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Robert Rodat to write the Warcraft screenplay
Sam Raimi spoke with MTV News about his upcoming Warcraft movie, and while he didn't confirm (or deny, we guess) the whole subtitle thing, he did mention a new writer. Robert Rodat is apparently putting a screenplay together -- he's best known for writing Saving Private Ryan (and of course if we can get a Warcraft movie as good as that Spielbergian epic, we'll all be happy), and he's also penned Fly Away Home and The Patriot. Most recently, says his Wikipedia page, he did some work on 10,000 B.C., though if you saw that movie, you probably wouldn't be able to tell, anyway -- it was terrible.Raimi says he wants to stay faithful "to the Horde and the Alliance and the mythology that takes place in the game," as well as "choose one or some of the lands that are portrayed in the game with as much accuracy and authenticity as possible." He calls Rodat a great character writer, and says a great character-based story within the world of Azeroth is his goal. Sounds good. The picture above is the only art we've ever seen of the movie (it was presented at BlizzCon a few years ago), but since then, it sounds like the movie has changed quite a bit, so we'll have to wait and see what Rodat and Raimi are coming up with.
iriver Story e-reader hits pre-order status in Korea, gets priced
We've been keeping our eyes peeled for any news of iriver's Story e-reader -- and it looks like it's on the verge of appearing in reality -- at least in Korea. The company is now taking pre-orders for the 6-inch, QWERTY keyboarded device, which runs 358,000 KRW ( around $290). The reader will come packaged with a 2GB SD card, the book-impersonating folding case we've spied it wearing in the past, and two free book downloads. While we've heard that the reader will eventually get global, we've still yet to heard pricing or release dates for the US of A. Until then, we'll just have to keep curled up on the sofa with our sad, dog-eared, public library copy of The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao.
iriver Story e-book reader turns up in Berlin, deems itself too cool for IFA
Well, it may not have been officially on-hand at IFA, but it looks like at least one iriver Story e-book reader did make its way to Berlin, and Heise Online was lucky enough to spend a bit of time with it -- and take a few pics, of course. While it still bears an undeniable similarity to the Kindle 2, the differences become a bit more apparent up close, with the keyboard in particular sporting more traditional, squarer keys, and a complete lack of face buttons otherwise -- apart from what appears to be two built-in page turn buttons on each bottom corner. In addition to the previously revealed specs, Heise Online also confirmed the existence of a built-in Comic Viewer, an integrated microphone for dictation and, unfortunately, a lack of built-in WiFi (let alone 3G), meaning that the only way to get content on the device is via USB or SD cards. Hit up the link below for the rest of the pics and a few more details.
Alleged iRiver Story e-reader pics exemplify imitation as the sincerest form of flattery
We can't fault iRiver for striving to beat Kindle at its game, but to be Kindle is a different story altogether. A Korea-based MobileRead forum member posted a trio of pics that apparently show off the company's up e-book reader, aptly titled the Story. Here's the scoop as "dasony" tells it: the talented Mr. Ripley here sports a 6-inch screen, physical QWERTY keys, up to 32GB expandable memory, 9,000 page turns (per charge, we presume), a comic viewer, and support for PDF, EPUB, and a number of word / document files. Its local affiliation includes book store chain Kyobo and pre-orders will launch September 16th for around 350,000 to 400,000 KRW, or $282 to $322 in US currencies. Apparently iRiver's looking to expand it to other countries and is in talk with US and Russian retailers, although with that price, it's gonna have to pull out some surprise features and dark magick to compete with what Sony and Amazon are dealing. More pics of the book and its not-quite-svelte case in the gallery below. [Via Engadget German]
Behind the scenes of the Dragon Queen costume
