Growing Up Otaku

Get Torchlight Free from GOG.com Until Thursday

2013-06-19T14:46:00.001-04:00

Indie darling Diablo-killer Torchlight is now free for the next couple days as part of GOG.com’s #noDRM Summer Sale. This is a great pickup for everyone who is looking for a little clicky-clicky, looty-looty dungeon bashing action. Torchlight even sports a netbook mode for those stuck on machines that are a little less than state-of the art.

While you’re there, check out the more than 500 titles discounted in GOG’s Summer Sale (Get starbase sim Startopia, evil dungeon overlord sim Dungeon Keeper 2 , or the greatest strategy game ever, Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri, for $3 each!) or grab some more free games like Beneath a Steel Sky or Ultima IV.

Out of Disk Space? Visualize Your Hard Drive With WinDirStat | Tech Tips

2013-06-12T11:42:00.001-04:00

What’s using up all my hard drive space? Data storage may be big and cheap, but it still hasn’t reached a point where we can dismiss the limits of our physical media storage quite yet. While working on a recent project, I found myself, once again, bumping up against the limits of my PC’s storage capacity. But what was taking up all those ones and zeros? I didn’t feel like my free space quite jived with what I had installed even after deleting some old programs and data.

WinDirStat, a free utility for Windows PCs, to the rescue!

WinDirStat crawls your storage devices and catalogs every folder on your computer, sorted by the amount of space it’s using. It also creates a graphical representation of your entire directory structure allowing users to easily spot what files are the biggest binary hogs.

Using WinDirStat I was able to identify at a glance storage gobbling folders that would have taken considerably longer to track down manually. 55GB of iOS apps? Time to clean the house iTunes built! Oops, guess I forgot about that 60GB I used to backup my music before it lived on a server in the cloud. I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe. Blu-ray rips of Blade Runner costing me 34GB. Time to die! I even uncovered 16GB worth of forgotten video from Planetside 2 in which I spent a night trying to part a tank on top of Brandon’s drop ship. It didn’t work. Do I really need a 16GB reminder of my failings? I mean, isn’t that why I have a blog?

WinDirStat is available for free at windirstat.info and works on everything from Windows 95 to Windows 7 (and, probably, Windows 8). A recommended alternative for Mac computers is Disk Inventory X or GrandPerspective while Linux users should apt-get their butts over to KDirStat.

Sony Xbones Microsoft Over Online DRM

2013-06-11T17:11:00.001-04:00

Three news briefs later and I still have questions over the online DRM issues and workarounds for giving away my old Xbox One games to friends. Fortunately, Sony produced this instructional video so I wouldn’t have any questions about how to handle my PS4 discs.

Natsume's Book of Friends: A delightful journey | AniMaiden'd

2013-06-10T07:00:00.000-04:00

I have just finished watching a very charming anime series called Natsume's Book of Friends (Natsume Yujin-cho).

. This show has a very warm feeling to it and a very likable cast of characters.

It starts out with a young boy named Takashi Natsume who has a disconnected past from his immediate family. He inherits a strange book that was owned by his grandmother, Reiko Natsume. In this book, she had collected the names of all the youkai (spirits) she had met in her life. Reiko had forced them to give her their names so she could bind them in servitude to her.

Takashi is not comfortable with this and begins to give these names back to their owners. While doing this, he comes upon Madara, one of the youkai that was bound to his grandmother. Madara becomes a mentor and protector to Takashi. Madara does not not hide the fact that he is really interested in getting the Book of Friends for his own use. He is only protecting Takashi from other youkai that might kill Takashi before Madara can.

Madara, who is called Nyanko Sensei by Takashi, provides a humorous side kick in his disguise as a very chubby lucky cat. He is constantly eating and loves to drink too much sake.

He seems to be a very aloof cat only interested in his own comfort and entertainment – but when real trouble arises, he changes form into a much more formidable spirit and saves Takashi many times.

Each episode covers another adventure for Takashi and Nyanko Sensei as they meet more youkai and learn their stories. As the series progresses, we are shown small pieces of Takashi's past life and how he has moved from home to home without a real family. We also learn more about his grandmother. Both Takashi and his grandmother can see youkai. This makes them different from everyone else and they have both been outcasts as young children.

This show moves forward with the lives of Takashi and his new youkai friends at a pace that allows us to see, in a very natural way, how Takashi grows and learns about friendship and family. We follow his discoveries about his own family and how he is not as alone now as he has believed he is.

Natsume's Book of Friends tells a very touching tale and does it gracefully and beautifully. You can watch is streaming at Crunchyroll.com or get the DVDs from Amazon.com.

Contest Abuse Leads to Epic Kung Fu Beer Commercial With Jackie Chan and Shokotan | Weekend Watchlist

2013-06-08T13:38:00.001-04:00

Kirin breweries ran a contest called Nodogoshi Yume no Dream that invited “Ordinary Joes” to submit their dreams for a chance to make them come true. The result was a series of commercials that featured winners fulfilling said desires and becoming a fashion models, rock stars, and dining with sumo wrestlers for use in a series of commercials promoting Kirin’s new Nodogoshi Draft beer.

Kazuo Ishida dreams big. Not content to enter a single request, Ishida submitted a series of 39 dreams that outlined his vision of staring in a kung fu flick (Dream #1) where he faced off against his “buddy from university” (Dream #4) along side Hong Kong cinema legend Jackie Chan (Dream #2) and the Internet’s “New Queen of the Blogs” Shoko Nakagawa (Dream #3).

Kirin took up the challenge. The cast from Ishida’s dreams was assembled and flown out to Shanghai to produce this 6-minute, kung fu epic featuring everything you’d expect from the genre: Wirework stunts, fights using furniture and vegetables, a training montage, Chan’s traditional outtake reel during the end credits, and even heroic theme music to cheer on Kazuo Ishida in his darkest hour.

At the premiere of the featurette, Shokotan reportedly burst into tears and bowed to Ishida. As fate would have it, the production fulfilled not just this Ordinary Joe’s dream, but a dream of the Japanese idol as well. Shoko had always dreamed of working with Jackie Chan.

What follows is Ishida’s original 39 dreams:

Dream 1: I want to be a kung fu action star…
Dream 2: …and work with Jackie Chan.
Dream 3: The leading lady should be Shoko Nakagawa (Shokotan)…
Dream 4: …the main villain: my buddy from university.
Dream 5: I want a scene where Jackie, Shokotan, and I are eating together.
Dream 6: Jackie is drinking tea.
Dream 7: I want to use like a chair or something in a fight.
Dream 8: And I’ll hit a bunch of guys with it like bam, bam, bam!
Dream 9: Then I want break that chair.
Dream 10: I want Jackie Chan to do something cool in the end scene. Ummmm….
Dream 11: I want the bad guys to come to kidnap Shokotan.
Dream 12: I throw narutomaki at someone.
Dream 13: Hmm, I definitely want to use a chair to fight.
Dream 14: And I want to break a table.
Dream 15: A bad guy should say “I’ll remember this!” as he runs away.
Dream 16: Of course, they come back to get revenge.
Dream 17: I want that same bad guy to say “Boss! It’s him!”
Dream 18: Then we go outside and there’s like 100 enemies.
Dream 19: Before fighting I flick my button off like a badass.
Dream 20: I don’t want to be good with nunchaku… for comedy. Annnnnnd….
Dream 21: Something should fall all over one of the bad guys.
Dream 22: I do some cool kicks.
Dream 23: Then I knock one guy into a huge group of enemies.
Dream 24: A guy comes out with, like, knives for hands.
Dream 25: I fight him with vegetables, you know, for comedy.
Dream 26: I do some team work with Jackie.
Dream 27: Shotokan makes a cute face.
Dream 28: Oh, and I definitely want to do something with wires.
Dream 29: I’d like to throw a guy off a roof.
Dream 30: I want to do a real stunt. Let’s see….
Dream 31: A bunch of old-timey pots should break.
Dream 32: Then I give a “thumbs-up.”
Dream 33: Then I want to do that pose, you know, the one from that movie [Drunken Master].
Dream 34: I want to train on one of those wooden men things.
Dream 35: And do sword practice in front of a sunset.
Dream 36: But get this! Then I lose…
Dream 37: and say “Duì bù qǐ” to Jackie.
Dream 38: In the end Jackie finishes off the head bad guy.
Dream 39: Then there’s and explosion and… That should do it.

