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Daily iPad App: Battle of the Bulge is brilliant but obscure historical simulation
Battle of the Bulge is a really incredible game that I think a lot of people will overlook, unfortunately. In terms of war simulation games on the App Store, I haven't seen a better game than Battle of the Bulge. As you can tell from the title, it's a full-scale recreation of the legendary German offensive in 1944, the biggest and worst battle fought in World War II. This title is pure historical strategy gaming bliss, put together by a fledgling studio named Shenandoah Games. It's all turn-based gameplay and plays out like a board game, more or less, with you moving various troops and units around on a 2D game board, making strategical moves as carefully as possible and trying to complete whatever objectives the game throws at you. The depth here just can't be understated: Shenandoah clearly cares a lot about war games and the history of this legendary battle, and as you explore the title on your iPad, you'll be astounded at just what's included here, from a full tutorial to two different modes, full online multiplayer and even historical information and photos to fill you in on the real battle itself. The game itself is simple to play, but very hard to master, and as you can see from this gameplay video, strategy gamers will just plain love it. But therein lies the problem: The App Store is traditionally filled with casual gamers, and players expecting the shallow thrills of a game like Angry Birds will be hopelessly disappointed here. This is a real strategy war game, so there are no easy moves or simple decisions, and as you might imagine, a deep knowledge of the actual battle and how it played out is fairly important to being successful at this title. A lot of gamers, even strategy fans, will probably be turned off, eventually, given how slavishly devoted Battle of the Bulge is to portraying the titular battle itself. It's too bad, really, because the game's mechanics are terrific, and I'd love to see this really incredible core strategy game fleshed out into other maps or even settings. Shenendoah's not at fault here at all -- they set out to make a wargame based on the Battle of the Bulge, and they succeeded brilliantly at that goal. If you have any interest in that period of history (or the finer points of WWII strategy at all), the game's well worth the US$9.99 purchase. But it's too bad such great talent was used on a such a narrow focus. Hopefully in the future, we'll see the studio bring their expertise to something slightly more accessible.
Mike Schramm12.26.2012
TMU's virtual body simulates most senses from the comfort of your seat (video)
A lot of virtual reality, quite simply, isn't. It replicates the visuals and sounds, but not much else. Tokyo Metropolitan University's Ikei Laboratory is taking a shot at filling in more of the experience with a new exhibition. Its virtual body seat goes beyond a 3D screen and headphones to include vibrating foot pedals, for recreating the ground, as well as a fan that both produces wind and wafts scents. The demonstrator is currently being used to impress guests with the scents of a Milanese market or the rush of an Usain Bolt sprint, but it could eventually serve a practical purpose for some of the population: TMU sees its chair replacing an environment for those who can't be there in person. About all that's missing is taste, although we don't really need to lick our virtual worlds. Yet.
Jon Fingas12.20.2012
Alt-week 10.13.12: is the Universe a simulation, cloning dinosaurs and singing mice
Alt-week peels back the covers on some of the more curious sci-tech stories from the last seven days. Are you reading this? Seriously, are you? Sure, we know you think you are, but what if you're just a sub-feature of a complex computer program. A sprite, nothing more than the creation of software. The problem with this question is, how would you ever know? You wouldn't, right? Well, not so fast there. Turns out, maybe there is a way to unravel the matrix (if there is one). It'll come as no surprise, that this is one of the topics in this week's collection of alternative stories. Think that's all we got? Not even close. We'll explore the truth behind cloning dinosaurs, as well a rare performance by singing mice -- all before dinner. Or is it really dinner? This is alt-week.
James Trew10.13.2012
Chris Roberts returns with open-world Star Citizen sandbox
It's a good day to be a hardcore gamer, folks, particularly if you grew up playing Wing Commander, Freelancer, or any number of similar PC-exclusive space sims. Genre heavyweight Chris Roberts has finally unveiled his new project, and it looks to be a sprawling open-world title called Star Citizen. Roberts has released an 11-minute video detailing various aspects of the ambitious game (it's been in development for a year now), which include a co-op fighter pilot campaign and a huge Freelancer-style cosmos that allows players to pursue their own goals. Wanna be a pirate? Go ahead. A trader? Sure thing. Oh, you want absurdly immersive details like full working cockpits, flightsuit wrinkles, and physics-based spaceflight too? You got 'em. "I'm building the game, and a universe, that I would like to play, so it's for gamers like myself," Roberts explains. "I wouldn't say that I'm a social, casual gamer who plays Farmville. I like sophisticated experiences." Roberts goes on to explain why he's chosen the route of PC-exclusive in an era when consoles and mobile platforms are all the rage, and he also touches on the subject of crowd-funding. His goal is a relatively modest $2 million, and he's aiming to achieve it directly on the game's own website rather than via a third-party intermediary like Kickstarter. He's also got quite a bit of in-engine footage to show already, and you can see it in the clip after the cut. Is Star Citizen an MMO, though? That's hard to say at this juncture. We know it's massive in scale, and we know it's multiplayer, but thus far we don't know much about the server setup or how many concurrent users are in the cards. [Thanks to Scott for the tip!]
