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Silent Hill haunted house spooking Orange County this Halloween
Sinister Pointe, an Orange County, Calif.-based haunted house attraction, has got something special in mind for gamers this Halloween -- their annual gore-filled maze will be Silent Hill themed this time around. There's a few details on the company's site -- including an endorsement from Konami, it seems -- but no early looks at the attraction are given. We're guessing Pyramid-headed gentlemen and bloody, faceless nurses will be incorporated.We're not certain how much a production like this costs, but if they're aiming for capturing the true Silent Hill experience, they must be spending a freaking mint on fog machines.[Via Kotaku]
Microsoft stores to open in The OC and The AZ
The locations of the first Microsoft stores have been revealed! Folks living near Mission Viejo in Orange County, Calif. and Scottsdale, Ariz. will be the first to check out Microsoft's brick-and-mortar retail spots when they appear in their local malls this fall. Those living in Orange County will likely do so after long days of underage drinking, Death Cab for Cutie concerts and slow-motion firearm assaults.(Sorry, we don't have any jokes to make about the Arizona location. Nobody ever made a show about sexy teenagers there.)
Real-life WoW-style name tags
Now this is the sort of thing YouTube was made for. Aram Bartholl, a German artist "famous for his exploration of the relationship between the digital and physical world," did a WoW-inspired project at the Laguna Art Museum in Laguna Beach, CA yesterday afternoon. It looks like it was a repetition of the project in the video above, which took place in Germany Belgium (sorry!) in 2008. Essentially, he has participants construct big floaty name tags, like the names that show up over your characters' heads. The people then walk around the city with the tags floating over them, held by additional participants. The overall effect is pretty cool. If anyone was in Laguna yesterday, I want pictures and/or video, please.
Mike Morhaime wins 2008 award from OC* Business Journal
The Orange County Business Journal has awarded none other than Blizzard's own Mike Morhaime with the runner up for their Businessperson of the Year award (the main award went to some CEO of an investment company, much more boring than running a fantasy world full of orcs and elves). The Journal cite's Blizzard's huge successes in a rough financial year as reason for Morhaime's honor.The paper isn't quite completely familiar with what Blizzard does (did you know Diablo III was "released" in June of last year? Don't know why I haven't seen it on store shelves yet!), but there are a few interesting tidbits in there for us, including the fact that WoW was so popular on its original release day that Blizzard had to bring employee copies out to their Fry's to sell them to hungry fans. And Morhaime talks a bit about Blizzard being part of Activision, and reveals the biggest change we've heard of yet since the takeover: "The big difference here is we are one step closer to the public markets. It requires that we spend more time than we used to in educating analysts and investors about Blizzard, where we used to be able to not deal with that side of the business."So hopefully Blizzard's higherups aren't spending too much time trying to sell stock rather than making great games. He does reiterate, however, that Activision has continued to be hands off (especially as long as Blizzard is making so much money for them), so a lot of the things that fans have guessed are Activision influences are probably decisions that Blizzard themselves have already made. Still, success is success -- pretty good for a guy who started out writing test software for Western Digital. Congrats to Morhaime on the award.*Don't call it that.