This edited version shows exactly where each of Ishida’s dreams appears:

And, of course, what feature presentation would be complete without a look behind-the-scenes?

Kazuo wasn’t the only one chosen to live out their dream.

Let’s hear it for the power of dreams! And beer!

North American Hospitals Adding Robots to the Medical Staff

2013-06-06T16:02:00.001-04:00

We’ve looked at telepresence robots before. These remote controlled, video conferencing doo-dads allow users to kick back on the ol’ sofa while still giving the appearance of working. Is it any wonder that this technology would be picked up in short order by American doctors, one of the laziest castes of professionals around?

iRobot, makers of your little floor sweeping buddy, Roomba, received FDA approval for the deployment of the RP-Vita. Now, seven hospitals in the North America have deployed the outrageously overpriced iPads on wheels (Thank you insurance companies!). Dignity Health, Sacramento, CA; Hoag Memorial Hospitial Presbyteria, Orange County, CA; Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center, Burbank, CA; Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, Los Angeles, CA; St. Mary’s Medical Center, Huntington, WV; Ohio State Wexner Medical Center, Columbus, OH; and Instituto de Salud del Estado de Mexico, Toluca, Mexico have all signed up to allow these video laden Roombas free reign of their hospitals.

So what does the RP-Vita do for patients? Much like your normal doctor, very little. It makes you wait while it autonomously cruises the halls, compliments of thirty sensors to keep it from getting in the way of the people actually working. Upon reaching the patient, a camera sporting 120x zoom allows doctors to read the patient’s chart (provided it is properly hung up for everyone to see), look into their eyeballs (provided the patient can open them enough and hold still), then cruise out to tell nurses and technicians to do the real work. RP-Vita has no appendages or tools and is not equipped with any form of medical analysis sensor. What it does do is allow doctors to pinch-and-zoom their way around to look at stuff, tell patients to take two aspirin and quit smoking, then roll off to berate the staff. The difference is that this is now possible without your doctor putting down his coffee cup, leaving the golf course, or having to be around those yucky sick people! Hallelujah!

Dr. Paul Vespa, director of neurocritical care at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, explains the importance of RP-Vita in this UCLA press release:

"Consumers nationwide are facing long delays in medical delivery, largely because the health care system can't provide enough physicians in enough locations. We need new technologies that revolutionize physicians' capacity to see more patients and greatly expand patients' access to specialized care."

Here’s hoping a breakthrough comes to cure that problem. If only we lived in a world where everyone carried a wireless computer in their pocket with video conferencing capabilities… If only…

Rejoice, Klingon Warriors, for We Are Noobs At Last! (Star Trek Online)

2013-06-05T16:26:00.001-04:00

Character advancement in RPG games tends to follow a predictable pattern. You start out as a lowly level 1 scrud and begin the hero’s journey of learning the ropes and climbing the ladder. You accrue fame, fortune, and delight in the dopamine drip of seeing that level indicator climb ever higher. Once that level counter tops out, players clamor for ever more levels and ‘end game’ material in the form of raids, PVP, and daily missions. At least, that’s how it usually goes. Strangely, members of the Klingon Defense Force (KDF) in Cryptic Studios’ Star Trek Online (STO) have spent the past three years asking for the exact opposite: More content designed for lower and lower level characters.

The Klingon Empire, along with their allies the lizard-like Gorn, telepathic Letheans, surly Nausicaans, and the too-sexy-for-their-shirts Orions, have been part of the Star Trek Online experience since the game’s original launch in 2010. Sadly, some players might never have noticed. The original release revealed the KDF faction to be more of a marketing bullet point than a feature. Klingon gameplay only became unlocked after having put considerable time in playing STO’s Federation faction. Should someone tear themselves away from the Fed side long enough to check it out, they didn’t find much. Klingon missions were in short supply and the faction as a whole was widely regarded as only fun for players looking to engage in player-versus-player combat. To compensate for this lack of content, Klingon characters began the game at a much higher level, side-stepping the leveling problems incurred by a lack things to do but making the game half over before it even started. Many players weren’t buying it. Even the allure of flying a Bird of Prey, one of Star Trek’s most iconic starships (masterfully recreated in STO to provide an experience completely unique from every other ship in the game), was not enough to pull players to the other side for long. Developers would add new missions, ships, and end-game content to the faction over time, but the experience based cost of entry and a, not undeserved, reputation for being unfinished kept players away. Fans of the bumpy-headed baddies cried out for the rights most RPG gamers take for granted: To begin at the bottom.

All that changed in May of 2013 with the release of Star Trek Online’s Legacy of Romulus expansion.

Yes, Star Trek Online’s massive upgrade added a slew of new features (Upgraded graphics, a flattened interface, new equipment categories, additional multiplayer missions, raids, and challenges, the Romulan Republic faction, etc.) but it is sci-fi’s favorite space samurai who have the most to celebrate. As new and returning players bask in ever richer loot on the quest to level 50 and beyond, the fiercest warriors in the galaxy finally get their wish: Starting at level 1.

While undoubtedly overshadowed by by the titular new faction of the expansion, Legacy of Romulus made dreams come true for the beleaguered members of the KDF. The varied races of the Klingon Empire finally take their place on every player’s character creation screen beside their Federation and Romulan counterparts. No strings attached. No prerequisites required. No head starts. New missions, ships, and a fresh coat of paint plugs the final gap in the KDF’s early game content. Gone is the tedious walking tour of Qo’noS’ First City that passed as a tutorial. In its place is a new, voice acted adventure that had your character climbing the ranks to captain Klingon-style during a prisoner transfer gone wrong. In addition to new missions, earlier ones have been rewritten, rescripted, and generally overhauled to provide more drama and better fit with STO’s newly expanded expanded-universe fiction. Freshly indoctrinated lowby characters will soon find themselves at the helm of a B’rel class Bird of Prey, a design most widely recognized from Kirk & Co.’s rechristened HMS Bounty in Star Trek IV and formerly only available as a $20 top-tier ship. The opening act has fledgling warriors teaming up with Worf and Alexander to thwart a conspiracy to destroy the House of Martok. Need more? You got it! What’s the best companion in any RPG? Yup, KDF captains are getting a dog! Well, jackal-mastiff. Sliding down the power curve has never been so appealing.

It is one of the strangest stories in gaming. A player base given a free ride to the top clamoring for ever more low level content. Now, after three years of incremental upgrades, the virtual armies of the Klingon Defense Force can hold their heads high and sing, “Noobs at last! Noobs at last! Thank you, Cryptic! We are noobs at last!”

Comic: Nada Nerd

2013-06-04T07:00:00.000-04:00

Behind the Blog: June 1, 2013–Down, Not Out

2013-06-01T05:22:00.001-04:00

Hey there, Ho there, Otakuteers! ‘Tis I, your ever humble host. It’s been a little quiet around the GUO offices of late. Time to bust out the party poppers and wake this here lil’ corner of the Innertubes up! You’ll have to forgive me for the recent lack of updates. I twisted up my right arm pretty badly and had a rash of small painful blisters on my hands the past week or so. Ah, the joys of yard work… Typing even now is a bit of a bother (i.e. painful and annoying) , but I figured I should try to get something posted. There’s also been a massive update to Star Trek Online, so… ya know, you guys can shove off when that happens . I seem to be light on staff, but was afraid to ask what was going on with that. I’ll get the personnel department to check into it

Anyway, even though we might have seemed short by article counts, we sure didn’t skimp on the word count! Three reviews, a live stream, a shopping guide, and console launch packed full of prose all made their way to the front page last month. As is customary, I’ve got a few things to say about a few things I said.

The first thing to mention in site news is the fact that anonymous commenting has been disabled. I’ve been threatening this for a while, but there was always some unnamed person kind enough to leave a kudos on an article to give me a little pick-me-up. That hasn’t happened for a while and the daily spam count had grown to a staggering 60 posts a day. Not only was this a hassle to moderate, but made my email management a nightmare. I’m hoping that after the spambots bounce off it enough I may be able to fly under the radar again and open the comments back up, but we’ll see. With a change like this there is always a chance that your view of the comments may have broken. If so, deleting any cookies associated with GrowingUpOtaku.com should fix the problem.

