Maps
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Call of Duty 4 map pack going live in 30 minutes
Infinity Ward spokesman "fourzerotwo" (or Robert Bowling, to his parents) has announced that the new Call of Duty 4 map pack will arrive at 6:30 PST, or 9:30 EST or, to put it in terms we can all appreciate: In 30 minutes. So watch a video or flip through the gallery, do whatever you have to do to prepare yourself. What's that sound like blood pumping out of your ears? That's you getting totally, absolutely pumped. ... Oh, also, there's blood pumping out of your ears. We should probably get you to a doctor. Think we can be back in a half hour? Come to think of it, can you drive yourself?Once the maps drop (and you part with 800 points/$10) try to pull yourself away for a few minutes to come back and share your thoughts. [Thanks, Lucas] Gallery: Call of Duty 4: Modern Combat DLC
General Dynamics UK touts near real-time 3D maps for soldiers
It looks like soldiers could one day have their own tab key of sorts to call up detailed, 3D maps at will, at least if the folks at General Dynamics UK have their way. As Physorg reports, they've developed a "near real-time" 3D map system that makes use of an array of different technologies including LIDAR, thermal imaging and x-ray backscatter techniques to not only display buildings and streets, but objects and people inside buildings as well. The use of LIDAR also promises to provide measurements of doors, windows, and alleys with "millimeter accuracy." All that obviously makes the system, dubbed Masthead, slightly less than portable, however, although General Dynamics says it'd be able to be carried in the back of a military vehicle or civilian 4x4, or in a plane for that matter. Of course, like most such projects, General Dynamics isn't just setting its sights to military applications, with it also touting Masthead's potential benefits for police forces in planning security measures for large events, to name one example.[Via Physorg]
Call of Duty 4 map pack comes to PSN late April
Infinity Ward' Fourzerotwo has announced on his blog that the Call of Duty 4 Variety Map Pack is coming to the PlayStation 3 approximately 21 days after the Xbox Live release. Given the 360 pack is expected April 3 or 4, that puts the PS3 release on or near Thursday, April 24. PlayStation 3 owners will pay the same $10 price for the four maps: Creek, Broadcast, Chinatown and Killhouse. Fourzerotwo also said they were working out the logistics to bring the maps to the PC. No word on a Call of Duty 4 "Game of the Year" edition for PS3 owners.
Halo 3's Heroic Map Pack to be free this Tuesday
While Bungie is probably hoping that everyone will get excited about their quickly approaching Legendary Map Pack, we'd wager that a larger percentage of the Halo 3-playing populous are instead anticipating the price reduction on Bungie's last expansion, the Heroic Map Pack. In their latest weekly update, Bungie announced the discount would come sooner than expected -- as of 2 a.m. this coming Tuesday, the pack will be free to download on Xbox Live Marketplace.For those living under rocks (or PS3s), that means you've got no reason not to purchase the formerly $10 set including Standoff, Rat's Nest, and the highly customizable Foundry. Unless you hate free things, or, even less likely, you never purchased Bungie's third ringworld romp.[Thanks, Sam.]
Call of Duty 4 GOTY edition, map pack DLC coming April 3
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/xbox/Call_of_Duty_4_variety_map_pack_coming_April_3_to_Xbox_Liv'; A new site just sprung up on Xbox.com announcing the Call of Duty 4 variety map pack will arrive Thursday, April 3 for 800 MS points (US$10). The pack includes four new maps: Creek, Broadcast, Chinatown and Killhouse. The page also confirmed that Call of Duty 4 Game of the Year Edition is also coming April 3. No word yet on the equivalent PS3 release, for either GOTY or the map pack. We'll update when we find out.[Thanks to everyone who sent this in!]%Gallery-19521%%Gallery-7382%%Gallery-3922% Call of Duty 4 landed in the top ten in our 2007 Game of the Year Awards, but who filled the other nine spots? We've got Halo 3, Portal, Rock Band, Peggle (yeah Peggle), and more. Take a look.
