Mon, 30 Jan 2012 08:14:18 -0600 http://www.glideunderground.com/ Glide Underground Backend en-us http://www.glideunderground.com/images/logo.gif http://www.glideunderground.com/ http://www.glideunderground.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=4150 HotHardware looks at the brouhaha over Kingdoms of Amalur's content lock. Essentially, if you bought a new copy, you get some "free stuff" that may or may not already be on the disc. If you buy used, you have to pay EXTRA money to unlock a part of the single-player game. A number of people have declared this to be simple greed, but the situation isn't that simple. Consider this: When you buy a game from Gamestop, the studio gets nothing. Buying a used game and pirating the game outright are identical as far as their impact on the studio's revenue. That's inherently frustrating for developers, and the problem is made substantially worse by Gamestop itself. The problem, after all, isn't the fact that a used games market exists, but that the used games market is dominated by a single enormous company. Gamestop's monopoly on the used game market gives it the ability to set prices on what a used game should sell for, and the resulting sale is 100% profit for the company. Unlike the MPAA, which prohibits selling new and used games side-by-side, there's no such restriction at GS.I'm not the world's biggest Gamestop fan, but really, the used games market exists like a used market exists for just about every other product in the world. PC gamers don't get much of a used games market these days thanks to the Steam DRM lock, and it really annoys people and hurts the industry by making people less willing to buy a game that they may finish and want to give away to a friend. And the move to items you can't sell without breaking them hasn't come with decreasing prices, so consumers are even more leery of purchasing. I don't like the idea of the death of the used games market, which is definitely what the game publishers want to see happen. It's bad enough knowing that there are a set of games from my Xbox Live Marketplace downloads that, once the Xbox dies or Xbox360 is deprecated from Live (just like they did to the original Xbox and its DLC packs), the content is almost impossible to see again. Mon, 30 Jan 2012 08:14:18 -0600 http://www.glideunderground.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=4149 Say hello to a scientific analysis of how mathematically hard some classic games are. Location traversal and single-use paths, ala Pac-Man, is NP-hard. Pressure plates, ala Prince of Persia or Portal, is PSPACE-hard if there are two pressure plates, and NP-hard if only one is required to open a door. In the case of switches, one switch is P-hard, two is NP-hard, and three or more is PSPACE-hard. Viglietta then uses these characteristics to classify each of the 13 games. Boulder Dash, which involves traversing a map strewn with boulders, is NP-hard. Prince of Persia, thanks to its pressure plates, is PSPACE-complete. Doom, with its multiple switches, is PSPACE-hard (and Viglietta claims that most other FPSes and adventure games are the same).Regrettably, they don't have categories for games like Ninja Gaiden 3 or the original Castlevania, which qualify simply as "throw your controller at the wall repeatedly in frustration, Nintendo Hard." Fri, 27 Jan 2012 11:00:00 -0600 http://www.glideunderground.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=4148 SOPA/PIPA are dead, but could be revived. A SOPA-alike is being considered by Canada. ACTA is continually being pushed in Europe, despite the resignation of the EU's ACTA chief in disgust over attempts to push it through without required public comment and consideration of the EU governing bodies. Contact your representatives. WHEREVER you are. Fri, 27 Jan 2012 07:51:38 -0600 http://www.glideunderground.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=4147 The SOPA bill, sometimes called the "internet blacklist", has been shut down in the US House of Representatives. Its Senate counterpart, called "PIPA", is still alive. PIPA is less well known than SOPA, but the provisions are basicly the same. It still includes the same DNS blocking and censoring system that the original SOPA did, just without the SOPA name. There are around 40 co-sponsors of the bill in the Senate so far, with no word on how many senators support the bill in addition to that. There will most likely need to be 60 votes in the Senate in order to invoke cloture and end an almost guaranteed filibuster.Focus your attention on your Senators for now, but keep your eyes peeled in case SOPA tries to make a stealth return. Mon, 16 Jan 2012 09:13:33 -0600 http://www.glideunderground.