Just a quick thanks to everyone who used our link to Amazon.com for their shopping. We’re back on track to keep the blog paying for itself for the time being. I really appreciate it!

I usually don’t cover celebrities, movies, or death, but I really wanted to post the Ray Harryhausen article. He was like the Jim Henson of movie monsters. Growing up with Saturday afternoon Creature Features and loving the fantasy adventures of the 80s made a lot of us very familiar with Ray’s work. There was such personality in his creations that is seldom seen.

Another feature that was special to me was the review for Sid Meier’s Ace Patrol. I really love writing reviews and take an inordinate amount of time crafting them. I’m not going to make some BS comparison to being a ‘real’ artist, but I do take (way too much) time to fuss over both what I want to say and how I say it. I always make my own screenshots. One thing that bugs me about The Media is how they write a critical evaluation of a product and then just slap on visuals provided by the vendor. What’s the point?! Is not the picture worth a thousand words? I’m not going to evaluate something and then use some retouched screen capture with a marketing slogan splattered across it. I mean, check out TouchArcade’s review. The second and third screens are not in the game. The first has been cropped and edited. It’s not hard to get screen captures. It is kinda hard to get GOOD looking screen captures (artistically speaking), but an honest picture is worth more than a half-dozen fakes.

/rant

Anyhow, doing that review was a real thrill. It’s one of those childish little dreams I get to fulfill here on GUO. A critical review of a new title from a legendary (and a personal favorite) game designer posted on the Internet with my name on the byline. Squee!

I almost missed this game being released. I had been doing research on the Haunted Hollow review and there was no mention of Ace Combat on Firaxis’ page just the day before. I got very sick that weekend and only heard about its release from a podcast. I ended up playing Ace Patrol all weekend while sick in bed. Sunday night saw me burning the midnight oil writing the review. I bumped the Haunted Hollow review to get it up ASAP. I was giggling the next two days about how I got to review a new IP from Sid Meier.

Did you catch any of the Battle of Nations? I watched a surprising amount of it. It was that ‘I’m sick’ weekend. Man, you don’t want to come at Russians with a sword and shield! The Russian team took first, second, AND third in the 1v1 and 4v4 competitions. They also took first in the 32v32 contest. Probably because you only get one team in that. I updated that post several times with the latest live feeds throughout the weekend.

To no one’s surprise, there’s gonna be another Xbox. Xbox One. Can we all just agree now to call it the XbOne? Yes, I think that’s funny. Come on! That new DRM is going to XbOne everyone who has an XbOner for the system. Prosecution rests. Also, Call of Duty has a dog now. Progress!

Speaking of Canine of Duty™: Modern Woofare™, there’s a fun fact about the latest GUO comic. In the first couple of fames you can see the Xbox One sitting in the cubicle. The part of Xbox One is played by a shrunken kitchen cabinet. Looks just like it, eh? Man, that thing has no style.

Seriously, I was really surprised at the narrow demographic they targeted with that presentation. I mean, TV, American football, Halo on TV, and Call of Duty. There’s only one type of person Microsoft went after: American male college students. I guess Dr. Sport-CoD-man was happy, but… zzz.

Well, that about does it for me. I gotta put some ointment on these sore paws o’ mine. I also wanted to get a blurb up about a MMO opening up that we’re all kinda excited for (Edit: I guess I already did in your timeline). I’m expecting the Mrs. home in a bit. We’ve got to hit the hospital for another batch of testing on the ol’ gal. (Edit: No, we’re not. Well, I was, but it turns out I’m stupid and got the date wrong XD)

As always, we send our love out to all of you.

Thanks for reading!

Comic: Xbox, Conquer!

2013-05-31T08:00:00.000-04:00

We’re Gonna Need A Bigger Net! Dragon Collect-A-Thon MMO Dragon’s Prophet Launches Today

2013-05-30T12:46:00.001-04:00

Sony Online Entertainment has once again captured our attention with their latest free-to-play MMO offering, Dragon’s Prophet. This newest online game from the classic Runes of Magic developer Runewaker turns players free to bust up baddies via an action-packed, combo-based combat in a fantasy world. So what’s got the folks here at the GUO homestead so excited about yet another fantasy MMO? The ability to capture, ride, and battle alongside your own cadre of dragons!

Yep, it’s a Poke’gasam of dragolitich proportions as you are turned loose in a world with HUNDREDS of types of dragons to exploit. Flying dragons, swimming dragons, sprinting dragons, giant dragons, tiny dragons, dragons that look like little velociraptors, dragons that look like giant armadillos. There’s even a few with little membrane wings that can’t fly, but glide like a flying squirrel. Exponentially increasing the variety, each dragon comes with its own battery of randomly generated, RPG-style skill and stats. Some dragons even give new abilities to their owners.

I named this one Lucy.

Even better, I can tell you from my time in the closed beta test (usually played with the Mrs. grumbling over my should about how she wasn’t in the closed beta test), Dragon’s Prophet doesn’t make players wait to get their dragon snatching on. Play the tutorial, head out the gate of the first city, and hang a right. See those lizards over there (or, more likely for the first week, all those people waiting for lizards to spawn)? Walk on over and pop your dragon training skills. Tap (don’t hold!) the WASD keys to keep the icon in the center of the circle to complete the minigame (Pro tip: Charisma makes dragon taming easier), and Bingo! Your very own dragon! Hit tilde (~) to summon your new buddy to your side in combat and hit the tab key ride around in style.

Dragon’s Prophet is open to all with an “Open Beta” caveat May 30th at 5PM PDT. Grab it free from SOE.

Xbox 720, neXtbox, Infinity, Whatever You Called It, Is Now Called Xbox One. Watch the Press Conference Here

2013-05-21T16:36:00.001-04:00

Microsoft has announced their next-next-generation console, the Xbox One. In a stark contrast to Sony’s ‘gamer’s first’ reveal of the PlayStation 4, Microsoft has positioned the Xbox One as an entertainment solution for everything for everyone. The mantra for the new system repeated ad nauseam throughout the press conference was “All in One”.Microsoft further elaborated this goal as to “Take your passion for gaming and apply to your entire TV experience.” Even the big Halo news revealed wasn’t about a game but about a live-action, “premium” TV series produced by Steven Spielberg.

So what does this mean? Instant switching between your cable TV (assuming you are subscribed with a supported provider), digital movies, gaming, and web browsing via Kinect’s voice and gesture command system. Even more interesting, the Xbox one will allow users to open multiple windows and utilize Internet Explorer along side your live content. Also sure to tickle early adopter’s fancy is the integration of Microsoft’s Smart Glass mobile integration and the ability to use your smartphone as a remote control. A cloud based DVR service is also promised, though very unlikely to be available at launch, for customers who continue to dump money into Microsoft’s Xbox Live online service.

Also in contrast to the PlayStation 4 show, Microsoft showed off the physical incarnation of their console. The form factor of the Xbox One certainly shows MS’ commitment to becoming the new set-top box for your living room. The Xbox Box one is a giant, black box bearing no trace of the style or attention to aesthetics that dominated the gaming machines of the past seven years. It is a brick of a electronics meant to be dumped into a dark corner and never looked at again.

The rest of the revealed features are pretty much what you expect out of a modern connected device. Hulu, Nexflix, ESPN, and the rest of your favorite online video pushers are on board. Twitter, Facebook, and Xbox Live will scavenge the usage habits of your contacts to decide what to sell you. Skype is also part of this next-Box experience promising HD video conferencing from the comfort of your couch.

Tech specs are a little light at the moment with this first peek emphasizing the capabilities of the new version of the Kinect motion tracking camera. We know it will have 8GB of RAM, USB 3.0 ports, built-in 802.11n, and support for Wi-Fi Direct. For more tech info, I highly recommend Wired’s Gadget Lab’s exclusive first look.