It's totally fun to browse through the costume gallery or the pictures of the costume contest we took last weekend and marvel at the different costumes that showed up at BlizzCon, but what you don't see in those shots is all of the hard work that went into making each outfit. Sure, there are probably some store-bought purchases in there, but for the most part, each costume was assembled with lots of hard work and care, most of the time by the person actually wearing it.Mariecannabis is the woman wearing this Alexstrasza costume that we saw at the costume contest, and she has posted a gallery over on Flickr showing some of the behind-the-scenes work of making the molds and putting the costume together. The end costume looks great, but the process is all shapes and molds and paint and construction -- fascinating to see how it all comes together. And while this costume is terrific, it does make you wonder about the stories behind some of the even more complex costumes up there.Stay tuned for more -- we'll be seeking out a few of the best costumes we saw at BlizzCon, and we'll show you some more of their stories in the future here on WoW.com. It's fun to see all of those on the show floor, but you sometimes don't realize just how much work and time is actually put into them.%Gallery-70720%%Gallery-70668%
Snood Redood coming to the iPhone
Fortunately, World of Warcraft didn't exist while I was in school, otherwise I might not have finished my venerable BS degree at the storied Ithaca College at all. But if there was one game that almost kept me from finishing all of those essays and homework... well, it was Civ. But if there were two games, the second was Snood. And now that game is due in iPhone form soon as well. It features the same creature-matching gameplay (with both new and old graphics, as you can see above), which means it probably has the same addictive quality that kept me playing long after I was supposed to have read those excerpts the professor gave to us in English class, and three gameplay modes, including Story, Classic, and even a Time Attack mode. "Coming soon" is the word on when it'll be out, though the main webpage actually says "play now," so it probably isn't that far off. It's not the only "Bust a Move" style game out on the App Store, but it is Snood, and that itself is enough to take me back to the days of pizza and beer in the dorm room.
The next level of questing
Elnia at the Pink Pigtail Inn has some excellent and interesting advice for Blizzard's quest designers (or whoever they hire for the current position). As big a component as quests are in the game, they haven't been innovated on much since the game's release. Blizzard has played around a little bit with allowing us to repeat certain quests, and they've streamlined the group questing mechanic, but other than that, quests are pretty much the same: pick up a task, do it, and bring it back for a reward.So how can it be done differently? Elnia has some great ideas: she asks for quests that span a little farther, that push players through a storyline that might even follow them all the way up to 80 (of course, there are quests like that, though they're few and far between -- and not all players have the patience to finish them). Rewards could be mixed up, too -- instead of the old gold and XP, how about some profession skill, or a tradeoff of badges based on certain quests done. Finally, Elnia suggests that every quest in the game become repeatable. Questing is paced to keep us interested in from 1-60, but we all know how the game works now -- why not let us do some of our favorite quests over more than once?I'd suggest we go even farther -- Warhammer Online offers Public Quests that are an interesting twist on the usual "go kill boars" mechanic. I'd like to see branching quests with more than one outcome -- maybe a moral choice to make that affects the storyline of the quest you're doing. And talking real pie-in-the-sky here, I'd like to see questgivers treat you different based on the way you look or maybe what title you've got equipped. If you've got "Jenkins," they might not expect you to do much, but with "Champion of Ulduar" over your head, they should probably be groveling at your feet.
EVE Evolved: Just another week in the Sleeper's den
Following last week's reassuringly popular article "Untangling the mystery of the Sleepers", our little expeditionary alliance has had an extremely action-packed week. In addition to several PvP encounters with roaming gangs, there's been a POS siege, a system invasion and a lot of drama. At the end of it all, I'm left with a renewed sense of awe for the unique experiences EVE Online can deliver if you're just willing to seek them out and actively involve yourself. At times I can truly immerse myself in EVE and feel like I'm taking an actor's part in a kind of intergalactic play scene, an experience I've never come close to in any other MMO. Taking part in these events is almost like being painted into an illustrative chapter of some historic record. In this article, I hope to solidify that record and share a glimpse of what it's like to immerse yourself in this part of EVE. What follows is a storytold account of Total Comfort alliance's deadly week in the Sleeper's den.
