Patton Oswalt will be guest staring on Parks and Recreation and will appear before a Pawnee City Council meeting and filibuster a proposed vote, having been given cart blanche to ramble about whatever he wants. What results is the nerdiest filibuster in the history of mankind – it won’t air because it’s far too long for network televisions, but you can watch it in its entirety below.
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This trailer for Man of Steel gives us a look at Amy Adams as Lois Lane, Michael Shannon as General Zod, and Russell Crowe as Jor-El. This action packed trailer also suggests at the CG wonders that will unfold in the new Superman film.
Metro: Last Light is all about survival, so direct confrontation with enemies is inadvisable. You’ll need to stick to the shadows and in order to fight the extremist factions and various bandits of the Metro.
By David Radd
Last week we posted an interview with Joe Ybarra and Josef Shindler about their initiative in making games in the new and constantly evolving gaming industry. As a follow up on that, we dig down deep into the details of Shackleton Crater.
[a]list: Talk to me about the desire to visit the moon and how that fuels Shackleton Crater.
Joe Ybarra: I think it’s key for several different reasons. I love to build things about exploration and products like Seven Cities of Gold and MULE are really interesting to me. If you look at modern exploration, you look to space. Going to the moon is a interesting thing, but as a Baby Boomer, I watched [the moon landings] on television. They were televising the launches and there was only four channels back then and they were all carrying it, so you were watching science back then whether you wanted to or not. That formed a lot of my attitudes and beliefs growing up. I saw the energy of the Apollo program and that’s what really inspired me as a designer.
[a]list: So the backstory for Shackleton Crater, is it set on the backdrop of the Cold War space race, or is it more contemporary
Josef Shindler: The idea is the UN would put a motion in and create a corporation that will be responsible for Lunar travel and different nations would see the possibility of mining the moon via this set up.
Joe Ybarra: The fiction says the reason nations are doing this is the profit. They need to see a payoff and with all nations doing this, they have the point-of-view of trying to one-up the other nations along with the motive of trying to turn a profit. If you are sponsored by the U.S. your capabilities are different than the Chinese or the European Union.
We give Luna Corp 10 years to build up the technology necessary to sustain permanent settlements on the moon. It’s starting from about 2030 and telling a story realistically over a period in time, so it might end between then and 2130. We want to be consistent with how technology scales over time so eventually you’ll be adding the technological mass production and creating the factories from 3D printing and robotics.
If you look at crowdsourcing, if some rich backer was motivated to participate in some stuff like this, it could be real.
[a]list: It seems there’s a real bent towards hard science…
Josef Shindler: We take as much care to make it as realistic as possible. The one on the right was modeled in Unity using real Lunar data; we can do that for the entire Moon. We’re doing a bunch of really interestng stuff, like letting you set up solar arrays and build it out on your model. The content is compelling, though it’s certainly a lot easier to make it up!
Joe Ybarra: I’ve been a big fan of science fiction of all my life, things like 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea; Jules Verne was creating things based on science of the time. One day I was talking about the fragmented market and thought, ‘we haven’t seen anyone go after that idea.’ We saw this as an opportunity and it makes us feel comfortable with what we’re doing. Our position is that there’s plenty of interesting stuff to explore without getting too crazy.
The real secret sauce is taking something that’s a hardcore simulation and making it something fun. That goes back to the gameplay itself – you have tenuous excitement and what you’re doing seems cool. The science aspect is interesting and we have to build a game that’s killer, so ultimately we’re gamers deciding to go to gamers to push this concept.
[a]list: So what has already been done on Shackleton Crater
Josef Shindler: We are not yet in alpha, we are at a prototyping phase as you see that in our art and text that we’ve put forward thus far.
Joe Ybarra: We’re a little further on than that, but not by much. Almost four months ago, we built something to work with. We want to have high-speed, turn-based gameplay and we want to have something that will handle those systems. We’re probably about 60 – 70 percent through pre-production – we know we’re on a good trajectory.
[a]list: For the options for multiplayer, is it something that you’ll do where it’s completely optional (aka, solo play can be totally offline ) How will it be structured and will it be cross-platform
Joe Ybarra: The answer is yes! The whole idea of the cloud experience is interesting – even if I’m playing solo, I might want to post something to the servers, but let’s say you’re on a mobile device. If you’re playing the full version on your PC at stage 3 but you don’t have the data on the smartphone, we can stream the experience. So that’s one reason why single players might still want to be connected.
Josef Shindler: It’s asynchronous – people take turns whenever they want to but that data helps inform decisions in your node; you still have your own copy on your machine. If you search a crater, you might see someone’s colony there.
Joe Ybarra: The idea of the multiplayer is a session-based four player game, so that if you are playing online people will reappear in a reasonable time frame. Those interactions can be well orchestrated and something we’re trying to do is make sure the balance is competitive and cooperative.
[a]list: So why would people want to have other people around if it’s competitive
Josef Shindler: One of the first things you’re going to want to do is build a space port complex to receive and send stuff — we see that as a multi-person project. One player might want to have a habitation complex, another might be building another factory. In the end, the person who completes most is the winner. Building a complete nation on the moon nets a victory, as opposed to achieving scientific victory.