What? Games? Oh, yeah. There’ll be some sports and driving games. Microsoft has once again teamed up with Remedy, one of the very few game creators with any skill at storytelling in the medium, for a new title called Quantum Break and has something to do with seeing the future. Most of the scant time spent addressing the gaming crowd was dedicated to Call of Duty: Ghosts which is… well, Call of Duty. It’s safe to say that MS is holding the big game presentations for E3 later this year.

It was later confirmed that none of your old Xbox 360 software will be compatible with the Xbox One. Hard drive installs will be possible, but only for the first owner of a particular disk. Fans of used titles will need to pay for the privilege.

Xbox One will be available in a world-wide launch “Later this year” for an undisclosed, but probably exorbitant price.

Watch the Xbox One May 21, 2013 press conference for yourself below. The show starts at 1:08:40 and runs for about an hour.

Watch live video from gamespot's channel on TwitchTV

Live Streaming Star Trek Online Romulan Launch May 21 at 6:30 PM EDT | Twitchy Tuesday

2013-05-20T21:12:00.001-04:00

You are cordially invited to join me, The Mrs, and Brandon The Unpaid Redshirt as we boldly go where no one has gone before.

Tuesday, May 21st is the launch of the Romulan Legacy expansion for the free-to-play MMO Star Trek Online and we’re bringing our first impressions to you live beginning at 6:30 PM EDT.

Join us in game, on Twitch.tv, right here on GUO, or search for GrowingUpOtaku on the TwitchTV app for iOS or Android as we begin to explore the plight of the once mighty Romulan Star Empire following the destruction of their homeworld. With new character creation options, a revamped user interface, and a brand new faction with a unique 50 level campaign, there’s a ton to see and discuss!

For more details on Star Trek Online’s first expansion, the Legacy of Romulus, check out our pre-release coverage.

Watch live video from growingupotaku on TwitchTV

Kepler Space Telescope May Be Busted, But The Mission Will Go On

2013-05-20T07:09:00.000-04:00

Last Tuesday NASA reported a failure of the reaction wheel number four onboard the Kepler Space Telescope. Sadly, this is the second of Kepler’s four reaction wheels used to keep the craft properly oriented to have failed. Wheel number two called it quits back in July 2012. While Kepler was able to maintain its orientation around the sun in the search for new exoplanets with only three wheels properly functioning, it is unlikely that the brave eye above the sky will be able to keep pointed in the same direction long enough to continue its mission of high-precision photometry. Currently Kepler is ‘parked’ in a “Thruster-Controlled Safe Mode” in orbit around the sun, much too far and dangerous for astronauts to reach and repair.

NASA hasn’t given up on the little guy yet. The spacecraft is stable and safe. Kept in Safe Mode, the telescope has enough fuel to last for years. Engineers are trying a number of possible software solutions, transmitted via an X-band communication downlink, to fix the error. One possibility is that of a hybrid operational state that would use thrusters in conjunction with the two working reaction wheels to control the craft. There is also some hope that the busted wheel two will come back to life again following a reset of the telescope’s systems. It is possible that wheel two didn’t function due to a lack of lubrication that may have finally settled into the correct spots. Charlie Sobeck of NASA’s Ames Research Center also has a backup plan, “Like with any stuck wheel that you might be familiar with on the ground, we can try jiggling it. We can try commanding it back and forth in both directions. We can try forcing it through whatever the resistance is that's holding it up.”

While disappointing, don’t feel too down about Kepler. The little guy has actually been working on overtime since November of 2012, having already completed its 3.5 year primary mission. The Kepler mission has returned data on the potential of more than 2700 previously unknown exoplanets. Scientists have only been able to confirm 132 of them thus far, but mission experts expect that 90% of Kepler’s findings to be real. Mission Principal Investigator Bill Borucki explains, “We have excellent data for an additional two years. So I think the most interesting, exciting discoveries are coming in the next two years. The mission is not over."

Then there is future missions in the realm of high-precision photometry. We have certainly learned a lot from both the successes and failures of the Kepler mission. In the words of Growing Up Otaku’s Lou Jorgl, “It may be most interesting to realize that this is our first generation of planet detecting equipment, techniques, and we are only focused on a small portion of the sky. The future will provide equipment that may much more easily find small planets or even moons around larger planets. One thing is for sure, eventually we will find another planet in our galaxy that we will be able to live on.”

Source: Space.com, NASA.gov, GrowingUpOtaku.com

Amazon’s Big Downloadable PC Games Sale for May 16-31. Here’s Our Recommendations.

2013-05-16T16:28:00.001-04:00

Let’s go shopping! Amazon is running a “Digital Games Mayhem” sale for the next couple weeks. It looks like it’s going to be a quiet summer for big releases so now’s a good time to stuff that backlog full of interactive fun as we brace ourselves for the tumultuous times that come with the changing of the gaming generation.

There’s so much on sale, I’m not really sure where to start. There’s a Firaxis Pack that’ll get you Xcom, Civ 4 Complete, and Civ V Gold for a svelte $20. The Desert to Sea Bundle nabs you the first two Bioshock games and Spec Ops: The Line , the best narrative experience to ever to grace a modern military shooter, for $10. You can also grab the first season of Telltale’s amazing The Walking Dead game for $10. Mr and Mrs Otaku recommended!

Looks like we’re all caught up on the AAA stuff. Hmm, what else… There’s the Sega Fun Pack where a tenner gets ya Ron Gilbert’s (Monkey Island) new joint The Cave, indie platformer Hell Yeah! and all its DLC, awesome vehicle arcade shooter Renegade Ops and that DLC, the Nights remake Into Dreams, and… DUDE! Jet Set Radio got ported to the PC! OMG! AND I don’t have to use that crappy Dreamcast gamepad! Don’t tell the Mrs. I am SO going to blast that all night long after she’s in bed, LOL. Mr adored! Mrs abhorred!

Everybody loves indies, and those scrappy little guys at indie publisher Microsoft (lulz) have a bundle. $10 gets you Deadlight, Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet, Iron Brigade, Toy Soldiers, and Mark of the Ninja in the Microsoft 5-Game Arcade/Indie Pack (or $3.75 separately). I seem to have missed all of those, so let me just tuck that in the cart.

Looks like they’ve got some strategy games I’ve been meaning to catch up on. Top of that list is Unity of Command, an Eastern front game with emphasis on keeping your supply lines intact, for $5. That middle ages Sims-meets-strategy game of Thrones simulator Crusader Kings II is $10. Hmm, think I’ll wait for a bundle with all the DLC.

I highly recommend the Majesty Franchise for the stupid low price of $10 ($104 value). It comes with Majesty Gold, Majesty 2 and all the DLC (and it’s BEEFY DLC with all-new campaigns and you get to play as the monsters in the last one), Defenders of Andania tower defense, and Warlock with all of its DLC. Warlock is, hands down, my favorite 4X fantasy game to date! It was a steal when it came out at $20. I own and love all these titles!

There’s also a category for “casual games” on sale. Here’s you’ll find your usual assortment of time management, seek-n-finds, and a few miscategorized surprises. The first game on Amazon’s “casual” list: S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Call of Pripyat , the brutal, hardcore, first-person RPG-shooter that puts you gun-to-claw with mutants in the radioactive wastes surrounding Chernobyl. This was the height of the STALKER series. If you enjoyed Fallout or Deus Ex and don’t mind a game that isn’t afraid to kick you in the teeth, don’t miss this for $2. I also saw a few classic Microids adventure games like Post Mortem and Syberia for $3 a pop. The Mrs loves those! Anyway, DO check out the casual list even if you don’t think they’re your cup of tea.

Broke yet? Good. This sale even covers free-to-play stuff. Topping of the list, if you sign up for the online city-builder Stronghold Kingdoms, you get a voucher for a free download of Stronghold Crusader HD, the remastered version of the RTS, castle builder classic. Do this! The Mrs and I are big, big fans of those original Stronghold games. There’s also The Troobles Pet Pack for Second Life (that’s still going, huh?) and a couple other deals.

Thanks for going shopping with us! Now, where did the Mrs hide that credit card this time?