AT&T strings U-verse to four more Orange County, CA cities
U-verse TV has been hangin' in the OC for quite some time now, but some of the more notable locales have been doing without. It's with much joy that we inform you that four new cities can now receive access, and they are: Aliso Viejo, Laguna Woods, Lake Forest and Newport Beach. For the full list of neighborhoods in those regions with newly available access, hop on past the break.[Via hd-report]
Video: Cops take a dude's Xbox 360
Embedded video from <a href="http://www.cnn.com/video">CNN Video</a>Those Orange County cops, notorious gamers and are always trying to get their hands on the coolest gaming goods. So it should come as no surprise that after a routine traffic stop, an Orange County police officer took a man's Xbox 360 that was sitting in the car's back seat. Took everything, because he figured the Xbox was stolen and wanted receipt proof. In the end, it wasn't stolen (the dude has a receipt to prove it) and the Xbox has "magically" disappeared.Our Orange County officer probably just needed his gaming fix, but he should know that you DO NOT mess with another man's Xbox ... ever.[Thanks, to everyone who sent this in]
American Airlines getting in on that cellphone boarding pass fad
American Airlines has joined its peers at Continental in offering boarding pass barcodes that you can download to and display on your BlackBerry, iPhone, G1, or whatever have you. Presently the airline is only offering the option on domestic, non-stop flights departing from O'Hare -- LAX and Orange County will start on the 17th. Some eastern yanks might be asking, "What, no JFK or Logan? Where's the east coast love, AA?" Don't get too bent out of shape, boys and girls -- tech-savvy business travelers love their BlackBerries, so we could see this pop up just about everywhere before long.[Via Mobilitysite]
TWC looks to bring Start Over / Look Back, more HD to Orange County
For those parked in beautiful Orange County, California and wondering if Time Warner Cable is thinking of you, trust us, we feel your pain. Thankfully, competition has pressured the carrier into opening its eyes a bit, as a recent interview with the president of OC's Time Warner Cable operations has given folks in the area something to look forward to. For starters, subscribers can soon expect faster internet speeds all around, with "Power Boost" taking underutilized capacity and giving it to those who need an extra burst to suck down a large file. Additionally, users will finally see Caller ID on their TV, and best of all, Fred Stefany admitted that HD was a priority and that most areas should have upwards of 50 high-def channels before 2009. Finally, we're told that SDV, Start Over and Look Back are all coming within the next several months. Check the read link for the full writeup, and hang tight (if you can).
OC Register visits Blizzard Art Show
The Orange County Register has made the decision to switch their gaming blog from general coverage of games to strictly Blizzard news all the time (being in close proximity to Blizzard's HQ in Anaheim will help), and for their first feature, they've got a big writeup (and lots of pictures) from that Laguna College Art Show we mentioned the other day.Turns out it's an all-Blizzard art show, and there's art in there not just from Blizzard's past titles, but also from upcoming titles like Diablo III, Starcraft II, and our own Wrath of the Lich King. It all looks awesome, and the show lasts through the end of the month, so while that unfortunately means that these pieces won't be at BlizzCon (though there likely will be plenty of game art displays there anyway), it also means that if you can find the time to visit Laguna during the convention, you'll be able to check it out.The Register also has a couple of quick profiles of some student artists at the show, including a few samples of their work and why they enjoy Blizzard's art so much. It's very cool that Blizzard is giving back to their local community like this -- hopefully we'll get a chance to see even some student work at BlizzCon.
UC Irvine to compare WoW players from America, China
The University of California at Irvine has been granted $100,000 to study the differences between Chinese and American World of Warcraft players, according to the Orange County Register. The study will mostly focus on explaining why American players are much more likely to employ modifications such as Cosmos than Chinese players are, but project lead Bonnie Nardi made some interesting observations outside the scope of this particular endeavor.For example, she noted that Chinese players are for some reason more likely to talk about the aesthetic appearance of the game than are Americans. Whereas American players often play with their children, parents, or siblings, Chinese players are unlikely to do that. "The older generation dislikes video games," she said, and playing with siblings is obviously rare since most Chinese of the gaming generation have none."The vast majority of Chinese players are not gold farmers," she said. "They're ordinary players like anyone. The media has blown that story out of all proportion. Many people think Chinese play for a job. They play for fun." Enlightening stuff. We're looking forward to seeing what else comes out of her research.[Via Ten Ton Hammer] One of Azeroth's millions of citizens? Check out our ongoing coverage of the World of Warcraft, and be sure to touch base with our sister site WoW Insider for all your Lich King needs!