Next Halo 3 map pack coming April 15, includes Sidewinder remake
For the next Halo 3 batch of content (the "Legendary Map Pack") Bungie is going a bit more old-school. The pack will include "Avalanche," a spiritual remake of Halo 1's "Sidewinder." It won't be exactly the same, Bungie cautions, but its U-shape is definitely going to remind you of the old stomping grounds.If you have more questions about the addition -- and we're sure you do -- some Bungie staffers took time to answer some of them. What we also learned today was that "Avalanche," "Ghost Town" and one other mystery map will drop April 15 for 800 points. Speaking as people who like to hold on to their $10 bills, we look forward to playing them a few months after that.%Gallery-16632%
Knapsack collects travel tools for Leopard users
I never had one of those big world maps as a kid, the kind you put pushpins in to indicate all the places you've traveled -- I'd been thinking about getting one for my children, but now I might as well go digital with Knapsack 1.0, a Leopard-only travel planning tool.Knapsack lets you build your itinerary (with the requisite pushpin world map), create checklists and postcards for each destination, and plan your daily activities for each trip. Once your itinerary is locked, you can send it out to family or colleagues so they can track you down if needed. Knapsack's got a clean, Bento-ish UI that soothes the travel-anxious brain (see the screencast for a sample). For $39.95, it's a bit of a unitasker -- if you're already using a notebook, organizer or task-management app, it may be easier to leave your itineraries with the rest of your stuff. One might have expected Knapsack to implement iCal sync or integrated search with Orbitz, Expedia, etc., but I imagine that there are plenty of future features in the works.[via Apple Downloads]
iPhone 101: Finding Local Services
You're on a trip. You want to order in pizza. What's the easiest way to do this on your iPhone? Open up Maps and tap the "locate me button" at the bottom-left corner of your screen. Wait for Google Maps to find you and then type "Pizza" into the search box and tap Search. Maps automatically searches near the "locate me" results--finding all the pizza delivery services near your actual location. Tap on any blue "disclose" button to find the phone, home page, and address for each item. Of course, you're not limited to pizza. Search for shoe repair or pediatricians or any other retail type or service.
WoW maps past show present
It's a good week for posts at DwarfPriest.com, it seems. In this look at the manual for World of Warcraft, we get to see that the maps included in the original, 2004 release (which hasn't been updated since... four years later, and we're still using the same increasingly inaccurate manual) are at times surprisingly accurate to what we see in the game today. Interesting inclusions and omissions abound: the fact that Maraudon isn't on these maps but Dire Maul is just fascinates me from the perspective that Maraudon was a full patch ahead of the Maul.I remember riding around Silithus way before the AQ release trying to get inside and see what was back there, and have been to both Hyjal and along the Greymane wall with my lovely wife who always wants to see the zones that are the hardest to access: I like the idea of Gilneas coming into the game so much that I've mused about releasing the whole zone as an instance before. For these reasons I found this look back at the game manual's maps and what has and hasn't made it into live yet to be grist for the mill of my naturally speculative brain. Will we finally see Uldum when Ulduar hits in WoTLK? Maybe Hyjal will finally go live? Will those islands off the coast of Gilneas make a reappearance on the world map? I've been wondering for years now what's up in Kul Tiras. Anything on these maps you're surprised to see? Anything excluded that you'd expect? The very detailed map of Quel'Thalas, years before it went live, was one of my big 'woah' moments looking over these maps, which shows how easy it is for me to forget just how much lore the RTS series packed in.
Playing with your keyboard
Yesterday I talked about how to increase your game play by using all those buttons on your mouse. Today, we'll take a quick look at some theories on how to use your keyboard more effectively. Next week I'll present my complete keyboard map for tanking, and give lots of examples of why I have things where I have them. But for now, let's look at some basics.I use a Logitech G15 gaming keyboard for main World of Warcraft computer. The keyboard is nice for a lot of reasons: The keys are hard plastic and clean easily. I can often be found eating hot pockets (Mom! Hot pockets!) or pizza roles during raids, and it's nice to be able to easily clean the keyboard if I make a mess. The keys light up. This is very useful late at night when I turn the lights off. The LCD screen is very adaptable. I use the LCD screen to display who is talking over Vent. No more asking "Who just said they need a mob taunted off them?" (of course, if they wouldn't pull agro in the first place or DPS the right target, we wouldn't have that problem now... but that's another article.) There are 18 additional programmable keys on the left side of the keyboard. So the G15 is a nice choice for a gaming keyboard. We all know this, of course. Most of us play with one, or something similar. There are a few good and basic strategies for making the most of your G15 or other keyboard.