Review: Haunted Hollow (iPhone/iPad)–Half-Dead Monster Mash

2013-05-14T08:58:00.001-04:00

Firaxis Games is no stranger to strategy titles. The house that Sid Meier built is home to some of the most compelling exercises in tactics known to gamers like the Civilization series and the recent reimagining of Xcom. The strategy game powerhouse has something a little more intimate in mind than a globe conquering Incan Empire or an Earth threating alien invasion for their this original foray into the iOS games space. This time you’ll be recruiting a team of Hollywood monsters and racing against a single opponent to scare to bejeezus out of the local townsfolk while battling the horror of overpriced in-app purchases.

Haunted Hollow is a board game styled experience that pits you against a friend, or a rather weak AI, in the role of the dark lord of a spooky mansion. Each turn you’ll draw and build a random monster lair from your deck and spend Fear Points (actions) as you see fit to add extra lairs to your haunted house, create monsters, move, attack, and activate special abilities. Monsters come in three types: Scary monsters used to gain ground, Fighty monsters to put the smack down on your opponent’s minions, and Special monsters that usually do both. The goal is territory control as your monsters race to Scare (claim) every house in town. As more houses are claimed and frightened townies flock to the local church, a tough, neutral third party enters the fray in the form of a torch-wielding mob that burns everything, monsters and houses, in its path.

Overall, it’s a great concept that’s decently executed. There are a few balance issues, notably the ability for ghosts to ignore all terrain and a questionable advantage for the player moving first, but generally acceptable. Acceptable as a board game to be taken out and played between friends a couple times a month, anyway. As a video game destined for quick and easy replays, Haunted Hollow fares much worse. The single, symmetrical map gets old fast. The AI plays a pretty weak game and matchmaking is only available between friends on Apple’s Game Center or local pass-n-play. The UI feels sloppy with some infinitely looping tutorial text, a lack of stat indicators for units, and a query tool that doesn’t give enough information on monsters before you recruit them. Worse, more than half of the game pieces are locked behind a shockingly high paywall.

Yes, those most nightmarish of creatures, In-App Purchase and Dee el See, join Frank and Wolfie in the cast of Haunted Hollow. The stock, free game includes a five creepy critters with another six available at $2 a pop, one for a buck, and one for signing your identity away on a 2K Games account. As if this weren’t enough, four of the nine bonus items (heals and buffs) doled out as the game progresses are also up for grabs at 99 cents each. Like Haunted Hollow enough to want the full set? You’re looking at $16 worth of microtransactions. And nearly every screen in the game will remind that they’re all waiting in the cash shop. A “Season Pass 1” promising “All monsters and items in the Launch Set” is available for $8 but implies that the juicing will continue as long as customers persist.

Haunted Hollow is an immensely promising game. The concept is fantastic and the basic mechanics at play work well for a fast head-to-head match. However, even without the absurd pricing structure, there just isn’t enough variety to keep your attention for very long. Couple this with some minor but frequently annoying UI omissions, a less than stellar AI devoid of difficulty settings, and a limited matchmaking system, and I’d be surprised if Firaxis is capable of trapping customers in the haunted house long enough to sink their teeth in for a second “season” of DLC.

Haunted Hollow is available now for free on iTunes. Compatible with iPhone 3GS or newer and iPads running iOS 4.3 or later. Reviewed on iPad 2 running iOS 5.1.1.

Reviewer Rating: 2/5 – Shambling Skeleton

Review: Sid Meier’s Ace Patrol (iPhone/iPad)–Strategy Versus The Red Baron

2013-05-13T06:44:00.000-04:00

Turn-based tactical depictions of aerial combat have long been a mainstay of miniature wargamers’ tabletops for decades. Armed with millimeter rulers and protractors, armchair air commanders have fussed over tiny miniature planes on fiddly adjustable bases for decades. Strangely, this form of gaming has never garnered much attention in the digital space, and all but vanished since Windows stopped sporting double digits on it’s splash screen. Enter legendary game designer Sid Meier, whose past credits include some of the most loved flight simulators of the DOS era like F-15 Strike Eagle and F-19 Stealth Fighter, with this latest mobile title that brings the high-flying heroics of World War I aces to a touchscreen near you.

Sid Meier's Ace Patrol (SMAP!) gives you command of a squadron of pilots during the first War to End All Wars tasked with a variety of missions including bomber escort, blowing up supply trains, gunning down observation balloons, and generally furballing it up with opposing aircraft. Ace Patrol takes a number of cues from Firaxis’ recent rebooting of the vaunted Xcom franchise and features both the engrossing tactical action of the air duels themselves and a strategic metagame that sees your best pilots and planes improving while your worst ones sit grounded for healing and repairs.

The majority of your time Ace Patrolling will be spent in the tactical view. Normally you’ll be in control of two aircraft, four for the ‘boss’ style mission at the end of each of the game’s four operations, and even a rare solo flight. A few missions also include an AI controlled bomber or recon plane needing escort. You’ll move all of your planes at once, in any order you choose, before the enemy has a chance to do the same. A zoomable, rotatable hex map shows the countryside dotted with outlined areas covered by anti-air guns to avoid, home fronts to retreat to, and cloud banks to hide in. The elevation of each aircraft is easily identifiable by the number of cones beneath a plane. Damage is depicted as a green circle that turns red. Upon selecting a pilot, an array of arrows will be displayed on the map indicating which maneuvers that unit is capable of performing based on pilot skill, plane ability, and current orientation. Blue arrows show movement while green ones indicate that you’re pilot will take a shot during the maneuver. A pulsating green crosshair identifies which maneuver will deal the most damage. Tapping a maneuver arrow displays an animated preview of exactly how your plane will move. Tapping again sends the fighter on its way, frequently dropping to a close-up chase camera view of the action when gunplay occurs. This cinematic move looks fairly lo-fi and planes occasionally move awkwardly to keep their guns on target, but it still provides a giddy thrill as you fire and are fired upon.

It is a wonderfully elegant system executed perfectly. The arrows on the map explain at a glance exactly where an aircraft will move to, what direction it will be facing, and any change in altitude. Hexes can get a little crowded with experienced pilots possessing a wide variety of maneuvers, so those with small screens or large fingers should plan on lot of zooming or resorting to a stylus. Planes move in a realistic fashion and each maneuver is clearly identified with a number of indicators such as which banked state a move can be performed from. Maneuvers are limited to basic turns, climbs, and dives at the beginning of the war but your pilots will gradually expand their repertoire with loops, rolls, and “ace maneuvers” like the famed Immelmann turn as they level up, RPG-style, with every kill. Attacks display factors affecting each shot like firing angle, enemy aspect angle, and distance to target. While these details are sure to delight dedicated pocket aviators looking to chain a particular set of maneuvers together for the perfect attack run, the more casual player need only tap away at the colored arrows to dogfight through the game’s easiest of five selectable difficulty levels. At the conclusion of each mission players have the option of watching the past 15 minutes of scheming and swearing strung together in a 30 second continuous replay movie; A thrilling and satisfying experience. Deep yet easy to play. It is a goal few titles execute as perfectly, and with as much flair, as Ace Patrol.

As high as the tactical game flies, it is very nearly shot down by the brutal, almost unfair, difficulty at the strategic level. Ace Patrol’s campaign consists of four operations of 6 missions each. Aside from the final ‘boss’ encounter of the op, players have their pick of three missions to fly at any given time. These missions are randomly determined from a pool of a dozen or so tasks such as convoy defense or clearing the skies of an enemy squadron. The ideal goal of each operation is to achieve 7 victories (the final ‘boss’ encounter counts as three) for a decisive victory. Gradients of victory are scaled down from there based on player performance. At then end of the war, victory conditions from all four operations are averaged together to score your campaign. Victory ratings range from a decisive victory all the way down to, strangely, a stalemate. There is also a point scoring mechanic, but this is only usefully for comparing high scores with friends via Apple’s constantly hacked Game Center leaderboards. A list of your own local scores is, unfortunately, not recorded.

