Monthly Archives: June 2015
This Course Will Help You Get into the Games Industry
NextGen Skills Academy is launching its first course, the Level 3 Diploma in Games, Animation and VFX Skills this September.
The two year course will be available at a number of further education courses including North East Surrey College of Technology, Sunderland College, Truru & Penwith College and Uxbridge College.
The diploma will provide a level 3 qualification, which is equivalent to three A Levels. It is designed to help students build portfolios which help prepare them for work in the industry.
In addition to the diploma, NextGen is also creating three higher apprenticeships. One is for a Quality Assurance Technician at Rebellion, and there are two VFX apprenticeships for a Junior 2D artists at Double Negative, and a Technical Director at Framestore.
Scientists Have Begun Generating Tiny Brains
Scientists have managed to create tiny replicas of patients' cerebral cortices so they can be studied in vitro.
The study was posted in Nature Methods last week and outlines the approach for "generating a laminated cerebral cortex-like structure, named human cortical spheroids (hCSs), from pluripotent stem cells."
Stem cells are extracted from the patient's skin, which are then formed into a structure of neurons resembling an actual brain. The process will be used in order to test which medication could work on the patient's brain before prescribing it for real.
Destiny: The Taken King Expansion Evidence Leaks Again
The title of Destiny's big expansion rumoured to hit in September seems have been confirmed as "The Taken King" thanks to US packs of Red Bull energy drinks.
Redditors spotted promotional codes on some packaging of the drinks, which offer bonus experience points and an "epic quest" in the as-yet unannounced expansion. The redemption site itself isn't a dead link, either, but rather "under construction".
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Doesn’t Have a Level Cap
CD Projekt Red has confirmed there is no hard level cap for Geralt in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
Community lead Marcin Momot confirmed the news on Twitter, which means you'll theoretically be able to master all of Geralt's abilities and max out his Skill Trees if you're persistent.
Of course, in practice it's less feasible. While you'll be able to grind your way as high as you want by fighting monsters, once a decent spread of quests and other map events have run out it's going to be a long slow road.
Interestingly, Momot's comments on Twitter have led to calls from many for a New Game Plus mode, so you can start again taking a different path through the game and taking on challenges that'll reward a decent amount of XP. At the time of writing CD Projekt Red has yet to respond to these requests, though perhaps it has something up its sleeve related to the two sizeable expansions coming later in the year.
Salma Hayek Kicks All Kinds of Ass in New Everly Trailer
IGN thoroughly enjoyed Everly when we caught it at Fantastic Fest last year, and with the film finally hitting British shores this month, we’ve got a brand-new poster and trailer to feast your eyes on.
Directed by Wrong Turn 2 helmer Joe Lynch, the film stars Salma Hayek as a slave who escapes her captors and systematically takes out the criminals sent to kill her. And more specifically, it’s basically Die Hard in a room.
Everly is already out in the States, hits cinemas and on demand in the UK June 26, Blu-ray and DVD August 10, and you can check out that new artwork and video below.
CERN’s Large Hadron Collider Starts Up Again
Scientists at CERN have announced that the Large Hadron Collider has started delivering data today for the first time in 27 months.
During the shutdown, the LHC went through maintenance and improvements in preparation for the next round of testing. The LHC is now providing collisions to experiments at 13 TeV (trillion electron volts), an unprecedented level of energy.
Today the LHC was filled with six "trains" of proton bunches, consisting of 100 billion protons each. These bunches travel around the 27 kilometre ring and collide with each other. Eventually the experiments will be increased to 2808 bunches per beam, allowing up to one billion collisions per second.
The new experiments will allow scientists to further investigate the "Standard Model", a theory that describes the particles that make up the universe. "The first 3-year run of the LHC, which culminated with a major discovery in July 2012, was only the start of our journey. It is time for new physics!” said CERN Director General Rolf Heuer.
US Air Force Building Next-Gen Hypersonic Aircraft and Weapons
The U.S. Air Force and DARPA are developing upon the X-51 Waverider’s hypersonic test flight to create a more comprehensive vehicle capable of travelling at speeds of up to Mach 5 by 2023.
“X-51 was really a proof of concept test. It showed that you could get a scramjet engine, launch it off an aircraft and it could go hypersonic,” U.S. Air Force Chief Scientist Mica Endsley, told Miltary.com. “It was able to go more than Mach 5 until it ran out of fuel. It was a very successful test of an airborne hypersonic weapons system.”
Elder Scrolls Online: Everything You Need to Know
The Elder Scrolls Online is built on an ambitious but deceptively simple premise--it seeks to combine the elements of one of the gaming world's most beloved single-player RPG series with the cooperative trappings of massively multiplayer online role-playing games. Players had been clamoring for this sort of thing ever since Morrowind hit shelves way back in 2002, and I personally remember stumbling through the open beta for World of Warcraft in 2004, thinking how much cooler all that would be if it only took place in Tamriel. I got that wish a full ten years later when Elder Scrolls Online released for PC back in April of 2014.
ESO has changed a lot in the intervening months, and whether you're jumping in for the first time or making a return in time for the upcoming console release, this primer should help you find your way.
Logitech Harmony Update Allows Media Control of PS4
Logitech has updated its hub-based remotes to allow them to control PS4 menus and apps.
The press release specifically mentions details how a Logitech Harmony remote or Harmony app can be used "to control Blu-Ray movies and streaming apps including Netflix, YouTube, Amazon Instant Video
, and more."
There's a catch, though: the PS4 needs to be powered on before Harmony can be used to control it. According to Logitech, this is because "Sony does not permit any remote other than their game controller to power on the game console."
Maybe that's why Sony has yet to announce an official media remote for the PS4.
First Draft of Guardians of the Galaxy 2 is Written
James Gunn has written 'FADE TO BLACK' on the first draft of Guardians of the Galaxy 2.
The writer-director took to Twitter to share the news with a simple picture of the script's cover page.
Phew. 1st draft #GotG2. #NoSpoilers #NotEventheTitle pic.twitter.com/Yd6mhpgLNe
— James Gunn (@JamesGunn) June 2, 2015