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Recon Instruments offers Flight HUD goggles for wingsuit pilots and skydivers
Recon Instruments has decided to take its wares off the slopes and into the air, provided enough people bite. The Flight HUD is built around the same core as its ski goggles, but has been tweaked to offer information more relevant to skydivers, base jumpers and wingsuit pilots. The tiny LCD just below the field of vision displays speed, altitude and glide ratio in real time. Rather than simply guess how fast they're going, adrenaline junkies will be able to see accurate data in the moment and make the appropriate adjustments. Obviously, this is a rather niche market, so Recon Instruments has set a goal: 250 pre-orders to trigger a production run. The early birds can pick up a Flight HUD for $299, while every order placed after the initial 250 will cost $349. To get a run down of the proposed product from renowned aerial daredevil Jeb Corliss check out he video after the break.
Leap of faith: Felix Baumgartner's historic jump from the edge of space
BASE jumping might just be about to enter the mainstream. What has typically been considered a fringe activity, reserved for thrill seekers and adrenaline junkies, could soon be firmly cemented in the public view. For the uninitiated, BASE jumping is like skydiving, without the plane. Participants throw themselves off bridges, antennae, buildings, cliffs, and well, whatever high object they can find. It's not illegal, "in theory", but as many of the chosen launch spots are public or private property -- or pose a risk to public safety -- gaining access to, or jumping from them, can mean stepping over the legal line. This otherwise obstreperous activity has largely kept to itself, occasionally popping up in magazines, or YouTube videos, but -- all going well -- on Monday that changes. Serial boundary pusher (of wing suit across the English Channel fame) Felix Baumgartner is set to leap, in the most literal sense of the word, from relative obscurity into the history books. How? By jumping to earth from the edge of space, likely breaking the sound barrier as he does so. How does one go from humble Austrian beginnings to a capsule 120,000 feet (about 23 miles) above the Earth's surface? Make a comparatively tiny leap past the break to find out.
Record-breaking freefall advances space suit technology (video)
Jumping to Earth from the edge of space is no mean feat. Not only are you dropping like a stone, there's also the minor issue of your blood boiling as you do so. These are challenges daredevil Felix Baumgartner and the Red Bull Stratos team will be taking head-on -- literally -- with their record-breaking 120,000 foot "spacedive." To ensure Baumgartner lives to claim his honors, the Stratos team is using a custom spacesuit. It's designed by the David Clark Company, which made the first pressurized suits for World War II fighters, and includes a gas-filled bladder and integrated valve to maintain pressure over the various altitudes. While Baumgartner hopes to set new freefall distance, and time (5 minutes 30 seconds) records, there'll also be a lasting contribution to science, with team medical director Dr. Jonathan Clark hoping the developments can lead to advances in space travel and tourism. So in the future when you're opening your pretzels, looking down upon the Earth, raise a complimentary glass to Felix
The Game Archaeologist goes PlanetSide: Your journeys
While war itself is a hellish, nasty activity that we'd be better off without, there's always been something compelling about playing war as both kids and adults. When you strip war of death and suffering, the play version can become downright compelling as we get engrossed in tales of heroics, deep strategies, risky gambits, and clear-cut victories. It's why we invest so much time in simulating war throughout our lives -- in snowball fights, toy soldiers, laser tag, and MMOs. For the soldiers of PlanetSide, the war has been raging for over eight years now with no end in sight, and that's just fine with everyone involved. The game was designed to be a perpetual struggle between military forces -- not due to politics or prejudice but simply for the love of the fight. In the year or so I've been writing this column, I've never seen so many people come forward when asked to share their experiences with an MMO as have done for PlanetSide. There's definitely something compelling and unique about this MMOFPS that's become a dear part of many gamers' memories, and I'm pleased to be sharing those stories with you today. Hit the jump for the glory, trooper!
European PSN Updates for February 7th
Blimey Sony, give us time to get out of bed before updating the store, won'tcha? Today's early store update is not bad at all. A short list, yes, but there's no filler content here. Here's the full release list: Sky Diving full game (£3.49/€4.99) Turok demo (free) Conflict: Denied Ops demo (free) Motorstorm "Chinese New Year gift" add-on (free) Folklore "Mailion" add-on (free) Lost Planet trailer (free) If you fancy the look of Lost Planet, don't forget that there's a demo available on the Japanese PSN Store. As for Sky Diving, we'll probably have a review up of the game before too long. We're not expecting much, but you never know. Enjoy your free game add-ons - the Folklore "Malion" pack contains the winner of the European "Design a Folk" competition, which was won by Jeff Read from the UK.
Danger! New PSN skydiving game is Unbelievable!
The European PSN Store updated with a trailer for a newly unveiled PSN game, appropriately called Sky Diving. (Looking at the font, it looks like it was originally going to be called Go! Sky Diving ... ) The concept is pretty original, and we're excited to see how it's executed. However, we're terribly afraid that the game will make poor use of unnecessary SIXAXIS controls, like so many PSN titles. Who knows? Maybe this one will work just right. Or, maybe it'll make you look so stupendously awkward that it'll be a blast. Either way, our interest is piqued.