Fine and good. The real problem lies in the recovery time for your men and materials. Planes taking major damage are grounded for the next three missions, pilots injured from a crash are out for five missions (the length of an entire operation), and the poor sods downed behind enemy lines will only be returned at “Christmastime,” an event that only occurs following the final battle of the first and third operation. Considering that players only ever have access to the same four pilots, the effects of a mission gone bad are crippling. Neither replacements nor recruits are ever made available. Instead the lengthy recovery time makes players to skip a number of missions on more than one occasion throughout a campaign or, worse, force them to fly undermanned against impossible odds. Further putting players at a disadvantage, the enemy is consistently upgraded with new maneuvers and upgrades while your pilots recover. Cunning players may elect to take a single survivor on more recon oriented missions, zipping in, photographing a target, and evading enemy interceptors on the way back home, only to find out that mission success doesn’t actually contribute to pilot progression. In a baffling decision, only kills contribute to ranking up pilots.

A triumvirate of microtransactions casts a dubious shadow over these proceedings. These three ‘medical facilities,’ available for $1 each, will automagically heal all your pilots, repair all your planes, and returned captured POWs immediately when bought. They then become a permanent part of your base that decreases all future repair and hospital times by one mission per purchased upgrade. It feels as though two of these real-money upgrades are practically mandatory to bring the strategic game back in balance, leaving only the “shot down behind enemy lines” as a fate to be avoided at all costs. Being able to change the game difficulty at any time can take some of the sting out of the enemy’s upgrade curve, but feels like the developer threw up his hands and admitted you’d sometimes be screwed rather than trying to balance the later stages of the campaign.

Speaking of in-app purchases, Sid Meier’s Ace Patrol comes with several squadrons of ‘em. Fortunately, aside from the afore mentioned medical upgrades need to, ya know, fix the game, the rest are much more understandable. While marketed as a free game, the cashless version of Ace Patrol will only allow players to partake in the first operation of the campaign flying the earliest two British planes against the Germans. In other words, it’s a demo. A beyond reasonable $0.99 opens up the full campaign for play as the British without restriction. The ability to fly planes from America, France, and Germany are available for $2 a pop, or $4 for all three. These optional “Campaigns” don’t actually change any of the missions, but rather allow the same game to be played with planes of other nationalities. The developers were even so kind as to include appropriate uniforms for pilot illustrations, additional voice acting, and change the names of medals (if not ranks) to match each country.

Another batch of DLC is available in the form of “Aces.” These pose as legendary airmen from WWI like Max Immelmann, Edward Mannock, and Manfred von Richthofen, better known as The Red Baron, and grant the player a new skin for use on their planes and an additional skill added to the random pool of those available for squadron leaders and veteran pilots. Two aces are available for each nationality for $1 each or $5 for the whole bundle. Players concerned with aesthetics may feel their wrist twisted slightly as the default skin forced upon veteran pilots is a horribly garish rainbow affair that resembles a graphics glitch more than an actual paint job.

So, how much does Sid Meier’s Ace Patrol actually cost if I like the demo? Figure two to four bucks. One to unlock the full game as the British and a few more to fix the grueling campaign timeouts to your comfort level. All of the other items available are entirely optional and feel like a justifiable add-on purchase in this modern, DLC laden world. Even if you decide to pimp SMAP out with all the additional goodies, it justifies the cost by looking, playing, and entertaining like a premium $10-15 iOS game.

Except for the multiplayer. Multiplayer is technically included in Ace Patrol, but merely as an afterthought. The delightfully titled “Hot Pad” mode allows two players to pass a single device back and forth on alternating turns. Sadly, players have no choice as to the planes, pilots, or mission they’ll be playing. Owners of the optional campaign DLC packs will be able to pick a nationality, but that’s the only decision to be made. Once engaged in a game, it can be hard to tell when one player’s turn ends and another begins, especially if AI controlled objective aircraft are in the mix. Careless players can easily end up moving their opponents aircraft in a clustered furball. This could have been alleviated by simply replacing the brief “Player # Turn” fly-by text with a simple pop-up prompt and OK button. Adding to the confusion, there is no replay option for the off-player to see where or how they got hit. This means both players must be watching the same screen at all times for optimal awareness. “Networked” play for two players is also apparently a feature, but was wholesale inoperable during the several days we played SMAP for review. Questions regarding the capabilities of this mode were left unanswered on 2K’s message forums. While this will surely be fixed in an upcoming patch (Update: Fixed a week later in v.1.2), I would expect the same random setup featured in the Hot Pad mode utilizing Apple’s barely adequate Game Center (Update: Yep. Spot on). Start to finish, multiplayer is a mess and better left forgotten.

In spite of the woefully lacking multiplayer and darkest of The Dark Side free-to-play schemes, Ace Patrol soars as an exceptional strategy game in a romantic setting largely neglected by digital games. While grognards will gripe about the lack of ammunition tracking or how half your squadron is female, this latest title bearing the Sid Meier name lives up to the tradition of his other strategy titles. Much like Railroad Tycoon, Antietam, and Civilization, Ace Patrol boils down traditionally complicated mechanics to a form playable by everyone without sacrificing depth. Also keeping with tradition, Meier’s latest offering is a must play for strategy fans and the perfect entry point for anyone curious about the genre.

Sid Meier’s Ace Patrol is available now for free from iTunes for iPhone 4 or iPad 2 and newer devices running iOS 5.1 or later. Tested on iPad 2 running iOS 5.1.1.

Reviewer Rating : 4/5 – Aces

Refueling In Space | Out Of This World Weekly

2013-05-12T06:56:00.000-04:00

Refueling on Earth is something that we all have to deal with. Pull up to the gas station, insert pump, and fuel up the car until you get a full tank. Spacecraft on Earth refuel in a very similar way, when they are on the launch pad, liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen are commonly pumped into rocket fuel tanks just before takeoff. These super cold gases are loaded just before takeoff because they will turn from a liquid to a gas. As they naturally warm up and simply boil off the surface of the liquid, they are vented so that pressure in the tanks doesn’t become so great that they burst. Most of this propellant is used up on launch because it is very hard to keep these freezing cold liquids at low temperature in outer space for long periods of time. This ability to keep liquified gases cold would greatly enhance our ability to reach the outer solar system as well as decrease the amount of time needed to reach closer objectives.

Space is thought of as a very cold place and it can be, reaching temperatures of just a few degrees above absolute zero. Unfortunately, this is the temperature that is reached in the deepest, darkest space with absolutely nothing around. In Earth orbit, temperatures can vary by 500 degrees depending on whether direct sunlight is shining on an object. This means that temperatures ranging from –250 degrees F to 250 degrees F can occur within a short time. This doesn’t help super cooled liquids stay cold for long, with large tanks only being able to stay cooled for hours at a time before evaporating. If we are ever going to refuel spacecraft with liquid coolants, we need to find ways to keep those super cooled liquids cold for long periods of time.

NASA knows this and is working on a program using micro experiments. One of these experiments would use a small CubeSat in Low Earth Orbit, while another would use equipment mounted on the outside of the space station. The space station experiment would attempt to capture excess Hydrogen and Methane that is regularly vented into space and liquefy it using liquid Helium so that tests can be run on the liquified gases. Turning excess gas back into liquid may be necessary to keep large reserves of liquid available in space. The other experiment involves a small cube satellite sent into orbit with liquified gases held in a six centimeter diameter tank. The satellite would use a series of shields that could be deployed to protect the cargo from direct sunlight and enable the tank to release heat when the temperature is low enough to cool the liquified gas as much as possible. Combinations of these techniques and others, like possibly keeping a refueling station in the L2 Lagrange point where it would be shielded from the Sun from the shadow of either the Earth or the Moon to help keep it cool, should eventually allow for refueling of spacecraft and this will allow much further exploration of our Solar System.

Master of Movie Monsters, Ray Harryhausen | Weekend Watchlist

2013-05-11T07:32:00.000-04:00

When I was naught but a tiny nerd, there were few flights of fancy that could stand up to the creature packed features of visual effects mastermind Ray Harryhausen. Widely considered the father of special effects (well, pre-computer generated ones, anyway), Harryhausen’s stop motions creations elevated movie monsters from mere puppets to characters in their own right.
Mentoring under Willis H O’Brien, the stop motion artist who brought King Kong to life in 1933, Ray would strike it big with his amazing animation of a dinosaur ripping apart New York City in the 1953 film The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms. His list of credits doubles as a 'Best of…” list for the greatest flights of fantasy from the 50s, 60s, and 70s: Earth vs. the Flying Saucers, 20 Million Miles to Earth, The 3 Worlds of Gulliver, Mysterious Island, One Million Years B.C, Jason and the Argonauts, Clash of the Titans, and the Sinbad trilogy (The 7th Voyage of Sinbad, The Golden Voyage of Sinbad, and Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger) which he also helped write.