The roads of Azeroth: Now with biker gangs
I know we've been laying the Wrath news on thick but we're all incredibly excited, and I think most of you are, too. It's especially difficult to restrain myself when I see things like the motorcycle you see above, which I was directed to by an acquaintance of mine that's in the Beta. I don't have a concrete source on the fact that these motorcycles are made by Engineers, but I'm pretty confident that's the case. Is there anything else they could be? I suppose it's possible that they're strictly for quest use, but I somehow have my doubts. It looks like they put too much work into them for their role to only be for a quest or two.The only thing that really makes me wonder if these are actually Engineering mounts or not is the fact that they're distinct by faction. A nice touch, but I think that would make it the first Horde/Alliance division in the profession. I suppose dividing the bikes by Goblin and Gnomish Engineering wouldn't make them as awesome looking. They're not quite Orange County material by any means, but they're still pretty slick. Let's be honest though, some races riding these things will be hilarious. Biker Tauren? Really? I suppose I can see a Dwarf riding the Alliance bike, but a Male Draenei driving it would probably be the silliest thing I've ever seen.Basically, what I am saying is, is that these are completely awesome no matter how absurd they may be. If you want to see the Alliance ride, check it out behind the cut.
Cox bringing 8 new HD channels to Orange County / Palos Verdes, California
Although Cox isn't hooking the OC and Palos Verdes, California up with quite as many new HD channels as those in Fredericksburg, VA, eight newcomers isn't anything to sneeze at. Judging by e-mails (and postcards, too) starting to filter out to OC-area residents, said carrier will soon be delivering KCET HD (PBS), Travel Channel HD, Science Channel HD, NHL HD, HBO HD, Cinemax HD, Showtime HD and Starz HD. Unfortunately, all we know is that these should arrive in your EPG sometime during the course of next month, but just in case eight new faces weren't enough, Cox is also promising that "even more" are on the way.[Thanks, Karma_lounge]
Want to work for NCsoft?
As we mentioned a few days ago, the gang at Dungeon Runners is looking for a few good dungeon builders. Turns out, NCsoft in general is looking for some new blood in their Austin (TX) office as well as their two offices in California.Aside from the DR jobs in Austin, there's an interesting hybrid position NCsoft calls the Minigame Designer-Programmer now open. they also need an Associate Community Coordinator for Lineage II, and a Web Production Manager. The QA department needs an experienced tester and some folks in Tech Support. The brand new NorCal studio in Mountain View is where City of Heroes has been moved to. They are looking to hire "a ton of people" in the near future: Art: Animators, Character Artists, Concept/2D Artists, Technical Artists, User Interface Artists and VFX Artists. Engineering: Game Engineers, Junior Software Engineers, Server Engineers and Software Engineers. Design: Missions, Powers, Systems and Worlds. Aliso Viejo is down in SoCal (Orange County to be exact) are working on "a top, top secret project." They need qualified peeps for a Lead Quest Designer and a Lead Level Designer. If you're interested (and qualified), view all of their openings at the NCsoft Job List. Good luck!
Robbing a GameStop for the games of course
A couple of Orange County, Florida thieves robbed a GameStop originally for the games and systems, then in an apparent epiphany, realized what they were doing and demanded the money too. According to reports, the two robbers walked in the store close to opening while only the manager was there, held him up at gunpoint, filled their duffel bags with games and systems, and then, as an afterthought, apparently took the cash in the store as well. Oddly, they knew to take the store's security tape, which seems to have been conveniently accessible -- well, at least they were smarter than the Richard 'Lord British' Garriott robbers.We can't help but notice this story sounds awfully familiar. If the robbers really did enter through the front at the strip mall, only to leave out the back with the merchandise like the report says, wouldn't they need to get back to the front for their car? Maybe they parked in the back, then walked out front? Whatever, they were smart enough to take the tape and knew that the tape would be accessible to take. We can't wait to hear how this one ends. Police are currently investigating.[Thanks Adam]
