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The Daily Grind: How realistic do you like your games?
In real life, if you've not noticed, we don't have hit points. Getting stabbed by a sword once is pretty much crippling if not outright fatal. Fall too far and you don't suffer some uniform amount of damage across your whole body -- you frequently wind up breaking your legs or your spine, and it can be a slow and painful recovery process if you ever recover. We can't wander through the world without ever bothering to eat, drink, or sleep, and when you get shot to death, there will not be a fresh clone waiting to get you back into the action. In the interests of being polite, we'll not even mention the usual lack of other important facilities. We accept that there's going to be some degree of unreal mechanics in a video game, of course, but that doesn't mean that some of us don't want the game to stick fairly close to the real world. By the same token, though, some of us take the Mystery Science Theater 3000 mantra to heart -- it's just a game, and it's not all that important if it makes real-world sense in sticky parts. Where do you fall on the scale? Do you like your games fairly realistic, fairly unrealistic, or do you not care so long as the game itself is still fun?
Pirates of the Caribbean, Water coming to LittleBigPlanet Dec. 22
As rumored last week, LittleBigPlanet will receive a massive chunk of DLC just before Christmas -- the "Pirates of the Caribbean Premium Level Kit." This pack includes the highly anticipated Water update, along with the tools Sackboy will need to navigate said fluids (scuba tanks, air ducts and the like). In addition, the pack includes five pre-made Pirates-themed levels, four new audio tracks, a new background, a free "Cannibal" costume, and a whole mess of decorations, stickers and materials to collect. The pack will land on the PSN alongside a six-pack of Pirates costumes, which include Jack Sparrow, Davy Jones, Will Turner and other characters from the movie, on December 22 for $5.99 each. Check out the pack's aquatic, buccaneering offerings in the trailer above. [Thanks, Casder.]
Report: LittleBigPlanet getting Pirates, Water expansions before Christmas
According to CVG, the recently teased Pirates of the Caribbean content pack for LittleBigPlanet was not only recently confirmed by Sony, but also given a tentative launch window: "We're expecting it to launch just before Xmas," an unnamed Sony rep explained. If the prospect of platforming as a dreadlock'ed Sack Sparrow isn't exciting enough for you, CVG is also reporting that, as you probably assumed, the Water expansion will be arriving simultaneously with the Pirates pack. Well, of course it would. Can you imagine how much shorter those movies would have been if they didn't have any water? We reached out to Sony and Media Molecule to get confirmation of the two packs' imminence first-hand, but only received a "we don't comment on rumors and speculation" from the former. We'll let you know when we hear more!
Building MMO landscape scenes
Landscapes have been a staple component of almost every MMO in recent memory. With the exception of some sci-fi titles, most MMOs take place on the land of some imagined island or continent. Some use stylised fantasy landscapes that run smoothly on even low-end computers while others have managed almost photo-realistic visuals at the cost of performance. But have you ever thought about what's going on behind the scenes in your favourite MMO? Most of us don't think about how the computer is actually drawing the terrain we run around on. We don't give much thought to the different ways each MMO renders the water in lakes, rivers and oceans. And just how does your computer render so many trees and plants without grinding to a halt? As part of my masters degree in computer science, I got to grips with a number of these techniques and found it a fascinating thing to learn about. Now when I play a new game or see MMO screenshots, I can't help but think about what the computer is doing in the background and how particular visual effects could have been achieved. In this technical article, I talk about some of the components of an MMO landscape scene and a few of the techniques used in creating the graphics behind them.
Building MMO landscape scenes, part 2
From oceans and rivers to ponds and puddles, water is one of those things that really improves an MMO's visual quality. Practically every fantasy MMO makes use of water in one way or another and they all do it a little differently. This gives the appearance that the water is moving and I've seen the technique in World of Warcraft, EverQuest 2 and a few other MMOs.
ioSafe Solo hard drive places a 2TB bet on all kinds of disasters
It's Friday the 13th, and ioSafe couldn't have chosen a better time to update their Solo fireproof and waterproof hard drive line with a 2TB model. Sure, it'll cost you $399 for a USB 2.0 connection instead of eSATA, FireWire 800 or USB 3.0, but you'll never know when your yacht sinks or burns down, sending that precious Kenny G collection to oblivion. Don't go thinking you can just get the $149 500GB model and upgrade it yourself either -- you'll have to destroy the waterproof seal to get to the hard drive, as demonstrated before. Yeah, life's tough.
Buy Wii Fit Plus, get free water
Did you upgrade to Wii Fit Plus so you can stay in shape over the holidays? While some may question the validity of a Wii Fit "workout," premium water company Hint is trying to capitalize on the craze by offering all purchasers of Nintendo's latest fitness title a free case of water. A standalone copy of Wii Fit Plus costs $20, while a 12-pack of Hint water costs $22, making this quite the "deal."According to its official website, "Hint is a pure healthy water lightly infused with natural flavors. Unsweetened. Lightly flavored. No calories." If you're into that sort of thing, you can send in a digital scan of your Wii Fit Plus receipt to hintwater@5wpr.com. You'll be able to choose from one of the following flavors: Blackberry, Watermelon, Pomegranate Tangerine, Mango Grapefruit or Raspberry Lime.