Sadly, Ray Harryhausen departed this mortal realm Tuesday, May 7 2013, at the ripe, young age of 92. In this very special edition of the Weekend Watchlist, we’re capturing one fame at a time while waving a fond farewell to The Master of Movie Monsters, The Sultan of Stop Motion, The Vizier of Visual Effects, Ray Harryhausen.

We kick off this Watchlist with a tribute from Jack Perez, a true fan and director of such delightfully kitschy films like Monster Island and Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus.

This next feature is a fantastic collage of some of the fan favorite fiends throughout the years. Here’s hoping the light bulb goes on over the heads of our younger audience members as they finally understand what we’re talking about

And now it’s time to hear from the man himself! Harkening back to 1974, here’s and interview with Ray following the release of The Golden Voyage of Sinbad.

And now we fight! One of my personal favorites, the skeleton fight from the end of Jason and the Argonauts. So… um, 50 year old spoiler warning, I guess.

Special kudos to Dave Conover, the producer of our next selection. Three years ago Dave put together this wee (you’ll get the pun later) tribute to Ray’s special effects wizardry.

Yeah, 2010 was a great year for salutes to this maker of monster mayhem. What follows in the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, better known as BAFTA, tribute to Ray’s 90th birthday. Join the Academy and a array of special guests as they reminisce about how Harryhausen’s work influenced the special effects artists for decades to come. In the words of Ken Ralston, Visual Effect Supervisor and Creative Head at Sony Pictures Imageworks, “It took armies and armies of people to do what you did by yourself.”

Sorry, BAFTA won’t let us share this one. You’ll need to watch it direct on YouTube.

Our next feature turns back to the man himself. Channel 4 in the U.K. interviewed Ray as part of their Big World Animators series back in 1991.

Finally, we go on location with model memorabilia makers Gentle Giant as they check out the original figured used in what is widely considered to be Harryhausen’s magnum opus, Clash of the Titans. Don’t let Ray’s typewriter fool you! This feature is from 2004. Release the Kraken!

22 Countries Battle It Out Medieval Style Live on YouTube

2013-05-10T10:39:00.001-04:00

Teams from 22 countries around the world are donning full plate and hoisting a sword for the honor of king and country once more this weekend in Bataille des Nations (Battle of Nations). No mere cosplay event, this western martial arts tournament has participants wielding metal swords and axes in fights to the non-fatal finish. Matches include everything from single duels, 5-on-5 (pictured above), and “mass combat” featuring 21 knights per squad.

The event runs from May 9th thru the 12th in Aigues-Mortes, France, but you can catch the spectacle live on YouTube from anywhere in the world. Head on over to the official YouTube channel and check out the latest live stream. Replays of past events can be found here.

Review: Zeno Clash II (PC/Xbox 360/PS3)–Twice as Big, Twice as Weird, Twice as Unmissable

2013-05-09T08:10:00.000-04:00

It could be argued that the original Zeno Clash never should have made it to market. Born out of the Source mod scene, its gameplay took the first-person shooter engine and retuned it for melee combat, a strategy that’s rarely met with success. It’s surrealistic art style brazenly thumbed its nose at overused, mass-market friendly settings filled with elves, space marines, and dude-bros in camo with assault rifles. It was a fantasy boxing simulator spliced Through the Looking Glass with the works of Salvador Dali. Yes, Zeno Clash was the sort of title hardcore gamers clamor for: New, bold, and wholly original. Now, four years later, Zeno Clash is back, thanks to the help of Atlus, famed publisher of strange JRPGs, and it is bigger, bolder, and more beautifully original than ever.

Zeno Clash II is a direct sequel to the original first-person puncher and picks up shortly after Ghat’s return from the End of the World with the Golem and the reveal of Father-Mother’s horrible secret. The sequel’s opening has Golem taking a guiding role to the city of Halstedom, teaching the barbaric inhabitants new terms such as “law,” “criminal," and “jail". These concepts don’t sit well with many of the Zenos, including the notoriously rebellious Ghat. Spurred to action by his sister, Ghat begins a new journey to reunite the family of Father-Mother, break her out of jail, and discover the means to fight the Golem at the upcoming trial. Along the way, he’ll face-punch the many unique people and critters inhabiting the world of Zenoziok while trying to stay one step ahead of his nemesis in an effort to stave off civilization. Yes, really.

While Zeno Clash II’s tutorial does its best to catch players up on the events that transpired during the first game, those interested in the plot will certainly want to brush up on the original title in preparation. It’s not that the plot of the first game was particularly hard to follow, but the alien concepts, terms, and unique story may make it difficult to comprehend. Still, when you sign up for Zeno Clash, you’re diving headlong into strange end anyway. Even returning veterans confortable with the masked, deformed, and/or anthropomorphic inhabitants of Zenozoik with find their concepts of the world shaken to the core by revelations at the beginning of the game’s third act. And then the two-headed monkeys riding fire-breathing vultures show up. Again, yes, really.

Unlike other titles that delve into strange, otherworldly realms, Zeno Clash plays it’s bizarre setting and story straight, and to great effect, never devolving into horror or self-parody. The fact that the details of your trip through this Wonderland are delivered flatly by its gruff inhabitants too primitive to bother with questions such as “Why?” lends an air of authenticity to the odd proceedings most creators would never even attempt. As with Zeno Clash’s other paradigm shattering aspects, such as art and gameplay, developer ACE Team not only beats the odds, but succeeds far beyond imagination. This is a fresh, new story you’re not likely to forget.

Speaking of shaking up concepts to their core, Zeno Clash II reevaluates every aspect of the original’s gameplay and crafts a much more expansive experience, both in terms of mechanics and gameflow. Gone are the linear levels of the original as players are now free to wander the weird, wild world at will, complete with multiple objectives and secondary tasks, and brought to life with a dynamic day/night cycle. Ghat’s face-punching controls have been retooled to put left and right hands on their respective triggers and augmented with an extensive combo system, including grabs and throws, similar to an arcade fighting game. Character stats can now be upgraded RPG-style by finding hidden skill totems. The pebble shooting firearms cobbled out of bits of bone and wood return, but eschew reloading in favor of finite ammunition cementing them as a useful but disposable tool. Finally, a selection of new secondary weapons, including a mortar that must be fired using the position of the sun or moon and a life tether that binds two targets’ physical reactions together, join the skull bombs of old. Larger fights allow you to call allies into battle resulting in some truly spectacular brawls, particularly if you happen upon two conflicting factions, and a second player can join you at any time through the co-op friendly campaign. No aspect of the original has been left untouched and the resultant sequel is a much larger, more immersive, more satisfying game.

What hasn’t been changed is Zeno Clash’s seemingly insatiable appetite for the weird. A move to the Unreal engine has brought the impossible creatures and improbable architecture of Zenozoik to a whole new level with more detailed character models, lighting, and some fantastic use of depth-of-field effects. Quad-breasted rat ladies have never looked so good! Environmental textures look a little flat, but you’ll hardly notice as you marvel at the 20ft. tall bubble-blowing plants or struggle to sock a guinea pig-faced midget in his oversized nose. All of the locations from the original game make a return appearance and are augmented by and equal number of new ones. Far from a simple reuse of assets, the levels featuring the city of Halstedom and it’s surrounding lands have been retooled to fit the new sandbox style gameplay. Moreover, bringing back those original sets makes the Zeno’s unique world feel that much more real, a fact players will certainly appreciate once gaining access to some of Zenozoik’s formerly forbidden areas. Best of all, these visuals are accompanied by an outstanding and strangely appropriate soundtrack. From the drum pounding main theme to the ethereal choir of the final confrontation, Zeno Clash’s music is perfect.

Also worthy of note is Zeno Clash’s approach to violence. In an era where even Teen rated games see players sending literally hundreds of foes into the afterlife, Zeno Clash’s combat opts for a comic book inspired knockout to end fights. On the rare occasions that death does come knocking for a character, it usually does so by means of a cutscene and is a result of said character’s own obstinance. While a game dedicated to popping folks in the kisser can hardly be considered nonviolent, it is refreshing to see one where the violence is nonlethal.

