Monthly Archives: April 2015
World’s Saddest Selfie Stick Makes People Think You Have Friends
A selfie stick modeled after a human arm lets its user snap photos while pretending to have a friend.
Design Boom reports on the "selfie arm" prototype, from artists Aric Snee and Justin Crowe. The fiberglass arm lets you appear to hold a friend's hand while you take a selfie. As a prototype, though, it's one-of-a-kind. The artists have not given any indication that they plan to bring it to market.
Deals of the Week: $350 PS4, Xbox One With A Year of Live, $260 Wii U
Xbox One With A Free Year Of Live (and two Assassin's Creed Games, and NBA 2K15)
Well here's a rock solid Xbox One deal from Amazon. We've seen extra controllers, copies of Halo, or 3 months of Xbox Live tossed in with ACU bundle, but a full year of Live plus NBA2K15 makes this one of the best Xbox One deals we've seen in a while.
Lifeless Planet to Release on Xbox One
Third-person action-adventure game Lifeless Planet will release on the Xbox One on May 13.
As an astronaut on a planet once thought to be inhabited, players will discover a mysterious abandoned Soviet town while searching for missing crew mates. With a variety of enemies and one Russian ally, Lifeless Planet's gameplay is largely constructed of exploration and puzzle-solving using the tools the astronaut has at his disposal.
It originally released on PC in June 2014 for $20 USD.
Cassidee is a freelance writer for various outlets around the web. You can chat with her about all things geeky on Twitter.
Robot Chicken and DC Comics Partner for Third Special
Publisher DC Comics has partnered with creators Seth Green and Matthew Senreich and Stoopid Buddy Stoodios for a third Robot Chicken DC Comics special.
Called 'Friendship is Magic,' the special depicts the evolution of the friendship between Batman and Superman as it eventually puts the universe in peril.
As with their past two DC Comics specials, Friendship is Magic will feature a variety of superheroes and villains in Robot Chicken's stop-motion animated sketch comedy format.
The special will feature a number of actors, including Seth Green, Alex Borstein, Nathan Fillion, Weird Al Yankovic, Adam West, and Burt Ward. The DC Comics Special and Robot Chicken's eighth season will premiere this fall on Adult Swim.
Original X-Files Writers Return for Revival
Two original X-Files writer-producers are on board for the series' upcoming six-episode revival.
TVLine reports Glen Morgan and James Wong will each write and direct an episode for FOX, with Morgan also serving as an executive producer.
Morgan and Wong collaborated several times for the original series, writing standout episodes such as "Beyond the Sea" and "Home", which IGN ranked the third and second best standalone X-Files episodes of all time, respectively.
Destiny’s Trials of Osiris Introduces New Scoring Rules
Bungie is introducing a new scoring system for Trials of Osiris, the endgame crucible mode launching with Destiny's House of Wolves expansion.
The mode revolves around what Bungie is calling "passages." These are essentially scorecards players will acquire from Brother Vance at the Vestian Outpost in the Reef –– beginning on Friday each weekend, the scorecard will keep track of players' wins and losses. If players lose five rounds, they lose a match. Lose three matches, and the scorecard is revoked until players return to the Reef for another.
The maximum number of wins for each scorecard is nine, and earning at least eight will net players the high-tier Gold rewards. However, if players are unhappy with the early rounds of their scorecard, they can buy a new one for 100 glimmer –– Bungie wanted to keep the cost cheap in order to encourage players to shoot for the best outcome.
Destiny’s Trials of Osiris Has a Neat Matchmaking Trick
Worried about getting rematched with a team that keeps stomping you in Destiny's upcoming Trials of Osiris PvP event? According to their live stream today, Bungie won't let that happen.
Though the live stream showed two teams duking it out match after match, that was apparently only to keep the stream moving. When Trials of Osiris actually begins, Bungie has put in a matchmaking fail-safe that will keep you and your team fighting different opponents every time.
Out of context it may not sound like a big deal, but every win and loss matters in Trials of Osiris, since each match plays directly into what kind of rewards you'll ultimately be eligible for. This system ensures that you won't find yourself on a one-way road to having your Trials of Osiris run ended prematurely.
Destiny’s New Matchmaking Chooses Connection Over Skill
Destiny's new Trials of Osiris competitive PVP mode will incorporate a new form of matchmaking, Bungie has confirmed. But unlike the standard skill-based matchmaking, this new system will focus on player connections.
Speaking on the topic of matchmaking bias, Derek Carroll, Bungie's House of Wolves Senior Crucible Designer stated, "We have a different matchmaking criteria for Trials
. We’re highly favoring latency and connections."
"We’re more interested in you having a great game than having a very close match," Carroll said. "We’re matching you with people with good connections."
Though if you're worried about whether this means you won't find a competitive game, not to worry, Bungie has covered that as well. Trials of Osiris requires you to be in a pre-constructed fireteam to join the fray, similar to the intended raiding party system. There's no friend-finding here.
Heroes of the Storm Crowns Collegiate Champion
Heroes of the Dorm, a collegiate Heroes of the Storm tournament with competitors from over 460 schools, was conquered by UC Berkeley students this weekend.
The grand prize is free college tuition coverage for the rest of the winning students' college careers.
The tournament finale, featuring teams from University of Illinois, Arizona State University, and UC Berkeley, was the first college eSports event to be aired on ESPN2.
Almost half a million dollars worth of prizes were awarded to both competitors and spectators, including $10,000 to the audience member with the best bracket predictions.
Continuum for Windows Phone Turns Your Handset Into a PC
Microsoft's previously announced Continuum feature for Windows 10 has showcased new ways to seamlessly interact with a PC, much like you would a touch-based device. But during today's Build 2015 keynote, the company also revealed Continuum for phones.
Basically, since the UI experience for applications on both Windows 10 on your PC and Windows Phone are nearly identical, you can use your phone as the PC. Hooking up the phone via HDMI to a monitor, you can use the touch screen of the phone as a mouse and keyboard, or just sync those physical inputs via Bluetooth to the phone.