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=4146 We all know: Google is king in the search engine business. But Microsoft's "Bing" search just went past Yahoo. Yahoo queries came in with 14.5% share, compared with 15.1% in November 2011 and 16.0% in December 2010. Microsoft’s Bing’s share of searches in December was 15.1%, compared with 15% in November 2011 and 12.0% in December 2010. Since Bing powers Yahoo search, combined the two search engine’s share of searches was 29.6%, compared with 30.1% in November 2011. AOL queries declined 8% in December with 1.6% share.Yahoo's brand loyalty is fading fast. Thu, 12 Jan 2012 07:19:48 -0600 http://www.glideunderground.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=4145 As the new year picks up steam... anyone for some halo? Thu, 12 Jan 2012 07:12:56 -0600 http://www.glideunderground.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=4144 This stuff just kinda writes itself. There's really not much more to say; it's just no help to anyone. Especially when it gets bad enough that someone tries to impersonate other people. I think Gabe says it best: this guy is just a bully. Tue, 27 Dec 2011 18:01:04 -0600 http://www.glideunderground.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=4143 This is too weird but true: the BBC is actually going to recover some lost Doctor Who episodes thanks to an anomaly in space bouncing TV signals back to earth on a 47-year time delay. They even have a screenshot from a Doctor Who episode recovered from the signals. Amazing! Wed, 14 Dec 2011 09:58:33 -0600 http://www.glideunderground.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=4142 ... is Pure Win. This is great. I'd advise snagging it with a downloader, just in case some wag from Paramount gets it taken down. Wed, 14 Dec 2011 09:34:06 -0600 http://www.glideunderground.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=4141 Just in time for your christmas shopping needs, Humble Indie Bundle 4 has gone live. Super Meat Boy's in this one, and if you beat the normal asking price, they'll throw in Cave Story+ and Gratuitous Space Battles as well. And remember, part of the proceeds go to Child's Play - a true worthy cause. Wed, 14 Dec 2011 06:51:03 -0600 http://www.glideunderground.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=4140 Two more classic Doctor Who episodes, thought destroyed, have been found in the hands of a private collector: Episode 3 of the William Hartnell adventure "Galaxy 4" and Episode 2 of Patrick Troughton's "The Underwater Menace" were purchased by film collector Terry Burnett at a village fete near Southampton in the early 80s. He had been unaware that the canisters contained material missing from the BBC. ... Over 100 episodes of Doctor Who from the 1960s still remain missing. The tapes were routinely wiped once the rights to repeat them had expired. It seems unfathomable to us today, but before the advent of DVDs and iPlayer, grainy black and white material was thought to no longer be of interest to the television audience. However, many film prints sold overseas have since been returned. These latest discoveries are the first complete episodes to have been located since 2004. Leaves hope that maybe a few more preserved episodes are still out there? Mon, 12 Dec 2011 12:07:16 -0600 http://www.glideunderground.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=4139 So, a few things I've been working on recently amid the busy holiday season: #1 - Zelda: Skyward Sword. First thoughts: Nintendo kinda missed on this one. Good setup/story? Yes. Controls? At first glance they seem really cool, until you realize that the Wiimote/Motionplus combo is still not sensitive enough to really pull off what they were going for (at least, compared to what Kinect has been able to do with things like Dance Central and Fruit Ninja). Plus, this is almost a game that requires standing up to play, which is harder to do when you're going to be doing it at 3-hour stints to get through the dungeons and areas. On the graphical side... the bigger your screen, the more complaints you're going to have. It's not nearly as good looking as Twilight Princess was - partly because the textures are lower res, partly because the game's internal rendering itself seems to be lower res - most probably, to account for the lost CPU power that's being dedicated to processing the MotionPlus system instead. If you've got an utter beast of a PC, it may actually be worth setting this up on Dolphin instead to render at high resolution. #2 - Skyrim. This is just eating up my time. I've put in probably over 90 hours since it came out, and I still don't feel like I'm anywhere past 10% of the game. I can't believe how much Bethesda got right with the game; I can't believe just how MUCH they managed to put into an absolutely humongous map. There are quests and bits and pieces everywhere. My only gripe so far: occasionally I'll trip over a "quest item" that can't be dropped until the quest completes - a few of them are glitched so you can't even drop them AFTER the quest involved completes. Some of these weigh nothing, which makes them easy to ignore, but the others... I'm out about 10 pounds of encumbrance due to crap the game just won't let me drop, and it's going to get worse before it gets better as I hunt down the quests these stupid things are attached to. Mon, 12 Dec 2011 08:05:22 -0600 http://www.glideunderground.