Meet the Sparkplay Media team: Part Two
Yesterday we introduced you to the lead designer and concept artist from Sparkplay Media, the makers of the upcoming free-to-play MMO Earth Eternal. Today we have more behind the scenes action for you as we continue our "Meet the Sparkplay Media Team" feature and introduce you to the lead writer and one of the programmers that work so diligently on this new MMO.In today's feature we get the inside scoop on the microtransaction store and story from Sparkplay's CEO and lead writer of Earth Eternal, Matt Mihaly. Plus we're also getting a peek inside what goes on during the coding of Earth Eternal with Ryne Anderson, one of the programmers.
A game without violence? BioWare thinks it's possible with the right audience
Skimming through the Interweb this morning, we stumbled upon statements made by BioWare's Greg Zeschuk and Ray Muzyka, spelling out their interest in creating games more reliant on story than combat. Well no duh, guys. However, digging deeper, we found that the BioWare docs aren't just talking about the usual marriage of story and gameplay that their studio focuses on, but removing combat nearly entirely from games in the future."We talk a certain amount internally about whether you need to have combat as part of the experience ... are there possibilities to actually start separating pieces of the game and actually tailor it to the audience," Zeschuk said to GamesIndustry.biz. "There are different audiences that would maybe just enjoy the story," he continued, hinting at the possibility of future BioWare games without any violent actions whatsoever. Though we're inclined to point to the plethora of adventure games out there, we're more hopeful for a Jade Empire sequel with extra spoonfuls of violence rather than too much reliance on story. We can hope, can't we?
Gears of War: Jacinto's Remnant coming next month
If you're wondering what to do on a cold night, while snuggling next to a warm fire ... may we suggest, reading? Of course, in this scenario, all electricity is out and video games are no option for you. So, if that's what it takes for you to pick up a book (we kid!), you might be interested in something with a little video game flavor.Coming to bookstores on July 28 is Gears of War: Jacinto's Remnant -- from best-selling sci-fi author Karen Traviss (of Star Wars novel fame!).Jacinto's Remnant begins moments following the end of Gears of War 2. It's really hard to tell you what the novel is about without spoiling the ending of 2008's Epic Xbox 360-exclusive, but from what we've seen so far, the book looks to paint a picture of humanity's struggle for survival against a new kind of enemy -- itself. Sounds interesting, so far. Excited?
Aion's first video podcast is packing lore and stunning visuals
Just a couple months ago a friend told me that Aion was the biggest and baddest upcoming MMORPG that no-one in North America knew about. It broke records and won awards when it launched in Korea last year, yet hardly anyone over here was talking about it. Well, things can change quickly.As the September launch date approaches, NCsoft has been kicking Aion promotion into high gear. Their latest marketing effort is a four-part series of video podcasts hosted by IGN. The first part came out on Friday and serves as a crash course on the lore behind Aion, Atreia, and the three main factions called the Asmodians, Elyos, and Balaur (the NPC dragon race that sets up the PvPvE system).The video really gives you a good look at Aion's very own fourth pillar (sorry BioWare, you might have some competition here) and is full of stunning in-game footage, cinematics, and staff interviews. Closed beta is currently in full swing and we're keeping tabs on it for you.
