Pre-Order Bonus for Hitman: Absolution Outed in Magazine
If you happen to look through the newest issue of Game Informer, you will come across an advertisement for Hitman: Absolution. However, in that advertisement is a reveal of a pre-order bonus that has previously been unannounced for Absolution. Gamers who pre-order at GameStop will get access to The Sniper Challenge DLC, which includes an exclusive rifle and "replayable sniping mission." That mission is part a of Square Enix competition looking for the highest sniping scores, with the winner receiving a prize package. What the prize package contains is unknown, but perhaps developer IO Interactive will reveal that on Thursday as part of its impending announcement. Hopefully that and more will be shown off in just a short amount of time.
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Portal 2 Perpetual Testing Initiative DLC Arrives Today
Portal 2 owners can finally try their hands on the easy-to-use level editor, as the Perpetual Testing Initiative DLC has arrived today for the PC and Mac. Steam should already have started the download for the DLC, but if not then just reload the client. Once PTI is downloaded, you can try your hand at making any number of puzzles that you can dream up. You can then put your puzzle on the Steam Workshop so other Portal 2 owners can give it a try and leave you any feedback. Any puzzles you select will be automatically downloaded, so you will not have to worry about any kind of an installation process to jump through. Just fire up Portal 2, launch the user content section, and start playing to see if any other gamers are as diabolical as GLaDOS. Remember, testing is a necessary part of Aperture Science, so do your part or Cave Johnson will fire you!
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Thermaltake Releases Water 2.0 Liquid Cooling Solution
Thermaltake has announced an new all-in-one liquid cooling solution, continuing where it left off with the Aquarius and Big Water systems. Water 2.0 is a closed loop system that features a CPU block, radiator, and fans. There will be two models immediately available, the Performer and Pro, with the Extreme edition to be released in July. The closed loop solution provides an extremely easy way for those new to liquid cooling to jump into it feet first. The Water 2.0 Performer features 120mm fans and a 25mm think radiator, while the Pro Series has a 49mm thick radiator. The Extreme edition will have a 240mm x 25mm radiator with support for up to four 120mm fans. The Performer is available for $69.99, the Pro has an MSRP of $99.99, and the Extreme will release with a price tag of $129.99.
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Grim Dawn Surpasses Kickstarter Goal - Still Going Higher
The Kickstarter page for Grim Dawn still has ten days remaining, but it will not need those to obtain its goal. The $280,000 goal for Grim Dawn has been surpassed, and right now is nearly to $300,000. This means Crate Entertainment has the funding it requires to ensure Grim Dawn can release by its projected August 2013 date. The new ARPG from the veterans that brought us the stellar Titan Quest takes a different approach with Grim Dawn, as it is a post-apocalyptic action RPG with non-linear progression. This means you can follow the main story or go off exploring on your own to open up new areas, including higher-level ones. Crate Entertainment is catering Grim Dawn to the fans, and now with the Kickstarter goal reached, it will be completed. There is still time left to donate to secure your copy of the game, plus every little bit over the goal means more content that can be added.
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Light and Air to Fuel Biofuel Cells
An old and well known law of physics is that energy is never created or destroyed, just transferred and converted. In a car engine, the chemical energy in the gasoline is converted to pressure to move the piston, which is then converted into the mechanical energy needed to drive the wheels. Researchers at the University of Leeds are looking into a new way to convert the energy of light into electricity using a biofuel cell.
All fuel cells work by separating two parts of an electrochemical reaction. In a hydrogen fuel cell, oxygen is stored on one side of a barrier and hydrogen on the other. The protons of the hydrogen can pass through the barrier but the electrons cannot, so they take the long way around, creating an electric current. When reunited, the electrons and protons make water with the oxygen atoms. Separately, the oxygen and hydrogen atoms have more energy than the final water molecule, and it is this difference which is converted to electricity.
The new biofuel cells the researchers are working on will use light or hydrogen to stimulate the bacteria at one of the two electrodes. The stimulation will cause electrons to want to flow to the other electrode, but like in the hydrogen fuel cell, they have to take the long way. Similar technology to this already exists, but it is not meant to be a power source. The researchers will be working on improving the efficiency of these systems, and potentially biofuel cells in general.
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Super Meat Boy Creator Bashes Mobile Gaming Tactics
Edmund McMillen, creator of Super Meat Boy and The Binding of Isaac, does not have very many kind things to say about the current state of mobile gaming. McMillen's problem stems from "manipulative money making tatics" that charge players for in-game items or require repetitve tasks to get something. He says the mobile game developers have no respect for the players and view the audience as "dumb cattle." A mobile (or casual) gamer can do the same tasks over again to unlock an item, but then they can also pay a small amount to unlock another or an even larger amount to unlock everything. That way you do not even have to play the game in order to have all the content unlocked. McMillen goes on to say that tactic is a "slap in the face to actual game design and embodies everything that is wrong with the mobile/casual video game scene." Those are strong words and he does have a point.
