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The Elder Scrolls Online pushes players to Upper Craglorn in Update 4
You've been to Craglorn? Pff, that's boring now. Upper Craglorn is where the real action is these days. And by complete coincidence, Upper Craglorn is now open on The Elder Scrolls Online's servers, as the game's fourth major update has just dropped. The zone will wrap up the Celestial storyline as your character takes on the Scaled Court. That also ties into the new trial, Sanctum Ophidia, which is a direct strike against the heart of the Court; players will take on the minions and end up fighting the Celestial Serpent. The new Dragonstar Arena also debuts with this patch, asking players to fight against waves of oncoming enemies. Plus there's a new crafting trait available, improved grouping mechanics, various bugfixes, the usual assortment. So if you can't wait to go knife up a really important snake and check out the places that all the hip new kids are heading for, go check out the update.
Israeli military develops robot snake for battlefield, children's nightmares
While this is by no means the first time we've seen a robotic snake prototype, it ain't every day that we find one so close to deployment. This self-propelling, two foot long robot can crawl along the ground, climb through debris, and even stand erect to give the operator a better view through the forward-mounted camera. The Israeli Defense Force says it will use this thing for "routine surveillance and reconnaissance." And if this is not enough? In that case, the prototype can be wired with explosives -- making it, in the words of the Jerusalem Post, a "suicide snake." Fun! And rather upsetting. No proposed price or timetable yet, but you can see the thing in action for yourself after the break.
Snakebots traverse terrain, plan silent, midnight attack
Apparently the Biorobotics Lab at Carnegie Mellon University has been quite busy as of late... building an army of robotic snakes. Though we've seen droid snakes before, bot-makers at the school have been investigating the myriad possibilities of single-task snakes, coming up with configurations for swimming, crawling, and climbing, amongst others. The program is concerned with enabling the bots to take on a diverse variety of terrain and tasks, made easier by the fact that the little guys aren't limited to wheel-based movement. To really get an idea of the possibilities (and extreme creepiness), check the video after the break. We just hope you enjoy the techno version of Crazy Train as much as we do.[Thanks, Andrew]
Snakes on a Plane star promotes PSP
The gripping story of ophidiophobia in the sky has propelled Snakes on a Plane star Kenan Thompson into the spotlight. Throughout most of the film, he's seen playing the PSP. But what game has him so engrossed? An interview at Yahoo reveals all: "I was playing NBA Street Showdown on the PSP during filming. I was playing it a whole lot and I was getting really good at it." The PSP was not included in Kenan's contract: "I had to give it back after we finished filming, but I had my own, so I wasn't tripping." Kenan thinks the PSP's one of the best handhelds around, due to its multiple capabilities: "You put it in your car and it turns into an MP3 player. It's crazy." Of course, more amazing than the PSP being in Snakes on a Plane is knowing that Samuel L. Jackson plays the system as well: "Sam Jackson loves video games. I think I might have caught him playing my PSP a couple of times on set. He's a cool dude like that." Awesome!Read the rest of the interview to find out more on a potential sequel to the movie (Lizards on the Backs of Llamas on a Boat) and what he thinks about the DS and the Brain Age games ("I felt stupid the first time I played it").
Metal Gear to support GPS
There aren't too many high-profile games that use Sony's upcoming GPS peripheral. Off the top of my head, I can only think of two: Hot Shots Golf and Homestar. Well, Konami has added one incredibly huge title to the list of GPS-compatible games: Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops. It shouldn't come as too much of a surprise, considernig how the last Metal Gear game on our system came with another crazy peripheral: the Solid Eye. Konami hasn't revealed how the game will support the device, but what kind of crazy ideas can you think of?[Via IGN]
PSP on Snakes on a Plane
There are motherf--in' PSPs on this motherf--in' plane filled with motherf--in' snakes.Okay, admit it: you're secretly part of the phenomenon. You've probably spent days Photoshopping funny snakes and plane-related posters, and you've spent hours blogging about it. Well, the day of reckoning is here: the Snakes on a Plane movie is finally out. Our sister site, DS Fanboy, has some interesting video game-related snippets from the film:Kenan Thompson's character Troy is shown throughout the movie as a video game junkie...how? He sports a black PSP model, yelling and screaming at the machine. Later, in a brief shot, an eight year-old is shown occupying himself idly with a (phat) Nintendo DS.Good Burger-star and SNL regular Kenan's love of the PSP shows how at least in the public image battle, the PSP is a long way ahead of the PSP: Nintendo and the DS, for better or worse, is still "t3h k1ddy."Okay, that's the end of this incredible non-news story. Like my DS Fanboy colleague, this really was nothing more than a thinly veiled way for us to bring up the movie. The movie's out now, and is rated R for Retarded Restricted Audiences.
