IT-Code-News: IT News Head Lines (TweakTown) 11/12/2013

Russia to open the Commercial Space Station hotel, in space, by 2016
I haven't traveled too much in my life, but if there's one place I'd love to visit it would be space, and it looks like it's becoming more of a reality each day, especially thanks to Russia.

Orbital Technologies, a Russian company, has announced plans to build a hotel... in space. The hotel would be for commercial use, and is officially known as the Commercial Space Station, which will be capable of housing 7 guests throughout 4 cabins. The Commercial Space Station will float about the Earth at 350km, with guests enjoying the zero-gravity feel.

There'll be no flowing water, so if you want to shower, you'll have to use wet wipes. What about going to the bathroom? Well, that will be carried through flowing air, with both water and air being filtered and recycled in the satellite itself, and then reused by the occupants of the hotel. There is a strict no-alcohol law on the space hotel, too.
How much are you having to slap down for this? Well, it'll cost you close to $1 million, but this will include a 5-day stay on the Commercial Space Station, and a two-day trip from the Space Station in a Soyuz rocket. Orbital Technologies' space hotel is currently in development, and it will launch by 2016.

Suit up! Canadian tailor takes orders on bulletproof suits
It looks like Canadian tailor shop Garrison Bespoke is about to get a slew of orders from Wall Street, as the tailor shop is now taking orders for a bulletproof suit. Yes, a suit that is capable of taking a few bullets, if you want to look good while doind so.

Garrison specializes in luxury, so you shouldn't be surprised with the bulletproof suit starting price of $20,000. The bulletproof suit features carbon nanotubes in a layer under the fabric of the suit, which harden on impact to both stop bullets and knife blades. Of course, the technology was originally developed for US military applications.
Tailor, Michael Nguyen, says: "After receiving requests from high-profile clients who travel to dangerous places for work, we set out to develop a lightweight, fashion-forward bulletproof suit as a more discreet and stylish alternative to wearing a bulky vest underneath."
The material is reportedly more flexible than Kevlar, and it also weighs half that of Kevlar, too. What good is the suit, if you don't know it's bulletproof until you're shot, or stabbed? Well, Garrison hosted an event to show off the bulletproof suit, firing 9mm rounds into the suit that didn't penetrate the vest.

Kim Dotcom's Mega service is no longer in beta
Kim Dotcom's cloud storage service, Mega, has exited its 'beta' label and is now featuring huge improvements, optimizations and a fresh new look. The new interface is said to have lowered CPU consumption, as well as some snips here and there within the code that should make it load faster.

The new, non-beta Mega also allows your session to be cached within your web browser, which should increase the speed of logins, as it'll only require the most recent of changes to be loaded from the Mega servers. Not only this, but you can now set your profile picture up, which will reflect in the contact lists of your friends in real-time.

Mega users can also dive in and check the progress of just how many files a specific user is sharing with you, as well as each file's last modification date, and time. Later this month, iOS users can expect a Mega app which will also be accompanied by a sync client, which will be nice. Early next year, we can expect Mega to unleash its encrypted messaging and chat services.

Tesla Model S owner had his car catch fire, says he'd buy another
We reported during the week that a third Model S electric car had burst into flames, with the Tennessee owner only sustaining relatively minor damage to the Model S, but it ended with his car bursting into flames.

Juris Shibayama has posted a blog talking about this experience, where he reported that he drove over a "trailer hitch" and could not avoid it, where it went below his car. He felt a definitive "thud" as the hitch smacked the bottom of his car, where he said it "felt as though it even lifted the car up in the air." After a few in-car warnings that his "car needs service. Car may not restart," he pulled over - all the while he was able to maintain full control of his Model S electric car.
He was not injured in the event, and even said that "Had I not been in a Tesla, that object could have punched through the floor and caused me serious harm. From the time of impact of the object until the time the car caught fire was about five minutes. During this time, the car warned me that it was damaged and instructed me to pull over. I never felt as though I was in any imminent danger. While driving after I hit the object until I pulled over, the car performed perfectly, and it was a totally controlled situation. There was never a point at which I was anywhere even close to any flames."
The best bit? Shibayama says he'd even buy another Model S, where he finished with: "This experience does not in any way make me think that the Tesla Model S is an unsafe car. I would buy another one in a heartbeat." I think I would be the same - the car was not the issue, and as he said, if he weren't in the Model S, it could've been a far worse accident, potentially even fatal.

PS4-exclusive features for Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls
While the PS4 version of Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls will reportedly render everything at 1080p at the fluid 60 frames per second, it should also feature touchpad support and shorter load times. Polygon is reporting that one of the bigger features to the PS4 version will be something called "Avenger Kills."