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=4138 So, here's an interesting new concept - a D20-derivative RPG, being distributed as pay-what-you-want with some of the proceeds going to Child's Play. Over on RPG.Net you can see a review by one of the playtesters. Looks promising. Tue, 29 Nov 2011 06:43:45 -0600 http://www.glideunderground.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=4137 So it's time for another quickie review... this time, I've got X-Men Destiny on hand. If you're wondering, yes, it uses pretty much the same system that the other Activision/Marvel Beat-Em-Up titles have used for some time now - beat up bad guys, level up, add in token changes or select your powers. The upside is, this time around, you're in one of three "character roles". This ought to have been a chance for players to really strut their stuff, break the mold, do something different. Experiment with power combinations. Unfortunately, instead you get to choose three RPG roles - football jock, tiny asian girl, or the son of an anti-mutant activist (e.g. Warren Worthington by another name) followed by selecting whether you're a big bruiser type of the "Density Control" school, a frenzied attacker of the "Shadow Matter" school, or a my-hands-are-guns type from the "Energy Projection" school. If I didn't know better, I'd think some of the developers had gone back to the old Marvel Super Heroes RPG by TSR for some form of bizarre inspiration. In a vague attempt to put in some sort of relevance to storyline, most of the storyline missions involve following around existing, known mutant favorites to do things. There's supposed to be a set of choices to influence the storyline, but it's all pretty binary - you either do the X-Men thing, or you do what the Brotherhood of Evil Mutants wants you to do, and that's that. Since this is a beat-em-up cleverly disguised as an RPG, most of the "missions" and "challenge arenas" are merely orders to go beat up on bad guy mooks, mashing buttons until you reach a certain kill count or find the level boss. Sometimes, your AI friends will do things bordering on suicidal... no, I take that back, MOST of the time, your AI friends will do things bordering on suicidal. The only saving grace there is that the bosses of the game are just as suicidal, operating off of only the barest of "AI" along with repetitive patterns that make predicting and avoiding attacks and countering with your own mercifully easy. Oh, and at the end of it all, all those "choices" you made? Don't worry. The Brotherhood is always ready to embrace a turncoat, the X-Men always will take a stray back in with open arms, and your choices didn't really matter. Pick your side at the end, and that's that. One of the few things that sounded interesting, at first glance, was the ability to equip a part of a classic character's powers along with their costume (yes, you can put on Juggernaut's S&M suit, or Wolverine's garish yellow tights, or even Bobby Drake's... well... fruit of the looms). You do this by finding secret spots and items in the levels called "X-Genes", which you can then equip - equip an entire set, and you get an "X-Mode" boost to something or other, while you also have the option to mix and match. The downside is that you can do this at any time, swapping from Wolverine mode to Colossus mode to Iceman mode to some sort of weird amalgam or to any other mode on the fly. It's not exactly an intuitive idea, nor does it work well for the system; it's pretty hard to define a character whose main power is "I can be like anyone else I want to be", and it never really worked well for most of the other Marvel power-alikes either. But it's the latest X-Men game, so it should look good, right? All the work in the Marvel Ultimate Alliance engines and the other X-men titles coming together to make something good? Sadly, no - most of the textures seem to be re-treads, and a lot of the game's structure and visuals are just popped in from previous games as is. There are games that are launched finished. As in, really polished. There are games that launch unfinished, but patch later and have a good concept. There are games that some people will defend as a good concept even if the execution is terrible. And then there are the games that wind up in the bargain bin for 5 bucks. X-Men Destiny? Sorry to the guys from Silicon Knights, but... welcome to the 5 buck bin. Mon, 21 Nov 2011 19:29:38 -0600 http://www.glideunderground.