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Stanford’s ‘accelerator on a chip’ could revolutionize medical care
When the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory at Stanford first opened its doors in 1966, it had already earned the distinction of housing the world's longest linear accelerator: A 3.2 kilometer monstrosity buried 25 feet under the gently rolling hills of Northern California. Today the lab, along with an international consortium of research organizations, is working to create a new kind of accelerator -- one small enough to fit in a shoebox but offering huge scientific potential.
Win a Xbox One via Doritos, Mountain Dew promotion online, at PAX Prime
Microsoft has partnered with the Doritos and Mountain Dew brands to give away thousands of Xbox Ones in exchange for the longevity of your health, a press release revealed last week. Specially-marked packages of Mountain Dew and Doritos will contain codes to be used as currency in online auctions for Xbox One consoles beginning on November 5. Participants can begin to stockpile codes on the contest's website on September 30, but nothing's stopping anyone from stockpiling the snack foods for the next two months. PAX Prime attendees can also scan QR codes hidden in the convention center to bid on Xbox One systems in an auction on Sunday from 9 p.m. til midnight PST. The QR codes can be scanned with the PAX Guidebook App to bid on one of 30 Xbox One consoles, as well as subscription cards, gaming headsets and general merchandise. The press release notes that some codes "are worth more than others," so scrounging for as many as you can find might be worth your time.
The Perfect Ten: MMO commercials that take us back
I don't see a lot of commercials these days. I like to imagine that I'm a one-man force out to frustrate advertisers, ducking and weaving whenever they try to wing a 30-second spot at me. A lot gets through, but I've long since canceled cable, and the only traditional commercials I sit through are the ones for the occasional YouTube video. But there's something about a good commercial that can take us back on a wave of "remember whens?" and community bonding. I hear more discussions about creative ad spots the day after the Superbowl than the game itself. Commercials can even be a time capsule that unlocks memories for us of favorite movies, toys, and experiences. But what about MMOs? Well, they have commercials too, although not as many have made it to the standard airwaves. They're out there, though. Lurking. Emitting nostalgia rays from the past. And I've been hunting them down, looking for commercials that take us back to a simpler, goofier time. A few thousand dead brain cells later, I've got 10 of the margh make it sop pleaze pleaaa... Enjoy.
Halo 4 players cry out from atop Mt. Dew, 'Where's our double XP?' [Update: Microsoft responds]
The promotional union between Halo 4 and PepsiCo, the latter being proprietor of the vast Doritos and Mountain Dew empires, is drawing ire from the game's community today – not for the delicious blend of accelerated promotion and bold spices, but because it's not working. Players are running into issues getting their bonus experience points.Halo 4 owners must register on a promotional website before applying their codes to the game, but even those who have done so are claiming their double XP rewards as missing in action. Microsoft has yet to respond to the Halo Waypoint forums in which the complaints originate.We've contacted Microsoft to see if this is an acknowledged issue and, if so, what steps are being taken to rectify it. In the meantime, it may behoove you to hold back on the double XP and level up like the common people.Update: A Microsoft spokesperson told Joystiq that the company is aware of the issue and has already resolved it. "Last week we were made aware that some users were not being properly rewarded Double XP, and we promptly addressed the situation. Double XP rewards are now working as intended. There are still a few users that we are currently working to credit their accounts with Double XP games that were lost."[Thanks, Graeme.]
Halo 4 comes to iOS ... as a Mountain Dew/Doritos/7-Eleven promo app
The good news: There's an official Halo 4 game on iOS. The better news: it's free! The moment you become furious with us for those first two sentences: the full name of the app is "Halo 4: King of the Hill Fuled by Dew." Yes, "fuled."The exclusive soft-drink soaked experience brings in 7-Eleven and Doritos for the most authentic Halo experience, allowing you to compete to become "king of the hill." And by "hill" we mean "7-Eleven," by "king" we mean "person who is always in a 7-Eleven," and by "compete" we mean "scan Mountain Dew and Doritos products in that 7-Eleven you're constantly loitering in."You'll unlock double XP and an "Exclusive Custom Locus Helmet" for the non-Dew-fueled Xbox 360 Halo 4 by playing, and you'll forever associate "alien warzones" with 7-Eleven. Just like they want you to, apparently.
