Batman Getting New Moves and Animations in Batman: Arkham Knight
So over the past week, we got the official announcement of Batman: Arkham Knight and some details about the story and the Batmobile, but what about Batman himself? Today, Game Informer posted a video about "The Animation of Arkham Knight." In the video, lead animator Zafer Coban mentions that Batman has been given a few new combat moves centered around "weapon steal," which includes being able to pick up objects on the ground and use them against an enemy, or even rip off a piece of wall and smash the enemy's face in. While in the previous games you always had to be aware of enemies picking up objects to use against you, Arkham Knight marks the first time you'll actually be able to do the same.
In addition to the new combat moves, a lot of the animations have been tweaked to provide more seamless transitions, not only between moves, but also between gameplay and cinematics. Coban also promises a lot more variations in animations. A lot of Batman's animations are captured in Rocksteady Studios' motion-capture studio, shown in the video, except for the most "crazy dynamic moves that you'll see in combat," simply because humans-not-named-Batman are a bit too sluggish.
Source: Game Informer
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Costume Quest 2 Coming to PC and Consoles Halloween 2014
Double Fine Productions is one of the most beloved American development studios, producing such cult classics like Psychonauts, Brütal Legend, and of course, Costume Quest. Yet no matter how much fans have enjoyed Double Fine's games, the studio has yet to produce a sequel for anything...until now.
Founder Tim Schafer told IGN today that Costume Quest 2 is in full production and will arrive in time for Halloween 2014 (because a game like Costume Quest can arrive at no other time of the year). According to publisher Midnight City, Wren and Reynold will return from the first game with a "new batch of costumes with which to transform into giant super powered fantasy Hallowarriors." It will also feature a "deeper and juicier" battle system.
If Costume Quest 2 is commercially successful, does that mean we will finally get the Psychonauts sequel fans have been clamoring for since its 2005 release? I guess we'll have to wait and see. In the mean time, enjoy this rather odd Costume Quest 2 Announcement Trailer:
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COUGAR Peripherals Win iF Design Award
A pair of gaming peripherals from COUGAR, the 700M mouse and 700K keyboard, have won iF International Design Awards for 2014. The aluminum framed devices were in development for two years and it appears that the effort has paid off. The concept for the 700M is "one of a "vertebrate" with metal support for “bones”." This allows for ergonomic adjustments, giving each user the ability to customize their mousing experience. The 700K was inspired by "military “stealth warships” technology, the design is created from elements of geometric facets: mechanical key modules are mounted on an exposed, bent aluminum structure with premium anodized surface treatments, enabling more efficient typing bolstered by providing the players wrist support points."
Source: Press Release
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Thermaltake Announces Urban T81 Case
The Urban T81 is the latest case from Thermaltake, built using the full tower form factor and featuring several interesting design elements. The first is a side panel inspired by automotive "suicide doors," opening outward from the center. The hard drive and optical drive cages are fully modular, allowing users to customize how they wish to build their case. Cages can be moved around or removed entirely to help make room for large water cooling setups. The case comes bundled with three 200mm fans and a single 140mm fan with space for an additional 140mm fan and three more 120mm fans.
Source: Press Release
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The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing II Releasing April 17 on Steam
Hungarian indie studio NeocoreGames has announced that the sequel to the generally well-received action-RPG The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing, cleverly titled The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing II, will be arriving on April 17 for Windows PC and Mac. Van Helsing II seemingly improves upon the original game in every way. While the original game featured just one character class with forty skills and a level cap of 30, the sequel offers three character classes with over 200 skills and a level cap of 60. Neocore has provided a handy comparison chart that you can see below, which outlines the above changes and many more. Neocore also published the trailer below, along with six new screenshots.
Pre-ordering the game from Neocore's online store grants immediate access to the Closed Beta for the starting price of $15, which also nets you a few other pre-order bonuses. There are also additional packs with further bonuses, priced at $25, $50, $200, and even $1000. There's also a co-op pack for $150, which provides you with four copies of the $50 Epic Pack.
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Colored Diamonds for Inspecting Magnetic Fields in Superconductors
Like many other gemstones and mineral, diamond can come in many colors, depending on the impurities it contains. When we learned how to synthesize diamonds, we also learned how to control their color by injecting different atoms, and as it turns out special properties can come with those colors. Now researchers at the Universities of California, Berkeley and Los Angeles, and Ben-Gurion University of Negev want to use one of those special properties to probe high temperature superconductors with unprecedented accuracy.