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=4136 Gizmag has something that's just freaking cool: a concept watch made from a scaled-down model of the Antikythera Mechanism. Face it, this is amazing: Thu, 17 Nov 2011 13:04:28 -0600 http://www.glideunderground.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=4135 Sesame Street's got an odd request - does anybody know who this guy is? Apparently, some records weren't too well kept. Now they're trying to find him. Probably to see if he is still available for some form of a reunion of original Sesame Street actors. It kind of reminds me of the recent Princess Bride reunion photo... Mon, 14 Nov 2011 21:38:25 -0600 http://www.glideunderground.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=4134 Over in the San Francisco Chronicle, a fascinating interview with Tim Porter, Google's patent lawyer, on how the US patent system broke down. Q: Let's talk about Microsoft. They sued at least one of your Android partners and have pressured others into licensing agreements, arguing that they have patents that cover critical parts of the software. What do you make of that? A: Unfortunately, the way it works is you don't know what patents cover until courts declare that in litigation. What that means is people have to make decisions about whether to fight or whether to reach agreements. This is a tactic that Microsoft has used in the past, with Linux, for example. When their products stop succeeding in the marketplace, when they get marginalized, as is happening now with Android, they use the large patent portfolio they've built up to get revenue from the success of other companies' products.Read the whole thing - you'll be amazed. Mon, 07 Nov 2011 07:31:13 -0600 http://www.glideunderground.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=4133 Well, there goes my social life. Pirahna Games is going to launch the Mechwarrior reboot as a free to play MMO. A tactical sim MMO. From the interview: MechWarrior online, in keeping with the original games, will feature a variety of maps set across different environments and climates. In a universe where heat plays such a major role, with Mechs overheating from weapons fire and local temperature, that means different weather will make for very different tactics. But big difference from previous games will be urban combat. “One of the things we can do these days that previous games weren’t able to do well is urban combat,” Ekman says. “And it’s a cornerstone of MWO, this ability to actually fight in detailed urban settings.” Pirahna Games are also already taking username reservations over at their main site. Got mine done. Mon, 31 Oct 2011 15:40:23 -0500 http://www.glideunderground.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=4132 Just in time for Halloween, a Mock Zombie invasion. They actually pulled it off rather well, too. Delaware County is the first in Ohio to hold a zombie-themed hazardous materials exercise, according to the Ohio Emergency Management Agency, and other emergency officials around the state are keeping an eye on how things go. "They want to see what lessons we learn, and they like the idea of getting out the zombie preparedness message" about bracing for the unexpected," said Carter, the health district spokesman. "The other message that we're trying to convey is come be a zombie."Brains. Mon, 31 Oct 2011 07:51:18 -0500 http://www.glideunderground.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=4131 Come on Scientists. You can do it. All you have to do is invent Mr. Fusion - the Delorean guys have already come up with an all-electric DeLorean and are putting the finishing touches on it. Want. Definitely want. Tue, 18 Oct 2011 08:03:14 -0500 http://www.glideunderground.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=4130 If you're a fan of stealth and RPG titles, there's a new Shadowrun game coming down the pipe. Finally someone who won't mess it up and turn it into a freaking horrid FPS. Well, it will have a perspective camera in a 3D setting, much like our Jagged Alliance Online game, which we are currently developing. (for a peak at that one, you can go to http://www.digitaltrends.com/gaming/jagged-alliance-online-preview-a-classic-reborn-for-the-browser/ , who have the latest info from our gamescom version.) So, it will be a decent quality, but it won’t be what some call AAA. The reason for that is simple: We are doing a browser based game. This means anyone can access it at any time from their PC, no downloading, no hassle. But that also means we need to limit visuals. I hope you agree that gameplay is king, so we think the visuals are decent enough. Thu, 13 Oct 2011 07:19:19 -0500 http://www.glideunderground.