Nokia goes public with Maps 2.0 beta, plans Series 40 version
Previously available only to a select group, Nokia is turning the beta version of its Maps 2.0 navigation app onto the masses. In addition to the car mode existing users will be familiar with, 2.0 adds "Walk," a new mode tailored to pedestrian use. Another new feature is the ability to purchase "multimedia guides" for destinations that hook you up with photo, video, and audio streams that detail places to go and things to see on your magical journey. As we'd previously mentioned, 2.0 also adds real-time traffic information and hybrid satellite views, both features that help to bring Maps in line with Google Maps for Mobile. The beta is available immediately, while a final cut is expected to be available in the second quarter of the year.Separately, Nokia has announced that it'll be bringing its Maps franchise to Series 40, swinging open the door to high-function navigation on the company's mass-market, non-smartphone handsets. It'll be ready in the first half of 2008, though no plans have yet been outed regarding availability on specific Series 40 devices.
Nokia's 6210 Navigator, 6220 classic, and Maps 2.0
No question about it, the N78 and the N96 are the heavies in Nokia's Mobile World Congress announcements, but there are a couple gems on the lower end, too -- if you can really call a navigation-ready handset and a 5 megapixel smartphone "lower end." Taking advantage of the company's newly-introduced Maps 2.0 app, the 6210 Navigator succeeds the 6110 by adding pedestrian navigation and an accelerometer to make it more responsive than AGPS alone. The 6220 classic, meanwhile, is an S60 candybar that slots in beneath the Nseries lineup, but still manages to clean up in the photography department with a Carl Zeiss lens, 5 megapixel sensor, and xenon flash. Check out the full rundown of the announcements over on Engadget Mobile!Read - Nokia 6210 NavigatorRead - Nokia 6220 classicRead - Nokia Maps 2.0
Sunwell Isle map and PTR news
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/playable_web_games/New_Sunwell_map_is_discovered_for_World_of_Warcraft_Patch_2'; Thanks to Michael for alerting us to a post over at the WoW LiveJournal. He has managed to piece together a map of Sunwell Isle and the new Azeroth world map from the beta files currently available for patch 2.4. Of course, this is just beta information and may change at any time.As far as the PTR goes, you can now download the patch files. However, when you try to copy a character you get the error message "You have no characters on Anvilmar," or what ever server you live on. This is because while the patch files are available, the server is not up yet.Stay tuned to WoW Insider all this weekend for the latest patch news!See the new maps after the break.
Nokia Maps 2.0 in beta
Though the refresh late last year was a welcome bonus, Nokia's Maps app that gets bundled with many of its S60 devices still lags Google Maps for Mobile in several key areas -- real-time traffic and satellite view, just to name a couple. Great news, though: Nokia's been hard at work crafting its next-gen navigation client, and it looks like it's shaping up to be a real gem. The software has been seeded to a few key folks in the public domain (but isn't yet available for download to the masses) so we're starting to see some first impressions trickle in, and in short, it looks like everything's better than it was before. The auto navigation screen is clearer and uses translucency to prevent large swaths of the map from being concealed, there's a new pedestrian mode, and satellite views and traffic data are now both available. There's no word yet on when the beta or the final version might go public, so we'll all have to be satisfied with the previews for the time being.
New Call of Duty 4 maps 'on the way'
At last, after more than three years of clumsy existence and thousands upon thousands of tiresome, incompetent instances of waffling, we've managed to condense an entire news story into a remarkably efficient headline. It's quite miraculous, really, and it likely signals our arrival at the pinnacle of our blogging prowess. No longer will hasty readers have to suffer through pompous opening paragraphs and interminable tangents before laying eyes on the actual news!So anyway, Activision has announced that new downloadable multiplayer maps for its smash-success shooter, Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, are "on the way" to the Xbox Live Marketplace and PlayStation Network. Questions regarding release date, price and quantity went unanswered by the publisher, thus leaving the headline as the only useful sentence in this entire post.