In the "Ultimate Evil" edition of Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls for the PS4, "Avenger Kills" will see a player die after being killed by a monster, that monster could level up and jump through a special portal. Once through the portal, the monster will target a player on your friends list. Once your friend comes online, that monster will appear during a special event, where the skies will darken and the player will receive a warning, such as "Matthew's Bane" - a special title - is hunting them. If this monster is successful in killing the player, it will level up once more, becoming the "Bane" of that character, and receiving a new target to kill.
There are other gameplay additions, which are built around a shared experience for the player, even if they're not all playing the game at the same time, like Avenger Kills, above. Senior Level Designer, Matthew Berger, has said: "I'm going to be running around, killing monsters and a Legendary will drop," he said, "and then - cue awesome sound, column of light - a box, a gift will pop off that Legendary. It's going to say 'Gift for Michael.' I'm going to pick it up and send it to you."

Xbox One consoles begin shipping to some lucky consumers early
The Xbox One doesn't launch for just over a week, but some lucky gamers have received their next generation Microsoft consoles, and provided the Internet with quite the weekend buzz. First off, the mandatory day-one update was required, something I thought MS wouldn't pump out until the day of the Xbox One's release, which is a good thing for these lucky gamers.

Next up we have the game installation sizes, which seem to vary between 12GB or so right up to 43GB for NBA 2K14, which is just gigantic. Call of Duty: Ghosts is a 39GB installation, Madden 25 is a 12GB installation, and for a few others we have: NBA Live 14 at 9GB, Forza Motorsport 5 at 31GB, Ryse: Son of Rome is a 34GB installation, and Dead Rising 3 is 19GB. Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag slots onto the Xbox One's HDD at 20GB, which isn't too bad, with a game like Just Dance 2014 taking up more with a 22GB installation.
Someone has said that the Xbox One takes around 17 seconds to boot up and get into the dashboard, which isn't too bad at all.

Want a 20-inch 4K tablet? Sure, that'll be $6,000, thanks
With 2014 nearly here, the 4K revolution is reaching closer and closer with each passing day. Well, now we have Panasonic unveiling its new Toughpad 4K UT-MB5, which is the world's first 4K tablet, and it has some impressive specs.

The Toughpad 4K UT-MB5 is a gigantic 20-inch slate, which is powered by an Intel Core i5 vPro processor, 8GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD, 2GB of VRAM, a 720p front-facing camera, and the full Windows 8.1 Pro OS. So, we're not talking mediocre specs, we're talking about a decent PC, with a beautiful 20-inch 4K display. As for how tough it is, the slate can sustain "a 30-inch drop to its back while operating, and 12-inch drops to 26 angles when nonoperational."
Just how much will this new 20-inch 4K slate cost you? Well, $5,999. You can expect the Toughpad 4K UT-MB5 in January 2014.

No 3D Blu-ray playback for the Xbox One at launch
It looks like the Xbox One will not be supporting 3D Blu-ray movies at launch, even after the kerfuffle Microsoft went through to get Blu-ray support onto its next-gen console. The news is coming directly from Larry "Major Nelson" Hryb, who has vaguely confirmed both 3D and 4K output for the Xbox One.

But, during his most recent interview with CNET, Major Nelson said that the Xbox One will not be capable of playing back 3D Blu-ray movies. He did note that 3D Blu-ray playback hasn't been ruled out, and that it could arrive in a future update to the Xbox One. I have no idea why Microsoft would do this, it feels like both next-gen consoles are pretty gimped from launch, you would think they'd both have features spilling out of them, but it seems like the physical hardware launches are now like games these days - in beta form for months after release.

Batman: Arkham Origins PC Review

Until a few years ago, most superhero games, and especially Batman, were seen as a bit of a joke. Quick cash ins that publishers pushed out to meet film release dates that really sullied the brand more than grew it. However, then Rocksteady Studios came to the party - a developer clearly in love with the Batman brand and the right fit for the franchise. Rather than align with a film, Rocksteady came up with its own storyline and took on the more gritty Batman character from the most recent films. It was a success, but this time around we have a new developer on the case and a prequel - two things that generally can lead to trouble. For the most part, it hasn't, but where the spit and polish usually has been seen in recent Batman games, it doesn't appear here.
Batman: Arkham Origins is a prequel set before Batman: Arkham Asylum. For one night only, a bounty has been placed on Batman and the world's most fearsome criminals come to town, intent on taking down the masked bat. Batman sets out to discover not only who the criminals are and to take them down, but also who put the bounty on his head. If the storyline sounds generic, that because it is, but it does keep the game ticking along somewhat.