Twitter Time: 10 words or less con't
RAIDING AND INSTANCES PT. 2 sirurza @wowinsider LEEEEEERRROYYYYY JENKKKIIINNNSS blizatrex @wowinsider dwarf warrior in trouble. shield wall! kesoleil @wowinsider "I'm down." "Forgot you were a rogue again?" "Shut up."str1fe @wowinsider "If it's pretty, don't stand in....oh, dammit" Pnut060 @wowinsider 10 year old guildie literally crying over loot on vent.kesoleil @wowinsider Famous Last Words: "I can Solo heal that." *raid wipes* rikitikitik @wowinsider Fresh from Naxx 10 full clear, we faced Malygos. Splat!Elad @wowinsider "Are you all hard for this ready-mode boss?" rikitikitik @wowinsider "Guys, the debuff is up. Don't move!" Release? Elad @wowinsider Whoops, forgot Righteous Fury. anjldust @wowinsider "This," he said, "is where the epics come from." puzzill @wowinsider Cylindra bubbled her warrior, now to hope and pray ruairi @wowinsider multi-tasking tank causes wipe Pnut060 @wowinsider I can spend all night doing this rofl ruairi @wowinsider bored healer causes wipe XandosFiretree @wowinsider Twenty-four strangers departed Shattrath, hunted Illidan. Two dozen friends returned. DLMDixon @wowinsider Hunter leaves pet on aggressive preparing for Algalon. Dooms Azeroth. cwharton @wowinsider The gaping maws of Yogg-Saron filled her nightmares every night. wow_acia @wowinsider | Healer story - "Get out of the fire or I won't heal you!" ClakyDruott @wowinsider Tonight I ran out of ammo, last boss in Naxx.... locktart @wowinsider run up stairs. Oh shi- "YOU FAIL!" killed by Kologarn. Pnut060 @wowinsider My naxx raid laughing at friend stuck behind a box. benquinney @wowinsider Guiding Star dropped - and I got it. Awesome! Brightbeerd @wowinsider Pug was OK. The tank was bad. Stupid hunter pets. Aeire @wowinsider I murder things for honor, glory, and really pretty clothes. FeistTheRogue @wowinsider "Walk into Ulduar, kill monsters, collect loot, rinse and repeat." Aoikari @wowinsider Me and some undead chicks entered a bar, got lucky. eyuzwa @wowinsider "we'll be alright since everyone has their Onyxia cloaks...right?" Night0wl @wowinsider Ragnaros so close, sons to go, oh no we wiped! Umatar @wowinsider My proct pally gets turned on my being hit hard. omgitsafox @wowinsider "Hey, where'd your pet go?" "...Oh shit. PASSIVE, DAMMIT." Serneum @wowinsider Atkallen the hunter shot Archimonde in the face. LouGagliardi @wowinsider Warrior fights boss, wins and promptly celebrates.LOLZ Stoopid512 @wowinsider I withheld water from Ringo, just to watch him die. Aoikari @wowinsider never going to let you down! Thrall said to Jaina. paulje00 @wowinsider "Orcs, the other green meat" Aoikari @wowinsider Never going to the undercity zoo again... must wash eyes! awlbiste @wowinsider Nelf Rogue killing the Tarren Mill fightmaster. Can't get out. tselmorrah @wowinsider He sought trade but found only Chuck Norris jokes. TragicDog @wowinsider guys, don't go up to the top... damn it! RUUUUUNNNN Jaysen_N @wowinsider Materinty test proves that neither are the baby daddy, GASP! spasticsnap @wowinsider Tauren leaves her fertile homelands to battle frozen dead. Night0wl @wowinsider Hydraxian Waterlords, need daily quests, Ragnaros respawns to slow, Farmed/ knight816 @wowinsider rain fell silently on the windshield; it was actually ichor kiffar @wowinsider Titanium Node! Mine, Paladin! His head stuck to my pick.. <_< Bytorsnowdog @wowinsider female elf dancing naked, sigh deeprun tram all over again! tashalee @wowinsider The priest said to her, "My holy nova prematurely crits." Jaysen_N @wowinsider Thrall and Arthas battle it out on the Jerry Show. Jaysen_N @wowinsider Jaina rumored to be pregnant, with Arthas as baby daddy. Aoikari @wowinsider I wake up and i'm in undercity with no liver.... Metrophelean @wowinsider Arthas would be less angsty if Icecrown had restrooms. rmoore08 @wowinsider I teabagged an enemy player. It was hot! Jaysen_N @wowinsider Jaina and Thrall will marry, then live happily ever after. Metrophelean @wowinsider DOWN DRUID! That is not what EPIC MOUNT MEANS! Aoikari @wowinsider magtheridon took me back to his lair, hes dirty. ;] professorbeej @wowinsider Body of an elf, a dwarf's face, orc's smell: love. arkbites1 @wowinsider Thrall takes