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Red 5 Studios to suspend Firefall PvP, wants to 'get it right'
Red 5 Studios will suspend the Player vs. Player (PvP) elements of Firefall at a "near future point" to focus their resources on improving the game's Player vs. Environment (PvE) aspects, CEO Mark Kern announced on Thursday. Kern explained that Jetball, Firefall's "last big attempt" at a PvP mode that was designed for eSports, was fun but didn't "attract many of our players (less than 3% PvP in Firefall)." Kern described PvP as an important part of Firefall and said that the studio will "regroup, rethink, and deliver the best PvP system we can." Kern said the studio's most immediate efforts will focus on PvE, as players want "more content, fewer bugs and more polish." Although Kern did not have a date for the suspension of PvP, he said it will eventually return to Firefall "when it's ready."
Ouya Free the Games Fund project 'Elementary, My Dear Holmes' suspended by Kickstarter
The crowdfunding campaign for Elementary, My Dear Holmes was suspended by Kickstarter today. The point-and-click adventure game had already reached its $50,000 goal, earning $58,770 before its suspension, days before it was slated to end on September 13. The reasons for the project's suspension by Kickstarter are unclear, though the developer said it addressed concerns regarding "suspicious accounts" that supported the game. "When the uproar against Elementary, My Dear Holmes was brought up, we contacted Kickstarter and Amazon, asking them to investigate the accounts and take action accordingly," the game's creator Sam Chandola told backers. "We wanted to get on top of this and did not want anything to do with any of what was happening as it was an extremely negative campaign for us. Strong personal accusations were going up against us, and it was a huge drain on our time, energy and resources." Ouya announced its $1 million Free the Games Fund program in July as a means of encouraging developer support of its console by offering monetary rewards for successful Kickstarter-funded games that vow to remain Ouya-exclusive for six months. Elementary, My Dear Holmes was one of two games that reached its funding goals last week as part of the program. The other game, Gridiron Thunder, fell under scrutiny for the amount of funding it received from just 126 backers. According to Ouya, the project "successfully qualified to receive the match," and is still up on Kickstarter, sitting at $114,437 from 161 funders with 46 hours before the campaign ends.
GenShock electricity-generating active suspension is coming to passenger cars, eventually
Levant Power's energy-producing GenShock suspension has been stuck in limbo for a while, but the company has just announced a deal that could finally put the technology in passenger cars. Automotive component firm ZF has agreed to help develop a GenShock-based active suspension that will both convert road bumps to electricity and smooth out its host vehicle's ride. The system will theoretically offer the comfort of a luxury sedan, the power efficiency of a hybrid and the nimble handling of a sports car. It might even simplify repairs -- since GenShock recovers energy through pumps, it can raise each wheel without needing a jack. ZF doesn't yet know when we'll be driving cars with the new suspension, but the technology is reportedly inexpensive enough that buyers won't require a supercar-level budget.
Edison2 shows off an updated Very Light Car EV by exposing its unique frame (hands-on)
We've had a few looks at Edison2's Very Light Car (VLC) project including its gasoline-powered X-Prize winning incarnation, but today's EV looked a bit different. In an event at the Henry Ford Museum in Dearborn, MI, CEO and founder Oliver Kuttner showed off the latest version of the vehicle, this time unskinned -- while referencing similar body-less showcases of the Lamborghini Miura and Volkswagen Beetle -- to show off the innovative suspension that contributes greatly to the car's light weight. The in-wheel suspension units connect to single piece axles that bookend the car's chassis and feature fewer contact points than traditional car suspension designs. Kuttner claims this technique will also feed back into conventional car bodies, opening up more space and taking weight out of future vehicles. Check after the break for more details about what's changed and what's next for Edison2, or dive into the gallery to take a look for yourself.%Gallery-185393%
Egyptian court suspends YouTube for a month over controversial film (Update: Google statement)
Users of YouTube in Egypt could face a month-long blackout of the service after an administrative court ruling ordered the website's suspension. The ministries of communication and investment have been ordered to block the popular video sharing site, reports news agency MENA, for hosting the movie short Innocence of Muslims. The American-made film has caused strong reactions since its release in September, at which point the initial complaint about YouTube's showing of it is said to have been made. Today's decision is a result of that ruling, and while the service should still currently remain online, Egypt's National Telecommunication Regulatory Authority has claimed it will uphold the suspension once it receives confirmation of the verdict. This isn't the first time access to YouTube has been restricted by a government, and the very same film caused the Pakistani prime minister to call for a similar ban at the time of the movie's release. The 13-minute video is still available on YouTube, implying that the site deems that it doesn't breach its own guidelines, but it does come with a warning for user discretion due to possible offence. We've reached out to Google for comment. Update: Google has responded with the following statement: "We have received nothing from the judge or government related to this matter." Update #2: Our friends in Egypt tell us YouTube is working fine for now -- at least as of 13.30pm today.