Much like its predecessor, Zeno Clash II probably shouldn’t exist in the gaming market today. In an industry ruled by bloated marketing budgets and the need to play it safe, both in terms of content and mechanics, Zeno Clash II delivers a triple-A, 8-10 hour action-adventure the likes of which you’ve never experienced before for the bargain price of $20. Yup, $20. Even Zeno Clash II’s price tag defies explanation! Everything about his game is fresh, original, and unforgettable. From its humble beginnings as a Half-Life mod to this latest iteration, Zeno Clash has compromised none of its punk rock aesthetic, original gameplay, or commitment to quality. Here’s hoping the folks at ACE Team continue to defy the odds and brings us many more Zeno Clashes in the future.

Zeno Clash II is available now for Windows PCs and is coming soon to Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 for $20. It has been rated T for teen by the ESRB for “Violence, Blood, Partial Nudity, Mild Language, and Use of Alcohol”. Reviewed on Windows 7 PC.

Reviewer Rating: 5/5 – 5 Out of 5 Punches to Giant Crab Face

Game Publisher EA Cutting Costs Via Copyright Infringement

2013-05-08T11:03:00.001-04:00

One of the largest publishers of video games in the Western World is trimming the fat in their budget. EA has decided that it can save a few bucks by nixing a deal with firearms manufacturers to use likenesses of their weapons in games. They’re still going to use the likenesses anyway, they’re just not going to pay for the privilege. EA claims that they are within Fair Use rights to go ahead and continue offering virtual Colts and Remingtons to players without striking a licensing deal with the gun manufacturers. EA President of Labels Frank Gibeau explained to Reuters, “We're telling a story and we have a point of view. A book doesn't pay for saying the word 'Colt,' for example.”

Books also don’t have exacting 3D recreations of a Colt accompanied with sound recorded directly from the weapon either.

Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere, etc) Ditches the Box for Subscription. Still Expensive.

2013-05-08T08:39:00.000-04:00

Adobe is “reinventing our desktop apps to make your creative process seamless, intuitive, and more connected than ever.” Publication of new versions of Adobe’s legendary Creative Suite of products that includes notable titles such as Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Premiere, Prelude, and more has been suspended. CS6 is the last version of these programs that will see stand-alone, buy-to-own releases. So, what’s next for these mainstays of desktop production? A subscription model that that keeps all your apps cloud connected and takes ‘em away if you decide to stop paying.

Meet the next generation of Adobe products: The Creative Cloud. Under this new model, customers are required to sign up for a monthly subscription ranging from $20 per month for a single product like Photoshop, or $600 per year for the entire suite. While this pricing pales in comparison to current boxed copies of Adobe products (Adobe Photoshop CS6 retails for $700 USD), the value proposition is a good deal more questionable for those who don’t need the latest and greatest version every couple of years. This new form of software delivery also comes free with the problems that afflicts all always online software: What if can’t connect? What if I don’t like the new version? What happens when the server is too busy?

So why the big change? The answer is threefold. First, everyone is high on clouds these days. The concept of having your stuff on all your devices everywhere you go is a wonderful idea, even if modern technology isn’t quite up to the task yet. Second, Australia's House of Representatives recently investigated why companies such as Microsoft, Apple, and Adobe charge so bloody much for their products down under. It turned out you could save $600 by flying from Australia to the United States to buy your boxed copy of Adobe’s Creative Suite. Adobe would cut prices, but only on the Creative Cloud subscription, in the region following the price-gouging probe. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, is to curb piracy. I’ve known several of individuals who swear by Photoshop over the years. I think only one of them actually purchased the software. And this goes way, way back before file sharing or even the Internet.

What does the future hold for the mindshare leaders in desktop production? It is certainly a bold plan and professional production companies may welcome the new subscription service to save a few bucks. At least until a bad patch gets pushed out or an authentication server dies. Losing a project due to local hardware failure is one thing, losing a project for undisclosed reasons by someone you’re paying to look after it is quite another. What of the next generation of creators growing up making YouTube videos who can’t, or won’t, shell out $20 every month for access to Premiere and instead go about singing the praises of their pirated copy of Final Cut Pro or iMovie? Adobe doesn’t exactly have the market cornered on this type of software and some big name competitors like Sony and Apple are waiting in the wings. A number of free, open source alternatives, such as Gimp, even exist for users looking for a free alternative.

Or might this move open up Adobe’s applications to a whole new audience who would not have been able to try them any other way? Certainly $20, even if just a rental, fits into most budgets a lot easier than $700. Software as a service also opens up the risk-free potential for demos or temporary giveaways. Adobe has already begun offering the first taste freely with a 30 day trial that includes 2GB of cloud storage. Microsoft seems to be sitting pretty since flying its own suite of applications into the clouds with Office 365.

Adobe’s latest plan will definitely keep generating revenue from their true customers, but will it be enough to keep those customers for another generation?

Congress Goes Nuts With Online Sales Tax

2013-05-06T21:10:00.000-04:00

Everybody's worst nightmare is here. No, not the death of Hello Kitty but the U.S. Congress has recently approved a bill to add sales tax to your online purchase. According to USA Today, this bill will add a sales tax to your order from websites like E-bay and Amazon at checkout at a rate to be determined by each company.

"The Senate passed a bill Monday night aimed at making it easier for states to collect sales taxes for online purchases, but its final prospects remain uncertain. Even so small online retailers are already thinking about the bill's potentially large impact on their operations." - from a recent USA Today article.

So now we will have a tax in store and online. Well, the only thing left to do is say goodbye to your money. That's lost forever to cyberspace in online fees.

Current Commercial Spaceflight | Out Of This World Weekly

2013-05-05T00:30:00.000-04:00

After the retirement of the Space Shuttle fleet, America’s hopes for spaceflight were put into the hands of commercial spaceflight. The idea was to fund competing corporations so that they could handle orbital space operations and free up NASA for other tasks like planetary probes, robotic exploration, and even manned lights to other planets like Mars. This would mean that NASA would be working on a new rocket, the SLS project, and not just abandoning manned spaceflight altogether. This SLS rocket would be designed for deep space flight to the Moon, asteroids, and beyond. Since this would be a extremely large and powerful rocket, low Earth orbit missions to the I.S.S. wouldn’t be a priority, as smaller rockets could do that job at much less cost. So the corporations received their government funding and after a series of trials to make sure that they were meeting their goals, they are showing that they have what it takes to take care of everything in Low Earth Orbit.

Lately, commercial spaceflight has made some notable advances. Orbital Sciences has achieved a successful launch of their Antares rocket last week, showing that they are proceeding towards launching cargo to the I.S.S. later this year. Orbital Sciences is the second corporation to achieve spaceflight, after their competitor SpaceX has not only launched into orbit but also achieved a successful resupply of the space station earlier this year. Both of these corporations have plans on making a manned module to fit on top of their rockets for manned trips to the space station, although it may take until 2017 before these manned flights are ready to go. Another successful recent test of Virgin Galactic’s Space Ship Two breaking the sound barrier while testing their rocket engines shows that this company continues on the right track toward commercial spaceflight. Their one seat aircraft captured the X Prize in 2004 and their new Space Ship two is set to handle up to six passengers and two pilots Even NASA’s Orion capsule continues to successfully undergo testing with that capsule’s parachutes to achieve a human rating on that craft.

There have been a few setbacks for the commercial space programs. NASA just re-upped their commitment with Russia to launch astronauts on the Soyuz rocket, costing $424 million. This additional cost may strip the commercial programs of the few hundred million dollars that they seem to be short and push back their programs by about another year or two, changing a possible 2015 manned flight back to 2017. This is all money that could be spent here in America on advancing our space program and is instead being sent to Russia. Did I mention that Russia is charging an additional $8 million per astronaut more than the last time we had to make a deal with them? It is also quite possible that if full funding cannot be found, then these dates will slip back farther and farther, leaving us to question when will we get back a manned launch capability. Progress is being made by real professionals who are shooting for realistic goals. It is only a matter of time and funding before manned commercial space flight becomes an everyday reality.