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=4129 If you've ever wondered about Steve Jobs' inspirations: check this out. It's a 1971 article from Esquire magazine. As it seems, Wozniak and Jobs got together originally making little blue boxes, items that were used mostly to "phreak" the phone system. It's strange how those beginnings turned into the modern Apple story. Mon, 10 Oct 2011 07:24:26 -0500 http://www.glideunderground.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=4128 I'm sure there will be stories all over by tomorrow, but word just announced a few minutes ago by Apple is that Steve Jobs has passed away today. The man who helped bring the world Apple, who brought a lot of innovative products - not all successful, but many formative for the computing industry, including Mac OS X, which is probably the world's most-used implementation of FreeBSD - has lost the battle with pancreatic cancer. He'll be missed. Rest in peace, Steve Jobs. Wed, 05 Oct 2011 18:46:39 -0500 http://www.glideunderground.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=4127 Activision sends word they've kicked their newest Spider-Man adventure, "Spider-Man: Edge of Time", out the door: Santa Monica, CA - October 4, 2011 - Today, Spider-Man™ faces his greatest challenge ever - saving Spider-Man - in Spider-Man™: Edge of Time, available now in North American retail stores from Activision Publishing, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI). Created by Beenox - the studio that developed last year's popular Spider-Man™: Shattered Dimensions - players take the roles of both Peter Parker's Amazing Spider-Man, and Miguel O'Hara's Spider-Man 2099 in a harrowing, action-packed adventure, spanning two timelines 100-years apart in order to thwart a cataclysmic future from happening - and the death of Peter Parker. "Just like with Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions, Beenox is bringing a fresh perspective to the series with Spider-Man: Edge of Time," said David Oxford, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Activision Publishing, Inc. "Dee Brown and the team at Beenox worked closely with Marvel's own veteran writer and co-creator of Spider-Man 2099, Peter David, on a high-stakes narrative experience where the ultimate challenge is not only to save the world, but also save Spider-Man himself." "We're very excited to bring Spider-Man: Edge of Time to Marvel fans everywhere," said TQ Jefferson, Vice President of Games Production, Marvel Entertainment. "Activision and Beenox have managed to pack more fun, excitement and challenge into this game than their previous hit Spider-Man: Shattered Dimensions; and we're eager for fans - both new and old - to dive into Spidey's latest pulse-pounding adventure." Playing as the two extremely different personas of Peter Parker and Miguel O'Hara, both heroic web-slingers must urgently work together to correct a timestream gone awry, save each other, and prevent the death of the Amazing Spider-Man. With the story's two timelines evolving in parallel, each Super Hero must navigate through "cause-and-effect" gameplay moments, utilizing Spider-Man: Edge of Time's picture-in-picture display where the actions of one Spider-Man can result in immediate, and sometimes unexpected, effects on the other Spider-Man and his surroundings. Players will battle a variety of fan-favorite and all-new villains, including Anti-Venom and Black Cat 2099, using expanded combat abilities specific to each timeline - from Spider-Man 2099's close-quarters brute force, futuristic enhancements and gravity-defying acrobatics, to the Amazing Spider-Man's evasive techniques, upgraded web abilities and ranged tactics, as they race against time to preserve the balance of both worlds. The game includes an all-star voice cast, beginning with legendary film star Val Kilmer as Walker Sloan; Smallville and V mainstay Laura Vandervoort as Mary Jane; Battlestar Galactica's Katee Sackhoffas Black Cat; "The Spectacular Spider-Man's" Josh Keaton as the Amazing Spider-Man; and Christopher Daniel Barnes, who voiced the iconic Marvel web-slinger in the 1994 "Spider-Man" series, as the voice of Spider-Man 2099. Spider-Man: Edge of Time is rated "T" for Teen by the ESRB and is available on the Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system, Wii™ and Nintendo 3DS™, all developed by Beenox. The Nintendo 3DS edition marks the debut of Spider-Man on Nintendo's newest platform. A Nintendo DS™ version, created by developer Other Ocean, is also available and features a platforming adventure full of unique villains, such as the first-ever appearances of Overdrive, Arcade and Big Wheel 2099, created exclusively for this version. Tue, 04 Oct 2011 07:52:55 -0500 http://www.glideunderground.com/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=4126 If you haven't seen this short mini-documentary, go see it. Reality and Deus Ex are closer than we think. Tue, 27 Sep 2011 15:46:42 -0500