Joe Ybarra: The endgame is all about the investment. One of the reasons we’re planning to do that is that there are things nearly impossible to build on Earth that are easier in the low gravity of the Moon. We have a space elevator planned that opens up commerce dramatically so that the Lunar colony can build it up a big way.
Josef Shindler: There are somethings you can only do in low or zero gravity. Carbon nanotubes – the Earth has a dearth of nanotubes, so the moon can do it larger and advanced electronics, you can do more things with the low gravity.
[a]list: Fascinating stuff. Thanks guys.
MinoMonsters founder Josh Buckley says that the game has reached new levels of success since refocusing on one-on-one battles rather than quests. The iOS game has seen 2.5 million downloads, adding 1 million players since the end of September, with revenue doubling in the past week and up 1,000 percent since December.
In an ambition to “be the next Disney” the property plans on expanding out to toys, books, trading cards, clothes and an animated series. The company has also taken top flight entertainment talent agency William Morris as its representative.
MinoMonsters has also raised $2 million in funding, led by Andreessen Horowitz.
According to Google chairman Eric Schmidt, activations of Google Android devices are expected to hit 1 billion over the next six to nine months. He also said that 1.5 million devices are activated daily and more than 750 million Android phones are currently in use.
“In a year or two, we’ll hit two billion. And the way that’s going to happen is with the debut of low-end devices from manufacturers, primarily in Asia. If low-end smartphones are inexpensive now, imagine just how inexpensive they’ll be a few years from now. A relatively inexpensive smartphone with a browser is all you need to get the world’s information. And that’s how we’re going to hit the next billion devices,” he said. “Android is by far the primary vehicle by which people are going to see smartphones.”
Source: AllThingsD
Microsoft is running a new engagement campaign in Japan to try and get more players in that country on Xbox Live. The “Aim to Do It! One Million Hours” promotion will potentially give Xbox Live users free Microsoft Points for playing titles like Halo 4, Resident Evil 6 and Monster Hunter Frontier between April 20 and June 19.
If Xbox Live users in Japan spend 300,000 cumulative hours on Xbox Live, Gold members will receive 100 MSP while Silver members will receive 10 MSP, though if they spend 500,000 hours, Gold accounts get 200 MSP and Silver gets 20 MSP. The big jackpot is at 1,000,000 cumulative hours, where Gold members will receive 400 MSP and Silver members will get 30 MSP.
Source: Siliconera
Nintendo confirmed during their Nintendo Direct presentation that there will be a Nintendo 3DS XL bundle featuring Animal Crossing: New Leaf. The portable console will have a polka dot paint job inspired by the game, with a a copy of Animal Crossing: New Leaf digitally installed on the 3DS XL’s SD Card.
The bundle will be released in North America on June 9 for $219.99.
Dish Network has announced that it has launched plans to purchase Sprint Nextel for $25.5 billion. This bid goes against one that already exists from Japanese wireless carrier Softbank.
This merger would allow Dish to offer bundles that include voice, broadband data and video. “The Dish proposal clearly presents Sprint shareholders with a superior alternative to the pending SoftBank proposal,” says Dish Network Chairman Charlie Ergen.
Dish wants to expand its offerings beyond the satellite TV business. Dish’s business was flat year-over-year in 2012 as the satellite TV business is seen as having limited opportunities as the Internet continues its growth as a provider of entertainment.
“Ergen is a disruptive force in the telecom and TV industry,” says Roger Entner, a telecom analyst at Recon Analytics. “He needs to have a partner in the wireless world to make his investment in his wireless spectrum worthwhile. Dish is desperately looking for a deal.”
Dish already owns some spectrum, which could be combined with what they get from Sprint and a separate deal for Clearwire. “The combined national footprints and scale will allow Dish/Sprint to bring improved broadband services to millions of homes with inferior or no access to competitive broadband services,” Ergen says.
The move by Dish emphasizes the closeness between TV video platforms and mobile devices; wireless carriers are increasingly competitors as they invest heavily in their LTE networks for video streaming. “They’re competing against Verizon and AT&T, and they need to be able to broaden their offerings,” says Phillip Redman, an analyst at Gartner. “A lot of consumers are mobile first in many ways.”
Source: USAToday.com
Reggie Fils-Aime, president of Nintendo of America, noted that digital sales of the 3DS continue to rise, with 67 percent of all Nintendo 3DS owners connected to the internet. Fire Emblem Awakening has sold 240,000 units life-to-date in the U.S. with 33 percent of those in digital form.
“We have 15 Nintendo-published titles available, both physically and digitally [on the 3DS]. So far in 2013, of those 15 available in this format, 11 percent of sales have come through full digital downloads of those games,” says Fils-Aime. “Through that connected experience, consumers have downloaded more than 41 million items from the eShop – everything from full games to applications like Nintendo video, DLC, demos, free items, and more.”
Nintendo also reported that the 3DS has sold 8 million hardware units in the U.S. or 1 million more than its predecessor during its first two years. “When the NPD numbers come out later this week, you’re going to see life-to-date 3DS game sales surpass 20 million units in the U.S.,” says Fils-Aime. “And that’s just physical. It doesn’t include digital sales. … So far in 2013 – through April 15 – 3DS game sales are up 55 percent versus last year, counting both physical and digital.”
Source: GamesIndustry International