Riot Games issues lifetime bans for League of Legends players
Riot Games has been trying its hardest to clean up some of the more toxic members of the League of Legends community by handing out year-long suspensions to some of the worst offenders. But sometimes it's not enough to have a time out. Khaled "StunnedandSlayed" Abusagr and Nicolaj "Veigodx" Jensen aren't banned from the game for a year -- they've been banned from the game and all tournaments forever, and any subsequent accounts they create will be immediately banned as well. Simon "Rayt3ch" Näslund has also had his account banned and is barred from tournament participation for one year, but his future accounts will not be flagged as kill-on-sight. These bannings will force Team Solo Mebdi out of the qualifying rounds for the League of Legends championship, as the loss of the players pushes the team below the minimum necessary number of members. It's an aggressive step toward cleaning up the notoriously vile community, although it remains to be seen what the lasting impact will be from these bannings.
WoW Archivist: A raid exploit compendium
WoW Archivist explores the secrets of World of Warcraft's past. What did the game look like years ago? Who is etched into WoW's history? What secrets does the game still hold? One week after Mists of Pandaria goes live, the expansion's first raid will become available and the race to world first will officially begin. To the most dedicated progression raiders, a world-first kill is a dream come true, the ultimate achievement in raiding. Other raiders are just as excited to get a regional or a realm first. To realize those dreams, however, some guilds bend the rules. Whether you call it cheating or a "creative use of game mechanics," it's been happening throughout WoW's long raiding history. The myriad methods have been as varied and creative as the bosses themselves. Let's take a look back!
Visualized: the history of the Formula 1 car in 60 seconds (video)
Formula 1 car technology has come a long way since it first hit the asphalt banks 62 years ago. It's been hard to convey the sheer amount of change in a succinct way, but Rufus Blacklock may have nailed it in exactly one minute. Abstract versions of the cars show us the progression from the bullet-shaped cars of the 1950's through to the low-slung, wing-laden beasts we know today. If the clip is a little too F1-fast, there's also an infographic that details exactly when certain technology changes came into play, starting with the first wings in 1968 through to modern (and at times controversial) introductions like KERS in 2009. Click past the break for the video, and check out the relevant source link for a quite literal big picture.
Saginomiya driving simulator steers real car, isn't quite Avatar on wheels (video)
Most simulators act in isolation from the real world, so when we see one that breaks out of its virtual shell, we're more than a little intrigued. Saginomiya has designed a driving simulator that's directly linked to an actual car's components sitting on a six-axis motion system. The whole affair works as a form of virtuous circle for testing, where the real parts feed on the simulator and vice versa: since the simulator is based on the internal model of the car, it can translate road results directly to the suspension and steering of the physical components, which promptly loop around and dictate force feedback in the simulator through actuators in the steering wheel. Apart from creating what amounts to the real real driving simulator, Saginomiya's invention is a huge boon to automakers, which can test how key components work without having to build the whole vehicle first. Sadly, the simulator likely won't reach full-on Avatar levels and steer a car on a real road anytime soon, but it's engaging enough that we can see more than a few test drivers putting in overtime just for kicks.
Weibo services 'punished' for Beijing coup rumors, comments temporarily disabled
For a country who doesn't really do April Fools' Day, you know China means business when it lays the smackdown on its weibo services. Here's the background story: about a week ago there was a rumor on the Chinese web about a military coup on one of the main streets in Beijing, and coincidentally I was in town around the time (for the Windows Phone launch). Funnily enough, I wasn't aware of this at all until my taxi driver in Hong Kong asked me about my visit, as he claimed that the passenger he picked up beforehand was actually a Chinese military officer who had several intense phone calls about said coup.But of course, nothing actually happened. In fact, the guards at Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City were pretty relaxed when I visited on that very day. As for the rumormongers, the Chinese government announced through Xinhua that 16 websites have been shut down and six people have been detained, while local microblogging platforms Sina Weibo and Tencent Weibo have been "criticized and punished accordingly," though it didn't elaborate on the details. All we know is that comments under each weibo post are now disabled until local time 8pm on April 3rd, during which these two companies can, in their own words, clean up the mess. Well, at least we now know where to draw the line for China's April Fools'.