Stormwind. Starbuck's soon opens in the auction house. brigwyn @wowinsider mike and turpster were caught in the game closet together Ashayo @wowinsider So this one time, at (band) Camp Taurajo, I /shindig'ed. chuckenorris @wowinsider a priest and a gnome walk into a bar JoshJosa @wowinsider Walking in the Fjord, Carosh discovers three frost wyrms mating. nickhuber @wowinsider When the candle factory closed, Kobolds all over Azeroth wept. maziltov @wowinsider Low railings on Thunder Bluff bridges = long fall, possible lawsuit. kryptongirl @wowinsider The druid turned into a dog tree. He barked. profetacinque @wowinsider Arthas wanted to go see the zoo; Jaina said "no". Matt_LRR @wowinsider Arthas looked on, coldly. "who left the air-conditioner running?" Curtis_Hanna @wowinsider Baby Gnome shoes for sale. Never worn. ravenette13 @wowinsider Sometimes, death knights just like to pick flowers. The end. lttleknownceleb @wowinsider You know, I really thought that gnome was dead.
Twitter Time: 10 words or less
tweetmeme_source = 'wowinsider';I've been manning the WoW.com official Twitter for the past few nights and having a great time of it. The three nights previous to last, I did some reader-participation art and ended up drawing a tauren rogue and two druids (undead and gnome!). Tonight I thought I'd go a little more literary and had the Twitterati, in the spirit of tweets, send me WoW-related stories of ten words or less. Here are some of my favorites, and the rest are after the jump.Make sure to follow us on Twitter and YOU TOO MIGHT SEND ME BRIEF MESSAGES SOMETIME. I'll see you there! Frito_KAL @wowinsider No matter what the humans say, gnomes are NOT piñatas. Iamfivebears @wowinsider "Thanks for the summoooooooooooooon...." the rogue yelled up the cliff. kryptongirl @wowinsider The druid turned into a dog tree. He barked. MsJenni @wowinsider We entered Deadmines nude, voting who came out best dressed. TheCorruptOne @wowinsider Armor drops from a clear desert sky. Incoming gnomish engineer! threeparts @wowinsider How many edge of winter's does this damn dryad -have?-
New chapter in Warhammer Online's "A Fistful of Choppas" now available
What betta' than one orc choppa? Two orc choppas! Waggghhhhhhhh!Of course, what's better than one chapter of a story? The second chapter, of course! Warhammer Online just added the second chapter to "A Fistful of Choppas" onto their website, so you can continue following the adventures of Ghurlak and his battles against the dwarves. This time around Ghurlak's fighting skills are noticed by the Dark Elves and they formulate a plan for Ghurlak and his bretheren... if they can perfect the word of Mork first.The chapter is a good piece for lore for anyone who's interested in the Warhammer universe, especially in how the orcs begin to be involved in the Age of Reckoning. If you haven't gotten to chapter one yet, check that out first, then jump on over to chapter two.
Braid comes to the Mac
You have to admit: for all of the gaming woes that the Mac faithful has suffered, there's fortunately never been a shortage of great indie games for us to play. Aquaria made it to our platform, World of Goo appeared pretty early on, and now Braid, Jonathan Blow's terrific deconstruction of Super Mario Bros., has appeared on OS X thanks to the kind folks over at Hothead Games. The game has won more awards than you can count, but I can personally tell you it's great, as I played the XBLA release when it first arrived. It's a classic 2D platformer in the vein of Mario with a very important twist: you can reverse, slow, and replay time throughout the various levels. That twist results in an extremely artistic game that takes apart the original Mario story and ends up with something very much more beautiful and sad."Artistic"? "Beautiful"? "Sad"? Can I say these things about a videogame? Of course I can -- Braid stands in a class of its own as an experience that uses art and gameplay together to tell quite a story. If you're a fan of innovative games or just great interactive experiences, and haven't played through it yet (it's fairly short, maybe six hours at the most), it's definitely worth a look. The Greenhouse is selling the Mac or PC versions for $14.95.