Halo 3 DLC for spring swaps 'Purple' for 'Moonlight'
The upcoming Halo 3 map pack will be swapping one oft-discussed map for a relatively unknown entrant. In the latest Bungie Weekly Update, Frankie confirmed that codename "Purple Reign" has fallen behind and will be replaced with the map codenamed "Moonlight Sonata." Said Frankie, "Usually I am in the business of soft-selling new maps in case folks have adverse reactions ... but this time, confidence is high. It will be beloved."The next collection of Halo 3 maps is expected to arrive this spring when the current map pack will become free to download.[Via X3F]
Chinese television reuses Azerothian maps
This is wild. According to Variety's Asian film blog, the above is reportedly a picture from China's military television channel, from a documentary about troop movements last year between Turkey, Iraq and Iran. See anything familiar?They have reused the mountain textures and background from WoW's Arathi Highlands map. There's been a little bit of tweaking, but it's pretty clear that they overlaid the countries on the Highlands. Apparently Stromgarde got split between Turkey and Iraq, and Baghdad sits right near the Circle of Inner Binding, while Refuge Pointe (and the Alliance entrance to the Arathi Basin) is right on the Iraq-Iran border. Who knew there was so much oil guarded by Fozruk and those ogres?What I'd like to know is how this connection was made in the first place. It's probably too good to be true, but I'd like to think that the graphic designer for this documentary was trying to figure out how to make this graphic, played a little WoW, and recognized some familiar shapes when he pulled up the map on his level 35 alt.[Via GSW]
Japanese game adds a touch of reality
As if we don't already hear enough on the lack of separation between reality and games, a new Japanese title will use real-life locations in its game. It isn't anything that would cause alarm, like murder or something, but it is something that definitely caused a "!" here at the DS Fanboy offices. Mainly because we think it's such a cool idea.We can definitely say that Zenrin Co. Ltd., the title of this game, is right up our alley. A detective title that asks players to visit tourist hot-spots and other locales of interest, we find the idea of a game sending us on a hunt for things in real life very intriguing. It's funny, because we can't imagine anything other than gaming to cause us to want to leave our dungeon of business (the years have made us fond of the stench and cage we're forced to live with down here).[Via Nintendic]
iPhone January update, coming soon to an iTunes near you
I don't know about you all, but considering I'm not in the market for a pricey, tiny notebook, and I don't need yet another thing hooked up to my TV, the best news I heard at the Keynote today was about this iPhone "January update" (does that mean there'll be one every month?) coming soon to your iTunes. Included in the free update to iPhone users: An updated Maps that will actually find your location automatically by triangulating cell towers (we saw this a while ago), and give you the option to add a pin to the map Web Clips, cutouts of web pages that you can attach to an icon sitting right there on the homescreen. A customizable homescreen and dock (just hold an icon to get them wiggling, and then move them around as you please), and up to nine homescreen pages total The update will also add chapter navigation for iPhone video, and subtitle/audio options as well. And though the readers in our IRC channel weren't very impressed with this one, the iPhone will now feature multiple SMS sending. Very awesome update for the iPhone, completely free and available on download in iTunes right now (!), and definitely an update that will set the stage for all the third party applications we're supposed to see next month. Bring on the SDK!
Crytek gives community Crysis map pack for Christmas
Although taking a beating in sales alongside another high-profile PC shooter, Crysis will still hang onto its Christmas cheer. Developer Crytek is celebrating the holiday season with free presents for Crysis owners. The big box under the tree is a Tournament Map Pack, including: Power Struggle - Desolation Power Struggle - Isolation Power Struggle - Training Instant Action - Excavation Instant Action - Terminal The map locales span the globe, with settings in the Americas, French Polynesia and North Korea. Crytek stocking stuffers include a 1600x1062 Christmas-themed wallpaper (pictured) and expanded documentation for the Sandbox2 editor. "But Crytek," you complain, "documentation sounds like books, and I hate reading." At this point, Crytek (or the personification thereof) sits you down on its laps, taps on his Alien Molecular Accelerator, and reminds you not to be ungrateful. And while you're at it, he says, be sure to buy three copies of the game to boost sales.[Thanks, Jeff]