Halo 4 teams up with Doritos and Mountain Dew for double XP
While you may think that science and malleable metal alloys comprise the majority of what makes a Spartan so special, the reality is that even John-117 himself is little more than a crunchy cool ranch husk filled with carbonated green stuff. Spartans are made of Doritos and Mountain Dew, is what we're saying – that's why the PR partnership between Halo 4 and PepsiCo seems like such a no-brainer.Potential players can get a head start on accruing extra experience by registering an account over at dewxp.com or doritosxp.com. Select codes from Mountain Dew and Doritos packages – starting on October 15 – can be used to increase your XP in Halo. There are also goodies up for grabs, including consoles and controllers, Warthog toys and free Xbox Live subscriptions, among many other prizes.
WoW Archivist: WoW's craziest TV ads
WoW Archivist explores the secrets of World of Warcraft's past. What did the game look like years ago? Who is etched into WoW's history? What secrets does the game still hold? Nefarian swallows a truck. Two women duke it out in a supermarket. A trio of singers shouts, "No means no!" Mr. T introduces a new race and Chuck Norris roundhouse-kicks a kodo. Those responsible for advertising World of Warcraft have hit on some crazy ideas. This week, Blizzard debuted its first TV ads for Mists of Pandaria. As I'm writing this, I've just watched them air live on Monday Night Football. That's a big-time slot for a commercial here in the States and runs a cool $325,000 per nationally televised spot. The ads feature clips from the official trailer. If only the Bengals had put up as much of a fight as that panda. But not all of WoW's commercials through the years have been quite so ... straightforward. Let's take a look!
Halo: Reach marketing campaign flexes giant robo-arm
What's gonna give Halo: Reach the best shot at topping Modern Warfare 2's $310 million in day-one sales? Marketing. Much to no one's surprise, Microsoft is splurging on its biggest game campaign to date, according to Advertising Age. While Reach's marketing budget has not been disclosed, it's expected to easily top Halo 3's reported $6.5 million bill. The ad campaign, which began in earnest with a big-budget plug ... for the multiplayer beta (way back in April), will continue to use live-action segments to attempt to forge an emotional connection with a broad audience across TV and the web. "We're trying to get people to connect back to their lives, not computer graphics or something overly sci-fi," Taylor Smith, director of global marketing communications for Xbox, told Ad Age. "Live action is a way to capture that." In particular, director Noam Murro (Smart People) has created three live-action short films that depict life on planet Reach before the Covenant invasion. Meanwhile, potential buyers will be urged to "remember Reach" as they consume Pepsi products. A renewed partnership between Microsoft and the snack-time mogul will put Halo branding on some 300 million Mountain Dew bottles and 30 million Doritos bags beginning next month. Of course, to top past efforts, Microsoft will expand the Reach campaign beyond these somewhat pedestrian reminders: Cue massive KUKA KR 140 robotic arm! The viral site RememberReach.com, which becomes fully operational at 3AM ET tomorrow, features a user-generated light sculpture of Reach's Noble Team, created by the robo-arm and some fancy camera equipment. Typically used to assemble cars, this KUKA bot has been outfitted with an LED and stationed in an undisclosed San Francisco warehouse. As detailed by GameLife, visitors will direct the machine to plot the 54,000 points of light that will form this Noble Team "monument." Bizarre. Halo: Reach launches on September 14.
Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker does the Dew in Japan
Some day, you'll feed on a tree frog. Why not wash it down with a crisp, refreshing Mountain Dew? On April 27, beverage producer Suntory will release a series of Mountain Dew cans in Japan, decorated with character art from Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. Of course, this collaboration works both ways. Mountain Dew will appear in Peace Walker as well as an in-game item. The press release says that the appearance of real items in the game "enhances the affinity between the real world and the game's story." It also enhances the affinity between Konami's coffers and cash money. Of course, Metal Gear is no stranger to merchandise tie-ins, with everything from Calorie Mate to Playboy Magazine appearing in the games. [Via Andriasang]
God of War III Slurpee tastes like Kratos' fury; it's delicious
When playing the God of War games, we've often wondered, "If Kratos' unflagging rage could be assigned a flavor, what flavor would it be?" Finally, that question will be answered by Mountain Dew and 7-Eleven, which are collaborating on the next advancement in frozen sugar-drink technology: The Kratos Fury Slurpee. We know that sounds like the kind of thing we'd make up for comedic effect, but we assure you, it's berry real. You can pick up a tall, refreshing cup of Fury (which includes nonconsumable codes for DLC armor and other content) starting February 1, at which point you'll learn that Kratos' anger actually tastes like a pleasant mix of blackberries and lime -- and the blood of a freshly-slain Gorgon. But, yeah, mostly just blackberries and lime.
The Queue: Wherein we learn new slang
Welcome back to The Queue, WoW.com's (almost) daily Q&A column where the WoW.com team answers your questions about the World of Warcraft. Alex Ziebart will be your host today. Today we're going to hit a bunch of quick, short questions, which means today's edition of The Queue might be a wee bit short compared to some of Allison's epics. Picture above completely unrelated to anything written below. It just looks pretty freaking sweet, doesn't it?ikandiman asked..."I have been trying to get the last Brewfest achievement for my Warlock, but every time I get smashed and jump off the elevator in Shattrath (with my Skyguard's Drape to slow fall) I never get the bloody Drunken Stupor achievement. Had no problem with my mage and paladin. What gives?"
WoW Moviewatch: Warcraft Mountain Dew Spec Commercial
The Warcraft Mountain Dew Spec Commercial was Ian Beckman's entry into the BlizzCon 2009 machinima contest. According to Ian, he'd secretly hoped that the Mountain Dew folks would see the commercial and think "Holy crap! We love this idea! Let's make it a commercial!" That didn't happen, but the video's still pretty awesome.It's pretty short, of course, but the style and lightheartedness of the commercial won me over. Two warriors are fighting in the war-torn fields of Azeroth. When they spot a Mountain Dew through the computer screen, they immediately launch themelves into the real world to win the soda for themselves.The Warcraft Mountain Dew Spec Commercial is a little additionally ironic in the tableau of panels offered by BlizzCon. As Alex Zierbart pointed out, it was relatively rare for any of the Blizzard presenters to actually touch the Mountain Dews hanging out on the panel tables. Still, that doesn't impact my opinion of Ian's commercial, which was overall pretty fun to watch. Interested in the wide world of machinima? We have new movies every weekday here on WoW Moviewatch! Have suggestions for machinima we ought to feature? Toss us an e-mail at machinima AT wow DOT com.
Sunday Morning Funnies: If you wannabe
This week's list is short but sweet. Tried and true. We're still missing Disgraph (cries) but most others are present and accounted for. Check out the latest from LFG. NoObz: Who's Up For.... NPC: Outrage. (I miss my kitties). Teh Gladiators: Papa! WoW eh: The End of a Memory. Again, I love the artwork. It's always evolving. The armor looks fantastic. Check out the latest from Kuo, and be sure to read the description underneath the comic. Flintlocke vs. the Horde. Vincent checks out Twitter in WoW, and tests the Mountain Dew drinks. Well, at least one of them. Society for the Betterment of NPC Characters. Dark Legacy Comics. GU Comics: Wannabes.