From a gameplay perspective, not much has changed for Origins. Batman still has his trusty gadgets to get around and the gameplay revolves around punching people a lot, solving puzzles and traversing open-world space. Those who have played Arkham City will find no surprises here and that is perhaps the biggest problem with Arkham Origins - it just seems all too familiar.
That's not to say there isn't interesting elements to the game. One of the key changes is being a prequel, Batman is not the most well-known character in the universe. You will fight cops and other law enforcement agencies trying to take you down as you are not acknowledged as actually doing some good. This flips the series on its head a bit with the previous two games acknowledging Batman as well known and not just a rumor on the street.
There are other slight changes as well, including new gadgets to play around with like the remote claw. This is used heavily in the puzzle sections of the game with Batman regularly tasked with having to pull objects apart or towards him to progress, along with other weaponry like the electric gloves, allowing Batman to combat electricity based enemies a lot easier, but overall the formulaic approach to the gadgets remains the same. However, one area where that has seen major change is getting around the city.
Where in the previous game you had to traverse the entire city yourself, in Arkham Origins, there is a fast travel system. Employing a method like that seen in Far Cry 3, for example, you have to take out radio towers around the city to gain access with the Batwing. It is possible to complete the game without actually taking these down in general, but it does mean a lot more combat and time between missions. It generally is worth taking the towers down. Using fast travel can see you miss one of the other additions to the game, the side missions on offer which are known as crime in progress and basically are like random events scattered throughout the city.

One of the key tasks that you will take on during the game is detective sequences. Throughout the game, there are crime scenes littered where you need to figure out what happened. This is actually thoroughly enjoyable and generally not too difficult to solve. Batman can recreate the crime scene by rewinding time digitally, finding new evidence and interrogating criminals. This fits into the Batman ethos well and we'd be happy to see this retained for future games. Batman also has the ability to use detective mode to find breakable walls and other environmental puzzles as well.
Aside from this though, we often wondered why we were actually performing the tasks we were. The game is narratively sound, but it just at times wasn't enjoyable to perform the tasks which are on offer in the game. It's entirely possible that this is franchise fatigue to an extent, but there are a few areas where the game feels a little phoned in.
There are also some technical issues with the game we encountered. There was a sequence after which the game got stuck on a loading screen forcing us to restart and from what we have seen, the technical problems were not unique to our play through.
Multiplayer also makes its debut in this title and again the fear is that this has been forced in to boost the sales of the product, rather than add to the series. The single player campaign is actually fairly short this time around, clocking in at about seven to eight hours. The multiplayer itself is quite interesting with three teams in play; two gangs and Batman and Robin. The hero gameplay is quite a bit different to the other two, with those teams basically playing a team based first person shooter, whilst Batman and Robin have to play in a stealth manner - caught unawares and they fall easily. It's an interesting twist and reminds us of the mercenary's mode from Splinter Cell.

The aim for the hero characters is to build their intimidation level to its max. This plays right into the ethos of the series and fits the universe well. The gangs themselves have to defeat each other for victory. So basically, the law enforcers (Batman) have to stop the gangs from fighting each other, and also remain alive. It's nice to see that Warner Brothers thought of something new for this game mode as opposed to just throwing in team death match, for example.
On the PC at least the graphics are impressive to say the least with a grizzled Batman taking down enemies in a fluid motion and with some stunning animation. The game moves along at a fast pace most of the time and despite the large environments and long draw distance, even with an older PC, you should be able to handle this game quite well. Those with higher powered machine are in for a treat with Warner Brothers putting a huge effort into making a beautiful game.

The environment you traverse, Gotham City, is quite detailed as well, although we do not think it is as full of activity as the previous title. Moving between each area is made easy by the bat claw being able to attach to buildings, and there generally wasn't a hint of pop in as we made our way through each mission. The radar in general gives you an idea of where to go, but occasionally it can be difficult to find because the indicator does not for example tell you that the target is on a roof, or on the ground.
There is a scene early on in the game when Batman returns to the Batcave. Batman informs Alfred of the bounty on his head and that he needs to take the criminals out. The paraphrased reply from Alfred is basically if Batman stays in for the night, he will have no danger, and the bounty will not be filled. It was a poetic moment that got us wondering about this game and whether it should have stayed on the drawing board. The answer to that question is no because it is a solid outing for the winged man, but if you come into this game expecting a revolution, not just an evolution, then you will be disappointed.

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Monday, November 11, 2013

IT News Head Lines (TweakTown) 11/12/2013

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