NASA LCROSS moon impact in T-minus 15, water discovery expected in T-minus 19 (update: video!)
NASA's LCROSS (Lunar CRater Observing and Sensing Satellite) mission is coming to a glorious end. The mission launched on June 18, 2009 is just minutes away from making dual-impact on the face of the moon. The first impact sees the Centaur craft hitting the surface at a speed of about 1 mile per second ejecting about 350 tons of debris from a crater about 20-30-meters in diameter and 2- to 4-meters deep. A second Shepherding spacecraft will pass through the debris plume 4 minutes later, collecting and relaying data back to Earth in real-time before meeting its end. With any luck, we'll know shortly if the moon contains the water-ice theorized by scientists... and cheese. While the obvious use of lunar-based water is to sate the thirst of astronauts, it could also be used be make fuel for off-Earth exploration. Hit the read link for live streaming of the mission from NASA -- first impact occurs at 07:31:19 AM EDT.Update: Impact occurred... are we still here? Data is now being analyzed and NASA is expected to know the facts in about an hour. Post-impact news conference scheduled for 10:00 AM EDT.Update 2: Video added after the break showing the final minutes before impact. The highlight seems to be the denied high-5 at 5:00 minutes in.
Casa Bugatti's Vera electric kettle proves that even boiling water can be interesting, pricey
Know what we really love? Tea kettles. The thing is, plenty of them look like there was roughly zero thought put into their design -- and we've all gotten into the habit of accepting those 3 or 4 basic designs offered to us. No more. Bugatti's got a wholly new approach to boiling water on the horizon, in the form of the Vera. It's beautifully designed, it's got a nice array of electronic timing functions -- but the bells and whistles are just icing on this beautiful, delicious cake. The Vera kettle will be available this September, for around $300. [Via Unplggd]
Media Molecule taking beta applications for LittleBigWater
We only have so much anticipation that we can distribute between this year's big titles -- however, we've had to move a considerable portion over to an unexpected release: The addition of water to LittleBigPlanet. We know, it's not even a game so much as a new game mechanic, but it should breathe new life into the title's million-level-strong homebrew community.Fortunately, we might not have to wait much longer for this digital precipitation to accumulate -- Media Molecule is now taking applications for a beta version of the water-infused LBP kit. You better believe we'll be there with bells on -- only, you probably won't hear them, because bells have an awfully hard time ringing underwater.
Blizzard working to fix graphics issues on Macs
Reader Catsby sent along news of an issue that's apparently plaguing Mac users. Blizzard has confirmed that people using Macs with Nvidia 7300GT and 7600GT graphics cards in them (you can see what you've got by going to the Apple, "About this Mac," and then hitting more info) are having issues with framerates, especially around water and during boss fights (which is exactly when you want the graphics to mess up, right?) Unfortunately, there's no fix yet -- Blizzard says the issue is known and reproducible, and they're working to put a fix in "the next patch" (originally they say it'll be in a PTR patch 3.2.2 build, but a hint at the end of the thread suggests we may see it even sooner than that). So if your Mac has one of those graphics cards installed and you're having this issue, just sit tight -- Blizzard is working as fast as they can to get a fix out to you.
LittleBigPlanet receiving moisture in upcoming content pack
It looks like the content patch designed to make LittleBigPlanet's level creation tools more "versatile" has been revealed! The video above does a good job of dramatically unveiling the feature, but we won't beat around the bush -- Media Molecule will introduce water into the game in an upcoming DLC pack. Some of the best user-made levels have had aquatic themes -- we can't wait to see what folks can come up with once this gets released.Of course, we'll have to wait out the deluge of Super Mario Bros. World 2-2 remakes before we get to these little nuggets of originality. It's cool, though -- it's not like there aren't plenty of other textured playgrounds we can romp around in.
LG GD900 Crystal submerged in a fish tank
It's really a shame this isn't an out of box feature, but some ingenious modder has graced LG's GD900 Crystal phone -- you know, the one with the gesture-based transparent keypad -- with a custom water-resistant case that renders it perfect for swimming with the fishes. And so they did just that, dipping it into a fish tank. It'd make for one insanely hip charging dock, but we digress. Meanwhile in Russia, mobile@mail.ru has delivered some impressions on the device, with good words to say for the keypad's gestures but lamenting it's $899 suggested price tag, a figure higher than even the super sexy BL40 Chocolate. Aquatic footage is six feet under after the break, and hit up the read link below for the machine-translated impressions. [Via Daily Mobile; thanks, Daniel] Read - Hands-on Read - LG GD900 Crystal in water
Friday Night Gin: Your weekly Blue roundup
Good evening fine ladies and good gentlemen, I want to invite you to head over to your liquor cabinet, grab some of that fine gin and do with it what you will. I like mine without anything added, right at room temperature. Ghostcrawler prefers his with coffee. Once you're settled, come back to your computer and read up on the best of the blues and the ghostly-crab-crawler.Welcome to a new weekly column here at WoW.com. Each week we'll take a look at what Ghostcrawler and his cohorts at Blizzard have said about the game, highlighting all the important announcements and discussions.What Ghostcrawler says in particular is of great importance these days to WoW. A lot of the stuff he's talking about is reflective of the direction of the entire design team at WoW, and if you follow what he's saying you'll have a better understanding of where the game is headed.So after the break we'll wrap up what Ghostcrawler and the other blues had to say this week. This week's topic include: Battleground Focus, 5 Second Rule, On Class Representation Versus Actual Power, Going to heckle at BlizzCon?, Water Dungeon, Affliction Changes, Console WoW, Truth In Developer "Promises" About Change & An Angry Community, Amount Of Leveling, Phasing Technology, and Flying In Old Azeroth.
