecraft feature a MoonKAM (Moon Knowledge Acquired by Middle school students), that will allow students request pictures of specific areas the lunar surface for later study. Best of all, using NASA's "Eyes on the Solar System" web app, you'll be able to follow the paths of both spaceships in detail. You'll find full details about the GRAIL mission at the source links below.
Get in touch with Vita launch titles with ten new trailers
Sony sent out a bunch of trailers for first-party launch Vita games, focusing on the Vita-specific features each game uses. The good news: we see clever combinations of controls here, like Escape Plan's "pinch" of both the front and back touch panels. And Gravity Rush looks really neat regardless of how it's controlled. The bad news: we're not nearly mature enough to see ten references to "front touch" and "rear touch" without giggling. If that's how Sony is going to refer to those features permanently, we're going to have a problem at press events.
Galaxy cluster research supports Einstein's Theory of Relativity on a cosmic level
In one small win for Einstein, one giant win for mankind, scientists at the Niels Bohr Institute have proved his General Theory of Relativity on a cosmic scale through their research of large galaxy clusters. Accordingly, the clusters -- which are the largest known gravity-bound objects -- have such a strong pull that they should cause light to "redshift," or proportionally increase in wavelength, shifting towards the red end of the visible spectrum. To test it, researchers measured beams from 8,000 clusters, revealing that they do indeed cause a change in light's wavelength, supporting Einstein's theory to a T. One good turn deserves another, right Albert? Armchair cosmologists can hop on over to the source link to learn more.
Virgin Galactic, XCOR land suborbital contracts with NASA
Have $200,000 to spare for a ticket to space? NASA does, apparently, a few times over. Following the retirement of its Space Shuttle program, the US agency just announced two-year contracts with seven space flight companies, worth a combined $10 million. NASA will partner with Virgin Galactic, XCOR, and five other companies to bring engineers, scientists, and equipment to space, for a variety of experiments in low-gravity environments. The contract provides few financial implications for Virgin, which has already collected $55 million in deposits from future space tourists, but the company did acknowledge it as an "important milestone" in its efforts to grow beyond initial consumer offerings. Space Adventures, which serves as a low-cost carrier of sorts in the industry with its $102,000 flight, may be represented as well, through its partner Armadillo Aerospace -- so it's probably safe to assume that NASA won't be paying two large huge a pop to blast its personnel to space.
One Shots: Dead men don't fly
I thought I'd travel off the beaten path this week and see how Requiem: Memento Mori is doing. I couldn't find my old character, but I started a new one and took advantage of a months worth of premium time. I also think there's a bonus XP event going on right now. This is my level 26 Battle Mage taking a trip from Zakate to South Watchtower on a Wingrider, the mode of transport between hubs. I always enjoyed Requiem's graphics and the areas between Kurt and Zakate both feel open and diverse. It's like one giant zone, but with individual areas all styled differently. All this week, we Massively writers are spotlighting some of our personal favorite One Shots. What exciting stories revolve around our screenshots? Stay tuned to find out. Next week, after staff picks week, will be free-for-all week for you, our readers. Send any eye-catching, beautiful, scary, or generally epic screenshot to oneshots@massively.com, and we'll pick the best of the best for next week's One Shots!%Gallery-112285%
TUAW's Daily iPhone App: Gravity Guy
Gravity Guy is a fun one. It doesn't really do anything we haven't seen before -- the basic idea is a running-style game where you simply tap the screen to switch gravity (very similar to the terrific indie game VVVVVV). You can play it right now online as a Flash game, and you only need to get into it for a second before you see the whole premise. But what's really sent this one to the top of the App Store charts is all the extras and bonus modes that come with it. Not only is there a full story mode to play through, there are also practice and endless modes to play, and even a local or online multiplayer mode. There are Game Center leaderboards and achievements, and both the graphics and music look and sound terrific. So yes, this is just a Flash game port (and a simple one at that), but it's a Flash game port done very right. Plus, as of this writing, Gravity Guy is on sale today for the low price of absolutely free. Grab it and check it out if it seems like your thing.
Gravity preview: Falling in slow motion
Gravity was one of the few fully original titles we saw running on the new PS Vita console at Sony's event last evening. Most of the games on the new system are updates of Sony's big properties, but Gravity is different -- a brand new IP by Sony Japan centered around what's probably the least sexy of the Vita's new control schemes: The internal gyroscope. The idea is that you play as Kat, a girl wandering around a dreamlike, stylistic city called Hexaville (complete with a pink sky and a comic panel look) who finds herself with the ability to control her own personal gravity, floating up in the air with a flick of the R trigger. Once floating, you can use the right analog stick (or, more likely, the PS Vita's gyroscope) to aim her towards a wall or building, and then the R trigger sends her flying across the world that way, changing up gravity until you hit the R button again and bring her back down to the ground.
T-Mobile might launch Samsung Exhibit 4G and Gravity Smart June 22nd?
Millions of schoolchildren may be getting ready for three months of lazy summer days, but T-Mob's just starting to get its hustle on. Samsung's Gingerbread-equipped Exhibit 4G and Froyo-laden Gravity Smart have been officially confirmed for sometime in the month of June, but all is quiet about the exact date. If this leaked screenshot above comes to fruition, though, it means we'll be seeing these two phones hit the shelves on June 22. The Exhibit 4G will tempt us with access to T-Mobile's 21 Mbps HSPA+ network, while the Gravity Smart looks to be a splendid entry-level QWERTY slider. The pricing for either phone is still anybody's guess, but at least the possibilities have been narrowed to $100 or less -- a good idea, since it wouldn't take any sales away from the Sensation 4G if it were any higher.
