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Humble Weekly Sale: System Shock 2, The 7th Guest, Wizardry 8
It's a fine week for classic PC games as the good people at Humble Bundle have set their price-cutting sights on Night Dive Studios, a developer focused on resurrecting the hits of yesteryear for modern hardware. As with all Humble Weekly Sales, this entry operates on a "pay what you want" basis. Spend at least $1 and you'll receive classic roleplaying games Wizardry 6 and Wizardry 7, as well as voodoo-tinged dark adventure Shadow Man. Throw down $5 or more and you'll also walk away with controversial horror classics Harvester and The 7th Guest, as well as the less controversial but more existentially disturbing I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream. The final tier of games is only available to those who spend $9 or more, but adds 7th Guest sequel The 11th Hour, epic RPG Wizardry 8 and System Shock 2, a survival horror game with such excellent atmosphere and tone that even waist-high telekinetic monkeys seem a terrifying threat. Best of all, while you're spending a few hundred hours sorting through the handful of classic games you just bought at a huge discount, your money can go to help the less fortunate. Everyone who buys items from the Humble Weekly Sale can earmark their money, either for the American Red Cross or Child's Play. Your third option is to send your money to Night Dive Studios, a move that you could still feel good about given that this week's top contributors tally lists Night Dive in the number one spot thanks to a $1,000 donation of its own. [Image: Humble Bundle]
MIT researchers develop chip that can harvest energy from multiple sources
We've seen a number of different devices that can harvest energy from various sources, but none quite like this new chip developed by a team of MIT researchers. It's able to harvest energy from three different sources simultaneously: light, heat and vibrations. The key to that is a sophisticated control system that's able to rapidly switch between the three sources at all times to prevent any of that energy from going to waste (and not draw too much power itself), with energy from the secondary sources stored in capacitors to be picked up later -- as opposed to existing systems that simply switch between sources based on what's most plentiful. As doctoral student Saurav Bandyopadhyay explains, efficiently managing those disparate sources could be a "big advantage since many of these sources are intermittent and unpredictable," and it could in turn lead to the chip being used in a range of different applications where batteries or existing energy harvesting methods just aren't enough: everything from environmental sensors in remote locations to biomedical devices.
Exclusive Interview: Going global with Fallen Earth's PvP
Two of the biggest cornerstones of Fallen Earth have always been crafting and PvP, and its these cornerstones that GamersFirst is enriching come patch 2.4. The patch, called Global Territory Control, is taking these elements and firing them up in ways that any PvPer or crafter should find exciting. We hopped on the phone with Associate Producer Asa Reed, Director of Operations Joe Willmon, and Senior Game Designer Marie Croall to talk about why 2.4 will be the patch that will change the wasteland forever -- and why you should anticipate it, whether you're a crafter or a player-killer.%Gallery-155670%
Device Analyzer Android study wants to track your every move, if you'll let it
And here we thought folks were concerned about protecting their personal data. As it turns out, however, a surprising chunk of Android users have volunteered to give a group of University of Cambridge researchers a look at exactly how they use their cellphones. By downloading the Device Analyzer app from the Android market, more than 1,000 participants have allowed the data collection program to harvest statistics in the background while they use their phones. Those statistics -- varying from when the power is switched on, to which apps are in use -- are then made available to users via the Device Analyzer website. Of course, this is Cambridge, a rather well respected institution of higher learning, and the researchers involved say the data collected is stripped of personal information "as best as possible," but we're not keen on anyone peeping our cell stats. If you're an Android exhibitionist, however, you can sign up for the study at the source link below.
What WoW should learn from certain quests in and around The Barrens
So I've been thinking a bit about questing lately as I traverse Outlands on my latest project, a level 61 Blood Elf Paladin, working on the Outlands quests. I think my favorite part of playing a lowbie hordeling is how many quests there are to "stumble upon" in the oft-maligned Barrens. Technically, they're all very basic "find and kill these dudes" quests, but the presentation is such that I always get a big rush from doing them. They really do make me feel like a mighty hunter.