Jef Reahard10.10.2012
MLB 12 The Show gets price cut, predicts playoffs
With the tail end of baseball season in full swing, Sony dropped the price on MLB 12: The Show to $29.99 for PS3 and $19.99 for Vita. Baseball fans that aren't ready to call it quits can take advantage of the game's cross-platform features at a combined $50, less than the PS3 version launched at in March.Sony's San Diego studio also teamed up with ESPN to simulate this year's MLB playoffs in MLB 12: The Show, and has the Washington Nationals facing the Baltimore Orioles in the World Series. The Orioles haven't been in the world championship since 1983, and the Nationals haven't appeared in the World Series at all. Those hoping for an interesting end to the MLB playoffs should keep their fingers crossed for Sony's simulation to come true.
Mike Suszek10.07.2012
Sandia Labs' MegaDroid project simulates 300,000 Android phones to fight wireless catastrophes (video)
We've seen some large-scale simulations, including some that couldn't get larger. Simulated cellular networks are still a rare breed, however, which makes Sandia National Laboratories' MegaDroid project all the more important. The project's cluster of off-the-shelf PCs emulates a town of 300,000 Android phones down to their cellular and GPS behavior, all with the aim of tracing the wider effects of natural disasters, hacking attempts and even simple software bugs. Researchers imagine the eventually public tool set being useful not just for app developers, but for the military and mesh network developers -- the kind who'd need to know how their on-the-field networks are running even when local authorities try to shut them down. MegaDroid is still very much an in-progress effort, although Sandia Labs isn't limiting its scope to Android and can see its work as relevant to iOS or any other platform where a ripple in the network can lead to a tidal wave of problems.
Jon Fingas10.03.2012
IBM's Mira supercomputer tasked with simulating an entire universe in a fortnight
A universe that only exists in the mind of a supercomputer sounds a little far fetched, but one is going to come to live at the Argonne National Laboratory in October. A team of cosmologists is using IBM's Blue Gene/Q "Mira" supercomputer, the third fastest in the world, to run a simulation through the first 13 billion years after the big bang. It'll work by tracking the movement of trillions of particles as they collide and interact with each other, forming structures that could then transform into galaxies. As the project's only scheduled to last a fortnight, we're hoping it doesn't create any sentient characters clamoring for extra life, we've seen Blade Runner enough times to know it won't end well.
Daniel Cooper09.26.2012
Scientists create simulation of the universe, reenact 14 billion years in a few months (video)
Are animations of Curiosity's Mars landing not enough to feed your space exploration appetite? Try this on for size: a group of scientists from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics and the Heidelberg Institute for Theoretical Studies have generated what's billed as a full-fledged simulation of the universe. Arepo, the software behind the sim, took the observed afterglow of the big bang as its only input and sped things up by 14 billion years. The result was a model of the cosmos peppered with realistically depicted galaxies that look like our own and those around us. Previous programs created unseemly blobs of stars instead of the spiral galaxies that were hoped for because they divided space into cubes of fixed size and shape. Arepo's secret to producing accurate visualizations is its geometry; a grid that moves and flexes to mirror the motions of dark energy, dark matter, gasses and stars. Video playback of the celestial recreation clocks in at just over a minute, but it took Harvard's 1,024-core Odyssey super computer months to churn out. Next on the group's docket is tackling larger portions of the universe at a higher resolution. Head past the jump for the video and full press release, or hit the source links below for the nitty-gritty details in the team's trio of scholarly papers.
Alexis Santos08.17.2012
Retired Boeing 737 repurposed as garage-kept flight simulator (video)
A fresh concept it's not, but a fresh look? Yeah, we'll take that. California resident, air traffic controller, pilot and all-around gentleman James Price has converted the actual nose of a 1969 Boeing 737 into his own personal flight simulator. According to the man himself, he "gutted" the bird, installed "all new" parts, slid it into his garage and... well, took a few minutes to show it to the world. While pretty much any flight sim owner would claim that his or hers was "just like the real thing," it's hard to deny that fact with this one. We're told that it took some three years to complete, and the end result leaves no doubt of James' toiling. Head on past the break for the vid.