EVE Online nukes over a thousand botters from orbit
Look upon CCP's works, ye botters, and despair! EVE Online players recently noticed "by virtue of reading various shady forums" that the CCP team has suspended or banned a large number of botters. CCP Sreegs stopped by the official site today to respond to some of the community reactions to the mass bot-nuking. Many fans seem to believe that the bannings are a publicitity stunt to drum up interest in the upcoming Fanfest. CCP Sreegs responds that, of course, this isn't the case. He notes that during CCP's recent periods of turbulence, there was no team responsible for "handling the technology responsible for nuking botters," but now that there's a full team once more, "[CCP has] now thrown the switch again and turned on the catching bad guys machine." Other players are crying out that the current three-strike system is too soft-hearted. Sreegs respectfully disagrees, citing the fact that, of all players that go on to receive two strikes, only something like 3% go on to earn a third. But what's to stop these problem players from transferring their characters to a new account and carrying on as usual? Sreegs also announced that a new system is being put in place that will indefinitely revoke the character transfer privileges of any suspended players, no matter how many strikes they have against them. For the full story as well as a bit of insight as to how CCP deals with botters and cheaters, just click on through the link below.
SOE hands out suspensions to over 700 players as 'a first warning'
A couple of weeks ago, Sony Online Entertainment threw down the gauntlet to the ne'er-do-wells of EverQuest, telling them simply to "stop now." Well, as often is the case with the scum of the MMO world, many didn't listen to SOE's ominous words of warning. On Friday, December 9th, they paid the price... in blood! [Insert maniacal laughter here.] SOE has since suspended over 700 accounts "for a number of days by way of a first warning." Community Manager Piestro closes out with another word of caution: "Remember that these suspensions are merely the first wave, and further action is on the horizon. We will not rest, but will instead continue to gather data and take action as necessary on behalf of the entire player base. Don't cheat -- it's not worth it." Also, it still makes you a jerk. In still other EQ news, SOE has announced that it is tweaking the rate of experience gain on progression-locked servers.
Japan's earthquake having aftershocks in the MMO world
Unless you've deliberately avoiding learning about what's going on in the world, you've doubtlessly heard of the massive earthquake that hit Japan on Friday. Our thoughts and good wishes go to any and all of our readers, and their friends and families, directly affected by the disaster. But it hits people in many ways, and it's even reaching into the MMO sphere, with both Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XIV shutting down completely for at least a week of service. While the servers for both games had been kept running briefly after the disaster, the massive power failures across Japan resulted in widespread shortages. The service is expected to be down for at least a week from today, and players will receive no bills for the month due to the interruption. Sony Online Entertainment has no games based out of the island nation, but it has also suspended billing for all players in the region and has pointed players to disaster relief centers. We can only hope that other companies follow suit where possible, as a tragedy of this scale demands a response.
iPhone meets Arduino, tilt joystick for mobile games results (video)
Even though games like Infinity Blade can be great fun on the iPhone, there's no getting around the fact that touchscreen-centric, buttonless devices don't offer the best gaming ergonomics. A modding project gone horribly right, however, might just fix that right up for all of us. Shane Wighton set out to build a robot to try and beat his favorite iPhone game, replete with a webcam and an Arduino setup, but in the process of doing so he "just realized that [he'd] made a mechanism to play tilt based phone games with a joystick." Yes indeedy, one of the most awesome DIY gaming accessories was built by fluke as much as design. See it revolutionizing mobile gaming just after the break.
Levant Power's GenShock absorbs energy as well as bumps (video)
Hey, who's this charming young rogue giving Ma Earth a peck on the cheek? While opinions may differ on the utility of regenerative braking, we can't envision anyone outside of Chevron or BP's head offices complaining about suspensions that generate electricity out of the bumps you encounter on the road. GenShock is just such an invention, and its creator Levant Power claims it can improve fuel efficiency by up to six percent when implemented in hybrid or all-electric vehicles, while being affordable enough to pay for itself within 18 months of installation. The company is presently targeting heavy trucks, consumer hybrids, military vehicles, and mass transit systems for implementation of its tech, which is also claimed to result in a smoother ride. Should you doubt its actual efficacy, you'll also want to know that GenShock has so far garnered awards from the US Department of Energy, MIT, and Popular Science magazine. See it on video after the break.
The Diamond trade gets destroyed in Runes of Magic
There's an understandable problem with selling game currency in subscription games, where it's generally considered verboten for good reason. While some subscription games will sell you things in addition to the monthly fee, there's a general sense that you should earn your advantages. But in free-to-play games that have a cash shop allowing players to purchase items directly... well, the very idea of gold selling seems kind of silly. But it can happen, and Runes of Magic has experienced a bit of a problem of late with the trade of Diamonds (their cash shop currency) for gold. The game has traditionally treated the currencies as interchangeable insofar as players with lots of Diamonds and not enough gold could sell their excess to other players. Unfortunately, the current spate of RMT activities have called for draconian measures: they've taken away the ability to trade Diamonds for gold. They've also temporarily removed the ability to send gold through the mail. The official announcement stresses that this is a temporary measure to combat unacceptable behavior. While less gold spam is a good thing, fewer features are a negative, so this new is a mixed bag for Runes of Magic players.