BioWare's founders emphasize the importance of storytelling in their games
BioWare co-founders Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk were the keynote speakers at Game Developers Conference Canada in Vancouver, British Columbia yesterday. Their speech was titled Emotionally Engaging Narrative: Gaming's New Frontier. Given BioWare's huge portfolio of successful story-driven games, it's no surprise they had a lot to talk about.Not all game-types need a good narrative to be successful or fun (e.g., Bejewelled, Tetris, etc.), but MMORPGs could probably benefit from a greater emphasis on compelling and engaging storytelling. Both Ray and Greg talked about various types of narrative, including linear and non-linear, active and passive, and internal and external.We know that story will be the fourth pillar of design in Star Wars: The Old Republic and here's an example of external narrative they say we'll see when it releases: "Manipulation of world server data based on a broad range of user activities can actually change the game world." We're not quite sure what that means, but here are a couple guesses: Online voting to determine the next expansion race or fan fiction making it into the game's narrative.
Walter and Louise Simonson interviewed at NYCC
Blizzplanet has a video they've been saving from the New York Comic Con a little while back. This time, they chat with Walter and Louise Simonson, part of the team behind the World of Warcraft comic, which at the time, had just re-introduced Garona Halforcen, the half-orc assassin who is likely about to make a long-awaited appearance in the MMO world of Azeroth. The couple say that while they can't tell us much, Garona fans have some cool stuff to look forward to, as we're going to learn more about both her "past" and "future." There are some other little lore tidbits in the interview as well, including what's up with Varian Wrynn and his counterpart, Lo'gosh. And there's good news for fans of the Horde -- while the comic book has so far had an Alliance lead character, Blizzard is setting up new things for the Horde as well.Clearly here are two people really ensconced in the World of Warcraft -- they both seem to have a really great and passionate grasp on the story behind WoW, and a real care for how the future of the story unfolds. We can't wait to see it.
Frozen iPod returns from the grave
Andrew sent us this great story -- he found an iPod classic in the melting snow of Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada. It had apparently been there "since early winter," and was frozen solid... as is the case, we'd imagine, with most things left outside there between September and April.Incredibly, though, once taken home, cleaned up, and given a warm cup of tomato soup and a grilled cheese, it started right back up again. Everything was completely intact -- he says it even displayed the correct date. Pretty impressive for Apple's little music player (and mine's even stuffed in a Vaja case, so I know it'll always run for me -- assuming I don't drop it in a pile of snow somewhere). He says there is a name on the iPod, so if you've been around the Whitehorse area and have recently dropped your iPod near a place called Takhini School, leave him a note and he will probably be able to get it back to you. But do it quick -- he's giving things about a week, and then it's finder's keepers. We don't blame him: who wouldn't want an indestructible iPod?
Samsung's 1.5TB STORY hard drive is just the same 'ol
It's no coincidence that Samsung named its external USB hard disk "Story" as it attempts to woo consumers away from Western Digital's My Book series of backup devices. The brushed aluminum slab with "passionate red lines" (groan) plays host to your choice of 500GB, 1TB, or 1.5TB 3.5-inch disks. The Story Station can backup your data in "real-time" or be setup to backup on a set schedule of your choosing. Data is secured via password with an optional SecretZone virtual drive setup for encrypting all your swine-flu conspiracy data. This device is single-port, USB 2.0 only so you'll have to take your dreams of network attached storage, eSATA, or FireWire 800 elsewhere. Available in Europe first sometime in May for an undisclosed price.