Darren Murph04.18.2012
Cybram 001 simulator helps doctors practice brain surgery without risking lives (video)
Sometimes it's awesome to be a guinea pig; take for example, getting down and dirty with the Consumer Preview of Windows 8. When it comes to brain surgery, however, there are no happy little accidents -- and let's face it, Bob Ross would've been a horrible surgeon. Thankfully, a new invention out of Japan promises to keep surgeons from taking practice swings at your noggin. Known as the Cybram 001, it's said to properly simulate the flow and pressure of one's arterial system from the cerebrum to the groin, and should allow doctors to gain greater familiarity with inserting surgical instruments into these delicate spaces. As the entire model is transparent, it's ideal for both students and instructors to see what's being done, and because variables such as blood pressure and heart rate can be adjusted, it's a useful simulator for different scenarios in the operating room. Not all of us will grow up to be brain surgeons, but if you'd like a peek into the frontiers of the field, just hop the break.
Zachary Lutz04.18.2012
iRise visual prototyping platform updated with new iPad emulation capability
iRise is a visual prototyping platform that is used by enterprise organizations to quickly create UI simulations for apps. The company today announced that the newly-released iRise 8.10 can now create those visual simulations for iPad and Android apps. iRise is useful when organizations are pushed to get new iOS apps out the door as quickly as possible. By creating realistic simulations, iRise speeds development time by shortening the requirements specification process and allowing developers to elicit feedback from stakeholders before coding begins. That, in turn, cuts the amount of rework required at later stages of development. Once a group of stakeholders has had a chance to use a prototype of an app and agrees on the look and functionality, iRise generates HTML for the final code user interface. The iRise simulations are described as "visual blueprints" for complex business applications. Other new features include the ability to use system fonts, model push transitions, and the ability to review simulations directly on mobile devices. Previously, simulations needed to go through the iRise Definition Center server access. iRise has a series of tutorial videos available on YouTube that show how the platform works to speed iOS software development. Trial versions of iRise are available for download.
Steve Sande04.18.2012
GE partners with Livermore Labs to explore efficient aircraft fuel injectors (video)
What would you do with six months of dedicated access to 261.3 teraflops of computational power? As you ponder that question, consider the case of GE Global Research, which has just announced its participation with the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in an effort to design more powerful and efficient aircraft engines by way of computer simulation. Specifically, GE will partner with researchers from Arizona State University and Cornell University to study the unsteady spray phenomena that's thought to be ideal for fuel injectors. Through Large Eddy Simulation, GE hopes to discover an ideal spray pattern and fuel injector design, and reduce its number of lengthy, real-world optimization trials. While the research is initially aimed at aircraft engines, the knowledge gained from these experiments may work its way into GE's other products, such as locomotive engines and land-based gas turbines. For a glimpse into GE's current research, be sure to hop the break.
Zachary Lutz04.10.2012
Simulated NASA mission to ask 'Are there snacks on Maaaaaaarrrrrs?'
When we've been forced to travel to an alien world, the one thing that makes us more likely to turn feral and murder our crew-mates than anything else is a lack of variety at mealtimes. Fortunately, Cornell University has teamed up with the University of Hawaii to build a simulated Mars mission to determine which foods people don't mind constantly consuming, given that there are no In-N-Out Burger franchises on the red planet. The mock base will be constructed in the midst of a Hawaiian lava flow, with the crews dressed in "spacesuits" and eating a mix of NASA-issue rations and shelf-stable foods like flour, sugar and freeze-dried meat. Applications for the four-month program remain open until the end of the month, so if you fancy all the free (bland) food you can manage, head on down to sign up!
Daniel Cooper02.21.2012
Microsoft Flight is free as a bird on Feb. 29
Microsoft clearly has no care for the silly paramaters we call "seasons," as its launching Microsoft Flight on February 29, bucking the original "spring" launch window. Microsoft Flight's official site will be hosting downloads of the free application starting that Wednesday -- no other distribution channels are named, but we suspect it'll also be up on Games for Windows Live's Marketplace as well.That guess' accuracy is bolstered by the news that the "Hawaiian Adventure Pack" wil be made available as well on the 29th, coming in at $19.99. The pack is said to include the "remaining Hawaiian Islands, a new plane, and 20 new missions," should you have already exhausted your enjoyment of the other content, perhaps during the simulation's beta period. More details on the DLC can be found just after the break, including two additional planes, priced at $7.99 and $14.99 (for regular and "deluxe" models, respectively).At this point, we were gonna make a flippant joke about Flight being little more than flying simulation, but then we thought about that Louis CK bit and started feeling all guilty. So, here we are. Either way, how about those DLC prices, eh? Madness!%Gallery-146616%
Ben Gilbert02.06.2012
EA picks NY Giants as Super Bowl XLVI winner in Madden simulation
Are you wondering who has the upper hand in this Sunday's National Football League sporting contest, but you're beyond trusting those silly old sports journalists? Let EA answer that for you, with its annual simulation of the Superbowl as conducted in Madden NFL 12 on Xbox 360. As evidenced in the video above, the New York Giants are set to overtake the New England Patriots in Superbowl 46 by three points (GO GIANTS WOOOO), with a field goal in the final quarter locking the win for big blue.We might seem a tad dismissive, but EA has set a precedent in the past with annual predictions being spot on (at least in terms of a winner ... less so in terms of actual scores). That either tells us that Madden's numbers game has been spot on for several years, or that football is easily predicted. We'd rather avoid the pummeling that will assuredly result in supposing the latter, so we're gonna go with option A.