By bombarding a synthetic diamond with nitrogen atoms, it is possible to knock out some of the carbon atoms, either leaving a nitrogen atom in its place, or an empty hole. Heating the diamond can allow the holes and nitrogen atoms to move around and pair up, creating nitrogen-vacancy centers. These regions are very sensitive to magnetic fields and obey quantum mechanics, which lends to their sensitivity. The researchers are using this sensitivity by building magnetic field sensors with them and connecting them to a chip along with a high temperature superconductor. As the temperature drops, the researchers can watch as the magnetic field vanishes, signaling the transition to superconductivity.
At the same time the material became superconducting, the researchers also caught magnetic vortices forming and disappearing. The researchers hope to use the diamond-based sensor to learn more about those vortices, and how they may impact superconductivity and superconductors.
Source: University of California, Berkeley
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Vimeo On Demand Turns One Year Old
Vimeo On Demand, in celebrating its first birthday, has made some refinements to its service. A new program, known as the Audience Development Program, is being implemented which provides websites, subtitles, and marketing for titles that have been accepted to certain film festivals or raised over $10,000 on select crowdfunding platforms. Vimeo On Demand now also features collections, which sorts titles based on their genre and allows users of the service to find movies within specific categories. The service has incorporated a new user interface too, which not only looks more professional and appealing, but is supposed to mimic titles being available at brick and mortar stores.
Source: Vimeo Staff Blog
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Mt. Gox Files Bankruptcy within US
Just last month, it was reported that bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox vanished from the Internet. At the time, the website for the major exchange was unavailable and over 744,000 bitcoins were supposedly missing due to malleability-related theft. In all, Mt. Gox lost around $474 million worth of bitcoins due to a software algorithm flaw that underlies bitcoin, according to the exchange. A major investigation is ongoing however, which may provide different information regarding the loss of bitcoins. Now, the major bitcoin exchange has filed for bankruptcy within the United States, seeking protection against various lawsuits that have been filed by customers of Mt. Gox. If the bankruptcy petition is approved, claims against the company will be halted temporarily.
The bankruptcy filing was made by the only board member of Mt. Gox, Mark Karpeles. The case is identified as Mt. Gox Co Ltd, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Northern District of Texas, No. 14-31229.
Source: PCWorld and Reuters
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NVIDIA Releases GeForce 335.23 WHQL Drivers
With the highly anticipated Titanfall launching tomorrow, NVIDIA wanted to ensure all its users had the best experience possible on day one. New NVIDIA GeForce drivers, 335.23 WHQL, have been released today, "designed to provide optimum performance and stability" in Titanfall.
While Titanfall is the focus, the drivers also provide enhanced GPU offset options for the GTX 750 Ti and GTX 750, along with updated SLI profiles for Bound by Flame, Diablo III, DOTA 2, Need for Speed Rivals, and Watch Dogs. Whoever is able to play Watch Dogs right now, more than two months prior to release, I'm super jealous! NVIDIA 3D Vision has also been updated in Call of Duty: Ghosts to include an in-depth laser sight, with Thief now rated "Good" and Titanfall also getting a "Good" rating.
The GeForce 335.23 WHQL driver can be downloaded from the GeForce website or within GeForce Experience.
Source: NVIDIA
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House of Cards Now Available to Comcast Customers
While the first season of House of Cards has been available for purchase on other services such as Amazon Instant Video and VUDU, it remained largely unavailable through cable providers. Comcast is now changing the trend however, with a new pact between Sony, which handles home video and international distribution of House of Cards. The major cable provider has struck a deal with Sony Picture Home Entertainment, in which the latter allows the former to sell customers the popular television series through its newly launched Xfinity Store. Comcast customers who would like to watch the first season of House of Cards can purchase access to the television show without a Netflix subscription.
Source: Variety
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Sony and Panasonic Unveil Archival Disc, a Next-Gen Optical Disc with up to 1TB Capacity
Sony and Panasonic have announced the creation of "a new professional-use next-generation optical disc standard," which they're calling "Archival Disc." Both companies plan to release 300GB versions Summer 2015, with 500GB and 1TB versions planned beyond that. For comparison, the standard Blu-ray format supports up to 50GB, though there are BDXL discs with capacities of 100GB and 128GB. Either way, we're looking at significantly greater storage capacity through this new format.