IFR developing iPod-like interface for infinitely tweakable supercar suspension settings
Race cars and many sporty street cars have had (near) infinitely adjustable suspensions for a long time now, but not so many can be so tweaked from behind the steering wheel -- and none outside of an international racing series can use GPS to auto-configure themselves to best suit any upcoming corner. That's what Spanish boutique automaker IFR is developing for possible future inclusion in the company's radical re-imagining of Colin Chapman's classic Lotus Seven, called the Aspid, and also for licensing to other marques. Drivers would use a "dial similar to that of an iPod" to tweak suspension damping to manipulate handling and could also modify the engine's timing and other parameters to make it torquier for short circuits or more powerful to blast down long straights. It's all rather conceptual at this point and there's no word on when any of this will come to reality, but if and when it does it'll make Nissan's gadget-laden GT-R look rather pedestrian and should be enough to keep the most gadget-addled gearhead busy for... well, a few hours at least.[Via Autoblog]
The best of WoW.com: June 23-30, 2009
See that shocked look on Thrall's face above? That guy's the leader of the Horde, and he just read (on WoW.com, of course) that for the first time, players of World of Warcraft will be able to switch their factions -- players will be able to leave his Horde, and those dirty Alliance might come to his side. No wonder he's so shocked. That story and more in this week's most popular posts from Joystiq's Azeroth-obsessed sister site. News Faction changes coming to World of WarcraftHorde can be Alliance, Alliance can be Horde, cats and dogs sleeping together! It's lunacy! Patch 3.2 PTR unveils Tier 9 setsThe next level of epic armor is coming to the game in the latest content patch... Patch 3.2 PTR Tier 9 set names...And it's got a great set of lore names to go with along with it. Patch 3.2 upcoming Engineering changesBig changes for one of the game's most popular professions. Exodus punished for exploiting Yogg-Saron encounterAfter a guild accomplishes a world-first achievement kill, Blizzard determines they didn't quite follow the rules. Features Patch 3.2 PTR: Tauren Druid conversation may reveal lore and expansion secrets A pair of Druids chatting in the new content patch might hint at the future of the game. The OverAchiever: Guide to Midsummer Fire Festival achievementsAzeroth is heating up with the Fire Festival -- here's how to get everything done this week. Arcane Brilliance: More questions than answersOur Mage columnist didn't get all his questions answered in Blizzard's recent Q&A article about the class. Patch 3.2 PTR: New heirloom items galleryA pictoral look at some new heirloom items headed to the game. WoW Casually: What Patch 3.2 means for casualsOh, you don't raid five times a week? Patch 3.2 has something for you as well.
Mitsubishi temporarily suspends production of LaserVue HDTVs
We had heard that certain Mitsubishi representatives had been telling Diamond dealers that production had been suspended on the outfit's flagship LaserVue HDTV, and sure enough, the story is true. We have confirmed with Mitsubishi Digital Electronics America that the outfit has "temporarily suspended production of LaserVue televisions due to a problem with manufacturing equipment used to produce LaserVue TVs." We're also informed that "Mitsubishi Electric engineers are taking the necessary action to ensure that the company resumes production as quickly as possible, while maintaining the highest standards for product quality and reliability." So far as we know, this isn't a sign of sudden discontinuation, as Mitsu has affirmed that it's "expecting production to resume in early 2009." We'll update with more as we get it in.Update: We asked a few followup questions, and we did find that Mitsu isn't anticipating any supply issues, which indicates the problem may be short lived (or at least it hopes so). As for an official comment on what went wrong? "LaserVue production was suspended due to a manufacturing equipment issue." That's all we've got.[Thanks, Chuck]
Did Square-Enix do the right thing?
The Square-Enix bahnammer recently came down onto the Final Fantasy XI community, permanently banning 550 non-RMT accounts that were involved in performing an exploit that has occurred over a two year time period -- an exploit that some say SE was aware of, but never took steps to correct.The exploit in question was only available to linkshells involved several endgame activities. The basic premise was finish the activity and then before the item drops from a treasure chest or monster the alliance of parties would break into their separate groups. For you Warcraft players, a raid would cease to be a raid and break down to the parties involved. Then each of the 3 parties in the alliance would get a copy of whatever items would drop. So, instead of 1 set of loot, you would grab 3 sets of loot -- including some items that could be sold for millions on the auction house.
