stress-test
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Tournament Test Realm: The good, the bad, and the bovine
The Arena Tournament Test Realm (TTR) has been live for a few days now. It seems there have been some hiccups, which is to be expected during a stress test. Hortus has popped up in a few instances on the TTR forum to address some of the major concerns that players have brought up. Lag is far and away the biggest issue on the TTR. Hortus indicated that one of the main functions of the TTR is measuring the best way to handle the massive number of contenders on the official tournament server. Blizzard currently has no plans for opening up any new TTRs to relive the stress. Logging into the server, I find the term "laggy" to be an understatement. Movement is dizzying, and players crowd around.
Metaplace to stress test its platform
Raph Koster's Metaplace app is getting closer and closer to workable reality every day. This Friday at 5 PM PST, they'll be stress testing their platform by gathering as many people as they can to play one of their puzzle games called Wheelwright. The idea is to see if the underlying technology can sustain a large number of users at the same time.It's exciting to see these baby steps happen and feel that one is part of something potentially huge. And if Raph is prescient, Metaplace will be merely the beginning of a revitalization of what the Web can be, the next step in multi-user, multi-site interactivity. I'm eager to see how it all works out, but can anything live up to this level of hype?[Thanks, Steve!]
PotBS stress testers can now set sail in the closed beta
If you signed up at FilePlanet for the Pirates of the Burning Sea stress test, you might be pleased to hear that Flying Lab Software has given all stress tester accounts access to the closed beta now that the stress test is drawing to a close.The Flying Lab Software team had already announced that they would be inviting anyone who reached level 5 by the end of the stress test into the closed beta, but since almost everyone met that goal, they apparently decided it'd just be easier to bring every single stress test account in. If you didn't sign up for the stress test, you're out of luck, but hey, at least you can read our PotBS crafting hands-on!As for the rest of you; go on ye no-good pirate scoundrels! Set sail on the burning sea in search of gold to loot, grog to drink, and bugs to report!
Pirates of the Burning Sea stress test, pre-orders
We've got exciting news from the the high seas (otherwise known as our favorite upcoming pirate-themed game, Pirates of the Burning Sea). First up, there's a stress test scheduled to start tomorrow and last until Sunday, so for those of you curious about the game, head over to FilePlanet to sign up. And next on the agenda, game pre-order boxes have become a reality! Head over to your local Best Buy, Fry's, EB Games/GameStop, or CompUSA to make sure you have your pre-order reserved -- and set yourself up with two weeks of pre-launch playtime (with the ability to keep your character after launch), a vanity pet, a unique sword, and a game soundtrack CD.
Extreme PS3 "stress test" garners praise from Sony
Clearly due to the current heat on Microsoft concerning the Xbox 360 RROD, disk scratching, and overheating scandals, Sony's Dave Karraker is mooning on the company's official blog over a recent PS3 Vault "stress test" called "How to kill a PS3 console" which showed the company's game system to be surprisingly resilient in the face of extreme conditions. "A lot of noise has been made recently about the reliability issues of one of our competitor's systems," Karraker said, then went on to kick some sand in Redmond's eye by adding "Did it fail? Nope. Like the Energizer Bunny, it kept going and going and going." Admittedly, the tests -- which included running games and Blu-ray movies for 108 hours in a typical "living room" environment, placing the console in a freezer van then lowering the temperature from 50 degrees to zero, and powering the PS3 in a sauna where heat increased from 100 degrees to 120 degrees over a nearly three-day session -- were quite extreme. In the end, however, the testers say besides being "extremely hot" after coming out of the sauna, the system is running fine and back in regular use. Microsoft, the ball's in your court.[Via DailyTech]
knife.hand.chop.bot automatically threatens your digits
We can't stress our "don't try this at home" attitude strongly enough towards readers over this piece of robot hackery from the 5Voltcore collective, called the knife.hand.chop.bot. The basic premise is this: the robot plays a game of "Mumblety-Peg," a test of courage wherein a blade is brought down between your fingers at an ever increasing pace. Of course, we've all played a round or two of this game with friends, but it's unlikely that many of us have allowed a bot to play, much less do all the shot-calling. The system manages to avoid slicing fingers due to signals it receives from an onboard sensor which guides the knife, however, it also utilizes contact sensors underneath the user's hand, which can detect moisture (aka "nervous sweat"). The sweat triggers "stressful" sounds via closure of the contacts, and can have an adverse effect on the accuracy of the aiming mechanism, thus increasing your stress, thus causing you to sweat, thus throwing off the aim, thus... well, we're just going to keep our mitts off of the thing. Check the video after the break to see what all the sweating is about.[Via Make]
PS3 survives 108 straight hours in a sweatbox
PS3 Vault really decided to try and put their console to the test by subjecting it to some pretty brutal treatment, including sticking the thing, while working, into a sauna for 108 hours. They report "to our surprise the only incident we noticed was a slight burning smell that came in around 64 hours." Boy, they really missed a chance to actually try grilling with this thing?We have a feeling that if you tried that with the Xbox 360, you'd end up with a red ring of death and then some. A towel couldn't possibly save it from these conditions. Hit the link to see all of the abuse they subjected it to, and marvel at how it kept working. Please, don't try this at home unless you'd really like to toss your warranty out the window.
iPhone stress test: how did it do?
The Internets are a cruel place when it comes to first generation uber-hyped gear. So goes the iPhone stress test conducted by PC World. Now, how do you think that 3.5-inch sheet of glass stacked onto a slim 11.6-mm chassis held up? Well, in tests which found the iPhone in a 30 to 40 rep shake 'n bake with a bag full of key chains; on the business end of a deliberate cold-steel scratch attempt on the display; and dropped to concrete at heights (note plural) of up to about 6-feet, it came away with just a few scuffs along the metal edge. Right, no damage to the display. Be sure to check all the behind-split-finger gore in their video. Read -- Stress Test Read -- Video
We destroy a Blu-ray Disc
When we saw via Game|Life that some IGN forums goers had taken steel wool to a Blu-ray disc with no apparent damage, we thought, "we can do better than that." So we gathered up some convenient implements of destruction and saw how our free copy of Talladega Nights would stand up to a ballpoint pen, a pizza cutter and a butcher's knife (unfortunately, the disc broke down before we could rub crunchy cereal all over it.) Check out the video below, and keep watching to the end for some pyrotechnic bonus footage.
DS Lite Stress Test
We've known for quite some time that Nintendo products tend to be very, very durable. Why, I myself once left my Game Boy Advance SP on top of my car, and started to drive away; only at around 40 M.P.H. did the SP finally fly off into heavy traffic, careening onto pavement and quite literally getting run over twice. Sure enough, despite the number on the paint job, the damn thing still functioned perfectly. But I digress.Here we have a short video showing a sick, pathologically insane human being attempting to crush a DS Lite into utter submission. While he succeeds in making the fanboys shield their eyes to avert the pain, he absolutely fails to do any lasting damage to the unit. Rock on, Nintendo.Oh, and for bonus material, follow the link to watch several Xboxes set aflame.[Thanks, Richard!]