The Archival Discs are currently double-sided with three layers per side, and can only be written to once. According to the press release, "In recent times, demand for archival capabilities has increased significantly in the film industry, as well as in cloud data centers that handle big data, where advances in network services have caused data volumes to soar." It is unclear at this time whether the format will makes its way to the consumer sector. Pricing is also unavailable at this time.
Source: Press Release
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Apple Releases iOS 7.1
Starting today, users who own an Apple iPhone 4 or later, iPad 2 or later, iPad mini or later, or 5th generation iPod touch can download and install the latest iOS version to their device, known as version 7.1. The update, which has been in beta for quite some time before the official release, brings a wealth new content and fixes to the aforementioned devices. One notable feature addition is CarPlay, which allows iPhone users to connect their device to a CarPlay supported vehicle and control Siri, along with other applications, with the vehicle's controls. Apple has fixed bugs and added additional functionality in various iOS features and applications such as Calendar, iTunes Radio, and Siri. iOS 7.1 promises improved performance on the iPhone 4 as well, while all devices will see updated user interface refinements.
iOS 7.1 can be downloaded from iTunes or from an over-the-air update.
Source: Apple
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Transparent and Colored Solar Cells Created
Many people already dream of a day when traditional glass windows can be replaced with transparent solar cells, but what about a stained glass window? Thanks to researchers at the University of Michigan, that future looks to be a possibility as they have created transparent, colored solar cells.
The traditional solar cells we can find on some buildings are made of silicon and are a simple black in color. These new cells however are comprised of a layer of amorphous silicon and two semi-transparent electrodes, of which one is an organic material. This combination of organic and inorganic allows the cell to be ten times thinner than traditional amorphous silicon cells, as it replaces a thick doped layer. What gives the cell their colors are changes in the thickness of the amorphous silicon, with 6 nm thick corresponding to blue and 31 nm corresponding to red. Other color solar cells have relied on dyes and microstructures, but these can blur images placed behind them.
As can be expected, giving the solar cells a color has the tradeoff of reducing their efficiency, with one of the constructed cells only achieving 2% efficiency. With further work and new materials though, it may be possible to bring that number up, making colorful, solar-cell windows a useful endeavor.
Source: University of Michigan
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Tales from the Borderlands SXSW Panel Now Available Online
Tales from the Borderlands was announced at the VGX Awards back in December, but few details apart from the announcement trailer were unveiled. This past Saturday, at sXSW 2014, Telltale Games and Gearbox Software held a panel entitled "Two Sides to Every Story". The full 45-minute panel can now be viewed below, and provides a bevy of information.
Tales takes place on Pandora after the events of Borderlands 2 and all its DLC. It is canon, but it's not Borderlands 3. The game features two protagonists, Rhys and Fiona, who are not vault hunters – the game is "about schmos just trying to get by." In Pandora, you're either greedy or your die, and Tales centers around how greed affects people.
Both Rhys and Fiona are "lying jerks" telling their interpretations of events, providing the game with an "unreliable narrator" – thus the phrase, "Two Sides to Every Story." Rhys is a cyborg who works for Hyperion and often uses his robotic arm to hack. Despite his resemblance to Handsome Jack, he is not Handsome Jack, nor related, but does have a connection to him. Fiona, on the other hand, is a con artist. Her best skill? Using her words to confuse people, otherwise known as fast-talking.
While Rhys and Fiona are not vault hunters, you will meet familiar faces from the Borderlands series in the game, including some of the vault hunters. Harrison Pink, Lead Designer on Tales from the Borderlands at Telltale Games, also stated that "it wouldn't be a Borderlands game without Claptrap," though he wouldn't go into details.
Tales from the Borderlands will release this year, but Telltale is not ready to discuss how many episodes, nor what platforms the game will be released on. Despite featuring two playable characters, Tales is a purely single-player experience, with Telltale President and Co-founder Kevin Bruner stating that the studio hasn't really figured out how it would ever do co-op in its games. The video is well worth the watch (and fairly humorous), but do keep in mind that it contains a couple spoilers from Borderlands 2.
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