Samsung GT2 comes forward into the light, gets pictured and spec'd
Being obscured by bigger names like the MyTouch 4G Slide and Samsung Hercules, little TLC was given to the Froyo-powered Samsung Gravity Touch 2 on T-Mobile's leaked roadmap yesterday. To give the Android-that-could its 15 minutes of fame, TmoNews uncovered a very official-looking presentation slide that seems to confirm a $225 price tag and a few specs with it. The GT2, as it's being called, will sport a 3.2-inch screen with a full horizontal slide and is the first member of the Gravity lineup to get Android. We'll also reportedly find an 800MHz CPU and 3MP camera that are characteristic of current midrange smartphones. We'd have a hard time choosing it over the HTC Sensation 4G, which is also supposed to arrive June 8th.
NASA concludes Gravity Probe B space-time experiment, proves Einstein really was a genius
Well, it looks like Einstein knew what he was talking about, after all. Earlier this week, researchers at NASA and Stanford released the findings from their six-year Gravity Probe B (GP-B) mission, launched to test Einstein's general theory of relativity. To do so, engineers strapped the GP-B satellite with four ultra-precise gyroscopes to measure two pillars of the theory: the geodetic effect (the bending of space and time around a gravitational body) and frame dragging (the extent to which rotating bodies drag space and time with them as they spin on their axes). As they circled the Earth in polar orbit, the GP-B's gyroscopes were pointed squarely at the IM Pegasi guide star, while engineers observed their behavior. In the universe outlined by Einstein's theories, space and time are interwoven to create a four-dimensional web, atop which the Earth and other planetary bodies sit. The Earth's mass, he argued, creates a vortex in this web, implying that all objects orbiting the planet would follow the general curvature of this dimple. If the Earth's gravity had no effect on space and time, then, the position of NASA's gyroscopes would have remained unchanged throughout the orbit. Ultimately, though, researchers noticed small, but quantifiable changes in their spin as they made their way around the globe -- changes that corroborated Einstein's theory. Francis Everitt, a Stanford physicist and principal investigator for the mission, poetically explained the significance of the findings, in a statement: "Imagine the Earth as if it were immersed in honey. As the planet rotated its axis and orbited the Sun, the honey around it would warp and swirl, and it's the same with space and time. GP-B confirmed two of the most profound predictions of Einstein's universe, having far-reaching implications across astrophysics research. Likewise, the decades of technological innovation behind the mission will have a lasting legacy on Earth and in space." The GP-B mission was originally conceived more than 50 years ago, when the technology required to realize the experiment still didn't exist. In fact, the experiment didn't actually get off the ground until 2004, when the satellite was launched into orbit 400 miles above Earth. After spending just one year collecting data (and an impressive five years analyzing the information), NASA has finally confirmed something we always quietly suspected: Einstein was smart. Head past the break to see a more in-depth diagram of how the GP-B gathered its data.
Universe expansion: dark energy's out, anti-gravity's in, matter and antimatter still can't get along
Dark energy, we barely knew you, but before we ever found out if you were, in fact, the invisible hand pushing the cosmos apart, an Italian scientist ginned up a new theory that has anti-gravity doing the Yoko Ono to the universe's merry band of galaxies. Massimo Villata's theory assumes that both matter and antimatter have positive mass and energy density, which gets particles attracting particles and antiparticles attracting antiparticles through the force of gravity. To give dark matter the heave-ho from the galactic expansion equation, Villata supposes that the theory of general relativity applies in reverse to antimatter particles to create anti-gravity. And just as gravity pulls particles together, anti-gravity shoves them apart -- giving the universe its burgeoning waistline, no clown, king, or colonel required.
Nokia E7 review
Over the years, we've seen a steady stream of business and messaging-centric landscape QWERTY smartphones come and go, with HTC arguably leading the pack via its collection of Windows Mobile, Android, and WP7 devices featuring sliding keyboards and tilt-out displays. But few of HTC's offerings are as iconic or memorable as Nokia's line of Communicator clamshell phones -- starting with the Nokia 9000 in 1996, continuing with Symbian S80 models, and culminating with the Nokia E90 atop S60v3. The Nokia E7 is the latest Communicator in this distinguished series and the manufacturer's current flagship device, dethroning the Nokia N8 which continues on as the company's media mogul. A lot has changed in the six months since the N8 was introduced, including Nokia's recent partnership with Microsoft and the stunning announcement that it will be adopting Windows Phone for future high-end smartphones. So, is the E7 -- which is finally shipping in the US -- the greatest Communicator to date? Can it carry the torch for Symbian in the immediate future? And more importantly, how does it fare in today's shark-infested Android and iOS waters? Jump past the break for our full review. %Gallery-120805%
Ragnarok Online goes free-to-play
Ragnarok Online's been pretty quiet following its Renewal update last year, but the free-to-play train is now passing through town and it looks as though the game is hopping aboard for the ride. Gravity Interactive has announced that it is dropping the subscription model from Ragnarok Online effective immediately. The company encourages new and returning players interested in this F2P format to make their home on the Yggdrasil or Valkyrie servers. The company is also offering a premium VIP subscription package for players looking to turbo-boost their advancement. VIP players not only have the option to play on a VIP-only server (Ymir) but will also benefit from a 50% increase in experience gain, loot drops, more storage, a lessened death penalty, access to special areas, and the full use of all nine character slots. If this low, low cost of entry tempts you to check out the game, all it takes to play is a free Warp Portal account through the official website.