Despite his disdain for mobile gaming, McMillen and Team Meat are moving along with Super Meat Boy: The Game for iOS devices. The team is approaching it with "very open eyes" and have a goal to respect the players once the iOS game launches.
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Cleaning Up Oil Spills with Microsubmarines
When most people think of the potential uses for microsubmarines, which are one tenth the width of a human hair in length, they most likely envision the tiny vessel swimming through the human body, delivering medicine wherever it is needed. Scientists are not like most people though. As reported in the American Chemical Society's journal Nano, these technological marvels can be used to clean up oil spills.
Despite their incredibly small size, these submarines can travel with great speed through water. This allows them to quickly grab a droplet of oil and move it to where it can actually be recollected. To help with collecting the oil, the outside of the submarines have been coated in a superhydrophobic material that also absorbs oil.
Already the microsubs have proven effective at cleaning up olive oil and motor oils spills in a laboratory. Potentially we will find these machines in the oceans when a massive spill occurs, or in factories, to clean up contaminated water before it can leak out.
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Kyocera Hydro: the Submersible Smartphone
With only two underwhelming smartphones released in recent memory, Kyocera isn't exactly a brand name you'd normally associate with mobile phones. The company is hoping to improve on that with its Hydro waterproof handset, an Ice Cream Sandwich-equipped device that can be submerged underwater at a depth of up to one meter and a span of 30 minutes.
While its 3.2 MP camera, 1GHz CPU and 3.5-inch 480 x 320 display aren't cutting edge, the Kyocera Hydro tries to make up for these shortcomings with its IPS LCD, a relatively unchanged Android 4.0 OS, and a dearth of connectivity options such as EV-DO Rev. A, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR and of course, 802.11n (WiFi). The generally comfortable plastic exterior design should also appeal to Kyocera's target market: budget-minded mobile phone users who'd prefer a smartphone that doesn't mind getting wet every now and then.
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Art of Studying Brain Cells Taught to Robots
When studying how the brain works non-invasive scans are not always good enough and more direct methods are needed to collect data. Whole-cell patch clamping involves using a pipette to open a small pore in the membrane of a brain cell. The electrical activity of the cell can then be recorded through the hole. It takes a graduate student or postdoc months to learn how to do this, but that does not prevent it from being boring.
Researchers at MIT and the Georgia Institute of Technology (GIT) have together created a robot that can also perform the art of whole-cell patch clamping. This could hugely advance neuroscience as so few labs are able to perform this time consuming and delicate procedure. The robot is able to scan through the brain with the pipette moving just two micrometers at a time. When it encounters a cell, the robot stops and collects data, just as a human would. However, the robot is able to detect cells 90% of the time, which is considerably better than what a human can do.
This method can also be used to the collect genetic information of individual cells, which would greatly increase our understanding of neurons. Currently the primary feature used to classify neurons is their shape, which tells us a lot, but not the whole story. The researchers also hope to add additional pipettes to the robot, so multiple cells can be studied at the same time, as well as how they communicate with each other.
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Leisure Suit Larry Remake Release Slides to 2013
Much to the delight of Larry's fans, the Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards HD remake is in full development swing thanks to its successful $655,000 Kickstarter funding. The original game's risqué premise should still be intact when its modern version is released not in October as originally planned, but sometime in 2013. Replay Games' Paul Trowe explains that rather than joining in on the Christmas video game chaos, they chose to skip the holiday season instead to allow for more time to polish Leisure Suit Larry. Fortunately, the longer development cycle and extra funding generated will give Replay Games a chance to further enhance Larry's erotic misadventures with "more rooms, another girl, and all new dialogue in the game."
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Astonishing Toy Car Transforms Into a Robot All by Itself
JS Robotics and Kenji Ishida has created a toy that disguises itself as a car, and transforms into a robot all by itself. In robot mode the machine can apparently perform uppercuts and is nimble enough to walk around on its two legs. The 22 servo motors underneath the toy's hood makes it possible to shapeshift from car to robot, and vice versa. Based on the video the Version 8 build isn't big on aesthetics, but is still quite an impressive achievement considering how fluid the toy shifts from a four-wheeled vehicle to a fully-moving two-legged robot. Isn't this a whole lot cooler than any other Transformers toy out there?
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