Don't try this at home
Or at the pool, or at the beach. It seems a French fellow was proud of his new iPhone 3GS and was taking pictures around the pool when the sort of inevitable happened. Yup, in the drink. Amazingly, the iPhone survived the underwater ordeal, and even recorded [YouTube link] the trip. Allegedly. I wouldn't recommend this as summer entertainment. The iPhone in question had a tight rubber case, and my guess is while the video did record OK, the moisture in the phone will eventually take a toll. There are a few water-tight cases for the iPhone, and we road tested an Otterbox Defender case back in April. Perhaps this fellow will invest in such a case should he go iPhone diving in the future.Now of course the video might be a fake (I would have expected to see water on the lens for example), but at least it's an entertaining weekend diversion. Click through to the second half of the post to see the video.Via Cult of Mac.
Stealth's WPC-500F waterproof SFF PC makes a splash
Sure, we give you the usual list of specs for Stealth's newest small form factor PC, the WPC-500F -- which, frankly, isn't any different than your garden variety netbook -- but if you ask us, its most noteworthy feature is the ability to pour water on it all day without worrying about it fizzling out. Orders for the waterproof / water resistant machine are now being accepted, with prices starting at $1,995 and shipments going out in early July. If you really must know all the technical details, it's got a 1.6GHz Intel Atom 330, integrated graphics, 2GB RAM, 80GB HDD with options for SSD, no optical bay, no WiFi, and Windows XP. However, we think it'll more fun to just send you past the break and watch the borderline sadomasochistic video demonstration. [Via Engadget Korea]Read - Press ReleaseRead - Product page
Waterproof Bluetooth Speaker approved by vacationing Billy Corgan
We don't know a single soul who hasn't wanted to hear Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness from start-to-finish whilst swimming off the coast of Phuket, but seriously, who's going to tune in on a $40 waterproof Bluetooth speaker ball? Then again, maybe Billy's secretly more concerned with his choice of swimwear and lack of sunscreen than the clarity of Iha's riffs.
ioBridge used for web-based water metering, shiatsu massage
The ioBridge I/O module -- is there anything it can't do? We've seen this plucky little device used for firing makeshift weaponry, pouring brewskis, and even charting electricity use (by far the most useful / least exciting of the lot). And now? Mr. "Power Meter" is back with a project that'll help you further keep tabs on your utility bills. Hit the read link for a step-by-step on how to: install a meter on your home's incoming water line, connect that to your favorite ioBridge module, and track your water consumption via the free ioBridge web service. Sound like a fun weekend project? Hit that read link to get started.[Via Instructables]
iriver, Speedo suit up for new Aquabeat underwater MP3 player
Another Spring, another opportunity for iriver Japan and Speedo to sell a few MP3 players designed for underwater use. Yes friends, the Aquabeat you've grown to know, love and disassociate with overly tight swim trunks has a successor, the Speedo LZR Racer. Design wise, you won't notice a lot of differentiation from the first, but this waterproof-to-three-meters device has twice the internal memory (2GB) and a built-in rechargeable battery good for around eight hours of continuous playback. It's said to be shipping now in Japan for ¥12,800 ($128), though we hear it won't be coming to America without first nailing down a Michael Phelps endorsement. Not that said task will be too tough or anything.[Via Impress]
Mini Hydro Turbine concept could bring renewable energy production to your bathroom
Environmentalists would have you believe that leaving the faucet running while you brush your teeth puts an unnecessary drain on the environment. We always disagreed, and if Jin Woo Han's concept Mini Hydro Turbine ever goes into production we might finally have something to back up our argument. The device would capture the "free" energy of your tap to spin a little generator, in theory producing enough juice to charge up an electric toothbrush or shaver. That actually sounds somewhat reasonable, but Han's suggestion of powering your boiler with this thing is probably a bit optimistic. It would also take quite an optimist to think this could some day appear in a bathroom made of tiles and not pixels, but we'll keep on hoping; pairing this with a turbine toilet might enable us to take our homes completely off the grid -- or our bathrooms at least.[Via Gadget Lab]