WoW Mountain Dew ad was directed by Tarsem Singh
A number of sites have done a post-mortem on the Mountain Dew WoW Game Fuel ad (featuring two ladies battling it out through their WoW characters in a live-action supermarket), and they've uncovered a really interesting fact: the ad was actually directed by Indian director Tarsem Singh, one of my favorites -- he not only did the visually stunning sci-fi/horror flick The Cell a few years ago, but more recently made The Fall, which is an very well-done kind of mirror-life fairy tale. He's directed a number of commercials before, including some for Nike and Levi's, and teamed up with a company called Zoic Studios (they've done a few other spots for video games already) for this WoW commercial.The original CGI models for the ad did come from Blizzard (I'd guess that they're the original models from the WoW CGI trailer), though they were spruced up quite a bit by Zoic to add facial expressions and dynamic costumes and hair. They were then connected to motion captures from stunt artists (which were probably also tweaked to seem a little more than human, and then composited all together in the supermarket scene.Very cool stuff. This isn't the first time WoW characters have been used to sell soda, but hopefully we'll see more fun sequences like this come out of the deals between Blizzard and their partners.
The best of WoW.com: June 9-16, 2009
Joystiq's sister site WoW.com covers the most popular MMO ever, World of Warcraft, every day of every week. Want to know what's new in Azeroth? Here's our biggest stories from the last seven days. News Upcoming mount changesRequired levels for mounts are being lowered, as are the costs for each. Isle of Conquest details releasedHot new deets on the game's upcoming battleground instance. Mountain Dew Battle-bots now liveMountain Dew released their promotional in-game items -- come and get 'em while they're... bot? New zeppelin and portals coming in Patch 3.2In addition to the mount updates, Blizzard is adding a new zep to ride and a portal straight to Outland. How convenient! Yogg Saron and Flame Leviathan nerfed tonightTwo Ulduar bosses get hit with the nerf bat. Features Guildwatch: He's really, really sorryDrama, downed, and recruiting news from around the realms. Ten things WoW players should know from E3Activision is bigger than ever, the MMO genre is widening, and wow, Star Wars: The Old Republic looks good. Addon Spotlight: Essential addons for raid leadersOur weekly column for UI addons examines some recommended installs for those leading raids. Popular scams and how to avoid themThere are scams aplenty in Azeroth, so here's some tips on how to dodge them. WoW, Casually: Tips for leveling on a PvP realmPlay on a player vs. player realm but don't want to die that often? Here's how to stay alive.
World of Warcraft Game Fuel commercial hits the airwaves
People have only been able to get their hands on the WoW themed Mountain Dew Game Fuel within the last couple of weeks (and is only officially supposed to be in stores today), despite the months of hype being thrown behind the product. Throwing more gasoline on the hype-fire comes the new Game Fuel commercial, which you can watch above. Watch it a few times, actually. You may need it to fully comprehend what you've just watched.It's terrible. Nobody who actually plays WoW will find this commercial anything but corny. It's definitely not aimed at us. Or if it is, the people who made it probably... you know, shouldn't have been the ones to make it. And does it frighten anybody else that even though they used two females as the soda-swilling gamers, one of them turned into a dude? I mean, play whatever avatars you want in-game, but there's something disturbing about a pretty young lady hulking out and turning into a bulging green monstrosity. And I'm not talking She-Hulk. I'm talking a throbbing mass of masculine muscle. Augh. I'm not sure I want to let my girlfriend drink this stuff anymore.
Breakfast Topic: Do you buy just because of the WoW brand?
So Mountain Dew is pushing Game Fuel, the site has been live for a couple of weeks and now Battle Bots have gone live for all you lucky people in the US who asked for one. Now I love the WoW brand as much as anyone but that doesn't mean I want to quaff strange liquids in the hope of winning prizes. It makes me wonder, does seeing that shiny WoW logo on a bottle, a mouse mat or some other item of merchandise make you more likely to buy it? Do you think that the WoW logo brings with it some kind of quality mark that sets such an item out as being worthy of your purchase? Drop your thoughts into the comments box below.