Ben Gilbert01.30.2012
IED attack simulator prepares US soldiers prior to Afghan deployment
A new simulation exercise is now in place for US troops at the Camp Atterbury Joint Maneuver Training Center near Edinburgh, Indiana. Built primarily from off-the-shelf components, the system is designed to better prepare soldiers for the physical and psychological challenges of IED attacks, which are currently the number one threat to military personnel stationed in Afghanistan. Situated inside a mounted vehicle and positioned in front of a large screen, service members are exposed to jarring explosions, smoke, noise and poor visibility -- all common occurrences of IED assaults. The system records the entire nightmarish scenario, which allows participants to review their performance and learn from their mistakes. For soldiers who've never been to Afghanistan, the simulator will also be used to familiarize troops with the war zone terrain and other situations they may encounter along the way. Just how realistic is the IED simulation? According to Spc. Darren J. Ganier-Slotterbeck, "I deployed in 2005, 2007 and 2008 with the Marines. I've been blown up multiple times, and it definitely brought back memories. I was a little shaky when I got out of that thing. I'm not going to lie." He went on to say, "If we'd had the ability to go through training like this at the time, those deployments would have been a lot different." Sounds scary. We're not going to lie.
Zachary Lutz01.04.2012
US Army game developers show off CryEngine 3-powered environments
The US Army has been building a training game for its soldiers to play, and the company behind the project, called RealTime Immersive, Inc., has just released two trailers showing off the game's graphics, powered by CryEngine 3. If it looks good, it's because the powers that be have spent $57 million on the project. For that price, there better be dedicated servers and LAN support. Keep in mind this is just a tease -- this game is meant for internal training by the Army, and so it isn't something the public will get to play in any major way. Besides, can the Army hire a group of racist teenagers to yell at soldiers as they perform the in-game training operations?
Mike Schramm12.23.2011
Fanatec Forza Motorsport CSR wheel and Elite pedals review
Fanatec Porsche 911 Turbo Wheel for Xbox 360 review Fanatec Porsche GT2 wheel and Clubsport pedals review Forza Motorsport CSR and CSR Elite wheel and pedals hands-on It's amazing to realize that about two years ago Fanatec's first Xbox 360 racing wheel, the Forza 3 Porsche 911 Turbo Wheel, hit the scene. Although it turned out to be a mixed bag, Fanatec pleasantly surprised us with its Porsche GT2 and Clubsport Pedals in January of this year -- despite a roaring fan and shaky shifter mounts. Now, we're saying hello to a new trio of racing sim-related goods intended for Forza Motorsport 4 on Xbox 360: the $249.95 Forza Motorsport CSR Wheel, $59.95 shifter set, and $149.95 CSR Elite Pedals. If you'll recall, it was back in March that we checked some of this kit out, and now with Forza 4 here, we hooked this mashup of gear up with our Playseat Evolution for a massive amount of virtual spins. So, did this combination help speed past the checkerboard with a respectable feel? Shift past the break find out in our full review. %Gallery-140233%
Joe Pollicino11.24.2011
Moscow Mars flight simulation comes to close after 520 days
For the past 520 days, six men have been taking part in an experiment -- Mars500, a simulation of the effects of long-duration space flight carried out at the Moscow Institute. Over the last 17 months and change, the crew has had its stress and hormone levels monitored, been subject to studies on isolation and dietary supplements and has had its communication with the outside world severely hampered. The crew emerged earlier today, happy to be back, after never really having left. After release, the half-dozen members were taken to quarantine to be checked out by doctors. The scientists running the show seem satisfied with data gathered during the study and are hoping to take things to the next level, conducting a similar experiment in orbit.
Brian Heater11.04.2011
Oscar winners crowd-sourcing the ocean with The Blu
Love the ocean, but hate holding your for breath for extended periods? Good news: a team of software engineers, composers, Oscar-winning animators and more have come together to recreate Davy Jones' locker in the cloud. Wemo Media is looking for a few thousand good artists for the project, to help create a massive simulation of life under the seas built on its Maker Platform. The project has been around for a bit, but is still in closed beta, making it a private development beach of sorts. You can watch an introductory video and request an invite at the source link below.
Brian Heater09.17.2011