Breakfast Topic: What do you think of region-specific pets?
European gamers are not happy bunnies. Blizzard implemented rolling restarts to remove whatever bug had allowed gamers to get themselves a Battle Bot pet. Yes, they stood before European WoW players and said: 'No you shall not have a Bot' leaving them feeling unloved and bereft. It does kind of make sense though given Mountain Dew is almost unheard of in Europe.This is that first time that I can recall when Blizzard have made a non-combat pet region-exclusive. However with the promise of a Jade Green Panda (most likely a gift to compensate all the millions of Chinese players who have been without WoW for weeks during the transition from The9 to NetEase) I don't think it will be the last. So, dear readers, what do you feel about region-specific pets? Do you think they're a great idea to reward gamers in a specific region? Not got a Battle Bot and a feeling a little neglected? Do you think Blizzard should just give every players the ability to get a pet rather than make it region/account specific?
WoW Insider Show live this afternoon on Ustream
Our podcast is back on the air again today, and it's going to be a good one: not only will Turpster and I welcome back Amanda Dean, but Eddie "Brigwyn" Carrington, our newest writer here on the site, will join us to talk about his experiences blogging and playing his Hunter. And of course we'll chat about the most popular posts of the past week, including those mount and travel changes that are raising such a fuss, the Mountain Dew Battle-bots, and why an Authenticator (probably) can't steer you wrong. Plus, we'll answer your emails -- we've gotten quite a few movie posters from Turpster's suggestion last week, so stay tuned to hear about those (and you'll be able to see them here on our post next Monday).Tune in this afternoon over on the our Ustream page at June 13, 2009 3:30 PM EDT var date_span = document.getElementById("date"); var date = new Date(date_span.innerHTML); var monthname=new Array("Jan","Feb","Mar","Apr","May","Jun","Jul","Aug", "Sep","Oct","Nov","Dec"); var weekday=new Array("Sunday","Monday","Tuesday","Wednesday","Thursday", "Friday","Saturday"); var year = date.getFullYear(); var day_of_month = date.getDate(); var month = monthname[date.getMonth()]; var day = weekday[date.getDay()]; var hour = date.getHours(); if (hour > 11) { if (hour > 12) {hour -= 12} am_pm = "PM"; } else { am_pm = "AM"; } var minute = date.getMinutes(); if (minute < 10) { minute = "0"+minute; } date_string = day + ", " + month + " " + day_of_month; date_string += " at " + hour + ":" + minute + " " + am_pm; offset = -date.getTimezoneOffset()/60; if (offset >= 0) { offset = "+"+offset; } date_string += " in your time zone (GMT"+offset+")"; date_span.innerHTML = (date_string); , or you can jump after the break to see an embedded feed. It should be a good time as always, so stop by and say hi if you're around.
Mountain Dew pets not for EU gamers
This was going to be a post about how EU gamers can still attain the Mountain Dew Battle-Bot pets even though the warning above says they're for US folks only, but never mind -- Blizzard's server alert says they are putting out a hotfix on the EU realms to remove any and all pets that made it through their guard. Some people could get the pets just by clicking through, and some people couldn't, but Blizzard says no -- the Mountain Dew promotion is apparently for US folks only, and anyone who has one on the EU realms won't for long. Players are understandably frustrated, though some of them are happy that if they can't have one, no one can. MVPs on the forums are saying that the pet is also available in Canada, even if the soda promotion isn't, but that may change as well.Pretty poor show. Sure, Mountain Dew's rules say US-only, but they definitely should have realized that there were plenty of EU players who would want in on the promotion. We doubt this is over -- it would certainly be a mark on their campaign that would engender a lot of ill will, and Blizzard will likely try to find some way to get the in-game pet up and running on the EU realms.
